Question RE: Thames-Mersey v3.2 CD

[ejen34]

:::I hope this question is allowed in this section:::

Is the Thames-Mersey v3.2 CD complete? By this I mean if I do not have any previous version of TM installed do I need anything before I order this CD?

Cheers

[jbilton]

Hi
No its complete...route...activities...and stock including some exculsives.
Cheers
Jon

[ejen34]

Many thanks Jon

[bdy26]

No, just stick it in and click run - it has all the route, stock and activities etc which will work out of the box. It's a very detailed route in many places, so unless you have a very good PC you'll either have to turn the settings down or drive through treacle in places. Fantastic route, well worth it.

If you want to add the sections from Crewe to Manchester then that requires the v4 upgrade files to be downloaded. I imagine the CD will be upgraded to v4 at some point, but 3.2 will give you weeks of running before you get bored.

[ejen34]

Just ordered...

Spec on my system:

Intel 3.2GHz
1 GB PC3200 RAM
Nvidia 5950 Ultra with 256 MB RAM

[parsfan]

You'll have no problems with that PC spec. My spec is
AMD XP 2600+
256 RAM
Nvida 64 mb

It runs OK on mine. I shut down every unnessesary program though including my firewall and virus scanner (I stay of the internet at that point). Once i;ve done that I can play it at the highest settings. In really built up areas it does sometimes get a bit jerky.

[Lad491]

The only question mark I have is with your graphics card. Others have found that better is not always best when it comes to MSTS and 256mb cards dont perform as well as 128mb cards. The biggest inhibiting factor though is the speed of your hard disks. Stuttering (momentary freezes) is caused by the sim having to wait for data to be loaded into memory from the hard disk. The faster PC's wont cope with this any better than a slower one if the hard disk retrieval speed is slow. SATA disks are better than IDE disks, and 10,000rpm IDE disks are better than 7200rpm.

Its a great route and one I can thoroughly recommend, but it takes 12 minutes to load on my PC and i get 6 second freezes at Liverpool and 2 - 3 second freezes at Crewe, even with all settings down two notches. the secret is to be patient and when things freeze resist the temptation to hit a key. Dont touch anything and eventually it will spring back to life.

[parsfan]

<<but it takes 12 minutes to load on my PC >>

I use train store with that route. The route loads in seconds that way. Doesn't help with stuttering or freezes but it certainly helps with loading.

[partyspiritz]

Thames-Mersey v3.2 CD I tried to update this V4 but it just crashed the pc but on its own top route


John

Swindon

[NeutronIC]

The biggest reason for 256mb cards being slower than 128mb cards is that often the earlier cards (not sure if it is still true, wouldn't surprise me) used SDR (single data rate) ram for 256mb where as most 128mb cards were DDR (double data rate) - so unless you were really shifting huge amounts of graphics data around it worked out significantly slower -and MSTS won't take advantage of a 256 mb card as far as I am aware.

These days I would hope that 256mb cards were packing DDR though, it's not exactly expensive is it?

Matt.

[Lad491]

I use train store with that route

Im using trainstore too to store all the other routes I have, but because i need all the paths/stock available for activity writing I cant store individual activities for TM.

[parsfan]

<<Im using trainstore too to store all the other routes I have, but because i need all the paths/stock available for activity writing I cant store individual activities for TM.>>

I unstore everything when making/editing a route. It takes activity editor a while to load when Mersey is unstroed. I've also found that I have to unclick all the veiwing options or its impossible to move or zoom in on the map. I just click on the bit I need to see, platform names etc. It also seems to take a while to save a new path.

[TFormoso]

You don't need to ustore everything when you are editing an Activity. Make sure you use Maintenance Mode and to unstore an individual Activity select it, unstore it, and make sure the 'Partial Route' checkbox is checked. Train Store will then attempt to unstore that Activity and associated files. After that it will unstore any Activity which shares files with the one you asked to be unstored. The net result is that you get all the files that may affect each other all unstored together.

A final piece of the jigsaw was introduced in V3.2 If you use 'Partial Route', then in addition to the items in the Stock and Consist Maintenance lists, the items in any Maintenance Path list for the route in question will also be unstored. This allows you to keep to the minimum amount of stuff to be unstored, but also allows you to add in additional Paths that you want to use. (in the same way that Stock and Consist lists work) In other words you don't have to have all of the paths unstored.


Tony

[virginexpress]

Hey there guys and gals, i have a problem with installing the cd. When the bat. file comes up at the end oif the file and starts adding some of the files for the stuff on the disc it say none found or copied accross and im finding it dead worrying that its not working cos when i load the route its saying quite alot is missing or the route runs in the sky

[jbilton]

Hey there guys and gals, i have a problem with installing the cd. When the bat. file comes up at the end oif the file and starts adding some of the files for the stuff on the disc it say none found or copied accross and im finding it dead worrying that its not working cos when i load the route its saying quite alot is missing or the route runs in the sky

Hi
You must have the default routes installed...otherwise the bat file cannot copy shapes etc.
Cheers
Jon