Iveco Stralis Hi-Way Sound recording

Time flies so fast! We have had a couple of new 3D models of trucks in development since the start of this year already, but there is still work to do before we are ready to release them as a part of future Euro Truck Simulator 2 updates. As truck manufacturers come up with new or face-lifted vehicles, we'll need to try to keep up with them, but it's going to be a race with no end.

One of the all new 3D truck models coming to the game is the new IVECO Stralis Hi-Way. This is the first truck of ETS2 to be created by a new method, too. Rather than pushing polygon count to the limits (slowing down anything but the best of the best 3D cards), we are going to balance polygon count with higher surface detailed offered by normal mapping techniques. It's a bit of a learning experience for the artists, plus new rendering effects were required to be coded by the programmers to make this happen. The results are going to be well worth it; perceived detail is comparable or higher, while the number of triangles that your 3D card has to chew on is limited, which should have positive implications for framerate.

Part of our research when we are building a new truck for the game is of course spending some time with the vehicle - we need to record engine sounds, we take lots of photos of exterior as well as interior, and try to get a general feel for the truck. The recording session with Stralis Hi-Way took part several weeks ago already, today at last we have managed to prepare the little video from the day...