Engine upgrade and DX12 coming to ETS2 and ATS!

[HRTrucking]

^Please use a translater.

I think he's using Google Translate . You should see what Google Translate does from one language to another. With some languages it honestly doesn't work or it translates way to directly.
We have to put seals on our tankers for example. Google Translates this to my own language (Dutch) as Zeehond so I have to put Seal (animal) on my tanker in the translated text. The truck driver becomes a steering programm.
In France it's for me easier to use the French text then Google or another translator, with most languages Google is rubbish. Facebook translater is also really funny .


Draw distance and lod the only thing I have is the truck and car wheels in traffic that I can see changing quite late. Otherwise I'm happy how the game runs and looks now on my laptop with everything on max since last update without trouble.

[Madkine]

@Tomsun No you can't disable autosave, but you can disable the onscreen graphic.

uset g_save_indicator "0"

[Some newbie driver]

@Some newbie driver Yes i know it take years to do the changes. BUT Pavel is talking about this topic also for years and it would be interesting to know how far the development already took place.

Unfortunately, time had tell them hard lessons about not telling so much because people always take a "maybe" as a "granted" and a "someday (SCSsoon)" as a "whatever the day I guess and for then it MUST be released". Beyond very general hints, the less they say the better for everybody, really. People just need to learn keep at bay their desires and enjoy what they have at hand.

The other question is if perhaps DX 19 is the actual standard what will be the reaction if then SCS launches DX12 (so what is the last timestanp DX12 is the big throw and not the introduction of an already oldstyle technology)

It's not going to take so much time so I think it's pointless we play that guess game. Also, don't expect Microsoft to release any major DX update in the middle of an XBOX generation. DX is pivot for the design of those consoles because a lot of it is hardware supported. Consoles are made with specific hardware tailored for the way their graphic API works in order to squeeze as much performance possible on a cheaper overall hardware; that's why they can compete with PC even if base specs seems to hint the opposite. Microsoft isn't going to do any big change to DX when their last XBOX was so recently launched. That console gen is going to last I guess about 5 years more; at most with a hardware refresh in the middle but nothing breaking. The only way SCS doesn't manage to do the multi-core migration before that time period ends would be they were out of business.

Another question is it possible to deload the Gamingthread of tasks in putting them in separate threads (e.g. autosave, navigation, ai) as a middlestep?

That was already done about 3 years ago. That's what allowed them to add that big bunch of extra AI drivers they add in 3 almost consecutive updates. before that change, too many AI drivers delayed too much the auto-save write process, causing game freezes in several scenarios. Time later they included also the map to check all AI drivers location. Unfortunately, all those "side loads" were a relatively low % of the total CPU needs of the game and none of those side loads were related to things we directly interact in real time while driving; so it was little noticeable.

With the introduction of FMOD they did another step in that direction. Before that, the main game thread included the code that decided what sounds must be played and the code that played those sounds. That's why, if you game frozen due the main game thread become saturated, sounds were affected too (that was pretty noticeable with the blinker sound, it lost the regular pace it should have). Actually the main game thread decides what sounds are to be played and instructs FMOD libraries to do their job. Those libraries are already being computed on a different CPU core so it's hard to notice a sound froze in the game even if the rest does.

I wonder if the recent optimization changes they did on several parts of the game involved some kind of off-loading to secondary cores. Anyways, the main tasks of the game (graphics, physics, AI control and user inputs) seems to be all on the main core and those amount for (napkin math) 85% or plus of the CPU needs of the game while we drive. So, the game is still essentially mono-core with a bit of salt and pepper.

My lack of understanding is is it just a manpower-problem (SCS is not a company like MS), or is it just a problem of technology what it makes it so hard or even impossible.

Is way more complex than that, it's really very multi-factor. They had a big bunch of coders for sure, but that doesn't mean all of them have the knowledge, the skills or even are tasked with that kind of changes. Also, they had to work on that in the meanwhile they keep delivering lots of other features to the current game (how many games have you seen to be turned multiplayer as a free update after 8 years of single player? that wasn't by any means an easy change, for example). So they had to keep working on immediate projects while thinking on far future ones and how to blend everything once the time arrives.

Another example of this: when they changed the lighting system, they made it so the internal renderer is working on an HDR scenario. The output is SDR and will remain so for quite the time; but they changed that back in that moment because they were working with a plan for several years in the future. Otherwise, they would had to rework again that part of the code once improved the rest of the graphics with HDR options. They did extra work then, that will remain hidden and "useless" for several years, just to save them lot of work in the future.

Regards

[Quark]

You did not understand? Early next year, Steam will lose support for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1. Almost 95% of people already use Windows 10 or Windows 11, which means that at least those people have a video card that already supports DirectX 12.

How do you come to this conclusion? Again, you can have windows 10 but at the same time NOT dx 12 compatible hardware/video card of course.

[Marcello Julio]

Just look at the statistic data that Steam provides each month about the operating system and hardware components that users use.

[Quark]

I'm not referring to the numbers but only to your conclusion at the very end of that comment. As it is written there, it implies that someone who uses Windows 10/11 automatically must use a dx12 compatiple video card which is not true is all what i mean. My own brother is one of such an example, running windows 10 on a gtx 650ti "powered" machine. And much more ancient examples out there. Is that even a somewhat relevant amount of people? Of course not. But they will be able to run the steam client after jan 1 2024.

[Marcello Julio]

But that's why I said "more than 95% of users". Unfortunately your brother is part of the statistic that has Windows 10 or 11, but the video card is not compatible with DX12. I know it sounds hard, but once again we get into the same discussion when SCS migrated from DX9 to DX11 and some users didn't have a video card that wasn't DX11 compatible. People also need to move forward. I understand that there is a whole question about video cards and their prices depending on the country (I can even say the same here in my country), but unfortunately this is how the technology works.

[xXCARL1992Xx]

there is a difference bewteen having a DX11 card and not having the right specs, ETS (since Scandinavia) and ATS always required a DX11 compatible card

[Some newbie driver]

@Quark you are right on your point but I think Marcello Julio doesn't fully catch what you mean by a detail lost in translation (like probably happened in his original sentence). He's not English native speaker although it seems to use it well enough. Indeed, having Win 10+ doesn't mean you have a DX12 capable hardware like the wording of his message seemed to point.

Whatever, as @xXCARL1992Xx said, it' has been loooong time sice SCS has demanded DX12 compatibility on their MINIMUM specs (he typed it wrong and said 11, but the meaning of his message is clear). So, whoever whose hardware would not comply in the future moment when SCS would kick out DX11; his computer would had not been complying already for a couple of years; nothing to mourn there.

The funniest part of all it, is that your brother already has a graphic card compatible with DX12, NVidia cards are compatible since the previous generation than the one your brother has (the 400/500 Fermi architecture). So, I don't really understand where's the problem here beyond some kind of severe misunderstanding. In order to NOT comply those minimum specs, we had to have a GPU older than 13 years ago. I mean, there would be some few cases for sure; but even in those scenarios, how much could it cost a really-old-but-not-so-much GPU in second hand market? Probably less than the parcel fees. So, almost everybody should be able to move on when SCS will remove DX11 support at all.

A completely different history would be that SCS would require not only DX12 but also compatibility with the highest DX12 feature levels. That would indeed require way newer GPU models. In that case, one could expect that SCS would had the courtesy to warn with anticipation of such change. But I really doubt it will be the case on the early iterations of their DX12 migration. DX11 isn't its main burden today but the single-core architecture of the main game execution thread. What they want to break is that mono-core; for that goal, DX12 is just the icing of the cake; they don't NEED higher feature levels of DX12, they don't NEED all of a sudden to put to this game graphics on the level of AAA blockbusters. They don't even NEED DX12 for that multi-core architecture at all; as myself explained a few messages ago in this very forum topic. So, it would be a waste of dev time to focus on a big graphic forward leap instead of just keep the pace of graphic improvement as it's now and focus on big changes on everything else.

Regards

[flight50]

I built my pc back in 2016. I have not updated anything except the gpu in 2017 because I didn't need to currently. I upgraded from a workstation card to a GTX 1080 gpu is which was DX12 already though. As much as I'd like SCS to go DX12 ultimate, my card does not meet that though. DX12 came out in 2020. That would reduce the player base even more beyond 2020. I have to agree with Some newbie driver. SCS will just probably start off which regular DX12. They started delovloping it before DX12 ultimate release. There's plenty of time ahead to upgrade.

But taking people from DX11 to DX12 ultimate is an even larger jump hardware wise that SCS might try to minimize as much as possible. As long as multi core and multi threading are implemented, the benefits to DX12 added should open up a lot more opportunities. For desktop players, updating is easier done than laptop players though. So not everyone playing with non DX12 cards can upgrade as easily.