Posts by tokirium

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

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

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

It would be great if transfer tables and turntables were available to control as separate rail vehicles, as this would allow them to be operated realistically; and if, in multiplayer mode, other players could operate them and transport other users’ trams, that would be a really cool feature.

Regardless of how this would work, it would be useful to be able to use transfer tables and turntables on the map. Perhaps in the scenery editor, an option could be added in the track section settings to designate it as a transfer and turntable track, which could then be referenced in scripts so that they function as a movable track element onto which trams could drive and be moved along with it.

Is it currently possible to create a working tram car shifter or railway turntable in Lotus Simulator?

I imagine the shifting object built as a rail vehicle that could be controlled, running on a large-gauge track.

The right script could cause an invisible section of track to move or rotate according to the movement of the shifter and connect or disconnect to individual entry tracks, allowing rail vehicles to enter the shifter or turntable.

Alternatively, there could be a special section for generating shifter objects in the scenery editor and content-tool, where all parameters of shifters and turntables will be defined and inserted into the scenery.

Quote from TNH

Neither of this would be suitable for flawless experience. I would advise to postpone the project, save some money and get the first (with Ryzen 5 5600G) with a better, not noname PSU and at least an RTX2060 or 3060. Lotus is just poorly optimized at it's current state, and needs a beefy PC.

SilentiumPC 500 W Vero L3 Bronze isn't good?

Maybe be quiet! Pure Power 10 MODULAR 600W CM (BN278) will be better?

If I will buy now the first configuration without GPU and temporary use GT1030 which I have, will It be playable? I will buy better GPU in the future, or might hopefully borrow from somebody when It will be necessary?

I kindly ask for advice, whether any of the hardware configurations listed above will allow for comfortable use of LOTUS?

Ich bitte um Rat, ob eine der oben aufgeführten Hardwarekonfigurationen eine komfortable Nutzung von LOTUS ermöglicht?

Edit:

Or maybe this?

Procesor AMD Ryzen 5 3600

Mainboard GIGABYTE B450 AORUS ELITE

RAM DDR4 16GB 3000 MHz

SilentiumPC 500 W Vero L3 Bronze

Graphic - Nvidia GT 1030

Hello

I would like to buy some computer parts, generally for Lotus (driving and making own scenery) and some other simulators. I would like to use projector and screen to create simulation of tram cockpit 1:1. I don't want to spend much money, so rather It should be as cheap as possible to achieve accepted quality, but with possibility to upgrade in the future.

I have Nvidia GT 1030 graphic card, what are experiences with this card in Lotus? Can I use it with some better cpu and mainboard?

Please give me some suggestions for best hardware configurations, If possible parts could be used. I have a few propositions:

1.

CPU - AMD Ryzen 5 5600G

Cooler - SilentiumPC Spartan 5 MAX

Mainboard - Gigabyte B450 AORUS ELITE

RAM - Patriot 16 GB (2x8GB) 3600MHz CL18 Viper Steel

Power - SilentiumPC 500 W Vero L3 Bronze

Graphic - Nvidia GT 1030 or integrated only

2.

CPU - i5 6400

Graphic - GTX 1660ti

3.

i3 9100f

Deepcool CK-11508

Asrocl H310CM-DVS

GTX 1070

CRUCIAL 8GB

4.

i7 4790

Asus B85M-E ATX

GTX 1080

Patriot Sector 8Gb

I created my own local WMTS server using QGIS, XAMPP and QGIS SERVER (here are instructions https://thangqd.github.io/blog/qgis-server) and then I connected to it in Map Editor. In QGIS project I uploaded a fragment of an old air picture, scan of original tram depot scheme (from 1900 year) and a vector layer with some tram layouts (red line). In QGIS it looks like this:

In Map Editor it looks more blurry, but It works:

Of course QGIS is serving clear tiles in higher resolution, but Map Editor doesn't use them. Maybe "High resolution centre tile" option will be helpful, but when I choose it, Instead of the centre tile, only the picture "Still Loading" is displayed.

Are there any plans to improve WMTS in Lotus Map Editor?
It would be nice if it would be easy to refresh the aerial map without manually cleaning cache (immediately after modifying the map in QGIS), loading only maps on the fly for the current view and support for higher resolutions (depending on the current zoom).
I think that the use of QGIS in conjunction with map Editor will allow for easier work on the scenery, you can then in the map Editor have any maps and schemes, which will be especially useful when creating historical maps.

I set this link to WMTS server in LOTUS, using WMS/JPEG option.

It doesn't work - I have got only "still loading..." image. I hear that the CPU cooler works louder and there are a lot of files in cache, but after several minutes still no results on the screen.

I clean the cache every time.

Only direct links from post above are displayed, but their scale is inaccurate.

I suspect the problem may be in the projection. In QGIS when I add WMTS layer, it is "ETRS89 / Poland CS2000 zone 6 EPSG:2177". Its not compatible with LOTUS (found in other topics), so in the general settings of the project I set "WGS 84 / Pseudo-Mercator EPSG:3857". QGIS transforms the projection on the fly, so I can export it and open in the LOTUS Editor. It makes little blurry, but it doesn't matter on the higher zoom. You can see in my previous post, that rails on the second image are visible.

But LOTUS unfortunately uses only the lower zoom map, so it's to much blurry to work with it.

If its not possible to force the lotus to download the map in a closer zoom, my idea from first post is to add the ability to import vector maps created e.g. in QGIS as auxiliary lines.

Quote from jor[D]1

Source data is max Z 12.

What this Z value mean? I exported WMS map from QGIS with zoom 12 and the result is only this tile. The little red dot in the left-down corner is the tram depot from 2 tiles from my previous post. Only exported tiles with zoom above 18 are usable.

I partially get what I wanted, but I'm not completely satisfied yet. In QGIS I exported a map containing an orthophotomap of Wrocław WMTS and a vector layer with drawn red lines, using the geoprocessing tool "generate XYZ tiles". Here are examples of result tiles, zoom level 18 and 20:

Then, in the LOTUS Map Editor settings, I set the link to the folder on the disk with the generated map "C:/(...)/mapa/~z/~x/~y.png". The editor loaded it correctly and it matched the default map from Openstreetmap, so the projection was fine.
Unfortunately, it turned out that Map Editor loaded only one zoom level, which is insufficient for me. The drawn lines are still relatively visible, but the orthophotomap is too blurry to be able to build tracks from it. Here is example of the same place as above in a similar zoom level in Map Editor:

Is there any way to load higher quality maps?

How to do that? Will the map be correctly aligned to map coordinates?
I would like also import to Map Editor aerial map from local geoportal, but I don't know what url use. WMS url is http://gis1.um.wroc.pl/arcgis/…2018/MapServer/WMSServer? or WMTS: http://gis1.um.wroc.pl/arcgis/rest/services/ogc/OGC_ortofoto_2018/MapServer/WMTS which I load perfectly in GIS program, but I don't know how tu use it in Map Editor. Is it enough to paste those urls to Map Editor?