Possible New Railworks User

[passedcleaner]

Hi all,

I've been a MSTS user since it first came out and can honestly say I know the simulator inside out (with the exception of the dark art of route building!) I briefly considered Rail Simulator when it was released but was put off by
a) the limitations of my current PC
b) the significant issues and bugs that users were encountering

Unfortunately last night my ageing PC finally packed in and while a new machine would not prevent me from installing MSTS, I am tempted to try something new; i.e. RailWorks.

I would be interested to know how RailWorks has advanced since the initial RailSimulator release. Have the signalling issues / route-setting issues been sorted? How flexible is the simulator for activity creation / vehicle reskinning, etc? And just as important - what system requirements would you recommend? Bear in mind I will be buying a new PC in the next few weeks so now is the time to consider this.

Kind regards,

Seb

[Acorncomputer]

Hi Seb

It is difficult to summarise all the changes since Rail Simulator as RailWorks is a dynamic program that is regularly being updated through the Steam system and sometimes we don't even know when an improvement or amendment has been made. We are expecting a great improvement to the program's graphics engine shortly which will hopefully make the program run much more efficiently and smoothly. It is generally assumed that this will be a free update for all RailWorks users but this may not be the case so we will have to wait and see but Paul Jackson (RailSimulator.com CEO) seems particularly enthused so I think it must be a very good improvement.

Although RailWorks has some similarities to MSTS, you really need to look at it fresh and avoid comparisons. If RailWorks does what you want it to then that is enough but in order to find out if it suits you the only suggestion I can make is to spend the relatively small amount to buy it and check it out.

If you are not familiar with the Steam system of distributing and maintaining the program then this will be something else to get used to but essentially your program and any DLC you purchase is kept on the Steam server so you can 'never' lose it. Even if your computer goes up in flames you can download everything again to a new computer at no additional charge. You would have to store your own creations separately though as Steam does not keep this information although I see that Amazon have started a Cloud service where you can store up to 20g of information on their server. Perhaps Steam will follow suit one day, I do not know.

You will need a computer with a good graphics card and preferably a fast internet connection. If your internet connection is not so good then you might be best getting the DVD as the program will install quicker otherwise you can download the whole program from Steam.

Trawl through the RW forum for topics that might answer your questions or hang on here and a few more people will give advice.

You say that you have not used the MSTS route editor. Now is the time to expand your horizons as the RW route editor is relatively easy to use and to many people the star feature of the program. I hope you have a go at this as it is great fun.

[passedcleaner]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply, its interesting to see how the simulator has progressed since the original RS release. I've kindof been ignoring any news about RW because it seemed beyond my PC's capability but last night's sudden demise has made me consider it again. I have used the Steam platform before (for Total War titles) so am vaguely familiar with the concept but hadn't realised 'that' Steam was the same as 'this' Steam if you get me!

I'll have a trawl and see what I find, I'd be interested if anyone has experienced the simulator on the new range of Intel i3/5/7 multi-core processors as I'm being tempted by the i7 (high end gaming) pcs that are available!

Speak again

Seb

[Acorncomputer]

Hi Seb

There have been quite a few threads recently on the theme of 'What is the best computer for RailWorks', much of which is a bit too technical for me, but if you can search for these threads then there is much information that will be of use to you.

[albionrail]

Although I am relatively new to train simulations I would recommend Railworks to anyone, from what I can gather RW2 is a memory hungry beast so I personally would get as much RAM in your prospective rig as possible. Someone will probably correct me here but i'm thinking 4-6gb would suffice.

As you are probably aware Solid State Drives (SSD's) have been mentioned as a performance boost, although from other posts in this forum from users tend to indicate that the boost is not enough to be concerned about. To be honest I am not running my RW setup on anything special at all, my specs are:

AMD Athlon X64 3gig
2 gb DDR2 Ram
and a Geforce 8800GT card.

I purchased WCML probably the most demanding of routes against the advice of friends and still manage to get a decent run albeit for a few stutters in heavily "asset" populated area. Of course I am not suggesting that you go with a low grade setup mate, I just thought I would offer my experiances from the lower end setup user.

Best wishes

Ed,

Anyway I hope you join us on this Railworks adventure, and manage to save a few quid when getting your rig... you will need it for the ever so tempting DLC

[SHEEP]

Just think of Railworks as a new pair of shoes, It'll feel strange at first, and you might even want you're old shoes back on the first day,
but if you get passed the week, you'll never go back to Msts,
I know, I tried last week and i loved Msts,
I can still remember how amazed i was the first time i saw the Flying Scotsman heading out of carlisle.

You can get the Railworks DVD for a good price too http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic. ... 4&t=114648

[passedcleaner]

I've started looking at possible PCs (including built to spec products) and I reckon I might just be able to afford a machine to the following specs;

Intel Core i7 processor (2.93GHz)
6GB DDR3 RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 Graphics Card (1GB)
1TB Storage Memory

However if this is overkill then I don't want to spend more than I need! What do people think; RailWorks 2 - capable PC or not? I've had enough experience of stutter with an old PC running MSTS and it would be nice to run with settings maxed out.

Kind regards

Seb

[hminky]

However if this is overkill then I don't want to spend more than I need!

You either spend it now or spend it later, there is no such thing as overkill!

Harold

[passedcleaner]

You either spend it now or spend it later, there is no such thing as overkill!

Harold

Very true but I don't have now what I will have later, if that makes sense! I'm prepared to go up to £1000 but that would be making me wince.

Seb

[Darpor]

You shouldn't need that much. Depending on how good your current monitor is, you may only need a tower. I got my current one built last year, from a local independent PC shop for £520. Runs RW absolutely fine for both fun and development (lots of that as always) with high frame rates and crisp graphics.

[Kromaatikse]

What you will need for Railworks is a strong CPU, plenty of RAM and an adequate graphics card.

For the CPU, the number of cores or threads it has doesn't matter. The efficiency of the architecture and the clock speed (including maximum turbo speed if applicable) are much more important. The best-performing choice right now seems to be whichever of the Core i5 2xxx series you can find at a decent price with a functioning motherboard (there was a major chipset recall, so motherboards may be very hard to find right now). Failing that, the previous-gen Core i5 is still potent, and the Phenom II series isn't all that bad either (I have one of these) and can be cheaper. Each of those three types needs a different motherboard, so take the price of that into account as well.

"Plenty" of RAM means 4GB. Period. Railworks can't use more but will struggle with less. If you can afford to put more in, there's nothing stopping you, of course.

"Adequate" graphics card means spend about €100 or so on it, unless you have a massive 30" monitor or something. Railworks doesn't currently use it very intensively.

Defrag your hard drive. If you can stomach fiddling with MyDefrag or the like to put all the Railworks stuff together (if you have a mechanical hard drive), so much the better. This will help to reduce the pauses and stuttering as new scenery is loaded.

Obviously the rest of your system needs to tie all the above together nicely. Don't skimp unnecessarily on the case (which will probably last a decade with care) or the PSU (which is apable of frying everything in the box if it goes wrong).

[passedcleaner]

Hi Kromaatikse,

Thanks for the knowledge you've shared. I admit I could never hope to build my own tower so I must rely on the skills / knowledge of others. Not just the variety of choice but the myriad compatibility issues leave me thinking its a dark art!

Incidentally I didn't appreciate that there are different generations of the Intel Core processors - to me they were just i3, i5 and i7 with the latter being the best! Why is the i5 considered better than the i7 out of interest?

I've got a couple of local computer shops plus a work colleague of my partner who has experience building gaming PCs for himself and other people so I've got somewhere to start. Definitely see the downside to buying a 'stock' machine from a larger vendor - either I'll end up paying through the nose for an over-spec system, or I'll get something that is 'almost but not quite'!

If I could get a good system for between £600-£800 I would be very happy. The titles I will be running (at first) are likely to be RW2 and Empire:Total War which I reckon have similar requirements (though I'm happy to be corrected.)

Cheers

Seb

[Kromaatikse]

Most likely, other games will have higher requirements for the graphics card than Railworks does, at least if you provide a good CPU to drive it with. If Railworks is not your only game, I would push the graphics card budget up to €150 or €200. (It is one of those things where you spend a little more to get a lot more.)

I recommend the Core i5 because it is usually cheaper than the i7 while not being any slower for most practical purposes. The i7 is meant for heavy server and workstation use, and tends to go with triple-channel memory instead of double-channel. Putting three memory channels down on a motherboard costs more. Since Railworks is single-threaded for all intents and purposes, it cannot use the extra memory bandwidth the i7 provides.

Building a computer from components is actually not all that difficult, provided you select the right parts to go together in the first place, and then aren't a complete bonehead when you put it together. The most important part is the motherboard, because *everything* attaches to it. After that, you just make sure that everything else you add has a correct socket on the motherboard to attach to. Complete the scene with a case big enough to hold the motherboard, and a PSU with "80 Plus" certification (efficient) and enough power to drive everything you bought.

[passedcleaner]

Right, I've bitten the bullet and ordered my system from a local shop that gets good reviews Having gained confidence in my choices from comments placed on this topic (many thanks to all) I've gone for the following specs;

Intel Core i5 processor (3.3GHz)
6GB Memory
1TB Storage Memory
Graphics card worth about £150
Good air-cooling system

With Windows 7 and AVG thrown in, plus various other odds-and-ends and a 5 year guarantee (first year including parts), and some crafty negotiation, got it down to the top end of my budget. Should last me for another 7-8 years at least!

Should be ready in a week. Just need to find a copy of Railworks 2 now. Won't have an ISP for the first week so I'll have to wait to try it out

Thanks for all assistance

Seb

[Acorncomputer]

Hi Seb

I am no expert but that sounds good to me. Let us know how you get on as I am now thinking about upgrading.

What size monitor and what resolution will you be using