Asset Count

[Stone75]

Hey, just a few quick questions. Building a dock route has the downside of many lines surrounded by high detail areas being in a close area results in some very busy tiles. The questions I have are...

a. How many assets is too many on one tile ?

b. Are simple objects such as containers, much more count friendly ?

c. If one tile is very busy should the next be light or is it ok to run 2 or more very busy tiles in a row ?

d. Is the old style 2d foliage pretty asset count friendly or not ?

Cheers if anyone can give me a clue as i'm totally guessing at the moment. I have one tile reaching 1000 but many assets are containers and such. Still not a finished area though

steve

[barnez]

a. A good rule of thumb seems to be about 1500. However, people's systems are improving, so it's not impossible to exceed this count.

b. yes and no. Yes because they are a far simpler object draw, ie less stress on the GPU. No because the way TS2013 runs, the total number of calls for assets matters a lot.

c. keeping one tile light can help slower older systems, but the game loads a certain radius around the player anyway so may be of little difference.

d. see "b" above.

The two biggest things that help (appropriately used) are asset blocks and making "bulk" objects. What I mean by a bulk object is instead of plopping down 100 individual contrainers for an intermodal yard, make a single model that contains 10 or 50 or however many containers fits nicely.

Both of these will drastically cut down the asset count and let you get denser tiles.

-barnez

[Stone75]

Thanks for the info, exactly what I was looking for. Not sure I can do much about bulk models as I have no 3D skills but certainly I can try make more use of asset blocks.

Cheers !!

steve

[hertsbob]

Hi

If you're thinking in terms of your Immingham Docks project then I'm not convinced you really need to worry too much at all.

I'm not disagreeing with Barnez in any way, but the issues happen when tiles are loaded up and are more exaggerated the faster you're travelling. If you're bowling along at 100mph then there's a lot of processing power etc. happening to display all the assets as they pass by and it then seems to fall over itself trying to load up the new tiles. If you're on a 25mph route then you've got far more to play with.

The tile containing Weekday Cross and the London Road stations on my Netherfield route has over 2250 assets on it and it's never caused any problems whatsover that I can think of, because the speeds are so low.

Where you might want to be a bit more careful is where you've got loads of track and pointwork, and then you're in Woodhead territory. Even having said that, in most of the WH yards the OHLE is made up of individual components which bumped up the asset count massively!

If that is of any help...

Cheers

Bob

(Your route's looking brilliant, by the way)

[Stone75]

2250 !? I think i'm well under for now Its great to get more feedback on this so thanks for your time. Indeed its for Immingham and yes, some very restrictive speeds on site. Well looks like i'll be able to add a touch more detail which is great. Thanks for the kind words also, glad you like how its coming along.

steve

[tomhas2]

From experience working on the TPR Route.

Leeds =3000+ assets works fine for me on a decent spec pc and did also on the old lower spec pc
York = 4000+ assets used and no problem or issues

But on my new route northern lines try to make it as good as possible and as detailed but keep the asset count low as i can.
The bulk asset tool works wonders by the way if you havent used it much !

Tom

[longbow]

Presumably the number of assets on adjacent tiles is also a factor?

[hertsbob]

I believe so. Parts of WCML North are victims of this I think you'll find.

4000+ assets is pretty special!

[TransportSteve]

What I mean by a bulk object is instead of plopping down 100 individual contrainers for an intermodal yard, make a single model that contains 10 or 50 or however many containers fits nicely.
-barnez

Get a containership, or, three, depending on the size of your intermodal yard, and sink it below ground having just the containers and any onboard cranes visible, it only counts as 1 asset as far as I know, you can fill in any ground space afterwards with individual containers, less assets and less time consuming.

Cheerz. Transport Steve.

[Stone75]

From experience working on the TPR Route.

Leeds =3000+ assets works fine for me on a decent spec pc and did also on the old lower spec pc
York = 4000+ assets used and no problem or issues

But on my new route northern lines try to make it as good as possible and as detailed but keep the asset count low as i can.
The bulk asset tool works wonders by the way if you havent used it much !

Tom

Well i'm well under on count by TPR's standards. I'd like the route to run on a lower spec as possible so will still strive to keep it low yet detailed up close. Am happier knowing such routes work with so many assets though, should mean mine will be fine.

Cheers gents...

steve