Enough Is Enough!!! The Ongoing Saga!!! It's Almost The 3 Year Anniversary

Itll be interesting to see if the JT route has rain in tunnels etc or if that is a DTG only phenomenon..

 

I suspect that's a problem with the core program, but if JT can pull it off, it'll be egg on DTGs face.

I do hope they up their game after this

 

I'll be listening for reverb in tunnels and audio effects over bridges and with passing AI locos and wagons.

I'm already disappointed with the night lighting, but that alone will not stop me buying the route if it is otherwise as good as it looked and sounded on stream.

 

Interesting. I bought TSW4 principally to get the full fat NYT timetable and, as it turns out, I'm glad I did because I don't see it coming for TSW3. Nothing else in TSW4 has much interest for me, I'm already bored to death with ECML and Voralberg and AVL has too many issues.

Blackpool may increase the value of TSW4 as will future US dlc, but, otherwise there are no new features that make it worth buying in and of itself unless you have an unnatural desire to drive in fog

 

Maybe I’m being biased but I’ve actually found the Antelope Valley Line to be quite enjoyable, despite all the bug fixes it needs. The equipment for it is pretty much bug free, for the most part. But the route seriously needs some attention. I would say with no mods, it’s not worth it in the long run. But I feel like pretty much everyone has their TSW4 modded on PC at this point because it fixes a lot of stuff. So, with the mods, I quite enjoy the route.

- God Mode
- Lighting and Graphics overhaul
- Signal light flare fix

I find those, at a minimum, to be almost necessary to enjoy the route.

 

I don't do mods, on the principle that routes should work as advertised without players needing to correct the developer's mistakes and/or omissions.

Not that I don't respect and admire the skill of those who create the mods. I do. But I also see that mods can also lead to problems which is why they're not officially supported by DTG.

 

It depends. I keep my mods updated, always using the latest updated DLC files as a base where I do my changes on. That's the most important thing. A modder you can trust . After an official update, I check the datestamps on the DLC paks, unpack if new and update my mod using the new files.

In fact, combinations of mods can cause issues, if they are modifying the same file. You then need to experiment with load order by changing the filename (that's why you see a lot of mods starting with an exclamation mark making sure they're loaded on top of everything else. They all wanna be number one ).

God Mode is essential (for the devs also I think) and not known to cause any sorts of trouble. Foobian is a real wizard with a bright future in software development.

 

I have not had much stutter lately, at all. What is going on? Dare I dream it is fixed?

TSW4/PC/Steam/Ryzen7/RTX3060

 

I still get stutters. Other platforms have it to. You probably got lucky and it turned out to be a smooth run but they haven't been removed completely

 

I just said in another thread, I loaded TSW4 last night, continued my pre-patch save game of SEHS, and thought it was quite smooth. When I was last playing it, pre-patch, it was bloomin' awful.

I need to try a few different routes that are also my first run in TSW4 and since fresh driver installation, i.e. shaders having to reload.

 

I still get the micros, but they are very quick and there are no freezes or long periods of stutter. If it is fixed at the core level, that is huge.

 

No stutters here (only some hardly noticeable microstutters from time to time), running on DX12.

 

I’ve got no stutters at all. Silky smooth performance. Running on DX12 with the graphics overhaul mod.

 

To be a true indicator, it needs to be judged in default DX11, unmodded, with default .ini settings, the way DTG have developed it and would test it themselves. Still, good it's running well for you guys, either way.

 

Gotta say, looking at videos from the Preston route - that's a lot closer to what TSW should've been doing from day 1. The Pacer is implemented in three liveries and three power configurations, making a total of 9 versions in one DLC, class 47 in 3 liveries, and Gronk in 2. That's how you already create a variety without a need for extra content. Why is a multiple-livery approach not a standard is beyond me. Instead DTG has you pay extra for a unit you already own, but in green stripe and rainbow stripe.

 

Exactly, we had this when Sand Patch Grade was originally re-released for TSW. All units had both the YN2 and YN3 paints for them with minor differences between the 2.

-This could of been done with Clinchfield, with the Grey and Black liveries being available for the F7 & the SD40 (A FREAKING MOD DID THIS)
-This could of been done with Sherman Hill, with both the earlier "Thundercab" Variant and the later ISO cab/AH variant of the SD70ACe (Plus the Special Interest and Heritage Units)
-This could of been done with Cane Creek with Skyhook games, with the UP AC44 being available in various paints and configurations, even patched units
-This could of been done with the ES44C4 from Cajon Pass, with both the ES44DC, and ES44AC added along side the C4 version (Plus the 10 "Sticker" units as well)

So much potential content that DTG could easily add to a route in game but yet, nothing.....
But then again, if they did this routes would probably break more....

 

Yup, JT seem to be shining a spotlight on the potential that DTG leave untapped. Very positive reviews and feedback on the dedicated feedback thread for the route.

 

I'm not driving the Pacer much yet, until they add RailDriver support (if they do). But there are 4 services with the Stanier 8F and a lot of variety with the BR Blue locos. I have to agree with the positive reviews for the most part.

 

Yeah, it's great that JT seem to have delivered a worthwhile product but people still need to me mindful of the fact that it hasn't magically transformed TSW4 into a good game, it's merely papered over the cracks.
High standards have been set with Blackpool Branches but sadly, it's a foregone conclusion that those standards will once again be lowered when DTG release their own addons into the game.

 

Hence why it didn't manage to convince me to get the TSW4 yet, and probably nothing will at least until I still have plenty from the back catalogue for TSW3 to obtain (next would be probably Niddertalbahn, or one of the 2 remaining DLCs for TSW2 I still don't have).

 

It looks really good. Unfortunately it isn't enough for me to part with £60 to buy it. It is what it is but loads of credit to JT, they appear to have done an amazing job!

 

BPO also causing crashes on PC, in fact I would go so far as to say potentially hardware damaging crash at least the one I experienced which has taken the edge off considerably. At this stage unknown if TSW4 core or the route at fault but making me reluctant to load it for another drive.

 

No computer game is going to damage your hardware. Ever. I’ve had zero issues with it for what it’s worth.

 

There is no way that the new route will damage your computer. It has no admin access, and obviously can't affect vital physical components. Any other issues caused can be fixed by turning the computer off and on again.

 

Hardware damage reasons:

Age ((low quality) capacitors blow up)
USB Killer / static electricity
Overheating / dust

Not game code. No issues with the route here.

 

The times where in theory a CPU or GPU could blow up because of heat problems etc. are long gone. Your PC will shutdown before those things happen.

 

Or lock up like in Vern's case. Of course can only speculate from the distance. But I'd still check for thermal issues.

 

Cleaning any heatsinks, fans and grilles is a really good thing to do; this should be the first port of call in the event of thermal issues.

 

If it was just me, then yes. But other people have reported the same issue at the same location (approaching Preston). So sounds more like a rogue or corrupt tile or object is causing the sim to crash, with varying symptoms according to particular configuration.

As a precaution I looked in the case and no contamination with fluff or hair.

Besides, TSW has never crashed out like that before, in fact it has always been stable compared to TSC with its not uncommon OOM crashes. And after my reboot I spent 30 or so minutes in Snowrunner which if anything is more demanding than TSW - not a problem. So I hate to say it, but the finger points squarely at something in this particular route which isn't doing what it should.

 

If it was something in the route it would be crashing for everyone at the same point, every single time. That isn’t the case, so the finger more likely points at your hardware I’m afraid.

Far from crashing, I find the route runs incredibly well and has zero by way of stutters and hitches. There must be something with the burden it puts on your machine at that specific point and the way your machine deals with it that is causing it to crash.

 

Wasn't there a problem a couple of years ago with some EA anti-cheat that seriously damaged SSDs?

Definitely, I would say it even does further damage as it reveals how it can be done if done properly, something you will NOT see with DTG products. And yeah, it releasing without its own starter pack means a hefty asking price to get to it. Because unnecessary extra paywalls are awesome!!!

 

Can't say I've had any crashes in thay area on my PC.

Haven't noticed any stutters either, but then I spent years playing a game that ran on 16fps

 

Except for New World, of course.

 

That wasn’t the game breaking hardware but a manufacturing defect in the hardware that was exposed by the game. That isn’t the same thing as game code damaging hardware directly which is, of course, not possible.

 

Unless it affects the firmware, leading the hardware to perform unexpectedly. Not direct damage, but damage attributable to software nevertheless.

 

It's still bad software design which all too many games still have, and which over a graphics card's total usage and the amount of time spent playing games with this flaw, probably contributes to some degree of reduced overall lifespan. Just stick a framerate cap in your menus, people. Folks don't need their graphics hardware thermally throttling there to prevent the kind of overheat seen in that batch of 3090s, all because they're pushing four digit fps.

It's really noticeable on the XBox Series X, normally a whisper quiet piece of kit except when pushing games with raytraced GI and/or shadows, but several games' extremely simple menu screens cause it to sound like a jet engine taking off any time you pause, as it attempts to push the uncapped framerate to the absolute limit.

 

I picked up a good tip on here. Sorry to whomever posted it as I can't remember who you are.

Set your frame rate limit to the refresh rate of your monitor.

There's permutations of that but that's the central takeaway.

 

EVGA themself stated it was card manufacturing defect
https://www.pcgamer.com/evga-explains-why-some-of-its-rtx-3090s-were-blowing-up-in-new-world/

Running cards at full power should never be a reliability issue, especially when we're talking about flagship cards, like the 3090. Also, card shouldn't be thermal throttling under full power.
Sure, running menu uncapped isn't optimal, but it should be efficiency and not reliability issue.
You have tons of old games that will run at insane FPS when you run them with current HW, it should never be a reliability issue. And that users would rather blame sw devs than manufacturer of the failed $1500 HW is mind boggling.

 

People have mentioned that no computer will damage your PC, I maybe wrong but I seem to remember that EA released something years ago and it had some sort of DRM on it and that was messing with peoples PC's. Some had to reinstall Windows and everything. Sure it was EA? Maybe not damaging hardware as such but certainly messing with peoples PC's through no fault of their own.

 

I just want to let you know about the Ormskirk-Preston-Blackpool route (Blackpool Branches). Do you know when take a look around the class 142, does anyone notice that the wipers are facing the wrong way if you move away from the class 142?. The wipers can only be correct from closer views.

 

Have you reported it in the official PBO feedback thread?

This is due to the LOD that is used at a certain distance (lower poly model to save resources). If JT are aware, they may fix it (or consider it a minor issue).

 

Yeah, there have been DRM systems that sometimes broke CD drives back in the day, because they replaced the manufacturer's driver for the hardware with a generic one designed by the DRM company, which lacked a bunch of the necessary features for proper performance and removed the designed safety systems.

 

I also recall an early version of that German model railway programme EEP, which crashed my laptop at the time and destroyed the OS, requiring a complete Windows (probably XP or 98 at the time) reinstall. Luckily that was back in the days when computer sellers actually gave you the physical copy of the Windows installation CD, no messing about with back up partitions.

 

On the subject of CD drives actually, and of dodgy batches of hardware that highlight issues with common software oversights, I have SEEN SOME THINGS back in the 90s with some early CD-RW drives.

The thing with the laser setups in some of them back then was, best I can tell from what I saw, that they were built to handle more power than they actually needed or ever used in normal operation. But it was possible for either bad software (I've seen this one demonstrated by someone who deliberately turned one into an etching tool) or hardware failure to bypass the regular operational limits that really ought to have been designed with cutouts to cause a total hardware failure of the drive before such an issue occurred, without them tripping anything. More than once, way back in the day, I have pulled the remnants of a disc out of someone's drive I've dismantled, with a deep black, melted score around it, distinct from the scratching and shatters seen when a drive physically breaks a disc through contact with the head. And sometimes with a hole melted clean through it where the disc has stopped spinning. One friend lost his brand new copy of Baldur's Gate to this exact phenomenon.

I can't recall when exactly I stopped seeing it but it was probably around the turn of the millennium. I always assumed some kinds of improved standards were finally introduced. Whatever the reason, I only ever had to deal with cracked discs for people after that and as we entered the DVD age.

 

I have put it on troubleshooting, but yet no one has replied, it happens on the livery designer right at the very start where the left hand wiper faces its original way. When the DLC was first introduced the wipers of the class 142 are like a 158. Seem as the class 142 was made like that in the first place, maybe they fixed it for closer views only.
https://forums.dovetailgames.com/th...-faces-wrong-way-from-further-distance.76167/

 

Yeah, odds are it's a leftover where someone fixed the high lod model but forgot to adjust the low lod one.

 

It was me, but I had actually heard it somewhere else originally. (not on these Forums)

 

While on the topic, I should mention the Denuvo DRM which DTG uses: a notorious framerate killer and r/w hog (which might be the cause of some stutters). DTG's first and easiest 'optimization' move - which would also save them some money - should be to ditch Denuvo.

 

To be clear, Denuvo's impact on software it's integrated with tends to be less on the framerates, though the hitching it causes can notably impact perceived fps, and more on frametimes, where the inconsistencies it causes lead to the stutter you see.

 

No way is that true.