Iowa: Truck Stops

Pull on in and take a rest stop with us as we share more about some of the truck stops you'll encounter on your journeys through the upcoming Iowa DLC for American Truck Simulator!

We're happy to share that the Iowa DLC will feature over 20 truck stops! Ranging from smaller roadside stations to huge gas stops that are the size of a small town, our team has taken great care in recreating the atmosphere and layout of these truck stops.

Drivers will also have the opportunity to visit the largest truck stop we've ever built in American Truck Simulator. Boasting a large number of parking spots and gas pumps for trucks, this location is huge and features a variety of amenities for visitors. We highly recommend you make the time to check out this epic stop whilst travelling through Iowa.

As with previous DLC releases, many of the truck stops are inspired by real-world counterparts, featuring recognizable landmarks and layouts. We are sure some of you who are familiar with the roads of Iowa will be able to point out some of these locations.

Overall, Iowa truck stops offer drivers and passengers excellent service and amenities, and we look forward to having you relax, refuel, and rest at them. We hope you enjoyed this preview of Iowa's truck stops. If you're excited to hit the road, be sure to add the Iowa DLC to your Steam Wishlist! Until next time, keep on truckin'.

Euro Truck Simulator 2 - 1.54 Update Open Beta

Today, we are excited to reveal that the 1.54 Open Beta branch for Euro Truck Simulator 2 is now available to try and test out. If you plan on participating in this Open Beta, we ask that you please help us by reporting any bugs you may encounter in the appropriate section(s) of our official forums.

Your feedback and reports are truly valuable to our team and we thank you in advance for taking the time to help us out. Now, without further ado, let's take a look at what the 1.54 Open Beta has in store.

Cargo System Redefined

Until now, what seemed like the game combining a trailer with cargo, such as a piece of machinery, was actually a manually created model, with each trailer-cargo pair stored separately on disk. This approach required an enormous number of unique models, making it harder to add new content efficiently and taking up disk space.

In the redefined cargo system, the code automatically merges cargo and trailers based on simplified rules. This means that each cargo will define its own model, loading methodology, and lashing method. This will make the work of our vehicle team much easier as it no longer requires our 3D artists to manually create pre-baked trailer-cargo pairs.

While there may be issues in the first iteration, it's a worthwhile goal to refine the system, as it not only improves efficiency but also saves disk space and memory by eliminating the need to store countless pre-made combinations. This project may also lead to other possibilities for both of our games, especially with dynamic cargo (un)loading and more. You can read about how this project was executed in our recent Under the Hood blog.

Truck Adjustment Menu Redesign

The Truck Adjustment Menu has been completely redesigned to provide a more user-friendly experience. Previously, each option for adjusting your driver's FOV, seat, mirrors etc had separate menus with different layouts. Now, they share a cohesive interface, making adjustments much more intuitive and easier. The new design also takes on a similar design from our previous UI overhaul and is optimized for both a mouse and a controller, ensuring accessibility for all users.

For keyboard and mouse users, adjustments are now more streamlined with the use of the WASD keys for navigation, along with sliders and buttons for finer tuning. Meanwhile, controller users will find the new system much smoother, with the left stick controlling adjustments, the right stick handling camera movement for mirror positioning, and the D-pad or shoulder buttons navigating the menu.

The addition of shoulder button support makes menu navigation more fluid for controller players. This update makes adjusting mirrors and seats much easier, particularly for those using controllers, ensuring a more seamless and enjoyable driving experience. Accessing the Truck Adjustment Menu remains the same. You can use the F4 by default, a custom-assigned key of your choice, or through the adviser services menu. 

We hope you enjoy this redesign, and that you find it easy to use and navigate through. If you have any feedback, we'd love to hear from you. You can share your comments and ideas through our official forum.

PhysX System Implementation

As part of the 1.54 Open Beta, we are adopting the NVIDIA PhysX physics engine as an alternative to the current Bullet physics engine for low-level simulation of physics in the game world that players interact with. This shift allows players to experience more precise collision detection results and more robust behaviour during scenarios involving collisions between vehicles and obstacles or other vehicles. PhysX also offers our teams better debugging tools, which indirectly benefits players by helping resolve bugs more efficiently.

One of the most noticeable improvements brought by PhysX can already be experienced in our recently introduced Driving Academy game mode. For example, collisions with cones and obstacles are now more accurate and objects no longer appear to "levitate" slightly above the ground after interaction, a flaw that occurred with Bullet. While players may not see drastic changes, certain interactions should exhibit slightly improved behaviour.

With the release of version 1.54, PhysX is now the default physics engine for all gameplay. Players who prefer the previous Bullet physics engine can switch back by using the "-bullet" command line argument in their Steam launch options.

Driving Academy - Volvo FH Series 5, Volvo FH Series 6, and Iveco S-Way

In the 1.54 update, we will implement both the Volvo FH Series 5 and Volvo FH Series 6, as well as the Iveco S-Way into Driving Academy. These beautiful trucks were added to Euro Truck Simulator 2 in December, and now you will have the option to try them out in various challenging scenarios in Driving Academy!

Driving Academy Rewards

Everyone who has already completed or will complete the entire first module of Driving Academy will receive special rewards to use in the base game - a hanging blue traffic cone cabin accessory and a customizable Driving Academy paint job for your truck. So make sure to complete your scenarios and grab your rewards, there will be more to come!

Changelog

Gameplay

• Cargo System Redefined
• Driving Academy Rewards

Vehicles

• Volvo FH Series 5, Volvo FH Series 6, and Iveco S-Way added to Driving Academy

Visual

• Truck Adjustment Menu Redesign

Other

• PhysX Implementation

The 1.54 Open Beta is currently unavailable for Mac OS users, but it is expected to be released for the platform in the near future. 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, or crashes. It's completely okay if you want to wait for the final release. But if you're interested in helping us to get there faster, we'd appreciate all of your feedback on our forum and your bug reports in the dedicated 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 Euro Truck Simulator 2  → Properties → Betas tab → public_beta → 1.54. No password is required. Sometimes you have to restart your Steam client to see the correct branch name there.

American Truck Simulator - 1.54 Open Beta

Today, we are excited to reveal that the 1.54 Open Beta branch for American Truck Simulator is now available to try and test out. If you plan on participating in this Open Beta, we ask that you please help us by reporting any bugs you may encounter in the appropriate section(s) of our official forums.

Your feedback and reports are truly valuable to our team and we thank you in advance for taking the time to help us out. Now, without further ado, let's take a look at what the 1.54 Open Beta has in store.

Cargo System Redefined

Until now, what seemed like the game combining a trailer with cargo, such as a piece of machinery, was actually a manually created model, with each trailer-cargo pair stored separately on disk. This approach required an enormous number of unique models, making it harder to add new content efficiently and taking up disk space.

In the redefined cargo system, the code automatically merges cargo and trailers based on simplified rules. This means that each cargo will define its own model, loading methodology, and lashing method. This will make the work of our vehicle team much easier as it no longer requires our 3D artists to manually create pre-baked trailer-cargo pairs.

While there may be issues in the first iteration, it's a worthwhile goal to refine the system, as it not only improves efficiency but also saves disk space and memory by eliminating the need to store countless pre-made combinations. This project may also lead to other possibilities for both of our games, especially with dynamic cargo (un)loading and more. You can read about how this project was executed in our recent Under the Hood blog.

Truck Adjustment Menu Redesign

The Truck Adjustment Menu has been completely redesigned to provide a more user-friendly experience. Previously, each option for adjusting your driver's FOV, seat, mirrors etc had separate menus with different layouts. Now, they share a cohesive interface, making adjustments much more intuitive and easier. The new design also takes on a similar design from our previous UI overhaul and is optimized for both mouse and controller, ensuring accessibility for all users.

For keyboard and mouse users, adjustments are now more streamlined with the use of the WASD keys for navigation, along with sliders and buttons for finer tuning. Meanwhile, controller users will find the new system much smoother, with the left stick controlling adjustments, the right stick handling camera movement for mirror positioning, and the D-pad or shoulder buttons navigating the menu.

The addition of shoulder button support makes menu navigation more fluid for controller players. This update makes adjusting mirrors and seats much easier, particularly for those using controllers, ensuring a more seamless and enjoyable driving experience. Accessing the Truck Adjustment Menu remains the same. You can use the F4 by default, a custom assigned key of your choice, or through the adviser services menu.

We hope you enjoy this redesign, and that you find it easy to use and navigate through. If you have any feedback, we'd love to hear from you. You can share your comments and ideas through our official forum.

PhysX System Implementation

As part of the 1.54 Open Beta, we are adopting the NVIDIA PhysX physics engine as an alternative to the current Bullet physics engine for low-level simulation of physics in the game world that players interact with. This shift allows players to experience more precise collision detection results and more robust behaviour during scenarios involving collisions between vehicles and obstacles or other vehicles. PhysX also offers our teams better debugging tools, which indirectly benefits players by helping resolve bugs more efficiently.

One of the most noticeable improvements brought by PhysX can already be experienced in our recently introduced Driving Academy game mode. For example, collisions with cones and obstacles are now more accurate and objects no longer appear to "levitate" slightly above the ground after interaction, a flaw that occurred with Bullet. While players may not see drastic changes, certain interactions should exhibit slightly improved behaviour.

With the release of version 1.54, PhysX is now the default physics engine for all gameplay. Players who prefer the previous Bullet physics engine can switch back by using the "-bullet" command line argument in their Steam launch options.

Driving Academy Rewards

Everyone who has already completed or will complete the entire first module of Driving Academy will receive special rewards to use in the base game - a hanging blue traffic cone cabin accessory and a customizable Driving Academy paint job for your truck. So make sure to complete your scenarios and grab your rewards, there will be more to come!

Changelog

Gameplay

• Cargo System Redefined
• Driving Academy Rewards
  

Visual

• Truck Adjustment Menu Redesign
• First Launch Screen Flow Refresh
  

Vehicles

• Lode King & Prestige Trailers Pack bug fixes

Other

• PhysX Implementation

The 1.54 Open Beta is currently unavailable for Mac OS users, but it is expected to be released for the platform in the near future. 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, or crashes. It's completely okay if you want to wait for the final release. But if you're interested in helping us to get there faster, we'll appreciate all of your feedback on our forum and your bug reports in the dedicated 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 → 1.54. No password is required. Sometimes you have to restart your Steam client to see the correct branch name there.

Missouri - St. Louis

Welcome to St. Louis! When you are cruising through Missouri, make sure to stop by its second-largest city with plenty of beautiful landmarks, industries and more. Let's take a closer look.

St. Louis, also known as the Mound City, is nestled on the west bank of the Mississippi River which marks the state's border with Illinois. It is a major transportation and distribution centre, and the Mississippi River plays a big part in that as the city is the country's second-largest inland port. St. Louis is also one of the largest rail hubs in the US, with an international airport and a broad network of interstate highways.

Truckers passing through are in for a treat as Mound City is full of amazing historic buildings and other landmarks that our map teams meticulously recreated for this upcoming map expansion. The most famous and recognizable of them all is probably the iconic Gateway Arch which commemorates the city's role in the westward expansion of the USA.

But there are more landmarks inspired by their real-world counterparts such as the Old Courthouse or the St. Louis Hotel, the Basilica of Saint Louis, multiple lawyer centres and a luxury apartment building. Can you recognise these locations?

There are also some beautiful bridges in the city like the Jefferson Barracks Bridge, Blanchette Bridge, and the St. Louis Memorial Bridge. More iconic buildings can be seen in the distance as part of the city's skyline, among them are a stadium, courthouse, and many others.

Truckers can look forward to a wide range of various depots waiting for cargo in the city, two of which are really unique. If you head south of St. Louis, you will come across an underground warehouse located in an old limestone mine where you will be able to deliver plenty of different types of cargo.

Our map designers have also recreated a local well-known beer brewery with great attention to detail along with its 1:1 landmarks which are the gem of the whole area. Apart from that, you will find other industries such as the rail supply depot, a chemical plant, a big car factory, and others.

Can't wait to explore St. Louis in ATS? Then add the Missouri DLC to your Steam Wishlist! Remember to follow us on our Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and YouTube, so you won't miss out on any American Truck Simulator news. We'd also really appreciate it if you could sign up for our newsletter to stay informed, even when you're not able to check out the blog or our socials. Drive safe!