High-detailed tracks constantly refreshing and lowering frame rate

janathan

Member
I really love the procedural tracks in this game, but I've come across a slight problem when using a lot of them to create a rail yard. Every time I move the camera so much as one centimeter, the tracks all constantly... I guess "refresh" is the right word. The each do this several times, causing the game to constantly have to reload them. It's even worse when riding a train past this yard. There were times where the game just stopped for a fer seconds to reload the tracks and the sound froze for a few seconds at a time as well. (Keep in mind, I'm using a gaming PC with a Core i9 processor and a GTX2080 graphics processor). The only solution I've found so far was just using lower detailed tracks in the yard, but is there another work around?
 
Some protracks are worse than others in this regard. For example, suggest avoid using built-ins such as <kuid2:30501:1001:10> TANE Trk Oak and <kuid2:661281:44169:3> TRS19 Trk Jarrah 2 - Procedural - Seasonal, or any procedural track with lighter coloured ballast contrasting with darker ties/ sleepers to reduce the incidence of moiré patterns and constant redraws. There are some excellent 3rd party protracks worth considering. I use concrete sleepers types a great deal (though these are hardly appropriate for most yards, though no-ballast types should certainly be considered.
Rule of thumb: Avoid the Tracking Camera view whilst in yards. A static camera view will reduce this phenomenon.
Your hardware is more than enough to render these tracks well. Suggest check that you have high refresh rates set and 'Detail Update Rate' set to 'Ultra' in the Trainz Settings dialog. Mine are all maxed-out except for Post Processing, which is set to 'Low' to reduce other glaring rendering issues.
 
The SAM track works really well. I use the Wood v1 and Wood v1r (r = rusty) on my a very, very large route I cobbled together over the past 17 years. It loads up quickly and looks really nice as well. It's a PBR ballasted track, but it works okay with regular ballast. To include one that matches the grey ballasted track, take a look at "Ballast Gray" it renders quite nicely and matches well.
 
I've been looking at this, in particular with UK Bullhead, the lods are too vicious and IMO far too many and not all bits are changing at the same distance.

Worth remembering that andi06's protrack which seems to have been the base for a lot of the non PBR protrack can be modified and bits used as per his license, not quite sure why he used m.reflect on the sleepers though which have a shiny glass appearance in TRS19, possibly a slip up as using the same texture for track and sleepers, fixable by dumping the m.reflect.

Main reason I decided to investigate was I have a industrial area which in prototype has extremely sharp curves, track I am using has a 3m mesh that as soon as you back off view wise, switches to about 10 m and you get a series of straight lines joined together however the sleepers (ties) remain in the original position, so depending on the view the track is flipping from a curve to these horrible straight bits. Then of course there is the random disapearance of bits of the turnouts (switches)

Interestingly the 2ft DMT Protrack I'm using for the Narrow Gauge part does not have that problem bits stay put and track doesn't vanish when viewed from a distance.

I'm not convinced that PBR is really necessary for track either, unless you sit looking at ballast from a couple feet away all the time, you are not going to see the detail and just basic normal mapping would be fine.
I'm also wondering if having large mesh libraries for track covering different variations, is having a negative effect on performance and stability of pro track.
 
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