Why does even the foliage need to take a step back?

[eznapor]

Confused as to why the foliage has taken such a step back when Planet Zoo's foliage exists and was already made. The foliage in Planet Zoo is absolutely phenomenal. The foliage in this game appears uncharacteristically bad in accordance with the rest of the game. They also flicker and switch to low-poly when I zoom out even slightly, on max graphics. I'm hoping these are just placeholders too and will be updated with something reflecting your improved quality from Zoo's models?

 

[WillPowered]

Yeah I noticed they're a little off, too..

Another thing is how much they move. I'd rather they just don't move tbh. In some bushes it looks like a family of rats are running through them constantly. Awful.

 

[joeee]

 

[Wagi]

Textures are really bad on many things...it's like they got lazy.

 

[spoonetti]

IMO the coloring of the foliage is far too bright and contrasty. I have found screenshots of PC2 on the net where the foliage looks phenomenal (see picture 1) and then again images where it looks horrible (see picture 2). All trees has almost the same green without any structure and different color shades and they doesn't look authentic either. The Washingtonia also looks bad. I've come to call it 'Fuzzy-Head'. As @eznapor wrote, I also think that the foliage in Planet Zoo looks much better and more realistic - see the palm trees of image 3: The leaves has different color shapes and as is the case in nature, some of the leaf tips or even whole leaves are already a little wilted. That makes the trees look so realistic! But in PC2 the leaves are all the same bright green. I guess this is unfortunately the new style of Planet Coaster 2. However, in picture 1 we see that they can also create good trees. Why don't all plants look like this? That makes hope for the future...

 

[eznapor]

Textures are really bad on many things...it's like they got lazy.

It feels like a lot more love went into Planet Zoo. I hope they can fix all this up and inject love back into it, now they've appeased the big suits by releasing it unfinished.

 

[Wagi]

The terrain textures are another one, as joeee showed above. While things like the dark rock texture in PC1 had a really nice simulated depth to it...the similar terrain in PC2 is just flat, little depth or detail. I'm puzzled as to why, when they had nice textures for PC1, they made the decision to go with inferior textures for PC2? Great textures they had for many things in PZ also weren't ported to PC2. They already had them...why didn't they use them? Compare the textures and physics in the log flume ride in the video above... The log textures aren't much of an improvement, but look at the way the log moves along the track in PC1...a slight bounce as if it's actually on water. In PC2 it looks more like it's running along a rail rather than floating. And the water textures are HORRIBLE in PC2...what a huge step back. I won't even put that in a park it looks so bad. The textures on the drop don't even line up or 'flow' like water, unlike the superior work in PC1. I don't know if they were cutting corners to try to improve performance by using new inferior textures, or what. But they stand out like a sore thumb and certainly not to the standards of the two other Planet games.

 

[Nemmie]

I would be absolutely delighted if the Planet Zoo foliage was shunted over into PC2. The models and textures were amazing and the tonal quality and variation in colour is exactly what I'd want.
Don't get me wrong, the foliage in Planco 2 is gorgeous. But especially when you use the tropical scenery brush, it's a sea of un-natural nuclear green with very little variation in colour.
I'd love a more toned down, natural vibe that Planet Zoo does so well.

But again, thanks Team Frontier for bringing us such a great toy box to play in. I know it's gonna become even better.

 

[Ramm]

I would be absolutely delighted if the Planet Zoo foliage was shunted over into PC2. The models and textures were amazing and the tonal quality and variation in colour is exactly what I'd want.
Don't get me wrong, the foliage in Planco 2 is gorgeous. But especially when you use the tropical scenery brush, it's a sea of un-natural nuclear green with very little variation in colour.
I'd love a more toned down, natural vibe that Planet Zoo does so well.

But again, thanks Team Frontier for bringing us such a great toy box to play in. I know it's gonna become even better.

This is what everyone was expecting. Planet Coaster + all the cool Planet Zoo features. But so much stuff missing. Even the fence tool of all things. THE FENCE TOOL.

They have it, but someone over there at Frontier was like NOPE. It's like they're being mean on purpose.

 

[Swjosdotschka]

I agree the plants are a step back from Planet Zoo. Too bright, the colors almost look like out of a picture book and the plants just don't look as natural and convincing. I really hope they go back to their PZ style for PZ2. With PC2 and a foliage improvement, I don't have much hope.

I wonder if the scaling feature has a negative effect on what they can or can not do when making plants.

 

[spoonetti]

Many things in the game look like they're from a picture book. For example, the stonework from the Viking theme. This is of course all a matter of personal taste and not a graphical error in the game. Unfortunately, Frontier has opted for this 'picture book' style (although not everything looks like that!), but it's not to my taste! If I only wanted to build cool roller coasters on PC2 or spend countless nights working on the management mode to run a financially successful park, then the graphical style would be relatively unimportant to me. But since I'm more of a classic sandbox park builder, where it's all about designing a park that looks as realistic as possible (I'm more of a visual type), the graphical design of the game is not unimportant to me.

 

[Swjosdotschka]

But since I'm more of a classic sandbox park builder, where it's all about designing a park that looks as realistic as possible (I'm more of a visual type), the graphical design of the game is not unimportant to me.

Yes, I totally get that. The graphic style is a huge factor for me in a game. If this graphic choice is how Frontier also wants to approach future Planet games, I don't feel happy about it.