Track Rendering Issues

[TheShotte]

It's been said a million times over - 500 meters for track rendering is not enough. I mean, c'mon:

Having said that - I would like to point out another issue (and the subject of this thread) with the rendering of the tracks - the rails. Here, you have a screenshot with the track rendering distance set to 250m:

You can see the tracks cut off, with the rails, 250 meters away from the camera. Now, look at this screenshot with the distance set to 500m:

In it, you can clearly see that the track bed does in fact draw to 500m (I set the max draw distance to 500m, and they end at the same spot), however, the actual rails barely draw out past 250m. Here you can see this a bit better, the first screenshot is 250m, the latter is 500m. If you look at them side to side, or flip between them in fullscreen, you will clearly see the rails render to basically where the tracks were clipped at the 250m setting, whilst the bed renders out further.

At the very least, the rail rendering needs to be fixed so they render the tracks appropriately to the set distance. What I would REALLY like is the track rendering distance to be extended out to 900-1000m. Just have the slider between 250-1000m, and let this be set to a person's content. 

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Thank you for reporting this issue! Internal ticket number: #1680
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[TheShotte]

Ok, so uetam suggested that we try to delete our settings.conf file, and so I did. As I was setting up my preferences again, I happened to adjust a slider, LOD bias, and noticed it had an impact on the track as well. Long story short, it does. I was able to adjust the settings.conf  file and set the R_CullTracks value to 900, and got similar track drawing distance (possibly a few meters short) by setting R_LOD_DistanceFactor (LOD Bias from settings) to a value of 6 (got there using trial and error). 

The small yellow buildings by where the tracks end are at 900m from the camera. I was able to ascertain this using the clipping plane setting:

At a different station, on the Katowice - Warszawa route:

And naturally, from cab (can't see the track drawing at all in front now, 55 base FOV, zoomed all the way in with mouse):

Now, I'm currently running the game at 4K, and changing those 2 settings did have a slight effect on my performance, but it's something I'm willing to swallow for the sake of immersion. Keep this in mind if you are going to replicate these settings.

Edited January 24, 2023 by TheShotte

[FluffyAdmiral]

Looks really good. It would be nice if Developers would allow us to adjust those settings a bit higher directly from the game settings screen.

EDIT:

@TheShotte 

I tried some of your settings and it really makes a lot of a difference. I also extended traction render distance to match the track a bit better and avoid that weird effect of catenary rendering shorter than the tracks.

I changed my settings too and it looks almost perfect on 75 FOV:
R_CullTracks=900
R_CullTraction=900
R_LOD_DistanceFactor=6

I also tried tomess with VL_LodDist to adjust it a bit, but 90 seems to be plenty for my PC to handle. 

Edited January 24, 2023 by FluffyAdmiral

[weezzah]

I fully agree, let the user have the option to push the limits to Ultra settings and beyond. Most users are aware of the connection between graphics settings and FPS nowadays, and will adjust settings to balance looks and performance to their liking.

[TheShotte]

5 godzin temu, FluffyAdmiral napisał(a):

Looks really good. It would be nice if Developers would allow us to adjust those settings a bit higher directly from the game settings screen.

EDIT:

@TheShotte 

I tried some of your settings and it really makes a lot of a difference. I also extended traction render distance to match the track a bit better and avoid that weird effect of catenary rendering shorter than the tracks.

I changed my settings too and it looks almost perfect on 75 FOV:
R_CullTracks=900
R_CullTraction=900
R_LOD_DistanceFactor=6

I also tried tomess with VL_LodDist to adjust it a bit, but 90 seems to be plenty for my PC to handle. 

I don't really see the traction out past 500m, but the tracks happen to draw right where my focal point is always centered (you're driving a train, you're looking at the tracks ahead, it's not trivial). In regards to VL_LODDist, yeah I messed with this setting too in an effort to get the trees to switch LODs a bit further, and oh yeah, it takes a big toll on your FPS. My issue with the visuals was strictly with the fact that someone is laying tracks in front of me, everything else is bearable and doesn't really affect my immersion that much.

[Footz]

I'd wish devs would allow to set those settings by users according to their hardware in Simrail settings. Current settings are way too limited to reach satisfactory graphical results even for users with highend hardware. You shouldn't have to edit those settings in notepad.

[TheShotte]

5 minut temu, Footz napisał(a):

I'd wish devs would allow to set those settings by users according to their hardware in Simrail settings. Current settings are way too limited to reach satisfactory graphical results even for users with highend hardware. You shouldn't have to edit those settings in notepad.

I completely agree. I understand they limited the drawing distances initially in an effort to eek out some extra performance, but the game keeps getting more and more optimized with each update, so there truly is no reason to let us take these settings further. Honestly, not only do these settings need to be distanced to 1200m (traction, tracks, etc, let's call it future-proofing), but I think it would also benefit from graphical level selection (low, medium, high, ultra) that also adjusted all the settings respectively for those less than savvy individuals. 

Edited January 24, 2023 by TheShotte

[Footz]

Also I've noticed grass rendering on external camera is really short as well, I'd reckon about 200-250m from the train, way too low, would love to get the slider for grass rendering at least to 500m just to test the performance of Simrail on my rig. 

[TheShotte]

The thing about grass (and a few other things) is that it renders for a certain distance from the camera. So bear in mind that if you go high up with it, the grass will look closer than it will when you're ground level in the cab. Just saying one should keep that in mind. Having said that - yeah I wouldn't mind a little extra grass distance either, especially since the terrain textures aren't painted to match the foliage and you can see the grass fade even in the distance a lot of the times.

Here is an example screenshot of foliage-matched terrain texture:

The foliage fades at a short distance and it's not that noticeable because the ground textures match said foliage well. The above screenshot is from the Clinchfield route for TSW, however it is not the vanilla route, it's from a mod called Clinchfield Reimagined. This is a fairly standard modern technique that's utilized throughout the gaming industry. Everywhere you use foliage, you paint the terrain underneath it to match said foliage that way when the grass fades/disappears at distance, it does so gracefully.  In UE, you can even set up the terrain to draw specific type(s) of foliage based on a specific terrain texture.

Also, I wouldn't mind one of the devs letting us know if the track drawing is meant to be controlled by the LOD Bias setting. I'm not sure if it's meant to be like that. Track Drawing should be controlled strictly by the track drawing setting, and this includes the rails as they're part of said track. 

In regards to the actual Track Drawing distance settings - to the devs: remember - you are making this game to be on the market for years to come. You plan on making a bunch of DLCs and whatnot, this is just the beginning. Throughout the years, hardware will improve. Might as well try to future-proof the game with such settings, and perhaps venture into the extremes with said settings. Hardware in the future will be better, way before the lifespan of this game expires.

Edited January 25, 2023 by TheShotte

[TheShotte]

@SuiYou disagree with what exactly? Could you be more specific? Or did you just see a TSW screenshot and your hand automatically went for the Dislike?

Edited January 26, 2023 by TheShotte