This is my comparison on the versions 3 and 4 of the fantastic Dorset Coast Route, by David Corfield. I'm not writing this as a "winge alot" thread, but just to give you some observations on game performance in the new version. Maybe it will help those of you who are having trouble playing the latest release.
I've spent most of the 26th Dec, fiddling around with my MSTS settings, in order to get the best out of the DC4 route, particularly the area between Waterloo and Clapham / Wimbledon. For this experiment, I used the recommended settings found on the DC3 support PDF file. I also shut down non essential programs using the "Enditall" utility.
As many of you know, I produced a 3 part activity for v3, (A Long Day) which included a lot of traffic in the first part, coming out of Waterloo.
I have been trying to play this in v4, and while it works, all is not going to plan. All I get is crash after crash (system not train) and it is a little frustrating, but it won't put me off playing on other parts of V4
After doing a couple of experiments (using the same msts settings for both "tests"), I came up with the following facts:
1) Framerates at Waterloo are roughly the same in both versions, playing part one of my activity. Departing Waterloo, the traffic doesn't really affect my performance on v3 or v4.
2) Approaching Vauxhall, things get a wee bit shaky in v4, and as I approach the platforms at around 40 to 60 mph, I start getting "failed to load" messages. Eventually, I got the "send/dont send to bill" message, and msts shut down. This does not happen in V3.
To try and cure this, I deleted some of the AI traffic in the area, on v4, but however this didn't help. So, I reduced my game settings slightly and this didn't do much good either (it crashed west of Vauxhall instead of east on the next test)
3) Approaching Clapham Jcn from the east on both versions, there is a noticeable reduction in framerates, and depending on my train speed, these can drop as low as 7fps on both versions of the route. Now on v4, depending on how much AI traffic there is, when you are in Clapham station itself, you can actually get the same problems as Vauxhall here, resulting in an MSTS send dont send message again. On V3 this does not happen, unless Clapham is jam packed with AI trains, which is rare on my pc.
4) Wimbledon can be a mess only in v4, depending on what speed your train is doing, and also the amount of AI that is present. I get the same problems as above.
5) At Raynes Park on v4, I get the failed to load messages as I approach the station from the east, at LINE speed (100mph). Again to cure this i had to basically get rid of my AI traffic in the area. Turning the settings down also helped me at this location occasionally, but this was dependent on the speed my train was going at the time.
So as you can see, the main problem points on v4 are the areas of the network with the <b>biggest track layouts</b>, or a <b>high amount of tile objects</b>. I would propose a few remedies, such as reducing the track layout slightly by removing masses of sidings. Also where there are a high proportion of buildings, trees, and static vehicles (station car parks) some of these could be deleted, along with environmental sounds too.
Where the PC is not able to load such a high amount of objects in time, this is indeed crashing the game. Yes I know some of you won't have these problems, as it is based on PC spec, graphics cards and memory.
I have......
512MB of RAM
AMD Athlon 64 2800+ Processor
ATI Radeon 9800Pro 128MB graphics
Direct X 9.0c
For me, this is good enough to play my FS2004 on a high spec settings layout, plus all routes on MSTS upto and including DC3.
I will keep DC4, but for now i'll keep my driving to the West of Clapham, until a solution to the problems many of us are having is found.
David, if you read this, would it be worthwhile to release a patch, slimming down on some of the scenery between Waterloo and Clapham, or is this not going to be possible?
Everyone else, your input on the above is appreciated
Thanks for reading.
