Enhanced Surfaces, Parallax Occlusion

In Farming Simulator 22, surfaces will be implemented much more beautifully and realistically than before. This was announced by the game developers. A lot of work has been done on the graphics component. During the development of GIANTS Engine 9, the Parallax Occlusion system was also introduced. If this option is enabled in the settings, the surface will become much more beautiful, realistic, and dynamic. 

The most obvious effect that will appear from enabling this setting is deeper and more detailed tire tracks from your vehicles. Surface detail has been significantly improved. The system itself works in a rather interesting way. First, textures become flat (unnoticeable to the player, of course), reducing the geometric complexity of the 3D model. Then, the visual component of the surface is placed into a "height map," after which the player sees the necessary textures on the screen. In general, the models gain their own "height," depth. When interacting, the surface is reconstructed, and we get those same deep tire tracks. 

But why exactly the Parallax Occlusion system? Let's start with the fact that it looks incredibly cool and realistic; playing the game is much more enjoyable when such visual effects are present. The second reason is minimal impact on performance. The thing is, Parallax Occlusion selects its depth and level of detail for each graphics device so that on very weak devices the game does not lag (naturally, if the computer is very old and weak – it’s better to disable this setting). Overall, there should be no FPS drops.

Work on this system is still ongoing, but almost all surfaces will be subject to changes. Meanwhile, we suggest you take a look at the screenshots.