ETS2 update 1.9 is live

The highly anticipated AI update (and also the largest update so far) for Euro Truck Simulator 2 has just been released for everyone.

It took us a while, but it's finally here! We want to say thanks for amazing support of everyone who has helped us with beta testing and reporting remaining problems with this patch. We have been through a very rigorous public feedback loop - and over 20 intermittent beta builds! It has taken us longer than we anticipated to finalize the game update, but as a bonus we have managed to work around critical compatibility problems with several popular mod packages.

As mentioned in the previous blog post, this update doesn't include only AI changes, but also other improvements.

Code:

• Brand new traffic AI system;
• Oculus Rift support (with the -oculus launch option - this will be improved in the future), now also in the retail version;
• Early support for gamepad-controlled mouse cursor;
• Improved handling of automatic gearbox (more gears, interaction with cruise control);
• Improved compatibility with semi-broken prefabs used in mods;
• Improved error handling in radio playback;
• Updated defaults for the Xbox 360 controller in the input wizard to provide a better initial experience.

Models:

• Scania Streamline improvements (model, textures, paint jobs, new parts and accessories) - you may need visit truck dealer and re-purchase some parts;
• Volvo FH16 improvements (interior, wipers, shadows);
• Iveco Hi-way improvements (dashboard computer, shadows);
• Paintjobs are properly applied on add-ons in interior views;
• Map improvements.

Sound:

• V8 engine sounds for Scania R and Scania Streamline.

The full list of changes through public betas is listed in this Steam discussion thread.

Steam version will be updated automatically, retail patch can be found on the update page. We expect high amount of people trying to download this update and we are fairly sure our server won't handle it, so consider activating your key on Steam and downloading it much faster from Steam servers.

Modding info

If you want to make a mod for ETS2 or if your existing mod doesn't work in 1.9, please read 1.9 modding changes.

If you are using mods and some of them don't work, please be patient. ProMods with support for 1.9 will be released today (thanks guys for your bug reports for 1.9!), other map and physics mods (this includes weather mods etc. which can change physics values) may not work correctly.

Euro Truck Simulator 1.9 Open Beta

It has taken us a lot of fine-tuning, but finally we are very close to releasing the 1.9 update for Euro Truck Simulator 2.

We have spent considerable time in closed beta testing, and we feel the stability of the build is now very solid. That's why we would like to invite everybody in our fanbase for the final check. Hopefully, if things prove solid under such a scrutiny, the final official retail/Steam update may only be hours or at worst days away from us.

We are making the open beta only available on Steam. We know that there might be grumbling about it, but as each additional publicly available patch causes future patches to get bigger and take longer to apply, we try hard to avoid having to release hot-fixes to major game updates.

The 1.9 update is one of the largest patches we have ever worked on, hence the long time to wrap it up. Work on the new vehicle AI code has actually started even before ETS2 was released, some year and a half ago, but we gave it all the time it needed to mature. It replaces the entire traffic AI code with a new system. Its far more flexible, and it is paving the way for yet more improvements in the future (country-specific behavior of traffic lights is a much needed planned feature for the future for example).

We would like to thank everybody actively participating in our closed beta group for help and feedback. We were also fortunate to have one of the beta testers already prepare a little comparison clip showing the changes in the AI, thanks Tomáš!


You will find the 1.9 update in the branch "public_beta" on Steam (Library -> right click on ETS2 -> Properties -> Betas -> select public_beta). Make sure to back up your player profile so that you have a way to revert back to older version of the game if needed. Please use our Message Board to provide technical issues feedback, it allows for better parsing of the info for everybody rather than just blog comments: http://forum.scssoft.com/viewforum.php?f=143. Thanks!

To recap the highlights of the 1.9 patch:

Code:

• Brand new traffic car AI system;
• Improved maneuverability, touches to suspension and collision physics (more work planned still);
• Early support for Oculus Rift and gamepad-controlled mouse cursor;
• Improved handling of automatic gearbox (more gears, interaction with cruise control);
• Improved compatibility with semi-broken prefabs used in mods;
• Improved error handling in radio playback.

Models:

• Scania Streamline improvements (model, textures, paint jobs, new parts and accessories) - you may need visit truck dealer and re-purchase some parts;
• Volvo FH16 improvements (interior, wipers, shadows);
• Iveco Hi-way improvements (dashboard computer, shadows);
• Paintjobs are properly applied on add-ons in interior views;
• Map improvements.

Sound:

• V8 engine sounds for Scania R and Scania Streamline.

Bus Driver - Pocket Edition

Several exciting things happening within a very short time span now! Today is a first for us - Bus Driver, one of our older games, has received mobile treatment.

Bus Driver - Pocket Edition is now out on Apple's App Store.

The game was ported to iOS by our publishing partner Meridian4; we were not involved in the work on the port directly, but we have provided a ton of feedback. The iPad/iPhone version of the game is trying to stay as true to the original as possible, given the limitation of the device and input controls of course. The game looks quite promising, and the developer of this port still has improvements and more content for the game lined up for future updates.

For the time being, our own focus is squarely at Windows/Linux/Mac versions of our sims for internal development (and there is no need to remind us that the Mac OS port of ETS2 is taking longer than anybody would like, but trust us, we are still working hard on it). However, we need to understand if it would make sense to expand to other platforms. The bigger the snowball gets, the faster it may roll. So we'll be curious to see what happens with this mobile experiment. Keep your fingers crossed! And of course, for Apple gadget fans, if you happen to fancy returning back to our old but evergreen Bus Driver game on a new platform, we wouldn't mind you buying the game! ;)

Scania Truck Driving Simulator is now on Steam!

As you may remember, Scania TDS has been Greenlit on Steam back in October of last year already. We would like to express big thanks to everyone who supported us by voting for the game! Today, the game finally becomes available on Steam. We have been so busy working on improvements for ETS2 and ATS that none of programmers managed to find the time for preparing the game for Steam distribution until now.

If you already own the retail version of Scania TDS and want to have it in your Steam library, you don't need to purchase it again of course. All you need to do is to activate your retail key on Steam - read this Steam Support article to see how to do it.

We are really happy that millions of Steam users will get a chance to try our game. For many of you this game is an old story by now, but we would appreciate if you could still help us - share screenshots on Steam, write a review, make videos and put them in the Steam game hub, join discussions. We are keen to see your contributions. The better the game is accepted during its re-launch in digital distribution, the more resources SCS can invest back into further development of our truck simulators.

We took the opportunity to update the game with new content, too - all Scania TDS customers can download a new update to version 1.6  It includes 2 additional Dangerous Drives levels: "Power Plant Repair" and "Commercial Shooting", and 1 additional Competition level: "Bonus 4." This update is already included in the Steam version. Retail update is on the update page.

You may also be aware that this game has been developed in close cooperation with Scania to promote their Scania Driver Competitions - to quote their press release, "the world’s largest truck driving and training event."

By chance, the release of the game update coincides with the start of a new round of Scania Driver Competitions - "The Scania Driver Competitions 2014 will be the sixth edition of the international event since it began back in 2003. The 2014 competition hopes to attract more than 85,000 truck drivers from 40 countries." Scania has a a funny viral YouTube clip promoting the start of the competitions:

Sound Recording Session - Scania Recovery Truck

We hear you loud and clear - yes indeed, we are taking longer with the 1.9 ETS2 update than we anticipated. Sorry about that. Things have been looking very good for some time already, we are almost there, but we always find out from the beta testing feedback that a tweak is needed here or there. Rather than rushing the patch out, we prefer to tune it until we are happy, you know that this is the way we prefer to work. This upcoming update is of course not the end of the road - we have quite a roadmap of improvements for the game still planned for 2014 and beyond!

To prove that we are still around, here is a little video from a sound recording event we performed over a week ago already, finally we managed to cut it into a cool YouTube movie...

There's always something to improve...

Today's post digest: state of the upcoming ETS2 1.9 patch, sneak peek at graphics team work in the area of vegetation.

We know that you are eagerly anticipating the release of Euro Truck simulator 2 update 1.9; we hear your complaints that already quite some time ago we hinted that it would be out "soon." We definitely do not want to delay the release, but thorough testing in closed beta keeps revealing more and more little yet annoying problems and bugs. We'd like to make a good impression right out of the bat, even in the planned open beta pre-release, so we would like to ask you for a bit more patience. It's not just tuning and bug fixing, now that we are close to release, there is also significant effort under way so that we don't ruin the work of mod makers with the new update. Existing mods out there unfortunately too often contain semi-broken assets and data, and we need to add backwards-compatibility layer into our data loading code to workaround the problems. Hopefully important existing mods won't break too badly and can be fixed where necessary and made compatible with the updated game.

Shifting gears a little.

Our graphics teams are always thinking about how we could improve the visual perception of the game world. We though you might like a sneak peak into raw graphics development, sort of a glance under the hood of what's coming...

One such area of graphics improvements is vegetation. Perhaps our current vegetation is 'good enough' for some, but we see that there is still plenty of work ahead of us on improving it. We always felt we could push for more variety to further distinguish the feeling of driving in various countries; also mix up some bushes between trees, add different tree types, and even improve the look and feel for the grass... Overall going for little more realistic feel.

Here are some work in progress screenshots, and the references that the graphics team is using during their discussions:

A Few Quick Renders

...done today, ahead of an important visit to a certain company in Kirkland, WA, USA...

(Work in Progress. Please note that any presence of real brands in the game is only tentative until officially confirmed)

And the winners are...

Greetings!

Finally we are ready to announce the winners for our Christmas and The New Year 2014 paint job competition.

Needless to say how hard it was to pick just 3 winners. We felt it wouldn't be fair to limit the prizes to so few submissions where there were more great quality entries. Instead we opted to recognize and award a dozen winners!

And the winners' paint jobs are:

You may view all the participants in the World of Trucks's Editor Pick's section.

We will contact each of the winner you by World of Truck's email address with further steps of prize delivery.
Our congratulations to the winners and thank all of you for participation!

Paint Job Competition update

Happy New Year everybody!

We thank all of you who found the time and eagerness to participate in our Christmas and The New Year Paint Job Competition. On the World of Trucks Editor's Pick section you may see plenty of awesome truck paint artworks. Obviously we have quite a hard time to pick the best three, but the results will be announced shortly.

There is plenty of awesomeness coming your way in 2014. SCS team size has nearly doubled in size since the release of ETS2, and we plan to keep on growing this year to increase the pace of development. We are still learning to operate as a bigger company, but with the great opportunities on the horizon, with the grand vision of what our current simple truck sims could and should evolve into, we are taking the risk and throwing in all we have.

One of the most important topics for the beginning of the year is American Truck Simulator. Soon we would like to make a series of posts talking in depth about it. Please take note that the release date of "stage 1" of the project is still not settled, we still have work to do. Any release date you see published on the Internet is pure speculation coming from distributors or merchants.

Also with the fresh power gained during holidays the team is preparing Steam beta build 1.9 for Euro Truck Simulator 2. The most prominent features are reworked truck physics with improved truck-trailer stability and improved suspension behavior, and finally the new AI traffic code. Please bear with us, we are still in private beta testing and tuning mode.