Here's a pic of me drifting around 256 haybales. What does this have to do with low detail vehicles? Well, if I can spawn in 256 haybales and still have a high enough framerate to drift around them, why can't I spawn in 40 or so driving haybales as stand-ins for traffic? Now, I'm not suggesting actual haybales with wheels, what I'm suggesting is low detailed cars. The current traffic solution depends on a low number of full-detail cars being continuously respawned to simulate traffic. The solution works great for crashes, and it works okay for low-density traffic, but trying to simulate highways and/or high-density traffic is difficult from a hardware standpoint. A solution is needed for high-density traffic, and the best I can think of is low detail cars. The low detail models could feature a drastically reduced node and part count, as well as less simulated components (Engine, suspension, fuel). Think of the burnout games, where traffic was lower detail but could still lose parts and get beat up from crashes. The quality of crashes would suffer from this, but as BeamNG is a driving game and not just a crash sim, the solution that makes the game as versatile as possible is the best solution, to me at least. Another solution would be Levels of detail (LOD) on the cars, where cars more than let's say 20 meters away become ugly and blocky to save on performance but still keep the realism of crashes. I can't begin to think of how this would be implemented into the game though, and I can think of multiple issues that could arise (stutter on load for ex.) but if it could be implemented well it would be the best of both worlds. Though, resource heavy cars aren't the only issue. Right now, the traffic spawner works in a basic manner. It's prone to spawning AI cars into unrealistic "groups" which spaces out the traffic and is generally annoying. Instead of considering the road and what traffic it would have IRL, it just dumps all the cars on the road you're currently on to try and imitate traffic. An example of how this is bad is Italy, around the road next to the highway. As soon as you take a trip down to that road, it gets flooded with cars and quickly jams. Everyone suddenly wants to be on that old little road, rather than going on the massive highway right next to them. It feels dumb. It is dumb. A system that spawns cars differently depending on the road size, place and type should be implemented somehow, but that's not really what this thread is about lol. Feel free to share your thoughts on this!
It's a great idea, but the low-detail model would be extremly time-taking to make a low detail model of each car. As for the LODs, IIRC with how beam works, by moving vertices according to the position of the nodes, it wouldn't be possible or at least easy to implement.
I hardly agree with the idea of low detail models and textures taking a lot of time to make, the whole point of a low detail model is that it's quick(er) and easy to make. Unless they do pursue an LOD system, they of course don't have to make every config for every car either. You rarely see a race car or a super rare car that only sold 100 units on the streets. You could cut out cars like the pigeon (sorry pigeon fans) for not really being something you'll ever see in traffic IRL.
Let's take Microsoft Flight Simulator as an example. It has AI-only aircraft, like how some other games have low-detail traffic. It still has to look good, as it is made by one of the largest and most profitable companies in the world. The Airbus A380 is in that game as an AI-only plane. Whether or not it is low-detail or not is irrelevant, someone had to model the largest passenger plane in the world (and make it look good), add textures, and put it in the game with all of the files needed (the SDK makes it easier to implement though). BeamNG is not Microsoft, they don't have a large team, and don't nearly have the reputation of the latter. Paying someone to model something that really only makes the game look worse is probably not in the company's best interest.
No, the point of the low detail model is not to be easy to make, it's to not lag, and making it look good from a distance and still not lag can be hard
Even if the model is quicker to make, making a jbeam with less node is not easier at all, if anything it's way more difficult. And while for example making a low-poly model of the 80s pessima would be pretty easy, making one for the vivace would be a whole nother thing.
that is true --- Post updated --- If low-poly models will be too hard, what will be done? High-density traffic is really fun, but right now isn't very feasible due to the only options being highly detailed and fully simulated models. I'm currently testing out ways for users to have resource-light AI cars, I'm currently using stripped and tuned Wigeons because they're the smallest body-on-frame afaik. 30 fps is usually not a lot, but it sure is with 20 AI cars roaming around. This is a blast, you guys should try this!
I had this idea a couple years ago but never had the skills to implement it. We just need 4-5 low poly low detail cars with no interior that you can use for traffic. Then you can spawn in like 30.
