Focus Home Interactive organized its traditional “Focus What's Next” meeting to present its upcoming novelties. Of course Farming Simulator 19 was part of the lot. The opportunity once again to meet the members of Giants Software, the developer of the title.
“2008-2018 is the 10the game anniversary! »Proudly announces Martin Rabl, Marketing & PR Manager at Giants. "The title is translated into 18 languages, and we display over 70M mods downloaded via the modhub." In the background of the stand, the new visual identity of the game, with a 19 on an orange background instead of 17 on a green background, the only visible change for the moment. Only a Powerpoint presentation was planned. No demo… which was the case for FS17 at the time. Figures and some information were still scratching here and there. After a big reminder of the history of the game, which Martin briefly spent, seeing me every year, we come to the concrete. So… what's next?
Graphically, it's the slap
The graphics engine of the game, the Giants Engine has been updated (it's not a new engine, beware!), Not that the old version was obsolete since it still undermines a lot of config in full details, but rather than the competitors programmed on this juicy market already offer graphics a step above. In addition, 2 years in the life of a video game today is an eternity graphically speaking. To demonstrate this, the Giants team had prepared 2 ingame renderings of the same scene, on the Farming Simulator 17 engine and on the FS 19. The difference is bluffing!
So what does this new engine do?
Here is a list of the advances that have been presented. All aim to increase the realism :
- The sky is generated so procedural. No more texture that scrolls stupidly over time.
- The clouds are in volume and more in texture. The realism is striking, especially since this novelty is accompanied by another ... just below ...
- Le light scattering. For those who do not know, it is an effect of diffusion of light through a material giving an effect of transparency or opacity. In the case of our clouds, they are opaque (and therefore dark) in the middle, while they allow light to pass through the edges. Likewise, the leaves of the trees allow light to pass through transparency.
- The effect of fog is more realistic.
- Effects of depth of field are part of (Depth of Field).
- The textures are based on physical aspects. The metal is reflective and shiny while the tires are matte for example.
- With rendering HDR and the effect Bloom, the glare is at the top!
- SSAO : ambient occlusion makes it possible to have a more pleasant and softer rendering in the shadows. As in reality, each object reflects part of the light on neighboring objects. The light sources become multiple and bring a high degree of realism.
The only modeling that I have been allowed to discover is that of a Fendt Ideal harvester. This tracked monster caused a sensation at AgriTechnica 2017 and came away with the silver medal for the Innovation Award. The capture reveals a modeled machine down to the smallest detail, with a play of shadows and textures like we had never seen in an agricultural simulation. For once, we can see the efficiency of the work carried out by Giants in partnership with the AGCO technical teams.
A Hololens simulation for AGCO
For the record, the development team of the Fendt tool had asked Giants to create a simulator to allow the machine to be tested in virtual reality. The studio turned to Microsoft's Hololens to provide a virtual grip and grab the harvester controls through a mission system: attach the cutter bar, harvest a field,… “It was quite complicated to handle anyway because you had to handle everything with your hands, but the experience was pretty cool. »Martin Rabl tells us.
Something new ... but no more info
- The taboo subject (or that annoys, cross out the unnecessary mention) when a new episode is released, obviously concerns the brands that will be present in the dealership. And on this, the publisher, undoubtedly still under negotiation, will not drop an "official" crumb and will be satisfied with a "there is newX partnershipS. We took advantage of AgriTechnica last year to get closer to all the major brands that make up the agricultural world. "
- 2 new maps : one European and one US, in addition to the South American revised for the occasion.
- The content of the Platinum edition will be included in this new version (equipment, cultivation of sugar cane, etc.).
- New breeding to come: horses. And when I told you that I told you everything. No detail has escaped Martin's mouth, there will be horses, yes… but what to do with them? Eat them ? Mount them? We rather imagine the 2e hypothesis, it would give an additional playful side to the title. I can already imagine your little sisters stealing the controller from you for a jaunt through your plots.
- New breeding, but also new cultures (Oats for the horse?).
- You can customize your character a "little more". Without being told what (Hair color? Clothes? ...)
- New artificial intelligence : "You can ask your workers a little more". It was time.
- An improved mission system that will allow the player to start well and earn their first salaries. We remember that it had already been revised for FS17 compared to FS15 and that it was rather welcome.
- A dashboard also revised for more readability of information.
Release date ? "This year" 🙂 At least on that we are starting to get used to it, we know that it will happen before Christmas.