Recently, we've shown you places you can see on your drives across the ATS Oregon DLC. Today we will bring you a visual appetizer of the places where you can stop, refuel your truck, relax for awhile, or stay overnight before continuing your long journey. There are some quite notorious truck stops in development...





... easily recognizable as unique landmarks. Some other are more versatile, in the style of typical Oregon architecture. On the first four screenshots, you can see our conception of the famous Biggs Junction.






Something's cooking
Which way to go? Beaver knows!
Meanwhile in Oregon
Scenic road 101

US Route 101 will continue further north from California (part of core American Truck Simulator game) up through the new Oregon map expansion. When the new DLC is complete, the road will start in Los Angeles and end in Astoria. For now, at least - you will have to wait until we release Washington state DLC for the full length of US 101 ;). The section depicted on screenshots below covers the area between Eureka and Crescent City.



This scenic coastal road is known for many landmarks, vistas, beaches or renowned rest stops. Of course, some of them have been transferred to our truck universe. Parts of our virtual rendering of this legendary route are still in development, but you can already see that the result should be worth the effort.









Something's cooking
Which way to go? Beaver knows!
Meanwhile in Oregon

We are making American Truck Simulator Update 1.31 accessible in Open Beta form today. We are starting a little rough this time, with several known issues, but at the same time, we are eager to collect feedback and reports already to help us finalize this update ASAP. Open Beta 1.31 for ETS2 should follow in a matter of a few days.
This update brings a mix of new things in many areas of our games. For those of you focused on truck realism, there are simulated trailer cables (with different visibility options) and improved mirror functionality. Explorers taking the CA120 into Yosemite National Park right away - be advised that in National Parks there are some regulations about commercial trucking. And finally, there are also new bottom dumper trailers coming in three versions.

There are also some smaller changes; 1.31 brings a few items from players' wish lists. We are introducing a new filter option for job and cargo search, or better precision of trip data for dashboard computer. As always, we have applied a ton of various fixes and tweaks. There is also one noteworthy change - from now on, when you reload/restart the game or if the gameplay repositions your vehicle to a new place, and you "spawn" in your truck, the parking brake will be always automatically set to ON, so that the vehicle may never start moving on its own unintentionally.


There are also some changes in tools and mods category. We are currently in the middle of a massive tech change in how our map designers apply textures, materials, and vegetation to road segments. Of course, this will also apply to the mod creators going forward. Historically, we have used a concept of "stamps" with pre-designed patterns to conserve memory and disk space, but we are abandoning this approach, and letting the map designers just "paint" surface properties with a "brush." This will bring more freedom and flexibility to map design; it should make the work more effective when a map designer is in need of a particular terrain feature. For the time being though, it means that map mods will have to be re-touched and re-saved with the new system, so things will need to settle down until everybody catches up. With the cleanup of map import code, we have also dropped support for very old (pre-4.38 format) maps so mods that are no longer maintained (were last saved as of Feb 2017) cannot be loaded in the current version of the game. We hope that this is not really an issue for any mods in current use.

Anyway - 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, and kinks. It's completely okay if you want to wait for the final release. But if you're interested in helping us to move there faster, we'll appreciate all of your feedback on our forum and your bug reports in this section.

• Power/air lines between truck and trailer(s)
• Improved mirror rendering (head position-based FOV, properly curved mirrors)
• New road through Yosemite added (CA-120)
• New trailers (bottom dumpers)

• Job selection screens have new filter and cargo search elements (will be added later)
• Parking brake automatically ON after truck spawn (g_park_brake_init)
• Screenshot name format now based on date and time
• Increased precision trip data (dashboard computer display)
• Fixed torque converter locking
• Fixed damaged predefined trucks in dealers and quick jobs
• Fixed trailer damage reporting
• Fixed HDR interpolation

• New terrain brushes in the map editor
• Dropped support of the old maps (pre 4.38, due to brushes)
• Mirror_data
• A trailer could be registered as standalone or not
• Variable shift length
• Truck dealer trucks are not on the list anymore, the game reads all units in given directory
• Steerable wheel independent on wheel model 
• Dropped support for old attributes

On this special day, we'd like to unveil one more cool improvement for our games. It's an experimental next-next-gen approach to engineering truck sounds that you would be a fool to overlook. As it is truly groundbreaking and still experimental, we did not see it prudent to put it into the standard games yet, instead, we have made it available via mods for both games. We are really curious to learn what you will think about them! (or those among you daring to install the mods anyway)

We proudly present „REAL TRUCK SOUNDS MOD by April v 1.4“!

All of the sounds were recorded by very passionate individuals with great care to make sure they receive a healthy dose of special human touch. Only a handful vehicles have got the special treatment so far. Depending on your feedback, we may be able to add more by about April 1, 2019. You can find the list of vehicles with the improved sounds in the respective mod descriptions. You can look up the mods on Steam Workshop:

American Truck Simulator April 1.4. Update:

• ATS Truck Sound Improvement (April 2018)

On this special day, we'd like to unveil one more cool improvement for our games. It's an experimental next-next-gen approach to engineering truck sounds that you would be a fool to overlook. As it is truly groundbreaking and still experimental, we did not see it prudent to put it into the standard games yet, instead, we have made it available via mods for both games. We are really curious to learn what you will think about them! (or those among you daring to install the mods anyway)

We proudly present „REAL TRUCK SOUNDS MOD by April v 1.4“!

All of the sounds were recorded by very passionate individuals with great care to make sure they receive a healthy dose of special human touch. Only a handful vehicles have got the special treatment so far. Depending on your feedback, we may be able to add more by about April 1, 2019. You can find the list of vehicles with the improved sounds in the respective mod descriptions. You can look up the mods on Steam Workshop:

American Truck Simulator April 1.4. Update:

• ATS Truck Sound Improvement (April 2018)

There is so much that we'd like to add to our games eventually! The input and feedback from you, the truck sim fan community, is a tremendous source of inspiration for us.

For the upcoming 1.31 update, a new feature that has spent quite a few years on the wish list is finally almost ready to be released - trailer cables!
Let us give you a quick preview in motion:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKpODQGj7ds
As you can see in the video, our developers were able to implement physically simulated trailer cables to both Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator. And believe us - it was far from easy. These „trivial“ things tend to be much more demanding than they appear, both for programmers when it comes to coming up with fast and robust code, as well as for the vehicle design team to revisit all the existing tractors and trailers and adjust them to the new feature.

Trailer cable support will come for every combination of any truck and trailers, including double and triple trailers where applicable. We will provide three simulation options:

• Simulated cables visibly connecting your truck to all the trailers.
• Simulated cables visibly connecting your truck to the first trailer only.
• Cable simulation turned off completely.

There is so much that we'd like to add to our games eventually! The input and feedback from you, the truck sim fan community, is a tremendous source of inspiration for us.

For the upcoming 1.31 update, a new feature that has spent quite a few years on the wish list is finally almost ready to be released - trailer cables!
Let us give you a quick preview in motion:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKpODQGj7ds
As you can see in the video, our developers were able to implement physically simulated trailer cables to both Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator. And believe us - it was far from easy. These „trivial“ things tend to be much more demanding than they appear, both for programmers when it comes to coming up with fast and robust code, as well as for the vehicle design team to revisit all the existing tractors and trailers and adjust them to the new feature.

Trailer cable support will come for every combination of any truck and trailers, including double and triple trailers where applicable. We will provide three simulation options:

• Simulated cables visibly connecting your truck to all the trailers.
• Simulated cables visibly connecting your truck to the first trailer only.
• Cable simulation turned off completely.

From time to time, we like to revisit a region already covered in our games, and change things around, or add a new route. You can look forward to such retouches appearing especially in Europe later this year ;). For today, we would like to show you a new route that we are adding to American Truck Simulator's California.




With the scale of our worlds compared to reality, we simply have to focus on major road arteries to form the road network. There is usually not enough room to even think about squeezing in any lesser roads. But we enjoy making exceptions and based on feedback from our fan community, so do the players. We have noticed a bit of empty space next to the Sierra Nevada, did a little research, and felt that it would be a great opportunity for one of our new map designers do cut his teeth designing a pass across the mountain range. There was just one small problem - typically commercial trucking is restricted in US national parks! Still, this region is so scenic and the task was so tempting, we decided to give it a go, and to find an excuse in the game for allowing the player to travel across the mountain pass.



The national park in question is considered one of the most beautiful and possibly scariest of them all. But no need to fear. While it's home to many legends and mysterious creatures - be it Wendigos, Seeahtiks, various ghosts or famous Bigfoot – all the encounters took place far away from the road on which you'll travel.



The road in question is one of the very few connections leading through this territory, as almost 95% of this area is considered wilderness. Its designation is CA 120 - the famous Tioga Pass. If you immediately thought that we were talking Yosemite National Park, you were right.

The new route is coming in the next update of ATS, the upcoming version 1.31. This addition to the game map, as well as many other small and not so small touches and additions to California, Nevada, and Arizona, will, of course, appear in the game for free for all the game owners, as a small token of gratitude for the loyalty of our fantastic trucking community!

From time to time, we like to revisit a region already covered in our games, and change things around, or add a new route. You can look forward to such retouches appearing especially in Europe later this year ;). For today, we would like to show you a new route that we are adding to American Truck Simulator's California.




With the scale of our worlds compared to reality, we simply have to focus on major road arteries to form the road network. There is usually not enough room to even think about squeezing in any lesser roads. But we enjoy making exceptions and based on feedback from our fan community, so do the players. We have noticed a bit of empty space next to the Sierra Nevada, did a little research, and felt that it would be a great opportunity for one of our new map designers do cut his teeth designing a pass across the mountain range. There was just one small problem - typically commercial trucking is restricted in US national parks! Still, this region is so scenic and the task was so tempting, we decided to give it a go, and to find an excuse in the game for allowing the player to travel across the mountain pass.



The national park in question is considered one of the most beautiful and possibly scariest of them all. But no need to fear. While it's home to many legends and mysterious creatures - be it Wendigos, Seeahtiks, various ghosts or famous Bigfoot – all the encounters took place far away from the road on which you'll travel.



The road in question is one of the very few connections leading through this territory, as almost 95% of this area is considered wilderness. Its designation is CA 120 - the famous Tioga Pass. If you immediately thought that we were talking Yosemite National Park, you were right.

The new route is coming in the next update of ATS, the upcoming version 1.31. This addition to the game map, as well as many other small and not so small touches and additions to California, Nevada, and Arizona, will, of course, appear in the game for free for all the game owners, as a small token of gratitude for the loyalty of our fantastic trucking community!

A new map region usually means, among other things, some new industries inspired by typical real facilities identified by our location scouts. Today we want to share a few work-in-progress images from American Truck Simulator: Oregon map expansion development. They are depicting one of the new industrial prefabs we're working on: a shipyard.








Which way to go? beaver knows!