Atomic Systems

Hi, is anyone successfully running TS2020 with over 3000 scenarios on Windows 8.1. Thanks

Hi Geoff,,3000 is about the limit,DTG say no limit,but I get to a point with scenarios,where too many cause a dump,,i just spring clean,take off what I don't want ( as many as possible ) then all ok,,i think its computer dependent,some seem to be ok.

Thanks Rob, we are arguing with DTG about this at the moment as trying to move to a Windows 10 laptop and having an issue installing after a certain point whereas the older laptop on Windows 8 works at times but has the odd dump thrown in.

As mentioned in another thread on here, some of us use multiple content folders renamed as required. I have Steam, Non steam. German, and Austrian. I simply rename the one I want to use to content. I have many thousands of scenarios, I did try to recombine my content folders when 64 bit came out, but it didn't work no matter which order I tried combining them. Although I am now using windows 10 I had the same issue using windows 8, and as I recall XP before that.

Thinking outside any boxes - It might not be the number of scenarios as such, rather, the size of the generated caches in memory caused by said number, reducing the amount of memory available for the game engine to play with.

In my experience the problem usually comes when TS tries to complete the scenario database.But if it is loading scenarios into the cache simultaneously then you may well have found the issue. Although when 64 bit came out and I had full use of my 16GB of memory, the limits seem to stay pretty much the same.For me the first sign of problems is usually the loss of quick drives on all but a couple of routes, then I know it is time to split the content and or delete unwanted scenarios. My personal feeling is that it is an issue with the scenario database that TS can't resolve, maybe an unintended limit somewhere. Or maybe there is a combination of issues, depending on your set up.

Thanks everyone for your help. Had a reply from DTG which in a way acknowledges the issue, as they say we are overloading the game and should only use content downloaded from them.
Pointed out they have encouraged the eco system of providers of add ons and that as TS has now been available since 2009 then this issue was going to happen at some point and maybe they should have built some resilience into the application as they upgraded it year on year!

A simple way to minimise the stress on your system is to only have those routes in your Content/Routes folder that you intend to use at that particular time.

I have a master backup in a separate drive of all of my routes divided into Routes_Steam, Routes_Non Steam etc. etc. - all subdivided into British, European, US_Canada etc. All of the routes are accompanied by a named folder so they are easy to identify, for example "13cd4c14-4798-4b9c-8fea-e69409602428 West of Scotland Lines - The Port Road".

The routes I use regularly reside in a similar folder structure within a "Routes_Store" folder inside the Railworks folder. This is a considerably smaller folder than my master backup.

If I want to run a particular route I just drag the route and name folder from Route_Store into Content/Routes.

Since adopting this system I have had no dumps on loading (other than for the odd dodgy scenario, usually from Workshop), the sim loads quickly, as do the individual scenarios from a "loaded" route.

I routinely unsubscribe from any Workshop scenario or route - currently subscribed to none, though I loaded 1 route and 5 scenarios yesterday. I found the biggest problems came from the Workshop trying to update and sometimes re-download.

My current Content/Routes folder contains the following single route - Steaming over Shap, with a total of 22 scenarios - not too much for a 3 year old mid range computer to cope with.

Rod

geoffholt wrote:Pointed out they have encouraged the eco system of providers of add ons and that as TS has now been available since 2009 then this issue was going to happen at some point and maybe they should have built some resilience into the application as they upgraded it year on year!

Maybe they never anticipated something as extreme as a user having in excess of 3000 scenarios sat on their system? And yes it is extreme and quite uneccesary and I get that its your choice but if the game is breaking because of it then instead or arguing with them just remove some so it works.

August,I'm interested in your system of route control.I've just intstalled Windows 10 with an upgraded computer,so I'm virtually starting from scratch again having backed up everything previously. A brand new full Steam Installation went like clockwork and took 4 hours. In the past I kept all the Steam routes in one Content folder and in Content folder 2 I kept the routes I wanted to use. Then I went off-line with Steam,changed the Content folders round so that I only had 2 or 3 routes in play (all my other routes being kept out of Steam's influence. This worked fine but I found that I was still getting updates from the Steam Workshop. I don't know how that was possible.
My question is: are you on-line all the time when playing the game? I think I read the other day that someone disconnects the internet to avoid this sort of thing happening but I haven't tried that yet !!!!
Would appreciate a reply.
Dumps

Sorry August,I didn't read right to the bottom of your posting where you mentioned Workshop items but I'd still like to know if there is a way of getting round this.
Cheers
Dumps

Holz, As you start to lose scenarios above a certain limit it suggests a limit to how much can be in the cache/ database before it overflows and you lose stuff or it gets corrupted. Pure speculation here as not got enough room on my hard drive to reach that limit to test the theory!

dumpadillo wrote:Sorry August,I didn't read right to the bottom of your posting where you mentioned Workshop items but I'd still like to know if there is a way of getting round this.
Cheers
Dumps

Hi Dumps. I work it somewhat differently. I have the Steam-connected version of TS on a HDD as a vanilla version. Any updates, etc, are installed in that version, together with any DLC that I purchase. If I need to download a Workshop item, it also goes into that version. On a SSD, I have a version that contains all (including 3rd party and freeware) assets. I keep all routes in a separate folder, and then just drag and drop any that I wish to play into that working version (including from the vanilla version). Hence, opening up this version takes a few seconds, and less than a minute to load any scenario I wish to play. At the end of the session, I can drag and drop the route back into the storage folder (takes milliseconds). As a route builder, I also have another version that contains route on which I am working, with the required assets. I only work on this version in 32bit (there are still problems with tracks.bin in 64bit)

Nick

Every so often there will be an update to a route that is DTG DLC - If it isn't for one of the routes in my Content/Routes folder I just copy the route folder across to either my Railworks Routes_Store or Routes_Store in the external drive.

Always online and yes unsubscribing from the Workshop routes and scenarios is advisable I think. It means you won't get updates, but that is a hit well worth taking.

I too now have a vanilla installation of all of my Steam DTG DLC - courtesy of Steam losing sight of where my Railworks folder was and my having to completely reinstall (only Steam items).

Rod

markpullinger wrote:Holz, As you start to lose scenarios above a certain limit it suggests a limit to how much can be in the cache/ database before it overflows and you lose stuff or it gets corrupted. Pure speculation here as not got enough room on my hard drive to reach that limit to test the theory!

Yes I would agree that is where the problem likely lies. I think it is the cache database that gets corrupted rather than scenarios, simply because splitting the scenarios between folders works with no need to reinstall any, which would be necessary if the scenarios were corrupted. I have always suspected that it was either a limit in size, number of entries or symbols/text for the database/cache.