Request -- impact of Clutter Effects on frame rates

A request, if I may.

I have a reasonably high end PC -- water cooled, i9, RTX 3070.
I have uploaded a layout which includes both TurfFX and Clutter Effects.
I know from my older PC that TurfFX has minimal impact on frame rates.
I don't have the older PC, just the newer, and can't detect any impact of the Clutter Effects on frame rates.
One reason could be that the new PC is sufficiently powerful that the extra processing power required by the Clutter Effects is well below the level at which it becomes noticeable.

If I could ask a favor. There are two versions of Hoofhearted & Smelz on the Download Station. TRS19 (TurfFX only) and TRS22 (TurfFX + Clutter Effects). There are two sessions for both -- the only difference being one pair is for the TRS19 version and the other pair for TRS22.

Would anyone with a less powerful PC than mine be willing to run both in TRS22 to see if there is a significant difference in frame rates?

Thanks
Phil

philskene said:

Would anyone with a less powerful PC than mine be willing to run both in TRS22 to see if there is a significant difference in frame rates?

Click to expand...

I would be surprised if there was a significant difference. My PC does not qualify as I have a similar high end PC (but without the water fountain and the i9). I do however have two lower end (but still adequate) laptops that happily run Trainz Plus so I will "give it a go" in the next few hours.

Test Results:

Laptop 1: RTX3060Ti 16GB i7
Laptop 2: GTX1050Ti 8GB i7

Baseline test - simultaneously running TRS22 Hoofhearted & Smelz Session 2 (with Clutter) on Laptop 1 and TRS19 Hoofhearted & Smelz Session 2 (without Clutter) on Laptop 2. I could see no difference in performance.

Direct Comparison - simultaneously running TRS22 Hoofhearted & Smelz Session 2 (with Clutter) on Laptop 1 and TRS22 Hoofhearted & Smelz Session 2 (with Clutter) on Laptop 2. I could see no difference in performance.

Conclusion: From an extremely small sample size - Clutter, as used in the test routes, makes no noticeable difference to performance.

Thanks. That means I can use and upload layouts including Clutter Effects with confidence that those who download the layouts will still see reasonable frame rates.

The water cooling. I usually assemble my own PCs from components. But last year there was such an acute shortage of RTX cards that the only way to obtain an RTX here in Australia was to purchase a preassembled PC. When I did the sums a preassembled i9 with RTX was actually cheaper than a i7 that I could make myself. So I got it -- despite the water cooling.

philskene said:

Thanks. That means I can use and upload layouts including Clutter Effects with confidence that those who download the layouts will still see reasonable frame rates.

The water cooling. I usually assemble my own PCs from components. But last year there was such an acute shortage of RTX cards that the only way to obtain an RTX here in Australia was to purchase a preassembled PC. When I did the sums a preassembled i9 with RTX was actually cheaper than a i7 that I could make myself. So I got it -- despite the water cooling.

Click to expand...

I did exactly the same and have a similar machine from Dell except mine came with the RTX3080 due to the same reason. Getting a new video card and other components was next to impossible back in January when my old system outright died. I've since upgraded the system by throwing in some more RAM and adding in a SoundBlaster AE-9 that I use for my digital piano. I put my Trainz hard drive inside and connect my other hard drives placed in an Oyen external drive bay via USB-C cable to the machine.

My top machine is also a Dell and it came with the RTX 3060Ti at a cheaper rate than the then top end GTX2060Ti (or equivalent). I bought it bundled with a 27inch Dell HD monitor at a lower price than buying them separately. A great deal!

A month or so ago I got an email from Dell stating that they had overcharged me $80 for the bundled computer and monitor and an $80 refund was deposited in my bank account. That's great I thought. Then I read that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, who are the official government watchdog on consumer fraud, had collared Dell for false advertising on the bundled product I had purchased. It seems that if you bought the computer and the monitor separately, from the same Dell online store where I purchased the bundled product, they were considerably cheaper than buying the bundled product which was the opposite of what Dell stated. A lot cheaper than the $80 difference. I got another email from Dell stating that they had made an "error" in the online store pricing and they then refunded me the full price of the monitor plus interest, minus the $80 already refunded.