TSW anyone?

[imnew]

Short and sweet first impression, ( Using 3440x1440 21:9 resolution )

Congrats to DTG HQ for releasing the next generation of train simulator!

Pros:
Absolutely gorgeous graphics
Stunning weather simulation with some really nice effects
Night time running is stellar
I love the fact that changing the graphic settings does NOT require a restart, you see the changes instantly.

Cons:
Horrible performance!
I`m getting anywhere from 16-35 fps, I know running the sim at 3440x1440 resolution is demanding but still..
Medium to extreme stuttering
Engine sounds are way too quiet, there`s no base or grunt to them. DTG, please have a chat with the boys over at Searchlight Simulations, they produce some magical sound packs!
Only one save slot?

Observations and praise

I was running the "Snow and Ice" scenario, and this scenario blew me away with its weather simulation. It starts out with fog down in the valley, but as you climb ever higher the sun tries to shine through that thick layer of fog, illuminating the snow and river banks so perfectly. Snow gradually gather on the entire train and the train itself "feels" heavy ascending the pass. As you continue to climb, the weather changes from snow to rain removing the snow, even the wind picks up visible in the moving trees, brilliant!

I really hope DTG give the performance issue priority, -before flooding the steam store with DLC.. How much calculations goes into the animated brake hoses and m.u hoses? If they eat up FPS, or cause stuttering, then please consider an option for disabling them.

If DTG get this sim up and running as it should run, well then its a no brainer that they / we have a winner here.

[AmericanSteam]

I had a UE4 crash this morning. A popup with a bug report and "do you wish to submit this report" - yes. Then it went away. Anyone else have this? I didn't think to screen shot this at that time.

[artimrj]

I had a UE4 crash this morning. A popup with a bug report and "do you wish to submit this report" - yes. Then it went away. Anyone else have this? I didn't think to screen shot this at that time.

I got one last night, it was black and red and grey. Wanted me to attach files and explain what I was doing. I just cancelled it.

[NorthernWarrior]

Just discussing a theory over at TS where both Bruce and Jorgen have posted further experiences with regard to physics.

That is, could we be looking in the wrong place as to where the problem lies, we are all assuming it is the locos which are set up wrong (though they undoubtedly have problems) but could also be issues with the trailing load. Either the sim is adding to the weight so the normal power consist cannot cope or there is an issue with the rolling resistance. That would in part explain the difficulty starting a train, slowing to a crawl or stalling climbing a hill or having to keep power applied on a downgrade.

DTG need to be perhaps looking at this too along with all the other possibilities.

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

Just discussing a theory over at TS where both Bruce and Jorgen have posted further experiences with regard to physics.

That is, could we be looking in the wrong place as to where the problem lies, we are all assuming it is the locos which are set up wrong (though they undoubtedly have problems) but could also be issues with the trailing load. Either the sim is adding to the weight so the normal power consist cannot cope or there is an issue with the rolling resistance. That would in part explain the difficulty starting a train, slowing to a crawl or stalling climbing a hill or having to keep power applied on a downgrade.

DTG need to be perhaps looking at this too along with all the other possibilities.

Previously in TS17 cars loaded in a scenario didn't always put on weight, making visibly loaded trains very easy to handle.

It takes considerable time to release the brakes on longer trains in TSW. Check the brake pipe pressure at the EOTD (Shift F3 will take you to the end of the consist and there is a LED readout) or in the box on the control stand. With the brake handle in release position, put the throttle in Notch 1 to pump the air somewhat faster. Unfortunately EOTD's appear and disappear as by magic, haven't quite figured out how and when ...

Sandpatch grades are sufficiently steep that dynamic brakes alone aren't sufficient to hold back a fully laden train. Dynamic brakes work best in the 20-25 MpH speed range and train handling rules require a certain number of dynamic brake axles per ton of train, with a maximum axles number to prevent drawbar failures. So it is necessary to put a minimum service reduction on the train just before cresting the mountain to reduce any excess speed above 20-25 MpH. And use dynamic brake modulation to gently ease the train down the grade at no more than the equalising speed. (This varies per locomotive type, AC traction fares definitely better than straight DC here.)
When maximum DB power isn't sufficient, brake pipe pressure is lowered in small increments to find the equilibrium. When full service reduction is reached, the train must be put into emergeny and secured with a sufficient number of handbrakes once stopped. Then, more DB power must be added, preferably at the rear, or retainers must be set on the cars before the train can proceed safely down the mountain.

Since the minimum service application cannot be lifted before the train has come down the grade for the real and present danger of multiple applications depleting the air reservoirs, one sometimes has to pull the train down the less steeper parts of the descent

So long and heavy freight trains descent the mountain at much lower speeds than the track limit.

I'll try to find a copy of CSX's Air Brake and Train Handling rules, or any employee timetable/rulebook. CSX's recent publications are very hard to find online though.

[buzz456]

I know we are talking about apples and oranges here, and some will shake their heads over this, but the single greatest improvement to my experience with gaming came after switching from HHD to SSD drives. Stuttering, especially at tile boundries, almost completely disappeared. Sure, going from 550ti to 760 then to 970GTX graphics card did have impact, but not as much as being able to load and run routes smoothly.

I agree about the SSD. Huge leap forward when it comes to both loading times and smoothness of operation.

[longiron]

I'll try to find a copy of CSX's Air Brake and Train Handling rules, or any employee timetable/rulebook. CSX's recent publications are very hard to find online though.

Here's the relevant section of CSX ETT April 2000

CSX_ETT_Apr2000.jpg

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

Thanks, Longiron.

Just what was needed. This was in effect when the AC4400 were already delivered in numbers so it should apply to them.

I haven't yet seen any slack effects in TSW come to think of it. Spend today running a few scenarios to try and feel the different locomotives.

[cbff33]

Well I spent all day on this thing. I will start off by saying that 2 days ago, I had a 600w PSU and a gtx760. TSW killed my computer whenever I would try to run it. Upgraded to a 1070 strix. Turned on TSW and this time a crazy shut down, and failure to reboot. Machine went into a continuous start/shutdown loop. No error messages or anything. Pulled 700W PSU out of other computer. Spent a day too scared to start TSW. Grew a pair today. Spent the whole day running TSW. My machine is a i5 2320 @ 3Ghz. 8GB ram. Windows 8.1 64. 700w PSU and GTX1070 strix. FPS was anywhere from 15 up to 45, maybe 50 ocassionally. Even at 15FPS when in yards, or experiencing meets, it still ran surprisingly smooth at 15fps. I think my avg FPS would have been around 22FPS. I checked, and all 4 cores were running at 70% or greater, and GTX1070 was running a pretty solid 25%. Now I am no programmer, but something seems a tad off with those number. Ran TSW windowed FS, AA-TAA, but I had the ghosting effect, changed to FXAA and now I see black lines running into the sky, originating from the stack cars. Vsync-off. Foliage-high, shadow-med, effects-med, post process-high, view distance-high, texture quality-high.

Some bugs I noticed. Locos behind lead loco, are displaying a light beam onto the car behind them, although the high light is not on, on those rear facing locos. The exhaust. What to say there. A big fail? Either I am driving a steam loco, or those turbo chargers are all blown on those locos. SD40 cab stayed lit with sunlight inside the tunnels. And experienced an issue with not being able to walk through open doors from inside going out on the AC front doors. Exited the rear of loco, and had to close front doors from outside and reopen and then I could once again move through those doorways.

Sounds. EPIC FAIL. Not even close. Same horrible horn used for all three locos, and the sound just cuts off cold turkey when you stop sounding horn. No echo nothing. The geeps, sounds are weak at best. They just don't sound like good healthy geeps. The AC. At first I thought Hoover. But then I came to my senses and realized those sounds suck so much that it is clearly the industrial strength Kirby vacuum. They should have kept Searchlight Simulations on board to do the sounds. One question I would love to ask of the DTG folks that did the sounds. At what point in your sound work on those locos, were you able to sit back, pat each other on the back, crack open a nice cold beer, and say to the DTG team, "man we nailed those sounds. We truly captured the essence of American railroading with these three locos". Loco sounds are a bad joke. Rolling stock sounds....weak. Too quiet. Did I see in another post they used Krellnut's sounds? DTG shoulda not edited those sounds, because I just finally loaded them into my TS2017, and those sounds were amazing as is.

While I was driving through a tunnel, did I actually detect a bit of tunnel echo? Anyone else catch this?

Physics seem off in general. But what is there, is playable. But I prefer them to be as realistic as possible.

So in conclusion, I will say, TSW is not really what I would call a failure. But I think the folks at DTG need to check their pride at the door. There were a lot of great, talented people, that they could have included in this development, but they didn't. And those choices seem greed based. What they advertised, and what they delivered, are two very different things. Thankfully, people not tied to DTG are working hard to fix some of the issues. Searchlight Simulation is working hard, to get the sounds fixed. And others are poking around under the hood of TSW getting ready to do their thing. We have never had a train sim get released, that didn't have major issues. And a good many of those sims were fixed, not by their owners, but by the average guys and gals that love trains, and computers. I think in the long run, TSW will be fine, and that will be due to those of you that have been around, tinkering under the hood of all these sims, since MSTS up to now. So I thank you tinkerers now. Your fixes and workarounds will be greatly appreciated.

[NorthernWarrior]

Re the physics, I don't think this is due to the brakes still being applied along the train. This is occurring after driving for some time so the brakes should be released.

In the case of downhill, the point being made is not only that you don't need dynamic brakes to slow the train you need to keep the power on - won't even freewheel and yes, again, the train and indy brake have been released long time so there shouldn't be any (realistic) drag effect.

[artimrj]

WHat if the grade is measured from the engine and your consist is still going uphill while your engine is going down hill. Does that make any sense?

[NorthernWarrior]

WHat if the grade is measured from the engine and your consist is still going uphill while your engine is going down hill. Does that make any sense?

From what Bruce posted at TS, the whole train is over the top and on the 1.5% downgrade and still needs power applied to keep moving. The answer ain't that simple, unfortunately.

[artimrj]

WHat if the grade is measured from the engine and your consist is still going uphill while your engine is going down hill. Does that make any sense?

From what Bruce posted at TS, the whole train is over the top and on the 1.5% downgrade and still needs power applied to keep moving. The answer ain't that simple, unfortunately.

Well I noticed when the guage started pointing down hill I was expecting to go faster and I was still slowing down from going up the grade. It was a long tanker train.

[bpetit]

Don't stop on the grade, or the physics will start working. This is the GP38-2 Manifest from CumberlandSelkrik.

TS2Prototype-Win64-Shipping 2017-03-21 01-17-52-557.jpg

[trev123]

I'm doing a snow scenario pulling tank wagons with 4 locos climbing at 13mph. I found that if you stop like in this scenario to wait for another train apply about 4 notch of power then release the brakes, sort of seems to work to get you moving.