Future of FS21 graphics?

[RODHA]

First of all thank you very much Stegei for this detailed explanation. Now I can understand the background.
However, I really don't fell sorry how I felt about this issue and what I said before.
Because, you usually don't make that kind of detailed explanations and this allows us to make up our own stories and stick with them.
Sometimes they are right sometimes not.

Nevertheless, I really don't think we deserve being kept in the dark that much.
And by "us" I mean all the people making time to wonder around in this forum although they already have a busy schedule with work and life.
We value this game that much and if you don't value us enough to make such explanations in an ordinary basis, that becomes quite frustrating.
Lars came to change that. Didn't happen. Chris came to change that. Didn't happen either. I hope someday it does.

[eric21]

I think chris does it well

[malachi6]

...but i wonder if folks with 2070 and above could be treated to an ultra quality mode with enhanced visuals.

Good luck with that.

FS17 had 4K support for PS4 Pro. They removed that feature in FS19 with the excuse of "performance issues" on the hardware side.

However, that is lie with a long tail because my PS4 Pro's cooling system was screaming in FS17 at 4K and it is not even going above idle in FS19 at 3K. So, it is not a hardware performance issue it is simply a Giants mess up on their graphics engine.

And whatever the reason, if a game developer is taking a step backwards on the new version of their game then there is really not much to hope for the future.

Evidence of a lie is your personal experience?

[Riven326]

FS19 has many new rendering features that FS17 didn't have, like Depth of Field, Bloom, HDR, volumetric lighting, improved global illumination, alpha to coverage, etc. which simply take much more GPU power. And the performance cost of those features is mostly directly proportional to the number of pixels rendered. So, even though we did make many performance optimization since FS17, the PS4 Pro was still not powerful enough to handle all the new rendering features at 4k. So we had the choice to either reduce the rendering quality or reduce the resolution to 3k. We thought that reducing to 3k rather than reducing the rendering quality has a much smaller impact on the overall image quality, so we went for this approach.

A similar "issue" is with the shadow quality. Farming Simulator 19 has a larger shadow draw range and it has less flickering of the shadows when rotating the camera compared to FS17. This however comes with the draw back, that the shadows are slightly less high resolution, which most people see as a step back from FS17. However, when locking at the overall result, especially when in motion, I think the quality of the shadows is better in FS19 than in FS17.

As for the number of thread used. FS19 was developed with dual core CPUs still making up about 40% of the PCs in use, and about 40% with 4 cores. Dependent on the workload, FS19 can use up to about 3 cores fully and about 1.5-2 cores in the average case (if not GPU bound, which is actually the most regular case). The console version (due to the more low level access to the hardware), usually fully utilizes about 3-4 cores.
We are of course developing our tech further to use more cores to also move along with the trend of the players' hardware (although more than 70% of the PC players still don't have more than 4 cores).

Thank you for the detailed explanation. The lack of any kind of anti-aliasing solution on the consoles is the biggest drawback to the visual presentation of the game. It sticks out like a sore thumb because of the HDR lighting and the high contrast.

Edit: not sure if AA exists on base consoles. I play on Pro and there is no AA.

[Skunkworks]

I am OK with current graphics... Although textures may still improve.. I am more hoping for updated physics and sounds... Not only engine sounds but all other sounds... Metal on metal when buckets move, or you attach implements etc.

[Riven326]

I am OK with current graphics... Although textures may still improve.. I am more hoping for updated physics and sounds... Not only engine sounds but all other sounds... Metal on metal when bukets move, or you attach implements etc.

That would be great. One of the coolest things is hearing the metal tracks squeak on the Fiat 165. It's those little details that make the equipment fun to use.

[redglasses]

I am OK with current graphics... Although textures may still improve.. I am more hoping for updated physics and sounds... Not only engine sounds but all other sounds... Metal on metal when buckets move, or you attach implements etc.

This, this is what we need. Love the name btw.

[svkb]

Remember that FS is a unique game in that the playable area is constantly changing. No other game has that.


I'm certain FS is multi-threaded. Maybe it doesn't use all cores and threads (I know it's not easy to program to use between 2 and potentially 64 threads), but I'm certain it uses more than one. Monitor performance with and without script mods (don't just disable them, remove them from your mod folder). With a bundle of scripts one thread does look higher than others (as I said, I'm pretty sure that script mods are limited to a single thread, which will be why a single core or thread looks more loaded than others).

You're probably right, I do see occasions where I have several threads ramping up even though nothing else is running. (I've confirmed this through task manager) I just didn't think that scripts would take that much processing horsepower for 1 single thread to be that much more "active" than the others.

[Shuffy]

my ryzen has nearly fallen asleep playing this game sometimes 5-8 percent usage (chip is bored) .. please increase the core allowance especially on amd cpu's or allow and option for more cores (user option)

[iwan073]

my ryzen has nearly fallen asleep playing this game sometimes 5-8 percent usage (chip is bored) .. please increase the core allowance especially on amd cpu's or allow and option for more cores (user option)

Your CPU falls asleep; 5-8% usage. Yet you want the game to access more cores?
Why? So more cores can fall asleep?

[Daviss42]

All I want from the next title is improved performance.

I have a 6 core i5, rtx 2060 16gb ram and I never have a solid 60fps even on stock maps with zero mods at not even highest settings and tbh that's just unacceptable when I can run significantly more demanding games at ultra settings & never drop below 60

Will not be preordering another fs game let alone buying one(including any dlc for 19) at all until I can be guaranteed they've made enough changes that medium-high end rigs can run it with zero problems as its not our problem its their old as £&#% engine

[Richard Dower]

With FS21 now being on hold, I hope Giants can focus more on bug fixing and general FPS performance improvements.

I have a fairly high end rig, 3700x @ 4.4ghz, RTX 2080 OC, 32GB of CL16 @ 3600mhz and a 970 Evo Plus.

Crops on fields always tank FPS, especially sugarcane and poplars.

Certain areas of a map and reduce frame rate and cause vsync issues.

djgoham has a 3900x, a 2080ti and 64GB of RAM...and he has FPS drops.

It has to be the game engine, Giants should collaborate more with nvidia.

[Chaki]

With FS21 now being on hold,

It's not on hold, we just don't release a new FS title this year.

[vondeylenfarms]

This game and franchise alone has tons of potential and options....beyond happy that fs21 is coming later and gives giants time to focus on what they can upgrade and fix to make the game better! New fen consoles will not be PC great but will obviously better than consoles now and I think make everyone happy. So giants, time to take and gather all the ideas and gamers complaints and make a great game whenever it comes

[chedly_farms]

Personally I love the graphics ( for the most part) for 19. I love the shadows, at least on maps where the lighting was tweaked. My only issue is foliage. Tree's look too cartoony and too bright colored seen from a distance. And disappear all together from a further distance. Osina and Marwell prove that trees don't have to disappear and not hurt performance. Heck, Osina's slot count on console is quite low to start to top it off. I just hope there is an improvement of foliage for 21. For me personally, proper foliage makes me feel the map is real. But 19 is a great game in and of itself. What some modders have done is a testament to themselves and the capabilities of the base game and the developers.