Farming Simulator 17 goes all-out with extensive Pro support on PS4 – LS 2017
We’re not trying to milk it, but Eurogamer think the PS4 Pro features in Farming Simulator 17 are the cream of the crop!
Resolution: 1080p/1440p/2160p
Additional features: Enhanced mode for 1080p users with extended view distance
HDR: No
Having been taken aback by some of the more lazy PlayStation 4 Pro upgrades recently, it’s remarkable to see Focus Interactive’s Farming Simulator 17 – developed by Giants – hand in one of the most comprehensive Pro upgrades seen to date. We’d heard reports of just how comprehensive this support was, so went ahead and bought the game to check it out. Users of full HD displays get the choice between a high frame-rate mode and enhanced visual quality, while owners of 4K screens can choose between native 1440p and 2160p display options. You really can’t fault the developers for effort here, and the results stack up nicely.
First up, let’s tackle the full HD options available. In standard rendering mode, Farming Simulator 17 racks up a completely flawless 1080p60, while opting for the enhanced mode can see stress-points drop to around 55fps, introducing judder. However, both options still manage to outperform the standard PlayStation 4 version, which features the same resolution and the standard mode’s visual feature set. Of the two options available, we’d stick with the standard visuals. Draw distances are pushed out in enhanced mode, but it’s really difficult to actually see any improvement.
There’s a straight choice between resolution and frame-rate when moving to the higher resolution display modes. The 1440p option offers the best balance overall, dropping frames occasionally but still handing in a mostly smooth presentation. However, 4K isn’t bad at all – mostly operating north of 50fps but dropping down to the mid-40s in, um, crop-heavy scenes. But the point is that the developers has pulled out all the stops to offer choice to the Pro user – up to a point at least.
The one glaring omission is the lack of down-sampling support. Those 1440p and 4K rendering options are only available to owners of ultra HD screens. And that’s a real shame, as offering this option would – in our opinion – provide better value for the full HD gamer compared to the less than impressive enhanced 1080p mode. We’re hopeful that the developer can address this, but in the meantime, there are actually two takeaways here.
Firstly, Farming Simulator 17 offers up one of the most exhaustive range of Pro upgrades seen to date but perhaps more importantly, while the game itself is obviously not a triple-A tour de force, we were quite impressed by how comprehensive and polished the simulation actually is – it even supports mods, tweakable field of view and HUD scaling. And it’s fast too, not just in frame-rate terms but in its lightning-swift user interface and – yes – the ability to instantly skip past intro logos. Overall then, obviously Farming Simulator 17 isn’t standard Digital Foundry fare, but we went into this one with an open mind and came away having had a lot of fun.
