Train Sim Spec

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Jamie, Aug 20, 2018.

  1. Jamie

    Jamie Member

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    i have ts2018 on my surface pro & my 8 year old loves it but the computer is not up to the task so I’m looking at getting him one that will run it at a decent speed for him, I have been offered one & wondered if anyone could advise if it would do the job ( I know I would need to buy a graphics card), thanks for your help & apologies if this is on the wrong place.
    Wireless 8gb ddr3 ram
    Windows 10
    64 bit
    Dual core 2.6ghz
    8gb ram
    Pentium dual core cpu E5300@ 260ghz
     
  2. JJTimothy

    JJTimothy Well-Known Member

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    Without knowing the spec's for your Surface Pro this is a guess but chances are the thing that is holding TS back on that is the lack of a GPU. I run TS on two laptops with i5 processors one with integrated graphics and the other with a GPU chip albeit a fairly basic one but the difference is night and day.

    You don't mention any GPU when discribing the system you've been offered which, in other respects, sounds adequate but not ideal (look on the Steam page for TS and it will recommend a minimum 2.8GHz dual core processor). If it doesn't have a GPU you'll probably be better off sticking with the Surface which might at least have a newer chipset.
     
  3. ARuscoe

    ARuscoe Well-Known Member

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    I play TS on a surface pro 4 core i5 with framerate restricted to 15 and graphics set to low and it works fine (obviously with graphical errors, but I can get it to run in real time)
    And newer surfaces DO have a GPU, albeit a HD graphics chip with shared memory.
    I find it a bigger restriction on the SSD capacity rather than the graphics, but then I don't play it so that everything looks real
     
  4. Jamie

    Jamie Member

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    Apologies for the lack of knowledge but how would I change the settings to the same as yours to see how it runs?
    Thanks.
     
  5. ARuscoe

    ARuscoe Well-Known Member

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    Jamie
    Resultion: In Game: On the main loading screen you can go into OPTIONS (top right) and set the graphics resolution and density. The lower the resolution, the lower the density the faster it will run. You can mess about with these settings but be aware that for the most part changes will require a program shutdown and restart

    FPS: Out of Game: Browse to your Railworks folder (most commonly C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\RailWorks) and find RailWorks.exe
    Right click this and select "Send to Desktop (create shortcut)" from the menu
    Go to your desktop and find the shortcut called RailWorks.exe - Shortcut, right click this and select properties
    On the Shortcut tab change the Target from "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\RailWorks\RailWorks.exe" to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\RailWorks\RailWorks.exe -FPSLimit=30" (or whatever number you wish to restrict the the framerate to). Click OK

    If you wish to you can rename the icon by right clicking and selecting Rename, or just highlight the icon and press the F2 key on your keyboard...
    If you use this icon to start the game (you still need to be connected to Steam) your framerate will be locked to a maximum of that value, so rather than the game trying to pump out high FPS it will concern itself more with rendering at that lower rate.
    You can see the current framerate using shift + Z, though do be aware that teh Z key on it's own shuts the engine off if you play in advanced mode so be careful.

    I have noticed that the clock seems much truer to real time than before messing about with the display settings
     
  6. Jamie

    Jamie Member

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    Many thanks, I will give that a try.
     
  7. Jamie

    Jamie Member

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    Thanks very much, that has sorting the real time problem, very much appreciated.
     
  8. ARuscoe

    ARuscoe Well-Known Member

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    Welcome!
     
  9. Jamie

    Jamie Member

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    Hi, last night i altered the settings & it ran great although the graphics weren't fantastic it ran to a much better level, this morning I have tried to follow your instructions regarding the files but I cannot seem to find the railworks.exe file, I have looked in the folders and their is a railworks icon & a railworks application, is it one of those?
    Sorry for my lack of computer knowledge :)
     
  10. ARuscoe

    ARuscoe Well-Known Member

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    RailWorks - application file is the exe file.
    You probably have the file extensions hidden (which is normal)
     
  11. Jamie

    Jamie Member

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    Great stuff, i will give it a go.
     
  12. Jamie

    Jamie Member

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    Hi, i have tried to set the limit to FPS=20 but it keeps coming up with an error message & won't let me save it, however I have just do some runs on the Kings Cross-Welwyn, London Bridge to Victoria, Crewe to Chester & Trafford Park to Piccadilly routes & I'm getting between 14-22 FPS & apart from the graphics not being as clear as I'd like the game is running in almost perfect real time. The lad will be happy although it is going to cost me for some new routes!!
     
  13. ARuscoe

    ARuscoe Well-Known Member

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    I think I found my error...

    On the Shortcut tab change the Target from "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\RailWorks\RailWorks.exe" to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\RailWorks\RailWorks.exe" -FPSLimit=30 (or whatever number you wish to restrict the the framerate to). Click OK

    The -FPSLimit=30 (or in my case 15) must be OUTSIDE of the speech marks.
     
  14. Jamie

    Jamie Member

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    Thanks for the help, would you still recommend doing this as my FPS is between 14 & 22?
     
  15. ARuscoe

    ARuscoe Well-Known Member

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    Up to you. My issue with it always was that the engine always tries to pump out as many frames as it can which can lead to lag.
    If you're happy with what you got then don't mess with it
     
  16. Jamie

    Jamie Member

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    Really appreciate your help, thanks. All being well you have saved me a lot of money :)
     
  17. ARuscoe

    ARuscoe Well-Known Member

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    For now... until you want to get a decently powered machine so you get decent graphics.
    I'm already planning a base unit for next year...
     
  18. Medellinexpat

    Medellinexpat Well-Known Member

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    @ARoscoe thanks for posting this. I’d been meaning to try this for some time.

    My reasons for wanting to do this were somewhat different. I’m running a gaming laptop and in some route portions I’m getting 100+ FPS which seemed a rather unneeded use of resources. With a gaming laptop you’re always keeping an eye on CPU and GPU temperatures and wanting to avoid unneeded activity. On one test I made this morning it reduced both CPU and GPU temperatures for a scenario I get high FPS (I replaced with 35fps) by over 5 degrees on both CPU and GPU.

    Incidentally using Windows 10 on the target line I didn’t have any quote marks so the FPS restriction just needed adding after the .exe

    It did get me thinking what other command string additions could be added. For example it is possible to have multiple short cuts on the desktop each with command line variations. I did wonder whether for some routes I could trade FPS for more complex anti-aliasing. Is there a variable to amend that outside of the settings menu?
     
  19. ARuscoe

    ARuscoe Well-Known Member

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    Unfortunately they haven't added in command line help so I can't see what it already has, but maybe that's a post to start somewhere
     

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