ATS on the new Unreal Engine 5

[Optional Features]

We have a good chance of seeing another truck simulator on Unreal Engine 5 closer to year end or early next year...

Truck World: Australia? Do you think they are for real or is it a big joke? They are so silent I'm beginning to wonder if they just got some assets, made a trailer, and saw how much attention they could get.

[angrybirdseller]

Here we go again pointless discussion about using UE-5 game engine. The engine will never be used ever its obvious why scs using thier own engine.

[Travismods]

And like clockwork, here they come again telling us we shouldn't discuss X, because we don't know anything about X, so we shouldn't discuss X because we don't know anything about X. Does it ever stop?

Nail on the head @seriousmods, as always. Those GTA V shots make me want to truck in GTA even though the map is small, when I should prefer ATS. Prism is making it tempting to drop ATS, which shouldn't be the case.

Now anyone who has ever only written as much as a Hello Java application (and ran it successfully) understands that Prism is dated, needs to go alternatively needs to be overhauled beyond recognition to be future proof. They also understand that everything cannot be achieved in Prism, and certainly not by SCS. We aren't taking Rockstar here, and even their engine and cream of the crop talented programmer staff has its limits. How about taking some time off the forum threads that are not of your interest instead of telling others they shouldn't talk? Perhaps play some Red Dead Redemption 2 then come back to us and explain "this could be done in Prism by SCS".

[Optional Features]

And like clockwork, here they come again telling us we shouldn't discuss X, because we don't know anything about X, so we shouldn't discuss X because we don't know anything about X. Does it ever stop?

Yes, it's to be expected. There can be no debate on what is not going to happen.

Nail on the head @seriousmods, as always. Those GTA V shots make me want to truck in GTA even though the map is small, when I should prefer ATS. Prism is making it tempting to drop ATS, which shouldn't be the case.

GTA 5 is a weirdly appealing trucksim. You've got the industrial areas with their rough roads, graffiti, trash, and complicated business layouts. There's the ability to toggle parts on and off (like the neck on this converted SCS lowboy. You can combine as many or as few trailers as you want (with horrifying results lol). There's smoke and dirt, walk mode, some vehicles with explorable interiors (like RVs), and a decently large, albeit tiny in comparison, map.

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While there is much about the game I don't like (like being cursed out by random AI), it has its appeal. I definitely enjoyed playing it for the length of time I did.

[Sora]

Regardless of the engine or scale or licensing concerns, SCS should never make an ATS2.

If SCS ever reaches the point where they have advanced enough to create a new game, that game should be a single foundation for both Europe and the Americas. Keeping the two separate has only hurt ATS in the long term, because a split community will tend toward whichever game is first (ETS2) or more popular (also ETS2). As separate games, ATS will always live in ETS2's shadow. A single unified game that serves as a sequel to both ETS2 and ATS would solve almost all of these issues. And in the process, it'd help mitigate the silly accusations of favoritism toward both games... it wouldn't get rid of it entirely, of course, but there's a big difference between people who only own one game and people who limit themselves to only using half of their game. You'd probably still have plenty of people who refuse to go to the other continent and use the trucks they deem silly-looking, but the lower barrier would make them more likely to at least try it out, and a bunch of people would probably just mindlessly buy all of the DLC anyway.

A unified game would also be ideal for appending smaller projects like Australia that are popular but lack the long-term support viability of Europe and the Americas. The hardest parts would be maintaining brand recognition (which ETS2 has but ATS doesn't really) and creating a satisfying base map (since it'd probably end up being smaller than both ETS2's and ATS's on their respective continents, though a scale increase might be a valid selling point - especially since the layout would naturally lead to highly marketable cities that would strongly benefit from more detailed scaling, like New York and London.)

[Optional Features]

That is a solid idea, and I think Farming Sim has benefited from that approach. There are a ton of Europeans who play (and the game has in the past catered to them with default vehicles, trucks, and maps that fit European styles). But Americans were free to mod the game to their liking, and we're now starting to see a bit more support and default features catered towards Americans. Several default tractors have the option to take off European warning bars, something that has annoyed Americans like me for quite some time.

What would you call it, though? World Truck Simulator?

Imagine if they remade this game with modern graphics and particles, better physics, and more interactivity? That would definitely sell!

Watch on YouTube

[JoeAlex23]

But there are clearly internet legends that know exactly all about gaming/engines/scs's business practice that feel the rest of us are just uneducated/uncultured swine, how dare us mere mortals talk of such lofty things? it's fun to speculate. Doesn't mean it's gonna happen.

I don't see the harm in discussing a topic that comes up far less frequently that the claimed "almost every three months". Like someone said in another thread, you don't like the topic.... stay out the room.

Idk if that was aimed at my comment, but i never claimed to be an expert know it all, i just have some real life experience as a retired programmer and i know how hard it will be for SCS to do a complete game engine change at this stage when they have so much time and resources already invested into both games, the only logical way they could use a new game engine is making a new game from scratch and we know SCS doesn't really have plans for that in the foreseeable future, i never meant to insult anyone.

And i don't see harm in discussing it, but my point was that it is a very recurring topic and it always end up the same way, i've seen it too many times and there's already a pattern, you can see it on the previous topics that include this same exact discussion, creating a new thread every X time (my 3 months example was just a simple exaggeration) with the same exact discussion won't get us anywhere when the real problem is not even related to the game engine itself, as i said, SCS can make Prism3R do what they want, how they want and when they want, a game engine is just composed of various systems (sound, graphics, physics, AI, features, etc.) with the API (DX9, DX11, DX12, Vulkan) being the "glue" that keeps everything together and makes it run, all the systems inside the game engine can be upgraded to be better and more modern, like SCS did with their old archaic sound system and completely replaced it with FMOD, something that a lot of new AAA games use, same thing can be done with everything else, old code for the old system can be completely removed and replaced with something more modern, that's the beauty of having their own game engine, that's what i'm getting at, there's no need for a new one when the current one can be made better and not having to pay loyalties to another company just to use their game engine.

The real problem comes with finding the people with the skills to do what needs to be done, but SCS refuses to hire anyone outside Prague, there have been a very few exceptions but that shouldn't be the norm, there are a lot of talented people all over the world that want to work for SCS but they can't see leaving their whole life behind and move to a whole new country just to work for a company, that needs to change at some point if they want to improve both games overall at a decent time frame.

[VTXcnME]

I will grant the issue isn't game engine only. It's not thread optimization only. It's not any one thing.

Sometimes, folks just like to pick around the edges and say, what if they did this.... doesn't mean it'll happen. Doesn't mean it's even rational to consider. Exercise in imagination if you will. I said earlier I doubt any change would take place due to the work it would take to port everything over to the new engine... a lot of folks understand more than they are given credit for. I'll admit, coding isn't my strong suit and I don't claim to have a whole lot of idea what it'd take. But sometimes it's fun to kick the can around and wonder what could be. DX12 needs to provide optimization. Even on my rig (ryzen 5800x/RTX3080-12GB/32GB DDR4 3600mhz RAM) with OS and games on different M.2 drives, in larger cities, ATS drops frames more than I'd expect. There's stuff that needs optimization that just isn't happening with the current set up, so it's fun to speculate. No harm, no foul. And after being around here for a while (lurking for longer than that) it really doesn't feel like these specific threads come up that often. Or I've missed them in the past. Don't know... either way: Have a good night. On to Montana. Right?

[Optional Features]

On to Montana for sure! Hopefully we can visit some of the ranches!

[JoeAlex23]

Sure, nothing wrong with speculating what could be, i really wish everything we want with ATS/ETS2 was possible but sadly is not, some people really believe that a game engine change can be done with a snap of a finger or just changing a little line of code and be done, but the reality is way more complicated than that, maybe some day we will get to see SCS give these games what they really deserves.

As for optimization, the game itself doesn't have bad optimization because it runs "decent" on basically any kind of PC, what needs to change is to, let's say, "teach", the game engine what to do with modern hardware, as of now the game engine has no idea what to do with all of that new technology to give it the full proper use, but that can be changed and when SCS figures that out the game will perform so much better for everyone, we hope DX12 finally gives SCS the tools (if they use them right) to fix that starting with multicore performance, DX11 was supposed to do it but at some point SCS took the decision of just leaving DX11 at where it is right now and move right into DX12, all the plans they had for DX11 got postponed until DX12 comes.

But i don't have anything else to add to this thread, so yeah, into Montana we go.