Advanced graphics settings

[h5djr]

Out of interest I have just done some tests on my new pc.
The spec of the pc is Intel Core i7 3770K @3.5GHz, 8Gb RAM (DDR3) 500w PSU, Sapphire ATI HD7870 FLEX 2Gb GDDR5, Windows 7 64-bit Pro.

Using similar settings to 'ttjph' ie:

Master details level = Custon
Screen resolution = 1440x900
Fullscreen = Fullscreen
Brightness = 32
TSX = Enabled

Advanced
Texture filtering = Anisotropib x8
Scenery = 10
View Distance = Highest
Water = Highest
Proc flora = Off
Bloom = Off
Depth of field = Off

With the following Anti aliasing settings I get the following FPS readings using my SBB Route 1 - train at station - raining - another train passing:
FXAA +8 x MSAA = 82
FXAA +1 x 2 SSAA = 58
FXAA +2 x 1 SSAA = 66
FXAA +2 x 2 SSAA = 40
FXAA +2 x 3 SSAA = 28
FXAA +3 x 2 SSAA = 31
FXAA +3 x 3 SSAA = 21

Any comments on these settings and which one would be the best to use would be mosat welcome.

Just wondering, are these figures without any level of shadows set? Only I don't see shadows in the list at all.

Sorry I forgot that setting - I have Shadows set to Medium.

[ttjph]

What kind of hardware would it be taking to run this game on the higher settings at bigger resolutions? I have a 2560x1440 screen, which I can get 30fps on Woodhead (sat at Manchester station) using the following settings

Anti-Aliasing = FXAA + 1x2 SSAA

And about the same (+2 fps) if I swap to Anti-Aliasing FXAA + 8 * MSAA & Anisotropic x8.

It's key to check whether you're GPU or CPU limited - run a monitoring program that keeps a graph of GPU usage, and see whether it's maxing out.

Going from 1x2 SSAA to 8x MSAA on my system makes a big difference to my GPU usage, so if you only see 2 fps difference then I'd guess you're CPU limited.

... aaaaaand yes, your i7 920 only scores about the same as my Core2Duo on single-thread performance (albeit plus your hefty overclock): http://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html so you're at much the same point as I am. Turning shadows off will reduce your CPU demand; alternatively you need a faster processor. Your graphics card should be plenty - it's over four times as fast as mine!

Edited to add: conversely, you may (should) find that you can turn it right up to 3x3 SSAA with little or no reduction in fps - give it a try...

[mojo12012]

Has anyone been able to use a separate dedicated PhysX card successfully, and would TS2013 support it?

[Squatch]

Edited to add: conversely, you may (should) find that you can turn it right up to 3x3 SSAA with little or no reduction in fps - give it a try...

Well, a free roam at Carlisle on WCML North at 2x2SSAA gets me 15-20fps, so not really playable. But your analysis of the processor seems pretty much spot on - the thing is, the 920 is still decent at everything else I throw at it, so can't really justify buying anything new at the minute - might see where Haswell gets us, but the thought of switching out CPU, memory and board for the sake of TS2013 doesn't fill me with glee!

[gptech]

Has anyone been able to use a separate dedicated PhysX card successfully, and would TS2013 support it?

Not that I know of, but there'd be no real benefit as the game any supports PhysX on the CPU.

[peterfhayes]

I use Nvidia Inspector to set some settings and post them here - fps locked at 30 fps via adaptive vsync: The NVI settings override the nVidia Control Panel settings as they are applied last.

nvidia Control Panel settings TS 2103
i7 2600K TSX on
Type of Setting Setting in TS 2013
Ambient Occlusion n/a
Anisotropic Filtering 16x
Anti-aliasing FXAA Off
Anti-Aliasing Gamma Correction On
Anti-Aliasing Mode Enhance the Application
Anti-Aliasing Setting 4x
Anti-Aliasing Transparency Custom see NVI
CUDA - GPUs All
Maximum pre-rendered frames 3
Multidisplay/mixed GPU acceleration Single Display performance
Power Management Mode Prefer Maximum Performance
Texture Filtering- Anisotropic sample optimization On
Texture Filtering- Negative LOD Bias Allow
Texture Filtering- Quality High Quality
Texture Filtering- Trilinear optimisation On
Threaded Optimisation Auto
Triple Buffering N/A
Texture Filter Optimisation On
Vertical Sync Adaptive half the refesh rate

nVidia Inspector Settings
Compatibility No Settings all standard
Antialiasing
Antialiasing Behaviour Flags None
Antialiasing Gamma Correction Off
Antialiasing Line Gamma Default
Anti-Aliasing Mode Enhance the Application
Anti-Aliasing Setting 4 x Multi Sampling
Anti-Aliasing Transparency MultiSampling Disabled
Anti-Aliasing Transparency SuperSampling 2 x SGSS
NVIDIA predefined FXAA usage Disallowed
Toggle FXAA indicator ON/OFF Off
Toggle FXAA ON/OFF Off

Texture Filtering
Anisotropic Filtering Mode User Defined/Off
Anisotropic Filtering Setting 16
Texture Filtering - Anisotropic Filter Optimisation On
Texture Filtering - Anisotropic Sample Optimisation On
Texture Filtering - Driver Controlled LOD Bias On
Texture Filtering LOD Bias -0.500
Texture Filtering- Negative LOD Bias Allow
Texture Filtering- Quality High Quality
Texture Filtering- Trilinear optimisation (On ignored if High Quality used)

Common
Ambient Occlusion setting High Quality
Ambient Occlusion Usage Disabled
Extension Limit Off
Frame Rate Limiter Off
Maximum pre-rendered frames 3
Multidisplay/mixed GPU acceleration Single Display performance
Power Management Mode Prefer Maximum Performance
Show PhysX Visual indicator Off
Threaded optimisation Auto
Triple Buffering Off
Vertical Sync Smooth AFR Behaviour On
Vertical Sync Tear Control Adaptive
Vertical Sync Adaptive half the refesh rate


TS2013 Settings
Graphical Options
Master Detail Level Custom
Screen Resoloution 1920 x 1200
Full Screen Full Screen
Screen Brightness 34
TSX Mode Enabled
Skin HUD Textures

Advanced
Master Detail Level Custom
Anti-Aliasing FXAA + 8 x MSAA
Texture Filtering Anisotropic x 8
Scenery Quality Highest Detail
View Distance Highest Detail
Shadow Quality Medium Detail
Water Quality Medium Detail
Procedural Flora On
Adaptive Bloom Off
Depth of Field Off


These arte a work in progress and I make minor changes dependent on route etc
pH

[h5djr]

I have just purchase a new computer with a Sapphire ATI HD7870 2Gb graphics card and if I run TS2013 with setting at maximum apart from Proc flora, Bloom and Depth of Field set to OFF it gives me an FPS of 21. If I want to increase the FPS with the same settings I presume I will need an even better graphics card. I have been looking and it seems the Sapphire HD7950 Vapor-X 3Gb or the Asus or Gigabyte NVIDIA 680 3Gb would be the next step up. As the computer is still new the supplier is quite happy to exchange the card.

Does anyone have any experience of these cards. Whenever I look at any reviews including figures for TS2013 are never included. Thanks.

[gptech]

The amount of vRAM on a graphics card won't have much bearing on your frame rate, so you're unlikely to see much change by replacing a powerful card with another powerful card that offers features that the game can't reallly make use of.

if I run TS2013 with setting at maximum

Does that include 3x3 SSAA Anti-Aliasing? You may be just setting your sights too high and concentrating on using the options rather than finding which options are suitable, so I'd suggest you work through the settings to see how it performs at various settings.

[h5djr]

The amount of vRAM on a graphics card won't have much bearing on your frame rate, so you're unlikely to see much change by replacing a powerful card with another powerful card that offers features that the game can't reallly make use of.

if I run TS2013 with setting at maximum

Does that include 3x3 SSAA Anti-Aliasing? You may be just setting your sights too high and concentrating on using the options rather than finding which options are suitable, so I'd suggest you work through the settings to see how it performs at various settings.

That's exactly what I have done. In my earlier post I gave the FPS figures for various settings from FXAA +8xMSAA which gave 82 through to FXAA +3x3 SSAA which gives 21.
It's just that, if possible, while it's still possible to exchange the graphics card, would I get a higher FPS from a faster or better card. Both of the cards I suggested have 3Gb of memory but if this will not help, what will? The main CPU is already an i7-3770k and with 8Gb of RAM. What is needed to get TS2013 to run at maximum settings?

[gptech]

What is needed to get TS2013 to run at maximum settings?

Without wanting to start an argument, the answer(?) to that is

"Why is it needed to get TS2013 to run at maximum settings?"

The game is more CPU dependant than GPU, 8GB of RAM helps Windows manage the game better, but the game itself is limited to only being able to use 4GB of VAS---you can throw all the money you have into better or more powerful hardware but it won't change that the game is a 32bit application with 32bit limitations.

At a resolution of 1440x900 with 3x3 SSAA enabled you're asking your PC to render 11,664,000 pixels and then squash that information into a third of the 'physical space'
At 2x2 SSAA, which seems to give good frame rates, you're working with 5,184,000 pixels----near enough half of the information so accordingly your PC has 'room' to deal with the other stuff it needs to deal with to run the game. Your GPU deals with the final polish to the displayed image, much of the work creating what you eventually see is done on the CPU so the GPU (for TS2013) can be considered secondary.

The question that needs asking is "does running at 2x2 SSAA look good enough?"

[h5djr]

What is needed to get TS2013 to run at maximum settings?

Without wanting to start an argument, the answer(?) to that is

"Why is it needed to get TS2013 to run at maximum settings?"

The game is more CPU dependant than GPU, 8GB of RAM helps Windows manage the game better, but the game itself is limited to only being able to use 4GB of VAS---you can throw all the money you have into better or more powerful hardware but it won't change that the game is a 32bit application with 32bit limitations.

At a resolution of 1440x900 with 3x3 SSAA enabled you're asking your PC to render 11,664,000 pixels and then squash that information into a third of the 'physical space'
At 2x2 SSAA, which seems to give good frame rates, you're working with 5,184,000 pixels----near enough half of the information so accordingly your PC has 'room' to deal with the other stuff it needs to deal with to run the game. Your GPU deals with the final polish to the displayed image, much of the work creating what you eventually see is done on the CPU so the GPU (for TS2013) can be considered secondary.

The question that needs asking is "does running at 2x2 SSAA look good enough?"

Yes I see what you mean. I am beginning to understand the problem. As it's a 32bit application I am tempted to run it on my older 32-bit machine which has an i7-3770 and 4Gb of Ram and the existing Asus AMD Radeon HD 7750 Graphics card. I think if I remember correctly that gave a reasonable 28 FPS on the 2x2 SSAA setting with Texture filtering at x4. Reducing that a little to 2x1 SSAA gave 45 and the Default settings gave 67. I am still in a position to send the new computer back and get a refund. TS2013 is the only program I use that I thought would benefit from the new computer. I also run a couple of other programs which on the new computer I have to run in the XP Mode virtual machine because they will not run in Windows 64. Going back to the older machine would mean they could run in native 32bit.

[gptech]

I am tempted to run it on my older 32-bit machine which has an i7-3770 and 4Gb of Ram

Running the game under a 64bit version of Windows does bring significant stabilty benefits; it'd be a dubious move to go back to 32bit and lose the increased VAS a 64bit OS gives to 32 bit applications.

I also run a couple of other programs which on the new computer I have to run in the XP Mode virtual machine because they will not run in Windows 64.

Intriguing...there are very few programs that can't be run happily under Windows 7 64bit, selecting one of the compatibilty options is usually enough. What programs are you having bother with?

[h5djr]

TS2013 did run without any problems on my 32bit Windows 7, but I take your point about stability. I also have a laptop which is running Windows 7-64 and I suppose going with 64bit does give a little bit of future proofing. Both are running Windows 7 and I have no wish to upgrade to Windows 8, although I have set up the laptop to dual-boot between W7 and W8, just to try out W8.

The programs that will not run under 64bit Windows 7 are two in connection with my car and both are products of VW/Audi Group. One is called ETKA which is an electronic parts catalogue for all the models in the Volkswagen Group and the other is ELSAWIN which is the workshop manual for all Audi models. In the installation instructions for both programs it states they will not run in Windows 64 and gives the instructions how to set up either a virtual pc or the Windows XP Mode. No doubt the next version of these will probably run in Windows 7-64 but not the current versions.

I am now totally confused. I have just spent £1200 on a new computer when I probably did'nt need to. If necessary I could upgrade to my existing computer Windows 7- 64 for a lot less than the new computer. Fortunately, as I purchased it on the internet, a still have a few days left to return it and get a full refund under the Distance Selling Regulations.

[gptech]

Pretty specific programs then, not what you'd call mainstream.

I'd agree with you that you've had no real need to buy a new PC, adding more RAM and possibly Win 7 to your existing machine would have achieved the same results at a fraction of the cost.

[h5djr]

Pretty specific programs then, not what you'd call mainstream.

I'd agree with you that you've had no real need to buy a new PC, adding more RAM and possibly Win 7 to your existing machine would have achieved the same results at a fraction of the cost.

No certainly not mainstream programs but very interesting if, like me, you drive an Audi.

My existing computer is already running Windows 7-32bit and has 4Gb of memory so I think perhaps I will stick with it. My wife will be slightly disappointed as she thought she would be getting a newer machine!! I may well consider getting a copy of Windows 7-64 whilst it's still available and upgrade it if I get problems with TS2013 or when Volkswagen release a 64-bit version of the ETKA and ELSAWIN programs.

Thanks for all your help and advice.