What Happened To The Grass?

Discussion in 'Troubleshooting' started by Daniel Bloch, Nov 16, 2017.

  1. Daniel Bloch

    Daniel Bloch Well-Known Member

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    I played today some CSX and it feelt like something was missing. I looked at some old screenshots and there was a much higher grass view distance and much more grass.
    What happened to the grass?
    If you are in the cab you dont see much gras in front of you, now the grass view distance is so much reduced you only can see it out of the cab side window.
    Why are you castrate the TSW graphics more with every new patch? Make it adjustable in the settings for people with high end PCs... I know you need to optimize this game, but making the awesome TSW graphics look like the old TS is the wrong way! Cutting down the grass details dont even gain more fps! :(

    CSX before the GWE release with much grass on the left and right side of the tracks:
    [​IMG]

    CSX after the GWE release with allmost no grass now, only low res green and brown ground textures
    [​IMG]

    Another two screenshots, look at the tree trunk. On the first pictures is grass around it on the second none. (also the colors are awefull now).

    CSX before GWE release:
    [​IMG]

    CSX after GWE release:
    [​IMG]

    CSX before GWE release:
    [​IMG]

    CSX after GWE release:
    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Nov 17, 2017
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  2. Jef-F

    Jef-F Active Member

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    If that tiny amount of grass before somehow affected performance while cough some other games cough can render huge grass plains and dense forests (beautiful ones, not these bland arrays of cloned trees in TSW:CSXHH) at 4K@60fps... someone doing it wrong.

    Edit: GWE doesn't seem to have any problems with it though. Weird.
    20171117002540_1.jpg
     
    Last edited: Nov 16, 2017
  3. Daniel Bloch

    Daniel Bloch Well-Known Member

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    Added another set of comparsion pictures at Cumberland Yard, on the first you see the grass along the whole track and at the second it goes just to the end of the second loco.
     
  4. rwaday

    rwaday Well-Known Member

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    Removing assets = faster loading, better frame rates, less stuttering. Cause and effect.
     
  5. pschlik

    pschlik Well-Known Member

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    Isn't that what scenery settings are for though? Some people don't need faster loading and want to use that power for grass and all.
     
  6. animalkosmik

    animalkosmik Well-Known Member

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    It happened after this Update 2 :(

    shadows!(
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  7. NAYDOG

    NAYDOG Guest

    the green too - the CSX HH route is just so ugly, I intentionally play in heavy fog as to avoid the snooker table green pasted all over the route.

    I wish they adjusted the settings so us with higher end rigs weren't constrained by their problems down the ladder - thats the whole point of being on PC, its adjustable.....
     
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  8. Daniel Bloch

    Daniel Bloch Well-Known Member

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    No reaction or statement from DTG to this? Thats sad...
     
  9. Hype652

    Hype652 Member

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    I hope that DTG will make the settings more adjustable, it would really help us figure out to get the best settings for our PC's and our needs. Maybe they are working on it, maybe they aren't, well see.
    But I think they should focus on getting the "main game" settings and graphics done, before they release any more DLC's with graphics problems and issues. But I must say, I don't have a problem with my graphics as of now, I just wished we could "play" a little more with the settings.
     
  10. NAYDOG

    NAYDOG Guest

    I want a AI slider for those of us that can push further, either on a 0-100 scale or 1-10, just give us the option to run real life AI levels if we can.....Paddington is a ghost town 90% of the time. Jay! pls say this has already been discussed.
     
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  11. keksman

    keksman Well-Known Member

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    Well thank God i found this thread. Havent played Csx in months (prefered playing gwe) and it just looked disgustingly worse then i remember. (playing it on ultra) First I thought im imagining it looking worse... It just looks so bright and the view distance is extremly low even on ultra.
    So is that how Dtg "fixes" performance issues? By downgrading the Graphics quality?
     
  12. Hype652

    Hype652 Member

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    I’ve never really played Train Sim for the CSX, I only play the GWR, I love that one!
    Let’s not hope that they are downgrading the graphics, to fix the performance.. The game looks so beautiful, we don’t want to loose the graphics!
     
  13. pschlik

    pschlik Well-Known Member

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    Alright, since you guys brought this up again with the Spring Update I went out and looked for some render setting that can change grass. Lucky for y'all there is indeed a proper render setting for this!

    If you place r.MaterialQualityLevel=0 in the same place in engine.ini as the other r._____ tweaks, you get more grass! And possibly other things. I have no idea what else this option changes, but it seems OK on FPS so I'm fine with that!

    Here's what the default settings look like. (I think this setting's default is 1, according to the site I used to find it.)
    20180505143718_1.jpg
    And here's what it looks like once it has been set to 0.
    20180505143725_1.jpg
    As you can see, it is completely different, and it is entirely down to the fact that the procedural grass doesn't turn off 5 feet away, and it has effectively no impact on FPS.

    Looks like DTG changed the default value of this setting from 0 before GWE to 1 after GWE.

    Other interesting and actually useful options I found while looking for this.
    r.SkeletalMeshLODBias - set this to a negative number, and trains will maintain a higher level of quality from far away
    r.ForceLOD - set this to 0 to make everything (other than trains) stay at full quality even when far away-it even includes mountains!
     
    Last edited: May 5, 2018
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  14. Daniel Bloch

    Daniel Bloch Well-Known Member

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    pschlik : Omg! I will try that tomorrow, looks so awesome!! Finally the TSW looks good again :love: I can't understand why DTG decrease details like this if they don't have any impact on fps anyway.
    Thx for that, that is what i am was looking for since the GWE release!!
     
  15. pschlik

    pschlik Well-Known Member

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    Like I said, I'm not sure if that does anything else, as "Material Quality" says a lot more than just "grass quality" and we are changing it from the high setting to the low setting...so it could be improving grass but hurting something completely random. I think it is safe to use, but it is odd that reducing the quality setting is what is increasing quality....

    Whatever the case, setting it to 0 makes it return to the same state it was in pre GWE, and things looked OK before GWE came along, so I don't see anything to lose.
     
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  16. RMNRWY

    RMNRWY Member

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    I notice when it is set to 0 it removes the 3d ballast effect. So you were right, it does alter more things than the grass.
     
  17. ARuscoe

    ARuscoe Well-Known Member

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    As per my other reply on this subject. Save the ini before and after amending so you make sure you can easily revert, and also so you keep track of what settings you change (overwrites at update etc)
     
  18. Jeannot41

    Jeannot41 Well-Known Member

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    From memory, updates do not modify the ini file.
    But I could be wrong.
     
  19. ARuscoe

    ARuscoe Well-Known Member

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    If the engine gets updated or they DTG change their own flags they would have to update the ini file so any changes made would be lost.
     
  20. pschlik

    pschlik Well-Known Member

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    Yep, you are correct.

    r.MaterialQualityLevel=1: normal 3D rocks as you would expect
    20180509091259_1.jpg
    r.MaterialQualityLevel=0: uhhh....no more 3D rocks...wut
    20180509091304_1.jpg

    Ironically, that actually makes sense as setting this to 0 should be reducing quality, not increasing it. I have no idea why grass would have an inverse relationship to the setting-surely the good looking grass should appear when this is set to 1? DTG, can we please get a fix here? The grass doesn't do that much to FPS so I can't see this as a purposeful choice....the capability is already there you just need to tweak the way grass works.
     
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  21. Anthony Pecoraro

    Anthony Pecoraro Well-Known Member

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    What happened to the ties?
     
  22. cActUsjUiCe

    cActUsjUiCe Developer

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    still there just obscured by more ballast
     
  23. Anthony Pecoraro

    Anthony Pecoraro Well-Known Member

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    How does that happen?
     
  24. cActUsjUiCe

    cActUsjUiCe Developer

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    has something to do with that material quality variable
     
  25. Daniel Bloch

    Daniel Bloch Well-Known Member

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    Yes it really looks like the material variable is hitting many other things... thats sad. The gras and bushes looks so good with it on 0 :-/
     
  26. LastTrainToClarksville

    LastTrainToClarksville Well-Known Member

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    Just curious: do seasonal settings affect the presence or absence or density of plants visible from the tracks?
     

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