Need To Save Tsc From Been Dead

Have you go the game using the GPU rather than the default?
https://dovetailgames.freshdesk.com...0896089-common-issues-train-simulator-classic

 

The most recent beta release does have some issues while fixing other things. This means that there is effectively no ideal version to play on because both the current releases have problems of some kind. The general release is fine to my knowledge, but there are a number of threads about the issues with the beta version.

I think that's quite a dramatic way of putting it. Trainz 22 gets half the daily player count of TS but is still supported by the developer. There are plenty of other games that have support with lower player counts than TS.

There are a number of developers providing very niche products for TS who are able to stay in business. Out of the concurrent players, I'm sure only a fraction of them would be driving something from Machine Rail as an example. Even if it isn't financially sensible to develop not content, in most cases the server costs will be less than the cost of development. If you seriously think within the next year we'll have the big players shutting down, then there would have to be a colossal and immediate drop in active TS users so great that it would mean the products they're already working on would need to be cancelled. AP are working on at least three projects at the moment, Caledonia Works are working on a lot more based on their release schedule, and Bossman Games have six projects in the works. I reckon that's at least two years of major releases and there has been no indication that they're planning to stop.

Steam development will likely continue indefinitely, because there is no game that can replace TS in this field. MSTS died (on the payware side at least) because Rail Simulator and RailWorks were perfect replacements. TSW still has fundamental flaws that have prevented almost every TS payware developer from going near it in the nearly ten years it's been available. SimRail is great, but that isn't TS' replacement either.

 

Get the DLC whilst it is still available. More and more resources are drying up. More and more questions of ‘where did x go’.

 

Back up is the key, my biggest TSC regret was not buying the 25 sound pack when it was on sale. Now its withdrawn with no or little chance of coming back. I have a lot of other withdrawn ones mind.

 

Sort of backs up what was said above about the number of users dropping off.

 

TSC won't die as it will always be in your Steam Library to play unless Steam dies.

 

Have recently invested in a new PC with a 5060ti graphics card with a AMD7800xd processor for flight simming, but it cannot smoothly run Train Simulator Classic, even with only a couple of DLC installed.

Fortunately my old PC with 100 plus DLC installed runs TSC well (apart from Leeds Huddersfield!).

So if TSC won’t work on modern spec PC with dual core processors, as and when more and more older PC fail or get upgraded, the numbers able to run TSC could naturally dwindle away.

 

There is often no indication that content creators are about to stop; until they stop. Mesh Tools and Fastline Simulation come to mind.

It doesn't matter how many products you've got in the development pipeline, if you're doing the development for money and the money stops being sufficient, you stop, because you've got no alternative but to stop.

I don't know AP's, or Caledonia's or Bossman's business models, but given the quantity and quality of their output I'd take a guess and say they do this for a living. If sales drop below a level that gives them a living then they will stop very quickly; they have no alternative, no matter how passionate they may be about TSC. Even if you're creating DLC only as a paying hobby, if sales drop below the point where they give you a reasonable return on your time then you will stop.

I'm not saying this to fearmonger, but to give advice to those who want to listen. The sun is setting on TSC payware creation. If you've bought a lot of it in the past (as I have) then do what you can to protect what you've bought, and also think about this when deciding what you choose to spend your money on in the future.

 

Total RUBBISH. Read my system specs.

 

Once again, Read my System Specs.
I do understand PC's. After all I built it myself.
And I am always sure to have it using my Discreet GPU in everything that I run.
Not that that matters to you. Its not about that.

 

Uninstall TSC and TSW, and close my Steam Account.
Problem solved.
And no more snide creeps on forums to worry about.
Its good that I have many other hobbies. Time for me to invest more in them.

 

Yes it is good that you won't be making them to others who try to help.

 

No idea why you let them wind you up. [Removed; insulting - DTG Harry]. I say what i think and couldn't give a monkeys about any responses. There about a dozen members on these forum that i have any time for. Do what i do buddy, bung them on your ignore list.

 

Mine runs TS beautifully..
Ryzen 7600
RX9070
SSD 4TB
RAM 32GB

I can't imagine why yours would be so bad!

 

Exactly. I am still trying to get to the bottom of it. My bet is on some bit of Faulty Content.

 

Gone through the thread? And that is all you are worried about?
If you would be kind enough to listen to peoples concerns about TSC, it would give a better impression. Instead of supporting bullies.
DTG needs to "brush up" on the way it treats its customers.

 

The only time a DTG person comes here is to throw their Authority around. Not to talk to us in any way about the subject topic.
How neat of them to do that huh? WOW!! 2025 is a REALLY bad year for many things it seems. That just lowers my faith in them further.

 

Thanks for that.
It would be a really good Idea for DTG to Open Source TSC.
There are many Active games with Addons/DLC that operate on such a model. I cant recall which Titles, but they do exist.

 

Its like going through Spam emails.

 

Performance will vary from machine to machine. An Nvidia XX70 or 70 Ti will certainly handle TSC better than an XX60 or 60 Ti card. Simply put, the '60s have always been low-end cards, and despite some variations nowadays coming with up to 16GB of VRAM, they are, in essence, cheap, low-end underperformers. (And certainly not 'gaming spec' in the modern world!)

That isn't to downplay the problems that users with those cards are facing. My honest suggestion for an XX60 or 60 Ti card is to dial back the graphics settings until you see a frame rate improvement and try to save up for at least an XX70 or 70 Ti.

Also important to note is that for TSC, single-core performance trumps multi-core performance. The 9800X3D should excel in this regard, boasting both superb single-core and multi-core performance (for its price range). The 7800, although not as powerful as its more advanced siblings, still offers impressive single-core performance for its price.

I think that the bottleneck in your system, Kris, and that of Westcastlerail, is going to be the relatively poor value for money versus performance of the '60 Ti's. At the price point of those cards, you are better off shopping for an AMD card of similar value or an older card, such as a 2080 or 3080. (Though those, even second-hand, may be outside your price range depending on where you look. They may also not be suitable for other gaming you partake in on your machine.)

 

Got to keep your cool though buddy, or you will end up being banned. I am in my mid 70's, seen it all and done most. Just leave it go over your head. As to DTG you will get nothing from them, they want your money for as little as possible in return. But there are a few good members on here that will go out of their way to help you, if you stay civil.

 

I have to casually note that my 2015-Spring built PC with a strong Intel but GTX 970 didn't have 15 fps except back in 32 bit days and with specific settings. My AMD laptop isn't much better despite 7 years younger and theoretically stronger (definitely so with some games, not with others).

One reason almost forgotten is the DX12, which everyone reported to be horrible.

A temporary player-side solution (besides graphics tweaking) is to finish off old routes which usually look fine enough anyway.
I used to have a very low opinion of routes like the ECML but since the core weather updates and myself adding a little bit of sunpower and ambient light (1-2 ticks each) I'm absolutely happy. Low standards, huh? Seriously though, it's an option.

3rd party providers usually go ham with detail, which is rare (but present) with Steam DLC designed for the masses.
Meaning that nicely filled yards and busy traffic with a plethora of rolling stock - which increases further with every single new DLC - will likely stutter and slideshow unless you run something extremely powerful.

It's like... back in 32 bit days the game would simply run out of memory, which did curb things. 64 bit gives plenty of room, but this also means that the player has to set their limit.

I don't know what's wrong with KrisKol's things but nobody complains about Chrome or Windows being bad when the browser is slow with 180 tabs open (and artificially active), trying to use 284 GB memory. (And with SSDs, it's just slow. Back in HDD days, oh well, been there.)

 

Since 32 bit days, routes have grown way more detailed and I use a lot of third-party stock which often has a lot of scripted functionality, so I get where the FPS goes! My system is a bit of an odd one at the moment as I bought it a long time ago. I've got an AMD Ryzen 7 3800X processor and 32Gb DDR4 RAM, but I recently changed out the original (very worn and on its last legs) 2080 to a 4070Ti super. For the most part this has been great, but you can see when you play some simulation games where the old processor is bottlenecking perfomance. That said, TSC has been good as far as I am concerned - there are frame drops in dense, urban areas on routes, or at a busy Clapham Junction, but nothing gamebreaking or more than a slight annoyance really.

I've had excellent results with the Lossless Scaling app (5 quid very well spent) - as TSC doesn't make my graphics card break a sweat (spare a thought for my ancient CPU though lol), there's more than enough spare capacity for Lossless to do its thing and the frame generation papers very effectively over the odd crack in performance.

I enjoy TSW too, but where TSC rules the roost is sheer variety and versatility. I've had it since it was Railworks 2, so I've accumulated a huge amount of payware and freeware. If development of any addons stopped tomorrow and every third party vanished from the internet, I've probably still got more scenarios than I will play in a lifetime. I would love to see some ongoing bugs fixed but on the whole the game is stable, runs more than acceptably in the vast majority of circumstances and has had a remarkably long lifespan - I mean, here we are in 2025 still discussing it in the official forum. Sure I have a few hobby-horses around this route or that train I would love to see, and it would be great if Steve from DTG could finish what he started with the beta programme.

So to me, TSC does not feel dead, just old and in need of a bit of TLC from DTG in its dotage. Sure the pace of new releases is slowing, and some familiar faces have shut up shop. Nothing has been taken away though (yes some DLC is no longer obtainable, but a tiny fraction of the whole). It'll end at some point, everything hasto. But it's still here, still works and there's still masses of content to enjoy. And when it is over, don't cry because it's finished, smile because it happened . I mean, why am I posting here when I could be driving or creating something?

 

I personally have an AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and an Nvidia GTX 1660 and no problems with either. I only play TSC 64-bit and the 64-bit DX12 beta version, and I also build my own private routes. Of course, there are problems with TSC. Recently, I noticed that TSC crashed while building routes, until I realized that Windows had just performed an update, or that freeware from Rail Studio was also causing the crash.

 

My system and the card was fine before Mid April.
I only have the 4060Ti in there because I didnt know what cards were coming out back in December, when I built it.
Everything was fine with it until around mid April. Including TSC at its highest settings, but not now for some reason. TSW is still perfectly fine at its highest settings.

 

I ran his system specifications through a bottleneck program, and he is running a balanced system with no bottleneck. Try it here https://pc-builds.com/bottleneck-calculator/ I only ran it at 1080px1920 res as I don't know what res he is running TSC at.

 

i disagree with this based on my experience.

My 5 year old PC that runs TSC well on highest settings is a 2060 TI.

My new PC that cannot run TSC even on the lowest graphics settings is a 5060 TI.

My new pc (nothing cheap about it) runs MSFS 20 and 24 well on high settings.

MSFS has been (and is continuing) to be developed and optimised to run on modern / latest PC specifications, where as TSC development / support / optimisation has stopped a long time ago.

Simply put, by DTG own recommendations, TSC will struggle to work well on a moden spec PC, with the latest graphics cards and dual processors.

 

Well, let´s start with that TSC stream that was announced weeks ago and never happened and no one from DTG ever commented on it.

 

TSC works fine on my machine with all graphics settings at maximum. Intel i5 10600K, Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti, Ram 16 GB, OS Windows 11. My display is a Viewsonic 27/28 gaming monitor with a refresh rate of 180Hz running at 1920x1080p res. This monitor supports HDR, which I have turned on. In Windows 11, you have a function called Auto HDR and when turned on, allows older games to use HDR. The graphics do look nice and sharp with brighter colours. People are more concerned about their CPU and GPU, and never give any consideration to their display. Oh, BTW, I also have the game on Samsung SSD 990 Pro, which is an M2 SSD. These are really fast and eliminate most of the stutters that TSC is prone to when loading scenery, etc.

 

Interesting my setup is about the same other than I only have a 1060Ti and the game runs smoothly here also.

 

Can we please get an update on the stream that was supposed to release a few weeks ago for TSC?

 

Have you tried the elimination procedure? Move* half the routes & see if TS runs ok. If not 'unmove' them & try the other half. It can be a little tedious but it worked for me when I had troubles.

*Moving a file only shifts the pointers & doesn't take a lot of time. There is a thread here somewhere describing it far better than I can...anyone remember?

 

My potato PC does far better with TSC than TSW, an old I7 4770 with a 4Gb GTX1650.

Although at the moment seems to have got itself into a Windows Update loop which is sapping resources to run anything else.

Following this thread, as planning to replace the PC later in this year for something that can run Roadcraft and TSW plus of course Windows 11 as Windows 10 on the current box will be out of support in October. Would be ironic if updating to a better PC spoiled my TSC enjoyment.

 

I still think we are missing something. There should be no reason a better faster rig should run the game worse. It's got to be something in the configuration causing these issues that some report and most of us don't have when running the game.

 

I think any investigating is going to lead up a dead end regards to a fix for modern PC, especially without any DTG support.

Below is taken from DTG article at the top of page 2 in this thread, contained within the section "Why is my frame rate so low?"

Why is my frame rate so low?
Train Simulator is a very CPU intensive game due to the amount of AI and physics calculations going on in the background. Due to this game being over 15 years old, it cannot fully utilize modern hardware.
When the game was made, CPUs were getting higher clock speed to make them faster. However, since that time there has been little improvement to clock speed, as manufactures have instead focused on increasing the amount of CPU cores. Unfortunately, Train Simulator is a single-threaded game and cannot make use of multiple CPU cores. This will be a significant limiting factor for your frame rate, and changing your graphical settings will have little impact on your performance. The only way to improve performance is to use a CPU with good single threaded performance and a high base clock speed (4 GHz+)

So the only conclusion without a DTG fix for TSC, is that it will be left to wilter away as more and more newer PC come on stream that cannot run the game, and older PCs, that can run the game start to become out dated.

 

I only built my rig last summer, runs TSC flawlessly and using the DX12 option. So cannot see it being a modern machine problem.

 

Again, single-core performance and clock speed. As I said in my post, both Kris and Westcastle's CPUs meet that criteria. I am still fixated on those 60 Ti's, though. Both the 40 and 50 series versions are known as underperformers, and yes, I did read it's running fine on a 1660. I'm wondering if the way modern cards handle things, coupled with the contemporary Nvidia 60 cards underperforming at the price point, according to reviews, may be the issue.

Unfortunately, I'm not tech-savvy enough to investigate why a 1660 would perform better than a 40 or 5060 Ti.

Bottleneck was the wrong term to use in my previous post, as it skewed the meaning of what I was saying and the point I was trying to make.

 

My 3 cents - I can't unsee that the May screenshot competition winner was announced but didn't make it to the game.
It began years ago with sloppiness, but otherwise still reliable postings and responses. But by now it's so sloppy, not even a nag helps.
That sounds like Jamie (and the whole CS) has many other things on the table and TSC is simply not a priority at all.

It's more than a year since the last core update, which is okay, but there are issues on all branches and some of them are tiny.

Consequently, DTG is holding the game hostage.
Which is funny because they are selling DLC, not the game for many (15) years now. They still can, even if the core is free.
My precious!

 

The crucial question is, is there work of any kind on the core happening? And if there isn't, is there still the possibility of it starting again in the future?

 

According to the TSC update article it would be inconveinient to players and developers to play with the core anymore.

 

The GTX 1660 was released in 2019, 3 months later than the RTX 2060

 

I actually agree with this in principle. What was broken in the last version should be fixed but just leave it there. Based on past performance, any future updates are bound to break something else. I'm happy with the sim in its current state, minus the aforementioned bugs cuased by the last update.

 

One thing I've noticed is that older versions of TSC (specifically V75.8) give better framerates with RSSLO routes. Has anyone else noticed this?