Summer Update Announcement Negativity

[inspectorgadget1]

Actually i do understand, critisism is something everyone needs from time to time. Also Frontier chose to listen to the community, that means they get both positive and negative comments.
I agree they did a great job so far, but that doesn't mean that there's no room for improvement, and i don't doubt Frontier woud agree with that.

To make things clear, the issue is not with the criticism and comments regarding possible improvements per se as that helps making the game what it is. It's the bashing of additions they have implemented in-game because some don't care for the new content. And you go on about DX12 mentioning it's not added as most don't use it AndyC did say the following:

As for DX12, we considered it back at the start of the project 2 years ago. Our conclusion was that while DX12 would certainly help by reducing draw call overhead, we've done many other DX11 tricks to reduce the overhead ourselves, and that there are still a significant number of people who are running Planet Coaster on Windows 7 / 8 / 8.1. While it is possible to target a game at both DX11 and DX12, we felt that this would give us the worst of both worlds - to efficiently use DX12 you need to really commit to it and change an awful lot of code, which given the timescale of Planet Coaster was a tough call

Ultimately they decided it just wasn't worth it to implement DX12 and doing so would have affected the game's development in other ways so can't really fault them for that.

 

[tyczj]

The alpha updates also went from minor 0.1 to 0.2, 0.3 and then all the way up 0.9, yet the amount of changes did not always reflect or justify the jump size. Version numbers are completely arbitrary.

Alpha versions mean nothing as its an alpha, alpha ultimately gets you to 1.0 so they are only going to go up like that

 

[FutureFear]

Ultimately they decided it just wasn't worth it to implement DX12 and doing so would have affected the game's development in other ways so can't really fault them for that.

Like i said, i don't expect them to implement DX12 (to early and to manny errors in it).
I'm just stating my opinion on the matter, that a game like planet coaster would be alot more fun to play if it would not have such limitations.
Certainly if you check up on the new summer update -> Video (billboards), fireworks, triggerable flat rides,...
Such animated stuff will affect performance in a large park even more.

Don't get me wrong, i'm greatfull for their effort to create new content and such.
I also don't doubt they are aware and doing everything they can to improve performance with DX11 in everyway possible.

But i also know that people will keep "bashing" until their expectations are met, it's human nature...

Anyway looking forward to the summer update

 

[Wessy]

I agree with a lot of the posts here. It certainly is appropriate and necessary to voice constructive criticism, but some people act like spoiled brats and are quite insulting when the new update doesn't address some of the issues they have with the game.
Sure the path system can be quite annoying and there are a lot of things that need to be improved but it is already quite flexible and it has improved a LOT since the early days and it is surely not unplayable for most people (otherwise the game wouldn't have been as well recieved by the public)

But there is one claim that I just cannot fully believe: "Mods will solve all our performance problems".
This is quite a bold statement and may be true to some extent but it is not always better to have a completely new and detailed 3D model instead of scenery done with the piece by piece system.
I'm almost certain that for example, an arch made of 50 wooden planks in the game is less demanding than the same arch created as one single 3D model with completely new hi-res textures and displacement maps, LOD models and all that stuff.
Sure you may only see 25% of the wooden planks and the other 75% are intersecting and hidden but the computer only has to load one single part and the others can be instanced. (Instancing is very important in this game)
Additionally, there will be a lot of crappy 3D models to download because many people aren't experienced with it (see RCTW for example).
Please don't get me wrong, I'm really looking forward to being able to import custom scenery, but I'm not hoping for a huge performance increase (actually I expect the opposite to come true).

I would really like to get other opinions on this topic (maybe from someone who is/was a game developer)

 

[Ramm]

To make things clear, the issue is not with the criticism and comments regarding possible improvements per se as that helps making the game what it is. It's the bashing of additions they have implemented in-game because some don't care for the new content. And you go on about DX12 mentioning it's not added as most don't use it AndyC did say the following:



Ultimately they decided it just wasn't worth it to implement DX12 and doing so would have affected the game's development in other ways so can't really fault them for that.

Reading back that quote it reminds me of GTA5 back in 2013.

They were working on it on old gen (Playstation3 and Xbox360) and they said ok till this is what we can do with our game on these old systems. If we want to further improve our game, make it smoother and add content you are gonna have to upgrade to either a PS4, Xbox1 or a PC. Many people had to buy a new console if they wanted to play with the new additions and updates.

If Planet Coaster would go on a similar it would only cost a drop in the bucket as windows10 is just a simple (free or practical free) upgrade, nothing compared to buying a new system.

 

[Minnion]

Reading back that quote it reminds me of GTA5 back in 2013.

They were working on it on old gen (Playstation3 and Xbox360) and they said ok till this is what we can do with our game on these old systems. If we want to further improve our game, make it smoother and add content you are gonna have to upgrade to either a PS4, Xbox1 or a PC. Many people had to buy a new console if they wanted to play with the new additions and updates.

If Planet Coaster would go on a similar it would only cost a drop in the bucket as windows10 is just a simple (free or practical free) upgrade, nothing compared to buying a new system.

You're assuming that windows 10 is perfectly compatible with all of the old hardware that people who haven't switched are using...

 

[shaneturner12]

Regarding DX12, as I've said before, this could have the effect of alienating anyone who for some reason does not want to or cannot upgrade to Windows 10 (I know a few like that).

Adding dual support may help but those who are stuck with DX11 will probably still be complaining that their game isn't running well.

It's one of those areas where you can't please everyone.

Shane

 

[Aposine]

This is the reason, I posted this on Reddit yesterday:

Can't find it anywhere, and I've been searching high and low for a discussion on that subject over at Reddit

 

[Chems]

Can't find it anywhere, and I've been searching high and low for a discussion on that subject over at Reddit

My bad, it was a comment, not an actual post.

 

[Ramm]

You're assuming that windows 10 is perfectly compatible with all of the old hardware that people who haven't switched are using...

Why wouldn't it exactly? I'm not familiar with windows 10 requirements but if you are capable of running Planet Coaster you surely must be capable of running windows 10 right?

 

[shaneturner12]

Why wouldn't it exactly? I'm not familiar with windows 10 requirements but if you are capable of running Planet Coaster you surely must be capable of running windows 10 right?

Not necessarily. Some older devices (particularly for things like printers/scanners or even graphics cards) don't always have Windows 10 drivers available and in some cases manufacturers have chosen not to support Windows 10.

Shane

 

[Ramm]

Not necessarily. Some older devices (particularly for things like printers/scanners or even graphics cards) don't always have Windows 10 drivers available and in some cases manufacturers have chosen not to support Windows 10.

Shane

But the minimum required graphics card for planet coaster must support windows 10 right?

 

[Chems]

But the minimum required graphics card for planet coaster must support windows 10 right?

I think Shane meant that while the computer itself could run Windows 10, you might use other software or hardware peripherals that do not work with Windows 10, so upgrading isn't an option.

 

[shaneturner12]

But the minimum required graphics card for planet coaster must support windows 10 right?

Not always as the minimum requirements state that it must support at least DirectX 11 which could mean even some of the older graphics cards (which may not have Windows 10 support).

Shane

 

[Ramm]

Yeah I get software migth not work if you use very old software for whatever reason but I still find it difficult to believe that you are able to run a heavy game like planet coaster but not windows 10. Oh well