Coonskin, on 17 May 2018 - 04:12 AM, said:
Read closer: High poly track structure/etc is discussed above.
Ahh, yes, discussed almost a year ago.
I'm not trying to argue with what you wrote, but I want to be clear that "procedural track" does not automatically equate to "performance hit" or "high polygon." High-polygon everything is nice, but priorities have to be made. High polygon track should not be low on that list, since it's a railroad simulator. The nice thing about dynamic features like procedural track is that they can be tailored in lots of ways. For example, the track could be made a lot more generic and low-poly when the player train is moving fast, and more realistic and polygon-hungry when the player train is still. As was stated, you won't really notice the track when you're driving your train around, but inching or stopped for a signal or station or something, you will.
There is a happy medium and play between performance and detail intensity. Any graphics system can be ground to a halt, yes, but not all graphics systems are created equal. On top of that, the law of economics, "You get what you pay for," has applied, applies today, and always will apply. If you want good gaming PC performance, you have to pay for it. The world of technology keeps marching forward and dust will eventually settle. The computers of today will not be able to do what the computers of tomorrow can do.