Cities: Skylines II

naednek · Post by **naednek** » Tue Oct 24, 2023 12:35 pm

They are not joking about the performance issues. I'm on a 3070 with over 32 gb of ram, and it's so bad.

naednek · Post by **naednek** » Tue Oct 24, 2023 1:36 pm

I would recommend not buying the game at this point. At this state, they should have delayed. Poor performance everywhere. Menus are sluggish, gameplay is taxing, it just needs more time. I believe they spent their goodwill releasing this which is a shame.

Thankfully I was able to try it via gamepass. I'd be pissed if I bought it.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Tue Oct 24, 2023 2:14 pm

I'm sitting at a state park right now, enjoying nature

so it will be sometime later today before I get to the game. I have been collecting some performance tips from game sites and I'll give them a try.

naednek · Post by **naednek** » Tue Oct 24, 2023 2:29 pm

jztemple2 wrote: ↑Tue Oct 24, 2023 2:14 pm I'm sitting at a state park right now, enjoying nature so it will be sometime later today before I get to the game. I have been collecting some performance tips from game sites and I'll give them a try.

please share those tips

YellowKing · Post by **YellowKing** » Tue Oct 24, 2023 3:22 pm

Thanks for the heads up. I was going to try it on GamePass tonight but if it's that bad I'll hold off.

naednek · Post by **naednek** » Tue Oct 24, 2023 5:58 pm

YellowKing wrote: ↑Tue Oct 24, 2023 3:22 pm Thanks for the heads up. I was going to try it on GamePass tonight but if it's that bad I'll hold off.

well no harm if you try on gamepass

naednek · Post by **naednek** » Tue Oct 24, 2023 6:05 pm

Ok I just booted it up again and something changed. At the loading screen it started to do the texture loading\optimizing like you see in certain games.

I loaded up a new map, and it feels better, not as sluggish. It's still not as crisp as it should be, but better.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Tue Oct 24, 2023 6:32 pm

OK, so I've had a little time in the game. First blush, there are a lot of nice tutorial pop-ups that explain things, be sure to read and understand them.

This is my rig, for comparison: Intel i9-10850K 10-Core, 32GB RAM, GeForce RTX 3080 10GB, 1TB SSD, Win10 Home. Running a 27-inch monitor at 2560x1440.

I started the game and it was sluggish, going down to the teens in fps at times.

Alright, here are the things I've done so far to the game settings:
- Turn on autosave!!

Under Graphics
- Set screen resolution in the settings, it starts off blank. I set mine to 2560x1440x75 (but I know I'm not going to get 75 fps)
- Display Mode: set to Full Screen Windowed
- Vsync off
- My Global Graphics setting defaults to High, I'm leaving it there.
- Performance Preferred: Balanced
- Clouds Quality Settings - Disabled
- Fog Quality Settings - Disabled
- Volumetric Quality - Disabled
- Motion Blur - Disabled

So far I'm getting a solid 30 fps, with only the very occasional stutter. But it is very early days, I'll post more this evening. I may or may not tinker with other settings, probably not unless I start having issues. So far the game looks fine for me, but then I've never looked for cutting edge graphics.

Punisher · Post by **Punisher** » Tue Oct 24, 2023 8:07 pm

Anyone have any tricks to running electricity?
I just cant seem to get any wiring to line up, especially for the transformer even though its on a road.
I am rynnung the electricity underground if that makes a difference. I think about 30 feet.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Tue Oct 24, 2023 9:15 pm

Punisher wrote: ↑Tue Oct 24, 2023 8:07 pm Anyone have any tricks to running electricity?
I just cant seem to get any wiring to line up, especially for the transformer even though its on a road.
I am rynnung the electricity underground if that makes a difference. I think about 30 feet.

Not sure about that, I didn't have issues with connecting to an outside source, then the tutorial wanted me to build a coal plant

. Anyway, you don't need to run electricity if something is connected to a road, the road contains the wiring.

Where I'm at right now, about an hour into my city.

There have already been complains about not being able to turn off the weather graphics, although I haven't seen an fps hit from it.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Tue Oct 24, 2023 11:47 pm

From the devs: Tips: Our Guide to Optimize Performance

Cities: Skylines II is a performance-heavy game, and with the diverse array of hardware you as a player use, you might find this guide helpful.

It's important to us that everyone has access to as smooth of a gaming experience as possible, and while varying hardware may present different challenges, we're here to support and guide you through optimizing your setup for the best performance possible.

naednek · Post by **naednek** » Wed Oct 25, 2023 12:23 am

made similar changes from the pcgamer guide and i'm now averaging 50 fps. much better, but definitely not as pretty.

Punisher · Post by **Punisher** » Wed Oct 25, 2023 1:08 pm

naednek wrote: ↑Wed Oct 25, 2023 12:23 am made similar changes from the pcgamer guide and i'm now averaging 50 fps. much better, but definitely not as pretty.

This game sounds like it could use a preset save.
Something where you tweak all the settings for hoghest fps, then save it and tweak all the dettings to nice graphics.
Then you could easilt swap back and forth as needed depending on if you want performance or shiny.

Punisher · Post by **Punisher** » Wed Oct 25, 2023 1:11 pm

jztemple2 wrote: ↑Tue Oct 24, 2023 9:15 pm
Punisher wrote: ↑Tue Oct 24, 2023 8:07 pm Anyone have any tricks to running electricity?
I just cant seem to get any wiring to line up, especially for the transformer even though its on a road.
I am rynnung the electricity underground if that makes a difference. I think about 30 feet.
Not sure about that, I didn't have issues with connecting to an outside source, then the tutorial wanted me to build a coal plant . Anyway, you don't need to run electricity if something is connected to a road, the road contains the wiring.

Where I'm at right now, about an hour into my city.

There have already been complains about not being able to turn off the weather graphics, although I haven't seen an fps hit from it.

I figured it out. The transformer is needed when you use external electricity. Then you need to manually connect it to a Power Line for input.
I'm still having a bunch of trouble connecting electricity and water or sewr pipes where they just dont seem to want to snap to each other when burying the wires underground. Things like getting wind turbines to your grid and sych.

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Wed Oct 25, 2023 4:58 pm

Dang, I guess I’ll pass until they fix the obvious performance issues. I’m not willing to try even on GP if the current solution is ‘just play in 640x480 and turn everything off in the graphics settings’.

I have a weird quirk about games, where, if my rig can't run it well with the best (or very near the best) settings the game offers, I will pass on it until my rig can play it at those settings. Yes, I generally play games YEARS after everyone else here, thankyouverymuch.

It's probably tangentially related to FOMO, which I tend to have a huge problem with in general.

naednek · Post by **naednek** » Wed Oct 25, 2023 5:58 pm

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Wed Oct 25, 2023 6:09 pm

naednek wrote: ↑Wed Oct 25, 2023 5:58 pm

HA!

malchior · Post by **malchior** » Wed Oct 25, 2023 9:14 pm

I gave this a few hours today - runs fine on my rig - but I'll need some time to get used to it. It feels...messy to me. Nothing quite snaps together like I'd expect. Keeping the city organized is tough. For instance, they have a 90 degree tool that I think doesn't work. It is supposed to snap things in at 90 degrees to the end of the road. At least that is what I expect. Instead it doesn't seem to do *anything* on or off.

Also the grid tool doesn't work in a way that makes much sense to me. It doesn't play well with existing roads. I'd expect I'd able to drag the grid out from an existing road. That doesn't work. Maybe a grid from the far side? Nope, instead when the grid intersects an existing straight road it does things like throw u-shaped curves on the far side or flat out not work throwing an "overlap" warning. No shit. I'm trying to overlap aka connect up the roads in the new grid. It feels like they need some UI tweaks to say the least.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Wed Oct 25, 2023 10:45 pm

I'm taking a break from it myself. I've done the tinkering with the settings to get 30 fps starting off, but with a town of 3500 I'm already down several fps. Also my video card is working really hard; I have a readout on my desktop which I can alt-tab to and the fan is running at almost 100%, more than I've seen in practically any other game. And that's with so many graphics settings turned down. These compromises are just making me enjoy the game less and that's probably telling me to put it on the shelf for awhile.

Meanwhile, the devs posted this today: Performance: Post-Release Plans & Goals. Again, my italics

Cities: Skylines II is built for the future with modern hardware in mind, allowing us to add more depth and detail to the game than its predecessor had. Earlier this month, we shared a note on performance as we had not reached the benchmark target we had set for the game. Following this, we have seen some concerns about performance and what it means for the game as a whole. We’d like to give some context to the issues the game is currently facing, what we’re doing to address them, and what you can do if you are among the players experiencing performance issues.

Firstly, we want to assure you that the issues are not deeply rooted in the game’s foundation, so we fully expect to be able to improve performance going forward. The issues we are currently facing are tied to the rendering of the game, and decreasing the quality of visual effects such as Depth of Field, Global Illumination, and Volumetrics will get you a fair performance without affecting simulation - at the cost of some eye candy. If you experience low FPS we recommend the following:

There there is a bunch of more technical discussion, then this:

OUR GOALS
With the upcoming patches, the situation will largely improve with default settings. It is worth mentioning that for a game like this, the performance target is to run at a steady 30FPS minimum. There is no real benefit in a city builder to aim for higher FPS (unlike a multiplayer shooter) as a growing city will inevitably become CPU-bound. What matters more with this type of game is to avoid stutters and have a responsive UI.

For that reason, our simulation is also built around an expected update rate given 30fps. However, it does not hurt to get 60fps as it can contribute to better visuals in relation to temporal effects, so while our target is 30fps, we don't intend to limit or stop the optimization work just because we reach it on the recommended hardware. We just don't believe there would be a long-term benefit in setting the target to 60fps, especially because we face rendering challenges both from close-ups and far distances.

Victoria Raverna · Post by **Victoria Raverna** » Thu Oct 26, 2023 4:09 am

This video made me want to try it on gamepass:

waitingtoconnect · Post by **waitingtoconnect** » Thu Oct 26, 2023 6:27 am

I don’t think I have it in me to go through another paradox dlc gouge. Especially as I don’t have a PC that comes close to meeting the specs on this; except a Mac m2 pro but that won’t run this.

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Thu Oct 26, 2023 12:04 pm

Victoria Raverna wrote: ↑Thu Oct 26, 2023 4:09 am This video made me want to try it on gamepass:

LOL! That's hilarious, but showing my age, I cannot stand the current trend of editing videos to have ZERO pauses between sentences....ugh. It's too much. Also, his voice sounds like one of the OG computerized voices like MS used to have years ago on text-to-speech.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Thu Oct 26, 2023 4:40 pm

I went through the initial tutorial last night and it was fine, but it was a village of less than 100 people so that may have helped.

After those initial bits, I lost interest. I may play more as I have a 3 day weekend and nothing on my plate, so we'll see... or I'll get a lot of reading done.

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Thu Oct 26, 2023 5:30 pm

coopasonic wrote: ↑Thu Oct 26, 2023 4:40 pm I went through the initial tutorial last night and it was fine, but it was a village of less than 100 people so that may have helped. After those initial bits, I lost interest. I may play more as I have a 3 day weekend and nothing on my plate, so we'll see... or I'll get a lot of reading done.

Can I get your address? I'd like to request a squad car come out and check on your family.

If you're an axe-murderer, you can get it off your chest here, we won't judge (much). And then that address, too, please...very important...DEXTER!!!

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Thu Oct 26, 2023 5:39 pm

I've got his address. If I go silent without notice, you'll know.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Thu Oct 26, 2023 6:22 pm

coopasonic wrote: ↑Thu Oct 26, 2023 4:40 pm I went through the initial tutorial last night and it was fine, but it was a village of less than 100 people so that may have helped. After those initial bits, I lost interest. I may play more as I have a 3 day weekend and nothing on my plate, so we'll see... or I'll get a lot of reading done.

I just picked this up a couple of days ago, it might keep you busy for a weekend or so

. That's what I'm going to be doing instead of playing CS2.
The Secret Horsepower Race: Western Front Fighter Engine Development by Calum E. Douglas

Victoria Raverna · Post by **Victoria Raverna** » Thu Oct 26, 2023 7:44 pm

Carpet_pissr wrote: ↑Thu Oct 26, 2023 12:04 pm
Victoria Raverna wrote: ↑Thu Oct 26, 2023 4:09 am This video made me want to try it on gamepass:

LOL! That's hilarious, but showing my age, I cannot stand the current trend of editing videos to have ZERO pauses between sentences....ugh. It's too much. Also, his voice sounds like one of the OG computerized voices like MS used to have years ago on text-to-speech.

I think that is part of what make his videos funny. The non pausing style of talking is part of it.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Fri Oct 27, 2023 10:03 pm

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jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Sun Oct 29, 2023 4:57 pm

Today I tried the game after that first performance patch and it's really made a difference. I had a city of five thousand with a number of compromises on the graphics settings and was getting less that 30 fps. With the patch I went back to the Global Graphics settings on High, nothing turned off or down, res at 2560x1440, and I'm now in the low 40s fps. So a significant gain there. I still suck at the game though

naednek · Post by **naednek** » Mon Oct 30, 2023 1:56 pm

The joys of gamepass. Still waiting on patch. Guess I'm going back to Railway Empire 2

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Mon Oct 30, 2023 8:07 pm

naednek wrote: ↑Mon Oct 30, 2023 1:56 pm The joys of gamepass. Still waiting on patch. Guess I'm going back to Railway Empire 2

How is RE2? I didn't see a thread for it, just wondering with all the updates (including manual switching) if people are liking it more now.

Meanwhile, addressing something that has been bothering me... Cities: Skylines 2: How to fix the 'Not Enough Customers' problem

Trying to solve Cities: Skylines 2's 'Not Enough Customers' issue? This icon pops up over commercial zones from time to time in your city, and it can be a little confusing—especially since it can coincide with a growing demand for more commercial zones. How can your city be demanding more commercial buildings if the existing ones are telling you there's 'not enough customers' to operate?

Unagi · Post by **Unagi** » Mon Oct 30, 2023 8:30 pm

My wild guess, without reading that (or playing this yet!), would be that one area wants it, but you've zoned it out of reach.

naednek · Post by **naednek** » Tue Oct 31, 2023 12:16 am

jztemple2 wrote:
naednek wrote: ↑Mon Oct 30, 2023 1:56 pm The joys of gamepass. Still waiting on patch. Guess I'm going back to Railway Empire 2
How is RE2? I didn't see a thread for it, just wondering with all the updates (including manual switching) if people are liking it more now.
]

It's fun. I haven't seen the update yet, again, thanks gamepass. It's challenging though

Sent from my Pixel 7 Pro using Tapatalk

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Tue Oct 31, 2023 6:05 pm

I've found these two videos fairly useful as the creator has some good ideas on how to do things.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Tue Oct 31, 2023 6:52 pm

An accident has already occurred next to this stretch of road, the burned out area to the south is the wreck of the car and the burned trees. A road service vehicle is already there. A fire engine is just arriving. Eventually a police car comes, the road service vehicle and the fire truck leave. And then, after speeding up time, the police car leaves.

Punisher · Post by **Punisher** » Tue Oct 31, 2023 9:22 pm

Thanks for ruining the plot!

I really wis they had actual vehicle collisions instead of just piling them all up on each other.

naednek · Post by **naednek** » Wed Nov 01, 2023 3:31 pm

patch came out on gamepass. Big time improvement. I change my stance now on getting if you are interested. For some reason the gamebar from windows isn't showing the fps, but it's definetly faster and changed everything to high.

malchior · Post by **malchior** » Thu Nov 02, 2023 11:31 pm

My take on the patch? The "optimizations" consisted of them dramatically lowering the visual quality. It's also now incredibly unstable. I had a single patch before the patch. Now it crashes once an hour. I had back to back crashes tonight and then it crashed on restart and the last save file was corrupted. I have checkpoints on so not a big deal but I'm pretty much at 'shelve it' until it gets fixed up stage.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Thu Nov 02, 2023 11:59 pm

malchior wrote: ↑Thu Nov 02, 2023 11:31 pm My take on the patch? The "optimizations" consisted of them dramatically lowering the visual quality. It's also now incredibly unstable. I had a single patch before the patch. Now it crashes once an hour. I had back to back crashes tonight and then it crashed on restart and the last save file was corrupted. I have checkpoints on so not a big deal but I'm pretty much at 'shelve it' until it gets fixed up stage.

Something like this seems to be endemic to AAA titles nowadays. After the patch my graphics are much better, the game runs at a faster fps and I haven't seen a crash yet. But other folks like malchior the patch seems to have made things worse. Weird.

Victoria Raverna · Post by **Victoria Raverna** » Fri Nov 03, 2023 12:30 am

naednek wrote: ↑Wed Nov 01, 2023 3:31 pm patch came out on gamepass. Big time improvement. I change my stance now on getting if you are interested. For some reason the gamebar from windows isn't showing the fps, but it's definetly faster and changed everything to high.

Is it the same version as steam version or steam has a newer patch after that one?