The changes that we are introducing with the 1.40 update for both American Truck Simulator and Euro Truck Simulator 2 have been visible to the public for some time now, in the currently still ongoing Open Beta builds. By far the most visible change is the new lighting system, which has turned out to be the largest graphical rework for us in years. In today's blog post we would like to reveal more about what we have been through to make this change happen; let's take a look under the hood once again.




Our 3D engine's approach to representing light and color in scenes - and in the rendering buffers that end up being displayed on-screen - has been established over a decade ago. It was an era when the state of the art was to represent all RGB values in the 0-255 numerical range, to fit inside a byte of information. That's how all values were defined, whether in a texel of a texture map (the "skin" of a 3D object, a tree, vehicle, or skybox), or in the encoding of a light source's intensity (from a vehicle's tail lights to street lamps, all the way to the sun intensity), and combining all these in the rendering stage into a pixel; it was again the representation in the display buffer to be shown on the screen, with only 256 shades of each base color.

In recent years, the explosion of available memory in 3D accelerators, the progress in computational power, and flexibility in shading languages for programming 3D cards' operations on fragments have opened the way to store and compute color and light values at much higher precision and range - with floating-point numbers. Instead of just layering color filter operations, which was, essentially, all the tricks that we had available in the 8-bits per color component era, the switch to using real numbers is quite a revolution in how a game engine can truly represent light sources in realistic ranges and ratios. In the real world, the difference between a light bulb's intensity and the sunlight is many orders of magnitude. If we are able to store the intensity values of light sources properly, and more importantly to perform all the light vs. surface operations at their proper ranges of values, without a major loss of precision, we can do true high dynamic range (HDR) light in the graphics pipeline. When we started experimenting with the new technique some 18 months ago and saw the first results, there was no way back for us, we knew we wanted this in the engine. 

We had to start with the light sources (and for a while, we were hopeful that this will suffice). Each and every light source is now defined with a realistic value gleaned from real-world measurements (we have done a ton of sampling with a light meter over various daylight and weather settings) and reference tables. In reality as well as in the game world now, tens of thousands of lux units now brighten day scenes, while at night the ambient brightness approaches just a few lux units. Basing all light source values on reality gives us way more confidence as opposed to the old days when a new light would just fit into the system. It's no longer a question of should it be a 150 or 170 with no actual meaning to the values. Now we know and have tables to pick for a street lamp or a neon light at a gas station. In light computation formulas, we can now go with proper quadratic drop attenuation, to have lights behave in a physically-correct manner. With the higher precision, we can even go as far as introducing a small random variation in light intensity to otherwise identical light sources, to simulate a street's night feeling better, without having unnaturally-identical lamps.

When all the internal light computations are done, we have to adjust the resulting values for the screen by emulating camera exposure. Much like a modern camera in your mobile phone, we need to take all the rich values and variety of incoming light - sun or shade, early morning, high noon, dusk, or deep night - and "squish" or "expand" the values into the range appropriate for the screen. Our exposure emulation system has a critical impact on the final look and feel of the game - it's partly physics, but also partly about a subjective artistic feeling too. It has to be adjusted dynamically not just based on incoming light from the game world, but it also has to take into account the difference between the light inside and outside of a vehicle's cabin, to allow dashboard instruments to be legible. The human eye is an incredible creation, able to adjust and adapt to a vast range of light intensities as focus switches between objects. We had to use a lot of smart math when analyzing the light histogram for each frame and between frames to fit all these values into the screen's inevitably limited dynamic range and color gamut, in order to make everything that's portrayed both believable and discernible. Some improvements were a cherry on top, like the fact that with the internal range of floating-point buffers of cube maps, we can have much shinier reflections off of glossy surfaces, such as water bodies, glass, or car paint. We have followed this development path in a small team happily until the realization that while the intermedia results were promising, we won't be able to pull this off without re-balancing ALL the existing materials/textures on all game objects. When a ray of light is cast on the surface of any object, what is reflected or refracted depends not just on the properties of the incoming light, but largely on the properties of the object's surface. Over the many years of development, we have accumulated tens of thousands of textures, some from photographic sources at various settings, some painted by hand, some through the process of procedural generation in various smart tools. As the years went by, the authoring of these sources has been subject to various schools of thought, or different creation pipelines, but the "old light" system was held together by the proverbial duct tape and was in any case imprecise enough to reveal certain imbalances that were present. The new exposure emulation system is way more sensitive and simply requires physically correct brightness albedo values. Our concrete surface can no longer be some sort of grey, and a tree cannot just be nice and green. And that was when a vast majority of our art team had to be involved for a major overhaul.

Once our small pioneering cross-discipline team implemented all of the necessary code and GPU shader changes, which took many months of experimentation, we had to involve a lot more people. First, we had to readjust all the light sources in the world and any vehicle lights to the new logic. In some cases, it was a relatively trivial numeric conversion somewhere in a table. In others, it may have required a map designer to revisit a particular location to make the manual adjustment. In many cases, it meant that a game object like a whole factory or delivery yard with pre-defined light sources had to be re-opened, adjusted, and re-exported again in a 3D tool like Maya. We are talking thousands and thousands of such retouches, in some cases involving not just a few dozen "numbers" defining lights, but also major changes to lightmaps of the objects, where fake shadows and light effects were "baked in" for a better look in the old light system. Finally, for some weeks, the majority of all our teams had to stop working on anything else related to our future projects, and go over all the game objects, vegetation, vehicles, and effects; re-balancing things, again and again, to sync them on a shared agreed-upon albedo reference table. We had to revisit the fundamentals of many sub-systems, very notably the vehicle lights and bulbs taking many iterations and fine-tuning to make them look good at various daylight settings. We have a new set of skyboxes at a higher resolution, and a slightly richer variety of weather, too. Ultimately, no stone was left unturned, as we had to evaluate and adjust every single element of the games.

The new light system and the start of our new physical light model is a critical step towards a complete and better physical model of the whole world in our games. We are not quite there yet with true physically based rendering, but the 1.40 update represents a major step in the right direction. Cleaning up the old art and basing all light intensities and operations on fundamental physics make future systemic work in this area finally possible. As with many things in long-term development, while this step is a minor revolution, it is at the same time only a milestone towards a bigger vision. 

From the graphics artists' point of view (but this applies to mod authors, too!), we are introducing a new concept of creating and keeping all game art "in check" and in balance with the rest of the art. Materials based on photos, frequently used as sources of in-game art, now have to go through a calibration process before they are applicable, otherwise one may end up with a surface that is either too dark or too bright, affecting the exposure and the perception of the general scene. Often, it's worth exploring alternate material creation methods, like the high-resolution procedural generation in tools like Substance Designer. More trust is placed into the engine's rendering system now; rather than faking and baking subtle shadows and light effects into models. Between new light and SSAO, our shader code now plays a greater part in creating the final look; this results in a bit less responsibility, control, and possibly work from the artist. This may be both good and bad depending on what one is trying to achieve in each particular case.

As with each major change, there were a ton of teething problems, a lot of dead-ends to reverse from, and the amount of effort we have been through far exceeded the expectations we had a year ago. We still have a bit of Open Beta ahead of us to iron out the last few wrinkles. But even now, we are very confident that the changes are worth all the hard work. Just wait until you drive your truck in the early morning hours along with the coast of Italy, or on a nice late afternoon in Sweden, in a drizzle in Washington state, during scorching noon in Spain, or pulling into a well-lit truck stop deep into the night. Through all the process of changes, we tried our best not to cause any major increase in the load on the CPU or GPU. A few of the new effects have a slightly higher performance cost, but overall we believe the changes are very well balanced, or allow for sensible trade-offs in game options, to keep the performance acceptable. We definitely do not want to lose players and fans that play our games without the newest hardware by pushing too hard on graphical effects. We are looking forward to bringing you further improvements and new features, so hold on to your steering wheels!

More of a fan of changelogs? Let's look at:

The major internal changes

• The scene is lit using real-life intensities (illumination: tens of thousands of lux for the daytime, tens of lux at night)
  
• To get light ratios into play - the rising sun overpowering street lamp lights and truck headlights, etc. This means we had to adjust all light sources and also readjust every emissive material in the game.
  
• We have a new display mapping function for better artistic control (exposure, contrast, toe, shoulder)
  
• We needed to get those real-life intensities onto the computer screen in a similar way as a camera's exposure works.
  
• Improved and more sensitive histogram for exposure selection
  
• This is due to the actual exposure being selected differently in every scene, and this varies also with differing light levels and the current weather type.
  
• Light source (street lamps, vehicle lights) changes.
  
• We have switched light sources to a more physical attenuation ('inverse square falloff').
  
• We are in the process of switching to a physical-unit-based configuration to reduce guesswork.
  
  But also many smaller visual tweaks
  
• Relightable reflection
  
• Reflections in shop windows and smooth surfaces better matches the time of day and weather
  
• Improved reflection behavior
  
• On truck paint, shop windows, and glass in general
  
• Sun horizon shadow
  
• Visible when the sun rises or sets
  
• And a zillion other small tweaks, fixes, and changes.

As you can imagine by now - all this has been a tremendous amount of work for our team. The initial bright spark (pun intended) that made this all possible came from a small team of programmers and a visual effects artist (pictured below). They have kept hacking, iterating, and laying out plans until the whole team had it "easy", and all that was left to do was just to throw in many years of additional man-hours to adjust everything to the new logic. 

The new light system, just as the implementation of FMOD support for the SFX part of our games, is still under further development, polishing, and tuning. And there is still a lot of work ahead of us. At this juncture, we feel that it's already more or less in a presentable shape, and you may experience it too if you decide to give it a try in an open beta build right now on Steam.

So please, if you'd like to help us - put on your favorite sunglasses and help us catch the perfect sunrise! We're looking forward to reading your thoughts and opinions on the new light system. Thank you very much!

Today, we are taking a closer look at the Portuguese city of Porto. Located in the beautiful Douro valley surrounded by famous vineyards, it's a place with rich history dating back to the 4th century. For drivers, however, it is best known as the central commercial and industrial hub for the north of the Mondego River. So what can drivers discover in the city of Porto in our upcoming Iberia DLC for Euro Truck Simulator 2? Let us show you around! 



Porto is the second-largest city in Portugal and the capital of its Northern Region. Located along the Douro River (River of Gold), the city is characterized by cobblestone streets, centuries-old churches, and historical landmarks. 

The fishing industry plays an important role in the local economy of Porto. Some of the most common fish that are caught off the coast are sardines and hake, which are then sold at local markets across the city. Other food produce grown locally include beans, oranges, olives, and olive oil, which are also exported from nearby ports to countries around the world.

Are you ready to visit Porto? And what about other cities? In past articles, we already travelled together through Barcelona, Lisbon, and Madrid, plus a short visit to some of the newly-added French cities coming as a free update for Vive la France ! DLC as part of the 1.40 update. 

But we know that you are so excited to see more. We hear you loud and clear, from your posts on our forum to our social media channels, and as a massive spam wave of the letter "M" during our Iberia gameplay live stream, trying to convince us to open and show you the entire Iberia map. Here it is! 



Just look at that! Better fill your tanks, because the amount of new content to explore is going to be massive! While giving us a bit more time to get everything ready for you, you can still consider adding Iberia for Euro Truck Simulator 2 to your Steam Wishlist; this helps us a lot! 

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1209460/Euro_Truck_Simulator_2__Iberia/

Over the past few months, we have started teasing the next next map expansion for Euro Truck Simulator 2, the next major map DLC that will come after Iberia. You may remember seeing a few screenshots in the ETS2 8th-anniversary blogpost, or you may have spotted something in our Christmas Special stream. The community has been abuzz with speculation on what we are going to ultimately reveal. As it turns out, most of your tips were actually spot-on. We are excited to reveal today that you can look forward to driving in the Heart of Russia.


(placeholder title graphics)

After focusing on the southwest of Europe, our eyes are set in the very opposite direction. Our roads will continue to expand into the world's largest country by area, Russia. Home to a rich cultural heritage and history, drivers will be able to deliver to the very heart of Russia - Moscow, and beyond.


To manage expectations, it's important to explain our ambition for the project. Russia is so vast that we cannot expect to include the whole country, we do not even dare to cover the whole of the European part in one project. Our current goal is to reach the upper Volga river, but if you know Russian geography, perhaps think of the Oka river rather than the lower parts of Volga or Don. The size of the territory we plan to cover is huge anyway, comparable to the previous, as of now still upcoming Iberia map expansion.


Over the past few years, you may have gotten accustomed to a certain rhythm of map expansion releases coming towards the end of a year. The pattern has obviously been interrupted now with Iberia taking longer to complete. This affected how we could communicate about our upcoming DLC plans. Typically, starting in January, we would already begin to shower you with various details and work-in-progress pictures from a new map DLC. But with the exception of a few teases, we have kept mostly silent on the Heart of Russia project so far, as we did not want to confuse the community by promoting two upcoming expansions with very different release time frames. Now, with Iberia in the final stretch and a release period already indicated, we think it's time finally to give Heart of Russia a chance to be seen. The project (and the team) deserve to finally come into its own spotlight; the motivation is certainly higher when the team can hear the voice of our fan community's support.




It should be emphasized that we are still very early in development for this project. We cannot commit to a release date at all yet. Even internally, there are many questions on how fast we can progress from where we are now. The core of the Heart of Russia team has been in place since mid-2020. In fact, the project lead, the research team, and the art asset team have all started their work even earlier. The preparatory ramp-up phase for a new ETS2 map DLC usually starts about a year ahead of full production. However, as of now, the team still hasn't been bulked up to the final size, as a dozen or so people who were supposed to migrate over from the Iberia project are still finishing their commitments there. So it's fair to admit that we have not yet achieved the full productivity we have expected to reach at this stage. On the plus side, several new team members hail from Russia, so there is a good chance that we'll avoid losing time iterating on any authenticity errors, as it sometimes happens when we build places we have limited hands-on experience in the team. How much is this all going to affect the usual release pattern? It's still too early to tell. We are making excellent progress on some areas of the project, so we may remain hopeful, but please set your expectations accordingly. You already know us well - we release a new map expansion only when we feel that it's really done, not earlier!




With that said, we look forward to sharing more information and updates on this exciting addition to the Euro Truck Simulator 2 world. Looking forward to exploring the Heart of Russia already? Be sure to add it to your Steam Wishlist! It really aids us with the development and release of our content and we thank you for your ongoing support!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1536500/Euro_Truck_Simulator_2__Heart_of_Russia/

When traveling across the many roads and highways in our upcoming Iberia DLC for Euro Truck Simulator 2, you'll be sure to see a large variety of road signs in different languages spoken across both Spain and Portugal.





The most common road signs you will see will be written in Spanish and Portuguese, which are the 2 most spoken languages across the Peninsula. From informational tollgate signage to speed restriction warnings, our teams have created new and unique designs local to different areas of Iberia.




However, Spanish and Portuguese aren't the only languages spoken in Iberia. Drivers making deliveries in our upcoming DLC for Euro Truck Simulator 2 can also expect to see signage assets written in Basque (spoken around Northern Spain) and Catalan (spoken in the North-eastern parts of Spain). Many of these informational signs that are written in the local languages are often accompanied by a second sign in Spanish, for those who may be traveling from outside the region.




So make sure to keep an eye out for these unique signs around Iberia, which will relay important information to you, the driver!


We know that most of you are on the lookout for a sign of when this upcoming map expansion will be released and today we are happy to share some news with you. Our teams are now polishing and optimizing the map full-time, and finishing the DLC as a whole. The best estimate is that the Iberia DLC may be ready for release in April.


We are not yet ready to set an exact date for you to look forward to, but we wanted to let you know that the finish line is already in-sight!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1209460/Euro_Truck_Simulator_2__Iberia/

While our teams dedicated to the Iberia DLC project are still tirelessly working, polishing, and putting some final touches in, we also wanted to inform you that something special is getting ready to be released with this map expansion as well. And by "special", we really mean special.



Hints and jokes aside, we are talking about content for the Special Transport DLC here. With each new map DLC, we always work hard to bring new routes and missions for the new map as part of a free update to the Special Transport expansion. Today we are happy to announce that Iberia's release will be no different!

Coming with the long-anticipated and largest map expansion we've ever created so far, there will also be some additional content for those who like to haul huge and oversized cargoes. Five new routes for Special Transport missions will be available on the Iberian peninsula, featuring:

Lisbon to Ponte de Sor
Gijón to Navia
Olhão to Setúbal
Madrid to Puertollano
Huelva to Seville

[/u][/b]Do not panic, but be ready as each of these new routes & missions will bring new challenges that will put your driving skills to the test. We suggest getting some practice, setting your seat position, mirrors, and choosing the right drivetrain before departing with any of these massive cargoes attached to your mighty truck. You should also follow the escort vehicles and their instructions, as they will be there to make sure the job goes smoothly.



Can you tell that the Iberia hype is becoming OVERSIZED? Better buckle up because we plan to bring more news about this upcoming map DLC soon! Meanwhile, please consider supporting its release by adding it to your Steam Wishlist, if you haven't done that already.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1209460/Euro_Truck_Simulator_2__Iberia/

Want to see more from Iberia? Then check out this short gameplay video below, too. It was recorded by Michal, also known as MTCougar, our QA Department Lead, as a fun experiment intended for internal use. Using TrackIR, it realistically emulates a driver's perspective. We found the video so cool that we thought it is worth sharing it with you. Please keep in mind that everything shown here is still in a 'work in progress' stage and as we are still tweaking the lighting and fixing map bugs, the final look may be slightly different.

Back in September of last year, two members of our team, Matej & Irenej, travelled to Spain & Portugal to record new sounds for the upcoming Iberia DLC for Euro Truck Simulator 2. Today, we are excited to showcase how these new sounds have been implemented into our sim by them and Filipkooo, who is another one of our colleagues.


Our sound experts travelled across the Iberian Peninsula to capture realistic sounds from industrial and scenic environments alike. Some of the stops along their journey included capturing sounds from ports, industrial zones, truck stops, and a variety of different environments such as coastlines and city streets. We hope you like what you hear!

Want to see and hear more of our upcoming Iberia DLC? Then mark tomorrow (18th February 2021) down in your calendar and join our exclusive Iberia gameplay live stream on Twitch, Steam, or Youtube. Starting from 18:00 CET with your favourite duo Alex and Nemiro, you won't want to miss out!



Also, please do not forget to add the upcoming Iberia DLC into your Steam Wishlist, if you haven't done so already. It means a lot to us and really helps with the continued development and releases for our trucking titles. Thank you!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1209460/Euro_Truck_Simulator_2__Iberia/

Towards the end of January, we introduced to you #HaulingHope, a World of Trucks event focused on recognizing the selfless drivers and support crews that are working hard to deliver COVID-19 vaccines around the world. Today, after an event extension and over a month later, hundreds of thousands of truckers from our Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator community have participated in this special and memorable event.



The task was to complete 7 deliveries, undamaged, using our special #HaulingHope trailers, which many of you achieved in the first few days of the event! For us, this was an inspiration, as we always love to see how the community comes together for these special events, especially when centres around such an important subject. We thank you for joining us in paying tribute to those around the world working hard, day and night, to deliver everything from important life-saving equipment to our groceries, during this challenging time.

So, how far did our drivers travel during this unique event? Let's take a look at some of the stats!



Incredible work truckers! We cannot thank you enough for your support. It really does bring a lot of joy to our team to see how much you enjoy participating in these events. We hope you ride with pride with your newly acquired and well-deserved Hope Trucker Hanging Accessories.

From semi-arid southeastern deserts to the green coniferous forests, the Iberian Peninsula is home to rich and diverse landscapes. To best represent the climates and biomes in Spain and Portugal, our dedicated research, vegetation, and graphics teams have worked closely together to create an accurate variety of Flora in our upcoming Iberia expansion for Euro Truck Simulator 2. 


As you may have guessed, the majority of the Iberian Peninsula consists of a much drier climate than we are used to seeing across the rest of mainland Europe. To best represent the drier and warmer climates, our graphic artists have created new grass textures, dry variants of these, rock textures, and desert materials. 


New models of trees including cypresses, palms, pines, dry shrubs, (as mentioned in previous blogs) olive trees, orange trees, and cork trees were also created for the upcoming DLC, to bring a variety of vegetation that exists across Spain and Portugal.


However, Iberia isn't just all desert and flat land! It may come as a surprise to some of you to find out that the peninsula is actually very rocky, so our team has created both new rock textures and models. Map designers are taking advantage of our new tools and the fantastic work of the art team on procedurally generated rocks. This allows them to create varying rock faces along a defined curve, which will be showcased for the first time in our upcoming DLC.


You will also find that Iberia is very colourful! Much like you would see in various U.S states, Spain and Portugal feature different coloured soil and rocks. From red, yellow, and even sometimes grey, our team has done their best to capture the unique colours of each area across this enormous peninsula. 


We also wanted to provide the community with a short update regarding Iberia for Euro Truck Simulator 2. Our map teams are still working hard on adding details and more to this enormous expansion, which will then need to go through various testing phases before its release. Once we reach this stage, we will be more confident in announcing a release date for this highly anticipated DLC. 

We know that many of you are very excited for the release of Iberia, so make sure to keep an eye on our social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook and Instagram) for our live-stream announcements, as we plan to hopefully visit this region in the near future. Until that point however, we thank you for your patience and support for Iberia.

We hope you enjoyed learning more about the vegetation and rocks that will feature in Iberia and we look forward to sharing even more development updates in the near future. Are you looking forward to driving in Iberia? Help support the release of this upcoming DLC by adding it to your Steam Wishlist. We thank you for your on-going support.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1209460/Euro_Truck_Simulator_2__Iberia/

Lunar New Year is almost here! This sees the transition from the Year of the Rat to the Year of the Ox on February 12th. Traditionally, we have always released a new paint job for our Chinese Paint Jobs Pack DLC for Euro Truck Simulator 2 with the current year's zodiac animal. However, this year we decided to create a new DLC pack, as the Lunar New Year is not just celebrated in China, but also in many other countries and by people around the world.




The Lunar New Year Pack DLC will include paint jobs for all 12 zodiac animal signs in the traditional red and gold colours, so no matter the year, you can always be ready to celebrate on the road! 


With the introduction of this new DLC, we will be making some changes to the existing Chinese Paint Jobs Pack for Euro Truck Simulator 2. All of the current existing Lunar New Year paint jobs will be moved from their current home in the Chinese Paint Jobs pack to the new Lunar New Year Pack DLC. 


To accommodate this change, all current owners of the Chinese Paint Jobs Pack will receive the Lunar New Year Pack DLC absolutely free!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/526950/Euro_Truck_Simulator_2__Lunar_New_Year_Pack/
We hope you enjoy this new addition to Euro Truck Simulator 2, and we wish you all a very happy and prosperous Lunar New Year 2021! 

Dear #BestCommunityEver, we trust you all gained some well earned relaxation this weekend, and with today being Monday, we thought we’d kick it off with some good news. Although the fight against COVID-19 continues, the worldwide vaccine rollout is now entering full swing, and so is our #HaulingHope event!



So far, almost 100,000 American Truck Simulator and Euro Truck Simulator 2 truckers have reached their personal goal of 7 deliveries in our special #HaulingHope event, with thousands more already past the halfway mark - so close. Not to mention our social media profiles are still receiving a lot of amazing posts under the #HaulingHope event.

So, in an effort to give those players some more time to finish their personal goal, and continue our salute to the real truckers and support crews out there on the front line, we’ve decided to extend the #HaulingHope event until Monday 15th February 23:59 UTC!