Beating slow Scenario load times.

[TheFlier]

I just tried using HIGHEST object textures in the in-game settings, and now getting VERY LONg load times. Personally I cant see any great improvements to the textures, (maybe a little more shiny), so i went back to HIGH settings and the load-times are now pretty quick again.

If you're sick of long load times try reducing the OBJECT TEXTURE one click.

[NDORFN]

Since the last update I've been getting really fast load times after the first time I load aslong I don't restart my computer. Don't ask me why

[OldProf]

I've ranted a bit about this elsewhere, but will do so again here: launch RW3 (the simulator itself, not its front end) and watch what happens: first, those two familiar splash screens appear; second, the menu screen shows up; third, once a scenario has been selected, as FPS counts bounce up and down and sometimes freeze completely, a blue-bordered, empty frame appears; fourth, after a longer wait, RSC's DLC promotions slideshow starts to run; and, finally, the selected scenario opens. This reminds me of what happens when I launch Microsoft Live, which I use as an e-mail program: first, there's a blank, white area that can hang around for quite a while; second, a slideshow of ads begins to appear; third -- and only third -- my messages come in, but not all at once, because more ads are loading.

In both cases, I am obviously less important to RSC or Microsoft than those ads or promotions. Let me stick to RSC now. If I want to know about DLC, I will open their website. When I launch the simulator, it is because I want to simulate, not buy! Sure, RSC has the right -- and the need, I imagine -- to advertise its products, but why can't they do that on their own time instead of wasting mine? My bet is that cutting out the ads would shorten scenario loading time by at least half. Or, perhaps they could find a way to download promotional images to my RailWorks folder while I'm not using RW3 and calling them up from my hard disc instead of clogging up my bandwidth while a scenario is loading from my hard drive.

Evidently, those promotions reload each time I want to load a scenario. Why can't they be loaded once and reused as long as a playing session remains open?

These are questions I don't know how to answer. What I do know is that I can easily and happily live without RSC promotions. PERIOD!

This rant is now complete and we will return to our usual, calm messaging.

[TheFlier]

a few routes (Port road for example) don't show that ADS screen. I'm wondering if the ADS appear when the route doesn't have its own Intro splash screen...? Maybe if there was a way to create some for the RW3 routes it might kill the ads.

btw - how do you launch RW3 without the front-end? :)

Not sure I'd start it that way muself as having all the 30, 60 and CPU command-line items all checked seems to help with performance on my system.

[Hawk]

If I remember right, there's a way to disable Flash Player in either the railsim folder or the steam folder.
Once disabled those promos should cease.

Unfortunately I no longer have RW installed so I can't find the location, but I'm sure someone else can help.

[SMMDigital]

In the route properties file, the one that tells RW what to display while a particular route loads, there is a Meta reference to an .swf file. I would think this is the link to the advertisement. I would assume you could use RW Tools to edit out that reference, then you would get just a blank loader. I would also assume the reference would be regenerated every time Steam updates or everytime RSC swaps adverts.

The only surefire way that i've found to get a fast load time is run RW off an SSD. Before that, the AND route was taking up to two minutes to load.

[Hawk]

I think there's a vbf file somewhere that you can rename to turn of the flash stuff, but like I said, I can't confirm that and I'm only going by memory - which isn't as dependable as it once was.

Here's a link to a thread about Net Framework in which it mentions an nbf file, but that should be vbf.

http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic. ... 0#p1467100

I believe there's a flash vbf file also. I think I just renamed it to stop the ads, although it could be the fact that I don't have flash installed. I really don't remember for sure any more.

[buzz456]

I think there's a vbf file somewhere that you can rename to turn of the flash stuff, but like I said, I can't confirm that and I'm only going by memory - which isn't as dependable as it once was.

Here's a link to a thread about Net Framework in which it mentions an nbf file, but that should be vbf.

http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic. ... 0#p1467100

I believe there's a flash vbf file also. I think I just renamed it to stop the ads, although it could be the fact that I don't have flash installed. I really don't remember for sure any more.

We only thought our memory was better when we were younger because we thought we were always right.
Buzz

[OldProf]

btw - how do you launch RW3 without the front-end? :)

I don't. What I meant was that my comments were about the scenario loading screen, not the screen for settings.