Sherman Hill = Another Definitive Feedback Thread, How Would You Answer These?

Yeah, I also noticed this, but it was happening even before this update. But I'm not sure if it was like this at the original launch or a later patch introduced it.

 

"cOnsoLes ArEn'T dRaggInG doWN Pc ExpErIenCe!11!!"

Average DTG forum user.

 

No, it's like it was before, on some areas where there were drops (if you looked in a particularly grass dense zone) it has improved, but on the whole it's the same, or not better enough to make it noticeable to me.

I do have a 60Hz display so I'm locked to 60fps, keep that in mind, possibily if someone is used to more than 60fps the difference could be more noticeable.

It was fine on consoles before. While I agree that consoles are dragging PC down (sorry guys) I think in this particular case it doesn't seem like consoles are the problem.

 

There's probably a fair share of PC players that are playing TSW2 on potato laptops and old PCs, which I would assume is reflected in data that Valve would share with DTG. So DTG has to contend with gen 8 consoles being their biggest player base, plus (again I'm only guessing) a sizeable amount of low-end PC players. I would also expect that DTG providing a large amount of optional graphics enhancements (plus dev work that would go unnoticed if it was left off by default to help with performance) would lead to further QA bottleneck issues along with game build fragmentation between the 6 (or is it 7?) different platforms that they always aim to patch and update at the same exact time.

 

Tbh I don't care if there are a lot of people on potato pc: that's what sliders are made for. If you have a potato pc turn your sliders down. DTG approach on this issue was the opposite: let's make graphics crappy for everyone... unbelievable.

 

Not like this particular issue has anything to do with console or low-end PC performance. You can make grass be peformance friendly without it looking like this (see literally all other routes or all other grass types along Sherman Hill). This is a LOD issue most likely - the LOD model having wrong texture or material, thus making it appear so bright. If it was the same color as the close LOD, it wouldn't be noticeable. But for some reason many foilage types in TSW change color when they change LODs.

 

...played it yesterday after the big update on console, but wasn't able to spot the bisons. Must be very shy animals. Otherwise the change of the vegetation textures on the stability is noticeable, because the framerate is been higher and the risk of crashing due to camera changes during long trains has been minimized. It's a nice relaxing route and I like it.

 

It isn't just consoles. PCs more than a couple of years old or costing less than a modest automobile also couldn't run Sherman Hill as it was.

 

Indeed. There was absolutely no excuse for Sherman Hill to max out my RTX 3080 at 15-20 FPS when every other route runs at 90+ FPS. And this new update looks horrendous; I would much rather have just continued to drop the foliage setting on the rare occasion I did play the route, because now I refuse to play it at all.

Cheers

 

Yes I have noticed the issue with the UP logos on the coal hoppers.
Really surprised about it.
I forgot about this issue.
Thanks for mentioning

Please find the picture I took last week.

 

I wonder. I would say this is not intentional - their original intention was to make something that is more performance friendly yet still looks good. At least that what my common sense would say. I try to hope that this is just a LOD issue that will be fixed.

But on the other hand... this grass was right behind Matt's face for the whole anniversary stream on sunday. They must have seen it, yet noone has said anything? If they are fine with this and plan on keeping it like this, then I think everyone might as well just uninstall Sherman Hill from their library. Really hope it does not stay like this.

 

I didn't realise it had been updated... Must check it out. Though that said, have a feeling I may find myself back on the TS version running the superb GTEL's!

 

I just had another run on Cane Creek and I could get a rock solid 90FPS on that route the whole way through, where the grass is just as dense and visible for long distances as Sherman Hill. It really baffles me that Skyhook was able to do it right on their first try but DTG has thus far swung two strikes on Sherman Hill. I really don't understand. What's most frustrating is that we can expect the next patch to be upwards of four months from now if DTG's track record is anything to go by, and we have no idea whether it will actually be fixed then. What a mess.

I really wanted to like this route, but it's been sitting in my "awaiting updates" pile of routes along with SFJ and Oakville ever since a week after launch. It is frankly a shame.

Cheers

 

There's a U50C & DD35s for TS 22 version. I can see them arrive as Heavy horsepower pack UP 1960s 1990s present AC6000CW. At the same time balance that out with Eastern Heavy horsepower pack SD80MAC AC6000CW CSX

 

Oh my word, it’s the same on PS5. There absolutely no performance issues on PS5 and now the grass has been ruined.

I’m breaking a rule here but… TrainSim-Matt have you seen what’s happened to the grass on Sherman Hill? It’s been totally ruined, and by extension has ruined the route. Where there were small green tufts, the lower LODs are now showing as tall yellow stalks. Taller green stalks don’t seem to be affected. This must be a bug (see other posts on previous page for screenshots) and it is the same on all platforms by the look of it.

 

Don't want to sound repetive, but didn't anyone notice before release?

 

DTG's Quality Assurance you mean?

 

Ugh. Yes instead of being hardware melting the grass now looks like splines from Trainz 2006.
Think we need a compromise somewhere in the middle.
Off to fire up the TS version instead...

 

TrainSim-Matt - Could you also explain why the broken / out of bounds collectables were not fixed in this weeks update. Given this was a "graphical / route" update that required a big download, could these not have been fixed at the same? Surely, the fix is a quick one that just involves moving the actual items to a more suitable location or moving the invisible walls

 

Thanks you for the info, glad to hear it's being looked into! Hope it can be sorted out easily.

 

I must be some kind of outlier, because I've never had any performance issues with SHH. The original grass didn't cause any problems or frame rate drops, a steady 60fps throughout ( which is my screen's limit ).
My only issue with the route was the strange night lighting.

I will say though that southeast Wyoming is semi arid and is mostly covered with scrub grass. Trees struggle to grow in the sandy soil and you won't see much in the way of grass anyway, except patches of buffalo grass here and there.
However, that spiky stuff sticking up from the ground is a bit comical, not anything native to Wyoming, Colorado or Utah I would venture. Reminds me of " Day of the Triffids. ".

 

What kind of hardware you have? I mean I know my 1050Ti counts as low-end nowdays, but it can still run every other route on a steady 20-30 FPS on maximum setting. Not the best, but good enough. But Sherman Hill's grass sometimes killed my framerate to single digits even on medium foilage settings.

 

I have a pretty high end rig, I7. RTX 3080. I recently upgraded to get ready for steam which I expect to be pretty demanding, if DTG does it justice.

 

Be assured that the existence of a 8 gen version of this game will make it run on PCs too, I hope.

I'm quite concerned too tho, I'm running the game on locked 30 fps with a lot of .ini tweaks and shadow draw distance to make it look better, and it runs fine. I do not want to disable any or all of that haha.

 

I just noticed mine does not look like this, the texture seems to be missing:



Is anyone else having this problem or have any ideas to fix it? I removed the two mods I was using, verified the game files and even deleted the Sherman Hill .pak file in the DLC folder so it redownloaded it, none of which helped. I own the game on Epic if that makes a difference.

DW

 

Oh, that's weird. My first guess would've been that you might be using my mod from earlier that replaces this texture, but I see your billboards are still the original, so the mod is not in use. Might be an Epic only issue, I say definitely submit a support ticket regarding this.

 

Seems like it

 

Hmm, yeah I guess I may need to start a thread in the technical forum.

Another odd thing I've noticed on Sherman Hill is this strange grey texture being projected onto the train when going over this crossing between Laramie and Hermosa on track 1&2. Is anyone else seeing this?





I searched a bit but don't see any mention of it.

I do appreciate the performance improvements with this latest patch. Its great not to have to sacrafice tree detail with the lower foliage setting anymore and Cheyenne and Laramie yards are alot better framerate wise. I hope they can do a little bit more in that regard in the yards but this patch made a signifigant improvement.

DW

 

That is really strange!
The "ghost" of Sheman Hill!

 

Today's update notes say they have fixed the "glowing grass" and the invisible walls blocking snowfence collectibles

 

Will today’s update bring custom liveries back to the autoracks….. hopefully so but I doubt it.

 

“Improved the initial state of the brakes on the SD70ACe so that is now takes less time to get moving after starting.”

Does this mean I no longer have to wait like 10 minutes for the brakes to release at service start? Thank freaking goodness.

 

Where is the update? I don't have anything on steam.
Already restarted.

 

Very nice!

 

Would that be a possible aid in making SPG trains as long? I remember one of the things breaking the timetable would have been the charge-up time for brakes. Well, now that is not an issue.

 

I agree, and am glad to have been wrong. Finally, I can enjoy the route I bought four months ago with neither terrible performance nor glowing grass.



Cheers

 

Kudos to DTG for moving so quickly to make a potentially great route enjoyable.

Query: can the same "radioactive weeds" fix be applied to Cane Creek as well?

 

Very nice! Glad to see it got fixed so fast, good job from the team!

Couldn't try it yet, as I did a run on the Tohoku Line in TS, as it also just got a patch today. But I will definitely celebrate by doing a few runs on Sherman Hill during the weekend.

 

I'm doing a run on Sherman as I type this, and something very bizarre is happening that I have never seen in this game before. For some reason, my framerate is locked to 60FPS. This shouldn't be the case, as I have it set to lock at 90FPS in the settings. Just to double check, I turned down all graphics settings to lowest and placed my camera facing down in a random empty field and.... still 60. To test that I'm not crazy, I loaded up GWE and was able to surpass 60FPS easily. Another peculiarity is that the pause menu shoots straight up to 90 but lowers back to 60 when I unpause.

Normal:


Reduced graphics:


Staring at ground:


I have never seen the game cap framerates on a route-by-route basis but since the menu and other routes still work normally, I don't think this is a problem with my particular setup. This isn't a large issue compared to Sherman's previous faults, it's just strange. 60FPS is still perfectly fine, but didn't pay for an RTX 3080 to play games at 60FPS, and I am one who can easily tell the difference.

I couldn't say for certain whether this is a new issue because, until recently, 60FPS on Sherman Hill was not even achievable on my PC.

Cheers

 

And the answer is no.

 

Yeah, I think I've found another crossing on the other side of Sherman Hill doing the same thing. I guess I need to start a thread in Technical Reports about it.

This latest patch fixed the missing ballast texture on the Cheyenne bridges for me, though I've noticed a couple of other things:

On the south side of Cheyenne Yard there is this line of telephone poles, most of which are levitating.



Also, at this location between Hermosa and Cheyenne...

...there are some tire tracks on a dirt road going up into the air.


Just to the east of this area a dirt road parallels the tracks on the north side which also exibits some tire track levitation over the dirt surface though nothing quite this pronounced.

DW

 

The latest patch update actually work great in term of performance improvement. I can run everything on Ultra at 40-ish fps on my potato machine, barely experienced any micro stutter across the map.

 

Since last 2 updates, i'm actually pretty surprised by the performance improvement, much much better compared to the initial release of this addon.

 

That level crossing that was casting the grey shadow I posted about seems like it was fixed with that last update. I've been across it a couple of times since and haven't seen that shadow. I was sure I had seen it elsewhere too and found a couple more:

One at this point between Cheyenne and Hermosa




And one here between Hermosa and Laramie




Also the lights at the crossing at this location between Cheyenne and Hermosa don't seem to be working, the blinking red lights don't come on


DW