MSTS sound events affecting frame rate

[markpascall]

The MSTS sound events are causing a hiccup in the movement of my trains. It is extreme at times on the NEC, very annoying bordering on unplayable. I have listed my system components below. Could the fact that my sound is on the motherboard be the cause? I have deleted the sound towers and left the event markers with no effect. I have to delete the event markers themselves to cure the problem. The sounds pop at on and off anyway, so I won't worry too much about the cure if someone has an easy way to delete all the events except the "Ok to proceed / Premission denied".

AMD 1600+
MSI K7T266 Pro2 w/onboard sound (Advance AC97 Audio for VIA Audio Controller)
MSI Geforce3 Ti200


Thanks,
Mark

[kevarc]

Try going into the sound options page and lowering all the values.

Kevin Arceneaux

[NoslopTrainman]

Hey Mark, I hear what you are saying.
I am having the same problem,I believe. My Sim also stutters its'way down the track.
I am getting so tired of this problem. When I start the Sim and apply the brake for the first time it stutters when I hear the air release from the brakes. WHY IS IT DOING THIS?
From then on during the rest of the drive it does this even without making any brake applications or anything else for that matter.
It just seems like it rolls along fine at a F.P.S. of low 40's and then WHAM it is just like it hits a invisible wall or something. The whole thing pauses for a split second and then starts again.
My sim never use to do this and I have not changed any computer parts or drivers. This is driving me CRAZY.
CAN ANYONE OUT THERE HELP WITH THIS?

[NoslopTrainman]

STILL HAVE THE PROBLEM! IS THERE ANY HELP OUT THERE?
I now notice that this momentary "freeze" happens at the same place over and over and can be predicted.
What is it with this Sim?
I have over a 1.4 gig Athlon processor/64 meg Nvidia card/Sound Blaster Live 5.1 and 512 megs of Ram and the latest drivers and it STILL hits these areas over and over where it freezes for a fraction of a second.
I refuse to turn the sound options down to solve this problem because like the video options what fun and enjoyment is there in using this if you can't enjoy the sounds and graphics?

[scefhwil]

This isn't specifically a sound card issue. If you are able to predict these lockups as you say then the issue is to do with the speed you system can read data from your hard drive. Basically the Visibility option slider (max 2000m) creates a circle around the player engine of that radius and the sim will work to keep the data about all objects within that circle in memory. So as you move along the circle moves and so distant objects move in and out of this zone and the sim has to access the hard drive to read the data into memory. The solution is to decrease the visibility slider. You won't see much difference in the screen views between 2000m and 1500m, and even lower depending on the route your on. At least try decreasing the value to 1500m once. This should cause the lockups to be slightly smaller and occur at different places. At least this will confirm that this is the issue in your case.

[whockin]

I have found that the track sounds are the big culprit for studering and erratic sounds. Open the world folder. Carefully remove all the .ws files from it. Leave the .w files. This will remove all sound sources and sound regions from the route. You can then add sound sources again if you wish in the editor. Go to the ttype file in the route and remove all but the "default" track sound. Change the number of track sounds to 1. If this is done correctly the frames will be smooth and the sounds much improved. The different noise over and under bridges will be gone however.

[scefhwil]

Thats interesting to hear. What are your PC spec's and sound card type?

[NoslopTrainman]

LAST EDITED ON Feb-22-02 AT 11:17PM (EST)[p]Thanks for the suggestion from Whockin as now I am pretty much rolling along on the rails. I deleted the files you referenced and it has made a huge difference!! How nice it is to run the Sim without the choppy, stumbling pictures!
I did try turning the visiblity slider down like suggested but that did not solve the problem.
I do have one question. When you said go to the ttype.dat file in the route did you also have to go to the ttyp0005.dat file and remove the all but the "default" track sounds there?
I did remove them from both.
Also, which editor are you refering to when you say you can add them back in if you wish?
Will I miss the over and under bridge noise? I will probably miss that more than I will miss the bird and cricket sounds in the dead of WINTER on Marias Pass! Come on KUJU!
Thanks again WHOCKIN!

[whockin]

Go into the route editor and place the bird and traffic sounds back into the route as you desire. These are called sound regions in the editor. Sound sources are the track sounds.

[NoslopTrainman]

Sorry for the misunderstanding.
My point was that there should NOT be bird and cricket sounds in the WINTER on Marias Pass. I am from that area of Montana and those are the last things you would hear in the winter.
Also, was I right to leave just the default track sounds in BOTH the ttype.dat AND ttyp0005.dat files?
Thanks for your help WHOCKIN!

[scefhwil]

Whockin, do you too have sound off your motherboard?