Question regarding LOTUS for Clubs and Museums

tokirium · Jun 27th 2026

Hello LOTUS Team and Community,

I am writing on behalf of our transport enthusiast club/museum. We are highly interested in the dedicated LOTUS version designed for clubs and museums.

Could you please confirm if this offer is still active? I have already sent a detailed inquiry to the dedicated email address (verkehrsbetriebe @ lotus-simulator.de), but I have not received a reply yet.

We would appreciate any update on whether the email was received or if there is an alternative way to move forward with our application.

Thank you in advance for your help!

Best regards,

Krzysztof

Klub Sympatyków Transportu Miejskiego we Wrocławiu

Marcel Kuhnt · Jun 27th 2026

Hi Krzysztof!

I’m sorry I haven’t replied yet—I was unfortunately unable to do so.

This looks like a great project—I find it really exciting! I’m always happy when vehicles are preserved for museums, and when interactivity is added to that, it’s a wonderful thing! Of course we’ll help you with this; the offer still stands.

We’re actually in the middle of a transition ourselves right now (keyword: New Generation version), and there isn’t *one* (finished) museum version yet. I would therefore suggest that we continue developing in parallel: Do you already need features that differ from the standard retail version? Or are you primarily concerned with licensing for now? Also: Are your vehicles currently only compatible with the classic LOTUS version? Or have you already worked with the NG version? The future, of course, lies with the NG version.

Best regards,

Marcel Kuhnt

tokirium · Jun 27th 2026

Dear Janine,

Thank you so much for your warm and enthusiastic reply! It’s really wonderful to hear that you support our project.

To be honest, we haven't tested the new NG version yet. Right now, we are basing everything on the classic LOTUS version and various great add-ons made by the community, so we don't have our own 3D models at the moment. Currently, our main focus is actually on fine-tuning our custom hardware interface for the master controller, as it still needs some adjustments to be fully precise. Since it is recognised by Windows as a standard game controller, I hope it should work fine with the NG version as well, but we are always open to adapting it if better features become available.

Our next long-term goal would be building our own local scenery and vehicles. I already made some early attempts with historical map overlays via a qGIS Server, but unfortunately, a recent hard drive crash wiped out that data, so we are restarting that process slowly.

For now, obtaining the club license is our main priority. Since I currently run everything through my personal Steam account, having a proper license would give us the flexibility to involve other club members in creating and testing from home. It would also help us set up offline displays at our venue with extra monitors or projectors.

We completely understand that your focus is on the NG version and that it makes no sense to develop the classic one further. If the NG version isn't fully ready for public displays yet, we would be more than happy to start with a functional classic-based version and transition to NG later whenever you are ready. As a loose reference, we are planning an Open Day at our museum this September, and it would be amazing to showcase the simulator there if possible, but we are completely flexible and grateful for whatever option you think fits best for our start.

Thanks again for your help and for keeping this great offer alive for clubs like ours!

Best regards,

Krzysztof

Marcel Kuhnt · Jun 30th 2026

Hello Krzysztof,

It's perfectly fine that you haven't done anything with the NG version yet. The important thing is that you know the NG version requires new scripts before you start scripting vehicles, etc., for the classic LOTUS version. Aside from that (specifically 3D object, vehicle, and map creation), you can design everything for the classic version for now. At most, you shouldn't go to too much trouble fine-tuning material properties and light sources as long as you're still working on the classic version.

I'm so sorry to hear that you suffered such a severe data loss!

So, regarding the license, the main point is that your content creators have access to LOTUS on their own computers or accounts, right? Just out of curiosity: How many members are we talking about here?

Before you start building a map or importing models, you should create a team Content-ID under which the content will be created, so that the content can be shared among you developers. See also here:

https://www.lotus-simulator.de…ent-philosophy/#2.6-Teams

Best regards,

Marcel (!) Kuhnt

tokirium · Jul 1st 2026

Hi Marcel,

Thanks for the tips, good to know we shouldn't stress about the lighting and materials for now, we'll just focus on the basic map layout and objects.

To answer your question – yes, exactly. The most important part for us, apart from setting up 1 or 2 simulator stations with a real tram controller for our visitors, is just getting access for the team so they can download the tools and work on things from home. We don't have a fixed team yet, but to start with, it will be around 2 or 3 of us actively building and testing. Maybe as the project grows, a few more members might join later on.

And thanks for the link! I'll check out the team Content-ID documentation so we can set it up properly before we start creating everything.

Let me know if you need any more details about our club or the project. Would it be better to continue this over email, or should we move to a private message (PM) here on the forum?

Have a great week,

Krzysztof