Settings for upgraded Railworks

[ttjph]

Experts,

Having read Kromaatikse's excellent guide (http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic. ... 9&t=118677) to what each of the graphics settings does, can anyone tell me which settings primarily hit the CPU and which mostly use the GPU?

It looks like my system is mostly CPU-limited, so which eye-candy can I turn up to get my GPU working a little harder without slowing the frame rates down?

Thanks!

[Kromaatikse]

In general, settings which increase the number of objects to render will impact the CPU more than the GPU. These are, in no particular order:

1) Shadows, since each object must be rendered *again* to cast a shadow from each relevant light.

2) Particles, since each particle in a plume of smoke is an object.

3) Passengers. Not a huge effect but every little helps.

4) Visibility Distance, especially on routes with a wide scenery corridor (eg. WCML-N, NEC). Turning this down will remove faraway objects from the draw list. At very low settings you will easily see objects pop into view ahead of you.

5) Scenery Detail. But this is the last one you want to try turning down, because on some routes entire stations disappear very quickly. Hence, in my guide, it is among the first settings to turn all the way up.

[ttjph]

Thanks! So, presumably, I should try turning up the Texture Filtering and then perhaps Terrain or Object Textures, and maybe a little antialiasing (as I'm not using TSX).

I currently have everything except Scenery Detail set to minimum...

[GavNormandale]

hi, if you look at the last page you will see my PC specs, i have managed to get RW working with stability with TSX on and basic settings low, in game all settings are medium, low shadow thing checked, procedural flora unchecked, and other 2 unchecked, this has stopped the crashing so far, i could notice things that weren't there before but it was playable.

something i did notice before i lowered my settings was that i couldn't drive two scenarios in a row, had to quit game and restart as SBHH was certain, earlier played for a few hours, 3 different scenarios without quiting game ran seamlessly apart from the graphic issues from lowering settings.

i have tried the slider thing in the past but if you need to use that then i think RW isn't worth playing, some major structures were missing when i turned that down.

as i say with my settings i can see the effects of them lowered but they are tolerable until i can afford to upgrade.

cheers

Gav

[Ximmy]

I think i finally found the sweet spot for my system waste of time sharing my setup - i doubt there are many running RW3 on an iMac .I did want to share my annoyance at the 8X antisoptric (i think thats what its called) being so essential. Looks so darn ugly with it any lower than max. Also one notch of antialiasing seems to be almost as essential.
Happy with railworks again - time to go try out some of those scenario challenges

[ttjph]

Thanks again Kromaatikse! That info should be added to your settings guide, IMHO.

I now have anisotropic up to max, two clicks of antialiasing, scenery texture to medium and object textures to high with no loss of framerate - it looks much better!

Graphics card is running 10° hotter but since it's not overclocked, perhaps I should just use it to simulate the hotplate in the cab and put a brew on.

[Kromaatikse]

Good idea - I've just done that, and added a corresponding counterpoint for GPU-heavy settings.

While I was at it, I added another section to the "Hardware Recommendations" thread about avoiding lemon computers at retail. Several people on here have been suckered into buying completely unsuitable computers.

[firetrap1]

First time in this thread so here it goes!


After weeks of playing around with various tweaks and settings I have finally got WCML-N to play at a smooth 20fps with all the bells and whistles (bar shadows).

It generally takes my setup around 5 mins the first time to load a route in railworks (and 1-2 mins thereafter). I still gett bad stuttering loading tiles every few mins (but no where near what it used to be) as I only use bog-standard dual channel RAM.

Now, first off, I have no problem running TSX on any other route at a steady 30-40fps with shadows on 'highest' and at 1920x1080. On Bristol to Exeter i get a stunning 70+fps without shadows.

All my in-game settings are on highest (apart from water and particle and passenger density which are one setting down from highest). On the launcher I run at full screen with Bilinear texture filtering, post processing enabled, multi sampling x4, MLAA + MSAA x4.

All my drivers are up to date (soundcard, graphics card, etc...)


Now the big question... (I would have craved this answer 2 weeks ago!)

A combination of a few system upgrades and 'MSI Afterburner'
I added a new soundcard (£100 Asus xonar) and boy has it made a difference. I used to use 'on-board' sound from my motherboard which I have discovered made the CPU process all of the sound, thus loosing me valuable fps! Adding a newer soundcard will effect different systems in different ways, but even a cheap £50 model will help.

Now, In terms of graphics improvements I have recently been reading into 'overclocking' and in particular, overclocking graphics cards. I have had MSI Afterburner on my system since my new MSI GTX650 1Gb GDDR5 (now installed) was delivered, but have never used it until today. Before I go any further I should warn anyone who reads this that overclocking, when done wrong, can destroy your PC. The main moral of this story is to keep your PC cool at all times during overclocking and whilst ensuring that the GPU gets enough power for it to perform in a stable condition (i.e. no weird artifacts appearing on screen when the GPU is running at 100%).

Since my 750W PSU has ample power left to give, I have now successfully overclocked my GPU by 15% by using air cooling only. Boy oh boy, has this made a difference! On running my own wcml Bon Voyage scenario (my best fps eating scenario ) I can now get 25fps around motherwell, 20fps at glasgow central and 45fps between law junction and Gretna junction. where as, before overclocking I was lucky to reach 14fps anywhere near motherwell or glasgow. My card is now currently clocked in at a core clock of 825MHz, shader clock of 1650MHz, memory clock of 2004MHz (with 45C at idle working and 50C under half GPU load). I have had to set up a custom fan speed profile via MSI afterburner to keep the card this cool, but my case also has it's own GPU coolers built into the side panel cover wall.

So far so good!

The strange thing is that even with my current setup my overclocked GPU has not yet exceeded 55% GPU load, which must mean that I am really only limited now by my intel i5-650 (1st Gen) processor. unfortunatly I am unable to overclock this as my Dell motherboard is locked so to see any further improvements will mean purchasing a new full tower PC case, Motherboard (probably a 1155socket type for use with intel 2nd gen processors) and processor. I have already costed up my total upgrades so far for this year which amounts to £280 (ontop of the £800 paid for the PC last year), however the only realistic next step will be supercomputer territory at an estimated £500 total value for upgrades.

So best my advice so far:

1) rob a bank
2) put a pound on the lottery every day
3) enter a computing competition where the prize = new alienware gaming machine

...but seriously, i'm joking about robbing a bank. Don't go out and rob a bank!


Regards

Chris

[firetrap1]

Further to my last.

In terms of running routes other than wcml-n, I am able to also Turn up the setting on the launcher substantially and still achieve 30fps across the board.

If you are looking to buy a new PC in the near future then my best advice is DON'T!

Do it yourself and save a very large fortune. Shopping around online is easy if you buy from a reputable PC store or even Amazon. You can upgrade you components easier and at the same time ensure that only the best products go into it in the first place. The time spent reading up on specs and reading reviews from people who know whats what will help make your component choices a lot more informed and suitable for your budget. You may think that places like PC world give good value, but in reality all you really end up with is a current product range which is already a year old (or a year behind as I see it), and miss information and poor servicing (I had to spend a week at one point without a proper PSU after the one off the shelf that the tech-guy assured me would be more than enough, blew up after the guy installed it!).

regards

chris

[theokus]

...but seriously, i'm joking about robbing a bank. Don't go out and rob a bank!


Regards

Chris

To late, they did rob us....

[jetstream]

Has anybody had any problems with modifying the command line for FPS.

When the ability to reduce the FPS to suit one's computer was first described, I successfully used the command line to run at around 22fps which my laptop could handle. I've not been running the sim for the past few weeks and I've noticed that despite the command line still being there (-FPSLimit=22) it seems to be completely ineffective. In-game fps is still rocketing bewtween 14 to 42 ish with the accompanyiing stutters.

Or has this capability been overiden by the 30/60fps options in the settings?

Thanks

[ttjph]

Yeah, I tried to use the command line switch the other day and it did nothing.

Also, is it supposed to remember if you enable the xx FPS Lock options? Mine forgets, so I have to select it again every time.

[gege21]

Yeah, I tried to use the command line switch the other day and it did nothing.

Also, is it supposed to remember if you enable the xx FPS Lock options? Mine forgets, so I have to select it again every time.

Hello !

I don't know if you forget the command line switch in Steam /TS21012/Properties/General tab/Define option launch button, but the command line FPS lock is : "/ -FPSLimit=20" (without quote and in this case if you want to limit FPS at 20). You only see the limit of FPS as soon as you play a scenario and with the combined key SHIFT+Z or other soft displaying the FPS like FRAPS . With this command line it is unnecessary to tick each time the FPS limit case in the launch windows of TS2012 and your are able to valid a specific number of your choice.

Best regards
Gerard

[jetstream]

Thanks for the reply. I'm pretty sure the / isn't needed but tried it any way - still made no difference. Command line seems ineffective now but it did work.

[Parrotnut]

Command line seems ineffective now but it did work.

Just an idea, but could it be that you have "v-sync" on in the graphics card contol panel, maybe that overrides the fps limit setting.

Frank