Help - freezing in South London

[Daunt58]

I have been running TS in its various forms for about 18 months.
Since buying the South London Network in the recent sale I have had a problem with the route freezing.

In the Inner circle scenario, I can get as far as the first junction (outside Victoria) and then the game freezes / judders with a continuous crackling sound.
If I do nothing for a few minutes the game runs at about 1 frame every 2 seconds (control impossible ) until it gets through the trouble spot and continues.

If I save before reaching the freeze point and then reload and resume I get past the first freeze point but the game freezes again just after the stop at the signal gantry.
It is possible to complete the whole route by saving and restarting. When I get to the end of the route it freezes on the approach to London Bridge (lots of AI traffic)

On other scenarios I get the same when approaching either Victoria or London Bridge. (again lots of AI)

My computer has Phenom II X4 995 processor (3.2 Ghz) with 8GB RAM and a Geforce GTX550Ti graphics card (Evga 1GB version).
LG Monitor native resolution 1360 X 768.

Before using South London Network I have been running other routes with TSX / 3D weather / high quality settings and Dynamic Super Resolution (2040 X 1153).

I have tried reinstalling the route DLC from Steam (3 times) and verifying cache (twice)- both times it reported 3000 odd files failed to verify and reaquired them.

I have also tried turning off TSX and 3D weather, reducing resolution to 1280 X 768 and setting all the quality sliders as low as possible but still get the same effect.

I cloned a copy of the scenario and deleted one of the AI trains (The one that passes on your right near the first signal gantry.)
This gave an improvement but the game still freezes at next "trouble spot".

As far as I know from the forums this is not a widespread problem, although it is an intensely built up route with lots of AI trains.

The only other time I have had a similar problem was with JT Edinburgh - Dundee route when first installed and the game would freeze crossing the Forth Bridge (at the same point whether driving from North or South). I thought the bridge itself was causing a problem but it was cured by reinstalling the route and verifying the game.

Is this route and the number of AI trains in the scenarios simply too demanding for my PC or is my installation of TS2015 broken in some way ?

Any help or advice would be appreciated.

Thanks


Mike

[ttjph]

Just in case it works - have you tried setting Scenery Quality to maximum?

http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic. ... 1&t=140789

This may also be connected to Water Quality, so try that both min and max...

[rededge]

When you say "continuous crackling sound" makes me wonder if it is anything to do with soundcard or onboard sound?
Are the drivers (for sound card) up to date, do you have problems running any other games?
I think you should be able to run TS2015 OK with your PC. It is 64bit OS?

(Just my opinion!) I wouldn't concern yourself with repeated verifications as this sounds more hardware related than anything else, also ensure nothing untoward is running in the background- go into task manager/ processes and see.

[gptech]

Looking at things from the hardware side:

make sure your graphics card isn't overheating and 'throttling back' when you hit areas with lots of assets.

[Daunt58]

Thanks to ttjph, rededge and gptech for all your helpful suggestions.
I have been out all day today so will try some of these ideas out tomorrow and let you know the results. I hadn't heard of the water quality issue.

Yes, I have Windows 7 64 bit OS.

Other programmes seem to work OK but I haven't tried many other TS2015 routes.

Last night I thought I'd try Hamburg Hanover as the station / docks area in Hamburg is quite intense with all the catenaries etc.
To my surprise I couldn't find it in the scenario lists, nor London Peterborough. I reinstalled London PB and then Hamburg Hanover reappeared but I didn't have time to test them out.

Thanks again for all your help.

Mike

[Daunt58]

Have tried changing various settings and yesterday I deleted all the graphics card drivers and downloaded the latest versions from Nvidia.
After that Hamburg Hanover was fine with high detail but South London Inner circle scenario still not working.

Today I replaced the current Railworks .exe file with a backup from January but this didn't help.

I then used my cloned copy of the scenario and deleted the AI train on the left (Victoria Sevenoaks late) which pulls out at the same time as the player train.
This solved the problem and I can now get to the next stop without any freezing. Frame rates showing as 15-18 near Victoria and increasing towards Battersea.
I will now try making a second copy and just deleting that consist. (I had previously deleted one on the right.)

It seems it was a problem with the AI trains but not sure yet whether it's because there are just too many of them or whether that particular consist is broken.

Thanks again for all the help.

Mike

[749006]

When you get a problem with a scenario on a route and it won't open or is giving strange effects try doing a Quick Drive on the Same route with the Same type of train.
A QD will give a much lower AI requirement - I did a London Bridge - East Croydon and mine was the only train

If you still get the same faults with just a QD then have a look at other things.

Peter

[gptech]

............ or whether that particular consist is broken.

A broken consist would normally stop the scenario loading, with an error message hinting at the reason why.
Lots of AI traffic will slow any CPU down, but there's always the 'last straw that broke the camels back' point---you may be fine until the very 'last straw/AI consist' is added then it all wants to fall over, which is where I think you may be with this scenario. If deleting a service or two gets you a reasonable frame rate/smoothness of gameplay without 'breaking' the scenario then that's all you can do---unless you really want to start throwing money at it and upgrade the hardware.

[Daunt58]

Thanks 749006 and gptech for the advice.

QD scenarios are fine and I have now got the Inner Circle scenario to run by deleting two of the AI trains in Victoria and one of the ones waiting to emerge from London Bridge when I get there.
I think you're right that that's about the best I can do for this scenario. There are a lot of AI trains, after all.

Thanks again for all the help.

Mike