New Zealand Midland Line Route Video.

[latimers]

@trev123

Does the Midland Line stutter?

[trev123]

Yes, it does.

[latimers]

I'd be interested to know whether the route developers got the stutter and, if not, what kind of computer they were running it on.

I thought my rig should be able to handle anything thrown at it, especially with the settings turned down..

[trev123]

Your CPU is really a bit of overkill for gaming. Read here. https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/best-c ... aming%20PC. This is just one of the many articles that I have read about this.

[latimers]

That's because I'm not exclusively a gamer. I use my computer for other complex computational tasks.

In terms of tile stutter, I wouldn't have thought overkill would be a problem.

[savv_nz]

Sorry Chaps, didn't realize a thread for the route was here!

I'd be interested to know whether the route developers got the stutter and, if not, what kind of computer they were running it on.

Yes, we got and get tile load stutters, for most of the build I was using an old FX series processor so could barely manage 15fps at all times, tile stutters were noticeable then but are less so now on the 2700X I use. Looking at your CPU you are probably getting performance close to, or exceeding my own.

I suspect it's mostly to do with loading the contours of hills and mountains (in adjacent tiles), that's why the tile loading is worst in the mountainous routes (which a lot of them happen to be).

I am with Mike on this, I have done a lot of experiments with just what is going on and the sim seems to have massive problems with rendering terrain at a distance - it affects both FPS and the tile stutter. Turning down the view distance improves issues with both, though the route loses a lot of its visual appeal (and true-to-life feel) when you can't see the mountains in the distance!

We are currently working on a patch that improves performance all around, which I am sure will be welcome, though there is still many problems caused by the limitations of the sim.

[latimers]

Hi Stefan.

Great to see you joining the thread.

Please don't take my comments as complaints. I'm really pleased to see this route released, living in New Zealand and having taken the TranzAlpine trip several times.

If it's possible to improve the performance at all, that will be the icing on the cake.

Regards,

Bob Latimer.

[savv_nz]

Please don't take my comments as complaints.

As I am sure you know, I have been in this simming game long enough to know whats a comment and whats a complaint.
The route has really stretched the limits of what the sim is capable of, which was always going to be the case - but Ryan and I were much more concerned with getting the 'feel' right, we wanted it to feel like the Midland Line, and feel like New Zealand, performance concerns were secondary. Its also why there isn't a single 'default' asset in the thing!

The performance tweaks have been to the rolling stock scripts (thanks Mike!) and the occasional scenery item, and since most people will be driving a train and not flying a camera around, it should see most people get around an extra 5fps minimum, but I can't make any promises due to the variations of how the sim seems to run on different PC's. On my own rig, I have picked up between 5-10fps in Otira, Springfield and Arthur's Pass. which were the locations having the biggest frame rate drops. It doesn't seem to have affected the tile load stutter at all, but that's a core engine issue that Dovetail need to address, not that that is very likely!

[savv_nz]

I've made the patch available via TSNZ until Dovetail gets around to releasing it via Steam, hopefully, it improves things for everyone - I am lead to believe files in the folder structure supersede those in the .ap file so it should all be fine.

http://tsnz.co.nz/browse.php?latest=The%20Midland%20Line%20:%20Patch%201