The new scenery update is finally here! After almost two years of hard work, the simplistic and often repetitive scenery of the previous version has been replaced with a more diverse, lush and realistic environment with rich customisation possibilities for modders.
The new scenery system has proper support for water, fences, forests, fields, grass, tunnels, custom tracks and more. The built-in library of 3D-models has also been expanded with new buildings, trees, fences, walls, rocks, bridges and station furniture.
This update also includes a number of small fixes, improvements and optimisations unrelated to scenery.
My frame rate is lower than before!
The new scenery has 2x-4x more detail compared to the old one so it's not reasonable to expect a frame rate identical to the previous version. However, thanks to optimisations, the frame rate is not down by 50-75% but 10-40% depending on your system and the complexity of the scene.
For reference, a 2017 quad-core CPU, 8GB RAM and GeForce 960M with 2GB VRAM should produce an average of 30fps at 1280x720px resolution with the highest default quality level, up to 40fps for low-detail scenes (mostly fields) and down to 25fps for densely populated urban scenes.
If you're not happy with the frame rate, please try changing the following graphics settings:
- Select a lower quality level from the master switch at the top of the screen
- Reduce drawing range
- Reduce grass range
- Disable water reflections
- Disable accurate tunnel mouths
- Make sure LOD bias is not over 100% (in the previous version this could be as high as 300% but such values are no longer needed thanks to an improved LOD system)
- Reduce resolution from the general settings (use windowed mode to avoid blurred pixels)
If the game is stuttering, try the following changes:
- Reduce drawing range
- Disable grass
- Disable water reflections
- Disable accurate tunnel mouths
Are these the final scenery graphics?
These graphics are not final, but they will be in use for at least a couple of years. One of the final updates is planned to improve the environment by introducing animated passengers and animals, moving road vehicles etc. This is also a good opportunity to make final adjustments to the scenery and graphics systems.
What's next?
The next major update will be the gameplay update (more on that later) by the end of this year or early next year. Smaller patches will also be released as required to address various issues.
