PC Personal Voyage On Improving Gaming Performance

Discussion in 'TSW General Discussion' started by jhs#1408, Apr 8, 2023.

  1. jhs#1408

    jhs#1408 Active Member

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    actually this is all about stuttering. since framerate was always not that problematic for me.

    now, i understand that it's really complicated problems influenced by so much things, and the way how this game works(loading not scaled down but real world route length about a hundread kph or mph as real-time right on the ground) is somewhat harsh for commercial game, so i do not wrote this for blaiming, rather sharing experience about what i did and how it worked.

    Basic computer specs at the begining:
    RTX 3060/Ryzen 5 5600x/B550/700W power
    8+8GB DDR4 RAM/500GB NVMe SSD/2TB HDD/1080p 75Hz monitor

    example route : Dresden-Riesa(most problematic about that issue)
    problems began : when purchasing Hambrug-Luebek, the moment game capacity surpassed 75GB
    game graphic setting was overall high and detailed all middle + TAA/Vsync off
    and game was always on NVMe SSD.

    1. adding booting only SSD(SATA)
    i think there are some marginally noticable improvements.
    but that was totally based on personal feeling, so it might not.

    2. trying DX12
    framerate dramatically increases about 50%. for example, at SKW+heavily rainy weather, usual framerate was 25~40. but after applying DX12 it became 45~65. and not major errors about it.
    but stuttering, still.

    3. Increasing RAM capacity 8+8GB more
    it did not much

    4. adjusting NVIDIA control pannel settings
    it did not much too

    5. adjusting windows/NVIDIA power setting to high performance
    it did not much too

    6. restricting maximum framerate via NVIDIA control pannel and in-game setting
    it did not much too + there was screen tearing.

    7. AMD PBO setting
    actually did this for Train Simulator Classic, but anyway, did not much too.

    8. Removing DLCs under 75GB
    might seen bearly noticable improvement, but that's also depend solely on personal feeling.
    and it increases initial game entering time quite a lot so i add DLCs again.

    9. Upgrading GPU to RTX 4070Ti
    framerate increased, but i think it stuttered right at the moment when it did under RTX 3060 environment.

    at this moment i thought that i hit the wall, so i decided to wait about a year.
    of course there are other reported ways to deal with this, like engine.ini reconfiguration, but i don't want graphical things to be adjusted by none game-inherent settings, so i gave up.
    hope this might help. at least you can use this post as checklist.
     
    Last edited: Apr 8, 2023
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  2. Sharon E

    Sharon E Well-Known Member

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    Looks to me that that the stuttering issue remains a UE issue as Matt has stated on a number. I would think that this limits us, the end user from doing a whole lot to improve it and your work above seems to bear this out. Thanks for your efforts.
     
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  3. March Hare

    March Hare Well-Known Member

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    I would say that it's more of a developer not knowing how to, or not allocating time and resource to, optimising the engine with native code.

    But, yes, it is all on the engine and developer side; no hardware upgrade will eliminate the stuttering.
     
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  4. jhs#1408

    jhs#1408 Active Member

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    i expect add-on manager as might be possible solution on this. but well... i think i need rest. hope to see positive results when return.
     
  5. jhs#1408

    jhs#1408 Active Member

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    well, my goal was easing them rather eliminating but that was also not that successful at least for me.
     
  6. firas#2762

    firas#2762 Active Member

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    So, How can I run TSW3 in DX12 ?

    I DON'T SEE An option

    thank you
     
  7. Mattty May

    Mattty May Guest

    Add-ons manager makes no difference to stuttering. At least not on my PS5 anyway.
     
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  8. firas#2762

    firas#2762 Active Member

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    The Title says PC, but DX12 is only for PlayStation
    :(
     
  9. GingerPitti

    GingerPitti Member

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    On the Steam client you can enter some startup commands. Right click on the game in the list, go to properties and on the first tab on the bottom you see a command field. Type in -dx12 to enable DirectX 12. Then just start the game as usual. Your milage may vary, on my PC this made no difference (Ryzen 5900X with Radeon 7900XT).

    jhs#1408 I recommend you try the commands posted in https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/easy-performance-tweaks-for-steam-users.68750/ They also did not completely eliminate the stutters for me but made them far less noticable.
     
    Last edited: Apr 8, 2023
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  10. firas#2762

    firas#2762 Active Member

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    I dont have steam but i will try on icon

    many thanks
     
  11. firas#2762

    firas#2762 Active Member

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    So I have to have steam?
    Dam
     
  12. ctlee#2068

    ctlee#2068 Active Member

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    I found a useful setting for tearing:
    Turn off V-sync (TSW3)
    Turn on FastSync (NVIDIA control panel)
    Set Max FPS: 60~Unlimited (TSW3)

    DXVK is another for stutter, I haven't tried it.
     
    Last edited: Apr 9, 2023
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  13. jhs#1408

    jhs#1408 Active Member

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    started from simple logic. "well for my case it began with storage over certain capacity". but, well...
     
  14. jhs#1408

    jhs#1408 Active Member

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    Last edited: Apr 9, 2023
  15. peterchambers

    peterchambers Active Member

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    I combined the Performance Tweaks with ShodanCat's engine.ini and this gave me the best experience I have ever had. A very occasional minor stutter only. Some runs can be perfectly smooth throughout. I know that you are not keen to do this but it has been worth it for me and I am on much lower specs than you.

    These are Shodancat's settings. I hope it is OK to reproduce these. You just paste this lot to the bottom of the Engine.ini
    [System settings]
    r.Streaming.FullyLoadUsedTextures=1
    r.Streaming.HLODStrategy=2
    r.TonemapperGamma=2.2
    r.Color.Mid=0.6
    r.ViewDistanceScale=2
    foliage.LODDistanceScale=4
    r.StaticMeshLODDistanceScale=0.25
    r.SkeletalMeshLODBias=-1
    r.MipMapLODBias=-1
    r.Shadow.RadiusThreshold=0
    r.DFDistanceScale=5
    r.LightMaxDrawDistanceScale=5

    I am on RTX 2070 and i7-8700 CPU @ 3.20GHz. He was on RTX 40 something I think.
     
  16. jhs#1408

    jhs#1408 Active Member

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    my computer seems like doesn't respond enough with that setting.
    bit sad...anyway, thanks for kind answer!
     
    Last edited: Apr 9, 2023
  17. peterchambers

    peterchambers Active Member

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    Well, best of luck. I must be lucky. It really is a sod.
     
  18. solicitr

    solicitr Well-Known Member

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    Try putting TSW and its DLC on your SSD. The game goes back to the well a lot, and loading new tiles and their assets is the primary cause of stutters- exacerbated by a HDD's slow r/w speed.
     
  19. jhs#1408

    jhs#1408 Active Member

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    My TSW was always in SSD, at M.2 500GB. That quote is about 128GB SATA SSD that i introduced to my computer only for windows.
    PCie 4.0 SSD or RAID was on my consideration once but i lost my motivation at least for now.
    still, thanks for kind answer.
     
    Last edited: Apr 10, 2023
  20. March Hare

    March Hare Well-Known Member

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    I feel sorry for anyone running off a HDD, then, because my installation has always been on a M.2 and stutters and pauses are noticeable enough.
     
  21. cActUsjUiCe

    cActUsjUiCe Developer

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    Can try tightening memory timings. Most people never touch theirs. XMP profile timings are complete garbage.
     
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  22. March Hare

    March Hare Well-Known Member

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    Conversely, the developer can try some optimisation techniques, as it should be.
     
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  23. Scorpion71

    Scorpion71 Well-Known Member

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    I don't remember any stuttering on initial TSW release, only time I truly noticed this is when we went from v4.23 (I think it was) to v4.26 (I think)
     
  24. Monder

    Monder Well-Known Member

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    To me, it seems the game in later versions can reach a better framerate, but the stutters definitely weren't so apparent in the early days. Optimization should definitely be looked at in a grander scheme of things - LODs, overall 3D model quality (getting rid of useless polygons), etc., can go a long way. I've heard somewhere that the roller bearings on US freight cars are animated all the way to the farthest rendered car. If true, that's totally useless and must be eating a ton of processing power. I don't even think the axles need to be turning further than, e.g., 300 meters away from the camera.
     
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  25. jhs#1408

    jhs#1408 Active Member

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    few more informations... i think i can't stop searching
    cpu/gpu usage : around 40~50%
    TSW installed SSD Usage : 0%
    ram usage : 12/32
    at the event moment : cpu/gpu usage drops about 35~40%, SSD usage remains 0%, RAM usage stable, temp cpu around 50~60°C
     
    Last edited: Apr 11, 2023
  26. Sharon E

    Sharon E Well-Known Member

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    Brandon, how would you go about doing this?
     
  27. March Hare

    March Hare Well-Known Member

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    It isn't worth the hassle or the risk. You have to mess around in the BIOS, effectively overclocking your RAM with manual adjustments, and tweaking voltage. There is a risk of causing damage.

    And it really isn't going to do anything. I think literally everyone sees the stuttering, running on various hardware, varying types of RAM running at different clock speeds. If it were one or two people with the issue, then you might consider it's a personal hardware problem. But this is something only the developer can realistically resolve or improve with good coding practice.

    This isn't something people should be fiddling with their BIOS over. And remember, console players will never have the luxury of these things or mods. DTG need to take ownership of the game's issues and really work on them – which they claimed to be doing just before TSW3 came to light.

    And they have done some good, like fixing the save game, but new products are always taking priority. They need to start proving that they truly care about their product.
     
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  28. cActUsjUiCe

    cActUsjUiCe Developer

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    You don't touch voltage or DRAM frequency at all. You literally just tighten timings (primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries). My kit of DDR4 3600MHz defaulted with primary timings of 18-22-22-42 and I was able to tighten them to 16-19-18-37. All my secondaries and tertiaries are tightened as well. The end result is faster memory without overclocking. The communication between the CPU and memory is snappier which can improve minimum framerates and reduce stutters.

    My memory timings are attached. You can do similar stuff to your setup. If you want technical guidance on this, I suggest looking at Buildzoid's videos on Youtube. His channel is called "Actual Hardcore Overclocking". I learned a lot with his videos where he reacts to people's RAM timings.

    Within the BIOS there should be several settings related to memory timings.
     

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    Last edited: Apr 11, 2023
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  29. March Hare

    March Hare Well-Known Member

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    Maybe so, but I still don't think it's going to achieve much if anything to be worth messing with hardware in the BIOS. Give it a go by all means, but the stuttering is symptomatic of the renderer running on the main thread conflicting with other processes, typical of UE4 projects that haven't been nativised/multi-thread optimised, and the longer hiccups/pauses are related to garbage collection/loading.
     
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  30. cActUsjUiCe

    cActUsjUiCe Developer

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    It doesn't fix the cause of the problem (which is exactly what you say, by the way), but it helps mitigate some of the problems the game exhibits.
     
  31. Nightraven

    Nightraven New Member

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    Just changing to some of the XMP profiles that came with the motherboard made a small but noticeable change on my system (quite easy to do). And I am pretty sure these profiles are subpar to actually editing them yourself.

    Another tip for smoother gameplay is to lock your FPS, and make sure that your system is actually running at your set value (the more it runs at max the better). And don't use the in-game option for locking frames, use a program like Riva Tuner or try the software that came with your graphics card.
     
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  32. Nightraven

    Nightraven New Member

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    Another nice trick that is often overlooked for smoother gameplay is simply editing the temperature curves for the fans on your GPU (or resort to some other type of cooling). I find that the default curves on GPUs are mostly set up to reduce noice at the cost of performance. If you are playing with headphones or a high volume (assuming the neighbours don't come knocking) this should be less of a issue.
     

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