Cities: Skylines 2 has already become notorious for its poor performance, despite just launching two weeks ago. And an analysis (or autopsy) of the game has already been completed. While most city-building simulators are CPU-bound, Cities: Skylines 2 is strangely GPU-bottlenecked. Paavo, the programmer who authored the report, concluded that the game is missing key optimization features, indicating there wasn't enough time to include them.
One of the issues the report brings up is already widely known : the lack of level of detail (or LOD) models. When objects are far away, a game can use a model with a lower level of detail since the difference is imperceptible, improving performance. Just a day after the game launched, a Reddit user discovered every single NPC lacks a lower-quality LOD model for teeth, which are never even visible to the player.
