Bus Driver Simulator 2019 has just been released from Early Access!

This update features a lot of changes, big and little.



Cologne has been expanded and is almost two times bigger than before! You can see both wide streets with tram ways and silent neighborhoods there.



Since Cologne map is now bigger, we added a possibility to drive on it in Career Mode. Your progress is common for Serpukhov and Cologne, so you won't have to start it over. Also, new routes are here. Check them out on any available bus!



So we reworked passenger system once more (not for the last time actually). Now passengers are better in finding their way to the bus. Also,
- They no longer go through bug while walking in;
- Updated algorithm of selection of free place to sit.
- Now passengers choose the place to sit more randomly.
- Fixed a bug that caused passengers not to wait other passengers to exit the bus.
- Tried to fix problem which caused passengers' models to go through the bus.



Of course, pedestrians and traffic also got some updates. Another list of fixes and enhanced algorithms of their behavior made the game even more realistic:
- Pedestrians now can go around the corners of buildings much better.
- Fixed a Legendary bug which caused one car to ride on top of another one.
- Improved European Minibus Model (traffic version), so it's now more detailed.
- Tried to fix pedestrians pushing player's bus.
- Now traffic is also present near Bus Station in Serpukhov.
- Improved cornering for traffic on some crossroads.
- Improved circular movement on Lenin Square in Serpukhov.
- Now pedestrians cross the streets of Cologne faster.
- Tried to fix fines for driving on yellow light.



- Fixed problem with mechanical gearbox on steering wheels.
- Now buses have different amount of gears. It corresponds to the one in real life.
- Fixed bug when free camera placed behind the bus could lift itself up.
- Added Preview SimTools support. A detailed post will be released when full support will be implemented.
- Added Logitech G25 Preset.
- Lowered ride height for European Bus.
- Fixed bug with "Open" (and other) texts when hovering mouse over buttons, doors etc.



- Added missing translations for French.
- Added missing translations for Chinese.
- Added missing translations for Korean.
- Added missing translations for Italian.
- Added missing translations for German.
- Added missing translations for Czech.
- Improved some phrases in Russian and English.



- Fixed long loading of Scenarios selection UI.
- Widened some panels in order to use more screen space.
- Fixed schedule showing "24" instead of "0".
- Fixed loading of some buildings.
- Optimized some more textures.
- Added new loading screens.
- Other minor fixes.

We've been trying to finish working on it this month, but we are experiencing difficulties with fixing some bugs. We decided not to release unfinished versions.

Cologne will be expanded almost by 2 times and you will be able to play on Cologne in Career mode! Also, we fixed some problems with traffic and passengers (especially this annoying bug when they couldn't enter the bus), problem with mechanical gearbox with steering wheels, and many other improvements and fixes.



We won't drop support of Bus Driver Simulator 2019 after release. Several pretty serious changes are already planned. We will announce them later.

Bus World Announcement Trailer is here!

But we have some other news: Bus Driver Simulator 2019 is going to be released next week! By the way, the fact that we're working on Bus World doesn't mean that we won't work on Bus Driver Simulator 2019. Moreover, all our programmers are working on things which will be implemented in both games.

You can get more information and add Bus World to your wishlist right now:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1193090/Bus_World/

We'd like to remind you that announcement of our new game is going to happen slightly before Bus Driver Simulator 2019 gets released! Something very interesting is waiting for you.

The main feature for today is that we finally bring Force Feedback support in the game! We've tested it on Logitech and some other steering wheels. Steering wheel and Force Feedback settings have been moved to Control Settings.



Also:

• Improved passenger behavior when entering or leaving the bus, so that now they will no longer stand in front of closed door (if player hasn't opened it), but they will leave the bus through any other available door.
  
• Fixed problem causing passengers to leave the bus using not nearest door.
  
• Fixed a bug causing some buttons in Settings to be non-clickable.
  
• Fixed route plate being rendered incorrectly in some camera positions on one of the Soviet buses.
  
• As we figured out, some radio stations can sometimes change their stream address, so they can stop working in the game. This is why we will update them from time to time. It shouldn't affect your own stations.
  
• Optimized some models on Serpukhov map; fixed some LODs for low graphics.
  
• Other minor improvements and changes.

Traffic is still being set up. We'd like to remind that Cologne is going to be expanded and added to Free Mode in Release version of the game, which will be out before the end of 2019.
Screenshots below are from Editor.

• Fixed an old problem when passengers couldn’t get to free places in bus;
  
• Fixed issue when passengers couldn’t enter the bus through the front door on some buses after 4.9.
  
• Some house models were replaced with better optimized ones.
  
• Minor fixes to some buses.
  
• Minor fixes to Serpukhov map.
  
• Fixed VR after 4.9.

As you might have seen, recently we have decided to try streaming on Steam. In general, we're satisfied with the functionality of this platform. Now we're thinking about making streams, where we could talk about updates and functionality, development process etc.



Also, we would like to give the possibility to stream to our comminity. It will allow us to show the game to new potential players and, maybe, even let experienced players discover something new. Unfortunately, number of players who can stream is limited. So we will give access only to proven players in manual mode. We will prefer players who has an experience in streaming on Twitch or YouTube and who has en equipment like steering wheel or VR headset.

To request the access:
1) Send a message to our VK or Facebook group containing a link to your Steam account or add https://steamcommunity.com/id/mihan0id_projects to friends in Steam.
2) Give a link to your channel
3) Write about your equipment like steering wheel, VR headset, PC specs, cameras etc.)
4) A little of information about you and your experience in our games.
Please, write all this information in one message.

The main goal for now is to prepare Bus Driver Simulator 2019 for upcoming release (which is planned for the end of 2019). Firstly it includes fixing bugs and adding something you've asked for, like driver in 3rd person mode. Patches that were released this summer were mostly dedicated to minor improvements. We always have a choice between bugfixing and adding new content. We think that now polishing the game for release is more important. Some players don't understand that fixing a bug takes plenty of time and can be as difficult as adding a new bus, for example.

We thought that we should add something bigger than just bugfixes before release, so now we're working on expansion of Cologne and introducing it into Free Mode. Why Cologne instead of Serpukhov, you may ask? Well, there are a lot of reasons. First of all, we have promised to add it to Free Mode for a lot of time, but current map size is too small (we need 5 different routes at least). Secondly, it will be very difficult to expand Serpukhov further because the map itself is very large. We need to solve this either by partitioning the map or by implementing dynamic loading (we've been thinking about it a lot and we will present our solution sooner or later). The third major reason is our audience. Less than 50% of players are from Russia and CIS, so we're ready to develop not only our domestic content. We're really pleased to make games about country where we live and share of post-soviet content is very big, but we're not going to fixate on it.

Finally, some of you ask us: when you release the game, does it mean that everything is over? The answer is very short: No. In addition to news about Bus Driver Simulator 2019, we're preparing some very exciting news, which you will hopefully like!

It's going to be added to Career Mode, just like we planned, but it needs more routes and at least one gas station (by the way, it will be in exact same location as it is in real city). There will only be one Garage in Cologne, in contrast to Serpukhov. Your career progress will be transferred between cities.

You can see current progress on the map below. Red streets are already in the game, and green ones are in development.