Cities Skylines 2 Still Struggles with Performance – Now We Finally Get Answers

Since Iceflake took over development of Cities Skylines 2, regular “City Corner” updates have provided insights into ongoing work. The latest entry focuses on a topic that continues to dominate discussions: performance. It quickly becomes clear that the issue is not caused by a single factor but rather a combination of rendering and simulation challenges that interact with each other.

On the rendering side, GPU performance is heavily influenced by the amount of detail and geometry being processed. Even small elements can have a large impact if they are rendered unnecessarily at long distances. To address this, the developers are focusing on improving Level of Detail systems, allowing distant objects to be displayed in simpler forms. Additionally, systems like water simulation are being reviewed, as they currently consume a large amount of resources, especially on lower-end hardware. Terrain rendering is another area under investigation, as a significant portion of generated geometry is never actually visible, leading to wasted performance.

The CPU side, which handles simulation, is even more complex. Performance issues tend to become noticeable in larger cities, where population growth leads to a higher number of calculations. Pathfinding plays a major role here, as citizens constantly generate new route calculations. In some cases, bugs can further increase the load, such as entities getting stuck and triggering repeated calculations. Some of these issues have already been fixed, while others are still under investigation. The developers are also considering gameplay adjustments, such as scaling certain simulation elements more appropriately with city size.

In addition to these larger efforts, smaller improvements have already been implemented, including automatic graphics settings based on hardware and reduced visual effects on lower-end systems. Looking ahead, the main focus remains on improving LOD systems and refining core algorithms. A new benchmark tool is also planned for the next patch, allowing you to measure performance changes across updates while helping developers gather data to target further optimizations.

However, there is still no clear timeline for when performance will significantly improve. The developers acknowledge that these changes take time and are interconnected. While the current update shows that work is being done on key problem areas, it remains to be seen whether this will meet player expectations in the long term.

What do you think about the current state of performance in Cities Skylines 2? Do you see improvements, or are you still disappointed? Share your thoughts in the comments.