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Planco Computer Recommendations

B

Britford

TS Member
I was planning to get myself planet coaster for xmas but my current computer can't even start to run it, so I need help in figuring out what to buy.
In terms of what I want out of it, basically just want a computer, that can decently run most games but specifically, I want one that can (disregarding any slowdown caused by the game itself) decently run a full planco sandbox game from start to end without becoming unplayable...

Is there any pre built computers that could fit the bill or would my only option be to build one myself?
 
There are plenty of pre-built computers that could run Planet Coaster, and some of them aren't even that much money as far as gaming computers go!

I'd recommend having a look through some of these:
If you like the look of one, but you're unsure about whether it meets the required specifications, just input its key specs into this site: https://www.game-debate.com/games/index.php?g_id=23290&game=Planet Coaster

Hope this helps!
 
I wouldn't so easily discount the option of building one yourself, it's far simpler than it sounds, and largely just plugging stuff in.

As long as you aren't technophobic it should be simple enough, and allows you to more cheaply get just the right set up for you.

First consideration is budget.
 
Is building a computer yourself actually cheaper? I've built several over the years and it was never actually the case for me.
 
Alsty said:
Is building a computer yourself actually cheaper? I've built several over the years and it was never actually the case for me.
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Well you aren't paying for all the bloatware they ship with a new PC. Plus you get the joy of spending days shouting in frustration when you can't find the right driver download!
 
Building a PC nowadays is almost plug and play. Even the driver issue mentioned above shouldn't be an issue if all parts are compatible.

I don't however think it's cheaper, because although in theory it can be anything I saved just went into buying better components to get slightly better specs. The temptation to not settle for good enough is hard to resist.

I used PC Parts Picker to check everything was compatible.
 
I wouldn't settle for the PS4 or Xbox One version. When I talked to a programmer at Frontier back when Planet Coaster launched he assured me there wouldn't be a console version because they were not designed to run a game like PlanCo.
Obviously Frontier have found a way, which I commend them for doing. But chances are it'll run on consoles about as well as an underspeced PC. Expect any large objects made from piece by piece items to tank the game.
 
Tim said:
I wouldn't settle for the PS4 or Xbox One version. When I talked to a programmer at Frontier back when Planet Coaster launched he assured me there wouldn't be a console version because they were not designed to run a game like PlanCo.
Obviously Frontier have found a way, which I commend them for doing. But chances are it'll run on consoles about as well as an underspeced PC. Expect any large objects made from piece by piece items to tank the game.
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Sorry to bring something old back. But there have been some significant updates.

While I agree with your statement and I still wonder how they are going deliver Planet Coaster on the current gen systems. Frontier recently announced Planet Coaster for consoles will release alongside the next gen of consoles, while also working for current gen.

With both the PS5 and the Xbox Series X having what is basically an AMD Ryzen 3700 processor. This is equal to a high end gaming PC processor today, without the software and API overheads that a PC has to have.

So while it is still a question of how well the game will run on this gen consoles and I guess not very well. Planet Coaster is going to run better on the new consoles, than how it runs on the majority of peoples PC's today. Due to the massive jump in hardware power.
 
My laptop just can't handle Planet Coaster but my PS4 pro can handle a decent size park with lots of, uh, assets in Jurassic Park Evolution before it starts to lag. I'm not optimistic about making the amazing dark rides I've seen on YouTube, even if I was skilled enough, or even highly themed parks, but I reckon my PS4 will handle a themed area or two including coasters so I'll still be buying it.
 
Trooper said:
My laptop just can't handle Planet Coaster but my PS4 pro can handle a decent size park with lots of, uh, assets in Jurassic Park Evolution before it starts to lag. I'm not optimistic about making the amazing dark rides I've seen on YouTube, even if I was skilled enough, or even highly themed parks, but I reckon my PS4 will handle a themed area or two including coasters so I'll still be buying it.
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Yeah...the way Jurassic World Evolution and Planet Coaster work are miles apart. Games made by the same company, but huge differences on a technical level. Jurassic world was made with consoles in mind (and it shows), Planet Coaster was not.

Now the new consoles are very very powerful, so this is not an issue. The PS4 (especially the processor) is extremely weak and games like Planet Coaster will show that. This game will shine on PS5 and the new Xbox, because the power there. They really wont on this gen of consoles. Mark my words. It's a mathematical certainty. Not a prediction. Just maths.
 
I would still say PC is the best option. 2 reasons:
1 - The new consoles are powerful enough but they will be optimised for a different type of game. PlanCo is not graphics intense it is content intense. So a PC that has been designed to run modelling software or render videos will still out perform consoles.
2 - Building in the game with anything but a keyboard and mouse is going to be a nightmare. As mentioned above most of the freeform building had to be stripped out of Jurrasic World to make it console friendly.

However if you don't have a properly built PC or only have a laptop these consoles will provide a reasonable alternative (as long as they support keyboard and mouse).
I believe it was always Frontiers hope that the new generation of consoles would be announced before the consoles version release.
 
DistortAMG said:
Yeah...the way Jurassic World Evolution and Planet Coaster work are miles apart. Games made by the same company, but huge differences on a technical level. Jurassic world was made with consoles in mind (and it shows), Planet Coaster was not.

Now the new consoles are very very powerful, so this is not an issue. The PS4 (especially the processor) is extremely weak and games like Planet Coaster will show that. This game will shine on PS5 and the new Xbox, because the power there. They really wont on this gen of consoles. Mark my words. It's a mathematical certainty. Not a prediction. Just maths.
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Hmm...damn. I don't enough about computers to refute any of that so I guess I'll just see if/when it comes out.

Like I said though, I don't mind too much if it doesn't 'shine' on PS4. Presumably it will play adequately if they release it on current gen consoles, and I think they said on the Frontier forums that it is mouse and keyboard compatible.
 
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Tim said:
I would still say PC is the best option. 2 reasons:
1 - The new consoles are powerful enough but they will be optimised for a different type of game. PlanCo is not graphics intense it is content intense. So a PC that has been designed to run modelling software or render videos will still out perform consoles.
2 - Building in the game with anything but a keyboard and mouse is going to be a nightmare. As mentioned above most of the freeform building had to be stripped out of Jurrasic World to make it console friendly.

However if you don't have a properly built PC or only have a laptop these consoles will provide a reasonable alternative (as long as they support keyboard and mouse).
I believe it was always Frontiers hope that the new generation of consoles would be announced before the consoles version release.
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Oh yeah of course a PC will always be better. It's a PC. But these new consoles are close to what would be classed as a high end gaming today. So Planet Coaster will shine. Probably better than it does on most peoples PCs today. As most people do not have a Ryzen 7 and a GTX 2080 GPU (which is what the consoles have equivalents of) as they are both top end components.

I've done some research and it is using keyboard and mouse on console if you want to.

I am not sure what optimised for a different kind of game means, that's not how consoles work these days. Optimisation like that is done more so on a software level on a game by game basis.

Planet Coaster, while being content intense, is still quite graphics heavy, when you crank everything up, gives a high end graphics card a good workout.

It's an exciting time because Planet Coaster will be a good experience on next gen, it will play better than it will on most peoples home PCs today, due to the new consoles power being above your 'average' home PC. Plus with a lack of API overheads you inherrientoy don't have on consoles as they dont need them, it should run more efficiently on consoles.

While PCs are faster and always will be, they use a brute force approach to getting performance, the have to, due to the vast ustomisation ane upgradability you can have. This makes their biggest strength also their biggest weakness in some cases.

Consoles do things far more efficiently because they dont have this issue. So if we have a top end gaming pc inside the new consoles, without all these overheads, we will see performance better in Planet Coaster on consoles than if it was in a PC with like for like hardware. Same story with this gen too, it's just fundamentally inherent in the way the systems are.
 
I'm not the best person to respond to some of the points above because what I understand about the difference between PCs and Consoles is only what's been explained to me by my brother. He works as a code optimizer for games on both PC and Consoles so he really knows his stuff, but regrettably I don't.
But he did help build my PC and we did a few things to optimize it for PlanCo. His main recommendation was to get only a 4 core processor but with 2 of the cores stronger than the others. This is because PlanCo has a very high processor usage but it can't share the load between cores, so having more doesn't make a huge different. He also only recommended a mid-range graphics card as it didn't need much more.

But I do agree that if the new consoles are as good as they say (normally they arn't, for affordabilitys sake) it'll be a much more accessible alternative to play the game. But it's certainly not a couch game. Keyboard and Mouse are essential.
 
Thoroughly looking forward to the Xbox release but will 100% only play it with keyboard and mouse. Really can't see it being very enjoyable on a controller.
 
Just a heads up, the xbox version will likely be the superior version, (based off of, assumed, mod support)

Taking skyrim as the example, you can download mods for both the PS and Xbox versions, but, the PS version does not allow homebrew code/assets, while the Xbox does...the same will likely apply to PlanCo.
 
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