I was happy to see that the physics update for CSX Heavy Haul was released, it the release notes it says the update is 5.4GB. I opened up Steam went to the downloads page and I did have an update ready to download, but it was only about 700MB, after it downloaded and installed it didn't show any updates available. I'm wondering if I didn't get the update for some reason? I'm asking because I played TSW for about 30 minutes and saw little to no improvement in the physics, a lot of things were really wrong. I'm hoping I didn't get the update?
Which route and loco were you playing? The NEC does NOT have the updates yet, nor does the GP40-2 for both routes (I'm presuming they haven't finished figuring out how to put this on consoles yet or something). I did get a 5.4 GB update, and the physics have definitely changed, but I also bought the new route that released and the whole thing downloaded at once and the size of the update changed halfway though because of that so IDK- probably worth double-checking Steam. The lighting on CSX:HH has changed enough that you should definitely be able to tell immediately, especially outside of Cumberland with all the greenery. The AC4400CW seems like it has been changed the most, although I also tried the SD40-2 and it felt a bit different.
I didn't go through a tunnel so I guess that would be a good test to see if I actually have the update, I'l try that next chance I get, also the scenario I was running was at night so I couldn't see any lighting changes. The amp meter seemed to behave a little differently from what I've observed in the past, however these are problems that I noticed right away I was hoping to see fixed. Notch 1 is still way too powerful, at the start the amps hit the 800-900 range and the loco takes off like a rocket, this is not how it is in the real world. I asked real engineers about this, notch 1 is just a crawl even running light power. Dynamic brakes are still awful, almost no braking at levels1-7 until you hit level 8 and then it pegs out the amp meter. Train brakes are WAY too strong, going down a 1.5% grade with a long train, minimal reduction brings the train to a stop in 10-20 seconds, the brakes shouldn't even begin to apply this quickly on a long train, and then just begin to slow it down, not stop it. I was using the GP-40 loco, I'll try another.
OK I just tried the AC4400 and it is MUCH better than it was before. The engine loads very slowly like a real GE would, the screen shows power in Klb instead of amps as it should. Train brakes seem better although maybe a bit too strong but still much improved. Dynamic brakes are better, although just to test I put the dynamic brakes at level 8 and it brought the train down .5 mph going down a 1.5% grade, then it started to slowly speed back up and the braking force meter started going crazy. Pretty sure that isn't how it would work in real life but again much improved. DTG, good job on the AC4400.
Yeah, they didn't do the GP40-2 for some reason- it wasn't mentioned at all in the patch notes. I hope that's coming soon. Agreed- good job DTG!
We have only released the update for the Sand Patch Grade versions of the GP38-2, SD40-2 and AC4400CW. The GP40-2 and the GP38-2 that came with NEC are getting ready for a round of QA (remember it's not just the locos, but all the services/scenarios that use them that need to be checked) but we thought that since the above were ready to go we'd get them out to you now. No update yet on when the update for the above will be ready, for now let's enjoy the ones that *are* out Matt.
Matt, thanks very much for clearing that up, I'm looking forward to trying the SD40-2 and the GP38-2 now as well. I re-read the update post and it does not include the GP40-2 which was the first loco I tried, my mistake. While I do still think this fix was WAAYYYY overdue, it is very much appreciated and so far, at least on the AC4400 seems to be a huge improvement.
Did you consider releasing it as a beta to the players to test? Im pretty sure a lot of players (including me) would be happy to help finding possible issues with the update. Always wondered why you guys stopped doing these anyways after the final release of CSX
We have a closed beta team which allows us to manage the feedback in a more constrained way, consists of people from the community from all regions and expertise from avid gamers to real-world drivers and so forth. Public beta's are a challenge to operate and require a much more active presence to respond to peoples feedback and if we can't commit to that level of interaction it doesn't seem right to put the beta out and then not provide a good response rate to queries. Besides, even the beta team and a public beta wouldn't avoid the need for it to go through the QA process. The other locos are available to the beta team already and have been for some time, we just haven't integrated to a production build yet and gone through that final testing phase.
Finished playing with the SD40-2 and AC4400CW. Holy cow, DTG, you did a good job on this one. I used two AC4400's on a long loaded autorack train out of Cumberland. Kicking off the brakes and setting it into N2 resulted in no movement, as car brakes were releasing, and the grade was about 0.5%. Spot on. Throttling up to N3 allowed me to start creeping forward, and N4 got me going pretty well. On the about half-mile of train, it took a few minutes for the EOT to reach about 85+ psi, which is also accurate. Setting a minimum application dropped the line to 80 psi (real life is 84 psi, but this is working fine), and it took the EOT about 5 seconds to start dropping pressure. Perfect. I also like that the brakes felt like they had good delayed drag; a small application would gradually bring the train to a halt. The SD40-2's also feel much better, and performance is remarkably better. Good job on this update, DTG.
Now I get really bad framerate drop when I apply brakes. It lasts a few seconds and then goes back to normal. So far I've only noticed this in csx dlc. It's definitely brakes application that triggers this.
Definitely slack is modeled. I got some of that yesterday by playing with the independent at low speeds.
Sounds like your CPU is struggling with the train slack physics. What kind of CPU do you have? This game requires a pretty competent one.
i7 8700. All other dlcs are working fine, i have all except tees valley. Only csx has this problem since physics update. I'm too lazy to try updating drivers etc. Honestly I don't even care about csx, so it doesn't really matter. It's my least favorite route anyway. Cpu usage (on that 1 core the game actually uses) drops almost to 0% when i apply the brakes, marked with red arrows on image below. I marked the 2 moments when I applied and then released brakes.
That's very strange. I can't seem to replicate your issue, and also your game should be using multiple cores (that was patched a long time ago). Here is my CPU usage when running an autorack train with the AC4400CW (arrow pointing to when brakes were applied):
Something definitely doesnt look right on your system d_stevanov - on csx i'd expect the game to be heavily hitting at least 4 to 7 cores. The fact you have what I would guess is a decent CPU makes me wonder if it's being held back on graphics - what gpu and graphics settings, ini adjustments are you running?
geforce gtx 970, no adjustments in ini settings, all ultra settings, vsync on, 100% render. all routes other than csx work fine. Edit: It's long trains that cause problems, if I uncouple the loco, I can apply brakes without problems. But as soon as I couple it back to the long train, applying brakes start degrading performance.
It almost sounds like something never got updated a long time ago. Have you tried reinstalling CSX or verifying game cache? The fact that it's only using one core makes me think it never got properly updated.
Verified game files from steam, installed latest drivers, no change. No sign of thermal throttling, btw. I can't see the option to uninstall csx only. Might try reinstalling entire game at some point, but I doubt that will help. In case I decide to reinstall the game, I'd like to know all possible locations where any tsw related files might be left.
Steamapps folder is the main game as per usual, and also Documents\My Games\TS2Prototype\ for various saves and configuration files.
Hi Guys, could it be that there was something changed on NTP, too? With the latest patch or the latest Freight Add-On? My performance started to degrade on that track, but I have to admit, I didn't ivestigate further on that. Later that day I took some tours in RT with fine performance.
I haven't tried ntp since this last update. It was working fine before. I only tried csx just to conclude nothing has been fixed. Will check ntp later today.
Yes, ntp now also has some serious performance issues, my framerate drops from stable 60 to below 20. Most noticeable when driving 101 with camera positioned directly above the train, and a lot of smoke coming out. Looks like it's the smoke that causes problem, and especially if camera is close to the smoke. If I do the same thing with class 43, for example, there is no framerate drop, that works fine.
In my personal experience, smoke has been a problem since day one. Camera outside of smoke = fine, camera directly in smoke = framerate crapping itself, no matter the map or train
So, I've just upgraded my graphics card from good old gtx 970 to rtx 2060. The problem with fps drops when applying brakes is gone. Now I see absolutely no change in fps when applying the brakes, and a very nice fps overall, rarely below 60. Haven't changed drivers, haven't uninstalled or installed anything, just swapped cards. Weird.