Atomic Systems

Hello,

I noticed in someones screen shot in one of the threads that there was a very clear picture from a cab view, which made me look at my settings as mine is not as sharp! I have the Screen Resolution set to '1024 x 768' just as I have in 'MSTS'? I could see there are quite a few other settings options to choose, just curious to know what some of you people have selected?

Mine's the same as yours, but that's because my monitor is getting on a bit now and is limited to 1024 by 768. Curiously though, while windows limits my screen resolution, if I connect say my 360 to the monitor it will be able to compress resolutions bigger than the screen (to a point). I'd say, if your monitor is capable of HD, and it doesn't effect your performance, then go for higher resolutions.

Regards
Chris

If you've got an LCD monitor as opposed to a CRT one then you'll get the best picture if you set the game full screen resolution to the native resolution of your monitor. My LCD monitor has a 1280 x 1024 native resolution so that's what I run RW at when using it full screen as opposed to windowed.

Andy L

Mine is set at 1920x1080 full screen. It, also, is an LCD.

Generally speaking, the higher the resolution, the sharper the image and the more processing power it requires.

If you have an LCD monitor you should set RW to match the native resolution of the monitor for best results, provided you have the horsepower.

I run RW in 1920x1200, the same resolution as my LCD monitor.

I was quite happy when they added support for 2560 x 1440 a while back. Up until then I ran 1920 x 1080 windowed and it worked, but fullscreen looks a lot better.

Thank you all for your answere's to my question, it's interesting to see how everyone has a wide ranging difference with their particular set ups. I just looked at my flat screen monitor's recommended settings and it shows 1440 x 900 so I might try those settings later today and see what difference there is, if any. Of course, once you apply higher settings it may affect the frame rates a bit, I shall try and post my results later. Thanks to all who replied.

Have a good day.

This morning, I changed my resolution settings from 1024x768 to my monitor's recommended settings (1440x900) and wow what a difference!
Afterwards, I ran a default scenario at the lower rate settings and the frame rates were around mid 30's. After the change, the same scenario showed a drop to around mid 20's.
I then ran a scenario from the recently purchased 'Fag Packet' as I saw the frame rates for this were lower than the default ones and having run with the two different settings I noticed no change at all with the frame rates. I was getting between 15 to 20 fps! I think I shall keep it at this new setting, it is much better.

Thanks again everyone for your helpful input.

Glad you like the improvement! You don't say what Graphical Detail settings you're using but you may be able to improve the frame rate by either turning off shadows all together or using low detail shadows instead of high detail. Turning off Procedural Flora, which I think makes the place look untidy , can also help. Have a play with the settings in there until you reach a compromise between looks and performance that suits you best.

Andy L

Hi AndyUK,

I have most settings to high, just ran a few more activities and reached much higher frame rate levels. The one I was testing was a scenario running out from Paddington, because it is very populated around here. If I feel the need to then I will try what you suggest and have a tweek with those settings. I do like to have a lot of detail when driving just for realism.
Still cannot believe the difference though now I have changed to better settings.

One thing I realised a little while ago is that when you take a screenshot of RailWorks, that is exactly what you are doing and the shot will be of the same resolution as the monitor setting you are using. This may sound a bit obvious but It was not to me until I started taking screenshots on various different computers. If you take a screenshot in full screen on wide screen monitor then your your screenshot will be widescreen as well, and so on.

What I cannot work out is that a screenshot taken on a very high resolution monitor produces a very sharp image in a forum thread yet it may have been reduced to 800 x 600 pixels before display, so how is the sharpness retained at that relatively low display resolution

Acorncomputer wrote:What I cannot work out is that a screenshot taken on a very high resolution monitor produces a very sharp image in a forum thread yet it may have been reduced to 800 x 600 pixels before display, so how is the sharpness retained at that relatively low display resolution

Because you're effectively making each pixel smaller which would in turn present a sharper image. Going from widescreen to 800x600 would also result in the image being squashed, however, since the aspect ratio is being reduced from, say, 16:10 to 4:3.

I Have to say Native is the best, However I normal work in 1440x900 (windowed), as i like to access other things whilst on RW

ihavenonamenoreallyidont wrote:Going from widescreen to 800x600 would also result in the image being squashed, however, since the aspect ratio is being reduced from, say, 16:10 to 4:3.

As you can see in many of the recent shots in the Screenshot Forum - some impossibly tall engines,and skinny zombie girls on the platforms watching them.

Regarding resized screenshots...

There are some subtleties in realtime 3D rendering which limit the amount of detail that can be applied to each given pixel. By default, RailWorks does not even use all of the available techniques for maximising this (eg. anisotropic texture filtering). As a result, a screenshot taken at a very high resolution has more information in it, some of which is preserved even through resizing (provided you use a good resizing algorithm).

You can improve some aspects of RailWorks' rendering by forcing anisotropic filtering and antialiasing on through your graphics card's control panel. Beware however that some settings can cause rendering problems, up to and including transparent bridges. If you encounter these, the setting most likely to affect them is the distinction between Multisample and Supersample antialiasing.