What The Fowler?

Discussion in 'Technical Reports' started by trainsforlife4449, Oct 5, 2025.

  1. trainsforlife4449

    trainsforlife4449 New Member

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    I am aware that DLCs by the third-party developer Caledonia Works are high-quality and take up a lot of space, but for some reason, I can't have more than four or five of those locomotives on my route. There's not much in the route, compared to actual marketplace packs, and I'm running the 32-bit version. I can't run the 64-bit version because it keeps crashing. I have a LITERAL DELL X15 GAMING LAPTOP! WHY? DOES TSC HAVE TO BE THE ONLY GAME IN THE LIBRARY FOR IT TO WORK?
     
  2. cunningn#3154

    cunningn#3154 Well-Known Member

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    You have a fundamental problem with your machine and TSC as it is currently setup. If your X15 is the Alienware one then it ought to be completely capable of running x64 TSC so that is the key issue to fix. Once you are running a stable x64 TSC then you can include more and more-complicated locos in a scenario with out concern. Since many other people can run TSC in x64 on a variety of types of machine there is something specific about your configuration of the laptop or/and TSC. I suggest going to the Alienware forums first and asking there. If you are lucky then there may be soeone here with a similar machine wha may have a tip for you.

    With regard to your mini-rant about high-quality locos: - some of the latest loco models (by various developers) have focused on creating a perfect driving experience with wonderful steam/smoke effects, perfect sound, realistically-complicated controls etc, etc. These make superb (and difficult) lococs to drive/fire - but they achieve this through massive poly counts, massive 'sprite' counts (whatever the smoke effects are counted in nowadays) and multiple, CPU-heavy calls out to the game engine which eat into processing (and presumably occupy chunks of short term memory to keep going. This is fine if you only want one 'hero' loco (which you drive) but they make for massively over-complex AI engines which seem to be able to overwhelm the game and cause CTD when you include too many in a scenario. Ideally each developer would create a driver's model with all the bells and whistles and an AI model with a simplified engine script and downgraded smoke FX (and probably a lower grfx cost too) - however making a working loco is hard to do and making them to the very high standards of creators like Victory Works or Caledonia Works is harder still - so I can see why they don't do this.
    The immediate workaround may be to alter your scenarios to include more low-detail models as AI/static. I use some of the much older (and therefore lower-poly, lower-smoke-fx, lower call-back engine scripts) to bulk out scenarios without crashing the system.
     
  3. trainsforlife4449

    trainsforlife4449 New Member

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    When I tried loading the 64-bit version, it crashed before I could see the main menu, or even the loading screen. After it "crashed", Alienware set itself to its balanced preset. Any ideas? The preset HUD is also a bit of a distraction.
     
  4. trainsforlife4449

    trainsforlife4449 New Member

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    I just tried running the 64-bit version, but the performance was really low. Just letting you know, I run TSC on a shared laptop. The other games in the Steam library are Valheim, The Isle, Notruf 112 2, The Hunter: Call of the Wild, and Hogwarts Legacy. Could these games contribute to TSC's memory problem?
     
  5. 749006

    749006 Well-Known Member

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    What do you mean by that?
    You have 3 options - F4 Full Hud - F3 Partial Hud or neither keys where you have no Hud
     
  6. cunningn#3154

    cunningn#3154 Well-Known Member

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    It shouldn't matter what else you have on your machine as long as the other games aren't runing simultaneously. In theory even that shouldn't be an issue but TSC is a little sensitive so I'd test without first to get to a stable result and then perhaps try parallel running.

    x64 should always perform better than x32 so there is some underlying setup/config issue which I'm not qualified to advise on.
     
  7. trainsforlife4449

    trainsforlife4449 New Member

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    Test without what?
     
  8. trainsforlife4449

    trainsforlife4449 New Member

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    I mean the little sidebar with a cyan border that shows CPU and GPU temperature and percent.
     
  9. 749006

    749006 Well-Known Member

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    So nothing to do with TSC

    What format are you running TSC?
    Full Screen, Borderless or Windowed?
     
  10. cunningn#3154

    cunningn#3154 Well-Known Member

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    Without other games (or other heavy-duty software) running
     
  11. trainsforlife4449

    trainsforlife4449 New Member

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    Can't tell.
     
  12. trainsforlife4449

    trainsforlife4449 New Member

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    We only run one game at a time, so I don't see the issue. The game seems to have its own memory storage space.
     
  13. 749006

    749006 Well-Known Member

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    Does the picture take up the entre screen or do you have a gap around it?

    You mentioned "a little sidebar to check cpu temp"
    If you can see that then you don't have TSC running fullscreen
     
    Last edited: Oct 9, 2025 at 11:38 AM
  14. 749006

    749006 Well-Known Member

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    Nothing to do with running more than one game.
    Do you have any other programs running - like a Browser to look at the net?
     
  15. trainsforlife4449

    trainsforlife4449 New Member

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    The picture takes up the entire screen, but if I press the Windows menu button, it cuts out of the game and onto the home screen. There is also a chance that I would not be able to get back in the game.
     
    Last edited: Oct 10, 2025 at 11:03 PM
  16. cunningn#3154

    cunningn#3154 Well-Known Member

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    TSC seems to have slightly flaky memory management so I always close browsers before playing as they can take lots of memory. Many not be an issue for many but better safe than sorry.
     
  17. 749006

    749006 Well-Known Member

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    So don't push the Windows Home Button.
     
  18. trainsforlife4449

    trainsforlife4449 New Member

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    Sometimes. But no matter what, the Steam app is always open, since that's where I launch the game from.
     
  19. trevkiwi

    trevkiwi Active Member

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    No need to run from Steam. Open your Railworks folder, click on Railworks64 and select Pin to taskbar, then you can start TSC from your Taskbar.
     

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