VISSIM 5.30-05 User Manual

2 Program Installation
2.1 System Requirements
The performance of a VISSIM simulation mainly depends on the following:
► the number of vehicles simultaneously contained in the network
► the number of signal controlled junctions
► the type of signal controllers
► the number of processor cores being used
Using identical VISSIM input files, a faster computer will always lead to a
faster simulation.
VISSIM is also provided in a 64 bit edition. This makes using more than
3 GB RAM possible.
For very large applications (like an urban network with more than 50 signal
controlled junctions) at least 1 GB of RAM is recommended:
VISSIM edition Recommended memory
32 Bit minimum 2 GB RAM
64 Bit minimum 4 GB RAM
As a rule of thumb one VISSIM vehicle takes about 2 kB of RAM. So if a
simulation contains 50,000 vehicles in the network, the vehicles alone take
up about 100 MB of RAM. Quad-Core processor machines are
recommended.
Hyperthreading allows for parallel calculation runs on those computers and
the simulation speed is supported. Even while a simulation is running,
working is more comfortable.
To provide an optimal desktop layout when multiple windows are displayed
simultaneously it is beneficial to use the highest resolution supported by the
hardware configuration. At a minimum, a resolution of 1280x800 pixel should
be used. However, we recommend a resolution of 1920x1080 for
convenience.
In 3D mode, simulation speed may be significantly lower by using higher
screen resolutions. In order to increase the 3D visualization speed it may be
useful to resize the main VISSIM window to a smaller size.
The 3D visualization of VISSIM may run significantly slower compared to the
2D visualization. This is due to the fact that the 3D visualization requires a lot
more computer power. VISSIM uses Open-GL routines for the 3D visualization,
therefore a graphics card with Open-GL support takes a lot of the
workload and results in a faster visualization speed compared to other
graphics cards. For up-to-date information on recommended graphics cards
please check FAQ #6 on our website on www.ptvag.com/FAQ_VISSIM.
We strongly recommend to use the most recent driver for your graphics card
since simply updating the driver solves most problems that occur with the 3D
visualization. For most graphic cards the driver update can be downloaded
from the Internet.
28 VISSIM 5.30-05 © PTV AG 2011