PC A Small Apology To Dtg And Just Trains...

Discussion in 'TSW General Discussion' started by OldVern, May 17, 2025 at 9:34 PM.

  1. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    ...in that I might have done the game and its content - the Class 87 in particular - a slight dis-service by carrying on about juddering and sound squelching. While there's no doubt the core does have issues, nevertheless experience this evening has educated me that the hardware does play a part. After trying various measures to get WCMLoS (and other routes) running at more than 14 FPS without success I took the nuclear option and reduced resolution from 4K (3840 x 2160) to 1440p (2560 x 1440). The difference was startling - FPS immediately jumped to between 35 and 40, which I have now capped at 30. There is still the occasional judder which is probably endemic but everything is running far smoother and the sound distortion, obviously linked to erratic and low FPS, is largely gone.

    Just because the GTX1650 is a 4K capable card, doesn't mean it can keep up with the data flow needed. 1440p might not be nearly as pretty but think it's an acceptable trade off to get things running better, pending either a new PC or a substantial upgrade.
     
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  2. Clint Steamenginewood

    Clint Steamenginewood Active Member

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    The 1650 is stretching the definition of a 2.5k capable card let alone a 4k one.
     
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  3. Tank621

    Tank621 Well-Known Member

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    I pretty much run everything at 1440p personally, I'll only go for 4k if the game will do it comfortably
     
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  4. Crosstie

    Crosstie Well-Known Member

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    I can run the game comfortably at 4k ( 3840x2160 ) but fps is capped at 60. So I prefer to run at 3440 x 1440 with unlimited fps.

    As far as graphics is concerned, I really don't think I'm missing much at the lower resolution and I like the ultra wide view of the game.
     
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  5. Mich

    Mich Well-Known Member

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    Running 4K on your setup wasn't the smartest choice you've made, for perspective I run 1440p on my 4080 Super/7800x3D, and even then more demanding areas like AI filled stations still dip rather noticeably. From what I gathered building that PC 4080's pretty much considered the bare minimum for running demanding games (Think Cyberpunk, or MSFS) at 4K. Even things like the 30 series and the 4060/70 are preferred as 1440p cards, so I can't even begin to comprehend where the 1650 would be placed in that conversation.
     
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  6. Princess Entrapta

    Princess Entrapta Well-Known Member

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    Maybe in the sense of "Watching a 4k blu-ray disc".
     
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  7. solicitr

    solicitr Well-Known Member

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    My monitor is only 1080 anyway so there's no point going higher than that
     
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  8. foggy#2817

    foggy#2817 Well-Known Member

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    Would you say the 'sound squelching' you often mentioned (never understood what you meant btw) is now completely gone? Or is it still an issue?
     
  9. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    Oh it’s still there when the game does its little stutter, but I guess around 10% of what it was running at 4K. So somehow linked either to graphics performance or the game hitching while it tries to load something in. Still more frequent the faster the train is travelling which again is probably linked to the data being streamed in to draw the route around the train and plot where AI services are.

    By squelching, I meant sound distortion, a rapid shift in pitch particularly noticeable on “smooth” electric traction, akin to someone smacking their lips.

    And the newer routes are definitely more performance intensive as said GTX1650 was running RSN at 30 FPS in 4K.

    Anyhow I’m reasonably pleased with the performance I’m now getting at 1440p/2.5K and means I can feel more confident about buying the Class 86 pack when it releases.
     
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  10. raptorgb#8593

    raptorgb#8593 Member

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    If you combine what your running now with https://store.steampowered.com/app/993090/Lossless_Scaling/ u can have butter smooth 60fps, with almost no visual artifacts, i use this on my living room computer running a gtx 1080 hooked upto a 4k 65" TV, all i can say its the best £5 ive ever spent on software, https://www.trainsimcommunity.com/m...tsw-5-lighting-visual-quality-enhancement-v22 download the manual from here, and use the setting at the end, works like a charm.
     
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  11. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    Certainly worth investigating. As I said, dropping the graphics as is has brought considerable improvement but there is still work for DTG to do. Watching the Frankfurt S-Bahn stream just now, Matt’s PC which is a high end 5 number I7 and RTX 4080 was still doing the odd hitch or stutter.

    Further to my previous post, watching a bit more of the clip now and the sound “squelch” is quite noticeable just as the train is approaching the underground Flughafen station around 58 or 59 minutes into the clip.
     
    Last edited: May 18, 2025 at 11:15 AM
  12. raptorgb#8593

    raptorgb#8593 Member

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    TBH mate TSW will never stop hitching to an extent due to UE4 and how it handles world geometry, Matt explained it better in another post on here, u can minimise to a certain extent via game settings and .ini tweaks, the main culprit seems to be shader caching, that can be mitigated to a point using a fast SSD, i also tend to delete windows DX shader cache about once a month, and run the routes as a passenger a couple of times, I've found this helps also, but my main play platform is a fairly high end system and i still get stuttering a sound glitches, also on a side note be careful with some creators club liveries, some of the very detailed re-paints out there can really aggravate this issues a lot.
     
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  13. CK95

    CK95 Well-Known Member

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    Not seen it mentioned, but if you were running on a 4k screen, 1440p won’t look as clean since it won’t produce 1:1 pixels, you’d be better off at 1080p.

    Of course if you’re on a 1440p compatible screen then disregard.
     
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  14. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    I will have to see if I can dig out the tech spec of my monitor on that one.

    And yes I'll give 1080p a shot just to compare the difference, certainly on the more demanding route (easy enough to switch back for an older less intensive one). Plus if I can get that Lossless Scaling up and running. On that, I presume when it says running in windowed mode that also includes borderless window?
     
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  15. raptorgb#8593

    raptorgb#8593 Member

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    yes mate borderless window mode works aswell :)
     
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  16. DJsnapattack

    DJsnapattack Well-Known Member

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    I can definately see where VRAM is king with modern GPU. I run in 4K with everything maxed out, and when I upgraded from an RTX 3070 to an AMD 7900XTX the experience is night and day.
     
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  17. gwrphil811

    gwrphil811 Active Member

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    What would everyone’s dream graphics card be for running 4K?
     
  18. roysto25

    roysto25 Well-Known Member

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    OldVern - if you have an Nvidia card and don't want to use the Lossless Scaling app, you might want to try setting graphics for TSW in Nvidia to 1440p, but using Nvidia upscaling to 4k, with screen set at 80% in TSW. I have a 1660ti with 6Gb and switching from 4k to the NIS upscaling made a huge difference in frame rates. Works brilliantly with TSC also.
    Here is a link to Nvidia guidance:
    https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5280/~/how-to-enable-nvidia-image-scaling
     
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  19. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    Oh I might give that a try. I presume I leave TSW itself set at 1440p?

    I did just buy the Lossless Scaling App but despite searching the forum not sure if I can get my head round how to set it up to get my 4K upscale back.

    Edit: Well I can't find an option in my Nvidia CP after adding TSW5 to it to actually change the resolution. Maybe I'm doing something wrong or does it need the Geforce Experience programme installed?
     
    Last edited: May 18, 2025 at 6:08 PM
  20. roysto25

    roysto25 Well-Known Member

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    I don't use Geforce experience. Nvidia CP set to image scaling, desktop to 4k. TSW is added to image scaling in CP, TSW is set to 2560x1440 full screen and Nvidia will automatically scale to 4k and by default sharpen the display - if you check the 'overlay indicator' box in CP you should see 'NIS' in green in the top left of your screen (if it is blue, then CP is only sharpening). In addition, I have screen resolution in TSW to 87% and fps limit at 60. When the game loads, you will see a system warning that game screen resolution is set to 1440p.
     
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  21. F6310

    F6310 New Member

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    RTX 4080. Doesn't eliminate the UE hitching. WCML Preston to Carlisle averages 80-100fps on 4K Ultra.
    Only time I get significant frame drops is around Frankfurt when the yard is busy, sometimes as low as 20fps.
     
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  22. joffonon#1689

    joffonon#1689 Well-Known Member

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    Good grief, were you really trying to run the game at 4K on a GTX1650?!? I wouldn't consider anything above 1080p on that generation of card. No wonder you've been having so many issues.

    I don't know what monitor you've paired that with, but if it's anything higher than 1080p then it's seriously above what your GPU can put out.
     
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  23. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    It’s an ASUS 28’ 4K monitor. In fairness, the 1650 has been fairly sturdy and actually gives acceptable 4K results in most games, including Snowrunner and TSC. But it has fallen behind now, both in terms of what DTG have done to the TSW core code and the much more detail intensive content. The new Roadcraft won’t run on it and believe me, no one understands more than I that it’s coming to the end of its useful life.
     
  24. raptorgb#8593

    raptorgb#8593 Member

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    Your main bottleneck is that gpu mate, primarily the VRAM, may be worth looking into some .ini tweaks specifically the VRAM Pool, i run a 12gb 3080 and even my card can run out of VRAM especially if I'm playing across all 3 monitors which gives me a res of 7680x1440 (when at this res i play locked at 30fps and use frame gen to hit 60fps),
    have a look into Jetwashs work here https://www.trainsimcommunity.com/m...tsw-5-lighting-visual-quality-enhancement-v22 there should be a setting you can find that gives you a good middle ground. Also dont be afraid to play around yourself, just make a backup of your original .ini file 1st :)
     
    Last edited: May 19, 2025 at 11:34 AM
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  25. tootyhoot

    tootyhoot Well-Known Member

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    Preston to Carlisle is a great route and nothing wrong with it that I can detect. Mind you my gaming laptop is state of the art. The advantages of cobbling two systems together into one!
     
  26. solicitr

    solicitr Well-Known Member

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    Vern, go to Steam and download Lossless Scaling right now. The best app ever devised for owners of older hardware. With a GPU almost as old as yours (RX 580) I'm getting almost-constant locked 60 in 1080 with screen percentage at 200..
     
  27. Crosstie

    Crosstie Well-Known Member

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    Graphics cards do not age gracefully. I have an RTX 3080 10 GB from late 2021 and, although it can still do OK with TSW at 4k I've dropped down to 1440p to get a better frame rate and smoother gameplay.

    Although I know I've lost some screen quality, I really don't notice it that much when playing TSW, especially on an ultra wide display.
     
  28. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    I tried that Bill but couldn’t get TSW to run at less than the 4K native resolution in Borderless Window mode. So for now I’ll settle for running at1440p at least on the newer more intensive routes.
     
  29. Crosstie

    Crosstie Well-Known Member

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    Believe me, once you've been playing at 1440p for a while, you won't notice that much degradation, if any, from 4k.

    I'm actually surprised you haven't tried this before.
     
  30. JetWash

    JetWash Well-Known Member

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    If you dropped the native resolution of your monitor in Windows to 1440p it would work.
     
  31. solicitr

    solicitr Well-Known Member

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    Change to regular windowed mode. If TSW is in the background it will appear in a window at whatever size you've set, but as soon as it becomes the active app. LS will blow it up to fullscreen.
     
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  32. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    Good suggestion but I don't really want to do that just for one game.

    Noted!
     

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