Euro Truck Simulator 2 update 1.4.8

We have done a lot of work on ironing out the last remaining issues in the 1.4.x line update, and finally today it looks like we have a very solid build:

Euro Truck Simulator 2 Update page

This patch is really what 1.4.1 was supposed to be. We tested 1.4.1 extensively, or so we thought, but it really took the eyes of thousands of player to help us discover several remaining hidden bugs, through using various combinations of hardware, drivers and mods installed. We are also finally pushing the button for Steam players to have access to this new version of the game straight away, rather than depending on beta branches.

The principle of involving the fan base in the testing proved promising. We got many more wishlist items than actual bug reports, but that's to be expected. We will definitely approach the community with a plea for help again in the future.

The list of features requested by players that we have accumulated over the years is very long, and we are perhaps taking things from it and turning them into reality way slower than many of you would like, but we are doing our best, and we'll get better over time. SCS is moving into a new superb office in a matter of weeks, with 3-times the floorspace we have currently. The support from our fans (and paying customers!) is what makes us dare grow the team and speed up development of our future as well us current still evolving projects. Thank you!

Last but not least, if you were sitting on the fence waiting to get ETS2 on the cheap somewhere, today may be your last chance for quite a while on Steam - Euro Truck Simulator 2 is featured in a Daily Deal event, only a few more hours left. In particular, this opportunity is very relevant to all the people complaining about disappearing trailers/jobs - playing a legal copy of the game does make a difference!

Public Beta Experiment Goes On

Stabilizing the 1.4.x patch has been taking a lot of work, and we would like to thank everyone who contributed to the open beta testing. Several problems were discovered with your help, and the dev team certainly appreciates all the useful feedback and inspiration from you.

The eventual process and system of future open betas still needs some thinking, but these initial results are promising, so we'd like to ask you for help one more time.

We have created another "release candidate" for the final 1.4.x line patch. To the best of our knowledge, it addresses all major issues that we still left in 1.4.1, so if you are already using this version of the game and it works ok for you, updating to 1.4.6 isn't much of a danger, in fact it should still offer some stability improvements.

This build is still only a candidate for the final approved patch. We are not offering any mirroring options yet, as it's not intended for use by general public, we are also not even mentioning it on the official game website. The only people with advanced access to these hot builds are the members of the fan community on our message board.

As was the case previously, we are only making this beta patch available through torrent to prevent clogging our server bandwidth:

- ETS2 BETA patch 1.4.x to 1.4.6 torrent download only -

Please note that this patch should not be applied over the Steam edition of the game!

For your feedback, a new forum is ready on SCS message boards:

ETS2 Bugs 1.4.6

Thank you for your patience and help! If all goes well, this build may hopefully be announced as solid enough to finally become the recommended official version of the game across all distribution channel, finally more solid and with more cool stuff than the 1.3.1 edition of the game you have been stuck with for so long.

Cool Stuff

Sometimes a week can pass without a blog post, and now we'll have as second one in a matter of hours, how strange! Well, some things are just worth mentioning.

Steam Trading Cards for Euro Truck Simulator 2 have finally gone live tonight. There is also a very tempting opportunity on Steam right now to get the game as part of Steam Summer Getaway Sale. Throughout the Summer, the game is also going to be promoted on more digital distribution sites including GamersGate, GamesLoad, or GreenManGaming to name a few, so if you are still hesitating with the purchase of a genuine copy of ETS2, there are interesting opportunities out there.

While helping us test the ETS2 update, a couple of guys also wanted to help us promote the new version of the game. Some very cool YouTube movies were created, and we would like to share them with you now. Big cudos to MADxMAX2k and Morello, thanks guys!

Help us Help You!

We have been working on the recent game update for several months, spending a ton of time on fixing, testing, and re-testing again and again. When we released the 1.4.1 patch, we felt pretty confident that it's in very solid state. In reality, bug reports started coming in almost immediately.

The game is BIG, and growing bigger. A new feature or a fix for one bug may often introduce a new problem; such is the nature of big software projects. We'll need to figure out betters ways to test the releases thoroughly, but effectively and quickly.

We have been thinking about involving a wider group from our fan community in testing for quite some time, but now we see that we need to do more than just ponder it. We need to give it a try.

We are making new builds of the game for testing purposes pretty much every day. On the way from 1.3.1 to 1.4.x, we have been through 96 major revisions and testing builds! Over a hundred people had access to the builds to help us test them, but it is obvious that this is still no enough eyes, not enough combinations of hardware, not enough variety in how our testers play the game. So we thought - what if we tried to make our daily betas publicly visible, for thousands of people to give them a try? The inspiration basically comes from what Mozilla is doing with Firefox Nightly Builds.

And here we are, with a quick update of the previous ETS2 update. Experiment time!

Please note that the link below is NOT FOR EVERYBODY. Only download and apply it if you are ready to volunteer to test a potentially unstable BETA VERSION of the game. We believe it's bringing fixes for a few problems discovered in 1.4.1, but so far not enough internal testing was done to make sure it's stable enough - this very build is intended to be this test. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

- ETS2 BETA patch 1.4.1 to 1.4.3 torrent download only -

We are making it accessible only in the form of a torrent, sorry. We do not plan for this beta patch to be mirrored by any 3rd party servers, as we are afraid of seeing our own download servers melt if too many people were downloading the exe file straight away. It may be a bit of a hurdle, but advanced computer users can deal with it, and perhaps it's in fact better to have this little barrier of entry in place. In the future, if today's experiment proves useful, we need to figure out a smoother and more convenient way for you to access the daily builds, but for today, this must suffice.

For reporting problems, the most useful way would be to visit SCS Message Board, there is a new Forum created just for this problem Bugs 1.4.3.

Keep in mind that this is not a beta completely open to anybody. It's only going to work with a genuine and valid Product Key. Also, do not try to apply it to the Steam edition of the game. Steam users will soon get access to such experimental daily builds too though, using the system of Steam beta branches.

Thanks!

Change log:

• Fixed issue which might be responsible for the always-red/green traffic lights.
• Fixed use of license plates
• Improved handling of non-widescreen fov. The view is now increased vertically instead of reduced horizontally.
• Game will not crash if modded cargo specifies collision which does not exist.
• Another attempt at fixing the sunken trailers.
• Fixed speedometer range in UK variant of Hi-Way interior
• Swapped fuel and temperature gauges in the UK variant of Hi-Way interior.
• Fixed turbo/adblue animations in UK exclusive variant of Volvo interior.
• Fixed the "Lumen Chrom" auxiliary light
• Fixed possible crash when service call was requested while positioned on item without a valid country.
• Fixed possible crash when switching resolutions in-game.
• Fixed non-functional animation of wiper stick (affects all trucks)
• Fixed disappearing bus station in London
• Proper pre-caching after teleports.
• Fixed incorrect number of slots in preferred brand selector in the profile edit screen.

Patch time!

Finally, after a long testing process, we are ready to release Euro Truck Simulator 2 patch to version 1.4. We thank you for your patience and for sticking with us through the development process all this time.

Download patch when you feel ready right here

Here is the condensed list of changes for this update:

VEHICLES

• All new truck Iveco Stralis Hi-Way with tuning upgrades
• Volvo: Fixed position of lights on the front grill, animations fixes, dashboard fixes, added oil indicator
• DAF: fixed speed gauge display in UK trucks, fixed exhaust
• Majestic: Fixed disappearing of the doorsteps  
• Renault: Fixed blinkers    
• Man: Fixed material issues   
• Fixed wrong lod on flat bed trailer
• Overweight trailer: Fixed position of wheel and mudguards
• Cistern trailer: Fixed position of wheel and mudguards
• Log trailer: Added front white lights
• Fix shadow casters for some upgrades
• AI cars: the lamps are visible from greater distance at night 
• Fixed shader issues with auxilary lights for all trucks

SIMULATON

• Reworked force feedback feature
• Engine torque simulation improvements. Idle throttle and clutch changes.
• Many new physical properties added to the simulation model. All dashboard gauges are simulation based now
• There is config variable in console "g_pedal_clutch_range", that can tweak clutch pedal active area length. Range is 0.1 to 1.0 (default value is 1.0)
• Fuel consumption during engine idle fixed
• Vehicle telemetry information is available to third-party applications using a first version of ETS2 Telemetry SDK. Pilot testing with kind help of www.fanaleds.com          

GAMEPLAY

• The speed limiter can be now disabled in Options screen.
• Redesigned Job Market's job listing to be able scroll through all jobs
• Added Advisor warning messages related to retarder, parking brake and air pressure warnings are not shown when gear is set to neutral.
• Added new optional control scheme where steering, accelerator and brakes can all be controlled by mouse
• Ferry route length displayed in the job selection.
• Loan installments are properly rounded up and displayed, improved timing of loan payments
• Upgrade shop does not automatically discard everything with change of cabin/chassis. Only non-compatible accessories are removed
• There is config variable in console "g_income_factor", that can lower job income of you and your drivers for more challenge. Range is 0.0 to 1.0 (default value is 1.0)
• World map can be closed by same key that opens it (default key M)   

MAP

• Fixed navigation lines on UK variant roundabout
• Hundreds map fixes, tweaking and prettyfications
• A2 highway completed (as in real life 2 lane highway) including tollgates
• New road leading south from Szczecin in Poland
• Fix - added some no-weather areas placed under some bridges to avoid rain appearing there
• Wrongly set border between France and Belgium fixed
• Grass, terrains and rocks intersecting walls of some tunnels fixed
• Tons of other minor map fixes           

MODELS

• Prefabs tweaking (improved AI flow somewhat, major AI rewrite is coming later)
• Less steep quarry prefab to lessen weaker engine trucks having problems when going uphill
• New small tollgates in Poland on A2 road  
• Fixed animations of various pedestrians  

CODE

• Asynchronous loading smoothes speed of resource loading, reducing overall lag and "spikes" for more even framerate
• It is possible to skip the intro animation using a -nointro parameter
• Fixed garage name in player truck relocation UI
• Rain probability in both corner values ensures infinite weather duration
• Weather can change after time fast forward  
• The save slot selection is shown after profile selection if there was problem with automatic load   
• There is config variable in console "s_rumble_enabled", that can enable/disable sound of rumble stripes on the roads
• Increased range of non-linearity slider in controller option screen   
• Fix potential crash related to recent Nvidia Optimus drivers changes
• Added more job-start autosaves
• Improved robustness to mod removals    
• Improved behavior of input wizard      
• Improved efficiency of memory pool usage
• Renamed game.log and game.crash files to game.log.txt and game.crash.txt   
• Improved behavior of non-widescreen resolutions while driving  
• Experimental support for triple-monitors. Controlled by r_multimon_mode cvar (0-disabled, 1-wide fov with ui on central monitor, 2 - three separate views). In the three-view mode it is possible to compensate for bezels using r_multimon_border_fov_* cvars
• The game will reset jobs whenever it detects certain changes in data 
• Added Georgian language to the game              

SOUND

• Money sound played only on important events
• Air brake sound fixed

STEAM

• Game will pause when Steam overlay appears
• Steam notifications are positioned on the opposite side of the screen than Route Advisor

MODDING

• New sector based map format which supports simultaneous modifications by more than one user and local extensions as long they operate in separate sectors.
• Many definition lists (e.g. types of AI trucks) can be now simultaneously extended by more than one mod.
• As result of multiple changes it is now possible to have more than one reverse speed in modded trucks.

More detailed  mod-related guides can be found at the eurotrucksimulator2.com modding section

For the brave and curious readers among you, here is the raw changelog of notable changes for past several months.