News Cities: Skylines 2 Performance Autopsy Highlights Massive Optimization Failures

[Admin]

Colossal Order seemingly had to make many its own optimization tools. But it didn't put in the time and effort to properly implement them.

Cities: Skylines 2 Performance Autopsy Highlights Massive Optimization Failures : Read more

 

[bigdragon]

This article captures all the reasons why I'm glad I avoided buying CS2. The game was clearly not ready for release. Worse, the number of people who don't realize how detrimental over-detailed objects and the lack of LOD content is disturbs me. These are basic concepts and bare-minimum features. Not knowing that your engine -- Unity in this case -- doesn't have Unreal's Nanite really makes me question the credentials of CS2's development leads. A simple modder and UGC creator like myself should not more familiar with these concepts than people working and covering the gaming industry.

I'm sure the devs will get CS2 fixed. I'm sure it'll be a great game one day. I'm glad we have CS2 and others continuing to carry on the builder genre. However, the game clearly wasn't ready. Gamers shouldn't accept unfinished product even from the devs we love and support. No one is immune to making mistakes. CS2 should have an Early Access label applied to it ASAP.

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

Paavo, the programmer who authored the report, concluded that the game is missing key optimization features, indicating there wasn't enough time to include them.

Oh, there was time, they just wanted to get it out there and make money instead of delaying if a few weeks to polish it, pretty much like most every game studio for every game for the last 10 years because "gamers" continue to shell out for the preorders even though they know it's going to essentially be a beta.

 

[ilukey77]

This article captures all the reasons why I'm glad I avoided buying CS2. The game was clearly not ready for release. Worse, the number of people who don't realize how detrimental over-detailed objects and the lack of LOD content is disturbs me. These are basic concepts and bare-minimum features. Not knowing that your engine -- Unity in this case -- doesn't have Unreal's Nanite really makes me question the credentials of CS2's development leads. A simple modder and UGC creator like myself should not more familiar with these concepts than people working and covering the gaming industry.

I'm sure the devs will get CS2 fixed. I'm sure it'll be a great game one day. I'm glad we have CS2 and others continuing to carry on the builder genre. However, the game clearly wasn't ready. Gamers shouldn't accept unfinished product even from the devs we love and support. No one is immune to making mistakes. CS2 should have an Early Access label applied to it ASAP.

is the first city skylines worth the buy while they fix 2?

 

[salgado18]

Oh, there was time, they just wanted to get it out there and make money instead of delaying if a few weeks to polish it, pretty much like most every game studio for every game for the last 10 years because "gamers" continue to shell out for the preorders even though they know it's going to essentially be a beta.

It just gets worse, because LOD is so easy and quick to implement in Unity that it would probably take them one or two weeks to put in the entire game, and would solve all those excess meshes, but they didn't do it anyway.

 

[bigdragon]

is the first city skylines worth the buy while they fix 2?

Yes, I think so. The Industries, Mass Transit, and Park Life DLCs are very important. Some of the other big DLCs are helpful, but not as impactful. I've ignored the music and content packs.

Be sure to install the TPME, Move It, and Network Extensions mods. There are other good mods, but those are critical. Also set TPME's dynamic lane selection to between 60 and 90 percent and maybe single digits of wreckless driving too. I also added more sizes of parks, schools, police, fire, medical, and other civic buildings because not every part of the map needs a big fire station and the built in elementary school is too low capacity. Also search for "growable" RCI to help add variety to your zones!

 

[MartianM]

Yes, I think so. The Industries, Mass Transit, and Park Life DLCs are very important. Some of the other big DLCs are helpful, but not as impactful. I've ignored the music and content packs.

Be sure to install the TPME, Move It, and Network Extensions mods. There are other good mods, but those are critical. Also set TPME's dynamic lane selection to between 60 and 90 percent and maybe single digits of wreckless driving too. I also added more sizes of parks, schools, police, fire, medical, and other civic buildings because not every part of the map needs a big fire station and the built in elementary school is too low capacity. Also search for "growable" RCI to help add variety to your zones!

The acronym is TMPE, for Transport Manager: President’s Edition. Sometimes also TM: PE (no space). Some YouTubers like Biffa (Biffa Plays Indi Games) have mod packs that include these key ones mentioned above and others. There is a maze of options!
I actually started playing vanilla and only added in mods after a few tens of hours of play, but I’d find it very hard to go back 😎

 

[Dantte]

Anyone else getting Sim City 4 vibes right now?

 

[wcbhkids]

Anyone else getting Sim City 4 vibes right now?

Not really. CS2 has a good foundation and I can see it becoming great down the line. It's just not fully ready at this time.

 

[Colif]

Sim city 5 failed because it was too small. The amount of space offered for a city was tiny and you couldn't buy more space. That is main reason I avoided it. I only have it now as I got it on game pass but still haven't played it... I liked that series before they killed it.
CS2 isn't too small. It just needs more work, I think I heard the team who made it isn't very big
I will try it once its a bit older.

 

[bigdragon]

The acronym is TMPE, for Transport Manager: President’s Edition. Sometimes also TM: PE (no space). Some YouTubers like Biffa (Biffa Plays Indi Games) have mod packs that include these key ones mentioned above and others. There is a maze of options!
I actually started playing vanilla and only added in mods after a few tens of hours of play, but I’d find it very hard to go back 😎

Yeah, you're right! My bad. I find TMPE critical for getting single point interchanges and multiple traffic lights in close proximity to work. The Intersection Marking Tool is another one that I use all the time. 25 Tiles is nice too.

Anyone else getting Sim City 4 vibes right now?

I think you mean Sim City 5. Number 4 was one of the good ones with regions and maps of various sizes. SC4's Rush Hour expansion seemed like it heavily influenced the first Cities Skylines. SC5 was the always online, tiny city, simple slot AI, overly monetized disaster the gaming journalists said was a 9.5/10.

 

[Colif]

I meant 5 myself. I should have remembered I have 4 on steam. I had forgot AI was so dumb it didn't really follow set patterns.

 

[wcbhkids]

SC5 was the always online, tiny city, simple slot AI, overly monetized disaster the gaming journalists said was a 9.5/10.

It's been a while, I thought SC5 was critically panned.

 

[DSzymborski]

There were some good first reaction grades, but a lot of them got changed with more play as the severe problems became more obvious. SC5 was a great "first glance" game.

Skylines 2 has significant performance issues. While my 5900X and RTX 3080 are no longer state of the art, a city builder should run better than this. I've put time into it though, and unlike my experience with Sim City 5, there are the bones of a great game here. It's just not a great game now.

 

[bigdragon]

It's been a while, I thought SC5 was critically panned.

What you see online today does not necessarily reflect what happened back in 2013. Prior to launch, the game was critically praised and given ridiculously high scores. All of the outlets that received pre-release copies and posted reviews before the street date gave SC5 an overly positive spin with the exception of Eurogamer IIRC. Most of those critics dropped their scores, revised their reviews, and took immense heat from their readers and communities. This is what started the "review in progress" thing and also elevated many YouTubers to being trustworthy sources of game reviews.

Polygon actually kept their score history up. I haven't found them credible since the SC5 mess, but I do respect that they showed the ratings of 9.5/10, then 8/10, then 6.5/10, and finally settling on 4/10. Some other hilariously terrible game reviewers -- like Kotaku -- just stopped using numeric scores shortly after SC5. SC5 also had the positive impact of putting a lot of people off preordering games. Unfortunately, gamers have short memories.

 

[Dantte]

I think you mean Sim City 5. Number 4 was one of the good ones with regions and maps of various sizes. SC4's Rush Hour expansion seemed like it heavily influenced the first Cities Skylines. SC5 was the always online, tiny city, simple slot AI, overly monetized disaster the gaming journalists said was a 9.5/10.

Yeah I meant 5... the game that took down the franchise it was so bad!

 

[DavidLejdar]

To be fair, SC5 was released in 2013, and it did run, didn't it?

I mean, aside from the servers capacity issue (the requirement of which was patched out quite soon), the min specs were something like 2 GHz CPU, 2 GB RAM and 256 MB VRAM and the DLC was quite an expansion, turning it all futuristic, including MegaTowers. Or they sure could have increased the size of the districts, and by it also the HW requirements.

As for CS2, I tried it over Xbox Game Pass, and I don't have any stutter or lag even in a 100k city (I downloaded a save of). It feels quite bland though, reminding me of Cities XXL. There, the maps are quite large, but one just ends up zoning the same over and over again - albeit there was at least the possibility to have trade between several cities one built, such as a city with plenty of farms, which then supplied the other cities.

Not that CS2 seems all bad. I.e. there is a broader take on industry and commerce than before, and some other niceties. But as is, having plenty of squares of one-family homes near huge industry buildings, somewhat weird - and when one gets to unlock some more squares to build several villages on the outskirts, their taxes don't easily pay for all them big public service buildings - and stuff like that.