How did they do it?

[jimmyshand]

We're all basking in the glow of the performance enhancements since TS2013 was launched and for the most part enjoying vastly improved frame rates and far higher settings than were ever possible before.

Question is, has any clever boffin out there worked out what magic RSC deployed to make this possible?

The main reason I ask is that I've been noticing a definite increase in unexplained SBHH crashes to desktop either on loading a scenario or sometimes part way through one, even though my frame rates are seemingly quite high and my PC appears to be coping. I'm a tad suspicious that the perceived improvements might be a form of smoke and mirrors and that the age old problem of crashes due to memory issues are still present behind the smoke?

I'm going to try lowering my settings later and see if that cures the problem and enables me to run some known trouble scenarios. Failing that it's going to be a verify cache etc to see if I've become unstable due to some missing or corrupted files. Failing that then I can only assume that the perceived performance gains are a bit of a trick of the eye.

[rgreenrail]

I am also experiencing higher frame rates, but also more random SBHH errors. I have no idea why, as this didn't happen before...strange...

[andynwt]

My guess (and it is a total guess) is that it they fixed the sound engine.

[T163RN3TW0RK]

I have experienced a stunning increase of framerates and only got one SBHH.

[TheTazman]

I belive also that the sound was not being handled by the processor on the sound card. They moved the processing of the sound to work better. I was wondering myself. I still do see a bit of rubber banding on occassions. I wondered if we will still see furhter enhancements to banish it forever.

Love the driving at night too which seems even smoohter. I have to turn off all the lights in our room which has our PC;s that cheeses every one off... i am happy tho. hahhahaah.

[T163RN3TW0RK]

I belive also that the sound was not being handled by the processor on the sound card. They moved the processing of the sound to work better. I was wondering myself. I still do see a bit of rubber banding on occassions. I wondered if we will still see furhter enhancements to banish it forever.

Love the driving at night too which seems even smoohter. I have to turn off all the lights in our room which has our PC;s that cheeses every one off... i am happy tho. hahhahaah.

+1 for all-lights-off night driving.

Well they changed the sound engine to integrate EFX, of course, but I also noticed a slight increase in the quality of the sounds in general.

[jimmyshand]

Well I've had a chance to do some experimenting. Some of the scenarios I was having trouble with were on London to Brighton with the AP27 scenario pack. I turned all settings down to low and as if by magic, scenario loads ok. Crank the settings back up to medium, SBHH crash to desktop. This is frustrating as I'm comfortably running other routes with everything on highest without any trouble at all. Good job I'm not overly fussed for LtoB or modern plastic eh?!

This confirms my earlier query though, that the game still has memory related SBHH issues despite the perceived performance improvements.

[andynwt]

Someone suggested in another thread that you probably need 8GB RAM (!) to banish the SBHH problems caused by lack of memory.

[jimmyshand]

Someone suggested in another thread that you probably need 8GB RAM (!) to banish the SBHH problems caused by lack of memory.

I've got 8gb of RAM!! Before ts2013, LtoB was a struggle but it never SBHH crashed, just used to run at a slideshow. Frustrating but then RSC scenarios run ok at highest settings. Must be the intense amount of AI in AP27 coupled with the age old memory problem in this game.

[T163RN3TW0RK]

Someone suggested in another thread that you probably need 8GB RAM (!) to banish the SBHH problems caused by lack of memory.

I have 8GB RAM and I seem to be one of the few people who have one SBHH error every three months ! So maybe...

[Stone75]

Running an old E8400 Dual core @3ghz with a GTX 275 and only 4GB ram. I can run at a steady 23fps (capped) running out of london victoria since 2013 but was about 4-5fps prior. I only run at 8xmsaa AA but it looks slick enough at 1920x1200 res, max all other settings inc bloom etc. The AA is my performance hit for sure. While i've not run the AI heavy AP pack i've yet to have SBHH. Sure i get stutters, but my HD is full to the brim, not ideal. One thing to remember though, just because you have 8gb ram, it can be very different performance wise to another persons 8gb. Apart from quality of ram also things like how good a Mobo you have and how well it works with your components. Game booster is always a good idea if you think its a resource problem, shutting down all that that you don't need for you.

steve

[mikesimpson]

If you read the threads on here about problems with SBHH, you will see that most of the SBHH now found in 3rd party routes which previously ran on TS2012, are caused by:-

1. Having a massively bloated Kuju folder - Default folder should be around 4.2 gigs - Many are around 15 gigs.

2. The route in question having a RouteProperties.xml file which points to twice as many Provider/Product entries as are actually used in the route. This can be fixed with RW_Tools.

Mike