Dorset Coast v3 activity problems

[energize]

A couple of weeks ago i ordered the Dorset Coast v3 route from uktrainsim - no problems installing it but whenever I load an activity the game freezes after roughly 5-10 mins of play, necessitating Crtl+Alt+Delete to exit. Here are a few examples:

Marchwood-Basingstoke - freezes on approaching Redbridge
Morning commuter - freezes on leaving Surbition
Evening commuter/1920 from Waterloo to Basingstoke freezes on approaching Earlsfield
football special (Wimbledon-Raynes Park-Basingstoke-Reading) freezes on approaching Raynes Park

My PC has a Nvidia 8600 GT graphics card, a 3 Ghz processor & 2 GB of memory. I've installed all updates for Train Sim up to 1.4 along with Trainstore 3.2 MSTS Bin (so I don't think my PC underperforms). Any solutions please?

[alanch]

It depends how you are using Trainstore - the only reliable way to run Dorset Coast is by selecting a single activity in Trainstore Easy Mode.

If you are already doing that, I suggest Install the latest Bin patch, and add the -mem: 1024 parameter in the Trainstore Tools Options MSTS Launch Settings.

If that doesn't work, I suggest you install the latest version of the Bin patch - in fact, I recommend that you install this anyway.

[energize]

Thanks for asking - just to clarify I do only load a single activity in trainstore

[cambrian06]

Have you by any chance got the quantity of sounds set to high? - if so try reducing it to medium.
Regards,
Andy.

[energize]

Yeah thanks for asking Andy - I've followed the settings recommended by the route

[alanch]

Have you tried my other suggestions?

[energize]

Thanks for your help guys I've installed the latest edition of MSTSBin (1. and changed the trainstore parameters as suggested but it still crashes... :bad-words:

[alanch]

Next step is to check the route with Routeriter.

[Lad491]

Chances are your settings are still a bit too high. Trying turning them down a bit more, make sure you have killed off all the background tasks. When i run the route I still have to shut down lots of background tasks to free up enough memory.

[cambrian06]

Hi,
Just to give you a comparison here are the settings I use.
Resolution 1280x1024
1 notch down from best graphics
quantity of sounds medium, all volume sliders max.
dynamic shadows off
specular lighting off
high detail shadows off
distant mountains off
visibility 1500
terrain error threshold 70%
world objects density 10
all other sliders max.
I'm using trainstore and BIN patch.
On these settings Dorset Coast runs OK with just a couple of areas showing low frame rates (usually down to single figures around Wimbledon)

My PC spec is AMD Athlon 64x2 3800+ chip, 1Gig DDr2 memory, GeForce 7600GS 256Mb graphics, SATA Hard Drive. Running XP home SP3.

Regards,
Andy.

[Lad491]

Your problem is memory. 1GB really isnt enough to run the background tasks on your PC and the sim.
Im running one machine with 2GB and one machine with 3GB and the one with 3GB runs much better.
I'd certainly see about putting an extra gig in at least. If you can afford it and your machine can take it I'd go for an extra 2 gig.

[bharrison]

Could be affecting me two I'm On Version 4. I'm only doing one maybe two runs a day or even other day at that.

Some of my activities crash part way through but most are ok Mainley the seventies ones are the fautly ones

Weymouth to bournemoth 1970's is one

Winchester-Oxford with a Voyager does it to.

These are my Pc specs

My Pc specs are:

Processor: 2.0GHz
Memory: 2GB RAM
DirectX Version: DirectX 10
NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT
HD is 222GB

Is my pc Powerful enough For this route


Thanks

[Lad491]

Running on Vista your PC specification is about the minimum Ben.
You will have to accept lower settings.
Try and stop anything running in the background that isnt essential for Windows.
Get into the habit of saving every 15 minutes or so. If it crashes, exit and reboot your PC, close down the tasks which will have started automatically after the reboot, then restart from the saved position. You should be able to complete most activities like that. Remember also that a lot of activities written for V3 may not run correctly on V4. None of mine did

[energize]

Ben, although I'm not too good with computer hardware I'd say your PC is probably powerful enough for the route. A new graphics card might help as it can cope with higher frame rates.

Please correct me if I'm wrong

Cheers

[bharrison]

Running on Vista your PC specification is about the minimum Ben.
You will have to accept lower settings.
Try and stop anything running in the background that isnt essential for Windows.
Get into the habit of saving every 15 minutes or so. If it crashes, exit and reboot your PC, close down the tasks which will have started automatically after the reboot, then restart from the saved position. You should be able to complete most activities like that. Remember also that a lot of activities written for V3 may not run correctly on V4. None of mine did

Thats a blow. This happens everytime. Yet lower specified PC's run It fine. I must be doing it wrong. Msts always does this. Tried the Bin memory allocation and I can't see no differance to that route. I might take it off all my other routes are fine. As for stopping all the backround programs I wouldn't know how If it bit me on the arm.

Thanks