Tower 2011 DFW Unplayable!

[Terry Latting]

I had posted this issue in the topic "Tower2011 loads slowly"

 

Most of the airfields load fairly quickly other than DFW. You can see my PC stats below. I am not lacking on resources to play this game whatsoever. It is NOT my PC.

 

DFW takes about 20-30 minutes to load. When it does load, it lags so badly that its unplayable. I am not sure what it is, but its not my PC I know this for a fact.

 

You guys have been fair on some issues and you work towards a solution the best you can so I am not faulting you for this. But I would request that you guys look into a fix for this problem. The airfield might just be too large and too much going on for it to run smoothly.

 

I have tried loading it with lower graphic settings and it doesn't matter, it is unplayable.

 

PLEASE, figure out a solution. I would like to request either a fix or a refund on this airfield. You would have to agree that if its unplayable, why should I be stuck with the purchase? Customer service guys!!.... I love this game and I am a good contributor to the forums and I will continue to be.

 

Thank You!

 

Terry

[fracasado]

Hello Terry,

 

in one of your older post concerning this issue you wrote:

 

...
When I load the game in a night time setting, It loads almost instantly. Can someone suggest what I should do?

...

 

Before doing another new install I would recommend to first consider a problem with the database files. Thats one lesson I learned from my experiences with Tracon.

 

Since there are no comments from Tower experts yet I'm going to bother you once more ( ;-)) with a recommendation: Let's try to find out what actually causes a slow running game by checking the game.log and the database files.

 

1. I would first search for the game.log and remove it in order to start with a new one. If you don't want to delete it move the current game.log to another folder of your choice. If Tower does not find a present game.log it creates a new (empty) one.

 

I would suggest to select a timeframe at night (less traffic) and start a test scenario. Let it run a few minutes and quit the game normally. Look for the game.log and save it into another folder of your choice. If possible post the game.log so that the forum is able to look at it.

 

2. Another thing I would try is to reduce the size of the database files in order to try to identify that one which possibly causes your machine to work so slowly. But it is useful to reduce to file size file by file, one file after the other.

Let Tower create a new game.log and start e.g. with the schedule.txt. Back it up to be able to restore it, copy it to another folder. Then open the original one in a text editor and delete all entries except one or two departures and arrivals for your airport. Make sure that the times of these flights meet the time frame at night (in order to be able to test controlling commands). A schedule file with a very small number of flights should load pretty fast. If Tower takes long to load such a short timetable you can assume that the problem must be anywhere else, but not in the schedule.txt. Check the contents of the game.log of this test, save it in another folder for later analysis. Feel free to post it here.

 

3. After the schedule.txt you can continue your investigation with the next file e.g. the airports.txt. Do the same thing as above, keep the minimum schedule.txt  and reduce the size of the the airports.txt to only the airports used in schedule.txt or to another small number of airports. Fire up Tower and check if it works better. Again save the game.log

 

4. By doing such tests one after another you might be able to find out, what files causes a problem. Some more files worth to check/test are airlines.txt and aircraft.txt. The idea is to look if a minimum database file does work or generate log entries and problems. If it does you are a lot smarter and might be able to correct things. If all database files do work okay then your problem might be related to the terminal definition or to the airport definition.

 

I do admit that such efforts are very time consuming and might be very frustrating due to the possibly limited success. (I did often feel the frustration with Tracon too and still do sometimes). But as long there is no reply from FeelThere's support or other users it's the only recommendation I can offer at the moment.

 

On the other hand, you do learn a lot by testing such things and therefore your efforts won't be for nothing.

 

Regards

fracasado

[crbascott]

DFW is my home airport and I play it all the time. I don't have the issues you do. It is one of the slower loading airports, but we're talking 2-3 minutes versus 20-30.

 

I'm not sure if I saw a post related to this or experienced the slow loading once myself, but it could possibly be related to the runway selection. The normal configuration is 18R, 17C, and 17L for arrivals. Adding 13R and/or 13L could cause the issue (especially during busier hours depending on the schedule file). 

 

Again, I play it all the time with the "premium" settings. Hopefully you'll get it to work.

[Terry Latting]

I tried your configuration and its the same thing. Takes forever to load.

[DragonWin]

Hi Terry,

 

I don't read this forum that often, but what worked for me was...

 

I had lag (GFX lag), and the initial load of the airport was slow. What I did was to go into the \Tower! 2011\Airfields\ and renamed the files named AIRPORT_NAME_shadow.raw, so some thing else, and then started Tower, and it loads in about 10-15 seconds and I do not have any in game GFX lag.

 

I had hoped to find a better solution, but gave up.

 

Computer specs:

---------------------

Intel core I7 920 @ 2.67 Ghz

Nvidia GeForce GTX 670

12Gb Memory

Game is on an SSD disk

[kickerpicker]

Hi Terry,

 

I don't read this forum that often, but what worked for me was...

 

I had lag (GFX lag), and the initial load of the airport was slow. What I did was to go into the \Tower! 2011\Airfields\ and renamed the files named AIRPORT_NAME_shadow.raw, so some thing else, and then started Tower, and it loads in about 10-15 seconds and I do not have any in game GFX lag.

 

I had hoped to find a better solution, but gave up.

 

Computer specs:

---------------------

Intel core I7 920 @ 2.67 Ghz

Nvidia GeForce GTX 670

12Gb Memory

Game is on an SSD disk

What did you NAME them??  My KDFW loads slowly too and I have a good gamer computer.  When I finally do get the game up, the reaction time after transmitting clearances is too slow to effectively control the traffic flow properly.  I also get some of the same problem at KORD, but not as bad. Roy

[kickerpicker]

I too am having much difficulty with KDFW.  A beautiful, busy airport, but not as busy as ATL, which works fine for me, even in peak periods. 

 

KDFW takes 30 to 40 minutes to load, and once it's loaded, it is unplayable because of the lag..  Even the aircraft leader tags lag so much they are unusable. This leads to distraction from one's control plan and ability. 

 

There is the issue of the delay in communicating with the airplanes, as well.  The 'key' has to be held an unusually long moment in order for the 'radio' to react.  

 

You recommend "go into the \Tower! 2011\Airfields\ and renamed the files named AIRPORT_NAME_shadow.raw, so some thing else"... 

Could you give me an example of how you changed that portion of the file?

 

I really like this airport and would love to operate it, but like it is, it's impossible to do that!

 

Roy 

[kickerpicker]

Thank you so much Dragon Wen!! 

 

I took your suggestion about changing the "Airport_NAME_shadow.raw" to something else.  When I selected the KDFW airport, I was totally amazed!   It loaded instantly and everything is operating as it should without all the jerking, starting and stopping!!  

 

I would never have know to do this without your help..

 

Roy

 

 

Gigabyte
GPU: GeForce GTX460
CPU: Intel® Core : 7-2600 CPU @ 3.40 GHz
Memory: 16.00 GB RAM (15.96 usable)
Driver Version: 361.43
Operating system: Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate  Service Pack 1

Using Real Traffic

[MeerCaT]

Seems like a good tip DragonWin!

An unofficial switch to toggle shadows on and off, on a per-airport basis.

 

I don't have KDFW myself but it sounds like it probably contains a huge number of buildings and other objects large enough to cast shadows.

Thus requiring an immense amount of processing to continually compute and render the shadows.

 

Perhaps the developers would be willing to offer an alternative file version with greatly reduced detail, so you can at least have the benefit of shadowing for the main buildings and components.

 

Dynamic shadow rendering is renown for being a potentially large drain on your computer's processing power. That's why many/most games that utilise it offer the ability to degrade or disable the feature in the setting.

Since simply removing the 'shadow' file doesn't cause the application any obvious signs of trouble, it shouldn't be a great effort to implement an official "Disable shadows" feature.