After conducting experiments on BradsPC and Bradgamer for Train Simulator, I've decided to do the same for Trainz. I have not included the results of each level of detail here, but these settings seem pretty good, giving smoothish track detail when moving and a decent frame rate of high 30s low 40s on Coal Country:
In Game Video Settings
- Maximum draw distance 3500m
- Override Draw Distance Cap - off
- Process Objects behind camera - off
- Scenery detail - high
- Tree detail - high
- Post processing - high
Launcher First Page Settings
- Vsync at 1/2 caps frame rate at 30, which reduces work done by GPU. this is recommended for systems that deliver between 30 and 60 fps. This results in less dropped frames when the rate changes but does not fully untilise the GPU capability. I'll turn off for now.
Performance Settings in Launcher
- Shadow quality - high
- Main shadow resolution - 4096
- Shader quality - Standard (Setting to ultra will drop frame rate by 10)
- Texture detail - high
- Post processing - high
- Water quality - high
- Detail scenery - Clutter and TurfX
- Antialising - 2X (bumpt up to 4x or 8x if too jaggy, but frame rate will drop)
- Detail update rate - high
- Use PhysX simulation - ticked
- Process objects behind camera - not ticked.
I also tried running at a lower resolution but no great benefit is shown from that - and that means running at full screen which is a pain if you want to use other applications at the same time.