We are excited to announce that after our collaboration last year, we are once again teaming up with our good friends at Western Star to offer a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to two lucky members of the American Truck Simulator community. This includes an all-expenses-paid trip to Oregon, USA, to take part in the Star Nation Experience 2025. Ready to learn more? Let’s take a closer look at what the Star Nation Experience is all about!


Last year, our lucky 2024 Star Nation winners gathered in Bend, Oregon, for a unique four-day event unlike any other in the trucking industry. This unique experience included a behind-the-scenes tour of Daimler Truck North America's facilities, the opportunity to get behind the wheel of the Western Star X-Series line up at Daimler Truck's High Desert Proving Grounds in Madras, and even a chance to meet Starsquatch!






They also got to experience the natural beauty of Oregon and take part in exciting outdoor activities, including fly-fishing, off-roading in ATVs, and more. Though they arrived as strangers, their shared love for trucking quickly turned them into friends and even led one of our winners to pursue a trucking career. You can watch a recap of the 2024 Star Nation experience at our YouTube channel below with Nemiro and Mark who also were in attendance!


So what can you expect for Star Nation 2025? Two lucky winners will be treated to an all-expenses-paid, four-day adventure, hosted in Bend, Oregon between the 6th-9th of June 2025 by the Western Star team. If you win, you’ll be treated to top dining options and adventures, including activities like whitewater rafting, the X-Series Ride & Drive Challenge at the Madras Proving Grounds, a Star Nation photo shoot in the mountains and so much more!


You will also have the chance to help shape future Western Star innovation by sharing your insights with Western Star engineers, marketers, researchers, and product development leadership. It's the ultimate prize for any American Truck Enthusiast!


In addition to the fantastic activities awaiting participants at the event, we're happy to reveal that Oscar and Nemiro from our team will also be attending. They'll not only meet with the participants and winners but will also be on hand to capture all the moments and memories throughout the Star Nation Experience 2025!




So how can you enter? Before entering, we strongly advise you to review Western Star's Terms and Conditions, read the FAQ, and thoroughly examine the application form as there are specific limitations for applicants. For instance, this opportunity is exclusively available to individuals from the USA or Canada who are 21 years of age or older. Also, while not required for entry, a Commercial Driver's License will be required to participate in all Grand Prize trip activities. Western Star Trucks will then select two winners from applicants who meet all requirements. We wish everyone the best of luck!

Ready to apply? First you'll need to sign up to the Western Star newsletter before continuing the Entry form, which you can all find on the Star Nation page here.

We look forward to spending a fun-filled few days at Star Nation 2025, and we will be sure to keep you along for the ride with social media updates, videos and more from our journey. Be sure to keep a close eye on Western Star's Facebook, Instagram and Newsletter for the latest Star Nation news, and our X/Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and BlueSky too. Until then, keep on truckin'!

We're back with another SCS On The Road episode, and this time, we've got something a bit different for you! Join Mark, our Vehicle Production Coordinator at SCS Software, as he returns to his trucking roots in Canada and takes you behind the wheel to experience what it takes to be a real trucker hauling across Canada and the USA!


Starting off in Whitby, Ontario, Mark will take you along for the ride on a one-week journey to Fort Worth, Texas. You'll experience the highs and lows of trucking and discover what makes it such a unique yet challenging job. So, it's time to hit the road, grab a drink and some snacks as you take the passenger seat on this long haul! We're sure you'll be comfortable in the beautiful Peterbilt 389 truck, which was kindfully provided by Mark's father, and which has been a reliable workhorse in his company for many years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-hcq44d6Ck
A huge thank you, of course, goes out to Mark, who put a lot of work into recording this journey, and to everyone who made this trip possible for him to share with you, our #BestCommunityEver. We hope you learn something new about the trucking world, and who knows, it might even inspire a few of you to pursue a CDL! If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave a comment, like, and subscribe, Mark would love to hear your thoughts! Until next time, keep on truckin’!

Today, we have an update regarding Driving Academy. Our teams are currently working on a new set of scenarios for Driving Academy for both Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator which are really going to test your trucker skills when it arrives in the future!


We released Driving Academy as a free update in October last year where we introduced sets of scenarios in 5 chapters from truck driving basics to more advanced challenges. We were inspired by many of our players who have used our games to get a sense of handling a truck and trailer, and learning how to maneuver and reverse. Now, after a few months, we wanted to take it a step further with a set of much more challenging scenarios which will be a part of the upcoming module called Truck Driving Proficiency and will test even the most skilled drivers to the limit. Please keep in mind that everything you see in this blog can change as the Truck Driving Proficiency for Driving Academy is still a work in progress.



For this new module and set of scenarios, we will also introduce a new reward system. The most important thing is still to precisely complete a scenario by driving along the designated path and avoiding any collision. For proficiency level, there may be additional conditions you will have to meet to successfully pass the scenario.



New in this upcoming module, players will be able to achieve up to 3 collectable stars, which can be earned by meeting additional conditions such as only using the interior camera, limiting gear shifts between drive and reverse, or completing the scenario in the set time.



Our goal is to test the players' skills and let them prove themselves as top-tier drivers, solving each scenario on their own without step-by-step guidance. That's why in this module you won't find any pre-recorded video tutorials, and you will have to use all the knowledge we taught you in our first module of Driving Academy.


But there is more. As we already mentioned in the 1.54 Open Beta blog, Driving Academy will also get new content in the upcoming 1.54 update. Everyone who has completed or will complete the entire first module of Driving Academy will receive special rewards to use in the base game - a hanging blue traffic cone cabin accessory and a customizable Driving Academy paint job for your truck. And that's not all - more rewards will be available for completing the upcoming Truck Driving Proficiency!

Make sure to follow us on social media (X/Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, and YouTube). We'd also really appreciate it if you could sign up for our newsletter to stay informed, even when you're not able to check out the blog or our socials. Until next time, drive safe!

As you journey through our upcoming Louisiana DLC for American Truck Simulator, you'll encounter a variety of truck stops designed to support truckers and travelers making their way through the Deep South. Let’s check out what they have to offer!


Whether you're filling up the tank, making some adjustments to your rig, or simply taking a well-deserved break, these truck stops provide all the essentials for life on the road. Keeping both yourself and your truck happy and healthy is crucial whilst on the road.




Truck stops come in all shapes and sizes! From large complexes offering generous parking and multiple fuel pumps to small town roadside stops, drivers will never be too far away from an area they can pull into for a gas'n'go or a well deserved rest stop.




They also make a great place to meet fellow truckers on the road, especially if you're playing in convoy mode! Be sure to take advantage of all the dedicated spots to make some great photos for your album.




We look forward to meeting you at a Louisiana truck stop in the future. Until then, stay tuned by following us on social media (X/Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, BlueSky) for the latest updates on the development of this DLC and more. Until next time, drive safe and keep on truckin’!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3012580/American_Truck_Simulator__Louisiana/

The first video preview of the upcoming Missouri DLC for American Truck Simulator is here! In today's blog, we bring you the first gameplay video from this map expansion, so don't wait up, and let's watch it.


In this video, we take you on a beautiful ride from the city of Kirksville located in the northern part of Missouri along Route 63 through the Show Me State capital Jefferson City, and then further south to our destination in the underground warehouse in Springfield.


We can't wait to explore Missouri once it is released for ATS! Want to show us that you are also looking forward to trucking in this map expansion? Then add it to your Steam Wishlist! Remember to follow us on our Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and YouTube. We'd also really appreciate it if you could sign up for our newsletter to stay informed, even when you're not able to check out the blog or our socials. Safe travels!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2730870/American_Truck_Simulator__Missouri/

We're back in the USA for our newest SCS On The Road episode! Join us in Allentown, Pennsylvania, at the Mack Experience Centre as we are given a detailed walk-around of the limited Mack Anthem® Black Edition, which is also available to drive in American Truck Simulator (read more here).


During our visit, Nemiro had the pleasure of meeting with Justin Yost, a Sales Engineer at Mack Trucks, who gave us an in-depth tour of the Mack Anthem® Black Edition, both inside and out. This episode is packed with valuable insights into its design, driver features, technology, and of course what makes this truck a fantastic choice for drivers.


We'd like to thank our partners at Mack Trucks for allowing us to film and share this episode with you, and for the team's kind hospitality when we visited them in Allentown. We really learnt a lot about this awesome truck, and we are sure you will too.

If you enjoyed this episode, we'd love to hear your comments. Be sure to let us know something new you learned about the Mack Anthem® Black Edition, along with a like and a subscribe, it really helps support our channel and videos. We will see you soon for the next episode, until then, keep on truckin'!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1236650/American_Truck_Simulator__Mack_Anthem/

On the 26th of February, this year's Valentine's Event "Cupid's Express" came to a close. So let's officially wrap it up together, look back at what it was about and what rewards our truckers earned!


First, a huge thank you to everyone who took part! We are so happy seeing you on the road hauling, especially when you share those moments with us on social media through photos, videos and other content. A special thanks also goes to the team behind it all!

As always, we set two challenges - one for individual players and one for the entire trucking community. The personal goal that every player had to accomplish to get the rewards was to complete 14 deliveries of Valentine's Presents. Our whole #BestCommunityEver then had to collectively finish 600,000 deliveries to accomplish the community goal.

So how did you do? Over 62,000 truckers completed all 14 deliveries for this event. Congratulations! And you have crushed the community milestone in just one week, that is incredible! In total, players completed 1,234,037 deliveries, double of what was the set goal. While hauling Valentine's Presents, you have travelled a distance of over 496,000,000 kilometres in both games!


And now let's take a look at the rewards. Those who completed their deliveries were awarded a unique World of Trucks Achievement as well as a Neon Heart dashboard item for both ETS2 and ATS. Because the collective target was reached as well, they will also get the Cupid's Dice hanging item!



We hope you are as excited as we are for the next event to come, but we won't tell you now what it is! Make sure to stay connected with us for all the updates by following our Twitter, Facebook. Instagram, Bluesky, and YouTube. We'd also really appreciate it if you could sign up for our newsletter to stay informed, even when you're not able to check out the blog or our socials. Until next time, we will see you on the road.

Pull on in and take a rest stop with us as we share more about some of the truck stops you'll encounter on your journeys through the upcoming Iowa DLC for American Truck Simulator!


We're happy to share that the Iowa DLC will feature over 20 truck stops! Ranging from smaller roadside stations to huge gas stops that are the size of a small town, our team has taken great care in recreating the atmosphere and layout of these truck stops.







Drivers will also have the opportunity to visit the largest truck stop we've ever built in American Truck Simulator. Boasting a large number of parking spots and gas pumps for trucks, this location is huge and features a variety of amenities for visitors. We highly recommend you make the time to check out this epic stop whilst travelling through Iowa.





As with previous DLC releases, many of the truck stops are inspired by real-world counterparts, featuring recognizable landmarks and layouts. We are sure some of you who are familiar with the roads of Iowa will be able to point out some of these locations.







Overall, Iowa truck stops offer drivers and passengers excellent service and amenities, and we look forward to having you relax, refuel, and rest at them. We hope you enjoyed this preview of Iowa's truck stops. If you're excited to hit the road, be sure to add the Iowa DLC to your Steam Wishlist! Until next time, keep on truckin'.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3025440/American_Truck_Simulator__Iowa/

Today, we are excited to reveal that the 1.54 Open Beta branch for American Truck Simulator is now available to try and test out. If you plan on participating in this Open Beta, we ask that you please help us by reporting any bugs you may encounter in the appropriate section(s) of our official forums.



Your feedback and reports are truly valuable to our team and we thank you in advance for taking the time to help us out. Now, without further ado, let's take a look at what the 1.54 Open Beta has in store.

Cargo System Redefined

Until now, what seemed like the game combining a trailer with cargo, such as a piece of machinery, was actually a manually created model, with each trailer-cargo pair stored separately on disk. This approach required an enormous number of unique models, making it harder to add new content efficiently and taking up disk space.


In the redefined cargo system, the code automatically merges cargo and trailers based on simplified rules. This means that each cargo will define its own model, loading methodology, and lashing method. This will make the work of our vehicle team much easier as it no longer requires our 3D artists to manually create pre-baked trailer-cargo pairs.




While there may be issues in the first iteration, it's a worthwhile goal to refine the system, as it not only improves efficiency but also saves disk space and memory by eliminating the need to store countless pre-made combinations. This project may also lead to other possibilities for both of our games, especially with dynamic cargo (un)loading and more. You can read about how this project was executed in our recent Under the Hood blog.

Truck Adjustment Menu Redesign

The Truck Adjustment Menu has been completely redesigned to provide a more user-friendly experience. Previously, each option for adjusting your driver's FOV, seat, mirrors etc had separate menus with different layouts. Now, they share a cohesive interface, making adjustments much more intuitive and easier. The new design also takes on a similar design from our previous UI overhaul and is optimized for both mouse and controller, ensuring accessibility for all users.


For keyboard and mouse users, adjustments are now more streamlined with the use of the WASD keys for navigation, along with sliders and buttons for finer tuning. Meanwhile, controller users will find the new system much smoother, with the left stick controlling adjustments, the right stick handling camera movement for mirror positioning, and the D-pad or shoulder buttons navigating the menu.

The addition of shoulder button support makes menu navigation more fluid for controller players. This update makes adjusting mirrors and seats much easier, particularly for those using controllers, ensuring a more seamless and enjoyable driving experience. Accessing the Truck Adjustment Menu remains the same. You can use the F4 by default, a custom assigned key of your choice, or through the adviser services menu.


We hope you enjoy this redesign, and that you find it easy to use and navigate through. If you have any feedback, we'd love to hear from you. You can share your comments and ideas through our official forum.

PhysX System Implementation

As part of the 1.54 Open Beta, we are adopting the NVIDIA PhysX physics engine as an alternative to our current Bullet physics engine for low-level simulation of physics in the game world that players interact with. This shift allows players to experience more precise collision detection results and more robust behaviour during scenarios involving collisions between vehicles and obstacles or other vehicles. PhysX also offers our teams better debugging tools, which indirectly benefits players by helping resolve bugs more efficiently.

One of the most noticeable improvements brought by PhysX can already be experienced in our recently introduced Driving Academy game mode. For example, collisions with cones and obstacles are now more accurate and objects no longer appear to "levitate" slightly above the ground after interaction, a flaw that occurred with Bullet. While players may not see drastic changes, certain interactions should exhibit slightly improved behaviour.

With the release of version 1.54, PhysX is now the default physics engine for all gameplay. Players who prefer the previous Bullet physics engine can switch back by using the "-bullet" command line argument in their Steam launch options.

Driving Academy Rewards

Everyone who has already completed or will complete the entire first module of Driving Academy will receive special rewards to use in the base game - a hanging blue traffic cone cabin accessory and a customizable Driving Academy paint job for your truck. So make sure to complete your scenarios and grab your rewards, there will be more to come!

Changelog

Gameplay

• Cargo System Redefined
  
• Driving Academy Rewards

Visual

• Truck Adjustment Menu Redesign
  
• First Launch Screen Flow Refresh

Vehicles

• Lode King & Prestige Trailers Pack bug fixes

Other

• PhysX Implementation

So enjoy all the new additions, but please remember: It's only an open beta, not a stable public version - so you may encounter bugs, instability, or crashes. It's completely okay if you want to wait for the final release. But if you're interested in helping us to get there faster, we'll appreciate all of your feedback on our forum and your bug reports in the dedicated section.

Please check our modding wiki to get details pertaining to mods for the game.

If you wish to participate in the open beta, you can find this version in the public_beta branch on Steam. The way to access it is as follows: Steam client → LIBRARY → right-click on American Truck Simulator → Properties → Betas tab → public_beta → 1.54. No password is required. Sometimes you have to restart your Steam client to see the correct branch name there.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/270880/American_Truck_Simulator/

Welcome to St. Louis! When you are cruising through Missouri, make sure to stop by its second-largest city with plenty of beautiful landmarks, industries and more. Let's take a closer look.


St. Louis, also known as the Mound City, is nestled on the west bank of the Mississippi River which marks the state's border with Illinois. It is a major transportation and distribution centre, and the Mississippi River plays a big part in that as the city is the country's second-largest inland port. St. Louis is also one of the largest rail hubs in the US, with an international airport and a broad network of interstate highways.




Truckers passing through are in for a treat as Mound City is full of amazing historic buildings and other landmarks that our map teams meticulously recreated for this upcoming map expansion. The most famous and recognizable of them all is probably the iconic Gateway Arch which commemorates the city's role in the westward expansion of the USA.




But there are more landmarks inspired by their real-world counterparts such as the Old Courthouse or the St. Louis Hotel, the Basilica of Saint Louis, multiple lawyer centres and a luxury apartment building. Can you recognise these locations?



There are also some beautiful bridges in the city like the Jefferson Barracks Bridge, Blanchette Bridge, and the St. Louis Memorial Bridge. More iconic buildings can be seen in the distance as part of the city's skyline, among them are a stadium, courthouse, and many others.




Truckers can look forward to a wide range of various depots waiting for cargo in the city, two of which are really unique. If you head south of St. Louis, you will come across an underground warehouse located in an old limestone mine where you will be able to deliver plenty of different types of cargo.





Our map designers have also recreated a local well-known beer brewery with great attention to detail along with its 1:1 landmarks which are the gem of the whole area. Apart from that, you will find other industries such as the rail supply depot, a chemical plant, a big car factory, and others.




Can't wait to explore St. Louis in ATS? Then add the Missouri DLC to your Steam Wishlist! Remember to follow us on our Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and YouTube, so you won't miss out on any American Truck Simulator news. We'd also really appreciate it if you could sign up for our newsletter to stay informed, even when you're not able to check out the blog or our socials. Drive safe!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2730870/American_Truck_Simulator__Missouri/