Week 39/2023
September 25th - October 1st, 2023

Simulator

Release 2023.2.1 is approaching rapidly. There are some pending matters regarding signalization and weather assets. The developer meeting scheduled for this Wednesday will likely determine the release calendar.

Models

• Lokol, chudya - Type 421S carbide transport wagon

• Lokol, chudya - Type 426Z flatcar with military vehicles as cargo

• Marcin_S - Presentation of the completed roof for the ET22 locomotive. More screenshots can be found here

Sceneries

• Rybson - Węglowce - scenery development resumed
• Littlebeaver - Stara Rawa - scenery development resumed
• Towotn - Owocowo - scenery submitted to SSS
• Minesis123 - Zielone Wzgórza - scenery submitted to SSS

Apps & Tools

• Thundo, Stasiu - Interfaces for 4F2.0 and 4.4Ft in SUP have been entirely rewritten:

• Thundo - Development of the new design of information boards in tablice-td2 has been started, inspired by the appearance of Warsaw Zachodnia:

Spawn

• Hammer - Work on the user interface is ongoing.
• janoxxx - Testing of a new server-based user authentication solution with enhanced capabilities has begun. A decision regarding its implementation instead of the original planned solution will be made after the tests are completed.

Selection of information from the Forum

• honza749 - Thread about the Beznazwa scenery

Week 41/2023
October 9th-15th, 2023

Simulator

In accordance with the previously established schedule for the tests of version 2023.2.1, the final version of the test build for Sponsors is being prepared, which will be made available today (October 16th) in the evening. Once again, we encourage participation in testing and reporting any issues, which will allow for their efficient resolution.

Models

matseb:

• 2 types of bridges, concrete and steel in single and double track versions

• Concrete plant model

• Silo models in several color variations

Sceneries

• Littlebeaver - Legno - the scenery passed stage III in the SSS

Wikipedia

• An assembly and operation manual for UZE locks has been prepared. It will be added to Wikipedia in the near future.

Apps & Tools

Spawn

• janoxxx - Over the next week, the migration of the user registration module to the new server-based solution is scheduled to be completed.

Week 43/2023
October 23rd-29th, 2023

Simulator
A new version of the simulator has been released - 2023.2.1 "Epoka". Key changes include:

• Introduction of dynamic weather conditions system
• Addition of the EP09 locomotive (available only to Sponsor rank holders until the end of November)

• Introduction of new EHA and Ericsson signal models

• Addition of many vehicle and building models, some of which are presented below:

• Detailed information about the new version of the simulator and the changelog can be found in this thread.

Sceneries

• dominikyt8 - Cis 2018 - scenery submitted to the SSS
• Monteusz - Cieszkowo - scenery has passed the first stage of SSS check
• TrBleMaker - Wschodna - adapted version of the scenery passed the first stage of SSS check
• Forum or GitLab information on scenery updates for the Epoka version: Zimnice, Grębów, Łapanów, Rudnik nad Sanem, Dziewoszyce, Warszowice-Strumień, Nakło, Skrzynki, Poddębice, Szadek, Otok and Wijewo.
• Sceneries that have already been adapted for the Epoka version and are awaiting entry into SWDR: Mońki, Lilianowo.

Wikipedia

• Wewek, matseb, EUgenio07, FDL52 - main page has been updated with information about the new version, translations to English, German, and Czech have been updated.
• matseb - provision of a complete set of screenshots of rolling stock for the new version of the simulator, to be included in the future TD2 rolling stock article.

Apps & Tools

Forum Tools

• BravuraLion - preparation of the EP09 profile for the TD2 StreamDeck tool

TTSK

• Change in the team on October 23rd - krzysiek9825 was reinstated as a Global Moderator.

Selection of information from the Forum

• Marcin_S - photo report from the Warszawa Główna Towarowa scenery
• BravuraLion - summary of another edition of Bravuras Fahrtag

Week 45/2023
November 6th-12th, 2023

Simulator

• Krzys292 - the second stage of optimization, which involves division of every scenery into chunks. Sceneries will no longer be loaded all at once, and static objects like plants will be split into "chunks" dynamically loaded within the camera's render distance. This has shortened scenery loading times, increased gameplay smoothness, and reduced the frequency of the black loading screen when loading another scenery. As a side effect of the applied system, there are a few seconds of stuttering when the dispatcher teleports to distant signal boxes. The system is not active in the editor - there, the scenery is loaded all at once.

Models

• Marcin_S - showcase of progress on the cabin of the ET22 locomotive in the "Graty od Marcina_S" thread

Sceneries

• Kryszakos - Wilkowo - scenery submitted to the SSS
• Forum and GitLab information on adapting sceneries for the Epoka version: Wijewo, Ligota Grabowska, Trzymałkowice, Wronowice, Brenno.

Wikipedia

• Wewek - work in progress: updating the Simulator Settings page and preparations for writing an article on the daily cycle and weather conditions.

Apps & Tools

Forum Tools

• BravuraLion - update of the On-Board Passenger Information System project and announcement about the termination of support for the station announcements generator and its integration with the PIS program

Selection of information from the Forum

• Hubertq - search for the creator of environment for Górki Górne scenery

Week 47/2023
November 20th-26th, 2023

Introduction
Yet another week was dedicated to optimizing various simulator mechanisms. Internal tests show significant reduction in scenery loading and unloading times, a significant decrease in freezes during these operations, and a general increase in framerate. Thanks to the generosity of GitLab, we managed to obtain a commercial license for our most important tool free of charge. This license unlocks several important features for us, facilitating work organization (e.g. ticket dependencies). As part of Black Friday, taking advantage of the ongoing shopping frenzy, we also made several purchases, mainly servers, but we also bought two models.

Simulator

• During in-team tests, specific data on the chunk system were collected. According to them, using this system, depending on the hardware, sceneries, and other settings, loading times can be 30-70% shorter, gameplay smoothness can increase by 20-40%, and RAM usage can be about 30% lower.
• During the ongoing work, processes that affect performance during scenery loading were identified. It turned out that many elements were loaded very inefficiently (in addition, some resource-intensive processes were unnecessarily invoked multiple times), resulting in significant performance drops and long loading times. Thanks to the introduced changes, which mainly concerned the method of loading tracks and switches, as well as adjusting the limits on the number of loaded objects per frame, it was possible to significantly speed up and streamline the loading process. In the coming days, tests will measure how much this will improve scene loading.

Models
The order of adding models still waiting in line has been established.

The preview of the models can be looked up by clicking on the external links.

Purchased models:

• Billboard collection
• Glass elevator

Free models:

• Concrete barricade
• Cypress House
• Industrial building
• Metal can
• Plywood pallet
• Chair
• Desk

Sceneries

• krosyl8, trichlor, NasWille - Sufczyn - scenery released
• trainfun09 et al. - LCS Sandomierz - scenery released and ready for public premiere

Wikipedia

• EUgenio07 - completion of the #13 ticket regarding the update of the simulator keybindings. These changes are already publicly available.

Apps & Tools

SSO

• janoxxx - completion of work on the user registration module in the new authentication system. The work will now focus on implementing the remaining functionalities and configuring and testing the application.

Tools from the Forum

• Ugulele - update to the Scenery Creator Helper

TTSK Association

Purchase of four new servers at a discount price (two dedicated, two virtual), which will replace the currently functioning ones. The following services have been migrated so far:

• Gitlab
• Mattermost
• SWDR/API in both stable and developer versions
• Tools for generating scenery packs
• Integrator
• All current mirrors have been replaced with new ones
• New wiki (which is still being organized)

In the queue for migration (and potential optimization) are:

• status.td2.info.pl
• forum
• wiki.td2.info.pl
• up.td2.info.pl
• Img.td2.info.pl
• TS3

Selection of information from the Forum

• NasWille - thread regarding Sufczyn scenery
• trainfun09 - video material about the premiere of the LCS Sandomierz scenery, which can be watched here

Week 49/2023
December 4-10, 2023

Simulator
As part of the optimization process, one of the most important changes has been introduced: improvement of the method of generating and rendering sleepers. Previously, each sleepers was set as a physical object on the scenery and rendered one after the other. This caused lag spikes during their generation and significantly extended the rendering of each frame. The new system uses the instance rendering mechanism, significantly reducing the number of draw calls on the graphics engine (i.e., commands to render the grid sent from CPU to GPU). This translates into a noticeable increase in gameplay smoothness and eliminates lags during the generation of sleepers. The chart below shows how, over the course of the recent optimization stages, the frame rates (fps) and frame generation times (ms) changed in dispatcher mode on several scenes. The "build6/stable" column indicates the performance improvement in the latest developer version compared to the stable version 2023.2.1, and "build6/build4" indicates the improvement caused only by the changed rendering of sleepers. The presented data was measured on a fairly powerful computer, and in the coming week, final measurements comparing gameplay smoothness and scene loading times on hardware with different components will be conducted.


(click on the thumbnail to open the table in full resolution)

Optimization work is coming to an end, and the last stage, optimization of rolling stock loading, is planned for this week. The release date has not yet been determined, but it should become clear in the next few days.
ATTENTION! The gantry_01 and stripper objects have been COMPLETELY removed from the simulator due to their very bad optimization. Scenery creators are kindly asked to eliminate them from their sceneries and not include them in new ones. In the near future, the bower_xx objects will also be removed, so they should also be phased out.

Sceneries

• NIE_pomarancz23 - Zakrzów - scenery submitted to the SSS
• barti123 - Sławica - the scenery passed the stage I of check in the SSS
• jasieleczeq - Ciechany - the scenery passed the stage I of check in the SSS
• Drozda32 - Dygowo - the scenery passed the SPK check as part of the stage III in the SSS
• Information from the forum or GitLab about updates to the Epoka version: Brenno, Łaskarzew, Wasilków, Lublinek.

Apps & Tools

• Stasiu, Thundo - new version of SUP v1.7

Selection of information from the Forum

• matseb, Lokol - announcement on the forum about the results of the screenshot contest.
• xoorbes - official guide on downloading the simulator directly from mirrors

Week 51/2023
December 18th-24th, 2023

Wishes

Dear Readers,
As this edition of the Weekly Magazine is released on a holiday and is also the last edition of the Weekly Magazine this year, on behalf of myself and the entire TD2 team, I would like to extend my warmest wishes for a healthy, joyful, and Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2024. May it be a year of many positive moments, successes, and the realization of dreams. The Weekly Editorial team thanks you for your presence in the past year and, without further ado, invites you to read this week's edition

Simulator

• xoorbes - transfer of the scene synchronization mechanism to a new server
• xoorbes - optimization of objects (more information coming soon)
• Krzys292, _l0stfake7 - continuation of work on rolling stock optimization. Over 20 attempts and corrections have been made. In the meantime, the previous idea was verified and slightly modified - vehicle objects will be placed independently of the rendering range but with a limit of one per frame. Additionally, scripts for vehicles outside the range will be disabled, so their truck positions will not be unnecessarily updated, among other things. Furthermore, the "ownership" mechanism of networked vehicles has been changed. Previously, after detaching from the locomotive, wagons would become the property of the traffic controller, which sometimes caused problems with welding or derailing when flying around and trying to reconnect. From the new version, wagons will change ownership only when connected to another player or when the original owner logs out. The main core mechanism has already been tested, and only minor things and cosmetics remain to be completed. The new version will be delayed by about 7 days; the delay of the new version may change.

Sceneries

• hubciu25a96454 - Koplice - scenery submitted to the SSS
• Upupork - Sarnów Modrzewski - the scenery passed the SPK check as a part of stage III of the SSS
• Scenery adapted to the Epoka version: Orniki.

Apps & Tools

• Thundo - update of the TD2 Boards program to version 1.4.0

TTSK Association

• xoorbes - Financial eport for November
• Trainers Team reminds about the ongoing registration for another edition of the Trainer Educational Session. Details and registration in this thread.

Statements from Heads regarding changes in the functioning of departments during the holiday season:

• trichlor - Constructors,
• babisz_fajny - Trainers, and
• peter0133 - Moderators (and change in the functioning of the Complaints System).

Selected Forum Information

• Lurr3xPL - progress on the model of the 111A wagon in the T&R Team Models thread
• trainfun09 - a thread about the refreshed version of the Aleksandrów Kujawski scenery