PC Definitive Stutter Fix Via Engine.ini Settings

There will shortly be an update which hits what (I think) is a sweet-spot for the screens and makes the volumetric fog look much more natural.

 

geloxo glad to see you are still around. Just wanted to tank you again for the extremely detailed regarding DirectX 12 optimizations that gave us all a chance to understand and use settings that can actually remove the stutter and make the game a lot more enjoyable. I tough you completely stoped playing TSW a while back ago during TSW 2 times but its nice to see you are still around. Your knowledge of the inner workings of unreal engine are quite amazing, are you a game developer or work with unreal engine?

 

Thanks for the comment. I was indeed out for a long time. I just played TSW3 for 20h according to Steam, so imagine. I´m not a game developer nor I have anything to do with Unreal. But that engine is quite well documented so anyone can learn about it. All I want is to enjoy game, that´s why I want to test the configurations. We are forced to go this way alone as the situation has not changed at all as far as I have seen, so it´s that or parking game for a second time. I think many of us are really tired after so many years facing the same issues over and over again with no solution other than more DLCs, so let´s see how this turns to be. I don´t intend to waste too much money at least.

Cheers

 

JetWash I was about to start making a video showing the vanilla game Vs the ToD4 Lighting Overhaul ini settings for TSW4 that you put together and work with my daughter to edit it, but she ended up recording and editing it with a little help from me, it took a bit of time to get it were it's watchable and not have the audio blaring, on one scenario you have zero option to turn the music down other than turn the sound completely down to zero. With that said please see the video below and hopefully it shows how much better everything looks, any changes/updates you think could be made to the video, let me know, and I along with my daughter will make the corrections.

 

Haha a meeting in order to get special drivers for TSW is not going to happen . This is not the newest game engine around and the problem lies in the optimization of the game itself not the video drivers. You must not forget that plenty of oder unreal engine games have also been affected by serious stutter due to shader compilation mostly.
I also don't know if Matt who is quite a fantastic person r will step up any kind of optimisation, I don't think DTG is interested in implementing any full of partial fix to the horrible stuttering issue yet.

That is true. Still I think the sim has a lot of good things to offer and that's why most off us including you still stick around. And DTG are progressing in some aspects like route length, details, sounds, it's only the dreaded stuttering that has seen no improvements since maybe TSW1. From what I understood the two main problems regarding stutter are tile loading and even worse shader compilation. Now we do have memory pool tweaks that could be implemented and also a command (create shaders on load)that does force the shaders to be saved instead of keep compiling them over and over. But could we force the shader compilation for all the routes at start of the game, just like modern games do ? Or even when starting a scenario force it during loading screen. That would eliminate the stuttering on the initial run , but I think only devs can implement that.

Have a nice evening ?

 

The ancient problem of Unreal Engine is that older versions were not designed for intense graphics games but for more modest applications with not too heavy loads, even if you can still use it by a brute force approach with nowadays HW. It´s still basically a single core game (where CPU load among your cores is still handled by Windows), not a real multicore application where different CPU cores can run different tasks. That results in tons of operations being queued and repeated cyclically (per frame). It´s a well known issue that Unreal 4 struggles to do three things at the same time: loading a new tile in the map, handling garbage (clean old assets used in previous tiles) and handle shaders/light. At the same time those things are some of the most relevant ones for rendering, so you can´t simply ignore them. They need to happen or you won´t see new buildings, your would run out of memory or you would not see light and materials.

So if today you require HD textures, moderate complexity light/shadows, a big city with a station/yard, several trains and something not pathetic like a 2km viewdistance that will result in an intense workload that can´t be resolved in just 1 frame, so it will need to be propagated by Engine to N frames until all is complete. That results in hitching and low fps because the more instructions to run the higher time code will need to run a given cycle completely. And that time depends on the code but also on how fast your system is as well.

For instance, and making explanation maybe too simple: 1 frame at 60 fps basically means that all that work needs to be resolved ideally in less than 16ms. If it takes less the 60 fps figure can be kept or even increased as other tasks can still use the remaining portion of the frame time. If it takes more it will start to delay the following tasks and will result in a fps drop as some tasks will need to be shifted to the next frames until workload is balanced again and you can return to a 16ms latency. However there´s where DX12 makes real sense as it´s able to handle assets in batches, instead of handling them one by one as DX11 does. It´s also specially efficient in the handling of shaders. Under DX12 overall CPU usage is reduced while GPU one is normally increased but overall performance is always improved, while still being limited by the engine constraints and the old project default parameters if they are not changed.

For that reason is so important to tweak engine.ini, because devs clearly never wanted to mess around with that configuration and they still use most of the generic variable values provided by the Engine when it was released to public. However Unreal 1 was released 20 years ago. Unreal 4 was released almost 10 years ago, but developement started in the early 2000s indeed. On the other hand every 2 years computing power is basically duplicated, so make some numbers yourself. This means in plain words that today´s computers are 20 times faster than when Unreal 4 was released. You can´t pretend to use the same old configuration, it´s so simple, as neither computers nor consoles will be able to use all their available resources. Engine is old but it´s free for users and cheap for studios, that´s why it´s so widely used. I read some time ago that EPIC gets only 5% royalties or something in that range when an Unreal game is sold. I don´t know it that´s still the case but anyway it´s known to be an affordable engine.

On the other hand the problem with shaders is basically that they depend on your HW configuration. That´s why most developers in almost all games decide to let compilation on the player´s computer side, or the amount of pre-compiled shaders files to be shipped with games would be insane. Steam implemented an exotic and barely documented solution where shader files are shared among users with similar GPU cards, so you can download them form other users and yours will be uploaded for other users to use them as well. Shaders can be created on load but it means also that compilation will take time there and that could mean several minutes loading to start game and maps. So basically in most cases an initial and generic set is generated before loading and the rest are generated on demand depending on the map.

Cheers

 

Both of you could probably add input into helping DTG optimize the game.

They do read the forums so they are taking notes I would guess.

There is a survey they do in December I think and we can add our input there too.

With the improvements I have seen (a pattern) over the years, I will guess this is one thing they will get done sooner than later.

Especially as console gamers don't have the ability to mod the files.

You both have expertise and I have found using this tweak by Dbrunner#4864 is the best.

As a rule I don't use mods the game is outstanding.

I do hope we see some talking NPCs at some stage where we can do some puzzle scenarios (I know but a bit of exploring and reading is great fun while solving puzzles!). Mind you it might take a 3rd party developer to make a game within TSW as I mentioned. But will need a bit more scenery in towns. See my posts on the French Normandy LGV Paris-Rennes route. Also to drive a Le Mans car around the track. I know I got a little sidetracked from shader caches... ROFL Bear with me please ;-)

The new photo mode is also used by EA Sports/Codemasters in the new WRC game. Unreal is being used for the first time instead of EGO engine because Unreal can make longer tracks. So there are some real long tracks coming in November when it's released.

 

JetWash I just had my daughter grab this screenshot of a comment made on the linked video above I just wanted to pass on the kind words received.

 

Have any of you ini wizards figd out a way to get LOD to scale up at all? I swear its gotten worse w each TSW# and in 4 LOD's don't sharpen up until you're literally face to face

 

That’s awesome! So pleased it’s making a difference for people

 

That it does, and with the steam commands "-HIGH -USEALLAVAILABLECORES -DX12" and your ini and with some mods muuch betta

 

What do those commands do?

Apart from DX12 which I use already.

 

-HIGH =A command for the computer to give more resources to the game while it's running.
-USEALLAVAILABLECORES =A command for the computer to use all cores when you run the game
-DX12 =We all have come to know and admire.

 

Hello dbrunner#4864

I really like what you did with this ini. It really helps about the stuttering (there are still some, but it's much better), and the graphics improvements from your settings are really visual.

However, I have an issue about the lighting. So, I did everything you recommend on your mod page, installed God Mode, Improved Signal Visuals, Better Rain, and I gave it another try, but there is still that nagging problem : my screen is much much darker when I use your ini.

I'm using TS4, with the "high" settings and here what it does on a cloudy day in ECML (with skylight set to 0.4 in both pictures):
When I'm not using your ini file


When I'm using it

I think it's so dark because of the exposure you set or something like that, but I'd like to know if it is intended or if there is something wrong.
I know uk is gloom, but that may be a bit much

 

I’m gonna assume that’s for me.

The simple answer is don’t set the skylight intensity to 0.4 then. I said it is to be tuned to your liking on a service by service basis. Far from being a nagging problem, the lighting being darker overall is the whole point, you control the final element (ie how dark) yourself via the slider so tune it to your liking.

Regarding your images, there is very very little difference between the two externally, but in the first image the cab looks like an overlay on the image whereas in the second it looks part of the scene.

Finally I have a new version in the works tuned specifically for TSW4 for which I set up a new thread.

https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/enhancement-tsw4-tod4-lighting-overhaul-v3.74685/

 

Hello

As JetWash noticed the settings that change lighting are in his config since the main purpose of his TOD are to correct lighting and exposure while also providing stutter performance tweaks.. The values I have provided only address the stutter issue and do not touch anything on the visual side.

 

Sorry for the mixup in who did what. I confess it's blurry for me.

The main issue I have is that even when leaving skylight to 1.0, it feels kinda dark to me. But I understand better what you intended to do. It's true the cab seems lighter for no reason without your engine.ini tweaks.

I'll try to fiddle with various parameters to find something that agrees with me.
Thank you for your answer. And next time, I'll try to comment in the correct thread.

 

Could you say if those settings will work with TSW4?
Thanks

 

You just need to copy them to the engine.ini for TSW4 and they will work perfectly. Me and other members did quite some runs with these tweaks and everything still works fine just as it was for TSW3

 

Can I add a line to the engine file so darker routes like Luzern Sursee can have the brightness turned up? All pre TSW3 suffer this I think espeically if not running in summer.

 

I'm wondering, does DX12 make the graphics sharper?

 

Another option to this general solution for more advanced users is to just run the game through DXVK. Translating it to Vulkan has exactly the same effect of generating a persistent shader cache that will only be flushed when the GPU driver changes. If you've done this before for other games on windows, this might be more comfortable for you.

 

Not necessarily stuttering related, but how comes that sometimes I am barely getting 15 FPS on Kassel-Würzburg, despite the game barely using half my CPU and only 10% of my GPU?

 

Thanks, for the tip.
Didn't know DXVK before, works well. Will check it on several games

 

The reason you're seeing this is you're out of VRAM (notice the GPU memory graph halfway off the bottom - as a rule of thumb, 90% or higher usage is equivalent to full due to a certain amount being required as a reserve). When the PC starts to need to switch textures between shared VRAM (which is allocated on one of the main system RAM sticks in your PC) and dedicated VRAM, performance in whatever you're running always takes a massive dive. Try turning down the view distance and texture quality.

 

No it shouldn't do anything to the sharpness unless you do have some settings in the video card control panel to increase sharpness.

Good observation. Now Dinosbacsi KSW is already a quite demanding route but i am wondering what memory pool settings did you use in your config.
You should use something extremely low since you lack VRAM like

r.Streaming.PoolSize=1500
r.Streaming.MaxTempMemoryAllowed=900
r.RenderTargetPoolMin=600

****i have not tested such low values but should stil be better than default

You can even disable these and see if it runs better.
Alternatively lower the Texture quality ingame since this will fill up the most VRAM just like lordbean also suggested

You should really invest in a video card if possible, 6 GB of VRAM should be minimum or else you wont be able to do 1080 gaming with decent settings. Aim for something cheap if yo udont want to invest to much like RX6600, RTX3060, 4060, RX6700 etc, even SH boards like RTX2060 would do the trick

 

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks, guys!

You are right, I did have my pool size set to:
r.Streaming.PoolSize=7000
r.Streaming.MaxTempMemoryAllowed=3000
r.RenderTargetPoolMin=1200

Will try the values you suggested and see how it runs.
I know my specs are quite outdated by now. I do plan on getting a completely new PC in the near future, it's just never a top priority at the present. My two cars and wedding preparations suck up all the money, lol.

 

Well congrats for the wedding man!
Yes do try the changes suggested and you should see some improvement

 

A question here - does it matter where my game install files are located for the shaders? I have TSW4 on an external HDD drive. I noticed that the DX Shader cache on the C: drive has space used; but the DX Shader cache on my external drive (where the installation files are located) does not. If I find some space on my C: drive, should I move the installation there for better performance?

PC/Steam/Ryzen7/RTX3060

 

I was getting massive stutters in MSFS2020 and found this.

Will it affect write caching for the shaders?

https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/two-years-of-stutters-finally-fixed/582405

 

I think the shader cache is in your system/boot disk.

Not sure if it can be changed.

So where your Documents folder is stored that is where the shaders are.

I do know you can relocate your documents folder along with others, but it might cause system instability if you move it to an external drive.

 

Thank you! I did move TSW onto my system (C) drive and it seems to perform a lot better; but I suspect because that is a SSD rather than an HDD drive, as well as being the same drive as the shader cache.

 

You modders seriously need to get a job with Dovetails. You seem to be doing a whole lot more than they're doing at this point, and all for free. Thanks man!
Another thing. Just throwing this out there. What I'd like to see Dovetails do is also add third rail sparks to the North American routes as well

 

Old thread, I know. But don't use Taskmanager for GPU usage, it is bugged. Use tools like Rivatuner Statistics Server or capframeX which is an all in one package. Taskmanager is not suitable to find out the real RAM usage or GPU usage.

 

Also Kassel is one of the most demanding routes for TSW. There are areas where my otherwise medium loaded RX6700 XT ramps up the fans and GPU usage skyrockets while fps goes slightly down from solid 60 fps. This is the only or among the only routes where this occurs.

 

Hi dbrunner#4864,

I am so grateful for the time you spent to perfect these tweaks and to document them in this forum.

I am wondering what you make of Alex's TSW4 announcement thread, in which he seemed to say that the default behavior of TSW4 is to cache the shaders after they've been compiled once during play:

Isn't this the entire point of your fix described in your original post? Could it be they saw your work and baked it in TSW4? The messages in this thread seem to imply it isn't the case... What am I missing?

 

Hello. I am glad you also found these settings useful on your side
Without the ini tweaks I always had stuttering regardless of how many times I ran a route so I am not sure how the default shader creation process would help on stock settings.
Also keep in mind that DX12 is more prone to stutter but also provides more fps, so using custom tweaks would be mandatory in this case in order to get smooth gameplay.
Another factor would be that the ini tweaks also contain lines that try to improve the tile loading process, another factor of hitches during gameplay, beside the shader cache issue itself.
I hope that this answers your questions

Right now i am using JetWash excellent Lighting graphic enhancement mod with some of my settings forced over in the god mode ini section
https://www.trainsimcommunity.com/m.../i3889-tsw-4-lighting-graphic-enhancement-v47
You can also try this mode if you have some extra gpu power

 

For anyone wondering if these still work I did a full run on WCML and Frankfurt Fulda without any issues with the tweaks applied for TSW5.
Settings still work in TSW5 if you copy them to the engine ini. Also don't forget to put the - DX12 launch parameter in steam
I tried to run first at stock settings without ini tweaks and at Fulda it was a major stutter fest without even leaving the station

 

Yep, +1 from me.

Set "-dx12" and just copy-pasted my TSW4 customisations into the TSW5 version after first launch - stuttering on all first route runs, next runs are lovely and smooth!

 

Yup sadly there is still some have stutter especially during the start of the drive. Eventually it will get less and less even before finishing the first run.
Second run as you said it's quite smooth with some small exceptions. Still beats the default stock settings since there you have lower fps (dx11) and constant stutter
I'm curious if JetWash will update his awesome lighting and graphics mod for TSW5 since I was using my tweaks with his mod for best graphics and performance.

 

Working on it as we speak. It’s looking amazing, if I do say so myself

 

Great news, looking forward for this!

When TSW5 was announced I was wondering if they will change the lighting to a degree that you might not consider the graphic mod needed.
But as soon as the preview streams got out I knew you will get or work again!

At leat they fixed the track shadows now

 

I would say it’s almost done except I’m having an issue on WCMLS.

Rivet insist on using this crappy procedural foliage that pops up in front of the player which is totally unnecessary. When trying to improve that it is possible to sometimes see blocks of trees appearing in the sky. How or why that happens is beyond me, but only on Rivet built routes.

The grass cull command and grass max update frequency commands help the foliage pop up not be so obvious, but on Rivet specifically seems to cause these SkyTrees. Ordinarily limiting the grass cull distance to no more than 2 (and no more) solves the issue except this time it isn’t.

Back to the drawing board.

 

That is unfortunate, reminds me of the old TSW2 style grass that used to grow 2 m in front of the train.
If you cannot find a solution for this why not skip the grass tweaks for WCML. At least until somebody maybe mods the route and switches the grass completely with newer one.
I mean we all appreciate your work but clearly this route had some major issues.
Or just live it with floating trees, as long as we drive at night we won't see them as the route is pitch black
Really, driving WCML at night feels like driving on Bakerloo with the TOD4 mod.

 

I’ve tried that and it’s not working. I’m gonna take a break from it and come back because I don’t understand what’s going on here.

 

Well in that case its better to just relax and see if you might figure this one out once rested. Could you ask someone from rivet about this issue ? They know what kind of grass and trees setup they have on the route. Might be like talking to a tree but it's worth a try. Heck even someone from DTG team might know how to get over the floating tree issues, no?

 

Honestly, given the state of the route I’d be better off asking a dog than Rivet

Edited to add that I *think* I’ve cracked it. Fingers crossed.

 

Haha you are funny

I am glad you finally sorted this out. Can't wait to see what changes you did in your Lighting and Graphic mod for this version. Should be a blast

 

A shot that I've just been sent by one of the group;



Hopefully I'll have it all compiled etc by Monday at the latest