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Cities: Skylines II team notes hardware limitations as it continues to work on console version

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman

Console Update
While we do not have a new release date for the console version yet, we want to keep you up to date on our progress and our challenges. Currently, we are experiencing both simulation issues (CPU) and graphics issues (GPU) which become noticeable when players take certain actions that cause frame rate drops or memory overload. These issues are particularly challenging due to the hardware limitations of consoles.
For instance, when placing larger buildings that involve numerous entities, the system struggles to handle the data load. During the calculation process (e.g., checking if there’s enough space or if any entities overlap with existing assets), performance bottlenecks arise, resulting in these noticeable issues.

At this point, we have managed to get the game to a stable and playable state by significantly lowering the graphics quality. However that's to the level where it becomes a compromise that we are not willing to make. Once we get it to an acceptable level, further optimizations are needed for both simulation and memory usage before we are ready to share the console version.

Until they are resolved, we cannot provide a release estimate to avoid it being premature and potentially misleading. The console release remains a top priority for us, we have multiple solutions being explored with experts actively involved, and we're working hard to bring you the console version of Cities: Skylines II.
 

winjer

Member
When a game is so poorly optimized, all hardware will be limited.
That they still haven't fixed performance after a year, is testament to their incompetence.
And then there are the bugs. So many, that somehow, this game became a vector to hackers stealing crypto.
No wonder this game is still at 53% user score on Steam.

But the cherry on top is Paradox selling a broken game, then blaming it on gamers, because we have too high expectations.
 
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Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
The main issue is the incompetence of the devteam

Sipping Tea Time GIF
 

DKehoe

Member
I like a lot of things about 2 but it's very flawed. There are performance issues, like the simulation speed not working properly. But there are also things like how zoning alignment is unreliable and requires you to jump through hoops to get it right.
 
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Mayar

Member
This game is so poorly written and optimized that after all the patches it still doesn't even work properly on PC, its reviews on Steam constantly jump from negative to mixed and back. That's why I'm not surprised at all, it looks like they need to sit down and rewrite the entire engine from scratch.
 

Sybrix

Gold Member
Cities Skylines 1 was such an amazing game,

Cities Skylines 2 is a disaster, the simulation aspect doesn't work at all, the workshop element on Steam is completely broken and it's so unoptimized, such a let down. The game will be finished in 3 years time if we're lucky.
 

Puscifer

Member
The game had "hardware limitations" on a 4090, so no wonder.
I'm still trying to figure out why city builders got so unbelievably demanding when throughout the history of the home PC, have been the most hardware friendly titles. Frostpunk 2 is horrible, you basically need frame gen and DLSS to make it playable at decent framerates
 
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Wolzard

Member
It sure is, for all the wrong reasons though like rendering NPC teeth while having the camera 50 meters away. 5090, save us!

They simply didn't create LOD variants, causing absurd GPU consumption, due to having to render many polygons:

cs2_gastank_mesh.18c3aa697894bd4a.png

This highly detailed pallet of gas tanks consists of over 17K vertices.

The parking booth meshThe parking booth meshThe parking booth mesh

This mesh consists of over 40K vertices with no LODs, and features luxurious details you don’t even get in most AAA games, like individually modeled cables connecting screens and keyboards. They are even routed through a (relatively round) hole in the desk! Combining the building and the furniture into one mesh saves on draw calls, but it also means that the props can’t be culled individually.

A pile of logs
This mesh of a pile of logs is similarly only used in the shadow rendering pass, and features over 100K vertices. It is the highest poly model in the game!

 

Crayon

Member
They simply didn't create LOD variants, causing absurd GPU consumption, due to having to render many polygons:

cs2_gastank_mesh.18c3aa697894bd4a.png

This highly detailed pallet of gas tanks consists of over 17K vertices.

The parking booth meshThe parking booth meshThe parking booth mesh

This mesh consists of over 40K vertices with no LODs, and features luxurious details you don’t even get in most AAA games, like individually modeled cables connecting screens and keyboards. They are even routed through a (relatively round) hole in the desk! Combining the building and the furniture into one mesh saves on draw calls, but it also means that the props can’t be culled individually.

A pile of logs
This mesh of a pile of logs is similarly only used in the shadow rendering pass, and features over 100K vertices. It is the highest poly model in the game!


They don't have lods for how much stuff? Everything? That can't be right. What would be their reason?
 

xrnzaaas

Member
This game has been an utter disaster start to finish.

I have no idea how or why they threw away all the good work they did with the first game and ended up with whatever mess this is.
Yeah and some people are surprised why Sims 5 and Stellaris 2 aren't coming or why Civ7 took so long... You have to build an enormous game again from scratch and it's very likely you won't include many features from the dlcs to the previous game. It'll be very difficult to encourage people to upgrade (or, in some cases, downgrade) instead of sticking with what they own & like.
 

winjer

Member
They simply didn't create LOD variants, causing absurd GPU consumption, due to having to render many polygons:

cs2_gastank_mesh.18c3aa697894bd4a.png

This highly detailed pallet of gas tanks consists of over 17K vertices.

The parking booth meshThe parking booth meshThe parking booth mesh

This mesh consists of over 40K vertices with no LODs, and features luxurious details you don’t even get in most AAA games, like individually modeled cables connecting screens and keyboards. They are even routed through a (relatively round) hole in the desk! Combining the building and the furniture into one mesh saves on draw calls, but it also means that the props can’t be culled individually.

A pile of logs
This mesh of a pile of logs is similarly only used in the shadow rendering pass, and features over 100K vertices. It is the highest poly model in the game!


And with all those polygons and no LoDs, it's going to be a nightmare for the rasterization process.
No wonder that even a 4090 struggles with this game.
 

bosnianpie

Member
Such a shame. I was really hyped for the console version, ready to throw money for both game and DLC. Now the buzz is pretty much dead for me.

"We are still working on it but we can't share anything yet!"

Yeah... give me a call when you're done.
 
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