LIRR has 'scenery' M7s in the storage yards to fill them out without hitting performance (they are the same art models with the train functionality removed). TS2020 has dozens of routes containing scenery trains to fill larges yards. German and US routes mostly, due to the size of their yards and because they are generally straight and flat. Scenery trains have therefore been used for years to maintain a populated scene and improve performance.
I'm struggling to tell what's going on from the image, but: putting less detailed scenery in the background to fill-out locations seems like a sensible optimization. Obviously if they affect gameplay (for example if the player can access the siding but the cars don't work right) then that might be a problem but otherwise I don't really see the problem.
Talk about new lows. I don’t see an issue with optimization. There are plenty of freight cars that you can interact with! It’s making progress!
It depends, if they are to fill out yards on services which don't access those tracks, that's ok. If it's a freeroam scenario and the player tries to couple to them only to find they're dummies, then that's pretty poor. In the freeroam all cars should be real.
You can easily tell which ones you can’t interact with by the map. I personally really like the look of the yard being full knowing they can only fit a certain number of freight cars on screen. It’s one of those things that really doesn’t break the game unless your seeking it out.
So there are dummy wagons in the free roam? I don't use the map in Cumberland Yard, I just pick cars and marshal them into a train, I'd be pretty frustrated if I had to go to the map every time I want to couple to a wagon.
I look at the map once while I’m in a yard, it’s not like they are mixed in with the freight cars you can grab, they are off to the sides so it’s pretty easy to remember which ones are and aren’t available. I understand in a perfect world this wouldn’t be the case, If you need any further help with making it easier for you just let me know!
This is a poor excuse for optimization honestly, but it is what it is. If this is the case they should fill sidings in other routes so they seem less empty. Like NEC.
Apparently the team working on TSW can't even get working grade crossings without hitting the performance so badly it's unplayable on console; The lack of working grade crossings is yet another DTG attempt at 'optimisation.' Somehow the developers behind MSTS, Rail Simulator and Trainz can develop working grade crossings, but DTG can't. The goings on in Chatham are all very strange.
Tbf, "static trains" as they were called then, have been a thing all the way back in MSTS. Not only do they make a yard look full and active in every situation, but it also prevents scenario creators from having to fill them again and again for each new scenario. And hands down, as long as you don't want to simulate a train that just HAS to depart from that very track, I don't see how this method does a lot of harm. On the other hand, with TSW's timetable mode it would certainly have been possible to make the yard actually used (not just look like it was) by planning services so that there's some cars parking somewhere at any point in time. Once again wasted potential, even if it is a means of performance optimiization to do it this way in 2020.
Cutting features or functions isn’t optimization... most people playing this Game don’t seem to understand this. This Game development is unlike any others I’ve seen. No communication, no progress shown, no roadmap, no sneak peaks. Just surprises and secrets. I don’t get it.