Friday, February 28, 2020

1000th WoTr Editor's Pick Anniversary

Did you know we have a gallery where you can upload your images from Euro Truck Simulator 2 or American Truck Simulator for the world to see? You may have seen them featured on the World of Trucks homepage before, or even between loading screens; but who chooses these images and who is submitting them?


Three times a week, a few anonymous members of our team known as 'The Editor' chooses from the hundreds of thousands of images uploaded to WoTr gallery by you our community. Once a decision has been made, six images are chosen and the users are awarded the Editors Pick achievement and are featured on the front page of World of Trucks. However, this is no easy task as there are so many great pictures to choose from!

Today we are proud to be celebrating the 1000th WoTr Editor's choice to be featured within our game. Since 2013 we have been showcased over 6000 images, which in total so far have gathered over 4 million views, 3.9 million likes, and over 3 million comments! It just goes to show how big our trucking family really is.


So how do you submit an image to our WoTr gallery? First and most importantly, you will need a World of Trucks account, be sure to sign up. Once you're registration, be sure to connect your ETS2 or ATS profile to your WoTr account (which can be found on the profile selection screen). Once you have successfully connected your profile, start snapping! You can use the in-game photo studio and screenshot manager to take photos and upload them directly to the WoTr gallery, which you can then view on WorldofTrucks.com.

Then it is a matter of hoping you grab the attention of one of the ever-elusive Editors. We look forward to seeing more of your amazing images every day. Be sure to link us your WoTr profile in the comments, we may just take a look and tip-off the Editor on any potential images. Just remember, don't snap and drive ;)

Wednesday, February 26, 2020

American Truck Simulator Update 1.37 Open Beta is here!

We love to bring you new game updates, especially when they contain some cool features that you have requested for a long time; and we really appreciate all the help our great community provides with testing each new update during the open beta stage. Today, we'd like to invite you to help us finalize the features that are coming to American Truck Simulator along with the next update. Please read below, and if you like living on the edge, get ready to join the 1.37 Update Open Beta.


So what's coming with it, you ask? Let's start with the major thing on the list - a new sound engine! As you probably read in our first tease of this development (if not then you can find it here), this is the first planned phase of bringing new and better sounds to our games. With the 1.37 update, we are radically redefining the way we mix vehicle and environment sounds. We are switching from having two separate sound sets for the interior and exterior of your truck; to a new system which is based on a unified SFX set with various filters and effects applied on it during the final composition.

The end result sounds fantastic to our ears already, and we are just getting started. We are really looking forward to your reaction! You can also expect new sound for most of the AIs (including trains) and experience true Doppler effect as the first fruits from the integration of the FMOD sound library. Please note that any of these new sounds still might be subject to further changes according to the feedback we need to gather first.


As a benefit from the new sound mixing approach, we are happy to bring you a new feature that we have already quietly teased here. Did you spot it? At long last, you can open your truck windows! Some may consider it a gimmick, but many of you have been calling us to introduce this feature for years. You can now enjoy the continuum of sound levels between a well-insulated cabin with windows closed and the roaring traffic coming from the outside when you roll the windows all the way down. Give it a try especially when you hit the rush hour on the road or at some big junction.


Back to the most important thing, your help! We are releasing this open beta today with sound modders in mind. The changes are radical from their point of view, as they will need to re-learn a lot of the techniques used. We appreciate our modding communities' passion and dedication and we expect modders to be able to raise the bar again as they become familiar with the new way to implement sounds into the game. 

We are bringing out the open beta early as we are eagerly looking forward to receiving your feedback and constructive criticism to be able to iterate where needed. Because our programmers and SFX guys have already invested a huge amount of time into this feature, we understand there is still a lot of work ahead of us. If you want to read more and help us with this task, please visit the dedicated modding wiki at this link. More info will be added there with the progress.


Another addition you might have spotted in a recent social media teaser is the "walk-around feature." Our game world is generally not designed for exploration on foot, but we figure that fans of trucks may welcome a new closer perspective to view their favorite machines and appreciate how impressive they look. Getting up close may also be of use when you need to tune up your rig and match the color of your rims with the cabin's paint just right. So here we are with a little bonus feature of 1.37, an alternate way to control the camera in the game's service and vehicle browser. We had to redesign the "garage" scene a little to make more space and way for the cameras, hopefully, you will appreciate it. 


Hungry for more? Then get ready for some food tanks! And we mean literally food tanks because, with this update, a new type of trailer comes available to buy and customize. These beauties were highly demanded for some time and so we're glad and proud we can bring them for you, our #BestCommunityEver!


Last but not least, for owners of the Steering Creations Pack DLC, we are about to expand the content of the DLC with an additional bunch of steering wheels. Not all of them are ready yet, but our 3D graphic artists are finishing them and we expect to introduce them in stages during the open beta period.


Let's take a look at the full list of the new features coming with 1.37 Update for American Truck Simulator:

VEHICLES
FEATURES
  • FMOD implementation with all existing sounds and few improvements
  • Openable windows on all trucks
  • AI movement and sound behavior improved (featuring FMOD)
  • Walking camera in truck or trailer configuration screen (plus new garage scene)
TOBII EYE TRACKING
  • Eye-tracking pause key function fixed
  • Automatic eye-tracking pause while the game is paused/in UI
  • Settings hotkey visibility in UI
MOD
  • Ingame sounds completely reimplemented for FMOD
  • Engine power range data (instead of boost value)
  • Exhaust gas temp gauge animation
  • AI data tweak (engine power instead of torque and gearbox, vehicle_mass override for trailers)
For those who didn't watch our special American Truck Simulator 1.37 Update Open Beta live stream on the 26th of February - here comes a way how to watch its recording! Please pardon the technical issues we had during the stream.


So enjoy all the new additions, but please remember: It's only an open beta, not a stable public version - so you may encounter bugs, instability, kinks or crashes. It's completely okay if you want to wait for the final release. But if you're interested in helping us to move there faster, we'll appreciate all of your feedback on our forum and your bug reports in this section.

Please check our modding wiki to get details pertaining to mods for the game.

If you wish to participate in the open beta, you can find this version in the public_beta branch on Steam. The way to access it is as follows: Steam client → LIBRARY → right-click on American Truck Simulator → Properties → Betas tab → public_beta → 1.37 public beta. No password required.

Thursday, February 20, 2020

SCS Video Contest 2020 - Results

Due to popular demand, the return of video contest has been a success! This year we allowed you to record on Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator, which brought a lot of variety to the videos submitted.


Our committee of judges really enjoyed watching all your videos, even if it did mean settling down for hours at a time to do so. We were especially surprised by the creativity and work that went into some these entries.

There was an overwhelming majority of ETS2 videos - which is somewhat surprising, considering ATS videos could've been from two states, both single and combined. So due to the ratio, 4 winning videos are from good old Europe and 1 from the States!

HetriX with a professional trailer!


Thizorac with a wonderful Twin Peaks references!


JekaArtz with a well-balanced video!


Tamás Vajvoda (so epic as a whole, we expected a dragon somewhere in there!)


Toast (European trucking with American country music!)


It wasn't an easy choice to pick our winners, as some of the other videos came close to reaching a top 5 spot, however, we have decided to give some of these videos honourable mention special prize for their efforts!
We have also picked some of your entries to be featured on our social media channels, because of the number of great videos you've sent us. We certainly did enjoy watching them all! Be sure to look out for them on our official Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Unfortunately, not all entries made it to our judging panel as they did not reach the requirements we set for the contest, so make sure to read the rules carefully next time!

Also, if you have any feedback, wishes or requests, please let us know in the comment section. What would you change to make our future contests easier or more interesting? Would you like a different format?  One of the more popular bits of feedback we received, which was to reply/ confirm/ validate every entry that was received unfortunately isn't possible for us.

A BIG thank you to everyone who participated and congratulations to our top 5! All winners will be contacted and notified by the email from which they sent their entry.

Tuesday, February 18, 2020

FMOD: First Tease

Sound plays a very important role in interactive games, which is why we are very excited to introduce a new sound engine to the worlds of Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator in the near future.


FMOD is a proprietary sound effects engine that will allow us to make really dynamic and complex audio. We have been working on implementing it for a long time already, and our sound designer has already poured hundreds of hours into implementing new vehicle sounds. Eventually, the changes to our soundscape will be more profound as we plan to revisit ambient sound sources all around the environment, this is planned to appear in the game through a series of follow-up updates. The feedback we receive from our community will surely play an important role in how we tune and tweak the sfx in future updates, we expect it to take some iterations.


Another part of the community that might be excited (or nervous) for such a change is our modders. Honestly, they will need to start from scratch to plug their sounds back into the game, as the changes in data structures are considerable. This update will make most existing sound mods incompatible. The silver lining is that the new wealth of features in the sound library will allow for way more fidelity especially with vehicle sounds, so we hope that the deep changes we are coming with will be appreciated. FMOD offers a free application for everyone to use, so mod creators will have some power available to them as our own sound department. To help with the transition, we also plan on releasing some useful tutorials to help you become familiar with this new software.

For those with an eye for detail, you may have noticed a picture we shared across our social media channels this past weekend to tease you. Did you spot it? A long-awaited requested feature will be made possible with this FMOD update - the ability to roll down your truck windows! Look out for a more detailed blog post in a few days!


While we still have a long way to go with this big new feature, we hope you will enjoy this sneak-peak of what is to come and how this new sound engine and the Doppler effect will change the way you hear things around you in ETS2 and ATS.

Friday, February 14, 2020

Valentine's Day: Loads of Love

Sometimes driving the highway can be lonely work, you may have the radio playing, or even have the GPS Voice Navigation enabled, but nothing beats the feeling of driving together with a fellow trucker.

This Valentine's Day, we want to share that same feeling with the community we love. We hope to see you out driving on the roads with us in the future.


Loads of Love,

SCS Software ❤️

P.S: We are also sharing the love with our weekly sale on Steam, with a variety of discounts available across the Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator range. Be sure to check it out! 

Thursday, February 13, 2020

The Eco-regions of Iberia

From semi-arid southeastern deserts to the green coniferous forests, the Iberian Peninsula is home to a rich and very diverse ecosystem. With two dominant climates types, temperatures and weather can vary depending on where you are traveling.


However, Iberia which is best known for warmer weather and its beautiful coastlines can become quite cool during the winter, which brings out the greener vegetation found across the the peninsula.


With Iberia being the second largest European peninsula by area, you can be sure to see a wide range of different ecoregions in our upcoming map expansion for Euro Truck Simulator 2. The variety of ecosystems makes for an interesting challenge for our map teams, who will have the task of blending and combining together the different parts of the region (as explained in more detail in our recent Under the Hood blog).

Like what you see? Be sure to check out more exclusive images found on our Twitter and Instagram account, and make sure to add Iberia to your Steam wishlist!

 

Tuesday, February 11, 2020

Dawn over Idaho

After driving hundreds of miles through the night, the first light of the morning is often a very welcome sight for drivers. For many, it's the first glimpse of the surrounding landscape as the sun rises creating spectacular colors and rays of light in the sky, which makes for a beautiful photo.


With Idaho for American Truck Simulator beginning to take shape, we wanted to share with you a selection of shots from locations across the state during a sunrise. With just enough light to make-out some known landmarks, we thought it would be fun to present you with a challenge!




Let us know the location of each of these shots in the blog comments or on our Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, and we will pick one lucky person who will win a special prize. Be sure to get guessing, and to add Idaho to your Steam Wishlist if you're excited by what you see.

Friday, February 7, 2020

SCS On The Road 2020

It's time for us to get ready for the SCS On The Road season 2020, and we cannot wait to get travelling again. Each visit to a different location presents the opportunity for us to meet people from our community, as-well as meet with new and existing industry representatives which could lead to potential future collaborations and releases.

We are excited to announce that for 2020, we plan to travel to a variety of industry and gaming exhibitions around the world. You can expect us to be on the show floor, however in some cases it might not be exhibiting with our SCS Sim Trailer or booth, but walking the show floor, so be sure to keep an eye out for us in our trademark ETS2 or ATS T-Shirts!

The first stop on our Calendar takes us to the Mid-America Trucking Show, which we last visited in 2016 (where did the time go?) shortly followed by our first ever trip to Truck World Canada to meet with various industry contacts, but we hope to meet many of you from our community too.


If you are planning to attend any of these events, be sure to let us know! Our team would be more than happy to say hello, have a chat, and take a selfie. You may even receive some ETS2 or ATS swag as a gift. However please keep in mind that some of these events are still being planned, and that changes may be made to our schedule, which will be sure to inform you of on our blog and social media channels.

Last year we also enlisted the help of some of our local fans willing to help us on some of these events. We think it's a great way to connect with a few of our most loyal fans and offer them a very unique (and also paid) experience.

If you would like to become a part of our crew for a weekend, please let us know. Successful candidates must be 18+, native speakers of the region of the given event, have great social skills, knowledgeable players of our games and active members of the fan community, ideally with a history of involvement with our betas, or perhaps recognised creators from the modding community.

If you are free for two days of your time, have the skill and the passion to become a "roadie" and become join our crew, please get in touch with us by mail on this address.

Tuesday, February 4, 2020

ETS2 1.37 - Rework of French Cities

As you already know, we plan to focus on technical improvements in our upcoming semi-regular game updates; first sound and then graphics. However, a small part of our map team is constantly working on improvements of the existing parts of our game worlds, to help improve the overall look and feel of some of the older areas of the games.


In update 1.37, the French cities of Metz, Reims, Strasbourg, and Dijon will receive a fresh lick of paint with a rehaul of its roads which have been given a new look. You will also notice that many of the older vegetation models have been replaced with newer models, along with some of the terrain materials which have been updated.


But that's not all! You will also find that some of the traffic signs have been switched with newer assets to accurately represent the area, along with one of the road intersections which has had its layout reworked (can you spot which one?)



What other surprises lie around the corner in future updates? You will just have to wait and see, but for now, we hope you will enjoy the refresh of these french cities and hope you will take the time to revisit these cities when 1.37 is ready.

Be sure to check out our various social media channels (Twitter/Instagram) for exclusive images of the reworked cities not found here.