Optare Solo or Enviro 400 MMC

[cj2305]

Hello,
I am thinking of buying a new bus, but not sure which one to get the: E400 MMC or the Solo. I mainly play Westcountry, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Add On London. As both buses are £12.79, I don’t know which one to get. I play OMSI on a Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 2, performance is OK and graphics will do, therefore I’m more inclined to go for the Solo as it is not as performance heavy because of its poor textures. Although, the SP 400MMC is very well done but might cause some performance issues. I have a real conundrum here. Please help, thank you very much.

[cj2305]

Back to the E400 MMC - is it the same as the SP Lite and SP Renown performance wise or is it better/worse?

[Bobby]

Originally posted by conorferdyjackson:

Back to the E400 MMC - is it the same as the SP Lite and SP Renown performance wise or is it better/worse?

Reviews say it well optimised. Has some nice features, like passengers opening up windows if too hot -i read.
Edit: it's this one
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1139080/OMSI_2_AddOn_Studio_Polygon_Lite_Pack/
The E400 MMC is optimised, it's just the London DLC that takes it over the edge. It's the *MOST* intensive map out there. 16 routes etc.

[cj2305]

Just bought, thank you for all your help!! I will mark the solution.

[Bobby]

Glad to have helped.
Enjoy!

I bought The SP Lite pack just now (steam) myself along with Nord Bremen and Citybus 628c 628g LF from CDKeys

[cj2305]

Originally posted by conorferdyjackson:

Just bought, thank you for all your help!! I will mark the solution.

Forgot to specify - I bought the 400 MMC pack from CdKeys, very smooth proccess and I nice bus to drive around on.

[cj2305]

Originally posted by Bobby:

Glad to have helped.
Enjoy!

I bought The SP Lite pack just now (steam) myself along with Nord Bremen and Citybus 628c 628g LF from CDKeys

Sounds good! The SP Lite is a nice little bus. I bought that just under a year ago now from GamersGate I think (it was quite cheap). Enjoy your DLCs!!

[Bobby]

I will, you too!
I have now 280 buses to drive in OMSI2. The mere fact you can crossover to other maps with them is utter bliss. I spend all of my time now playing this with my G29 setup. It’s just so utterly realistic.

Cheers

[cj2305]

Thank you, I prefer playing games like Train Sim World 4 and Train Sim Classic, but I do occasionally like coming on OMSI for something a bit different.

[Bobby]

One thing i have found out that i wasn't happy with, regards the SP Lite package, is the two Daimler and Cummings LHD variants. I tried them on Spandau, they work fine, but the placeholder Red Eurofare/Almex ticket machines do not...... I wasn't happy with that. As there is no documentation on them and i since found another poster asking the same question.

The irony is the DLC Citybus 0405 (that i have) has the exact same Eurofare machine which works perfectly and with announcements!
SP pretty sloppy from top notch model to worse than any free DLC that iv'e used re buses.

I have emailed them to see if they bother replying.

Btw, i too play TS3 and classic (I've owned the original TS for prob a decade now)

[cj2305]

Oh that's strange! I'm probably not the person to ask (i'm more or a train person, not a clue on buses lol). TBF there isn't much documentation on the SP Lite anyway. I message SP before about the Renown, never got a response - awful customer service and can be quite lazy sometimes about their products eg. cutting corners.

[Bobby]

Originally posted by conorferdyjackson:

Oh that's strange! I'm probably not the person to ask (i'm more or a train person, not a clue on buses lol). TBF there isn't much documentation on the SP Lite anyway. I message SP before about the Renown, never got a response - awful customer service and can be quite lazy sometimes about their products eg. cutting corners.

This is pretty much defacto since after covid.

Customer service on all aspect’s disappeared.
It’s now Discord or nothing… they used to frequent steam but companies are moving away from forums here as well. Partly due to negativity and laziness/ staff cutbacks, working from home etc.
but also to control that negativity themselves. So make nuisance of yourself (just being annoyed about poor response/help) and the admin chooses to read that their own way on Discord, they’ll ban you. Then there’s no where to go and they know that.

There was a post here from SP, 25 March I found. So again it’s just when they ‘feel like it’.

Anyway, the old adage “quality over quantity” seems to no longer apply as you well know.
Chocolate, biscuits, cereal is all going up in price while the package size reduces…..meanwhile, certain sectors get wage rises and the service doesn’t change.

So I expect more of the same in the future.

In the readme of the SP 400 MMC (near the end) I found a reference to the Almex, asking about it’s quality. (Amazing what it makes you dredge up when you get a bee in your bonnet!)
Something like ‘it never met our standards and when blah,blah is finished, we will go back and fix it’ that was approx 2 years ago…

So like OMSI in general being niche, i and a few others appear to be also, as we are the only ones that found these half-baked buses that we’re made for European maps that may as well be cardboard in functionality, or so it seems unless SP can tell me and others otherwise in how to get the Almex/Eurofare ticket machine to work….
I rest my case

Edit:
Here’s the readme in the SP Lite.

Thank you for purchasing the Studio Polygon Lite for OMSI 2. In this new version, v1.2, the experience is completely different. We’ve started from the ground up to offer you the best experience possible. From completely new internal and external models to over 250 new sounds added, and endless setvars to customise your Lite to how you like it, we know you’ll love this update.
This project initially started in 2018 and is still being worked on in 2021, whilst this will be the final version, there are still updates planned. The first release of v1.2 was just UK regional and London spec vehicles, but in future updates, once we address any problems that require the regional models to be changed, we’ll then add the European left-hand drive models back for those that love to drive the European variants. Please check our Facebook page below for more news on this.

The SP 400 MMC quotes the exact same per above, but

This project initially started in 2019 and is still being worked on in 2022, whilst this will be the final version, there are still updates planned. The first release of v1.2 was just UK regional and London spec vehicles, but in future updates, once we address any problems that require the regional models to be changed, we’ll then add the European left-hand drive models back for those that love to drive the European variants.

Rinse and repeat..

[cj2305]

Yes, definitely! It is like everything went down hill after Covid (not everything though). It is very surprising that they stopped streaming - this would help their products and business do better. Although, it is very surprising how some companies just want the money and not want to even bother with customer communications. I guess they just choose to respond when it’s something they want to hear eg. Praise etc.

Also, inflation is making an impact on these companies loads - by putting their prices up and reducing the quality to get the product out eg. V3D and SP in some cases.

That’s quite interesting about the Almex ticket machines though. Very suprising.

I only play UK maps, but it is quite disappointing that these ‘UK’ modified buses aren’t getting the ‘European’ treatment for those EU maps.

Anyway, good luck with contacting SP - i doubt they will respond as usual, but they could!!

[Bobby]

I went to register SP on Discord yesterday and basically walked right up into a handbag fight, before I had finalised my account (phone number)

🚨 @everyone 🚨

It has come to our attention that there have been several instances of disrespectful behaviour within our community as of late. We would like to remind everyone that such behaviour, including ridiculing and making fun of others, is not in line with the values we uphold.

Certain members have already been subject to timeouts as a warning. However, continued violations will result in removal from the server.

We would like to ask all members to review the rules once more, which are found in <#725061122398355556>.

If you witness any inappropriate behaviour, or see something that you deem against the rules, you can tag a member of the administration team.

Let's work together to maintain the integrity of our community.

I thought, nah……. I don’t need this. Who would have thought a dedicated forum to SP products would be still full of numbskulls….
So no, I’m not holding my breath for a reply bearing in mind this level of society

[Bobby]

Here’s one for you!
https://www.humblebundle.com/games/train-sim-world-4-top-up-your-timetable

[cj2305]

Originally posted by Bobby:

I went to register SP on Discord yesterday and basically walked right up into a handbag fight, before I had finalised my account (phone number)

🚨 @everyone 🚨

It has come to our attention that there have been several instances of disrespectful behaviour within our community as of late. We would like to remind everyone that such behaviour, including ridiculing and making fun of others, is not in line with the values we uphold.

Certain members have already been subject to timeouts as a warning. However, continued violations will result in removal from the server.

We would like to ask all members to review the rules once more, which are found in <#725061122398355556>.

If you witness any inappropriate behaviour, or see something that you deem against the rules, you can tag a member of the administration team.

Let's work together to maintain the integrity of our community.

I thought, nah……. I don’t need this. Who would have thought a dedicated forum to SP products would be still full of numbskulls….
So no, I’m not holding my breath for a reply bearing in mind this level of society

Wow, that’s shocking. The amount of timeouts they give is crazy!! I quess they would read it, but not bother to reply. Anyway, how is your SP Lite? Is it meeting your expectations? How does it perform? I quite enjoy driving it around. It is not bad at all.