There's quite a few threads kicking about that discuss edits to the engine.ini file. I thought it would be helpful to have an up-to-date thread with hints & tips etc. Here's a very quick comparison video of the game in it's Vanilla state (bottom) and then the edits I use (top), all of which are there for a reason and have been picked up from various different sources and are designed to work across all routes. One thing I have managed to do is reduce the AA flickering when stationary. Whilst not getting rid of it entirely, it's a definite improvement. ...and here are the settings I've settled on. [SystemSettings] r.ViewDistanceScale=8 r.StaticMeshLODDistanceScale=0.70 foliage.LODDistanceScale=5 r.ShadowQuality=5 r.Shadow.DistanceScale=2.0 r.DefaultFeature.MotionBlur=0 r.TextureStreaming=0 r.BloomQuality=1 r.TemporalAASamples=64 r.SkeletalMeshLODBias=-2 r.Color.Mid=0.4 r.HighQualityLightMaps=1 r.PostProcessAAQuality=6 r.MaxAnisotropy=16 r.Tonemapper.Quality=4 r.Tonemapper.GrainQuantization=1 r.SceneColorFringe.Max=0 r.SceneColorFringeQuality=0 I have Motion Blur and Texture Streaming forced off, and the bloom turned way down from the default setting. These settings get rid of objects loading in just in front of the train, marginally increase the shadow draw distance and increase the quality of trains etc as they come into view.
Thanks for sharing. I would provide the following, which I recently discovered and we discussed in another topic: r.LandscapeLODDistributionScale=3 It increases terrain LOD distance (the same as the foliage and StaticMesh do). Standard value is 1. Higher values reduce the terrain covering tunnel entries and distant tracks. It appears that values higher than 3 or 4 have no effect. It has almost no impact on performance but avoids what is seen on the next picture: If you want to go even more extreme you can use: r.LandscapeLOD0DistributionScale=3 (notice that this one is named LOD0, not LOD). The LOD0 one modifies the viewdistance for the most detailed terrain LOD, allowing it to appear at more distant positions. It completely removed the tunnels issue and still has almost no impact on performance, while the LOD one variant still leaves some residual terrain issues. To me this one is a clear must have. By the way how do you record your videos at 60fps? I tried with Nvidia encoding (NVENC) and also with CPU encoding (x264 codec) and I get a lot of stuttering in the output video, while gameplay itself is much smoother when recording. I use XSplit Gamecaster to record. Cheers
That's brill. I'd completely misread the other thread and thought it was the foliage.LODDistanceScale. I'll definitely add that one to my file! The 60fps things is a but of a faff. I cap the game at 60fps (as I have a 60hz 4K monitor) and the game happily sits there 98% of the time, stutters excluded. I record it with Nvidia Shadowplay but if I then try and edit the raw output (I use Davinci Resolve, although it's the same with Adobe Premiere) the sound gradually un-syncs from the video. The only way around it is to run the raw recordings through Handbrake with settings I spent a long time nailing down. That outputs it at a constant 60fps and 4K (for TSW) or 3200x1800 (for TS2021). I can then master it in Resolve and that will output both of those in 4K 60fps. To get it looking good on YT you need a BIG bitrate which means big file sizes (sometimes close to 50GB). They can take up to a full day to upload on my 10mpbs (up) connection, but it can then take YouTube up to 72hrs to process it into 4K. It's a bit of an arduous process but I think the results are worth it
Still need something to make the game brighter driving at night and other than high summer. I did an autumn cloudy run from Paddington to Reading the other day and 1130 in the morning, was like driving in twilight.
Thanks for the comments about editing video hightower. I was always quite lazy to investigate those editing things and video settings. Someday I will try to improve I edited my previous post. It seems with the terrain variables the value 3 is enough to remove most the tunnel issues. Remember not to go too extreme with the LODs, just in case your performance drops. Cheers
Thanks for these tips will give them a try on my new spangly P.C! Edit, the lod distance for the sleepers are improved but can I get them even further out? Also the trees still seem to be popping into full detail quite close to the train, can that be adjusted further? And would it be better to edit the .ini file with Notepad++ rather than ordinary notepad?
Hi. You can play around with it to your hearts content, you have to find the sweet spot for your system. There is no one size fits all sadly. You can reduce this; r.StaticMeshLODDistanceScale=0.70 The lower the number the more demanding on your system but the better it will look. Lowest possible value is 0.25. Best route to try it on is East Coast Way as the pop-in is terrible on that route. You can also increase this one; foliage.LODDistanceScale=5 Bare in mind this is a multiplier, so the higher number the more demanding. 5 is already quite a high number and renders foliage & trees in higher detail 5x further away than default. Making it 10 will be 10x and so on. I have a 3900x and 2080ti and run the game in 4K Ultra with 100% screen resolution. I cap the game at 60fps and honestly, if I start pushing those numbers higher than this I start to see fps falling more regularly below 60. Finally, bog standard notepad is just fine, it is only a text file. HTH. ps This guide is well worth a read... https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1378928501 ...but bare in mind it was written for the original TSW and some of the changes are no longer necessary or have no effect.
These are my ini file settings. [SystemSettings] r.ViewDistanceScale=12 r.StaticMeshLODDistanceScale=0.25 r.ShadowQuality=5 r.Shadow.DistanceScale=2.0 r.TextureStreaming=0 r.BloomQuality=1 r.TemporalAASamples=64 foliage.LODDistanceScale=10 r.SkeletalMeshLODBias=-5 r.MipMapLODBias=-3 r.MipMapLODBias=-2 r.EyeAdaptationQuality=0 r.MaterialQualityLevel=0 r.Color.Mid=0.4 r.MaxAnisotropy=16 r.Tonemapper.Quality=4 r.Tonemapper.GrainQuantization=1 r.SceneColorFringe.Max=0 r.SceneColorFringeQuality=0 r.PostProcessAAQuality=6 r.LandscapeLODODistributionScale=3 Runs smooth as butter except for the micro stutters that an update introduced awhile back that's fixed at 30fps by steam not the game, the 1060 I had previously stuttered real bad. It now looks and plays beautifully.
you could also try some stuff from here Engine:Unreal Engine 4 - PCGamingWiki PCGW - bugs, fixes, crashes, mods, guides and improvements for every PC game
Could someone please post a vanilla engine.ini, please? I want to start from scratch as I'm running extensive tests to see if these changes make "that" much of a difference? I'm putting ridiculous settings in as part of my tests but I would like to start from the basic one, no I didn't make a copy of the original, doh! On my system at least these settings are making no difference? Why is that I wonder?
Righto fella's cheers, after extensive testing I'm at a loss as to why adding those settings work for some but not for others?
I wondered, has anyone found a way to stop the grass rendering right front of you other than the materialquality command, which I’d rather not use as it messes other things up (like getting rid of the 3D ballast) It’s particularly bad on older routes, particularly Tees Valley, & I’d love to stop it if possible. Cheers.
Unfortunately it seems stuck at the set render scale, just like shadows. Changing the values has no effect on this.
I feared as much. This really sucks...I’m really getting sick of these intentional limitations being placed on the game Technology is moving on (let’s face it, HAS moved on) and TSW needs to cater for that, just as much as it falls over itself trying to cater for the lowest common denominator. These are the ‘recommended’ specs...you could be forgiven for thinking they’re actually the minimum. RECOMMENDED: OS: 64-bit Windows 7 Service Pack 1, Windows 8 / 8.1 or Windows 10 Processor: Intel Core i7-4790 @ 3.6 GHz or AMD Ryzen 7 1700 @ 3.8 GHz Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 or AMD Radeon RX 480 with 4 GB VRAM or more (AMD Max Supported Driver 20.4.2) DirectX: Version 10 Network: Broadband Internet connection Storage: 20 GB available space Sound Card: DirectX Compatible Additional Notes: Requires mouse and keyboard or Xbox Controller I, for one, think it’s high time this game started to push the boundaries a bit more.
Hi. FWIW I've just released a video showing the difference the engine.ini edits can make to the game. I'd forgotten just how ropey the game looks in it's release state!
I am not certain if there is a command that specifically affects the draw distance of tracks, but I've found that the regular r.ViewDistanceScale increases draw distance of tracks. Cheers
I had a dream where DTG took some days to optimize their game and allow all to get 60 Fps fix without any tweaks and without any stuttering. But like I said - was just a dream
I just wish they would change the scalability and allow people with the hardware to have Ultra as a proper ‘Ultra’. I don’t get why they would hamper every setting like this, where the ‘Ultra’ setting is nothing like it.
Try r.StaticMeshLODDistanceScale=0.5 or lower but be advised that performance hit is high on yards as the switches will be drawn at very high quality from much longer distances. It´s intended for the static meshes like buildings and structures but for some reason in TSW2 it defines the quality of tracks as well including its curvature (less polygonal shape). I have noticed that r.ViewDistanceScale only changes the scenery draw distance but maybe both are linked to each other. What I use is: r.ViewDistanceScale=2 r.StaticMeshLODDistanceScale=0.25 Cheers
The "creeping sleepers" effect isn't a function of asset draw distance- they're actually already there- what we are seeing is the sleepers' shadows popping in, and nobody has yet found, that I know of, an .ini command that affects the shadow draw distance.
As far as I’m aware the shadow distance is ‘locked in’ so no ini command can change it. Only DTG can change this although they seem extremely reluctant to due to ‘performance issues’ which probably only affect the lower end devices.
I read something about people using a programme called ReShade on TS, does that have any application for TSW? Or is it better to adjust the engine.ini file? https://reshade.me/
Depends what you are trying to do , its as the name suggest a re shader so it has no effect on draw distances ect.
Rob39 None of these commands seem to do anything to the visuals. It seems the gameplay console is 'locked' by DTG so changing it doesn't do anything.
Agreed. I have played with all the r.shadow commands and none of them seem to help; I concur with londonmidland that DTG have overridden this part of UE, part I guess of TSW's overall wonky lighting. Note also that the discussion above relates to movable meshes (for us, things like trains), not static meshes which include trackage.
https://answers.unrealengine.com/questions/44088/gammatone-washing-out-image-how-to-fix-1.html trying some of these suggestions as contrast especially in the wet isnt looking good.
TBH, the best solution I have found for washed-out-ness is to adjust the gamma in my graphics card's control panel
Id recommend the three tone mapper settings though. The trains have retained their colour in all weather scenarios.
Not for the technically minded, and no uninstall either one has to go into folders to delete individual files!
Is there anything in the ini that can reduce the reflective light coming from ground objects? I find, when facing the sun everything is overly bright, reflective and shiny. I'm thinking fields and ballast. I have gamma and everything set up for corrected brightness looking.away from the sun, and it look good, it's just when you face the sun.
