Is there a maximum size for a route?

[bwfeldsee]

I'm currently building a route and have reached 25 miles. The physical size is 11.1 MB. I notice that several commercial rotes I have bought have a size of about 10 to 12 MB and one, in particular, which would have been bigger actually comes in two parts, each of about 10 MB. (You drive half the route where the train stops at a convenient station - you then load the other half of the route and your journey continues).

This suggests that there may be a maximum size for a route and I was wondering what it was before I pushed my luck too far and the whole thing fell over.

Any advice gratefully received as always.

Alan

[shaneturner12]

I've personally got one that weighs in at around 35MB, and I have seen larger ones. I think the limit would probably be somewhere nearer 100MB, although the maximum CDP filesize is larger than this.

Shane

[Euphod]

This question comes up ocassionally; the best answer is it is dependent on the amount of memory you have. Twenty five miles is not far, you have a far way to go!

[clam1952]

I've personally got one that weighs in at around 35MB, and I have seen larger ones. I think the limit would probably be somewhere nearer 100MB, although the maximum CDP filesize is larger than this.

Shane

My FR WHR is up to 130MB at present, needs some board trimming though. Plus I knocked up a dem of the whole of the Isle of Man, just to test the Ordnance Survey Open data source and that's come out to 97MB, that's a blank unpopulated with anything dem again that would get trimmed, should I decide to do anything with it.

[shaneturner12]

That's two large routes there. I know that the maximum CDP size is somewhere around 512MB, but I have seen 2GB mentioned somewhere as well.

Shane

[bwfeldsee]

Thanks All - That's all very reassuring. The computer is coping well with what I've got so i'll just keep going.

Alan

[vonhammer_87]

Well just adding my two cents, remember too that for ever how long your route is you still have to go back and do the texturing and detailing. Im currently working on a route and its 30 miles doing the textures now and that process is time consuming.

[bwfeldsee]

I learned that a while ago. I do one section at a time, finish it and move on. Of course that does mean you can't have a decent "play" until you get to a suitable main station around which to write a few sessions but I don't think I could cope with too much of one thing at a time!!! 30 miles of texture. Ye gods!!!

Alan

[BD1]

A 10,000 baseboard route can take upwards of 5 minutes to "Save" a session, or surveyor editing. Because Trainz is re-writing all 10,000 baseboards, and loading the route can take several minutes also.

If you wanted to make a DEM from Philadelphia to Harrisburg (100 miles) that would be pushing the enveloupe of Trainz (although you could do a route from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, and that would be really pushing the enveloupe).

Making a route from NY City to Florida, would be completely out of the question (but it could be done, with hit on your PC memory).

In essence you could do a route from NY to CA, but that would be 874,000,000 baseboards.

You would be best doing a route well under 50 miles long. Either that or condence all the major railfanning scenes, stitched together, into an abbreviated fictional route.

[Cayden]

I'm currently building a route and have reached 25 miles. The physical size is 11.1 MB. I notice that several commercial rotes I have bought have a size of about 10 to 12 MB and one, in particular, which would have been bigger actually comes in two parts, each of about 10 MB. (You drive half the route where the train stops at a convenient station - you then load the other half of the route and your journey continues).

This suggests that there may be a maximum size for a route and I was wondering what it was before I pushed my luck too far and the whole thing fell over.

Any advice gratefully received as always.

Alan

Over the past year as Iworked to revise my 150 mile MBC 2010 route for TS12 the route grewto 342 MB. This turned out to be pushing the limits of TS12. Theroute looked great but operation was limited. By dividing the routeinto two files, size was reduced to 172 MB and 194 MB, respectively.This significantly improved the balance between appearance andoperation. Further thinning of tree, particularly in problem spotsalong the route, has resulted in file sizes of 151 MB and 177 MB. Thetwo files are joined by iportals to complete the route. I have used atest of a 100 car unit trains with one meeting oncoming 100 car unittrains every 20 to 30 minutes. All seems to be working well and thenew route files will be uploaded to my website shortly.


So, I would suggestthat the limits of TS12 file size is about 150 to 200 MB. Bothscenery (appearance) and rolling stock (operation) limit file sizeso, when pushing the limits of the program, one has to decide whatbalance is acceptable. For example, the files presently posted on mywebsite (i.e., the 172 MB and 194 MB files) can accommodate theflight scenarios included and operation of one train using chaseview, but not with oncoming traffic.


Cayden

[Vern]

My 21 mile Mount Hood route clocked a whopping 200Mb (just over 100Mb compressed as cdp), the by-product of using 5m terrain mesh and having distant hills up to 5km from the track. At present, as noted in another thread, I can't get it to upload to the DLS - quite possibly because of the file size.

Legacy (i.e. routes built with the coarser 10m terrain mesh) have a much more compact footprint - my similar length Sulitjelma route built in TRS2006 is around 60Mb uncompressed/30Mb as a cdp.

In terms of the largest route that can be built, well several people have produced long routes over 100 miles but you need plenty of processing power if performance in Surveyor doesn't slow to a crawl.

[Robert2d6]

UMR 2013 Summer is around 350 miles. Have no idea how big the file is.

[JCitron]

My Enfield and Eastern mega-route tops out currently at 236 MB. The total length of the main line is now about 150 miles and this doesn't include yards or branch lines. With all things considered, such as the amount of buildings, trees, and splines, the playback is actually quite doable on my system.

The only drawback I have with the route this large is maintenance and at the current stage, it's beginning to show its age. I started this in the end of 2004 when TRS2004 was shipped. There are sections from the earlier years still in there and they have been mostly upgraded. You can tell that they are older because my route building style has changed so much over the years. Other sections I have rebuilt look pretty nice and the performance is far better than the older ones. For some reason I can't figure out why this is the case, but it sure appears this way. Perhaps this is due to the better choice of content, or maybe the elimination of the older content that was there previously.

John

[Dermmy]

The 2GB limit mentioned by Shane is a legacy thing - it was a limit way back when a 2 GB file was the largest that Windows could open. If your .gnd file (largest file in a route) hit 2GB it was all over! I suspect that with newer computers and 64 bit operating systems the only limit to route size is how much route can you build, and how long can you wait for it to save/load? I doubt if any practical route could come close to 'too big' from a Trainz/OS point of view, the limit lies in the ability of what one route-builder can handle.

My personal record was my proposed Paducah & Louisville which ran to 109 Mb for the raw untouched HOG terrain! The project was abandoned because it was just too big to build, but I don't doubt that it could be done....

[MNIBARI08]

its been tested that 976.67mb is the main limit, Shane needs to do is maths how can 2gb fit when my route is that much it does make