American Truck Simulator 1.40 Open Beta

We love to bring you new game updates, especially when they contain some cool features that have been requested for a long time! Today, we are happy to share with you that the 1.40 Update Open Beta for American Truck Simulator is now ready to be tested and tried-out by our community!

However, please keep in mind that this is the first iteration of the open beta, which is still very much a work-in-progress build. If you want to take it for a spin, you can help contribute by reporting any bugs you may encounter in the appropriate section of our official forums. Your feedback and reports are extremely valuable for our team and we thank you in advance for taking the time to help us out.

Please bear in mind that this huge update will likely render many community MODs incompatible. MOD authors may need to adjust and update their mods to work with this update. We strongly recommend that you use a profile without any third-party modifications if you wish to participate in the 1.40 Open Beta. 

So, let's take a look at what the 1.40 update has in store!

New Visual Lighting System

One of the biggest changes you'll notice when you first hop into your truck cab is the implementation of our new visual lighting system. However, this isn't just a simple change of our skyboxes; our new light system is fully dynamic and can now change not just according to current weather, but also based on simulated camera exposure taking into account not just current daylight intensity and weather, but also surface properties of game world elements in the view.

This new light system and the start of our new physical light model is a very important step towards a complete and better physical model of the whole world in our game, and how real it looks and works. All of our lighting is now based on real physical ratios and units, to make it as realistic as possible.

To prepare for this new light system, our teams had to make a lot of changes to existing in-game world objects; including a majority of the in-game assets, textures, and materials to better work with the new physical model of the new light system.

We are very excited for you to be able to experience and immerse yourself in driving in the new light. The result is the combination of thousands of hours by our programmers and visual effect artists and many other teams involved in the creation process of this new system. 

During this open beta, your feedback is incredibly important and valuable to us, so we ask that you please submits yours to us in the 1.40 section for American Truck Simulator on our forums which you can find here. 

Extended Chassis update:

For the 5th anniversary of American Truck Simulator, we wanted to bring a heavily-requested feature to our community to celebrate its progress and journey so far! This suggestion has always frequently appeared in our suggestions pile, and today we are thrilled to bring you an extended chassis range to all current truck models.

Our vehicle team has worked hard to bring you a range of long and short chassis types, allowing you to customize your truck for the job at hand. This update will feature 4x2, 8x4, and 8x6 chassis types which are used for a range of different trailers. 

4x2s, also known as single-axle trucks, are frequently used for local distribution deliveries by supermarkets and by logistic companies for hauling doubles. 8x4 and 8x6 chassis are the big guns of the heavy-haul industry and can handle just about any load you decide to take on. All of these new options bring more variety to you, the driver! So we hope you enjoy this surprise addition to 1.40.

Here's a full list of all the new extended chassis options now available in the open beta:

• Freightliner Cascadia: Day cab 4x2
• Mack Anthem: Day cab 4x2
• International LoneStar: Day cab & Sleepers 8x4
• Peterbilt 389: Day cab & Sleepers 8x4 & 8x6
• Volvo VNL: Day cab 4x2, Day cab & Sleepers 8x4
• Peterbilt 579: Day cab 4x2
• Kenworth W900: Day cab & Sleepers 8x4 & 8x6
• Kenworth T680: Day cab 4x2
• Western Star 49X: Day cab & Sleepers 8x4 & 8x6

Western Star 49X Update:

With the exciting release of the Western Star® 49X in September 2020, we are happy to share with you that with the arrival of 1.40 for American Truck Simulator; the 49X will receive 2 sleeper cabin options as well as a lot of other new options. In fact, this truck just became the one with the most chassis options available, with up to 36 possible chassis/cabin/fuel-tank combinations. 

We have just finished covering and showing the options which are coming for this truck in our special live stream on Twitch, Steam, and YouTube. Don't fret if you've missed it, as you can always watch it again on our official YouTube channel. Additionally, we will be releasing a dedicated blog post in the near future with more information, images, and also a very cool video; be sure to keep an eye out for it!

Plus, if you are very eager to check out the new updates, be sure to join the 1.40 Open Beta and check it out for yourself!  

New Mexico & Oregon DLC Viewpoints

Back in October last year, American Truck Simulator saw the arrival of viewpoints to the states of Washington and Utah after their popular debut in Idaho! Today we are happy to share with you that 1.40 sees the introduction of new viewpoints to the states of New Mexico & Oregon. 

For newer players of our titles, Viewpoints are certain spots found across the map, where drivers can activate a special in-game cutscene with a short showcase of a near location or place of interest.  These can be found displayed as a grey question mark on your GPS, so be sure to stop and discover them on your journeys. 

You also have the option to skip the viewpoint or replay it if you wish to watch it again. From populated cities to historic monuments, each viewpoint highlights a point of interest or industry, so make sure to discover them all!  

Changelog:

Visual:

• New Visual Lighting System

Map: 

• New Viewpoints in New Mexico & Oregon DLCs

Vehicles: 

• New 4x2, 8x4, and 8x6 chassis
• Western Star 49X update including sleeper variants and Set-Back configurations 

So enjoy all the new additions, but please remember: It's only an experimental 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 → 1.40. No password required.