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Overview |
The Weardale and Teesdale Network |
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Offer |
Train Simulator runs on versions of Windows from Vista onwards and calls for a 2.8GHz Core 2 Duo processor or equivalent, 2GB of RAM, a Direct-X 9 compatible graphics card with 512MB of RAM, a sound card and at least 6GB of free hard-disk space to install it all...
So began this page in 2015. As noted in the overview TS is a pretty old program that has seen little in the way of major changes even since then so it's real requirements have not changed much nor, thanks to its age, is it able to make the best use of newer hardware. Nonetheless the minimum recommended configuration for a PC has changed quite significantly. Now Windows 7 or newer is specified (unsurprisingly since Vista is no longer supported by Microsoft- in fact neither is Windows 7), a 3.5GHz Intel i3 or 3.9GHz AMD A8 processor, 4GB of RAM and 40GB of available storage as a minimum. The fact is that what is currently a basic PC is something that many enthusiasts would have given their eye-teeth for ten years ago and Windows itself will absorb a sizeable proportion of that increased power so these specifications are not outlandish, in fact 4GB seems very low- a bare minimum for any Windows machine now.
Considering TS although it will only use one processor core effectively, having a multi-core CPU will allow Windows and other background tasks to run without interrupting it. Until about 2018 TS was unable to use more than 4GB of RAM but that was hardly an issue when the machine it was running on may have had 2GB in total. Today PCs with 8GB are common and 16GB about average, at least in gaming circles, so developers can push that 4GB limit and indeed exceed it now. (The explanation for the memory cap is a long one and of little interest to non tech' enthusiasts but briefly it arose from TS being a 32 bit program with a 64 bit version appearing in 2018- Googling the difference is left as an exercise for the curious reader. The introduction of the 64 bit version is a marked and welcome exception to the general lack of major updates.) 40GB of storage seems a fairly arbitrary recommendation- far more than needed for a new installation of TS. If you start adding routes and rolling stock naturally the space needed will increase. I did not buy any new DLC for over year after first starting to use TS but now my installation is pushing 100GB. Drive capacity has typically been measured in terabytes (thousands of gigabytes) these last few years so storage is unlikely to be a grave concern.
All things considered then the revised specifications reflect the general advances made in PCs but, although TS cannot take full advantage of those advances, it will still benefit from running on a faster, more capable system.
I can only describe installation from download which is by far the most common way to to acquire software these days anyway and the only way to install if you take up the offer. It should not tax anyone who has installed other software on a Windows PC. If you already have Train Simulator or any other software distributed through Steam simply open the Steam application and skip to the next paragraph. Otherwise start by going to Valve's Steam website and set yourself up with a Steam account which, in spite of the name, is free and requires none of your bank details- think of it more as a registration. You will need an e-mail address through which Steam will send you authentication codes- you will also get occasional messages from Steam later but will not be bombarded with spam. As with any such site or application it would be a good idea to have a password ready before you start this process. There is any amount of advice about security and how to come up with a good password on the web but it's worth pointing out that rail enthusiasts have a ready source of inspiration in the form of locomotives. 4472flyingscotsman is not a bad password, 4472FlyingScotsman is better, 4472-Fly1ngSc0t5man is better yet and still memorable. Once you have your Steam account you will need to install the Steam application program on your PC to use it. Look at the top right of the website and you will see a green button with Install Steam on it. Click that and follow the instructions then start the Steam application and log in to your new account.
With Steam installed, running and logged in it is time to install Train Simulator itself (the process will be the same if you already have TS or even one or more of the routes in the bundle- the content you don't have will be added to your collection as if you had bought it separately) which, in the case of the Friends' offer, comes in the form of a code or key. Look to the bottom left corner of the window where you will see a button saying ADD A GAME. Click it and some options will pop up including Activate a Product on Steam- select that, accept the terms and conditions (after reading them assiduously of course) and you will be presented with a box in which to enter your key. Do so and click Next or just press Return then... wait while Steam downloads and installs TS. The amount of time the download takes will depend on the speed of your internet connection- getting on for three hours in my case but my connection is not particularly fast at around six to seven megabits. Happily once the process has been started there should be no need to oversee it.
Note that Steam will always see to it that you have the latest version of the core program installed. If you already have TS and have taken up the Friends' offer for the routes you need not worry that any later DLC you already have will stop working due to TS2016 not supporting some of their features. If you are starting from scratch you will get the routes from the 2016 edition of TS plus Weardale and Teesdale, and the latest versions of both the 32 bit and 64 bit programs even through the latter was not introduced until three years after TS2016. Although major development has ceased some new features appear now and then so this is a welcome practice from Dovetail but not entirely magnanimous on their part- if everyone is using the same program it makes support that much easier.
The Steam application, if you have not realized already, is not an ordinary software installer- a program which either unpacks or downloads the files it needs, installs whatever software you were after then doesn't bother you again. It is an application program in its own right and manages TS, including any updates and the installation of other DLC, as well as any other software that was bought through Steam. Occasionally it will show you advertisements on starting up but they can be dismissed immediately. The Library section will be of most use. It will list all the software managed by Steam- click on TS and you can click PLAY to start it or explore sub sections the most useful of which are the Store Page, Discussions and Workshop. Store Page is where you can browse and buy current editions of TS and DLC (you can also buy through Dovetail's own website). Discussions is a forum- a bit of a social network for users who like that sort of thing. You can ignore this but it does give you access to a group of keen and knowledgeable TS players. One particularly thorny issue I had was solved within a few hours of my asking about it- see the Scenarios page. Workshop lists content created for TS by other users- again there is more about this in the Scenarios page.
TS can be adjusted to suit the system it is running on though there are limits- if you are wondering how it will run on your Chromebook the answer is it won't. The settings that make the most difference to performance are graphical and changing trades off the frame rate that TS can run at (stated as frames per second, FPS, the higher the better) with the quality of the picture it can show. A system may be able to run with shadow realism, water realism etc. all turned up to the maximum for a good looking picture with realistic lighting and detail but if it can only generate those pictures at five FPS it will not be useable. Some settings have a greater effect on performance than others and, when trying to reach the right compromise, my advice is to turn settings down then push one or other up a notch, see how you like the result and repeat. Even on the underpowered systems described below I would do almost anything to avoid reducing Scenery Density (which, on lower settings, can save on computing power by not rendering some details which is fair enough but when those details include buildings they are conspicuous by their absence) and Viewing Distance (which controls how close you have to get to an object before it is rendered) since I found gaps in the scenery and objects popping into existence in the middle distance more distracting that the loss of a few FPS.
On the subject of the settings no matter what sort of system you have there are a couple you might like to attend to under Gameplay. The first is Auto-pause which automatically pauses the game when a message giving advice or instructions is displayed. This happens anyway in some scenarios but if not time passes in the game while you read the message- time that can make a difference if you have a schedule to keep to. The second recommendation is turn on the Auto-fireman. In truth he is not especially good at his job constantly raising steam to the point of lifting the safety valves or letting the boiler level drop then turning the injectors on at the start of a climb just when you do need pressure. In spite of this driving a steam locomotive is a two man job in real life so, at least at the start, having the computer take care of the fireman's duties while you learn to drive a virtual kettle is helpful.
Beyond generalizations that is difficult to say but I have installed Steam and TS on several PCs which varied quite widely so describing the experience with each may help readers who are wondering if TS is worth trying on their own system. These installations were not all at the same time incidentally (nor under the same Steam account) but it is perfectly permissible to install on more than one system if you have desktop and laptop machines for example. The conditions of ownership stipulate only that you cannot run your copy of TS on more than one machine at a time.
I installed TS on two systems initially. The first was the Friends' Toshiba laptop which has a 1.7GHz Intel Core i3 CPU, and 8GB of RAM running Windows 8.1. It's an unremarkable machine fairly typical for office use albeit one with a 17 inch screen. This was in 2015 but the hardware was still appreciably below the minimum recommended specifications especially given the lack of a dedicated GPU instead relying on basic graphics integrated into the CPU and intended for nothing more taxing than running presentations or playing video. The integrated graphic system is not just unsuitable it uses the system's main RAM so the CPU is effectively competing with itself for memory access which compromises both. Nonetheless, after typically taking four or five minutes to start a scenario, TS is quite playable under the right circumstances. Firstly many of the graphical settings have to be turned down or off resulting in an unconvincing picture- unsubtle or non-existent shading, no antialiasing and other such niceties and even then frame rates, though consistent, are consistently low. Secondly the route and rolling stock make a huge difference. Happily most of the Weardale and Teesdale is fairly rural which the system can cope with but when things get busy or where there is lots of detail (or both like Darlington- heavily built up and likely to have several trains milling about) it can slow down drastically. Driving along the Rhine valley through its several towns and with the extensive electrification adding a lot of extra detail is possible but trying. Driving steam is also manifestly harder work for any system and the occasionally busy Riviera main line was more than this laptop could cope with at times causing crashes (program crashes that is- not train crashes). Tile stutter is very evident.
The second system, of a similar vintage to the Friends' laptop, is a fairly basic desktop PC with a 2GHz AMD A4 processor again using integrated graphics with 8GB of RAM and running Windows 8.1 from new. Like the laptop this is below the original recommended specifications in fact the two are comparable and almost everything that was said about the Friends' machine holds true here. The same compromises had to be made and the same failings were noted. The AMD processor's integrated graphics arguably copes a little better even with the display working at High Definition resolution, slightly higher than the laptop, and overall things seem a bit more stable. At this point I'll mention that I was not just being gung-ho installing TS on these machines- Derek Siddle of Dovetail Games, who was at Locomotion giving away the copies, listened to me describing the PCs which were the only ones I had available at the time and persuaded me that it was at least worth trying (not that I took much persuading). With hindsight I am inclined to agree. For all their inadequacies these systems were at least able to give an impression of TS. Both machines have since been updated to Windows 10 with only one minor problem arising and easily fixed on the desktop system.
I installed TS on a second laptop that was unfortunate enough to fall into my clutches as something of an experiment. It was an old Toshiba machine originally running Windows 7 but refurbished and updated to Windows 10. In spite of its age the 2.67GHz Core i5 processor was a significant step up from the machines mentioned above and it meant that at least it could set up a drive appreciably faster. That was the end of the good news though since it boasted a mere 3GB of RAM and, again, only integrated graphics. To be frank I was slightly surprised that TS ran at all but it did although saying that it walked might be more accurate. No doubt due to its age the graphics system seemed much weaker and every in game setting had to be turned down (or off if possible) to give the system a fighting chance even at the modest 1344x756 resolution of the 15 inch screen. Rain no longer ran down the windscreen which may sound like no bad thing but other losses were felt more keenly. Passing through fog looked like driving towards a grey wall that receded as you approached and the snowy landscape in the night scenario in the Weardale and Teesdale Network looked more like the aftermath of a volcanic eruption. Inevitably there were memory access problems and driving steam or along the Rhine was not even attempted on this system- it would have been cruel. This then was really a step too far below the recommendations but it was still better than nothing.
Next came another laptop and one actually made as a mid-range gaming system. It was old (I bought it second hand so I'm not sure how old but it ran Windows 7) but had a 2.5GHz i5 CPU, 6GB of RAM and, significantly, a discrete GPU. A basic one, an AMD made Radeon chip, but one with 2GB of its own memory. Although some graphic settings still had to be turned down the experience of running TS on this was streets ahead of any of the systems described so far with scenarios starting within a couple of minutes and running smoothly although tile stutter was still apparent. I added routes and rolling stock that I would never have tried running before. This system provided ample evidence that, even with limited resources, one can get a system that will run TS well. Sadly it also provided ample evidence of the perils of buying second hand since it broke down after I had it for about a year or I would be using it now and quite happy about that.
The last system is my desktop machine bought new to replace the deceased laptop in early 2018. It has an AMD 3.4GHz Ryzen 5 CPU, 16GB RAM and a graphics card with an NVidia GTX 1660 Ti GPU. It quite possibly has more computing power than all the above machines put together but it is fairly middle-of-the-road when considered as a gaming machine and being a couple of years old at the time of writing contributes to that. It is more than adequate for my uses though, it was bought with video editing and the possible future purchase of TSW in mind, and for TS it is arguably overkill. As one would expect scenarios start in a minute or so and TS runs well barely troubling the six core processor while the GPU renders the landscape to a QHD screen (nearly twice the resolution of a full High Definition picture) smoothly most of the time with few compromises in the graphic settings although, counter intuitively, its lack of optimization for new hardware means that it still does not perform as well as newer more demanding software. Tile stutter is reduced but remains apparent even though this system has an SATA SSD.
Three of the machines described above are laptops so it's worth addressing a caveat that appears anywhere the recommended specifications for TS are listed. ”Laptop, Notebook, Mobile or Low Power versions of the above specifications (including Intel or Integrated Graphics) may work but are not supported.” With the exception of some small footprint and all-in-one systems which often use components made for laptops desktop PCs are very standardized with interchangeable components. With the right advice most people given a set of components and little more than a screwdriver could assemble a complete PC in an afternoon- indeed if you have the nerve that is the best way of getting exactly the PC you want and learning something about it in the process. Those people could also strip a system down to replace any faulty components. Mobile machines are very different- notebooks are different sizes and shapes and, obviously, much smaller than a desktop system. While parts like the actual chips and drives will conform to standards the boards and sub-assemblies that have to be fitted into those varied cases vary themselves and components like the processor and any GPU are likely to be surface mounted (soldered) onto the motherboard making them difficult or impossible to replace without replacing the board itself. The need for power saving in a machine designed to run on battery and heat dissipation in a case where everything is crammed in on top of everything else each make other demands. My desktop system has a 600W power supply albeit with a generous allowance for any future expansion. The GPU is mounted on a sub-assembly, the graphics card, about the size of a hardback novel with its own cooling system. By contrast a laptop advertised with a similar sounding specification has a 200W power supply for everything including its 17 inch screen. Obviously compromises have to be made. This variability is the reason for Dovetail's caution and it is not unjustified but the fact is one would be very unlucky to find a mobile system that was incompatible with TS. If you only have a laptop and are wondering whether or not to take up the offer it is almost certain to be fine and the mere fact that it is a laptop need not put you off.
As a general conclusion the faster a PC and the more powerful its GPU the better TS will run on it but that is hardly surprising- the same is true of any software. If you have a PC that runs modern games it should make a good job of running TS. If you have an older system that was a decent gaming machine in its day but which is gathering dust somewhere because it struggles with newer titles it may well still make a good job of running TS. If you are in the market for a new PC you need not blow the budget on top of the range hardware for TS will not make the best use of it and cutting edge features will be wasted. If you are looking for a cutting edge system with other newer games in mind, perhaps TSW, TS need not enter your considerations at all- your new machine will cope with it very nicely and any compromises you make that may better suit it will adversely affect everything else.