performance improvements needed

[[deleted]]

hi,
as the game gets even bigger and bigger, older or weaker comps can't keep up. the game's upcoming expansions (new features, map reworks) still get more attention in the development than any performance improvements that could help to keep a playable and enjoyable gaming experience and stable fps even on cheaper rigs. it is relevant that on the game's steam page the recommended system requirements didn't change since release time and not sure that a gtx 760 (recommended gpu) would run the game at its best. many reworks, new contents and heavy map dlcs came out in the meanwhile. so it feels like the game isn't well balanced in terms of size/quality and performance. improvements needed. tell me your thoughts

[Wolfgang]

The community consensus is that the specs on the Steam Store are outdated. They will very likely be changed with the change to DX12 that is already in the works.

Very huge improvements are unlikely as more recent areas have more assets in them thus needing more computing power. So the actual solution is to not have a PC from 10 years ago.

[mojo_musica]

Ignore any minimum specs for games, if you play games, of any sort, on a PC, you absolutely need a recent gaming spec computer, or you're heading for continuous problems.
The one thing that has held true since I started playing games on a ZX81 in the early Eighties is you can never keep up with the hardware requirements of games. Developers will push the limits all the time, otherwise we would still be on 8-bit 256 colour GFX.
Home PC's, business PC's, laptops, even "gaming" laptops, are all under-powered and under-perform when playing games, any games, not just fps-hungry first person shooters or on-line multi-player games.
As Wolfgang mentions, SCS have complete control over their game engine and have constantly updated over the years, and they intend to make a big change with DX12 in the (hopefully) near future, rendering older hardware even more out-dated and possibly unable to run the games at all. Such is progress.
I have heard that changing the Steam Store page specs for ETS2 is not straightforward for SCS, I have no idea if this is true, but I would hope for an update to the minimum and recommended specs if and when the DX12 update materialises.
The forums will be probably be very busy that week!

[Rivaldman]

Rather than performance improvements, older PC should be struggling more after future updates. And those PC cannot benefit from the improved stability offered by Dx12 either, making it inevitable to rule them out for future game versions.

[Heke[FIN]]

got this game running just fine with a FX-8320 and GTX760, medium settings, 1080p 100fps

[Wolfgang]

Because these people expect to play in the highest settings with 100+FPS while having entry level hardware. Just because some other game is doing it doesn't mean this game is. They are not running on the same engine nor are they doing the same.
It is like comparing a boat and a car. Both get you forward but as to how they are completely different. The boat engine won't be great for a car and vice versa.
Not to mention that those with obsolete hardware already got unhappy in 2019 when DX9 got dropped. Though their hardware is being outperformed by cheap office laptops.
And then there are mods. Yes, they will affect the performance of the game negatively. How negatively is depending on what the mod does and how well it is made. E.g. a truck mod with a ton of polygons (the triangles that make up a model) will have a huge negative impact on performance.

But generally the issue is with what people expect their hardware "is able to" (more "supposed"). The simple thing is: Back down your settings until you have the performance you want.
The game is still running mainly on a single core (though mulitcore support is being worked on) which is currently the limitation #1. Implementing multicore support isn't that easy but many seem to think it is just doing this:

Multicore support = True

Anyone that has even the slightest idea of how coding works can tell you that this is not how it is. You need to check the tasks and find those that you can separate from other tasks to offload onto other cores. And even that isn't as easy. Let's say you offload traffic onto a different core, how much is collision with them affected? Maybe even at different speed?

But as long as those with issues aren't stating their hardware specs, mods etc. it is nothing more than "You have an issue and aren't saying anything that might help identify a possible cause? Cool. What do you expect us to do?" situation.

TL;DR: You can not compare two vastly different games with each other as this doesn't work. Making things work better isn't as easy as many think it is and as long as those with issues aren't giving enough information to see where the issue might be, no one can do anything about it.

[Caduryn]

But.... maybe its really time for SCS to update the System Requirements

[Tsubame ⭐]

The game is well optimized.

The problem is trying running it on a potato.

Kudos for the developers for continuously updating existing maps for everyone.

Performance hits due to the additions are relatively small, and well, it has been over a decade since it was released, most gamers would already have upgraded their devices by now.

The specs requirements should definitely be updated, I am pretty sure the base game is over 12 GB in space by now lol. However, trying to run anything using minimum specs or similar is usually a bad idea.

[Wolfgang]

Originally posted by Caduryn:

But.... maybe its really time for SCS to update the System Requirements

It is and that is why I said that the community consensus is that they are outdated. But SCS is likely waiting for when they get to DX12 release of the game that they update it in order to avoid doing it twice.
As far as minimum specs go the consensus is more in that direction:
CPU: Modern quad core CPU with at least 3.8GHz boost clock
RAM: 12GB
GPU: GTX1050 or higher
Storage: SSD

[*****DRIVER]

I think the programming done in this game is impressive when compared to others. Not just the game but its amazing map editor. I can run it on a modest machine or a powerful one. This is very rare. But you need to learn how to configure it for your machine. It requires some testing and there isn't an exact configuration for everyone. But like I said : it will run. For me the ideal scenario was achieved by turning off various effects, including antialising, and focusing on achieving the highest possible rendering scale. The result was visually excellent. A beauty to observe the scenery while driving. But it's like I said: everyone will find the best configuration for their machine. I'm really grateful to the developers of this game for the effort in making the game run on a high range of hardware. I'm upgrading my hardware to get even more out of it.

[_KC76_]

Another aspect that gets lost when comparing ATS/ETS2 to other driving games, is how ATS/ETS2 Render the game world, and the use of Mirrors .. Each Mirror in ATS/ETS2 is a Render of the ENTIRE game-world .. most "cars" in other games might have 3 mirrors, and IF they actually function, that is 4 game-world Renders .. ETS2 trucks have at minimum, 4 mirrors, and as many as TEN mirrors in ATS .. that is ELEVEN game-world Renders, using a single CPU core, and a moderate GPU .. I'd say that SCS has done a pretty good job at optimization, all things considered.