Set your GPS's!ETS2 Update 1.20 Open Beta

We are happy to announce that open beta of 1.20 Update of Euro Truck Simulator 2 is now available on Steam.

There are a ton of minor improvements and fixes included as usual, you can see them listed in the change log at the bottom of the blog post, but let us elaborate on three major features that we would like to bring to your attention:

1. GPS ROUTE CUSTOMIZATION

From now on you will be able to customize the route set by the Route Advisor, or create your own route at will if no job had been taken. Route configuration is performed on the map screen. You can modify the existing route by

• adding up to 10 custom waypoints;
• inserting waypoints into existing route;
• interactively moving waypoints;
• or adding waypoints at end of a route.

We hope that you will appreciate the flexibility and simplicity of the system, as you can really now create any route you desire.

2. GEOGRAPHICALLY CORRECT SUN POSITION

We have received plenty of feedback from our fans in Scandinavia territories that we have the same daylight and night periods in the game as in southern Europe. Well, not any more!

To address the problem, we have written new code that positions the sun at the exact astronomically correct place in the sky as you would expect for the given geographical location at the particular time of day. In fact the definitions driving the whole system allow now to set up any location on the globe if anyone would so desire. The new system produces quite different feel of the day cycle depending on whether you are in the north or closer to the equatorial. The sun is higher on the sky at noon in the south than we had it hard-coded before - with appropriately quicker sunrise and sundown - while in the north the sun is correctly following a lower curve in the sky with prolonged evenings and mornings; lingering low at the horizon. We had to adjust our weather profiles and sky textures to correspond to physical sun location (mod makers beware!).

3. IMAGE SPOTLIGHT

We see so many fantastic community-created screenshots on World of Trucks website uploaded every day, with inspiring content that is leaving us speechless. We felt that these images are so cool that more people should see them, not just regular visitors of the site.

We are introducing a new feature - "Image Spotlight." Hand-picked selection of images from World of Trucks will now be made available to the game as additional loading splash-screens. The first batch is there now, we plan to update and refresh the selection from time to time with newly coming images. You can browse the current selection inside the Image Spotlight screen, accessible from the Photo Studio screen, if you want to drill deeper and see the original image in full detail.

For this feature to work, you will have to enable it at the game start. We did not want to unleash it at everyone automatically, as the images are downloaded from our server (however just once), and not everybody is comfortable with applications accessing network without their consent.

In general, the images had been and will be picked from Editor's Pick from World of Trucks, but that's not necessary a must for the selection in the future. Although there's a huge amount of quality images there, not all of them can go into Image Spotlight for various reasons. For example we have to avoid featuring real brands in the game for which we do not have an explicit licence signed. Also, sometimes even a gorgeous image didn't fit into the aspect of the loading screen for proper composition needs.

The code is set to randomly choose between loading screens of the original game and Image Spotlight images. We hope that you will enjoy this little feature as much as we enjoy seeing user created images in the loading screens ourselves.

The list of fixes and improvements in ETS2 Update 1.20:

AI

• Increased traffic density in city areas
• Added 'village area' rule to allow specifying urban area without increased traffic density
• Fixed non-urban speed limit in UK
• Support for spawn_trailer_count attribute of traffic_vehicle_type
• Lower probability of spawning an AI truck without a trailer
• Fixed license plate definitions switched between bus and trailer
• Uses correct wheel position when placing AI trailer wheels on ground
• Fixed rear wheels of AI vehicles not being placed on ground in steep hils
• Fixed vehicles remaining on wrong way lane after avoiding obstacle in some cases
• AI vehicles turn off engine during fueling

EDITOR

• Free camera supports inverted mouse (respects the c_minvert input constant)
• Changed design of road dialog
• Fixed "grave" key not working with some keyboard layouts (e.g. Hungarian)
• Separate snapping of nodes and control points
• Editor shortcut mapped to bezier patch
• Added support for rotation undo for bezier patch control points
• Increased node joining tolerance to fix problems with joining nodes far away from center of the map
• Grid size shortcut changed from Alt+wheel to Ctrl+wheel

VEHICLES

• Mercedes Actros 2014: Fixed speedometer in UK variant, Improved interior, Tweaked normal map, Smoothed some hard edges, Shadowcaster tweaks
• Iveco Hiway: Smoother horns
• DAF XF Euro6: Cleanup of the models
• Scania Streamline: DRL
• Fixed UV on bulk cement trailer
• Fixed missing wheels on brick trailer
• Vertex optimizations of AI trucks for DAF Euro6, Man TGX, Scania R
• Volvo: Original sound of blinker on/off, Original sound of wipers, Equalization of gear_air sounds for interior
• Mercedes Actros, Renault Premium: Fixed armrests missing in the exterior view
• Fixed size of wheels

MISC

• Particles are not generated for lifted wheels
• Mirror resolution setting is not disabled on high quality
• Longer mirror distances on high and ultra settings
• Enabled support for download of additional hand-picked loading screen images from WoTr. All images can be seen using the "Image Spotlight" feature in "Photo Studio".
• Brake lights activate on slightest pedal touch
• Correct turbo sound used on reverse
• It is possible to use Steam controller-based keyboard for entering search text in mod manager
• Fixed reporting of no-lights offense when driving in rain
• Improved compatibility with Windows XP

You can find the beta in the public_beta branch on Steam. (Steam client -> LIBRARY -> right click on Euro Truck Simulator 2 -> Properties -> Betas tab -> public_beta - 1.20 public beta)

American Truck Simulator Screens Friday

While the ETS2 team is preparing some cool stuff for you for early next week (as the upcoming update 1.20 for Euro Truck Simulator 2 is nearing release, we'll have interesting things to divulge), the American Truck Simulator team still has a lot of work ahead of them to release their project. We are always getting asked to show more of the game, so let's make this blog post just such an opportunity...

Despite showing a public build of the game some two weeks ago at Gamescom called a "beta," American Truck Simulator is still very much in production and undergoing internal testing, no wider beta testing has been started yet. We have to ask our small inner circle of volunteer beta testers to still be patient with us. Fortunately, most things are already in place, and the team is busy with establishing the initial game economy network, polishing environment and vehicle assets, while considerable work is also invested into game optimization.

Stay tuned, and keep on trucking!

Gamescom 2015

We have spent two very busy (and very hot) days at the biggest European games fair - Gamescom 2015. The show is huge, noisy and overcrowded, but still very inspiring!

It was great to see American Truck Simulator presented at a public event already in playable form! Thanks to everyone who has stopped by!

Here is the American Truck Simulator promo trailer that we have created for Gamescom 2015:

Gamescom is almost here

Next week, literally a whole busload of SCS Software employees will travel to Cologne, Germany, to visit the largest European games fair gamescom.

We hope to have a lot of fun there enjoying the expo - checking out the latest trends in games industry - but we are also looking forward to showing a bit of our upcoming American Truck Simulator there, kindly presented at the booth of our German publishing partner astragon Entertainment. Come see the game in Hall 8.1, booth A 020!

Scheduling details are still being finalized, but the plans for our gamescom presence include live demos of American Truck Simulator, a press conference during the press-day, an autograph session with the game makers, and even a couple TV interviews.

It is always heart-warming to see how much attention our truck sim games are now getting compared to the humble beginnings we had in this niche genre over a decade ago. Big thanks for this must go out to our ever-growing player community and its impact. We are very proud that we have recently crossed the mark of 2,000,000 activated copies of Euro Truck Simulator 2 on Steam - as independently confirmed by SteamSpy.

One of the highlights of next week for us should also be an American Truck Simulator driving & autograph session with Squirrel. Paul a.k.a Squirrel is the YouTuber and streamer with probably the largest reach when it comes to covering our games. This will be his first encounter with ATS, and we are very curious to hear his opinion. Here is the twitter announcement.

Gamescom will also be an opportunity for us to do the first extensive test of G29, the new steering wheel from Logitech. A couple of the wheels are generously provided to us for use at the expo by Logitech, so the visitors will be able to see if the new model combined with our truck sim can further improve on the rock solid experience of its G27 predecessor.