Under the Hood: Improved Material System

In the 1.60 update, we have introduced the Improved Material System for selected trucks for both Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator. And today, we bring you a look behind the scenes at how this feature came to life!

The two main people working on this feature are our colleagues Daniel and Martin, who were and still are implementing the system for trucks in both games, and also for cars in the upcoming Road Trip project for American Truck Simulator.

Daniel - Vehicle Technical Leader

"I've been working at SCS Software for over thirteen years. I started as a 3D Generalist, then worked as a 3D Vehicle Artist and Vehicle Team Lead. Today, my role is the Vehicle Technical Leader.

My work bridges the gap between the graphical and technical aspects of development. I collaborate with programmers to implement vehicle features into the engine, while also helping artists establish efficient workflows. I also design new tools and technical improvements.

My task on the improved material system was to identify the problem, propose a solution, and collaborate with programmers on its implementation into the engine. Next, we needed to set up a practical workflow for the vehicle team so that the system could be used consistently across other vehicles. The programmers created the necessary support in the engine and shaders. The graphic designers then converted and fine-tuned the materials for specific trucks."

Martin - Senior 3D Graphic Designer

"I work as a Senior 3D Graphic Designer specializing in vehicles. I also worked as Head of Content for the Road Trip project. I participated in selecting the vehicles and their specific variants, handled research and pre-production, provided expert consultation, and subsequently worked on the actual creation of the vehicles. I also helped Dan fine-tune changes to the material system.

Cars have been a long-standing passion of mine, especially sports cars and classic cars - particularly American ones. Thanks to this, I was able to bring my own experience and knowledge of American automotive culture, history, and the technical development of individual models to the project.

My main task was the 1967 Ford Mustang and everything related to its visual and content preparation. I was involved in selecting the specific car and its variant, conducting research, gathering references, consulting during data collection, and the actual creation of the model and materials.

During the development of the new material system, I prepared and fine-tuned the individual surfaces on the Mustang. Together with Dan, we used this car to verify how the new technical solution behaved in practice and which values provided the most accurate results."

How did this project start?

"Development began while we were working on the Road Trip project. The interiors of passenger cars are smaller and darker than those of trucks, so the shortcomings of the original system were more noticeable in them.

Aside from direct light, the original system had no way to render light within the interiors. In the real world, a large portion of the visuals consists of so-called indirect, or reflected light (GI). However, the game did not work with this concept at all and was not designed for it. We knew we needed to change this somehow.

The second problem was that the interiors of the trucks contain many different materials, such as fabric, leather, plastic, painted surfaces, metal, and glass. The original system was unable to render them accurately, especially under indirect lighting; everything looked very flat.

"Road Trip provided us with a suitable, isolated environment for development and testing. From the start, however, we designed the system so that it could also be used for trucks," says Daniel.

What did you have to do before actually starting to implement the improved system?

"We needed to map out the actual vehicles and the materials used in their interior in detail through extensive research. I studied magazines, photographs, available documentation, and individual trim levels. While gathering data, we had the opportunity to see the specific car in person, speak with its owner, and document its construction and appearance in detail.

It wasn't enough to simply determine that a certain part of the interior was made of, for example, plastic, leather, or metal. We also had to examine the surface texture, the degree of gloss, the way the material reflects light, its wear and tear, the color shade, and the differences between individual parts.

This research laid the foundation upon which we could later assess whether the materials in the game corresponded to the actual vehicle," Martin told us.

"We also had to decide which direction to take. One of the key requirements was maintaining performance, so we looked for approaches that didn't require complex computational operations and sought techniques that would achieve good results with minimal changes to computational complexity. I believe the result of our efforts is a noticeable improvement in graphics with minimal impact on performance," Daniel shared with us.

How did the process of bringing the new system into the game look?

"We needed to implement changes to the engine regarding how the game loads and handles reflective textures. A reflective texture is essentially a cube where each face shows a reflection in a different direction relative to the player. Using it is significantly more efficient than calculating actual light reflections using ray tracing. We made several changes to the code to gain direct access to individual mipmaps. A mipmap is a scaled-down copy of the original image, typically used when a textured object is farther away from the player to eliminate unappealing texture aliasing. In our specific case, however, a lower resolution automatically results in a softer reflection, which can be used for materials that do not have a 100% glossy surface but rather a physically rougher surface, causing the reflection on the material to be more diffuse.

This way, we created several different levels of reflection smoothness, ranging from perfectly glossy surfaces like chrome, through smoother reflections such as those found on leather seat materials, to rough, nearly non-reflective materials like fabrics, where one side of the reflection cube is only 2x2px. In our case, it replaces the Iradience map, which means it primarily serves to project the surrounding light palette onto the given material (color cast). The game was already calculating the mipmaps themselves, which means this change costs us practically nothing in terms of performance - and that is the main reason we decided to use this approach.

Along with the material changes, we also needed to rebalance the contrast and lighting throughout the game to eliminate extremely dark areas and achieve a more realistic sense of lighting.

Unlike the original solution, where reflective textures were used only for highly reflective materials, particularly metals, the revised system applies a reflective texture to every single material in the vehicle's interior. However, they differ in how strongly the reflection is visible in the final image and in the softness of the reflection applied. This ensures that even less reflective materials - especially plastics - convey a sense of reflected light, color cast, and improved contrast, particularly in shaded areas of the interior. Players will now notice that the entire interior actually reacts to the truck's surroundings; for example, when driving past trees, the part of the interior near the windows takes on a subtle green tint. This makes the game feel much more realistic than before, even without the computationally expensive global illumination (GI) calculation.

Once the technology was ready, we needed to determine how to adjust the individual materials under the new conditions. Since each material now includes a reflective component, we had to completely rebalance all the settings for each material. To ensure that existing textures would function correctly with the new settings, we also had to rebalance their color and specular components to the standard values we had established during our extensive testing.

The final step for system-wide deployment was to create a material library so that we wouldn't have to configure each material type separately for every vehicle," Daniel explains.

What were the biggest challenges in implementing the system?

"The biggest challenge was the diversity of the vehicles. The individual trucks were created at different times and used different source data, textures, and rendering methods. There is no single conversion that works for all trucks. Each completed interior has its own structure and requires a customized approach," says Daniel.

"Also, the individual properties of materials influence one another. Changing the reflectance or roughness might improve the appearance of one surface, but at the same time cause the material to behave poorly in a different lighting situation. Or a material that looked right in direct daylight might be too shiny in a dark interior or react unnaturally while driving at night. It was therefore necessary to constantly strike a balance between realism, visibility, and consistent behavior. The goal was not to make all surfaces more prominent or shinier, but to accurately capture the differences between them.

We reworked many of these steps several times during development. However, the result was not just materials for one specific car, but also experience and guidelines that will significantly facilitate work on future vehicles.

The process wasn't straightforward. It wasn't enough to simply set a few parameters according to a pre-prepared table. We had to figure out many of the values ourselves, and together with Dan, we tested them repeatedly right in the game," Martin added.

How did you manage to do the changes without affecting performance?

"Our players use a wide range of hardware. We didn't want to create visual enhancements that would significantly reduce the game's performance or even make the game unplayable for some players. Therefore, the system is not based on a new, resource-intensive lighting simulation. It extends the existing rendering pipeline and utilizes already available data more efficiently.

Performance was continuously profiled during development. The goal was to achieve a visible improvement with minimal impact on the graphics card and memory. Furthermore, the system is configured to function with a certain trade-off even when set to medium or low - in such cases, while reflections are not rendered in real time and some benefits, such as realistic color cast from the vehicle's surroundings, are lost, the materials themselves still look realistic and can be distinguished from one another," says Daniel.

So far, we've implemented the improved material system on four trucks across ETS2 and ATS. Rather than making the community wait until every truck has been updated, we'll continue rolling out the improved material system for other trucks gradually, allowing you to enjoy the improvements on some vehicles already while we complete the rest. As Daniel explains here:

"Each truck requires individual adjustments, a visual inspection, and testing of all variants in daylight, at night, in the rain, and in cloudy weather. Therefore, it was not possible to update the entire fleet at once. This smaller initial group will allow us to verify the entire production process, maintain quality, and gather feedback from players."

We hope you have enjoyed this in-depth look at how we work on the improved material system. Make sure to also add the Ford Car Pack and the RAM & Dodge Car Pack to your Steam wishlist, so you can enjoy this feature on cars when we release them.

Don't forget to give our X/Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, TikTok, and YouTube a follow, as you'll receive updates about our games straight to your feed! Or subscribe to our newsletter to stay informed. Until next time, safe travels!

Under The Hood: UI/UX QA

Today, we're taking you behind the scenes of the development of Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator to explore another important part of the process that helps shape your experience on the road. This time, we're shining a spotlight on UI/UX QA and its role in creating intuitive, enjoyable, and polished interfaces for our players.

To guide you through this fascinating area, we'd like to introduce Petr and Jan from our UI/UX QA team. They'll take you along for a day at work, explain what their role involves, and share how they help ensure every menu, button, and interaction feels just right before it reaches your screen.

Petr - Console & UI/UX QA Lead

"Hi! My name is Petr, and I work as the Console & UI/UX QA Lead. Together with my colleagues, I helped build two teams that now play a key role in ensuring our games both function well and deliver a great user experience.

We are responsible for both Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator across all platforms, including traditional PC, Steam Deck, VR, PlayStation, and Xbox Series X/S. In addition to the games themselves, we're also heavily involved in testing projects such as Driving Academy, Coaches, and Road Trip.

My work mainly revolves around coordination, planning, and analysing testing results. I collaborate closely with other teams to identify and resolve bugs or UX issues as early as possible. My goal is to organise our processes so that the entire team can work efficiently and stay focused without unnecessary pressure before every new patch or DLC release.

I also actively test everything my team works on. Not only do I genuinely enjoy testing, but I also see it as a major advantage. Being directly involved in the entire process allows me to better identify areas where we can continue improving and moving forward as a team.

I'm always there to support my team whenever they're unsure about something or need advice, and I make a conscious effort to maintain a positive, friendly atmosphere where everyone enjoys working together."

Jan - Senior UI/UX Tester

"Hi, I'm Jan, and I'm a Senior UI/UX Tester with a primary focus on playtesting. I'm 31 years old, and  I've been at SCS Software for two years. I originally joined the company as a Junior Tester without a specific specialisation, but once I settled into the team and got to know our development process, I quickly discovered a passion for user experience.

With the support and guidance of Petr, who was already a senior at the time, I helped establish our playtesting process and have been refining it ever since."

What is UI/UX QA?

"Before a new feature gets added to our games, it has to go through a long journey. And the UI/UX (User Interface/User Experience) is there along the way. Whether it's a new feature or a redesign of an existing one, it all starts with analysis and dialogue between us (QA department) and the Game Design (GD) department. For redesigns, we need to start by assessing the current state, what works, and where changes are needed, and for new features and redesigns alike, we need to think about where we want to arrive. Answers to these questions will then inform all future decisions."

What does a typical UI/UX testing process look like, and how closely do you work with other teams?

"In general, we try to be involved in the process of a feature development as soon as possible and cooperate with the GD department as closely as we can, so we're also a part of the next stage of the feature's journey, where we provide feedback on the design. This means looking at the design document and trying to think ahead, so we ask questions like: "Is this going to be intuitive? Is it clear that this is a button? Aren't we forgetting anything? What about accessibility? Will the text be legible on a smaller screen?" and many more. After some back and forth with the GD department, we arrive at a design that can then be implemented by a programmer.

The first playable prototype is the point where we have to start sitting in two chairs at once. We still have to see the big picture - know the design, see how all the pieces fit, know why some decisions were made the way they were. But now, we can also see the game as a player seeing the feature for the first time. We have to become a player that is just starting out and has never played any other game before. A hardcore gamer who has played many games, but never a trucking simulator. Or a real-life trucker who plays our games on a handheld at their rest stops. Our games are played by a very wide audience, and the design has to work and be intuitive for all of them.

At this stage, we identify further issues, offer improvements, and look for possible solutions together with the GD team and programmers working on the feature. After we feel confident enough with the state we arrive at, it's time to validate in the next stage.

The next important part of the feature's journey is internal Playtesting. It's a great way of getting a fresh perspective from people from various parts of the company who haven't seen the design documents and ideally don't know anything about it. Before we start playtesting, we define the questions we want answers to: "Is this screen intuitive? Does it control all accessories well? Did the addition of X add any unnecessary friction?" Based on these questions, we prepare detailed scenarios for the respondents to go through, which will get them to engage with the (re)designed feature in ways that try to simulate a regular gameplay loop. We then invite the respondents to our Playtest Lab, where we guide them through the scenarios, observing their behaviour, reactions, taking down notes, and asking questions. We also utilise eye tracking, which gives us more insight about the players' focus, telling us which elements are observed first and which go by completely unnoticed.

After the playtest ends, respondents also fill out a questionnaire, which allows them to think about the feature some more, further comment on it, and possibly come up with ideas of their own.

All of this gives us a lot of data that needs to be processed. For this, we use practices from applied research, so we start with qualitative coding, followed by thematic analysis with frequency counting. In layman's terms, we go through all the raw statements and observed behaviours and assign them to various categories, along with how often they were mentioned/observed. This helps us to identify recurring patterns and assign them to broader themes/issues.

We then prepare a final Output, which summarises the respondents' behaviour, reactions, opinions, identifies underlying issues, and proposes possible solutions.

The next steps depend on the results of the playtest. If we identify some deep issues that require big changes in the design, we have to go back to the drawing board, repeating the previous points, leading to another playtest to confirm the issues have been satisfactorily addressed. A good recent example is the redesigned Skip Time / Rest feature, which also divided Fatigue into two separate mechanics (Fatigue and Mandatory Break). During playtesting, we found out that this new division and its representation were very confusing to players, and the feature had to be redesigned completely, to great success (at least we hope so).

If, on the other hand, we only identify surface-level issues that require some polish, the GD department tackles those, and we can move on to the final testing of the feature.

In the final testing, we mostly focus on FQA - the design is largely set, and we're now making sure it all works as intended. As soon as this is done, the feature can be merged into the main branch, where the Integration QA department takes over, making sure the feature itself survived the merge in its intended state and didn't break anything else along the way, but that's for another chapter."

What do you enjoy most about working on UI/UX?

Petr: "What do I enjoy the most? That's a tough question. In short, pretty much everything! Everyone on our team is passionate about games of all kinds and genres, so having the opportunity to contribute our own ideas and suggestions for Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator is incredibly rewarding.

At SCS, we often do things our own way, which makes the work especially enjoyable. At the same time, we always keep our players at the heart of every decision. When developing new gameplay features, it's easy for designers to unintentionally fall into "tunnel vision." Our job is to challenge that perspective and bring in a fresh set of eyes. We think about our experienced truckers, but we never forget players who are just starting out. Looking at the game's interface from many different perspectives is both a key part of our work and one of its most creative aspects.

We put our all into making our games as accessible as possible while ensuring they remain just as fun to play."

Jan: "I like how it combines technical and human aspects. User experience is mostly an interaction between a human and a machine, and you have to make them understand each other.

The first project I came up with and delivered was the Graphics Settings screenshot representation to make it easier for players to see the changes they're making when setting up the visuals of their game, and that's the perfect example of what I mean - I'm interested in how things work under the hood, but also how the player perceives and understands them."

What message would you like to share with our community, and how valuable is player feedback in helping improve the user experience?

"Player feedback is incredibly important to us and a constant source of inspiration. We're genuinely happy to see more and more initiatives being built around your feedback here at SCS. I want to assure you that we truly do read your comments, ideas, and suggestions carefully, not just our UI/UX team, but the entire studio.

It's clear how much all of you who engage with us care about our games, and we feel exactly the same way. We love Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator, and we want to keep making them better and better. We genuinely want to know what you enjoy, what you'd like to see added, and what you think could be improved. We've already received an incredible amount of feedback. I wish you could see the extensive documents where we carefully collect and organise all of your ideas and requests.

Unfortunately, we can't implement every suggestion. There can be many reasons that aren't immediately obvious, such as engine limitations, limited internal resources, technical constraints within our game systems, licensing agreements, and more. But please, keep talking to us! Your feedback never goes unnoticed. It's thanks to you that we're able to continue on this journey and keep making the experience even better together.

Thank you to everyone who's travelling this exciting road with us!"

Under The Hood: In-Game Map QA

Creating Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator is a collaborative effort involving many talented teams across SCS Software. While map designers, artists, programmers and more build the driving experience, another team works alongside them to ensure everything functions exactly as intended before players hit the road.

In this Under the Hood blog, we'd like to introduce you to two members of our In-Game QA team, Ivan and David. We asked them about their day to day work, how testing fits into the development process, why quality assurance is about much more than simply playing the game and more!

David - ATS Map QA Lead

"Hey, fellow truckers! My name is David, and I'm 28 years old. I joined SCS as a junior tester when I was just 20, and at the time, I was the youngest employee in the entire company. Today, I'm the QA Lead for ATS map testing. That means I organize and oversee the testing of all ATS map DLCs, communicate with the leads of our map design teams, solve the most complex issues and bugs we encounter, and simply be there for my team whenever they need help. Over the years, I've seen SCS Software grow from a team of around 100 employees into a company of more than 400. When I joined, we were working on the Oregon DLC, and it has been incredible to see how our development and testing processes have evolved and improved alongside our expanding game worlds."

Ivan - World Map Design QA Lead

"Hi everyone! My name is Ivan, and I've been with SCS Software for a little over six years. I started out as a junior tester, but soon after, I took on the responsibility of overseeing map testing for Euro Truck Simulator 2. Today, my role is World Map Design QA Lead, and I manage our entire map testing team, which currently consists of 20 people. Together, we oversee testing for both American Truck Simulator and Euro Truck Simulator 2. While my colleague Davincillo handles the day to day management of ATS, my main focus over the years has remained on ETS2." 

When people hear "game testing" they often imagine that you simply get to play games all day. How different is the reality?

"Map testing is definitely not just playing the game all day. That's a classic myth. While the 'playing' aspect certainly has its place, it really only happens during the final stages of our testing process. The reality is far more methodical. We spend hours, or even days, testing one specific part of the map. We drive through the same stretch of road multiple times, checking completely different things on each pass while using different camera views and debug tools.

Simply playing the game is not enough to be a good tester. There is a specific skill set you need, these include attention to detail, a logical and analytical mindset, a good understanding of game industry standards, and a passion for making games more enjoyable for others. Communication skills are also vital because finding a bug is only half of the job. The other half is making sure the right people understand the issue. Ultimately, a good tester should save developers time. Instead of simply reporting that 'something is wrong,' a proper report explains the issue, how to reproduce it, what causes it, and potentially how it could be fixed."

What does a typical day look like for a QA Lead?

"Every day is a little different, but it generally consists of a mix of meetings, coordination, and oversight. Most of my time is spent assigning work, tracking testing progress, reviewing reported bugs, and regularly syncing with developers. Some days are calm and focused on planning, while others are all about solving unexpected, fast-moving issues. A large part of the job involves working closely with the team, discussing the bugs we find, figuring out the best approach, and deciding together what needs the most urgent attention."

What are some of the main things your teams are looking for when testing the game?

"It heavily depends on the stage of production. In the early stages, we focus mostly on the road network itself, its layout, and ensuring the drive is smooth. A big part of this phase is also checking the functionality of the economy and verifying the placement of game elements such as gas stations, companies, and truck dealers. In the later stages, our focus shifts to the AI's ability to navigate the road network, alongside visual polish, correct signage, and core gameplay. This is also when we examine performance across different areas to identify and fix any problematic frame rate drops.

Broadly speaking, we focus on almost everything related to the map. That includes road layouts and collisions, the job economy, gas station distribution, sleep areas and service locations, the UI map and its icons, direction blockers, road markings, traffic signs, speed limits, traffic lights, navigation and voice guidance, garage cutscenes, AI trajectories, triggers, quality consistency, scene logic, terrain, vegetation, world and country borders, asset collisions, gaps in terrain, floating objects, performance-heavy locations, environmental sounds and more!"

What do you enjoy most about working in QA?

"Being a game tester is a dream job for many people, and in many ways, it really is. There is an incredibly rewarding feeling in knowing that you're the safety net protecting the player's immersion and helping make the game better for everyone. It's deeply satisfying to watch a messy, broken build gradually turn into a polished world that millions of people will enjoy driving through. 

When a new DLC is released and you see players talking about how smooth the roads feel, how great the scenery looks, or how well everything runs, it's a fantastic feeling. You can look at that and think, 'Yeah, my team helped build that.'"

When a new map DLC or major update enters testing, how do you approach such a large project from start to finish?

"The QA process often begins before production even starts. We provide early feedback on concepts to avoid known issues before development kicks off. Once production begins, we use an agile testing approach, working through multiple iterations throughout development rather than waiting until the very end to deliver one massive list of issues.

Our systematic testing process is divided into four iterations and an economy test. The first iteration focuses entirely on road layouts, ensuring roads, turns, and slopes are safely drivable, even with the longest trailers and low-power engines. The economy test then verifies that companies generate jobs correctly and that cities provide a healthy variety of destinations. As development progresses, later iterations shift towards visual quality, gameplay consistency, and overall polish.

To make testing manageable, we divide each project into smaller sections, sometimes resulting in dozens or even hundreds of individual tasks covering specific roads and cities. These are tracked throughout development, allowing us to revisit the same areas at different stages. We use maps, checklists, internal tools, and bug-tracking systems to ensure every square mile is covered, while also encouraging testers to explore freely because unexpected issues are often found where nobody would think to look."

Many players only see the finished product. Roughly how much testing goes into a map expansion, update, or feature before release? Does it differ depending on what needs testing?

"There is a massive amount of testing involved, and it differs greatly depending on the project. Smaller projects, such as special event maps, can be thoroughly tested in just a few days. On the other hand, a huge project like the Nordic Horizons expansion takes thousands of hours of rigorous testing before it is ready for release.

Every single road, city, company, gas station, sleep area, tollgate, and ferry is tested at least four times, with a different tester each time. To give some insight into the scale, our Mantis bug tracker recorded 6,849 reports for the Illinois DLC, while South Dakota has generated 6,318 reports so far. These reports range from tiny holes in the terrain that are almost impossible to notice to major bugs that can cause the game to crash. Every report is assigned a priority and severity level so that the most serious issues are addressed first."

How closely do QA teams work with map designers, programmers, artists, and other departments throughout development?

"We work very closely across departments because testing is integrated throughout the entire development cycle. As map QA, we collaborate most closely with the map design and art teams. While the majority of our day-to-day communication happens through reports in the Mantis bug tracker, we also actively discuss issues through private messages on our internal chat system, and arrange direct meetings whenever an issue is important enough. Our interaction with the programming department is mostly on a need-to-know basis, usually when there is an issue involving erratic AI behaviour or when a brand-new code feature is being implemented directly into the map."

What tools or methods help you track, reproduce, and report issues efficiently?

"We rely on several internal systems that are connected to one another to track individual bugs and the overall progress of a DLC. We use a specialised internal reporting tool that allows a tester to submit a bug directly from the game or the map editor into our central bug-tracking database. Within a few minutes, the report appears and can even be viewed directly inside the map editor itself. This allows map designers to immediately see the exact issue within their active workspace and resolve it much more efficiently, saving a significant amount of time throughout development."

If there's one thing you'd like for people to better understand about QA and the work your teams do, what would it be?

"We'd like players to understand that map testing is a highly skilled, technical job, not simply driving around looking at the scenery or casually stumbling across a floating tree. In reality, a good tester is part detective and part data analyst. If we come across a strange physics bump on a highway or see AI traffic piling up at a roundabout, we don't just report it and move on. We have to understand exactly why it's happening. Translating what is broken on the road into actionable, structured information that our developers can easily understand and fix takes time, patience, and deep knowledge of the game."

What is one aspect of QA work that you think players would be most surprised to learn about?

"Players would probably be surprised by just how much knowledge about the game and real-world infrastructure you need to become a good tester. Our team has to maintain a solid understanding of complex internal game rules, real-world traffic laws, and regional layout standards across different countries. 

It's similar to the difference between someone who owns a truck and knows how to drive it and a mechanic who can remove the entire engine, take it apart piece by piece, and put it back together again. Becoming a highly skilled map tester can take years, and many testers naturally become specialists in certain areas of the game because they spend so much time working with those specific systems behind the scenes."

Have you encountered any particularly memorable, unusual, or funny bugs during your time at SCS Software?

Ivan: "Absolutely. Simulators have incredibly complex physics engines, and when things go wrong, they go wrong hilariously. It never gets old seeing an AI vehicle catapulted straight into space. Sometimes, our map designers also leave creative little surprises or jokes for us to discover during development, although we always make sure they don't make it into the live version of the game.

David: "One memorable moment happened while I was parking at a company prefab. I heard a train horn somewhere in the distance, and the sound kept getting louder until suddenly it was right next to me. The only problem was that there was no train there, and there weren't even any railway tracks nearby. A moment later, something invisible hit my truck and launched it all the way across the company. For a few seconds, I genuinely thought I had discovered a haunted company prefab."

How valuable are bug reports and feedback from the community when helping improve the game?

"Community feedback is extremely valuable to us. While our internal QA process is thorough, there are always issues that slip through, and players help us catch them by spotting details or inconsistencies that we might miss. What makes community feedback especially useful is the context players provide. Many are very familiar with the real-world locations we recreate, so they can quickly point out inaccuracies that would otherwise be difficult for us to notice. They also encounter a huge variety of gameplay situations, which helps surface edge cases that are hard to reproduce internally.

"In many cases, a well written report from the community can save us hours of investigation because players provide screenshots, videos, logs, save files, and clear reproduction steps."

Do you have a message for our community?

"A huge thank you for your support, feedback, and for riding along with us for so many years. It's an amazing feeling to work on a game where the players care just as much about the world as the people who build it. Your dedication pushes everyone at the studio to keep raising the bar with every new state, country, and feature. Safe travels, and we'll see you out on the road!"

We'd like to thank both David and Ivan for taking the time out of their busy days to chat with us about their roles in QA and how the team plays such an integral part in bringing our truck simulator titles to life. We hope you've learned a little more about the work that goes on behind the scenes. If you enjoyed this edition of Under the Hood, be sure to leave them a message in the comments below or on our social media channels. Until next time, keep on truckin'! 

Under the Hood: Producer for the Coaches project with Dominik

Are you curious about how our Coaches DLC for Euro Truck Simulator 2 is being created? You're in luck! Today, we're giving you a behind-the-scenes look at this upcoming expansion. We interviewed Dominik, the producer of Project Coaches, who will share a few insights.

"Hi, I'm Dominik, and I'm the producer of the Coaches DLC. Even before I joined SCS, I was very interested in coaches, waiting for news, and looking forward to what SCS would come up with. When I moved into the role of a producer, and we were discussing what project I could take on, coaches were the obvious choice. It's a very interesting project with a long history, but one that has been stagnating for many years. Taking it on and seeing it through to completion is a challenge. I'm very happy to have been given this opportunity and to be able to work with the team on this great project," he shares with us.

Dominik has been with our team for several years, and his path to becoming a producer for the Coaches project has provided him with strong, relevant experience.

"I joined SCS as a map designer for the Italia DLC. I gradually worked my way up to map lead, and after a few years, I moved to the position of a producer. This prepared me quite well for Coaches' development. I had extensive knowledge of the map and coach station coverage, I was familiar with the map development process, asset submission, and managing large numbers of people and tasks. Of course, there were many other challenges ahead of me. Working with the game design and programming teams was new to me, and overall, it was a more agile project with more unknowns than in map development," Dominik told us.

So, what exactly does a producer do on a project like this? Dominik gave us a clear overview of his responsibilities and how they all come together to ensure the project's success.

"The main focus of this position is coordination. My job is to ensure that the whole team pulls together, that everyone knows what they are supposed to do, and that they have all the necessary resources and information to reach our common goal as quickly as possible. Sometimes it is necessary to secure additional capacity and work outside the team; for example, when we discovered that we couldn't render such a large number of raindrops due to the large windows on coaches. This problem concerned the rendering team, as no one within our team could solve it. I try to keep track of the direction of development so that I can quickly respond to any changes that may arise," he explains.

Of course, a project like this doesn't come without its challenges. Dominik talked about some of the hurdles involved and how he works through them.

"The difficult thing is to keep the scope of the project under control. We and the community have lots of ideas and expectations about what could be incorporated, but we need to remember that our team is relatively small and we don't want this project to drag on for another 5 years; we want to get it to our players as soon as possible. So we need to carefully choose what we focus on now and what we will develop in future updates."

Dominik also explains the core design thinking behind making this game mode feel distinct from trucks while still fitting naturally into the existing game.

"The basic question we asked ourselves was what makes coaches different and how to make them unique. The answer, of course, was the passengers. Not only can they be seen inside the vehicle, but the player must also drive more carefully; they should not slam on the brakes or make sharp turns if they want to avoid a penalty. Last but not least, we are also working on sounds so that the player is aware of the passengers thanks to the sounds. At the same time, we are mindful that the primary focus of the game is still trucks, and coaches are an addition, so we don't want to get bogged down in simulating the management of a coach company or hiring drivers," Dominik shares with us.

The team working on Coaches is still relatively small, but there are a lot of people joining the project in consulting roles, for example, but don't work on it directly. 

"We have put together the core gameplay with a team of four: a producer, a game designer, a programmer, and a tester. Then there is a branch of the team that takes care of the map, where we have a researcher and currently two map designers – one deals with coach stops, the other with map modifications necessary for the proper functioning of coaches, such as border crossings. And of course, the QA at the end. Finally, we have the vehicle part, consisting primarily of two vehicle designers and also QA. If I were to add up all the various additional consultants, asset designers, physics programmers, marketing, etc., I would say that a total of about 20 people are working on the coaches," he says.

For Dominik, this project has been something of a dream come true. Having wanted to work in this area since childhood, he is a natural fit for the producer role.

"Ever since I was little, I've been a fan of anything with wheels, and I couldn't wait to get my driver's license so I could drive myself. I liked to sit at the front of the bus and watch everything the driver had to do, how he had to take corners, check his mirrors, make sure he had the engine brake on, and so forth. When I couldn't drive myself, I at least explored what the gaming world had to offer. I played games from SCS, at that time the 18 Wheels of Steel series, almost every day, and Bus Driver was a must. I didn't become a bus driver, but I still play simulators, not only those from SCS but other titles as well," he explains.

What Dominik enjoys most about his work is being both a fan of simulators and being closely involved in the development process.

"I can try out internal builds as features are gradually added and the project comes together. I can see the progress. I can go through it and see how we are moving forward, and everything that was once just ideas on paper is now really working in the game. It was great to organize an internal playtest where we watched various colleagues who haven't had much contact with the project drive the coaches. It was great to see their reactions and suggestions," he says.

Apart from the fact that players will be able to try out different vehicles in the game, Dominik believes it will be the passenger satisfaction system that they will enjoy the most. "Players have to balance arriving at the stop on time with not driving too fast and upsetting the passengers. This adds a whole new dimension to the gameplay that players haven't experienced in our games before," he shares with us.

For the Coaches DLC, the team looked for inspiration everywhere possible, as Dominik says: "We looked at our older game, Bus Driver. Of course, we browse forums and other sources for ideas from the community, we have a person on our team as a consultant, who worked as a bus driver for many years, and last but not least, we also looked at other games in a similar genre."

He also believes that this project won't end with the release, as they already have some future plans. "Of course, I don't want to make any empty promises about what we might deliver a year after release, but we want to continue working on the project, and we have further plans and updates for it. For example, we are currently exploring cooperation with other long-distance coach manufacturers. We would also like to further support the tourist aspect of the game and take players to places that are attractive to tourists, thereby guiding them through the scenic locations we are building in the game," Dominik hints.

And at the end of the blog, he has a short message for our #BestCommunityEver. "In conclusion, I would like to say that I am really looking forward to the release. I hope that the coaches will entertain the community. I look forward to reviews and reaction videos, and I believe that this will encourage SCS in a similar way as do the positive reactions to Nordic Horizons and Louisiana," Dominik says.

We hope you liked this peek behind the curtains of this upcoming expansion. Don't forget to add the Coaches DLC to your Steam wishlist! If you want to keep track of future updates, make sure to follow us on X/Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and YouTube, or sign up for our newsletter. Until next time, happy travels!