Performance

Measurement

Measurement of performance in 3DTS can use the value for the number of frames per second (FPS). The current FPS value is shown in the status bar at the bottom right of the screen. The value does not show in full screen mode.

Note to Tables

User experience and terms like jerky/smooth or small/medium/large are subjective. Your opinion may differ.

FPS

FPSUser Experience
1 – 53DTS runs too slowly. The software is nearly unusable.
5 – 10Design mode can be used and limited testing is possible.
10 – 20Motion is visibly jerky, but the system should be
satisfactory for layout design and limited running.
20 – 40Motion and animations are fair.
40 – 60Good performance. Multiple trains run smoothly.
60Best performance. Trains and animations run smoothly. Excellent for demonstration videos.
Monitors generally run at 60 Hz, so any frames in excess
of 60 would be redundant and not be shown.
3DTS limits FPS to the monitor rate, and rests the CPU
between frames if necessary.

Factors Affecting Performance

FactorEffect
ProcessorProcessor performance can be assessed using its PassMark value from:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php
The tests in this table used a processor with a PassMark of 9576.
For small to medium layouts, the processor was used to 30% of its capacity.
Graphics cardGraphics card performance can be measured using its G3D Mark from
https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/GPU_mega_page.html
The tests in this table used a graphics card with a G3D Mark of 6000.
Ram8 GB RAM for the OS running 3DTS seems plenty. Check using the Task Manager in Windows or the Activity Monitor on a Mac.
Downloading or installing updates, file syncing services, such as Dropbox or Google One, virus scans and other background apps3DTS may be so slow as to be unusable. Wait until the background tasks have completed or disable them.
Microsoft Edge UpdatesUse the Task Manager app, CPU tab, to see if these updates are in progress. These updates are not disabled by deactivating updates in Windows Settings. There is no setting to disable Microsoft Edge updates. There are various fixes on the internet to disable them, but these fixes can be tricky. Letting the updates complete may be the easiest way forward.
Number of objects in the modelBig and busy layouts will make more demands on your hardware.
3000 objects (small layout) – 60 fps (excellent)
6000 objects (medium layout) – 40 fps (good)
20000 objects (large layout) – 10 fps (jerky)
3DTS is CPU-limiting for large systems, so your graphics card will probably get bored.
3DTS Settings
Level of Detail (Low/Medium/High)
Shadows (On/Off)
Special Effects (On/Off)
Anti-aliasing (On/Off)
Sound (On/Off)
Restart the applications to use a changed setting.
Marginal difference compared to other factors.
3DTS Settings
Energy saving mode (On/Off)
Energy saving mode on restricts the FPS to 30.
3DTS VersionIn testing, upgrading from v7 to v8 saw smaller layouts still subject to the 60 FPS monitor refresh limit, but larger layouts saw a 50% improvement to the FPS value.
Window sizeRunning 3DTS in a window smaller than the maximum improved the FPS value. The smaller the window, the larger the FPS. Subject to the monitor refresh limit, usually 60.
32 bit / 64 bit WindowsThe 64 bit version is required for larger layouts which will need more than 4Gb of RAM
Display resolutionReducing the display resolution decreases the FPS. Models look grainy and pixilated. Not recommended.
Mouse pickingAnother user reported that if the mouse was in the model window, and thus ready to pick an object, that performance was reduced by 50%. Mouse picking has to be performed every frame because of moving objects. The performance of mouse picking depends on your “scene depth”. The more objects overlap, the more objects have to be checked in order to find the one right under the mouse. This step is already heavily optimised, but it is never for free.

In our testing, this factor made no difference.
Windows versionAnother user reported that performance in Windows 11 was improved.
MacsOn Macs, the performance of 3DTS running in Boot Camp is much better than under virtualisation. Boot Camp is not available with the newer Apple silicon Macs.
Macs running Windows under virtualisationVMware Fusion Player settings for Windows:
Increasing the number of cores doesn’t improve performance.
Increasing RAM above 8 GB doesn’t improve performance.

Ensure VMware Tools is installed in Windows. There is an option to do this in the VMware menus.

VMware 13.5 runs quite a bit quicker than VMware 12. VMware 13 requires Mac OS Monterrey or later.

Virtualisation is adequate for layout design.
Virtualisation running on Apple silicon macs has not been tested by 3D Train Studio UK.
Virtualisation running via Parallels has not been tested by 3D Train Studio UK.