Atomic Systems

TS2012 will run more evenly for many with a frame rate limit applied. Also the GPU was often running at 99% and almost invariably at that % in the editor. A frame rate limiter can vastly reduce the strain on the GPU enabling it to run significantly below boiling point.

Mark

pjt1974 wrote:Sorry to sound ike a complete numpty but what does the fps limit do? Does it stop the fps going higher than 30/60 or lower than 30/60 depending which option you choose?

Hi Phil

As I understand it some higher spec computers were running wild and creating frame rates that were unnecessary. By ticking one of the limiter boxes the program will slow the program down to no more than that rate. It may not be relevant to everyone but a bit of experimentation with this option may help. 30 fps should be a speed that works well for most people as our senses are not going to see any difference if the rates get higher than that.

With TS2012, however, it does seem that the frame rates themselves are not a reliable indicator of how the game is playing as in my experience you can get jerky, rubber bandy, stuttery performance even at high frame rates but this new option does deserve a good test before passing judgement.

Limiting the frame rate can smooth out the graphical display. Sometimes, stutters and judders and micro-freezes are caused by the sim jumping from a very high frame rate to a lower one. It can do this many times a second (and not indicated in the FPS average). Limiting the rate using Dxtory on my system (to 40) vastly smooths out the movement of the scenery and trains.

Limiting the rate using Dxtory on my system (to 40) vastly smooths out the movement of the scenery and trains.

It sounds as though RS.com have incorporated something like this into the program.

Thanks Geoff

The 30FPS setting is just fine for me, and what an improvement it makes to the smoothness of the sim. I was using DXTory, but the in-game command-line setting seems even better. I have the feeling that DXTory may have added a bit to the loading and thus the greater improvement.
Although I had some routes/scenarios jerking around in the 60- 100+ range, 30 rather than 60 seems to produce the best overall effect with all my sliders at max (DOF off) on all that I have tested so far.

Thank you RSC.

Mike

Acorncomputer wrote:

wright1949 wrote:I'm afraid for me the latest update 7.1 has turned a playable TS2012 in legacy or TSX mode into a stuttering unplayable sim now. So it's back to ver 6.7 to make it playable again. My specs are intel i7 ,2.67Ghz, 6.00GB Ram, ATI HD4800 card.

Could you send an e-mail to RS.com support about this. They are trying to improve the situation for some but it should not adversely change the situation for others. Give them as much information as you can about your computer specifications and how the update has changed the game for you.

E-mail sent.

Regards,

Colin.

I am a happy train simmer now that 30fps setting has sorted that rubber band effect.
Im using bootcamp on a 27inch mac running windows 7 HD6770M 512m graphics I5 2.7 quad
full screen 1600*900 TSX on no shadows med settings max distance

It will run horseshoe 30 frames rock solid steady , just smooth as it should be.
Now i can enjoy. Thanks RS you did good.

I'm also now a happy train simmer, this update has fixed a few issues for me.

One of the issues I had as while in the editor I found when painting the scenery my memory usage kept increasing until the sim crashed with the SBHH, this now is not an issue.

What I have noticed is; selecting the 30fps lock has really smoothed out the sim, I can now run it with max settings and TSX on.

One thing I have noticed - checking the box for the 30fps lock does not save once you quit the sim? You have to tick it again when re-loading.

Paul

Happy Train SImmer here. Its ruuning like silk tonight. Best word i can think of. AP new lighting pack came out and thats working great with it to.

Limiting the fps to 30 has smoothed things out for me. The only problem is having to remember to tick the box every time I run RW

Yep good point. Sure that will get a little tweak sometime.

clockmaker wrote:Limiting the fps to 30 has smoothed things out for me. The only problem is having to remember to tick the box every time I run RW

I wonder if using the commandline option "-FPSLimit=x" has the same effect and stays put after a re-start?

There's some subtle stuff going on with the FPS limiters. I'm not quite sure how to explain it thoroughly to laypeople...

Suffice it to say that because the FPS limiter is internal to Railworks, it "knows" that the frames to render are for regular intervals of time, even if the graphics driver hands them out in bunches. This is what increases the smoothness.

However, when the framerate is no longer up against the limiter, the old behaviour comes back because Railworks can no longer make that assumption, and so the bunches become significant. Bunches appear when the GPU can't keep up with what the CPU is asking of it.

It should be possible to make it smooth regardless of framerate, and hopefully that's what we'll get in a future patch.

It has the same effect as the limiters from the launcher but you can more fine tune the fps by setting it via the command line to get different results, it should remain toggled on indefinately since you pop it in the Set Launcher Options area under properties for TS2012.

I've set mine to 35 as I've been suffering considerable micro stuttering with my GTX460 which would cause the FPS to tank to 14fps every 40-50secs while driving on a route, but with the FPS confined to 35 the micro stutters, while still present have considerably been reduced and happen less often, so there is deffinately something odd still going on with FPS and high end cards while running under TSX mode, but its a better improvement that before.

Also seems that smoke effects in general have been fixed, I'm not getting any wierd horizontal V shaped smoke from kettles and the smoke isn't erratic or bouncing all over like a hyperactive jack russel terrier anymore which is considerable improvement after the issue was brought in with a patch for RW2.