TSW Beta 9 first impressions?

[buzz456]

I've been debating between upgrading to a i5 6600k or a i7 6700k, it will be interesting to see if/how this game uses hyper threading

I have read several places that hyperthreading doesn't do much of anything for almost all games. Am I misinformed?

[cnwfan]

I had to finally give up on the beta testing. After spending hours tweaking graphic settings, the best I can get is 5 to 7 fps. This just isn't workable to really test the sim. I realize the sim is heavy in physics calculations, and I have a lower end machine. And I realize this is beta software. On the plus side, Dovetail is off to a good start if the desire is to build a sim for a gaming box. I can see this being very successful for XBOX and PS4 as the sim has a feel of Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty. I mean what railroad crew member wouldn't welcome the chance to walk into buildings and collect stuff instead of being on the train doing their job. Building a game where the hardware specs are known and fixed is much easier than building something for the PC market where there are just as many hardware configs as players.

If the desire is to build a sim for the serious train simulator enthusiast (more limited market), then they have some work ahead of them. From my standpoint, I don't need bouncing MU hoses or a throttle governor that moves as the throttle setting changes. That's unnecessary calculations and graphics calls that can be better put to use is getting realistic train handling. But that is just me. I'll be very interested to see and hear what the final product ends up being.

One suggestion though. I hope Dovetail takes a serious look at American Truck Simulator. That sim runs great on my lower end machine, has great graphics, and immerses me enough into the sim that I feel like I'm driving a real truck. It's a very well done first person simulator. Maybe Derek can make the suggestion to the folks over the pond?? The other thing Derek should suggest is not limiting the beta testing to just a few days. The big ticket bugs are discovered pretty quickly, as this forum demonstrates. But there maybe smaller bugs that take time to discover, and those bugs may have a direct or indirect impact on other bugs. So, I'm hanging up this beta test for now, and returning back to the known (and much less frustrating) world of TS2017.

[Chacal]

not limiting the beta testing to just a few days. The big ticket bugs are discovered pretty quickly, as this forum demonstrates. But there maybe smaller bugs that take time to discover

Remember that the main purpose of a public beta is to test a game on different hardware configurations in the wild, for performance problems and compatibility issues. Software bugs are mostly caught by the QA team and private beta testers. In the few days this public beta lasted, DTG will have gathered useful data. I would expect another public beta in a few weeks, with much better performance.

[jalsina]

Found the end of the track.

The good news is that the roadbed is in place for most of the way. Didn't really check that much further down.

TS2Prototype-Win64-Shipping 2016-12-12 23-34-28-623.jpg

I can´t see any crews working on those tracks. Will that route be ready in February?

[bpetit]

I think so, they just need to lay the tracks down.

[peterhayes]

Buzz

I have read several places that hyperthreading doesn't do much of anything for almost all games. Am I misinformed?

Not really!
HT adds very little to any software unless specifically written for it.
In the sims HT can cause thread collisions which lead to poor frames displayed and possibly stuttering.
I tried it with DTG Euro Fishing (64-bit and which uses the VERY latest UE4 engine) and could not see any difference on or off!
pH

[NYWhiskey]

I can´t see any crews working on those tracks. Will that route be ready in February?

I think so, they just need to lay the tracks down.

Umm, ok. You want a real Sim? Add in the OSHA and Union Rules, then you are looking at late spring early summer. As real as it gets!

[ENR3005]

So I have spent a number of hours reviewing the sim. I started off by reading the faq on known issues which there is many if you take the time to read. This sim is a move in the right direction and with some further tweaking and optimization it could really be a decent sim as it evolves over the next couple of years, especially if it is supported by DTG like their existing products. The physics aspect is a great improvement which I suspect many of us will tweak further to our liking when the sim is actually released. My only challenge was the low frame rates I was getting which were in the high teens to mid 20s. I suspect optimization with the end product will improve this. Then again I was getting low frames when I started with Railworks and decided to invest in a new system 6 years ago, it looks like I may need to do the same before moving on to this sim seriously. I will be grabbing it when it comes out but will likely watch the evolvement over the next year before investing serious time much like I did with MSTS before I made the Railworks transition. I am impressed for the most part.

ENR3005

[artimrj]

You need to read some more over there. The system is all running off the CPU. The video card GPU is not doing very much. They have to optimize everything and give the GPU work to get better framerates.

[BNSFdude]

You need to read some more over there. The system is all running off the CPU. The video card GPU is not doing very much. They have to optimize everything and give the GPU work to get better framerates.

Understandably so though. With all the physics calculations it's having to do realtime, it would be expected to tax the CPU. However, if they are going to do that, they need to make it spread across cores and perhaps allow hyperthreading.

[OlPaint]

This forum is a real eye opener. I have spent several days trying to optimize my Acer Laptop running Windows 10 and my ASUS desktop running Windows 7. Both have a moderate level GForce video card in each with maxed out memory. I currently get 15 to 25 fps on TS2017 on both machines. I can not get more than 2 fps on my laptop running this TSW Beta. The mouse control is way too sensitive - the cursor jumps all over the screen with just the slightest hand movement. My desktop can not even be upgraded to the video drivers required to run TSW Beta on my Windows 7 desktop and crashes with error message. So after reading all the reviews I can get my hands on here and over at Dovetail Live and learning that many ppl are having the same kinds of difficulties to even get any performance at all, I have concluded it is a waste of my time trying to run the Beta on my equipment.

OlPaint

[martin06]

My pc: FX8350 - GTX970 - 16gb RAM. SSD 160gb.
In cab: 14fps
Exterior: 17fps
View the horizon; 20fps

Settings: 1920x1080 - TAA - Ultra or Medium some result

[bpetit]

Wow, why does my 960 do better than yours. I don't get it.

[trev123]

Mine runs it alright too.

[DrewG]

Didnt Dovetail say the game only runs off one core of the processor currently? If so that would explain why. To be honest I'd take an i3 over my Fx8350 for single core performance.