Raildriver causes jerkiness

MS TrainSim runs like a champ on its own, but when I use the Raildriver my screen graphics are jerky and are in step-motion. It's at its worst when train speeds are in the low single MPH figures.I've adjusted the parse interval in the .def file from 10 to 60 all to no avail. 10 seems to work a slight bit better than 40, but nowhere as smooth as MSTS on its own. I also checked the video card driver settings per raildriver's website.Raildriver works great under Auran's TRS2004 and Raildriver's own TrainMaster 4.3. MS TrainSim is the only problem. I've adjusted the graphics quality sliders, etc. No significant change unless I run at bare minimum background.I have an ATI Radeon 9200 w/128 MB and an Athlon 2400+ w/1 GB RAM. MS TrainSim v1.2 and Raildriver v. 1.4.0.7, and the latest ATI drivers are installed.Thanks to anyone who can offer suggestions!

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RE: Raildriver causes jerkiness, Busdriver, Aug-08-04, 05:07 PM, (1) RE: Raildriver causes jerkiness, heffed, Aug-08-04, 05:09 PM, (2) RE: Raildriver causes jerkiness, SP_Frank, Aug-08-04, 05:25 PM, (3) RE: Raildriver causes jerkiness, BeaverMon, Aug-08-04, 06:14 PM, (4) RE: Raildriver causes jerkiness, Busdriver, Aug-08-04, 07:17 PM, (5) RE: Raildriver causes jerkiness, SP_Frank, Aug-08-04, 07:41 PM, (6) RE: Raildriver causes jerkiness, BeaverMon, Aug-08-04, 07:46 PM, (7) RE: Raildriver causes jerkiness, SP_Frank, Aug-08-04, 07:56 PM, (8) RE: Raildriver causes jerkiness, derekmorton, Aug-09-04, 00:58 AM, (9) RE: Raildriver causes jerkiness, smokeyjoe, Aug-09-04, 05:55 PM, (10) RE: Raildriver causes jerkiness, SP_Frank, Aug-09-04, 06:07 PM, (11) RE: Raildriver causes jerkiness, sniper297, Aug-09-04, 09:38 PM, (12) RE: Raildriver causes jerkiness, heffed, Aug-09-04, 11:59 PM, (13) RE: Raildriver causes jerkiness, sniper297, Aug-10-04, 02:33 PM, (14) RE: Raildriver causes jerkiness, SP_Frank, Aug-15-04, 12:17 PM, (15)

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Hi,Unfortunately, this is a draw back of the Raildriver since it is having to scan the video to "see" what is happening with the Heads Up Display. MSTS did not provide a direct way for the RD (or any other external device) to get status information, so it has to "look" at the HUD. The jerkiness will vary by route, and I have noticed depending upon how much other graphic activity there is. I am noticing it much more with Cascades than with many of the other routes I have.My only suggestion was going to be to adjust the parse interval, but you have done that.I still would not run MSTS without my RailDriver, but there is a small price in the stutters.Bryce

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You'll have to live with it.I run mine with a parse interval of 10 because it's the most "liveable". I don't even really notice it much anymore, but it's definitely jerky.You don't see it with Trainz because Trainz added genuine API support for it. RailDriver has to do a bit of a backwards method to deal with MSTS.Even with the jerkiness, I can't imagine ever running MSTS without my RailDriver! -Jeff

Union Pacific fan.

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Thank you both. I found 10 to be the best compromise re: parse interval as well.What a device this Raildriver is. Holy smokes. Hats off to the fine folks at RD for producing such a fine piece of hardware.

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I agree. I don't have 1 but that thing is awesome-looking. And such reasonably priced too.I was thinking about saving up and ordering me 1 myself, but seeing that it causes lag in the game...erm, I'm not so sure.

-BeaverMon, AKA Ben-
-BETA Tester for the PO&N Route-

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You MUST get one!!!!!! You will not regret it!!!!Bryce

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LAST EDITED ON Aug-08-04 AT 07:43 PM (EST)

>You MUST get one!!!!!! You will not regret it!!!!
>
>Bryce You bet! The best buck fifty you'll ever spend on a piece of hardware. What's good too is that it's a heavy, rubber footed item that won't slip and slide all over your (real) desktop. This is the real deal.

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LAST EDITED ON Aug-08-04 AT 07:48 PM (EST)

Sounds interesting and I like what I'm hearing, but by the time I get up my $149 (not including S&H...or is it included? How much does it cost total, with shipping and handling?) will be when Sea View 5 comes out (and I can't wait for that either, though I don't have much choice!).

-BeaverMon, AKA Ben-
-BETA Tester for the PO&N Route-

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I bought it through Amazon and it was shipped directly from PI Engr (makers of Raildriver). Paid $150 + 12.75 for UPS. PIE shipped the day they received the order - outstanding.I think you can also buy directly at raildriver.com for 150 plus UPS freight.Auran's website has it listed for 200. <gasp>

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Auran is in Australia though.

Derek
EngMod@sgrail.org
www.sgrail.org

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LAST EDITED ON Aug-09-04 AT 05:57 PM (EST)

I too cannot imagine running MSTS without my Raildriver.However, I made one small modification to the bottom of it. I placed a small peel and stick plastic bumper at each rear corner. This raises the box and speaker located on the bottom a fraction of an inch and allows more sound to escape and fill the area better. At least it seem so to me. The ones I used don't allow the Raildriver to move around any more than before. If you don't like the modification you can easily remove the bumpers. One more thing,what is "pares interval" and how do I check to see where mine is set, how do I change it if I want to? Thanks in advance.

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The ParseInterval=40 setting is located in the raildriver.def file, which is in the C:\xxx\Raildriver folder.xxx being Program Files or wherever you insatlled raildriver to.This file can be accessed using a simple text editor. The folks at RD say a setting between 10 and 60 is possible. It helps with the screen refresh issues in MSTS.

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This might be system specific.I have;Pentium 4 2.66ghz
1024mb RAM
ATI Radeon 9700 128mb
Windows XP homeMy son has;AMD Palomino 1.45ghz
768mb RAM
Nvidia GEFORCE 4 Ti-4400 128mb
Windows 98SEOn both systems Raildriver (I have 2) with the default parseinterval setting makes no difference to framerates, or stuttering (jerky animation). I'm starting to wonder if the sound card might be an issue, now that I look both my computers have Soundblaster cards. Other than Western Digital hard drives it's the only thing they have in common. There has to be a hardware issue somewhere, most people like myself have reported no framerate loss with Raildriver, and I'm even forcing 4xFSAA and 4x anisotropic filtering with no problems.

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LAST EDITED ON Aug-10-04 AT 00:01 AM (EST)

>On both systems Raildriver (I have 2) with the default
>parseinterval setting makes no difference to framerates, or
>stuttering (jerky animation). I'm starting to wonder if the
>sound card might be an issue, now that I look both my
>computers have Soundblaster cards. Other than Western
>Digital hard drives it's the only thing they have in common.
>There has to be a hardware issue somewhere, most people like
>myself have reported no framerate loss with Raildriver, and
>I'm even forcing 4xFSAA and 4x anisotropic filtering with no
>problems. As has been gone over and over on the fora, the jerkiness isn't a framerate issue. People hear you say it's jerky, and they start saying, "that's normal, everybody gets that". It is not loading lag, nor framerate hits. MSTS still shows me the same framerates whether running my RD or not. However, the display is jerky when running RailDriver, and it's not normal MSTS operation.I agree that it must be something to do with hardware, but the question is what. On both of the systems I have run RD on, both of them exhibit the same symptoms. The only hardware commonality between them are processor brand (AMD) and sound card brand. (Soundblaster) Although the actual models of these brands are different. One system has a 64 bit CPU, the other had an XP1800+, XP2100+, and XP3000+ W/400MHz FSB. One system has a Soundblaster Audigy2 Zs, the other had a Soundblaster Live.I also filtering on my vidcard with no issues. (I run 4x FSAA, and 16x Aniso)-Jeff

Union Pacific fan.

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Hmmm. I was at the Great American Train Show in Wheaton Il. a few months ago, saw a demo of Trainz 2004 (oopz, I said the "T" word! ). Unlike MSTS, smooth animation speckled with occasional video "stuttering", the Trainz demo was a continuous mild jerk-jerk-jerk, almost like one of them old 8mm film projectors with a sticky sprocket. That the effect you're talking about? Again, I'm not getting that on either machine, and from what you say I think we can rule out the sound cards. I have an Audigy, Mike has a PCI 512. Both have DirectX 9.0, mine has the latest ATI Catalyst, his still has Nvidia's Detonator 40.72. His AGP aperture is set to 64mb, I dunno what mine's set for since there's no option for it in the BIOS setup. (I had an oddball with the GEFORCE 2 GTS PRO 64mb, two cards on two different systems - AMD Thunderbird 800 on an ASUS A7V, AMD Palomino 1600+ on an ASUS A7A-266 - the "sweet spot" for the AGP aperture was 32mb, anything more or less was unstable.) Mike still has the A7A-266 with the ALImagik chipset, I dunno what mine is since it's a Gateway, first prebuilt computer I've had since 1990. I do remember problems with a VIA chipset requiring a patch, but that predates Raildriver, never had a Raildriver hooked to anything with a VIA chipset (unless this Gateway has VIA, I never looked).Anyway, I did run worst case scenario tests on both computers with and without Raildriver, so I can state with some confidence that I'm not getting the effect you're talking about. I did fiddle with the parseinterval from 10 to 60 to try to duplicate the problem, but regardless of the setting I still don't see it on either of these systems. If you'll recall, when I first got my Raildriver I subjected it to a whole bunch of warranty-voiding destruction attempts, including the infamous wet puppy drop test:http://www.train-sim.com/cgi/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=18267&forum=DCForumID3#21Just out of curiousity, anyone emailed Tim Court recently to see if he's found a common denominator yet?

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UPDATE to original post:I upgraded last night to DirectX9.0c and the performance w/Raildriver running improved greatly. Jerkiness has almost diminished to the point it's almost the same as MSTS running w/out RD running.
In fact, I think MSTS on its own is a bit less smooth with DX9c and that makes using Raildriver the better visual experience. THAT is welcome news <g>

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