PC Tsw4 Enhancement | Lighting & Graphic Enhancement V4.7 (inc Lossless Scaling Guide)

That looks really good. Need anyone to test/report findings?

 

What’s your system spec? I think it’s pretty much nailed down but happy for more feedback

 

JetWash I just gave this a try and set CSM to 2048 and cascades to 8 and made a service on Niddertalbahn. Up to 20+ FPS in some areas, very interesting.

On 7900XTX here.

 

That makes sense. I only owned Nidder for a couple of hours but couldn’t use any ini changes on it. I’m now of the belief it’s the CSM shadows on that level of detailed scenery which hurt performance. If dropping the resolution helps that then that’s great news.

 

So please note I'm using your ultra.ini with some modifications, e.g. r.ViewDistanceScale=8

The GPU is undervoltet, so here is a screenshot + FPS (same scene savegame) with CSMRes = 6144 and Cascades set to 5:

Same scene with CSMRes= 2048 and cascades set to 8:

 

Windows 11
7800x3D
Nvidia 3080TI 12GB
64GB of 6000MHz DDR5
NVME SSD

 

Wow. That’s a big difference! Is that in 4K?

 

Yes I'm quite surprised and impressed!

3440x1440 with 120% screen resolution, everything on ultra, only sky set to to very high.

 

And what’s your impression with the visual change dropping the resolution?

 

So here is KWG for comparsion - 1080p screen res 100% eveything else is the same, old settings:

New settings:

Cascade old NID again 1080p:

New:
Especially in the KWG shot you can see a hughe difference in the shadows of the tree on the right wall of the cab. But I honestly must say this is one thing I could live with in comparsion to other downgrades. The performance gain is massive.

 

Whilst the pin sharp shadows look cool from a ‘computer game’ perspective, I don’t think they’re necessarily all that realistic. Given the trade off is a big increase in performance I’d agree I can live with it.

 

I agree. It´s anyway hard to get proper shadows rendering with the current implementation having a so short dynamic shadows range (200m). In most recent games the dynamic range can cover even 2km or more being autobalanced over distance until shadows fade and that covers all objects and terrain, with the possibility to scale both distance and/or resolutions via settings even separately. In Unreal we simply have a too complex shadows system with those three main shadows areas which are not really needed and even separate shadows for heightfields. It results in more problems than benefits, including ugly and inconsistent shadows in close proximity I would say. It would be better to have dynamic shadows up to 1km away for instance and use distant field for the rest, including terrain elevations.

Cheers

 

Yes when looking at the screenshots I thought the same thing, especially distant objects don't tend to draw such sharp shadows in real life most of the time. Better for me to have the shadows a bit unsharp or "washed" as it isn't unrealistic then having popping in trees or lod distant trees. Also the performance drop of these things doesn't seem so hard anymore compared to the cascade shadows.

I only wish we could do something for the shadow draw distance on the tracks themselves...

 

Another funny and relevant issue to take into account: sun light occlusion created by particles or clouds makes dynamic shadows area temporarily flicker while directional light shadows are being updated. This can be seen at the start of Riesa-Dresden Special Delivery scenerio with Vectron locomotive, or at the start of Ballast Boggie scenario with Vectron as well (the sky is partially clouded at dusk in that case). The following picture is taken on the delivery scenario case at dawn and occlusion is caused in this case by the smoke of the power plant. Some shadows next to player locomotive will flicker as smoke particles intercept sun light and until sun rises more or you depart station so that smoke is not in between sun and player.



Once more this is caused by cascaded shadows. Disabling them or reducing the amount of cascades mitigates the issue, while increasing them makes flickering more frequent. There´s definitelly something broken with cascaded shadows in TSW4.

On the other hand I think we clearly need a real-time shadows update in game for shadows caused by sun (or at least a much more frequent update frequency), not one update every 15-20s as we apparently have now because the changing sun position results in inconsistent shadows. You can see the flickering effect and also how shadows from catenaty poles move in steps instead of seemlessly.

Cheers

 

I found the reason for the flickering. It´s caused in the exotic combination of low sun angle and small particles of smoke or clouds edges between sun and camera position. The reason is r.Shadow.RadiusThreshold (min size of elements that can cast shadows). Even default game value (r.Shadow.RadiusThreshold=0.03) causes the issue and it´s reproduced with any shadows resolution as it´s caused by the casting objects themselves. You need to increase the value to 0.05 to remove the effect. That fixed the issue in both Vectron scenarios as far as I have seen.

The good point is that it releases a bit of workload on shadows. The bad is that very small objects details will not cast shadows. That can be noticeable at mid range on some platorms or on the catenary wires shadows. I think it´s not really relevant unless we turn to be too exquisite with details.

Cheers

 

Look at this, I'm beyond baffled. Just look at the GPU usage approaching 6am on a December morning. The first shot is in the pitch black with GPU usage of 100%, the second 20 seconds later in the 60s when there is some light source. How on earth is that possible? What have they got going on here that is causing my GPU to draw over 400W of power and not be able to maintain 60fps with NIS enabled?

Surely shadows are not being cast in this scenario? I can’t imagine what else it is that is causing that GPU usage.

 

Night in game is just a render condition with lower light intensisty. Indeed disabling shadows does not always help to increase performance during night in most games. There are still many things GPU has to render and display: the cabview, trains, terrain, buildings, tracks, signals, etc. Those objects still interact with artificial lights even if main sun light is still missing and theredore can cast some shodows in the shorter distances. They are not hidden from rendering (meaning those objects will still exist) but they are simply using very dark textures. Locomotive headlights still generate shadows as well and that light changes objects textures too. Indeed most of the shadows that you may see during night are still in the most resource expensive shadows area: the close range to player, where dynamic shadows are computed.

In addition to that the train physics need to be computed, as well as objects collisions. Animations are still played, particle emitters still drop smoke too and sounds are still played too. Those things are not depending on light conditions for instance but engine needs to simulate them always.

Cheers

 

Hi all

Please forgive my ignorance but what is NIS and should I enable it?

Also thanks to JetWash and others for playing and testing these settings for the rest of us mere mortals to enjoy

 

Hi. New testing results: the most relevant portion of the fps drop at sunrise/sunset is caused by the trees cascaded shadows in particular. As soon as trees have LOD2 active the massive drop happens. I think the responsible ones are the newest trees, which include more detailed LODs than the old ones. The problem is that such situation has no easy tradeoff solution for several reasons:

• The drop is still happening with r.viewdistancescale=1 (default value)
• The drop is still happening with foliage.LODDistanceScale=1 (default value)
• The drop is still happening withr.StaticMeshLODDistanceScale=1 (default value)
• The drop is still happening with r.HLOD.DistanceOverrideScale=1 (default value)
  
• LOD2 is one of the lowest detail ones and it´s intended for very distant trees (LOD3 is the last one having a noticeable quality reduction). LOD1 and LOD0 are the ones used at mid range and close range but LOD2 in the newest trees is already very detailed for the long distances
• Significant amounts of detailed trees are basically used everywhere in most routes as well
• Using lowest details tree LODs is a no-go due to poor quality and pop-in effects
• Reducing shadows resolution to 4096 or below mitigates the problem partially but then transition between dynamic shadows and far distance shadows is much worse
• Amount of cascaded shadows is still relevant an issue with 4096 resolution

It´s clear that 8192 shadows resolutions are a no-go as that makes the performance drop happen even with less amount of trees in the scene and to prevent the performance drop you need to stay on 4096 or 2048 resolutions, with the degraded shadows quality they mean. Any of the alternatives (reducing resolutions, cascades or LODs) will bring a significant quality reduction somehow.

The only feasible solution would be that DTG levers the LOD2 to LOD0 on newests trees for all routes making them less resource hungry or at least reduces the shadows quality on the lowest LODs. That means a 3D model update I would say or a custom variable to tune those trees. I didn´t find any variable that can tweak foliage shadows so granulary so far, but maybe it exists.

Cheers

 

That probably explains why ECML is very performance intensive with not a great deal of scenery other than trees. It definitely correlates with my impressions of the way the game is working.

 

Anyway I have repeated some tests after adding the DirectX compiler and shaders fast math tweak yesterday and now I don´t see such massive performance drops as before on sunrise/sunset, even using 4096 shadows textures, 10 cascades and x5 trees LOD scales.

I deleted my old shaders to start from a clean situation and all tests areas where I had 30 fps before are giving me now 60 fps. You may want to try my latest settings pack. Keep a copy of the old shaders folder if you prefer so to avoid losing them if you see no performance increase, so that you can restore them. The new fast math tweak would most likely overwrite old shaders anyway to update them to DX12 and will anyway generate its own shader files.

Cheers

 

Having looked at this more and discussed with the guys testing it, when it goes out I’m going to suggest people use the Dynamic Ini function of God Mode. This will allow a pre-TSW3 specific version that removes the TOD4 lighting changes but has tailored visual improvements, and will allow people to tune to TOD4 overhaul on a route specific basis.

I’d previously mentioned as an example the iffy way the TMS and PIS on the Azuma were tied to the same shader, and that same shader affects every train in the game. It is impossible to set a figure that is appropriate for all trains on all routes and the compromise, in certain circumstances, is just too much. DTG need to set figures that work and apply that to every unit future and past, including 3rd party. Why they are all set to different values, some correct, some too bright and some too dim is baffling. There is literally zero standardisation or consistency.

Secondly, it has become apparent that for reasons I can’t fathom DTG have applied bloom to Voralburg in the same vain as they did San Jose or East Coastway. Why they’ve done it I can only imagine, but the bloom setting that works on all other routes makes Voralburg look like an out of focus Disney cartoon. That needs to be set to zero, and that can’t be done when using a single set of ini parameters.

It’s daft that we, the players, are having to do this but it is what it is. GodMode is giving us the opportunity to tune each route to our liking so it would be remiss not to utilise it. You will still have the opportunity to put these in the main engine.ini as before but if you want to make this the best it can be GodMode is a must. It is as simple as copy and pasting to a different box, and I will include instructions on how to do so. I will also include a description of what each line is doing and what changing the value will do to aid tuning. The happy truth is that for 95% of the parameters and routes you can just leave things as I have set them.

 

A perfect illustration. I had set the compromise figure for the legacy emissives (which controls the brightness of the TMS screens almost exclusively, occasionally the PIS) at 800, the default is setting 2000. A picture speaks a thousand words so here is the default setting of 2000 on the Class 385;


...and here is it with legacy emissives set to 200 instead;


Much more realistic and natural. Even with a compromise figure of 800 (and it’s a compromise because it affects every loco and unit in the game) that screen is just far far too bright, even in daylight. By using the dynamic ini we can set the figure on this route to 100 or 200, set Voralburg to 1200 (as needed), ECML to 800 and so on.

 

I've pretty much stopped playing TSW4 now until the new version is released

 

It’s pretty much ready to go but I need to write a manual to go with it and finding time to do that is challenging. At best it’ll be next week.

 

No rush from me - it will be worth waiting for.

 

A short gameplay video on Voralburg to show the finalised (probably) version in action

Voralburg Gameplay Demo

 

JetWash hey I'm not seeing any video link

 

There is something wrong with displaying links to YouTube on this forum. Very frustrating but there’s nothing I can do about it. Could you try a different device / browser? That tends to work for me.

DTG JD This same issue again with links to YouTube content not working correctly.

 

I tried on my phone and saw the same blank space.

What's the name of the video, or your YouTube channel name?

 

The Video is not listed, if the links don't work try this and remove the spaces: "https://www.you tube.com/watch ?v=qYjH-aYP8Ko"

 

TKessel "404 Not Found"

(I did remove the space)

 

Their is two spaces one between "you" and "tube" and the second between "watch" and the questionmark.

It works. Tried the link on several devices now.

 

youtu.be/qYjH-aYP8Ko?si=MfsKdi26WKaR1R6Q

This should work... Copy the link

 

TKessel hahaha really trying to fool them I see!

I got it to work. Thanks

 

Also, JetWash
It looks very nice! I'm looking forward to the release

 

Woah, looks awesome!!

And the PZB lights are usable, that's huge! Would you mind sharing just the tweaks that are necessary to achieve this? I'd consider that a bug fix that's worth it independent from other lighting and mood improvements

 

stateoftheartjonas just a friendly reminder that the PZB lights on that train have a dimmer switch right underneath

 

It's got to do with cookies. If you don't accept them the first time the forum prompts you then the embedded YouTube videos don't display. You could try clearing cookies for the forums site and reloading the page to see if the prompt reappears.

 

If you scroll all the way down on the page you'll find a tiny gray-on-gray button Cookie Settings, right next to Terms of Use

 

I know, but even with PZB lights all the way up you can barely see whether 65/70/85 is lit, even if you look closely, and absolutely no chance to see it for the 1000Hz. It's a bug that's reported over and over in the Feedback Thread, ever since the Early Access week for those who pre-ordered.

 

can godmode load from it's own ini files too?
if so has someone made a pack yet for different routes?

 

It can, but it makes more sense to load different files for TOD3 and TOD4 in general. But if you have routes which are performance heavy then you can also do that as well, yes.

 

Just to be clear, the reason it’s not out yet is because I strongly suggest people use the dynamic ini feature in GodMode. I have set up a separate pre-TSW3 set of tweaks alongside the TSW4 ones. I need to set the presets up for each level then write a manual explaining exactly what to do, how to do it and just as importantly what each line is doing and how to tweak it. I’ll also include suggested changes for the routes I’ve found them necessary for, which is mainly down to the legacy emissive's which controls screen brightness. As I’ve said a number of times now, there is no one size fits all and the compromise in trying to make that so is too big. GodMode gives us the option to set this up by route, so we blummin well ought to use it

 

This, 100%. For those on PC, it`s a game changer.
Been messing around for the last few nights, and once you know what does what, you can tweak to your heart's content.
Being able to set light levels and performance parameters per route is great, especially as we all see things differently & have different equipment and expectations.
Plus, its "Live", so from a visual point of view, any changes you make to lighting, clouds, fog etc, appear right in front of you, whilst playing.
Using an FPS counter, you can actually see how changes you make affect the performance, and tweak accordingly.
It really is a no brainer.

 

Yeah quick note for anyone who doesn't know, a couple useful things in game
F3 turns on a small FPS counter
Ctrl + F2 toggles motion blur
I usually leaved it on but I've found that with higher fps, unless I'm moving my camera around, with all the ini tweaks, it actually looks quite decent with it off

 

Just upgraded to a 4070ti... not specifically for TSW4 of course, but interested to give it a whirl with the new settings

 

Version 3 is now live on TSC.

Please read the accompanying manual as a lot has changed. Enjoy!

https://www.trainsimcommunity.com/m...9-tsw4-lighting-graphic-enhancement-version-3

 

Thanks JetWash - appreciate the effort that's gone into it, and I'm glad you decided to stick around to do this

 

JetWash
Thank you so much for all the hard work you've put into this!