Cheers for the response. Am honored that it would come directly from the content creator!
Thanks.
I did mean to post a reply to your comment on one of my videos, but here will do instead. The effects shown in your own RS videos are great as well.
I see what you are saying about the reasoning behind what is being displayed. Ive commented before on the YouTube videos that I fear the current user base will not appreciate enough the details and atmostphere being created in the Watford and other routes.
I guess that plenty of people won't appreciate all the effort and little touches that complete the routes, but I appreciate such things when I see them, and I know I'm not the only person on the planet who does.
Or to look at it another way, I have my own ideas when it comes to the ideal route. Nobody else is going to create a route that captures the essence of what to me constitutes the ideal creation, and if I want my own vision of what is ideal to become a reality, I have to use what abilities I have to work towards bringing it about myself, whether it's a route, an attitude, a way of life, or whatever. Plus, hopefully by constantly improving upon what I've produced, I can also set an example and encourage others to raise their expectations and aim higher as well. I do know from comments I've received that I've struck a chord with some people who are delighted to see things like pantograph sparking and nature being brought to life though, which is great to know.
Thus so long as you personally will gain from these efforts either financially, job wise or through sheer enjoyment of the project I think you are onto a winner. If not then I fear that all your efforts will be here today and gone tomorrow when they finally come to fruition and cause you more grief than all your time has been worth.
I understand this concern completely, indeed I've been asking myself whether any of what I've been doing is worth it for several years actually, as it's certainly all felt pointless at various times. On the other hand, when you consider a large enough timescale, many things that we do, even those that seem of great importance at the time, are here today, gone tomorrow... Down that road lies little more than existential despair and depression though, as it can seem like nothing is worthwhile any more (I know, I've been there).
But even if the activity itself doesn't ultimately result in what was originally wanted, I now realise that when I do something, it isn't just an end in itself, but also preparation for something yet to come, even if that something seems unrelated before it happens; and nothing needs to be a complete waste of time because of this, at least not if I'm open minded enough to recognise such incidental opportunities when they arise, see the value in them, and pursue them. I do think it's right for me to use my talents in the present to improve the state of affairs in a particular area, or indeed people's lives though, in whatever way those talents allow for, and just hope that what I do now also benefits those around me, now or in the future, and this can happen in many ways, directly or indirectly, subtly or not so subtly.
My routes bring enjoyment to the people who use them, some of whom may be grateful for every modicum of happiness that comes their way. Other developers might be inspired to try and match or better what I've produced, so when I do move on, I'll have left the bar raised higher than it was when I started--everybody benefits then, and it'll be my turn to enjoy the fruits of other people's labours as the quality of add-ons will be closer to my ideal.
I've also met and worked with some wonderful people I'd never have encountered had I not carried on, and learned some lessons I might not have learned otherwise, so all this is enough compensation for my efforts without needing to think about money, which in itself doesn't motivate me anyway. Naturally I'm hardly going to devote my entire life to producing railsim add-ons, it's just a phase, but for now, I'll let myself at least try to finish what I've started; I'm close enough.
Besides, the BVE/openBVE community is going to get hundreds of decent objects to populate routes with no matter what, which would also be a reasonable legacy.
As far as Watford to Rugby is concerned, when I ramped the detail level up, and as a result made a route that could no longer work in BVE 4(!), I've been taking a huge risk with every minute of time spent on it. The decision to leave BVE 4 behind in this way wasn't intentional to begin with, it was a colossal mistake and miscalculation of gargantuan proportions on my part! Continuing with it was, to be frank, utterly insane.
I knew though, that if I created objects which were as detailed and accurate as possible, I'd never have to spend much time improving upon them in future, and they could always be exported to other 3D formats and used in alternative simulators as graphics hardware and CPU speeds improved, and this, along with the hope that a simulator with superior performance to BVE yet capable of loading BVE routes would be created one day, kept me going. Eventually the effort did pay off when Michelle/openBVE appeared, as not only could the objects find a use, but the whole route as well. I do know that I'm extremely fortunate that such a turn of events occurred though! If I'd stopped listening to that distant echo of hope whispering in my ear, and abandoned work on the route such that it never reached an advanced stage of development, which I have done a few times, I'd probably have been plagued by "what if's" by now, and I'd have been kicking myself, very, very hard.
Oops, rambled a bit there.
