why scs software doesn't care about graphics in game?

[Duke49th]

Prism3D is purpose built by SCS because all the other engines, as far as we know, can't do what SCS needs them to do.

Just cause you can land a A380 in Flight Simulator doesn't mean you can go out and do the same thing in real life. Same thing holds true for ATS.

What exactly can prism do that other engines cannot?

You cannot just port the game to a new engine. That could take years. At very least one year if they hire more people and work full time on it, with no patches/bugfixing/new content in between.

That is only if they can get hands on a suitable engine that is not too expensive.

It's not that easy.

But what they could do is update the 10 years old textures and such, maybe even port it to Vulkan 1.3 / DX12 and so on. I would pay for a tech upgrade as a kind of DLC. I would prefer that over several paid mods.

I DRIVE A TRUCK IN REAL life

I KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT A TRUCK IN AND OUT

I WORK FIXING TRUCKS AS WELL

But know nothing about software development. It's like telling you to just swap the engines of 20 trucks in your company to hydrogen propulsion within one week without interrupting your business. Unrealistic.

I wish it would be that easy. I work for one of the biggest companies in the world and yet have to use almost 30 tools to analyze, calculate and fix things and so on. It sometimes take a week or two to even get an answer in a ticket from our very own IT guys.
I really wish software development would be as easy as some people think it is. I would be far less stressed at work lol.

But once again. There are still enough things that they could improve without changing the engine, invest much money and time. Question is why don't they do it? But if modder can do it in their spare time, why can't SCS accomplish at least the same with paid and experienced personnel? Give the (just one of them) guy/girl who does the texture/graphic development 6 months to update textures. Send the sound engineer to different locations and let them record engines properly.
Sounds like a realistic time frame and task to accomplish. Again, some modder do it even for free in their spare time.

Or is their team so tiny?

[Optional Features]

I am playing games since 1986 and I can tell you there are sadly so many developer/publisher who do not deliver even 1% of what SCS does (for example look ad Farming Simulator...or what Paradox does with Prison Architect etc. what a joke that is in terms of development and milking customers). Still it needs criticism every now and then.

I have many criticisms of GIANTS, but what exactly does SCS offer that FS does not? In my decade of experience playing FS, I've had way more control over my gameplay than I ever have had in these games, and I can rattle off a ton of "should be trucksim" features that FS has and this game doesn't. As a result, my FS experience has resulted in way more fun. Please explain.

As for the engine comments, I know it's not easy. I personally want to see SCS make a new game and develop it from East to West. Stop development at the Mississippi, and introduce a new, next generation game.

[Duke49th]

I am playing games since 1986 and I can tell you there are sadly so many developer/publisher who do not deliver even 1% of what SCS does (for example look ad Farming Simulator...or what Paradox does with Prison Architect etc. what a joke that is in terms of development and milking customers). Still it needs criticism every now and then.

I have many criticisms of GIANTS, but what exactly does SCS offer that FS does not?

FS is being sold every 1-3 years for a full price product without major updates/improvements. Just look at FS 17, 19 and 22. Graphics in 22 look cartoonish and partially even worse than 17 and definitely than 19.
Mechanics? They literally stole mods and implemented downgraded versions into the game. And on top they sell DLC's.

I bought ETS2 9-10 years ago. Haven't bought another version. Did you? Just some (compared to other games) cheap DLC's

As for the engine comments,

Just to be clear, I quoted you, but was not addressing my answer to you personal. Was more of a general comment.

As a result, my FS experience has resulted in way more fun. Please explain.

It's just simply more your thing. There are ATS/ETS2 player who will state the exact opposite. Including me. I find FS boring after a couple of hours playing. Even if there is quantity and mechanic wise more to do.

I personally want to see SCS make a new game and develop it from East to West. Stop development at the Mississippi, and introduce a new, next generation game.

Still no reason to change engine. Look at star citizen how long it took them to change the engine. With a much bigger team and budget. (although that comparison is questionable...but it gives an idea how long such things can and often do take)

If you have your own engine you can basically upgrade and manipulate it the way you need and want to. At least if you haven't screwed it completely up and kept it open for major technical changes etc. I don't know how to explain that in english being myself not into software development (aside from some basic PHP and HTML). But I read often enough about such things to have a somewhat general idea how this stuff works.

[Optional Features]

@Duke49th I'm not going to disagree with you on many of those points as I agree that GIANTS frequently just borrows community ideas and resells them. There are some benefits to this, though, mainly in the form of game-wide compatibility. And while FS22 graphics are in some cases better than ATS, they are not where they should be.

That being said, they have made a far better platform for people to implement ideas. The access to the code, ability to change major game features through a simple script, quantity of mods, and freedom of gameplay are not found in SCS games. This is why GIANTS has a pool of ideas to steal from and call their own: many a mod for their games is actually game changing, not just another visual improvement.

Even stuff like being able to attach unlimited trailers or close and open the tarp are still not available here.

And for an apples to apples comparison, look at the growing number of brands these games share. In almost every example, the official FS version has more features than the official ATS or ETS2 version.

I would be happy to buy a new game from SCS on a regular schedule if they offered these opportunities: they don't, though, and don't seem to plan to.

[Duke49th]

@Duke49th I'm not going to disagree with you on many of those points as I agree that GIANTS frequently just borrows community ideas and resells them. And while FS22 graphics are in some cases better than ATS, they are not where they should be.

That being said, they have made a far better platform for people to implement ideas. The access to the code, ability to change major game features through a simple script, quantity of mods, and freedom of gameplay are not found in SCS games.

Even stuff like being able to attach unlimited trailers or close and open the tarp are still not available here.

And for an apples to apples comparison, look at the growing number of brands these games share. In almost every example, the official FS version has more features than the official ATS or ETS2 version.

I would be happy to buy a new game from SCS on a regular schedule if they offered these opportunities: they don't, though, and don't seem to plan to.

My personal issue with ATS/ETS2 is the graphics and performance. And the obvious lack of proper multicore/multithreading support. It still runs on DX11, no Vulkan support (to my knowledge) etc.

My PC specs:
AMD Ryzen 2400G
AMD RX480 8GB
16 GB DDR-4 3200Mhz
3 SSD's

My fps are between 18 and 65 with all settings to high/ultra (@1080p) and lots of mods.

Yet even with the free gfx mods, game looks like almost 10 years old. And dead and empty, without traffic mods. So I don't know what the CPU even has to do with so little going on.

GTA5 came out 2013 and looks even on medium settings so much better. With so much more NPC's, traffic and things going on. Heck, even ArmA 3 runs better when I tune down the graphics to ETS2 standards with hundreds of AI units fighting (ok, maybe slightly exaggerated lol...maybe not hundreds, but feels much more alive )

Simple and easy to fix/improve things are not being touched, like, I repeat myself, Textures and sounds. No need to change engine to have it looking nice.

Modding - I cannot say much about it. Especially not about FS. I am trying to fiddle myself into it (ATS/ETS2) step by step. But I think yeah there are really some weird limitations that could have been lifted long time ago.

[xXCARL1992Xx]

GTA V is from 2013, not 2005, 2005 was just 1 year after GTA San Andreas release and this one aged like fine milk that stood in the blazing sun

[Duke49th]

GTA V is from 2013, not 2005, 2005 was just 1 year after GTA San Andreas release and this one aged like fine milk that stood in the blazing sun

Ooops. Typo. I wanted to write 2015...I thought it came out 2015. So it came 1 year after ETS2 (2012 - GTA V in 2013)...makes it even a bit worse.

Red dead redemption 2 for example , another open world game, runs butter smooth on mostly very high settings and looks so good. Even on my potato pc (without pandemic I would have upgraded already, but had to support family of my wife yada yada...I don't live in Germany anymore...)

[Optional Features]

@Duke49th I admit to being lazy, but I am not stupid. I have been playing ATS for several years now, and despite a few attempts, I cannot make even simple edits to mods without excruciating amounts of work.

And even if I could mod as well as the best in the community, the impact I could have on the game is very minimal at best. Much of what I want in this game (or in a game in general) is just not possible.

That's the issue more than anything.

[Duke49th]

About the only feature I'm aware of that PRISM can do that other engines can't (possibly no longer true) is the ability to traverse the entire game world map with no loading screens.
I'm not sure if this is still true in the UE engine, but it used to have a maximum size it could load and couldn't load/unload sectors seamlessly.

Even in 2012 that was not true.

There are other simulations that were able to do similar sizes.

And nowadays, look at Star Citizen (runs on CryEngine) - procedural rendering, but nevertheless one of the damm best looking graphics in a game I've yet seen so far. Not just graphics, but the whole atmosphere and setting is mind blowing, when you enter the atmosphere of a planet/moon and then land close to sunset and start walk or drive for hours on the planet, then take off and fly to another planet etc.

[Duke49th]

@Duke49th I admit to being lazy, but I am not stupid. I have been playing ATS for several years now, and despite a few attempts, I cannot make even simple edits to mods without excruciating amounts of work.

And even if I could mod as well as the best in the community, the impact I could have on the game is very minimal at best. Much of what I want in this game (or in a game in general) is just not possible.

That's the issue more than anything.

I fully understand you. If you play a game for longer time, graphics is not that important. Mechanics/Atmosphere/Modding is more important. Which is why I was not playing in the recent years. And not sure how long I will stick to it now until I get fed up and pause it again for some years.

It's just if I see postings in the style of Truckerforlife2022 I am wondering what people are requesting and complaining. "just change the engine" Yeah sure as if that is that easy. And does not even help with lack modability and mechanics, unless the developer is addressing these issues. Then you don't need a new engine for that.

I just think, critique and requests should be realistic and fair. At least if the developer is not a total greedy a$$