Next Farming Simulator Wishlist

[FBtheSQL]

I have read that you would like the terrain to be dynamic, that when it rains the tractors get stuck, etc, etc.

Well, that in farming simulator will never be, simply if they do that mods are finished, you do not know how difficult it would be to make a mod to work properly with a dynamic terrain,

Keep in mind that FS is very limited by the consoles.

How come the Mudrunner/Snowrunner games have a vibrant vehicle modding community and those games have dynamic terrain? I'm willing to bet FS25 has dynamic terrain of some description. Even if its just done in a relatively subtle way. Its a long overdue feature and we know that Giants know everyone wants it. They've tried to make it work in the past apparently.

The current FS is only limited by the last gen consoles. I'd be very, very surprised if FS25 is being made to work on the last consoles.

There's plenty of optimised power in the PS5 and current Xbox.

I don't want to be a Downer Debbie, it's possible that their engine is at its limit with regard to features and optimization. Supporting last gen consoles is a good excuse to not have to push forward with the work it might take to bring their engine into modern times. I hope I'm wrong, but we'll have to wait and see.
Their engine needs to load everything into memory in order to function for some reason. Now imagine if they need to remember every single indent or protrusion in a dynamic terrain map. They've probably messed around in their development lab, but I don't think a powerful enough computer yet exists, and not because of the advanced software, but because of the unoptimized software.

[Mobias]

Now imagine if they need to remember every single indent or protrusion in a dynamic terrain map.

Thats why my guess is it'll be quite a subtle effect. We're not talking Mudrunner levels of dynamic terrain but it'll be enough to make ploughing look far more realistic.

Maybe their current engine isn't up to it but I do remember them saying there's lots more they can get out of their current engine.

[Helazak]

With all this talk about dynamic terrain I want to give a little context on what computers are capable of doing.

I sponsor research with a university to study collision between drones and aircraft. One of my current projects is mapping the trajectory of a drone as it enters the downwash of a helicopter and how that affects impact locations. The fluid dynamics model the university developed uses real data from wind tunnels to calibrate the vector field air flows around the helicopter. On top of that vector field they track the drones position in x, y and z coordinates as well as pitch, roll, and yaw over time including the thrust of the drone propellers. For one trajectory, starting the drone 50 ft in front of the helicopter with a fixed velocity and heading, it takes 12 days of supercomputer time to map its course.

This game is already taxing the computer capabilty. A few months ago I planted a field with 240 Stone Pine trees. After they grew I discovered the harvesters cannot cut them because of the branching on top, so I had to chainsaw the entire field. I went through and cut down every tree and then went back and started bucking an limbing. The game had to account for all the physics of each tree leaning against the branches of all the other trees. It brought my stupid expensive graphics laptop to a crawl. Later I wanted a place to store my harvested logs so I found a field and just started dumping them, trying to be organized. At 500,000l of trees the computer again had to calculate each log leaning against every other log. That is when I started looking for wood storage mods so I could replace all those individual logs with pallets of wood significantly reducing individual items.

Dynamic terrain would need to be something like tractor tires being very thin landscaping tools to permenantly effect the terrain, which would probably make those rutts no longer part of your field and you would have to plow them again to make them part of the field. But they would still have rutts. That would be a reason for Giants to make landscaping equipment to smooth the terrain back again and replow it into a field. Buying a CAT motor grader or bulldozer would be a lot less expensive over time than paying the crazy expensive cost of landscaping and I wouldn't have to rely on free landscaping mod.

[Helazak]

I actually came on to post my tree harvester wish list and saw all the terrain stuff and got distracted.

I just experimented with all the different tree harvesters including mods trying to find the one I like best. My criteria are:
1. Has to be able to buck and limb as well as cut down the tree.
2. Has to be able to pick up a tree that is on the ground. Assume a chainsaw has cut the tree and the harvester has to come pick it up and the buck and limb the tree. Why is this important. Because sometimes you mess up and the harvester looses grip on the tree. Now it is on the ground and you have to deal with it.
3. When you get close to a tree I want the ring to show up so I can press "o" and auto align the cut. (ok I'm lazy, but lining that thing up takes a lot of time.)
4. Has to be able to handle the width of a full grown Spruce.

I was only able to find 2 harvesters that meet all three capabilities: the Impex Hannibal TSO (platinum Expansion) and the Rottne H21D (MOD). I think this is a problem. There are some really neat designs like the John deere with hydraulic controls of the tilt to adjust for hillsides. Great idea but didnt pass my test of necessary functions.

[TheSuBBie]

FS 19 had dynamic terrain in the tip to ground set up the terrain size was reduced from 2m x 2m to I think 0.5.
For those still using FS19 you can easily check this out by tip something to ground and then press F5 you will see the difference in the terrain collision from 2 x 2 to approx 0.5.

Now if the whole map terrain was reduced to the size required for reasonable dynamic terrain (again approx 0.2 x 0.2 or lower) then the terrain mesh would be horrendously large (currently the terrain poly count size is 2161664 so at 0.2 it would be 21616640).

A system whereby the dynamic terrain is shown only in a 50m radius could be conncocted but there would need to be a large storage of data so that it could be readily accessible as you walk/drive the map which will require a lot of memory.

[blue_painted]

FS 19 had dynamic terrain in the tip to ground set up the terrain size was reduced from 2m x 2m to I think 0.5.
For those still using FS19 you can easily check this out by tip something to ground and then press F5 you will see the difference in the terrain collision from 2 x 2 to approx 0.5.

Now if the whole map terrain was reduced to the size required for reasonable dynamic terrain (again approx 0.2 x 0.2 or lower) then the terrain mesh would be horrendously large (currently the terrain poly count size is 2161664 so at 0.2 it would be 21616640).

A system whereby the dynamic terrain is shown only in a 50m radius could be conncocted but there would need to be a large storage of data so that it could be readily accessible as you walk/drive the map which will require a lot of memory.

<sarky mode on>
"Yes but you can just pour Optimization Sauce over it and it will be fine!!"
<sarky mode off>

[FBtheSQL]

Please restrain yourselves, but there's a certain low budget dynasty game has convincing terrain. I'm not comparing the games, I'm just saying it's possible.

[blue_painted]

Please restrain yourselves, but there's a certain low budget dynasty game has convincing terrain. I'm not comparing the games, I'm just saying it's possible.

The crucial question is what does it have as well as convincing terrain?

[Mobias]

Putting aside dynamic terrain my number wishlist item is decent dynamic weather and lighting. The sim desperately needs far more variety to the weather and lighting conditions that are all linked to the seasons. There are far lesser games out there that have far better looking sky boxes than FS.

I don't know how much of an overhaul Giants can realistically do to the over all art direction of the game using their current engine but I would love for the overall look, lighting and colours to be far more naturalistic.

I play a lot of Microsoft Flight Simulator and I keep thinking to myself if Farm sim could have these skies and lighting it would look spectacular.

I'm also a fan of using the third person mod so I'd like to see Giants bring that properly to the sim out of the box.

Going by the past cycle of FS releases FS25 should be more of a leap from 22 than 22 was over 19. We'll soon see I guess.

[FBtheSQL]

Please restrain yourselves, but there's a certain low budget dynasty game has convincing terrain. I'm not comparing the games, I'm just saying it's possible.

The crucial question is what does it have as well as convincing terrain?

Not really sure what you're asking. It's a farming game with farming functionality. Not as grand as FS, but it does do dynamic terrain without bringing the system to its knees. I just wanted to point out that it's possible, in case nobody was aware. I don't want to ruffle feathers with a comparison, but FS is clearly the winner in most other category.

[Urinal2001]

I actually came on to post my tree harvester wish list

Have you tried the LIEBHERR LH26?

I think that it meets all your criteria, and I love it. It's the first harvester I've actually got on with using.

[blue_painted]

Please restrain yourselves, but there's a certain low budget dynasty game has convincing terrain. I'm not comparing the games, I'm just saying it's possible.

The crucial question is what does it have as well as convincing terrain?

Not really sure what you're asking. It's a farming game with farming functionality. Not as grand as FS, but it does do dynamic terrain without bringing the system to its knees. I just wanted to point out that it's possible, in case nobody was aware. I don't want to ruffle feathers with a comparison, but FS is clearly the winner in most other category.

Would you please PM me the name of the game? TIA.

[Helazak]

I actually came on to post my tree harvester wish list

Have you tried the LIEBHERR LH26?

I think that it meets all your criteria, and I love it. It's the first harvester I've actually got on with using.

Yes I saw that one but it does not come with a harvester head. I just double checked.

[Urinal2001]

With respect, it definitely does, it's listed in the description plus I use it daily.

[Florish]

My wish is that we have DECENT INTEGRATION of steering wheels for consoles. At this point it is not workable whilst using a steering wheel. To much deadcenter and the tension is on the wheel constantly (G29) which makes it almost impossible to steer with one hand and not at all to turn quickly. also button mapping should be a thing for the wheels.