After trying quite a few older AAA titles and enjoying the overall experience. I got curious and decided to try and see how well I can get TSW3 / 4 running. For those not aware the Steam deck is a sub £500 device made by Valve. Essentially a portable low power PC, that can run most gen 8 titles and some gen 9 ones at playable frame rates. So how does TSW3 / 4 run then, actually, not bad out of the box. If you just install the game without touching any settings and load up the training centre on foot at the default settings you’ll be hovering around the 40fps mark. You'll notice though, the GPU is pegged at 99%, not great considering the training centre is the least demanding route. Download by speediek#8515 posted Sep 25, 2023 at 10:13 AM let’s start with some basics, opening the in game graphic settings and start there. We can actually leave the Graphics Preset on high in the screen menu and make sure the Screen Resolution reads 1280x800. Download (1) by speediek#8515 posted Sep 25, 2023 at 10:18 AM In the advanced menu we'll change the following settings to the image below, The goal with this guide is to provide an overall more stable frame rate with as little stuttering as possible so as a result, some minor visual quality will be lost mainly in shadows. Download (2) by speediek#8515 posted Sep 25, 2023 at 10:13 AM First of all i recommend switching the game to 30fps in the Steam Deck's menu this will give us a nice consistent 30fps across pretty much all routes and takes some load of the GPU giving extra battery life. Download (3) by speediek#8515 posted Sep 25, 2023 at 10:18 AM Lets see what performance this gives us on SEHS, At Ashford Int We start off with a nice steady 30fps which seems to dip to 22 -25 fps. This is the situation I've encountered at most busy stations on pretty much all the routes. These drops are even worse in the areas in TSW4 especially on ECML. So overall playable but could be improved further. So lets do that. Lets start by switching to DX12 on the Steamdeck, I've found this really helps keep the frame rates at a locked 30fps at these same locations and time of day, To switch the game to using DX12 click on the cog icon, select properties and enter -dx12 in the launch options box. Download (4) by speediek#8515 posted Sep 25, 2023 at 12:51 PM At this point you'll have a much more consistent experience than default. However the graphics quality has been reduced a fair bit. This next section involves some editing of config files. If your happy enough with these settings then leave it be. We'll be editing the graphic configs to change some settings the game simply doesn't give you access too. All of the info from now on comes from the fantastic work of JetWash for his TOD4 Config https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/enhancement-tod4-lighting-overhaul.71901/ and dbrunner#4864 for his excellent work on minimizing the games stutter https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/definitive-stutter-fix-via-engine-ini-settings.70559/ To begin with, we're going to need to access the steam decks system files. This is done by pressing the Steam button located on the left hand side of the device, scroll down to power and select it. Download (8) by speediek#8515 posted Sep 25, 2023 at 2:47 PM A menu will pop up and we will select switch to desktop mode, enter your pin if you have one and after a few seconds you should be greeted with the desktop. Download (9) by speediek#8515 posted Sep 25, 2023 at 2:47 PM Before we begin tweaking i recommend installing Cryo Utilities. Since an excellent guide for this already exists I will link that guide instead of trying to do a subpar explanation myself. In short though, these are a series of tweaks done to the Steam Decks OS and have worked wonders in the steam deck community for increasing performance in many GPU heavy games. https://github.com/CryoByte33/steam-deck-utilities Guides on how to install it and in depth explanations of what this does by the dev himself can be found in the link above. The next step is to locate the documents folder for TSW3 or TSW4. Essentially the steam deck creates a virtual windows drive for each game installed these are located in the steam directory with a given number. to get to this folder first open the file manager. you can do this by clicking the steam deck icon in the bottom left and searching for Dolphin. Screenshot_20230925_143814 by speediek#8515 posted Sep 25, 2023 at 2:44 PM We need to show hidden files in order to find are target folder. If you have a keyboard plugged in you can hit CTRL-H to do this if not. Click the symbol with four lines on the right hand side of Dolphin and click Show Hidden Items. Screenshot_20230925_143728 by speediek#8515 posted Sep 25, 2023 at 2:44 PM Then navigate to .steam > steam > Steamapps > compatdata Screenshot_20230925_143848 by speediek#8515 posted Sep 25, 2023 at 2:44 PM Once there, you'll see a series of folders with strings of numbers. each one is a code attached to a specific game installed. The amount will vary depending on how many games you have installed. TSW3 is : 1944790 TSW4 is : 2362300 Once you've entered the correct folder navigate to pfx > drive_c > users > steamuser > My Documents > My Games > TrainSimWorld3 > Saved > Config > WindowsNoEditor Or pfx > drive_c > users > steamuser > My Documents > My Games > TrainSimWorld4 > Saved > Config > WindowsNoEditor : for TSW4 Using information and the extensive work from the mentioned forum users i have compiled a bunch of their tweaks which improve the lighting and graphics without adding any performance loss to the steam decks hardware. Screenshot_20230925_143935 by speediek#8515 posted Sep 25, 2023 at 2:44 PM double click on the engine.ini file, it should open with a program called kate. Scroll to the bottom of the file and paste in the following [EDITED] [SystemSettings] r.TemporalAACurrentFrameWeight=0.2 r.TemporalAASamples=4 r.ToneMapper.Sharpen=0.5 r.SSR.Quality=4 r.SSR.Temporal=1 TimeOfDaySystem.AutoExposure.SpeedUp=10 TimeOfDaySystem.AutoExposure.SpeedDown=5 r.MinScreenRadiusForLights=0.00 TimeOfDaySystem.VolumetricCloud.RayMarchedShadows=1 TimeOfDaySystem.AutoExposure.ExposureBias=-0.5 TimeOfDaySystem.SkyLightPollutionLuminance=1.0 TimeOfDaySystem.BloomIntensity=0.17 TimeOfDaySystem.SunIntensity=50000 TimeOfDaySystem.VolumetricCloud.GroundContribution=1 TimeOfDaySystem.VolumetricCloud.LayerHeightScale=1.8 TimeOfDaySystem.StarIntensity=50 r.AmbientOcclusion.Method=1 r.GTAO.FalloffEnd=300 r.GTAO.SpatialFilter=0 r.GTAO.NumAngles=2 r.GTAO.UseNormals=1 r.GTAO.ThicknessBlend=0 ts2.CameraMotionSway.EnableUprightCompensation=0 ts2.CameraMotionSway.KSitting.Y=200.0 ts2.CameraMotionSway.KSitting.Z=200.0 ts2.CameraMotionSway.LSitting.Y=40 ts2.CameraMotionSway.LSitting.Z=5.0 ts2.CameraMotionSway.SittingPivotOffset=-200 ts2.CameraMotionSway.LSitting.X=50 ts2.platform.MaxSpawnInterval=5 Screenshot_20230925_143956 by speediek#8515 posted Sep 25, 2023 at 2:44 PM Select : File > save and close Kate logout of desktop mode and Have fun in TSW 3 / 4 Screenshot_20230925_144028 by speediek#8515 posted Sep 25, 2023 at 2:44 PM Here's some screenshots of what these settings do to both TSW3 and TSW4 Download (5) by speediek#8515 posted Sep 25, 2023 at 2:00 PM Download (7) by speediek#8515 posted Sep 25, 2023 at 2:00 PM E1b1c7ab-6652-4e35-a357-ee27428a4573 by speediek#8515 posted Sep 25, 2023 at 2:00 PM C0d73d9e-c50f-4e96-9db4-a34e9e6c1411 by speediek#8515 posted Sep 25, 2023 at 2:00 PM Keep in mind, these images will look quite blurry blown up to size on a pc monitor but on the steam decks 7 inch screen the game looks pretty sharp. Feel free to play with the shadows i know they are at quite a low resolution. If you prefer them at a higher one please note that your performance will suffer a fair bit. One again, Thank you to JetWash and dbrunner#4864 for their excellent findings and contribution to the community, please do take a look at their work in the threads I linked to and thank them for everything they have done to improve the game. With these tweaks you can expect anywhere from 1:40 - 2:10 hours of battery life on a single charge depending on which routes you play through. With a very consistent 30fps. Some areas still drop but these are brief and much better than before. The only exception being in the cab of the flying Scotsman, not sure why but this is the only loco to have frame rate issues so far on the decks hardware.
After trying out the mentioned .ini tweaks in TSW4. I’ve concluded that all of the shadow tweaks significantly impact performance on Lindau - Bludenz especially when an AI train loads in. it’s best to remove these lines from the .ini at least for TSW4 r.DistanceFieldShadowing=1 r.DFDistanceScale=8 r.DFFullResolution=1 r.Shadow.FilterMethod=0 r.Shadow.DistanceScale=2 r.ShadowQuality=2 r.SkeletalMeshLODBias=0 r.Shadow.MaxResolution=2048 r.Shadow.MaxCSMResolution=2048 r.Shadow.RadiusThreshold=0.005 r.Shadow.CSM.TransitionScale=0.8
Wow - thanks for the detailed guide! I did buy a whole bunch of TSW - related stuff via a Humble bundle a while ago, but haven’t yet gotten around to trying to install it on Steam Deck. I have to admit I didn’t give much for my chances of having it run at a decent speed, so I’m pleasantly surprised to hear that it’s actually possible to get good results. I’ll definitely need to try it. Thanks again for the detailed set up guide - appreciated!
Your welcome, it runs at what i'd call playable that's for sure especially for a slower paced game. I've got quite a few hours in both 3 and 4 on my steam deck now. After a bit of fumbling around and reading all the PC tweak threads. I managed to compile the ones that seem to not bog down the deck too much.
Interesting thread - I don’t have a Steam Deck, but I do have the ROG Ally, so I’m looking at how to get that running well. Out of the box with no ini changes and high settings at 720p and letting the Ally upscale, I’m getting 35 - 55 fps on ECML. But any of Jetwash’s ini changes kills it. So I’ll try you suggestions and see if that works on the Ally as well.
interesting, I don’t know much about the ally except it’s a bit more powerful in terms of CPU and GPU. I imagine you’ll get even better performance probably closer to a locked 40fps than the 30 I’m aiming for on the Steamdeck. I had the same issue when I inserted Jetwash’s tod4 tweaks. I removed the ones in the end which killed performance. I haven’t tried any of his new findings yet to do with volumetric fog though. I’m still using settings from his older configs.
How does the Steam Deck stand up when playing TSW for long? Does it get got, sweaty and slippery in your hands? How are the thumbsticks? At the price of nearly € 700 for the top-of-the-range model one expects contactless Hall effect sensors. Otherwise, sloppy and worn out thumbsticks should be user replaceable?
Yes, the Steam Deck gets very hot and noisy while playing TSW, in my experience. Better leave it hooked up so you're sure you can finish a route I ordered the new Steam Deck OLED though, curious to see if it fares better on that one.
Someone could do with making a Tutorial video about playing TSW4 on the Steamdeck and put it on YouTube.
