BNSF on Cajon

[djt1]

Here are some screens of NorfolkSouthern_37’s excellent repaint.


http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/2850/bnsf1zu7.jpg

http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/7038/bnsf2dp0.jpg

http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/8246/bnsf3xh4.jpg

http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/4952/bnsf4lr6.jpg

http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/5313/bnsf5yb7.jpg

http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/774/bnsf6ze5.jpg

http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/5531/bnsf7js4.jpg

http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/3449/bnsf8qo1.jpg

[ozark]

Outstanding!

[cougar]

superb

[djt1]

Here are some of a general freight heading down the south track and a empty hopper train coming out of San Bernardino -


http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/3816/bnsf9ue0.jpg

http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/3126/bnsf10uw8.jpg

http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/4167/bnsf11uo1.jpg

http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/5194/bnsf12cc3.jpg

http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/2759/sanberdoo1ix2.jpg

http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/1138/sanberdoo2qh0.jpg

http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/5017/sanberdoo3nj8.jpg

http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/7185/sanberdoo4ux7.jpg

http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/5241/sanberdoo5hn8.jpg

http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/8297/sanberdoo6dp4.jpg

[Denis Johnston]

The 5th. picture down is a keeper. Fine shots, dig the FPS in the corner of the shots. Keep the equipment coming

[BNSF4723]

Beautiful. Outstanding repaints.

[BX620]

It's weird, the graphics on this program are good enough that I know exactly where most every shot is, but the down side is that it makes it easier to see what is innaccurate with the route too.

The curse of having spent so much time on Cajon I suppose.

Shots 5 and 6 at Oro Grande look pretty darned good. The shot going past the palm trees at on the east side of San Bernardino station brings back memories...

[PaulD]

The 5th. picture down is a keeper. Fine shots, dig the FPS in the corner of the shots. Keep the equipment coming


Yeah, I'd like to know what kind of equipment can produce that frame rate at that resolution (and at what cost).

I'm running a hyperthreading 2.8g processor, 2 gigs of ram and a GF 7800 card and I'm lucky if I get over 14 FPS at 1024 x 768. (groan)

[NorfolkSouthern_37]

Yeah, I'd like to know what kind of equipment can produce that frame rate at that resolution (and at what cost).

I'm running a hyperthreading 2.8g processor, 2 gigs of ram and a GF 7800 card and I'm lucky if I get over 14 FPS at 1024 x 768. (groan)

ouch, might be the processor maybe (p4 im guessing??), i know its 2.8g and all, but it seems the best comes from the cooler dual cores nowdays. i know how you feel tho. i get around 150 fps in KRS with vsync off (normally its on, which limits me to 60) at the silly res of 1366 x 768 (its as close as i can get to my native res of 1440 x 900 - WHY). yet, in MSTS i can only muster about 8 FPS. i guess my computer is too new.

[djt1]

yet, in MSTS i can only muster about 8 FPS. i guess my computer is too new.

No problems here running MSTS on the latest hardware. With it’s DirectX 7 engine it really doesn’t take much to run it, it’s all dependent on the CPU.

[NorfolkSouthern_37]

No problems here running MSTS on the latest hardware. With it’s DirectX 7 engine it really doesn’t take much to run it, it’s all dependent on the CPU.

well that doesnt explain much, see my sig.

back in the day when i was making content for msts and having lots of fun with it, im pretty sure i had an 800mhz pc with an 8 mb s3 savage card. now it doesnt matter what resolution or detail setting i have on, its always about 8-12 fps and its using almost no cpu. it makes me want to cry sometimes. i have the same issue on my desktop, even tho its older, its got a 1.8g amd with a 6200 gf card. my dad has this standard dell laptop for work, not sure what it is really but it get like 80fps in msts.

[djt1]

well that doesnt explain much, see my sig.

back in the day when i was making content for msts and having lots of fun with it, im pretty sure i had an 800mhz pc with an 8 mb s3 savage card. now it doesnt matter what resolution or detail setting i have on, its always about 8-12 fps and its using almost no cpu. it makes me want to cry sometimes. i have the same issue on my desktop, even tho its older, its got a 1.8g amd with a 6200 gf card. my dad has this standard dell laptop for work, not sure what it is really but it get like 80fps in msts.


I’m not sure I follow you when you say “its using almost no cpu”?

MSTS is CPU bound because the program was written that way period, hardware is not going to change that. It has no capability to tap any of the resources that any of the latest video cards have had for the last 6 years. The more CPU you throw at it the better it will perform. Yes a high end video card will give you better image quality by being able to crank AA/AF and the resolution up, but that’s about it for work load on the GPU in MSTS.

I don’t know what this “standard dell laptop” is but MSTS has a frame rate cap of 60 fps so I don’t know how it’s showing 80 fps?

I see that you are using Vista on your laptop. I have noticed over the last six months with various drivers that MSTS has been running a lot slower on my Vista setup, whether it’s 64 Bit or 32 Bit. None of my other games/sims perform any different with Vista compared to XP, just MSTS.

[NorfolkSouthern_37]

I’m not sure I follow you when you say “its using almost no cpu”?

MSTS is CPU bound because the program was written that way period, hardware is not going to change that. It has no capability to tap any of the resources that any of the latest video cards have had for the last 6 years. The more CPU you throw at it the better it will perform. Yes a high end video card will give you better image quality by being able to crank AA/AF and the resolution up, but that’s about it for work load on the GPU in MSTS.

I don’t know what this “standard dell laptop” is but MSTS has a frame rate cap of 60 fps so I don’t know how it’s showing 80 fps?

I see that you are using Vista on your laptop. I have noticed over the last six months with various drivers that MSTS has been running a lot slower on my Vista setup, whether it’s 64 Bit or 32 Bit. None of my other games/sims perform any different with Vista compared to XP, just MSTS.

no sorry thats my fault i meant to type 60fps for the dell, i tried it again and its anywhere between 54 and 60 all the time.

ok and now, apparently i did something or an upgrade of drivers etc helped cause now my msts is running flawless at 50-60 fps on my laptop. not sure what happened. now i feel like an idiot.

[djt1]

no sorry thats my fault i meant to type 60fps for the dell, i tried it again and its anywhere between 54 and 60 all the time.

ok and now, apparently i did something or an upgrade of drivers etc helped cause now my msts is running flawless at 50-60 fps on my laptop. not sure what happened. now i feel like an idiot.

Now turn on dynamic shadows, turn the AA and AF up with 1600x1200 resolution and see what you get. You will kiss that “flawless at 50-60 fps” good bye.

[NorfolkSouthern_37]

Now turn on dynamic shadows, turn the AA and AF up with 1600x1200 resolution and see what you get. You will kiss that “flawless at 50-60 fps” good bye.

the aa and af is up (both 16x) and it wont show me a res over 1024x768 because my native res is 1440x900, so its not going to detect anything over my screen height of 900. not to mention it doesnt support widescreen. the shadows and every slider have always been maxed out.

[djt1]

the aa and af is up (both 16x) and it wont show me a res over 1024x768 because my native res is 1440x900, so its not going to detect anything over my screen height of 900. not to mention it doesnt support widescreen. the shadows and every slider have always been maxed out.

I meant by connecting it to an external monitor that is capable of a 4:3 resolution, I do this sometimes with my laptop.

That must be one barren MSTS route to get a constant 50-60 fps with a laptop with a T7200 CPU and a Go 8700. Have you tried it with the 3DTrains WP Route?

[NorfolkSouthern_37]

I meant by connecting it to an external monitor that is capable of a 4:3 resolution, I do this sometimes with my laptop.

That must be one barren MSTS route to get a constant 50-60 fps with a laptop with a T7200 CPU and a Go 8700. Have you tried it with the 3DTrains WP Route?

no need to slam my hardware... its actually seligman sub only place ive tried is in the yard havnt driven very long. tried it on the only monitor i have and its 1280x1024 its at 35-57 fps. we are off topic now and i just care that its working right now. i recorded my cpu useage just to see what you meant and one core is going like 75% continually while msts is on. the other is probably about 6%. im pretty satisfied with it now for whatever made the change i dont know. i was convinced i needed a low end computer by todays standards to run msts.

[djt1]

no need to slam my hardware... i was convinced i needed a low end computer by todays standards to run msts.

No one was slamming anyone’s computer hardware. I’ve done a lot of testing with different hardware configurations and always try to be realistic when discussing the performance capability of a particular setup.

[Doodlebug9]

I keep thinking it would help immensely if DJT1 would put in his signature that he's running top tier Intel hardware. Having a $1000+ QX9650 and at least 1 $700 8800 Ultra video card.

I would bet he is 1 of only 2 or 3 people on this whole forum with hardware that expensive.

I would love to see this guy do some videos at a resolution of 1600x1200 or 1920x1200 with full 16xAA and 16x AF with the KRS framerate counter on, so all of us could see what that awesome hardware looks like in action.

Wish I was rich enough to own a $5000+ gaming computer!

[NorfolkSouthern_37]

yea i was fortunate enough to have my wife get me this one at such an expensive price. i opted for certain things to be lower, so its not like i was trying to be tip top of the line, but i assure you my stuff is pretty good. judging by DJT1s screenshots he has a great setup and thats great im sure. i just kinda felt like that statement was i dunno kindof uncalled for. as if my computer isnt good enough to run a game thats old as msts, which is pretty absurd. even cpu based, its not using much cpu, and i guarantee its not able to use a dual core all that well. but considering that krs runs as well as it apparently does for DJT1 im not concerned at all, i just wanted msts to not be 8-12 fps on 1024x768 as it was when i first installed it on this machine. im sure there are plenty of lesser computers here that run it much better than that. its no big deal, and im glad you like the reskins. i dont want something like this to make us unfriendly to each other.

[djt1]

I would love to see this guy do some videos at a resolution of 1600x1200 or 1920x1200 with full 16xAA and 16x AF with the KRS framerate counter on, so all of us could see what that awesome hardware looks like in action.


I’ve put the computer specs up before but they are listed below. The screens shots of the BNSF GE’s were taken with the specs listed first with a X6800 CPU, the QX9650 is not installed yet, not that a Quad core is going to improve performance in KRS anyway.

They were taken at 1600x1200 resolution, 4xAA and 8xAA, 16xAF. Even with an 8800 Ultra, 16x AA will show a performance hit in KRS, finally a train sim that’s not CPU bound. You can tell by looking at the screens that 4xAA or 8xAA at 1600x1200 resolution does a good job with getting rid of the jaggies with very little performance hit when using a high end video card.

I’ve made video’s with Fraps at 1600x1200 resolution but they were over a gig in size. As you must already know from your own videos, Fraps locks the frame rates, so I don’t see how this is going to prove performance better than screen shots taken with the frame rate counter on. If you know of another way of taking the videos at high resolution without the frame rate hit I’ll be glad to make some videos.

By the way Marc Nelson from 3DTrains will be taking delivery of a system with an Intel Core 2 CPU and an 8800 GTX KO, may be we can get him to confirm the performance I’m getting with KRS since the screens don’t seem to be enough proof for the disbelievers.


ASUS Striker II Formula (Nvidia 780i SLI chipset)
Core 2 Extreme QX9650
OCZ Titanium XTC 4GB (2 x 2GB) (PC2 6400/C-4)
Evga 8800 Ultra “Superclocked”
Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty
2x WD 10,000 RPM Raptors (74GB) (RAID 0): Windows Vista Ultimate 64 Bit/SP1 RC
2x WD 10,000 RPM Raptors (74GB) (RAID 0): Windows XP Pro/SP3 RC
SilverStone 1000Watt OP
SilverStone TJ-09B

Asus Maximus Formula (Intel X38 chipset)
Core 2 Extreme X6800
Corsair XMS2 Dominator 4GB DDR2 800 (PC2 6400/C-4)
VisionTek Radeon HD 3870 512MB
Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty
2x WD 10,000 RPM Raptors (150GB) (RAID 0): Windows XP Pro/SP3
PC Power and Cooling 1000Watt SR
LIAN LI PC-A70B

Dell XPS M1710
Intel Core Duo T7600 “G” (unlocked multiplier)
Nvidia Go 7900GTX (512 MB)
2 GB DDR2 667
160 GB 7200RPM (XP Pro/SP3 RC)
Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio Notebook

[djt1]

i just kinda felt like that statement was i dunno kindof uncalled for. as if my computer isnt good enough to run a game thats old as msts, which is pretty absurd. even cpu based, its not using much cpu, and i guarantee its not able to use a dual core all that well.

That’s not what I meant at all, I was trying to point out that if a Core 2 CPU based system (which you have in your laptop) is only giving you 8-12 fps with MSTS there must be something else wrong besides your hardware.

MSTS doesn’t use dual cores very well because it’s not a multi-threaded application.

[NorfolkSouthern_37]

delivery of a system with an Intel Core 2 CPU and an 8800 GTX KO, may be we can get him to confirm the performance I’m getting with KRS since the screens don’t seem to be enough proof for the disbelievers.

wow, you mean people dont believe it? its not that hard to beleive, heck like i was saying, even tho my laptop isnt as good as your system i get comparable performance in krs. ive seen others with krs install getting the same performance, so there seems to be more than just you to disprove.

[djt1]

wow, you mean people dont believe it? its not that hard to beleive, heck like i was saying, even tho my laptop isnt as good as your system i get comparable performance in krs. ive seen others with krs install getting the same performance, so there seems to be more than just you to disprove.

“I would love to see this guy do some videos at a resolution of 1600x1200 or 1920x1200 with full 16xAA and 16x AF with the KRS framerate counter on, so all of us could see what that awesome hardware looks like in action.”

You tell me, I guess they don’t believe.

I really don’t know how many people are out there to disprove. I haven’t scoured the internet looking for KRS screens shots but I haven’t seen any screens taken at high resolution with the AA and AF cranked up either. Other than complaints about poor results I don’t know what their getting for performance.

[Doodlebug9]

I’ve made video’s with Fraps at 1600x1200 resolution but they were over a gig in size. As you must already know from your own videos, Fraps locks the frame rates, so I don’t see how this is going to prove performance better than screen shots taken with the frame rate counter on. If you know of another way of taking the videos at high resolution without the frame rate hit I’ll be glad to make some videos.Thanks for posting the specs. I had assumed you were running dual video cards in SLI looking at the 100+ fps screens

As for fraps locking framerates, I haven't found that to be the case using the optional, user controled, max fps setting. I have mine set to capture a max of 130fps, but it can be set much higher if needed, up to 999fps!
http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii142/WizardofSim/fraps01.jpg

I also use another program called Quick Screen Recorder (http://www.etrusoft.com/screen-recorder/) that has an even smaller framerate hit than fraps does, but it sometimes has problems with keeping the sound in sync with the picture, so I only use it on short clips

As to encoding, I load the raw AVI's fraps captures into Windows Movie Maker and encode them at a minimum 768kb/s and sometimes at 1.0mb/s
You can output to many different bitrates, but these 2 keep final file sizes to sizes most DSL/Cable viewers can handle, and a decent 640x480 size.
This keeps the final cut of the WMV's under 50meg most all of the time.

I'm not a disbeliever of your screenshots, but it helps others knowing that these screens come from a high end gaming computer, something the majority of users of trainsims at least, don't have!

Keep posting your screenshots. Now knowing your current specs, it gives me ideas for upgrading in the future!

[NorfolkSouthern_37]

ya the point is to have fun. i like to keep my fps over 30, as long as its like that and it looks good, i dont care what they are. :)

[djt1]

Thanks for posting the specs. I had assumed you were running dual video cards in SLI looking at the 100+ fps screens


I plan on trying KRS with SLI very soon; it’s one of the reasons why I went back to an Nvidia chipset (780i SLI) again. I was using two 8800 GTX’s with a 680i SLI motherboard earlier last year but was disappointed in the low number of games/sims I owned that could take advantage of dual GPU’s. I ended up returning the video cards and latter on grabbing the Ultra.

Seeing how KRS seems to be affected by video card performance I have high hopes that it will take advantage of SLI and Cross Fire. Even without an SLI profile I think there might be a good improvement by forcing “alternate frame rendering” on KRS.

Thanks for the movie tips I’d really like to give this a try. Is there anything else I can do to get around the frame rate hit with Fraps? Every time I start the “movie” by hitting F9 the frame rates just plummet, it’s like cut in half from what I started out with. I go from perfectly smooth frame rates to a choppy mess.

[djt1]

ya the point is to have fun. i like to keep my fps over 30, as long as its like that and it looks good, i dont care what they are. :)

Actually the key to perfectly smooth game play from my experience has been vsync. The only problem is it seems to be broken with the latest Nvidia drivers, or at least in KRS.

With the frame rates being so good in KRS (usually above the refresh rate of the monitor) I’ve tried to force vsync in the driver control panel, but it does nothing?

[cookiemae]

Guess Ill have to get FRAPS too.

[Doodlebug9]

Is there anything else I can do to get around the frame rate hit with Fraps?

Try that Quick Screen Recorder program I posted a link to.
Its a try before you buy program that will let you test it out
My using it creates a neglidgable fps hit of 10fps or less
But it sometimes has trouble keeping the sound in sync with the picture on captures of longer than 2 minutes or so
Just keep the clips using QSR under 2 minutes and you should be fine
You can splice everything together in WMM in any order ya want to anyway!

[NorfolkSouthern_37]

Actually the key to perfectly smooth game play from my experience has been vsync. The only problem is it seems to be broken with the latest Nvidia drivers, or at least in KRS.

With the frame rates being so good in KRS (usually above the refresh rate of the monitor) I’ve tried to force vsync in the driver control panel, but it does nothing?

i use vsync on most things that i have to move fast in or change views alot. first person shooters always need that to keep the distraction of tearing away. i hadnt really tried to force it on krs till today when i noticed a string of coal hoppers tearing a bit as they passed. didnt see the same thing again so i dont know if its working or not.

[djt1]

Try that Quick Screen Recorder program I posted a link to.
Its a try before you buy program that will let you test it out
My using it creates a neglidgable fps hit of 10fps or less
But it sometimes has trouble keeping the sound in sync with the picture on captures of longer than 2 minutes or so
Just keep the clips using QSR under 2 minutes and you should be fine
You can splice everything together in WMM in any order ya want to anyway!

I’ll give the Quick Screen Recorder a try next.

I just tried again using free version of Fraps, this time with the user controlled frame rate option. I set it at 130 and started at 80+ fps and as soon as I hit F9 to start the movie the frames went right down to 25 fps. With the half screen option the frames seem to lock at 45-50 fps, but this is obviously no good with the screen size cut in half.

Thanks again.

[djt1]

i use vsync on most things that i have to move fast in or change views alot. first person shooters always need that to keep the distraction of tearing away. i hadnt really tried to force it on krs till today when i noticed a string of coal hoppers tearing a bit as they passed. didnt see the same thing again so i dont know if its working or not.

Someone had mentioned on a hardware forum that the game profiles are going to be fixed in the new Nvidia 169.32 drivers. I'll give them a try and see if I can get vsync to work with KRS in the profile.

[Doodlebug9]

i use vsync on most things that i have to move fast in or change views alot. first person shooters always need that to keep the distraction of tearing away. i hadnt really tried to force it on krs till today when i noticed a string of coal hoppers tearing a bit as they passed. didnt see the same thing again so i dont know if its working or not.

I just let the application control the vsync in my Nvidia control panel
Vsync on does force the framerate to lock to the refresh rate
I'll have to try turning Vsync off and see what happens!
I run Forceware 163.71 with coolbits and ntune

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii142/WizardofSim/NVCP01.jpg

[NorfolkSouthern_37]

my forceware is 171.16.

[Gordy751]

what is vsync?and where do i get it?

[sniper297]

Vsynch is a gizmo that governs whether the display updates without waiting if the next frame isn't ready yet, or stops to wait for it. It's in your video control panel, for Nvidia it looks like this;

http://forums.flightsim.com/vbts/attachment.php?attachmentid=1141&stc=1&d=1201907039

You can force it off to get faster framerates, or force it on if you're getting image tearing.