What are your computer specs?

[plainsman]

OK here is a shot from Feather River. I am NOT running BIN, and I did not shut down my anti-virus. FPS_20 in this shot. I get 50+ FPS on a lot of the default routes. With that 9 year old Athlon 700, I not only am down at about 12_FPS on default routes, but I have to drop down the settings to less dense scenery and kill shadows and such.

[djt1]

OK here is a shot from Feather River. I am NOT running BIN, and I did not shut down my anti-virus. FPS_20 in this shot. I get 50+ FPS on a lot of the default routes. With that 9 year old Athlon 700, I not only am down at about 12_FPS on default routes, but I have to drop down the settings to less dense scenery and kill shadows and such.

Bob could you tell us your exact settings, MSTS options, resolution and AA/AF?

[plainsman]

MSTS:
1280x1034_32 all sliders max, ALL options enabled. Best graphics.

Display settings:
1280x1034_32 @ 75 hertz, I have dedicated MSTS settings:
anisotropic 8x
Gamma ON
Antialiasing Override any application setting, 16xQ, supersampling
Hardware texture clamp
Trilinear
Single display performance mode
Texture filtering: Anisotropic ON, Neg bias GLOBAL ( ? ), quality performance, trilinear optimization OFF
Threaded AUTO
Triple buffering OFF
Vert. Sync. APPLICATION

Shortcut:
-rungame -mem:1152, compatibility mode XP_SP2, administrator

BTW, any suggestions on tweaking any of these settings welcome?!

[djt1]

BTW, any suggestions on tweaking any of these settings welcome?!

Thanks Bob, I’m not sure what your using for a video card but you could step the AF up to 16X, lower the AA to 8X or 4X and set the resolution to 1600x1200.

[plainsman]

Hi Dan,
Going to AF 16X, AA 8XQ, and 1600 x 1200, I get 19 FPS in the same shot on Feather River (That is the woodchip ativity.). I was was surprised, changing from Supersampling and Trilinear to Multisampling and Bilinear had almost no effect on FPS, but really lessened image quality?
I can about bring this computer to its knees though, by looking back on a train of two HR-616 locomotives and a LONG string of Canadian mixed livery cylindrical hoppers (5-6 FPS).
BTW, Nvidia 8600GTS_512.

[djt1]

Hi Dan,
Going to AF 16X, AA 8XQ, and 1600 x 1200, I get 19 FPS in the same shot on Feather River (That is the woodchip ativity.). I was was surprised, changing from Supersampling and Trilinear to Multisampling and Bilinear had almost no effect on FPS, but really lessened image quality?
I can about bring this computer to its knees though, by looking back on a train of two HR-616 locomotives and a LONG string of Canadian mixed livery cylindrical hoppers (5-6 FPS).
BTW, Nvidia 8600GTS_512.

Bob,

That’s how CPU bound MSTS is, you can crank up the AA/AF and resolution and it really has no effect on frame rates in the game unless you have a very weak video card.

As far as image quality is concerned, AA transparency “supersampling” is your best bet if your card can handle it.

[djt1]

Bob,

Here are my results starting with the “Oroville Wood Chips” activity, followed by the “CZ Eastbound” activity and then and Explore activity with the “U30x4+Mix65” consist at “Spring Garden Siding”/”Westbound”. I selected the 65 car consist to show what kind of hit you get with a decent size consist with dynamic shadows turned on.

All of the screens below where taken on Vista 64/SP1, Direct X update “Aug. 08” (not that this does anything for MSTS, but it doesn’t hurt it either), and Nvidia’s latest 177.92 drivers. They were taken with everything turned to its highest settings in MSTS (including dynamic shadows), 1600x1200 resolution, with 16XQ AA and 16XAF and “Supersampling” enabled.



47 FPS


31 FPS


30 FPS

[AlphaMaster]

My system:

antec p182 case
Vista Business, 64-bit
Xeon X3360 @ 2.83Ghz (Quad Core) / Zalman 9500 heatsink (qx9650 was not on the market at the time)
Gigabyte x48-based motherboard (too lazy to look up exact model)
8 GB Mushkin DDR2-1066 RAM
Geforce GTX 295
Geforce 8800 GT for physics (I have a PhysX card but no free PCI slots =[ )
Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatality Edition
2 TB HDD storage
PC Power & Cooling 750W Power Supply
LG Blu-ray/HD-DVD drive
28inch display @ 1920x1200x32

[saintjimmy14]

Ok, guys, I finally decided to take the time to post some recent results in the sim:

The benchmarks for me, with the routes I have, were the 3DTS Tehachapi Pass with scenery expansion, the SLI Senic Sub, and the SLI Seligman Sub, all tested with standard stock that came with them. All routes ran from end to end in free run. (Note: Seligman Sub activity was ended at Seligman East Yard signals, to eliminate some confusion)

These are the consists that were used (excact names copied, and consists unmodified since installation)
3DTS: TEH2_MEET_AT_WALONG_PLAYER1
Senic Sub: SP BNSF 60 Manifest
Seligman Sub: p-manifest east1

Catalyst Control Center Graphics settings are as follows, same for both computers:
8x Anti Aliasing (AA) at the Box filter setting
16x Anisotropic Filtering (AF)
Adaptive Anti Aliasing Enabled
Mipmap Detail set at High Quality
Catalyst A.I. Disabled (Allows game to optimize driver)
Vertical Refresh/Sync On, Unless Application Specifies

I also tested it on the 24x Edge-Detect anti-aliasing setting and saw very little/no decrease in performance.

On my old HP M8300F with Vista 32 bit and the AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ - Resolution is 1600 x 1200
3DTS Tehachapi: Minimum FPS: 4, Max FPS: 60, Average FPS: 28
SLI Senic Sub: Minimum FPS: 2, Max FPS: 60, Average FPS: 23
SLI Seligman Sub: Minimum FPS: 9 Max FPS 60, Average FPS: 34
Background Programs: Besides normal Vista 32 bit operation, just Webroot Spy Sweeper with Antivirus, FRAPS, and Catalyst Control Center

On my Gateway LX6200-01 with Vista 64 bit & AMD Phenom II X4 940 - Resolution is 1280 x 1024
3DTS Tehachapi: Minimum FPS: 10, Max FPS: 60, Average FPS: 37
SLI Senic Sub: Minimum FPS: 7, Max FPS: 60, Average FPS: 30
SLI Seligman Sub: Minimum FPS: 12 Max FPS 60, Average FPS: 45
Background Programs: Besides normal Vista 64 bit operation, just Webroot Spy Sweeper with Antivirus, FRAPS, and Catalyst Control Center

In case you were wondering, I didn't include my dad's Gateway, because he made me clear off MSTS, because he thought "It's taking up too much space! It'll slow the computer down." He has a 1000 GB hard drive, and MSTS barely even takes up 10 GB of space!!

Hope this gives you an idea for comparison!
Kyle

[AlphaMaster]

My system:

antec p182 case
Vista Business, 64-bit
Xeon X3360 @ 2.83Ghz (Quad Core) / Zalman 9500 heatsink (qx9650 was not on the market at the time)
Gigabyte x48-based motherboard (too lazy to look up exact model)
8 GB Mushkin DDR2-1066 RAM
Geforce 8800 GT (soon to be GTX 280 ;D)
Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatality Edition
2 TB HDD storage
PC Power & Cooling 750W Power Supply
LG Blu-ray/HD-DVD drive
28inch display @ 1920x1200x32

Now have a Geforce GTX 295.