American Truck Simulator: 1.61 Update Open Beta

We’re excited to share that the 1.61 Open Beta for American Truck Simulator is now available for players to try out. If you decide to join the beta, we’d really appreciate it if you report any bugs or issues you encounter in the appropriate section of our official forums.

Your feedback plays a huge role in helping us improve the game, and we truly value the time and effort you put into testing these new features and changes.

We'd also like to thank everyone who participated in the 1.61 Experimental Beta, especially those who shared their thoughts on the Multi-Function Display (MFD) and the In-Game Menu. These additions will be introduced in a future update, giving us more time to refine and polish these features and ensure they deliver the best possible experience when they are ready.

Now, let’s dive into what you can expect in the 1.61 Open Beta update:

Proximity Exploration

In the 1.61 update, we are introducing a new feature designed to assist players with exploring the world map and discovering more along their journey. Introducing Proximity Exploration, a new quality-of-life feature that makes map discovery a little more intuitive, while still keeping the enjoyment of exploring the world for yourself.

When enabled, Proximity Exploration automatically reveals a small area around your vehicle as you travel. This means you will no longer need to drive over every tiny section of road to mark it as explored, which should be especially useful for those of you chasing that elusive 100% map discovery! It can also help reveal nearby accessible roads and areas around locations such as rest stops, toll gates, border crossings, gas stations, and other places where multiple road segments may sit closely together.

And don't worry, secret roads will still have secrets to uncover! Proximity Exploration can reveal the first segment of a secret road when you get close enough, giving you a small hint that there might be somewhere new to explore. From there, however, the rest is up to you, as the remaining route will only be discovered by actually driving along it.

Whether you use Proximity Exploration to help hunt down those final percentages or simply make exploring the map a little smoother, the choice is yours!

Improved Material System

The Improved Material System significantly improves the lighting and visual quality of vehicle interiors in selected trucks. Its main focus is to enhance how interior materials react to light, which results in a more readable, detailed, and visually pleasing cabin environment.

One of the most significant changes was a redesign of the materials used in vehicle interiors. As a result, it makes differences between materials such as leather, fabric, plastic, and metal far more apparent, even in low-light conditions. The new solution uses multiple variants of dynamic cubemaps, allowing all materials to reflect their surroundings more naturally and respond to ambient light in a more realistic way.

The entire system was designed from the start with the interiors of trucks in both games in mind, so the base games and their existing fleets will gradually benefit from these improvements as well. In this update, we're excited to bring the Improved Material System to the International LT and International LoneStar.

With future updates, we will gradually add this technology for other trucks across both games. You can read more about this feature here.

Map Changes for Road Trip

With the upcoming Road Trip project, our map and asset teams have also been preparing the world of American Truck Simulator for a new way to explore the roads. While many of these changes are happening behind the scenes, they help lay the groundwork for future features and ensure the map is ready for the journey ahead.

We have implemented inactive Tourist Boards across several states, including California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and the upcoming South Dakota DLC. These Tourist Boards will remain unavailable until the Road Trip project is released, but they are already in place and ready for the future. Alongside these additions, we have also applied various small visual improvements and polish updates to selected areas across the map.

As part of these preparations, we have also added a number of new gas stations across the map. These locations will not only serve truck drivers but will also become available for cars when the Road Trip project releases, giving players more places to stop and refuel during their travels.

These changes are just a small part of the preparation work being done behind the scenes, helping us make sure the American Truck Simulator world is ready for new adventures on the road.

New Cargoes

We are also introducing new cargo options and improving the visuals of some existing ones. Players can now transport new types of freight, including Seed Containers, Trailers, and Truss, adding more variety to their hauling jobs across America.

Alongside these additions, we also updated existing Rails cargo with a brand-new model and improved textures. These changes help bring more detail and visual quality to the cargo you see on the road, making each delivery feel even more realistic.

Known OpenGL Rendering Issue

We are currently aware of a rendering issue affecting games running with OpenGL. OpenGL is the primary rendering API on Linux and macOS, while on Windows it is available as an alternative rendering option.

If you are playing on Linux or macOS, or have OpenGL selected on Windows, you may encounter visual glitches or other rendering issues. Our team is actively working on a fix, and we will share further updates as soon as we have more information.

Changelog:

Map

• Proximity Exploration
• Map Changes for Road Trip

Vehicles

• New Cargoes

Visual

• Improved Material System: International LT & International LoneStar

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 this Open Beta, you can find this version in the Experimental Beta branch on Steam. The way to access it is as follows: Steam client → LIBRARY → right-click on American Truck Simulator → Properties → Betas tab → Beta Participation drop-down menu → public_beta. No password is required. Sometimes you will have to restart your Steam client to see the correct branch name there.

1.61 Update: Improved Material System Update

Today, we bring good news to our #BestCommunityEver! With the upcoming 1.61 update, the improved material system will be implemented on three additional trucks, so read on to find out more!

We first introduced the improved material system with the 1.60 update, when it was added to the DAF NGD and MAN TG3 TGX in Euro Truck Simulator 2, and the Mack Anthem and Western Star 49X in American Truck Simulator. With the next update to our games, we will be expanding this feature to the International LT and International LoneStar in American Truck Simulator, as well as the Volvo FH Series 6 in Euro Truck Simulator 2!

But that's not all, as we have also polished a few details in the interior and completely redesigned the seats in the International LT and LoneStar to better match their real-life counterparts. Along with that, we are introducing a new Diamond interior option with leather seats for both trucks!

The improved material system significantly enhances the lighting and visual quality of vehicle interiors, with a particular focus on how different interior materials react to light. This results in a more detailed, readable, and visually pleasing cabin environment. It also makes the differences between materials such as leather, fabric, plastic, and metal much more apparent, even in low-light conditions.

As promised, we are gradually bringing this feature to more trucks, allowing you to enjoy beautiful cabin interiors across a wider range of vehicles. If you would like to learn more about what the process of implementing this feature on new vehicles looks like, make sure to check out our Under the Hood blog, where we spoke with colleagues working on the improved material system.

We hope you will be happy to see the improved cabin interiors in more trucks with this upcoming update! Remember to stay tuned for more news from our games by following us on our X/Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and YouTube. We would also appreciate it if you could sign up for our newsletter, so you can be informed. Until next time, keep on trucking!

Road Trip: Vehicle Configuration & Purchase Process Video Trailer

Last week, we shared a dedicated blog with you about the Vehicle Configuration & Purchase Process in our upcoming Road Trip module for American Truck Simulator. Today, we're happy to share a new video trailer showing you how it all works!

Our talented video producers have put together a trailer showcasing both the vehicle purchase process and how you can configure and customize your vehicle, which will work a little differently from what you may be used to with trucks in ATS. We hope you enjoy the video and that it gives you a clearer look at what to expect when Road Trip arrives further down the road.



If you're excited about Road Trip, make sure to add its DLCs, the Ford Car Pack and the RAM & Dodge Car Pack, to your Steam Wishlist!

Also, remember to follow us on X, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and YouTube for all the latest Road Trip news and other American Truck Simulator updates, or sign up for our newsletter to stay informed. We'll see you on the road! 

Nevada Rework Project: Meet the Team

Today, we’re excited to introduce you to some of the talented team members behind the upcoming Nevada Rework for American Truck Simulator. This project brings a fresh look to one of the game’s original states, with updated roads, cities, landscapes, and landmarks that better reflect our current standards.

In this Meet the Team episode, you’ll hear directly from the developers who have been working on different parts of Nevada and learn more about their experiences, favorite locations, and what they’re most looking forward to players discovering. So, let’s take a closer look at the people helping bring the Silver State back to life!

Ella - Senior Map Designer

I’ve been at SCS for close to 7 years, and in that time I’ve worked on many projects, starting my journey with the Utah DLC in 2019. From there, I moved on to work on large cities across several states, such as El Paso, Texas; San Diego, California; and Albuquerque, New Mexico.

As our team’s road specialist, I oversee Nevada’s road layout and also do work on some of the truck stops there, which are critical for our gameplay by providing players an opportunity to refuel and rest. Besides that, I’m working on the city of Phoenix, Arizona, which will be included as another part of our Rework project.

I’m looking forward to watching players explore the newly added locations and seeing their reactions as well as getting their feedback, which is always appreciated. I love creating maps so many people enjoy driving in; that always feels very rewarding on its own. 

Johny - Senior Map Designer

I’ve been at SCS for six years. I started out working on sections of Texas and Montana before moving fully into Rework. I’ve been part of the rework team since the very beginning.

Over the years, I’ve worked on both roads and cities, including San Jose, Santa Cruz, El Centro, and Grand Canyon. Most recently, for the Nevada Rework, I’ve been working on the roads around Panaca and Las Vegas, as well as Panaca itself and the northern part of Las Vegas.

I love working on epic scenery, which is why I really enjoyed working on the Grand Canyon, and I’m having just as much fun working on Las Vegas now. I think Nevada will now meet our current standards, and players can look forward to a faithful recreation of the real-life locations.

Pavel - Senior Map Designer

I've been part of SCS for almost four years now. I started my journey with the third phase of the California Rework, where Fresno was the first city I had the opportunity to work on. Since then, I've remained part of the Rework team, working on cities across different projects. As part of the Nevada Rework, I'm currently working on Reno and Fallon.

Reno is being completely rebuilt from the ground up, and one of my main goals was to capture the atmosphere and scale of the city. I put a lot of focus on the city's layout, character and recognizable landmarks, while also trying to keep some of the feeling of the original city that players might remember. The area will also feature reworked sections of I-80, which I'm really looking forward to seeing players experience. 

Fallon is a much smaller city, but its location gives it a character of its own. Surrounded by the vast Nevada desert, it feels almost like a small oasis in the middle of nowhere, with the greenery and farmland around the city standing out against the otherwise dry landscape. There is definitely a lot for players to look forward to, and I hope they'll enjoy exploring these areas as much as I enjoyed working on them.

Tom - Map Designer

I'm doing mainly landscape, and I'm in the rework team since California's 2nd phase; my favourite tasks were forests with mountains and lakes, which I haven't seen in a while.

Luckily, Nevada offers dry mountains and hills providing interesting tall horizons which diversify the barren desert.

Nevada is also unique for long straight roads compared to other DLCs. If you enjoy driving into the distant horizon, you'll most likely enjoy it.

Roman - Map Designer

This October marks my fourth year at SCS. In my time on the ATS rework team, I had the chance to work on multiple phases of the California rework, the Route 66 rework project, and now Nevada. With each rework, I slowly figured out that I enjoy making detailed cities more than anything else, though the cities have never been as large or famous as the one I have been working on now.

Las Vegas has been quite a challenge compared to my previous cities, but it also gives many opportunities for fun detail work and making the city feel alive. I hope that the NEW Vegas is fun to explore for new players and even more fun to re-explore for returning trucking veterans.

Margo - Map Designer

Hi there! It’s been a ride here in the Rework team since I joined the company in 2022. Every year, a new project brings us something new to work on. I had the pleasure of working on the California rework, parts of Arizona, and now Nevada as well. Reworking Nevada brought me something I already knew and made me rethink my working approach, as my perspective changed a lot through the years.

Creating for me always comes with a deeper meaning to it. I don’t want my work to be just purely mechanical and soulless; I like hiding fun details in the ordinary. If spotting it makes someone smile or catches their attention - it’s worth it.

We really should be cultivating our curiosity and wonder more in our daily lives. So if you are already wondering about the brand new Nevada, that’s a good starting point. There are many cool places to see and some nice UFO references to spot!

Filip - Map Designer

Hello everybody! My map designer journey began during the fourth phase of the California rework, where I worked on smaller tasks suited for a rookie like me. On the Route 66 rework project, I was responsible for the design of I-191 and Page. I got to experience a bit of everything: a diverse road with settlements, scenic views, beautiful landscapes, and a challenging hilly city.

The experience I gained, I can now utilize in a brand new look of Nevada, where I am working on Carson City, its surroundings, and a small surprise.

I hope the work of our team will bring a fresh, up-to-date look to Nevada and that players will be able to rediscover this awesome state for a second time!

Mykyta - Map Designer

I have been working at SCS Software for two years, and during that time I have worked on projects such as Route 66 around Tucumcari. 

As part of the Nevada Rework, I am currently working on the towns of Elko and Carlin and their surrounding areas. 

Players can look forward to driving through the Carlin Tunnel, and if they pay close attention along the way, they may also discover some beautiful and interesting places in the surrounding landscape. 

Jakub - Map Designer

I have been in SCS for more than a year. I started with reworking the northern part of Arizona and New Mexico. Now, reworking Nevada is another dream project of mine.

As a big fan of clean, big open landscapes and amazing mountains, rocks, and other unique hills, I enjoyed every road I've been working on, and now I am happy that Nevada looks like Nevada.

Rob - Junior Map Designer

Hi everyone, I’m Rob, and I’ve been with SCS for over a year now. The Nevada Rework is my first major project. Before that, I mainly worked on smaller projects in Arizona.

My part of the map is located in northern Nevada, where I’ve been working to bring the area as close to reality as possible and capture the atmosphere of sun-baked roads stretching through the endless desert. Players can look forward not only to the rugged, arid landscape, but also to beautiful and highly detailed cities.

I’m happy that we can give players a fresh take on familiar content and offer them the chance to experience Nevada in a slightly different and completely new way.

Filip - Junior Map Designer

Hi, I’ve only been in SCS for four months, but I already feel right at home here. Nevada is a beautiful state, and I’ve really enjoyed exploring it.

I was tasked with completing the road from Las Vegas to Panaca. It was a privilege to work on the surrounding mountain ranges and finish the work started by my colleague Johny. There is also a Visitor Center near Panaca, and I think I managed to capture it in all its beauty. So, I’d definitely recommend that players take a little detour from the road and explore the area around it.

Samuel - Junior Map Designer

Hi, my name is Sam, and I recently passed the five-month mark at SCS Software. Having grown up playing SCS games, being able to contribute to their development is a dream come true for me.

On this project, I worked on shorter roads in the western part of Nevada. Hopefully, I managed to capture the authentic feel of the landscape, biomes, and unique character of the area, and you'll enjoy driving through them! I’m really looking forward to showing you even more of my work in future DLCs.

That concludes today’s Meet the Team! We’d like to thank everyone featured in this blog for taking the time to share a little about themselves and their work on the Nevada Rework.

We always enjoy giving our community a glimpse behind the scenes and highlighting the talented people who help bring our virtual worlds to life. We hope you enjoyed learning more about the team and the passion they’re putting into giving Nevada a fresh new look.

As development continues, we look forward to sharing more from the Nevada Rework with you. Be sure to follow us on X/Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, YouTube, and TikTok, or subscribe to our newsletter, so you never miss any updates. Until next time, we will see you on the road!

South Dakota: BIG in South Dakota

In today's blog, we are revealing the new routes coming with our upcoming South Dakota map expansion, where owners of the Special Transport DLC will be able to take on the challenge of hauling oversized cargo. So let's take a closer look!

As you know, transporting cargo of this size is no small task. Its large scale requires not only escort vehicles and police assistance, but also special routes that are wide and spacious enough for your truck to safely pass through, helping ensure a smooth delivery. Of course, successful drivers are also adequately compensated for the responsibility that comes with maneuvering such a colossal load!

Are you one of the most skilled drivers ready to take on the challenge? If so, and you own the Special Transport DLC, you can find jobs offering the opportunity to haul oversized cargo on these three routes:

Pierre to Spearfish
Winner to Mitchell
Mobridge to Buffalo

There, you will find industries that play an important role in South Dakota's economy and will be glad to put your hauling skills to work! Support the custom quarry depot in Spearfish by delivering equipment from the mining machine service in Pierre, or haul specialized cargo such as a giant silo or large reservoir tank from the agriculture equipment dealer in Winner to a custom farm depot in Mitchell. You can also load up your trailer with a large tank or pipes at the oil service depot in Mobridge and safely deliver them to the warehouse in Buffalo.

We hope you'll enjoy discovering the landscapes of South Dakota as you travel these routes, whether you're hauling oversized cargo or not. But if you do take on a Special Transport job, stay alert - navigating these roads with an extra-large load on your trailer can still get tricky!

We hope you are looking forward to trucking in this state as much as we are. If so, make sure to add the South Dakota DLC to your Steam wishlist! And if you don't own the Special Transport DLC yet, make sure to get it on Steam.

Also, remember to follow us on X/Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and YouTube for all the latest news from this map expansion and other American Truck Simulator information, or sign up for our newsletter to stay informed. Until next time, stay safe on the road!

Road Trip: Vehicle Configuration & Purchase Process

Today, we're happy to bring you another preview from the Road Trip project. This time, we'll be showing you more from the vehicle configuration and purchase process, so let's take a look!

Both the purchase process and vehicle configuration in Road Trip will work a little bit differently than what you are used to with trucks. If you want to get behind the wheel of your own Ford Mustang, Dodge Challenger, or any other car, you will need to head on to the "Car Dealer" tab in the in-game desktop.

There, you'll first select your preferred car brand, with the available options depending on which Car Pack DLCs you own. If you own both the Ford Car Pack and RAM & Dodge Car Pack DLCs, you'll be able to choose from Ford, RAM, and Dodge. As you can see, some Car Packs may contain and unlock more than one brand, as is the case with the RAM & Dodge Car Pack DLC. After that, you can choose a specific model, take a closer look at the car, see its light signature, explore its details, and check out its description, technical details, and specifications. You can browse the available models like a catalog, or switch to a table view and easily compare their specifications side by side. Before purchase, you can choose from a variety of unique colours.

After purchasing your car, you'll either have the option to drive it straightaway or give it a more personalized look based on your preference. If you decide to make some further customizations, you will need to head to the garage, which can also be found in the in-game desktop under the "My Cars" tab. This is a brand new virtual space where you can view, customize, and manage your cars.

There, the layout is similar to the Car Dealer, allowing you to browse the cars you own, view their details, and compare them. But more importantly, this is where the customization happens! Just hit Configure and choose from a variety of different options tailored for each car - from paint jobs to both exterior and interior parts. Selected cabin accessories will also be compatible with Car Pack DLCs. You can also sell your cars here.

Now you can hit the Drive button and start exploring the world of American Truck Simulator from a completely new and different perspective.

We are still researching further options and are dedicated to continuing our work on bringing new features and customization options to Road Trip vehicles in the future. Stay tuned as we explore new ways to expand and enhance this experience!

If you are excited about Road Trip, make sure to add both its DLCs, the Ford Car Pack or the RAM & Dodge Car Pack, to your Steam wishlist!

Also, remember to follow us on X/Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and YouTube for all the latest news from Road Trip and other American Truck Simulator information, or sign up for our newsletter to stay informed. Happy travels!