the advice 'crowdpleaser' gave at the top of the thread pretty much sums it up. you really need to think ahead and have restraint WHILE creating the park, especially in the beginning. give yourself some perpetrators and stick to them. when you notice your FPS dip in the 40's you better start 'buttoning things up'. the more path (more length than width) the more peeps you will need to make it look full. i would even go so far as limiting the peeps to 1,990 instead of 2,000, or 2,990 instead of 3,000 so it doesnt spike over the 2k or 3k mark. it will probably take you a few parks to see what your computer can and cant do. turning shadows to low or off and your water quality to low should help.
i just uploaded a video to youtube where i have almost 12,000 guests leave the park to zero, my FPS went from around 05 to mid 30s on an ultrawide monitor. i have a strong computer but i had turned off the 'guest limiter' for some reason and my play quality was getting worse and worse and happened to look down and WOW there were a lot of guests. then i just let it go to see how high i could get it. it had gone above 12k but i didnt record it until after it dipped below 12k. the moral of the story is i carved out a large place (literally) for the park, then i had to fill it with rides and paths to get there, then i had to fill the park with guests so there was (enough) activity everywhere. well it didnt 'look full' until i had around 8,000+ guests, then it wasnt fun to build and move around. once you dip below the mid 20's it just doesnt look or feel right. then you have to give up on a park you spent so much time on.
guests make a huge difference because once i emptied it out i was in the mid 30,s on ultra with a widescreen monitor (i think i did switch from 144 to 60Hz though) then i built quite a bit more stuff from getting the vintage pack and my FPS hardly changed at all to my surprise. then i added a hotel i downloaded from steam, THEN i noticed a drop and steady decline. i also noticed a similar phenomenon after i built a HUGE 'steel vengeance' coaster, i think all those wood beams took a hit on my FPS as well. now i need to delete an entire section to tidy up the rest of the park. even if i tried to recreate the same park again (do it right) i would make the land smaller, a few less special 'effects', A LOT less flat rides. i would keep the time at around 6pm to make the terrain 'glow' so i can have it night time and not have to sink lights into the terrain to make it glow at night time..... things of that nature so when i have a finished product i can have lots of guests to make the park look good and it not have choppy FPS.
if you have a low powered computer now and for the near future, try sticking to 1/4 of the map and make it as detailed as you want, if your FPS is still doing alright expand your park to a new area and repeat as long as your computer holds out, you still have 3/4 of a map to work with. when you do upgrade your computer go above the 'recommended' specs. mine is well above those and i still box myself into a corner. hope this helps.
