Strange Goings On post TS2018

[Thugsy]

There are some mentions of issues people have had in the main thread but as that is covering a wide number of topics in TS2018 I thought I would break it out to see if anyone has any thoughts about something odd I have encountered. I am also aware that this may all be circumstantial and nothing to do with the upgrade but here goes....

TS2017 ran fine on my PC except that I would encounter some stuttering (worse on some routes than others) when driving. In my eager anticipation of the NWC route I ran a scenario on WCML Trent Valley the day before release that was set at night between Nuneaton and Stafford. Stuttering was pretty bad. I remember checking my Nvidea Control Panel settings (the 2 specifics I have for TS being Vsync off and performance over power). All was set as expected. This becomes relevant later.

On Thursday TS2018 downloaded fine, and again when I purchased it to get NWC which I have to say ran like a dream on Friday with excellent framerates and minimal stuttering. probably best I'd seen in truth. Didn't get a chance on Saturday but created another new scenario on Sunday and all ready to roll. Came back to run it later in the day and got an error when clicked on Run from Steam saying couldn't find TS2018. When I looked I could see all the files seemed to be in place but no sign of the Railworks.Exe. So I let Steam sort it out which it duly did after a nervous wait. All back and running as before but obviously it had now run an integrity check which means I will have to reinstall some soundpacks etc in the future. All running fine on Monday and I also ran a short scenario on a JT route which again was fine with no stuttering.

So today I decided to bite the bullet and see how my Nuneaton to Stafford scenario worked on TS2018. Although it struggled a bit in a couple of stations I was very pleased to see overall there was less stuttering than before. I am also aware that the description from DTG of what changed means I shouldn't really expect to see anything different as little has changed on the base game. However there have been varying reports from people of better and worse performance !

So as it occurred to me that my Exe file had disappeared on Sunday my Nvidea settings might have changed I thought I would have a look in the Control Panel which I can normally access by clicking show hidden icons. But it wasn't there! So I went and found it in the Nvidea Library and ran it manually and all my settings came up as expected. Went to launch TS2018 again and the application.exe had vanished once more meaning a repeat of the process from Sunday.

It would seem unlikely but could there be some conflict between Nvidea Control Panel and TS2018 ? I plan to touch as little as possible over the next few days other than running TS2018 so will monitor the situation but certainly an odd one.

[holzroller]

Do you by any chance have Kaspersky anti-virus installed as I have seen reports that it doesn't like Railworks.exe and removes it. So far I haven't had this issue, but I don't know how those who had this issue have Kaspersky set up.

[gptech]

could there be some conflict between Nvidea Control Panel and TS2018 ?

The only possible "conflict" you'd get would be if a setting was wayyyyyyy out of the range TS supports. Railworks.exe going missing could be an over-zealous anti-virus program's doing---check the 'quarantine' zone of whatever you use.

[Thugsy]

Thanks both for some speedy replies. So I do have Kaspersky installed and yes it may have been over zealous as it looks like it deleted the Application Exe on Sunday afternoon which explains why I couldn't run the problem although not why it should choose now after all these years to have an objection. But it certainly has not done anything with the .Exe again today which vanished after getting the Nvidea Control Panel back up and running again after it had mysteriously vanished (and no mention of action by Kaspersky).

Will continue to monitor and see if I can find any pattern.

[gptech]

why it should choose now after all these years to have an objection.

Because RailWorks.exe now contains some code that it *sees* as suspicious? "False Positives" are noting new, all AV programs throw them up from time to time. What's worrying is that you received no notification that it had removed a .exe file-have notification options been set so it doesn't?

it certainly has not done anything with the .Exe again today which vanished after getting the Nvidea Control Panel back up and running again after it had mysteriously vanished

How often does Kaspersky get updates?--it's possible that the wee glitch in it has/had been fixed.
Your nVidia control panel didn't really vanish, at least not in the same way that RailWorks.exe did, merely just being closed down rather than 'minimised to the tray'. If your installation of TS2018 also brought with it a Steam provided nVidia driver update, that could do that.

[Thugsy]

Thanks,

Will look at the notifications bit on Kaspersky. The AV updates every morning.

You have got me thinking further with your comment about a steam provided Nvidea update as maybe it wasn't actually the .exe that had gone missing this afternoon but as a result of my messing around with Nvidea it needed to reinstall the driver again possibly and I just panicked and thought it was the same error again.

Will continue to monitor but I am indebted for your help

[gptech]

The AV updates every morning.

That would certainly explain why a file deemed as suspicious yesterday is today considered safe; I've come across that myself with my AV, NOD32, and I dare say every AV has done the same.

[chrisreb]

I run Kaspersky and glad to say I did not have the issue. may have been because I didn't play the game at the weekend

[dumpadillo]

I experienced this having Kaspersky,panicked a bit not knowing what i was really doing.The next thing I found was Steam doing a complete reload which took a while.Anyway everything is working fine now which has prompted me once again to look at how I manage the huge Railworks folder.

Dumps

[Thugsy]

I experienced this having Kaspersky,panicked a bit not knowing what i was really doing.The next thing I found was Steam doing a complete reload which took a while.Anyway everything is working fine now which has prompted me once again to look at how I manage the huge Railworks folder.

Dumps

Yep, that is basically what happened here. I do have various backups thankfully although the last one was in August but the whole thing is so large a backup takes for ever. And now of course it does mean that any customisation (especially soundpacks) have to be reinstalled. I shall do it selectively as and when I need to do it and have created a little spreadsheet for myself so I can keep track of anything I've done - for the next time it happens.

[gptech]

the whole thing is so large a backup takes for ever.

Consider an incremental backup scheme (lots of recommendations in here for the software to do it) which means only changed files get backed up---"what's the point of replacing a file with exactly the same file?" kind of thinking,

[Thugsy]

the whole thing is so large a backup takes for ever.

Consider an incremental backup scheme (lots of recommendations in here for the software to do it) which means only changed files get backed up---"what's the point of replacing a file with exactly the same file?" kind of thinking,

Will do thanks

[JCogman]

Has anyone else just received a 101.1 MB update?

[SkylineBoy]

Nothing, unless it just hasn't reached here yet. Saying that, i've often found that when people often ask about these random updates they are the result of workshop content updated by the author. Are you subscribed to any workshop routes?

[brummie]

Has anyone else just received a 101.1 MB update?

Having read this I just checked Steam and indeed I have also received the same update as you (101.1 Mb)!