Horseshoe Curve: Altoona Yard Backdating question

[TheOldDessauer]

u

[JohnTrainHead]

Go for all of it.

[dtrainBNSF1]

So we know that HSC is set circa 1957, but most of Altoona yard is missing; mostly I would like to see the engine roundhouse and ready tracks, as well as steam locomotive servicing facilities. I found an interesting webpage here: http://www.altoonaworks.info/diagrams.html that show schematics/diagrams for the yard for most of it's history. The one I find most interesting is the yard circa 1946:

altoona_jan46.jpg

Obviously, this is huge: Is there any memory limit to the amount of "stuff" that I can "stuff" into a cloned route? Would it be better to consider "selective compression" as model railroaders do?

The thing about selective compression and model railroading is that model railroaders employ it simply because A) They don't have enough room to create the entire scene exactly to scale (you'd need a HUGE space just to recreate a yard like Stockton or West Colton to exact scale, even HO) and B) Building and running something that big would be a big hassle and very expensive. With Train Simulator, however, you don't have those sorts of limitations. While I believe there is a limit of like 150 miles or so the Horseshoe Curve route is much smaller than that, so expanding the yard at Altoona should be no problem. Go it

[dtrainBNSF1]

BTW a bit off topic, but when I decided to update Donner Pass to modern UP operation I discovered that the portion of Roseville yard represented in Train Simulator is only a small fragment of what's actually there in real life - not even half of the yard is represented. I wonder if RSC managed to short-change any other yards?
Oh wait! They did: BNSF's San Diego yard on the Pacific Surfliner route: The line southward to National City from the yard has been made but only the track - no scenery, no buildings, nothing but the track which is a shame because it's not like it was that much farther to National City anyway, especially with the track already laid out. Plus the port right next to San Diego yard is misrepresented - there are indeed tracks there and Train Simulator's rendition shrunk the port, making it too small and just looking out of place.
Seems RSC/DTG has a bit of a reputation for cutting out bits of yards rail yards. Why?

[buzz456]

For starters all huge yards look desperately empty usually and if you populate them it dings frame rates so bad that the sim becomes un-runnable.

[BoostedFridge]

For starters all huge yards look desperately empty usually and if you populate them it dings frame rates so bad that the sim becomes un-runnable.

Bingo. It becomes the 'Delta Yard' situation from Stevens Pass. Crawling through a 1/4 filled yard at 10fps

[Chacal]

This.
There are very few switching scenarios actually using the yards anyway.
I prefer compressed yards.

[buzz456]

This.
There are very few switching scenarios actually using the yards anyway.
I prefer compressed yards.

Does this have something to do with his question?

[Chacal]

I believe so.
The question was:

Is there any memory limit to the amount of "stuff" that I can "stuff" into a cloned route? Would it be better to consider "selective compression" as model railroaders do?

I answered the second part. You answered the first.

I'm already married, Buzz. I don't need yet another person checking everything I say.

[buzz456]

I was serious. I didn't understand your comment. If I annoyed I didn't mean to.

[TheOldDessauer]

u

[Mavadelo]

For starters all huge yards look desperately empty usually and if you populate them it dings frame rates so bad that the sim becomes un-runnable.

That should not be the concern of a route builder but that of a scenario creator. Personally I didn't know this, will stuff the yards of NEF and see what happends (some of the yards on NEF are the size of Altoona as ToD likes to see it)

oh for those that do not know what I am talking about, NEF is Northern Europe Final, a freeware route from/in Danmark that has a total length of around 700 KM and basically is the main Danisch rail network

[buzz456]

It is only your opinion that the route creator shouldn't concern him or her self. To my eye I would rather have a abbreviated yard that looks somewhat full than a prototype that looks like a ghost town. And to answer your question if you load the yard up on the VNHRR or the P&LE or the Chessie Mainline your fps drops to a pretty unacceptable level and I have a very fast machine with a pretty high level vid card.

[barnez]

What about the huge yard on the Virtual New Haven? I haven't played it. For those who have...

1)Does it suffer from lag with lots of cars and locomotives placed?
2) Are the switching scenarios too demanding, or are they fun/satisfying with all of that track?

There's always a tradeoff between scenery, track, equipment & performance. The really big yards by their very nature get frame intensive. Most current GPUs are up to the task however there is a break-over point.

(Also - tracks.bin gets crabby as it gets jam-packed)

Scenery adds to the load - but in a huge yard much of the scenery is distant so doesn't add a ton.

That leaves stock.

There's a reason we are providing VLP stock for the yards in our upcoming route. For fun we loaded the commuter yard in Chicago with 15 player trains. The result was a tad unplayable.

NYNH runs about as expected for a large yard - it's ok, but can get choppy.

As for the scenarios - depends entirely on what your cup of tea is. A lot of people enjoy switching & yard scenarios and like a challenging scenario. Others prefer to be out on the mainline and just go.



-barnez

[Mavadelo]

It is only your opinion that the route creator shouldn't concern him or her self. To my eye I would rather have a abbreviated yard that looks somewhat full than a prototype that looks like a ghost town. And to answer your question if you load the yard up on the VNHRR or the P&LE or the Chessie Mainline your fps drops to a pretty unacceptable level and I have a very fast machine with a pretty high level vid card.

Oh off course is that just my opinion, didn't want to present it as fact lol