I've been asked a lot about bringing this series back, and it has taken me a while to get around to it, so i apologise for this, in this first episode of this series we start a brand new profile and are working to get our first truck.
A gaming community for gamers by gamers
Friday 31 August 2018
Monday 27 August 2018
Portland, Oregon
There is no way to leave out Portland if you want to portray Oregon properly. It’s the biggest city in the state, the core of a populated region and a very important transport hub. There is a big harbor there and lots of industry. All that should be reflected in American Truck Simulator, not just in appearance, but also in the game's economy.
We knew that this would not be an easy task right from the early research stages of the Oregon project. The city crosses the Willamette River, and even its nickname "Bridge City" hinted that we would have to deal with several bridges and difficult-to-optimize topology of the area with a lot of reflective water splitting it in half. Indeed, several critical bridges form the very backbone of the transport network. So there is a lot of candidate geometry to render and to strain the 3D card.
Our team has spent a lot of effort and time to build our take on Portland. It has really been quite tough to optimize the layout and design to achieve acceptable framerate. We are quite happy with the result, we believe that it is very representative of the city as seen by a truck driver passing through it, giving the right impression we have been aiming for.
More screenshots on the Oregon's Coming Soon Steam store page here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/800370/American_Truck_Simulator__Oregon/
Friday 17 August 2018
American Truck Simulator Update 1.32 Open Beta
The open Beta of American Truck Simulator Update 1.32 is available now, bringing most of the additions ETS2 received a week ago plus some ATS specific bonuses.
IMPORTANT: Due to the scope and scale of the major changes to the game, in order to receive as much feedback as possible, we're sharing this open beta with the community earlier than usual in the development cycle. There are still minor known issues that we're working on, and it’s possible there are even bigger bugs hidden away that we hope you’ll help us discover. If you think that the risk and possible frustration with an unstable and unpolished beta is worth it for you, make sure to backup your player profile to have a safe way to revert to 1.31 in case you get tired of testing. Many mods may have become broken due to extensive data format and logic changes. An early open beta gives the mod authors a chance to start making the necessary changes right away, but for testing at this moment, you may need to disable most mods just to get things working.
With the disclaimer out of the way, let's focus on different elements of this open beta.
Same as in ETS2, some of the trailers were discarded and redesigned, while the rest was adjusted for trailer ownership. This is just the first stage, as development is still ongoing – and will continue for at least a few more months of hard work. But we didn't want to keep you waiting for the final result when the actual state of trailer ownership allows us to let you play with these new toys already :)
With trailer ownership came the need to add "icons" to access the new functionality through the game's central "desktop" main menu, so we reorganized the user interface screen. You’ll probably notice that there are two larger widgets on the right side of the screen now, instead of three smaller ones. Also, new screens for trailer management have been added, and some company management screens had to be changed to handle the new feature.
The next addition brings changes in the map. The ATS map design team felt that some gaps in the map deserved to be filled, while some other previous work should get a retouch. So in this update, ATS receives three new roads: US-550 – from Albuquerque to Bloomfield (Farmington), US-95 from Yuma to Quartzsite (Ehrenberg) and US-191 which connects I-10 and US-60. Also, the intersection of I-5 and I-80 has been razed to the ground and built completely from scratch.
When driving on US-191, right by the newly added small city of Clifton, you'll discover Morenci Mine, the biggest copper mine in the United States. Surely a good place to visit, since there’s also a new cargo dock!
As for other changes, the new ATS update brings trailer cables on AI trucks and one new restriction – long trailers (53 feet – 40+ feet from kingpin to rear axle) are now forbidden in California. Plus one of the community's smaller wishes – parking brake is now disabled by default; those who liked this function need to turn it back on in game options.
Several changes to the code and data were made, related to rendering optimization, and it appears to have brought very nice framerate improvements in some scenarios. But since experience may vary, do share yours with us, please. We're really interested in your feedback on any noticeable FPS changes.
If you wish to participate in the open beta, you can find this version in the public_beta branch on Steam. The method to access it is as follows: Steam client → LIBRARY → right click on American Truck Simulator → Properties → Betas tab → public_beta → 1.32 public beta. No password required.
CHANGELOG:
Trailers ownership (read more)
Major UI changes (Main menu, Company Management screens, Dealerships, etc.)
Job filters redesign
Some of the old trailers discarded and redesigned
New roads added: US-550 (NM), US-95 (AZ), US-191 (AZ), Clifton city (AZ)
Remade and redesigned few places (e.g. I5-I80 interchange)
Power/air lines on AI vehicles (optional)
Rendering speedup
Option for automatic parking brake - disabled by default
Long 53ft trailers (40+ feet from kingpin to rear axle) forbidden in California
MOD ALERT:
Completely redesigned trailer-cargo logic (cargo data, trailer data, economy, etc.). Most mods will need some work to catch up!
IMPORTANT: Due to the scope and scale of the major changes to the game, in order to receive as much feedback as possible, we're sharing this open beta with the community earlier than usual in the development cycle. There are still minor known issues that we're working on, and it’s possible there are even bigger bugs hidden away that we hope you’ll help us discover. If you think that the risk and possible frustration with an unstable and unpolished beta is worth it for you, make sure to backup your player profile to have a safe way to revert to 1.31 in case you get tired of testing. Many mods may have become broken due to extensive data format and logic changes. An early open beta gives the mod authors a chance to start making the necessary changes right away, but for testing at this moment, you may need to disable most mods just to get things working.
With the disclaimer out of the way, let's focus on different elements of this open beta.
Those reading the blog on a regular basis already know that the major addition coming in 1.32 is trailer ownership. So all the ATS players can now buy, tune and paint their trailers too. And since the laws and rules are a little bit different in the USA than in Europe, we added the option to use Long/Wide vehicles and Oversize Load banners to the trailer tuning options. Just don't forget to lock the trailers up if you want to use them only for yourself, since your employees might decide to try them out too!
Same as in ETS2, some of the trailers were discarded and redesigned, while the rest was adjusted for trailer ownership. This is just the first stage, as development is still ongoing – and will continue for at least a few more months of hard work. But we didn't want to keep you waiting for the final result when the actual state of trailer ownership allows us to let you play with these new toys already :)
With trailer ownership came the need to add "icons" to access the new functionality through the game's central "desktop" main menu, so we reorganized the user interface screen. You’ll probably notice that there are two larger widgets on the right side of the screen now, instead of three smaller ones. Also, new screens for trailer management have been added, and some company management screens had to be changed to handle the new feature.
The next addition brings changes in the map. The ATS map design team felt that some gaps in the map deserved to be filled, while some other previous work should get a retouch. So in this update, ATS receives three new roads: US-550 – from Albuquerque to Bloomfield (Farmington), US-95 from Yuma to Quartzsite (Ehrenberg) and US-191 which connects I-10 and US-60. Also, the intersection of I-5 and I-80 has been razed to the ground and built completely from scratch.
When driving on US-191, right by the newly added small city of Clifton, you'll discover Morenci Mine, the biggest copper mine in the United States. Surely a good place to visit, since there’s also a new cargo dock!
As for other changes, the new ATS update brings trailer cables on AI trucks and one new restriction – long trailers (53 feet – 40+ feet from kingpin to rear axle) are now forbidden in California. Plus one of the community's smaller wishes – parking brake is now disabled by default; those who liked this function need to turn it back on in game options.
Several changes to the code and data were made, related to rendering optimization, and it appears to have brought very nice framerate improvements in some scenarios. But since experience may vary, do share yours with us, please. We're really interested in your feedback on any noticeable FPS changes.
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, and kinks. This time more than ever, due to the sheer size of the update. 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.
If you wish to participate in the open beta, you can find this version in the public_beta branch on Steam. The method to access it is as follows: Steam client → LIBRARY → right click on American Truck Simulator → Properties → Betas tab → public_beta → 1.32 public beta. No password required.
CHANGELOG:
Major UI changes (Main menu, Company Management screens, Dealerships, etc.)
Job filters redesign
Some of the old trailers discarded and redesigned
New roads added: US-550 (NM), US-95 (AZ), US-191 (AZ), Clifton city (AZ)
Remade and redesigned few places (e.g. I5-I80 interchange)
Power/air lines on AI vehicles (optional)
Rendering speedup
Option for automatic parking brake - disabled by default
Long 53ft trailers (40+ feet from kingpin to rear axle) forbidden in California
MOD ALERT:
Completely redesigned trailer-cargo logic (cargo data, trailer data, economy, etc.). Most mods will need some work to catch up!
Tuesday 14 August 2018
Euro Truck Simulator 2 Update 1.32 Open Beta
Open Beta of Euro Truck Simulator 2 Update 1.32 is now available as a preview of things to come. We will launch the open beta for the upcoming ATS update soon, too, once we are done fixing the first wave of reported problems from this beta.
IMPORTANT: Due to the scope and scale of the major changes to the game, in order to get as much feedback as possible, we are sharing this open beta with the community earlier than usual in the development cycle. There are still minor known issues that we are working on, and there may be even bigger bugs hidden there that we hope you will help us discover. If you think that the risk and possibly frustration with an unstable and unpolished beta is worth it for you, make sure to back up your player profile to have a safe way to come back to 1.31 in case you get tired of testing. Many mods may have got broken due to extensive data format and logic changes. An early open beta gives the mod authors a chance to start making the necessary changes already, but for testing at this moment, you may need to switch most mods off just to get things working.
With the disclaimer out of the way, finally, let's focus on the positives. If you thought 1.31 was big (we did), 1.32 is huge with its truckload of new content!
The first major addition is trailer ownership. A dedicated cross-disciplined team worked on this feature for more than a year, and we believe that the result will be a welcome addition to our games. Now trailers can be bought, tuned, painted and used by both you and your company drivers. So don't be surprised if you don't find a trailer in the garage you left it in. One of your employees might have taken it for a ride - that is if you didn't lock the said trailer to limit it only for yourself.
While working on this feature, the vehicle team also discarded and recreated several of the old box trailers and adjusted the rest for trailer ownership. B-double trailers made it to the game - but their usage is limited only for specific regions. This game update is by far not our final word on trailer ownership, there are still several more classes of trailers that we need to revisit and adjust. It will take us several months of hard work to complete, but we did not want to let you wait for a game update this long.
With trailer ownership and the need to add more "icons" to access new functionality through the game's central "desktop" main menu, we decided to reorganize this central game user interface screen. You will no doubt notice that there are now two larger widgets on the right side of the screen instead of three smaller ones.
UI changes and additions did not stop there. We have created new screens for trailer management and several existing company management screens had to be changed to handle the new feature. While we were at it, we have reviewed how our user interface code works with color gradients in sRGB color space and decided to recalibrate it, improving font clarity and color perception. We hope that these changes and the number of trailer tuning options will please everyone.
The second big news is the start of the rebuilding effort of the old parts of ETS2 game world. It will take us considerable time to overhaul all the areas in need, but the first step has been taken. The road network in northern part of Germany has been torn out and replaced, and all German cities received a facelift. In fact, four German cities have been razed and built again from scratch.
Let's review the catalogue of other additions and changes. The new ETS2 update finally brings Scania 2016 to AI traffic, you will also be transporting them shiny new to truck dealers from the factory in Södertälje. The trucks in AI traffic now feature trailer cables, with the option to turn them off for performance reasons.
Euro Truck Simulator 2 lighting has been readjusted and brought in sync with day/night cycle system in American Truck Simulator. New skyboxes are coming and yet more are planned, to increase the variety of environment and weather.
The programmers have made several changes to code and data related to rendering speed, and we see nice frame rate improvements in some scenarios. But your experience may vary, and we are interested in your feedback on any noticeable fps improvement or change.
We continue to reflect some of the changes and events in the real world, and the speed limit in France was dropped to 80 KPH on some roads. And lastly, one of the small wishlist items – automatic parking brake is now disabled by default; so those who like this function need to turn it back on in-game options.
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, and kinks. This time more than ever, due to the sheer size of the update. 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.
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 Euro Truck Simulator 2 → Properties → Betas tab → public_beta → 1.32 public beta. No password required.
CHANGELOG:
Trailer ownership (read more)
Major UI changes (Main menu, Company Management screens, Dealerships, etc.)
Job filters redesign
Some of the old trailers discarded and redesigned
Scania 2016 added to AI traffic
B-double type trailers added
Updated part of Germany map (read more)
Lighting improvements (sync with ATS)
Power/airlines on AI trucks added (optional)
Rendering speedup
Option for automatic parking brake - disabled by default
The speed limit in France dropped to 80 KPH on some roads
MOD ALERT:
Completely redesigned trailer-cargo logic (cargo data, trailer data, economy, etc.). Most mods will need some work to catch up!
Monday 13 August 2018
[TropicRP] Crash Car Derby
A short video showing a admin event for civilians to win prizes For more information about the Arma 3 server click this link - http://bit.ly/2nHKRpz
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