When will it be fixed ?

[dsf.fernando]

As someone who has (little academic) experience working (abysmally) with Unreal Engine, I tell you: do not be deceived by the graphics and visual effects, UE, no matter how flexible it may be on UE5, still may need custom solutions like custom physics (see many racing games which use Unreal Engine but does not use UE's physics engine, like Assetto Corsa Competizione or the new NASCAR game).

[Optional Features]

As someone who has (little academic) experience working (abysmally) with Unreal Engine, I tell you: do not be deceived by the graphics and visual effects, UE, no matter how flexible it may be on UE5, still may need custom solutions like custom physics (see many racing games which use Unreal Engine but does not use UE's physics engine, like Assetto Corsa Competizione or the new NASCAR game).

But look at Assetto and look at these games lol. Assetto can look real with the right default settings. And that's in rain, sun, sunset, morning, etc.

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ATS and ETS2 have no photorealism ever, although they can look decent at times. But that is often due to mods. Graphics mods (like fixing the horrible skyboxes), truck and trailer mods, foliage mods, and on and on.

Yea, UE5 might not be perfect, but it can and does wow visually. Whatever SCS is using does not. And the physics we have atm are something akin to a mobile game.

[Madkine]

UE5 is fine if you want a map that's 20km * 20km. What is can't do is what SCS's engine does with large maps.

[Wolfi]

Car racing games are never a good comparison when it comes to graphics. People tend to compare racing games with ETS2/ATS, because "both have wheels".
The difference is: most racing games are either fully limited to a single track at a time, or they have a tiny game world without any calculations going in the background.
It's also worth mentioning that most (if not all) racing games cheat when it comes to screenshots Speaking from experience here, Forza Horizon 4 and 5 allow you to take insanely looking screenshots, but the game itself looks nothing like that. (heck, FH5 even can create fake RTX effect with certain options, on a non-RTX GPU )
It's basically similar to people taking ETS2 screenshots and photoshopping the heck out of them.
That said, if you got your settings right, it's still possible to take realistic looking screenshots in SCS games.
They are not perfect by any means though. I too get annoyed many times about low quality textures, etc. Heck, I even suggested multiple times a paid, High Quality Textures DLC (with a separate system requirements) that would (similar to Fallout 4) replace all in-game textures with at least double (preferably quadruple) sized ones to make it more eye-pleasing for players with more powerful PC's.

[Optional Features]

Car racing games are never a good comparison when it comes to graphics. People tend to compare racing games with ETS2/ATS, because "both have wheels".
The difference is: most racing games are either fully limited to a single track at a time, or they have a tiny game world without any calculations going in the background.
It's also worth mentioning that most (if not all) racing games cheat when it comes to screenshots Speaking from experience here, Forza Horizon 4 and 5 allow you to take insanely looking screenshots, but the game itself looks nothing like that. (heck, FH5 even can create fake RTX effect with certain options, on a non-RTX GPU )
It's basically similar to people taking ETS2 screenshots and photoshopping the heck out of them.
That said, if you got your settings right, it's still possible to take realistic looking screenshots in SCS games.
They are not perfect by any means though. I too get annoyed many times about low quality textures, etc. Heck, I even suggested multiple times a paid, High Quality Textures DLC (with a separate system requirements) that would (similar to Fallout 4) replace all in-game textures with at least double (preferably quadruple) sized ones to make it more eye-pleasing for players with more powerful PC's.

As someone who has played Project Cars long enough to get a couple screens, it looks amazing both in game and in screens. I have played Assetto as well, and it also looks amazing. MSFS looks amazing. GTA5 with a graphics mod looks amazing. ATS and ETS2 just don't.

Most people that have even decent graphics for these games are running paid graphics mods which redo the lighting, the roads, the skies, and more. And those pics are still rarely close to photorealism. SCS games look ok on a highway on a sunny day with limited cloud cover. Once it rains, the driver goes offroad, or it gets dark, the game's visual quality drops off.

If they just had shadows from light sources other than the sun, it would look far better. But at night, lights shining through things or fake shadows under vehicles that are themselves under a light source looks really terrible.

I have seen some impressive ETS screens, but they are almost always super photoshopped. People add effects we should have in game like motion blur, and as a result, the game looks far better.

I can drop a plugin into a free GTA graphics mod, and have that effect in any screen with no after editing.

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And this same free graphics mod gives me a golden hour befitting of a quality game. SCS games basically have no golden hour and no blue hour. It's dark, slight glow, sun, and then super bright.

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UE5 is fine if you want a map that's 20km * 20km. What is can't do is what SCS's engine does with large maps.

Not sure if it's come to UE5, but for UE4, someone released a map of the whole world.

And UE4 also looks way better than SCS games.

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[Optional Features]

I guess part of the reason I wish these games looked better is my personal experience as a photographer on the West Coast, both professionally for my job and as a hobby (these shots).

Every pic in this group was taken within the bounds of thr current SCS map. And almost every place represented in this photo group is stunning in its own right.

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But I drive through these same areas in game, and I'm not impressed. It's bland, flat (literally and figuratively), and pales in comparison to the real thing. Graphics is a large part of that.

Europe is the same for me: I have never been, so I have no irl experience to go off of, but I think that I'm going to visit some cool place in game like like Norway (fjords), Italy and France (architecture and Alps), Switzerland (Alps), etc. The models are there in many cases, but it doesn't feel real or impressive. It's not a wow moment like it would be irl. It's an "ok, it's there" moment.

Specifically on graphics, things like the puddle reflections (or wet ground reflecting) are completely missing, while sunsets and sunrises are so minimized, it's insane. This is a game whose entire selling point is appearances, and simple things that are part of what makes life beautiful are just left out. It's honestly sad: I want game features as much as anyone, but a proper sunrise would honestly be more memorable.

[Some newbie driver]

Yes the game lighting lacks (and always did, until they fix it) the proper manipulation of light from other sources that aren't the sun. And that's why other sources of light don't cause shadows or go through objects or light conditions inside tunnels isn't accurate at all. Its all well known limitations from always on the SCS code. Like lots of other things the code lacks were other things had been improved over time. Are they improving the code to cover current lacks? Maybe, probably. When this changes would arrive? Nobody knows, not even them exactly know it.

But then, what's your claim? That they had to change to another engine like UE? Why? Because other games you like use that engine? That's your reasoning? Why don't you read again what lots of people had told you? You are requesting that they completely redo the whole freaking code of the game (plus had to change their dev tools and their workflow and had to be trained in all that new stuff). So, you are requesting that they completely stop any further development for years until they had all of this in place; just because you think to swap a game engine is some kind of miraculous solution. And of course, because you believe that graphic engines are something perfectly universal that doesn't lack anything that SCS or other developers need (thus that's the reason so many engines exist, because companies like to re-create the wheen when another one already is available).

If you don't like what SCS offers, act like a wise client: don't buy. Plain and simple, money talks. But come here requesting absolutely unfeasible things based on your ignorance of the matter like if they were miraculous solutions for everything is absurd. Stop that nonsense.

[pigbrother]

Last time I got booed when I said I dropped more expensive and famous games for far less. Yeah, Bethesda, I'm looking at you. )

[55sixxx]

You're a truck driver, driving a truck, paying attention to the road from the inside of the cab... I'm sorry dude, but I'll have to agree with the rest of the people here. This isn't a sandbox game that you'd walk everywhere and go out in the nature exploring and sight seeing. From what ETS2 and ATS is (A truck DRIVING sim), SCS manages to represent nature very impressively... Still have doubts? Go look the Austria blog posts and you'll see what I mean.

[Some newbie driver]

Not agree on that 55sixxx To request improvements in graphics should not depend on the scope of the game; the base request is fair since the moment SCS clearly wants to depict realism and the technologies exist already to improve. What it's wrong is the way some people pretends SCS to apply those improvements. Not having a single idea about what's programming or using APIs and engines but pretend to dictate what SCS has to do based in "other games I like use that engine" is what it's absurd. SCS of course (and any other developer) will ignore that kind of claims. But that not avoid the forums get flooded with that kind of useless request plus the derivatives: complains because SCS doesn't listen their great ideas.

Isn't even wrong, on an essential level, to make that kind of absurd requests; because nobody is forced to know why are they absurd. The point is, when lots of people that know it better told somebody why the request is absurd and that person keep insisting; then there's somebody who has a serious problem about not wanting to face Real World®.

Regards