I have never said that I create content for low end systems, and I have been very open about that over the years. I create more for the medium to high end systems and users wanting some of the most realistic looking assets available. Realism often comes at a steep price in polys, even with LOD0 to LOD4 implemented. I have also said many times over the years that I primarily create content for my own routes but choose to share the routes and the content on the DLS for others to enjoy, if they can. Keep in mind that I also have chosen to make everything freeware to everyone even though it has cost me substantial money, well over $4500 to date and counting, to purchase these assets, and this doesn't count all the time and effort I have to put in to get these assets to work, look and function right in Trainz. I don't get much thanks for this however. Of course the alternative is that I keep the content and my routes only on my own computer system and never share them with others, which means no one but me gets to enjoy them. Is that what you want?
Personally I hate LOD which causes me a lot more work and slows my rate of production greatly. The only I reason I do LOD is to allow more people to enjoy my assets then would be able to do so otherwise.
On my system, where I create and test my Trainz content, all my assets work just fine. I guess it all comes down to the technical capability of each persons individual computer system. On my part I have a high end system which includes an ASUS NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Noctua Edition Graphics Card, a 64GB ROG Maximus XIII Hero motherboard and a Samsung 870 EVO 4TB SSD among other things.
On each of my uploaded assets to the DLS I try to ensure that I provide Poly counts so the user can judge if their system can handle the asset or not. On really high poly items I tend to keep transition distances shorter to keep graphic card loads manageable. For people with low end systems there are still a lot of ways to tweak your Trainz and your routes to run PBR Based assets and high polys items. Some examples, of many, that come to mind:
1. Just use a few high poly assets and spread them out. One really realistic item in a scene can often make the difference to the railroad scene on a route.
2. Decrease the Shadow Quality setting to low or none. This alone can make a big difference for the graphically card challenged user.
3. Decrease the Maximum Draw Distance from 3000 meters to 2500 or less.
4. Decrease the Scenery Detail setting.
5. Uncheck the Process Objects Behind Camera setting.
The problem in creating content for Trainz is that the computer user base ranges from the very high end system to the very low end system. This makes it very challenging for content developers. Designing for the low end user only essentially means penalizing high end users who can use much better and much more realistic looking assets, something I am not willing to do. While I am sorry that low end users can't afford better computer hardware, in the end that is not my problem. The low end user will just have to pass on my items until such time as they can afford a better system.
Bob
I consider...