Firstly, don't be alarmed, when I say "sacrifice passengers", I don't mean it like that. This is probably more for the console players, and anyone else seeing the increase in blurry textures, crashes, limited releases etc. I know this would only be a sticking plaster, and I definitely want the actual underlying issue to be fixed, but it might be an option to help. It would work like this: a) there'd be a toggle in settings which, when set, means no passenger models appear b) you'd still have to open the doors and follow the pick up passengers instruction c) if guard mode is selected, the setting is overridden and passengers appear anyway I think this would be a shame, but equally it's not like the appearance or behaviour of the passengers is that amazing. Routes might appear weird without people, but it wouldn't be the first time we've had this, as MSTS veterans will testify. So yeah, not ideal, but I think it's something I'd be willing to accept, at least temporarily. I'd certainly prefer to lose passengers than trains.
Personally, I wouldn't mind if it was an option, but however bad the passengers are in the game, I wouldn't want to lose them. They do add a sense of life to the game One of the things that annoys me most is the lack of passengers at Euston. But equally when they exist and walk on tracks, that annoys me as well Personally I wish they'd spent more time on passengers and less on Random faults and temporary speed limits.
If it’s a toggle and the choice to keep passengers or not was retained then it’d be fine by me. Assuming of course that passengers do indeed meaningfully affect performance.
Honestly yes, half the time they don't even get on the train. They often ignore the yellow line or even wonder onto the track. Stay on ECS move. Spawn on fast line platforms or on platforms that get very few trains with the next one not being for several hours. At some stations they get off and just stand there They're broken and if getting rid helps performance, I say good riddance to bad rubbish
Pass, since we have no idea how much of a performance hit the passenger system actually is. I suspect not enough to affect the texture pool, though.
I have removed all passengers from the game via my engine.ini settings (I don't like the unrealistic way they behave) - I'm on PC. As far as I can tell it makes no difference to performance.
To be honest as kf5550 stated in the larger picture it won't really gain you much performance on PC consoles may see some benefit in slightly more graphics headroom being available and maybe a few extra CPU cycles for there pathing, but it would be small, DTG don't exactly use high poly models for the NPCs, having an option would be best, as everyone system behaves different.
Maybe, if it actually is a trade-off that would work (enough). I would need evidence of that to make an informed decision.
I don’t care about passengers at all I drive freight 90% of the time or going fast enough where you can’t see them well so I easily take extra performance over having them
No passengers? So what would be the point of that in a train game which transports passengers? You may as will just drive fright trains if you don’t want/like passengers
That is helpful. If it's a game, passengers aren't necessary. However, if it's a simulator, they are required.
A definite no from me. That is a key part of the immersion of the game... I don't fancy going back to the days of MSTS. I don't think the passengers have an affect on performance anyway, so they are safe in game!
The passages do not affect in any way the perf ,in my case (or at least a tiny bit) For it to affect performance, you'd need a really huge number of passengers, something you'll never see on a normal route (I try with engine.ini)
Reduce the passengers amount(if it helps with performance on heavy stations) - yes. Disable passengers completely - no.
It would be useful for Rivet Games routes where people routinely stand on the tracks, jump out of bridges, amongst their other craziness. I would rather the boundaries were just fixed though.
I honestly don’t think it’s required. DTG need to get to the root of the problem and resolve it. A starting point would be to rigorously test on console before even considering release. My understanding is that there is next to no testing done for console, which is quite frankly outrageous and boarderline criminal
Personally, I think it's a shame for consoles: you're being advised to remove layers on certain routes and now then remove passagers due to a performance issue. Personally, I think it's DTG who should be working on this, rather than you who should be making concessions about what the game offers you.
For me personally I wouldn’t mind keeping passengers even if they did play a little part in affecting the performance but I would totally remove them to stop the numerous times when I’ve been driving a service and they appear floating above or on the line which totally ruins the immersion.
I think a option to disable the passengers would be a good idea, If things like disabling train faults etc can be done then it should be doable.
IMO the passengers have been completely misfocused from the get go. They’ve always had issues with standing in places they shouldn’t, spawning too late to be noticed, being on board OOS trains & not being on board in-service trains. Instead we’ve had misguided attempts at making them look better, adding accessories & clothing, just in the end for them to all spawn the same 3 archetypes anyway. Frankly I’d cut way back on the gimmicky stuff, cut down their performance debts & increase the numbers. Just for the above suggestions to have a slider, what use would it have? You either have 0 passengers or 50 & sometimes even 300 of them floating above the route.
I don’t think passengers have a huge hit on performance, but if I could them off I would in a heartbeat. They look ridiculous, act ridiculous, and ruin an otherwise pleasant drive.
I like having movement on the platform, but there's nothing more annoying than pulling up halfway down a long platform and watching them all gormlessly walk to the far end only to turn around and walk back. I don't know why all women like wearing black summer dresses, either. It's like a cult at some platforms.
Maybe instead of a toggle for just on/off for the passengers you could have different levels similar to how the faults, TSRs & signal delays (also your graphic settings) so you'd get off, low, medium, high, very high & ultra
Then you might have a read over how it's working in UE. Moving hundreds of animated skeleton meshes is not what you want to see performance wise. That's why they are so basic and stupid. You can have a few well animated, looking and behaving people OR you can have hundreds of simplified ones. The one or the other, not both unfortunately. And in a simulator environment it's even harder to do since you need more CPU for simulation aspects than on other usual games.
Not only that but they get in your way when you are trying to find collectibles. They clump together in areas on the platform and you cannot get past sometimes without going on to the track, or are sitting on a rugby ball or some other object left on a bench. I am not saying remove passengers but would like to see them more evenly spread out, if at all possible. I know in life, people will stand close to each other. If you sit on a deserted beach, everyone seems to sit around you. Same as when you park your car in an empty car park, the next person will park next to you, it’s human nature! But please not in the game!!!
To reduce performance issues, i would like to have the option to make them static with idle animations. Like this you will have full stations, no more unrealistic movement and neither would they exit trains to the wrong side. The amount of passengers standing at a station could still change based on the daytime. With conductor mode on the train they despawn anyways, so shouldnt make a large difference to the experience. To make it more realistic add a dynamic change in passenger amount on the plattform depending on if a train arrives/departs.
Some kind of ritual circle drawn in salt on the platforms at Grand Central, with hooded figures engaged in chants invoking the power of "QA" as passengers glitch into a candle-strewn altar and disappear up to their shoulders...
As long as it is a choice. Personally I don't ever venture into the passenger area, I am pretty much always in the cab of the loco so if I can get a few extra FPS I wouldn't mind.
Passengers use a very small amount of RAM so remove them or disable them brings nearly nothing. So this whole topic is a little bit unnecessary and it will not fix the blurry textures.
Passengers do affect the FPS, so do cars especially when there are a lot of them. Semmeringbahn is one of the worst routes FPS wise, station full of passengers or a lot of cars at a road and you see the FPS drops on this route. But on other routes I never noticed it that much. To what extend do passengers affect memory usage? Is it like no blurry textures anymore after disabling? I guess not, but the passenger system needs a overhaul anyway. Some stations have to many passengers walking around, their behavior is very unrealistic and their clothes/outfits are also becoming worse. I'm not a fan of cutting stuff, because DTG don't fix the cause of the issues. So for me it's a no.
