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The big day is here! Preparations to release Wyoming for American Truck Simulator are in top gear. We are also preparing for a special release stream with special guests. So what time is Wyoming releasing? Wyoming for American Truck Simulator will be released at: 10:00 PDT, 11:00 MDT, 13:00 EDT, 18:00 BST, 19:00 CEST, 01:00⁺¹ SST, 03:00⁺¹ AEST So what exactly does our Wyoming DLC have to offer for truckers? These are just a few of the things we think you will love: Deliver to and from 10 cities and discover 14 settlements Discover and deliver to Wyoming's important industries like coal & soda ash, farms & agriculture, railyards, and more! Haul livestock cargo to our new cattle auction houses Drive on the Highway to Heaven. Haul cargo on the I-80, the second-longest Interstate highway in the United States See wildlife unique to Wyoming including Bison Visit landmarks like Devils Tower National Monument and part of the Yellowstone National Park and get bird's-eye views with many new viewpoints. Admire accurate representations of cities like Cheyenne, Casper, Jackson, Sheridan, and more! Visit and take a rest at famous Wyoming rest stops & gas stations. Unlock Wyoming-specific Steam Achievements ...and much more! We will also have a World of Trucks event available for all new visitors to Wyoming, with unique rewards to be earned as you visit all 10 cities and deliver jobs. Learn more about the rules in yesterday's blog post and take part in #CruisingWyoming at WorldofTrucks.com. We'd love to see your photos across our Social Media channels using the hashtag! We expect to have this event available to players for an extended period of time, probably way beyond the point of reaching the community goal. We don't want to motivate you to rush through the DLC in a hurry to make sure you manage to obtain the personal achievement. We simply want to reward early adopters of the DLC for spending quality time with the new content. Speaking of rewards, all truckers in Wyoming are eligible to receive a special cabin accessory, a Triceratops plush toy! To earn this unique reward, simply take any External Contract or External Market job to or from the city of Gillette. Why this city specifically you may ask? Believe it or not, paleontologists digging in northeastern Wyoming (so near Gillette) have uncovered fossilized remains of three triceratopses - possibly the most complete specimens of the dinosaurs yet found! So be sure to claim your part of prehistoric history for your cabin. We will also be hosting a special Wyoming release live stream across official Steam & Twitch channels starting at 16:00 CEST. Don't miss out on this broadcast as we talk with Davido (DLC Lead) PLUS a special guest appearance from Pavel Šebor CEO of SCS Software! We will be answering questions from the community, talking in-depth about the DLC, giving away free Wyoming Steam keys and of course, releasing the highly anticipated map expansion LIVE on stream! We hope you'll enjoy exploring what Wyoming has to offer! We will see you on the roads. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1415692/American_Truck_Simulator__Wyoming/

With the final touches being made to the upcoming map expansion we are excited to announce the release date of the latest map addition to American Truck Simulator. Utah map expansion will be released on the 7th of November 2019. We hope that this trailer will give you a glimpse of what you will be able to explore for yourself very soon. And as you can see, Utah will be rich in content for drivers to explore. Main features include: 3.500 miles of road network 10 major cities (Salt Lake City, St. George, Moab) New quarries and mines including the largest open excavation Kennecott Copper Mine Expanded oil industry (oil mining sites, oil storage sites) Improved agriculture production chain (country stores, feedmills) Famous landmark sites: Great Salt Lake, Monument Valley, Virgin River Canyon Over 260 recognizable natural and man-made landmarks 12 well-known truck stops New and improved process of landscape creation Utah achievements to unlock Included with the release of Utah will be 2 new and challenging Special Transport DLC missions. With loads starting from Vernal to Salt Lake City (Kennecott Copper Mine) and from Provo to Price (Oil Industry), can you complete the task of delivering these challenging loads? From the famous red rocks all the way to great Salt Lake, we can't wait for you haul and explore this beautiful state. Make sure to add Utah to your wishlist on Steam and be the first to be notified of it's release on November 7th!

It's time for us to start our engines and shift into gear for our upcoming release for American Truck Simulator. We are happy to share with you that Utah will be released in November 2019! We are also excited to share with you a short amount of gameplay footage from Utah featuring vast landscapes, beautiful historic towns, well-known landmarks and some of the state's famous red rocks. We hope you enjoyed tagging along for the ride in this beautiful new map expansion. Make sure to keep your eyes here on the Blog and across our Social Media channels for a specific release date. Until then, make sure to add Utah to your wishlist on Steam! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1104880/American_Truck_Simulator__Utah/ BLOG

Open Beta test for the latest update of American Truck Simulator is here! (Euro Truck Simulator 2 may still need a few more days, as we are fighting with a small but particularly hard to catch bug there.) You may wonder about the game version number suddenly jumping to 1.28, as at the moment it was sitting at ver. 1.6. We have decided to unify versioning of ETS2 and ATS to simplify communication about game updates both internally and externally. The version number used to denote that ETS2 has been through 27 major updates, while ATS has been through 6 big revisions since the respective game's release. But we realized that this is not a crucial piece of information. It is more relevant and more important to provide the information that the updates, even if they appear at slightly different times, are based off the same core functionality upgrade; that the progress is in sync on both games. That's why we decided to only continue the numbering scheme established originally with the older Euro Truck Simulator 2 game, and stick to it even with American Truck. This way it will be clearer if and when both games reach a particular development milestone. As usual, this update is full of great features for you to try out. Doubles are the main feature of this particular update which is great on its own. But since there are different regulations in Nevada, we decided to add something special for our fans. Please welcome triples and Rocky Mountain doubles which are part of ATS Nevada economy now! Apart from those, there is a number of features worth looking into and we are sure you will take the time to study every bit of them through and through as you always do and then enjoy them in the game. Let's make a list here so you can decide which of them will catch your eye first. MAIN FEATURES Doubles (and more) Background screen options Better flares on the player and AI vehicles MINOR CHANGES Auxiliary brakes system support (engine brake and retarder in one control element) Fixed LP change in states/countries where no city formats exist Fixed brake vs parking brake behavior Retarder improvement (better cruise control behavior, no braking with throttle, icon when moving only) Fixed suspension load gauges Steam Inventory support to allow for distributing rewards from upcoming World of Trucks events Doubles are just amazing and so much fun, we are sure you will agree once you try them yourselves.Background screen options are a new cosmetic feature that changes the background of the main menu to better suit your style. You will have to try and choose one that suits you best. Flares have been a big change that was worthy of its own dedicated blog post and you can take a look at it here. 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 → 1.28 public beta. No password required. During open betas, there is a dedicated beta site for World of Trucks, which is used to safely test all new features. Please visit World of Trucks Open Beta web for more information. Also check our modding wiki too to get details pertaining to mods for the game. Just as with the previous Open Beta releases - please keep in mind that this is still only a beta version of the update! You may experience instability and/or bugs and kinks. It’s completely okay if you want to wait for the final release. But if you are interested in providing feedback at this stage, be sure to let us know on our forum. We appreciate all your feedback immensely. Related articles: Doubles Better light flares for vehicles Source: http://blog.scssoft.com/2017/07/american-truck-simulator-128-open-beta.html

At SCS Software, we always have several internal projects under way, big and small, in various stages of completion - from pure concept research to pre-production, to full-blown production. We try to keep things mostly under wraps until we gain enough confidence that a project is viable. It is always a great pleasure to finally make the announcement when we are ready to release something new! Today, we are proud to bring you a new DLC for Euro Truck Simulator 2 - the Heavy Cargo Pack is here! Along with this new pack, there is a lot of content which will be added into the base game as a FREE update for everyone. But first, let's check out the new content in the Prepare yourself for 8 new heavy haul cargoes: Asphalt Miller Industrial Cable Reel Concrete Beams Crawl Dozer Locomotive Metal Centering Mobile Crane Transformer New Trailers The new DLC contains a pair of new high-tech trailers: Single Extendable Flatbed and Semi Lowloader with Drop Deck. These trailers come with steerable axles for safer navigation around tight bends. The good news today don't just stop here. We are also adding a lot of free content and a new feature into the base game! New Truck Chassis Variants and Tuning While working on the new heavy cargoes, we were inspired to take a look at special transport variants of truck tractors. The fan community has long been asking for 8x4 chassis options, and this is a great opportunity to finally introduce them into the game. We don't have 8x4 chassis option available for all the trucks in the game at this moment, but we hope that you will be happy to find it available for Mercedes-Benz New Actros, Volvo FH 2012, and both Scania R and Streamline trucks. The new chassis variants are a free part of today's game update so you can try them out immediately even without buying the Heavy Cargo Pack DLC. For each new vehicle variant, we have also created a set of new paint jobs too, to make you feel real unique and anxious for the more difficult challenges. In addition, we have added several new truck tuning accessories into the game, such as wheel tuning parts. Truck Analysis Screen With the new heavy loads, you may find out that not all trucks are equally suitable for hauling them. There are technical as well as legal limitations and implications for transporting heavy cargo in the real word, and while Euro Truck Simulator 2 is only a game, we felt that the players should be aware of them. All manufacturers offer a wide range of options for the trucks, and the companies that buy them try their best to optimize the configuration to best suit their needs while making the purchase economical - both at the time of purchase and even more importantly while operating them. The new Truck Analysis screen is our attempt to indicate the suitability of a particular truck configuration for various operational scenarios and conditions. This new feature works in the upgrade shop too, where it may help you configure your truck to best fit your goals and budget. The Truck Analysis screen doesn't impose any restrictions on your choice of vehicle, it is only there as a guide. But we think it may be a good idea to pay attention to the advice. You may make the screen disappear with a single click, but half an hour later, you may find yourself in real trouble trying to pass a difficult spot in the world, and upset that you have not made a wiser choice of the truck to pull the heavy cargo. Well, do you have what it takes to answer the call of heavy duty? We bet you do! Related articles: Big in America, Heavyweights to enter the ring soon Source: http://blog.scssoft.com/2017/05/ets2-heavy-cargo-dlc-is-here.html

Today we have an announcement that should make many of our fans happy. After quite some years of internal discussions and frankly some frustrations and struggles to have the gameplay as well as technical side of multi-trailer physics support ironed out, we finally feel ready to reveal fresh info about our progress on doubles. It has taken us a long time, but hope never dies! We are polishing double trailers for inclusion in the next major updates for Euro Truck Simulator 2 as well as for American Truck Simulator. We have a few pictures for you to prove that we are serious... Our games' fans have patiently (or not so patiently) waited for double trailers for a long time, and the wait should not be that long any more. The new trailers and physics improvements will be a part of the next big "point release" update of both games. Our hope is to release the updates in early summer. It's going to be a FREE update. Meanwhile, we are also wrapping up work on Heavy Cargo packs both for ETS2 and for ATS, which are going to be paid DLCs, comparable to our existing High Power Cargo Pack DLC. So if you are into cargo transport in particular, there is a ton of cool stuff to look forward to! Source: http://blog.scssoft.com/2017/05/doubles.html

New our work on the announced models of SCANIA Next Generation trucks for Euro Truck Simulator 2 continues successfully. We're excited about reaching an internal milestone and want to share a couple of screenshots with you. Despite some resistance from the vehicle department (they prefer to show off their creations when they are fully complete), we were able to get fresh Scania S 4x2 High Cab shots. This model is in a development phase when it can already be presented in the game environment to review and assess the implementation of its characteristic features. First look at the details of the cab interior is also possible now. Keep in mind that the presented model is incomplete and subject to further tweaks. Both Scania S and R models are under development in parallel. There is still a ton of work left and many details to polish before we reach the finish line, but as you can see, we are giving them a lot of care! Related articles: 3D Scanning - The Next Generation Scania, Sound recording - SCANIA S and R Source: http://blog.scssoft.com/2017/04/scania-s-and-r-truck-models-development.html

Greetings Truckers from all corners of the world ! Some discussions were made here at SCS Software and we have decided that we would like to do, from time to time, some special and dedicated blog-posts for all of you who ever wondered how things are going behind the scenes of our games. We are not able to promise how often these articles will be released and neither can we tell which topic will be the next one, but we think that they will shed more light into your minds about who we are, how we are doing things and so on. We all hope that you will like these articles and we are also looking forward to your opinions which you can, as always, leave in comments section below. Have you ever wanted to know… Have you ever wondered how our games are made? Where it all begins, which steps are implemented, how things are done, what is connected together and who is doing it? If you have, then this blog section, which we would like to start doing for you, is the right place you want to visit from time to time. So without any further ado, lets take a look at our first topic of this series: 'Research'. It may not be as technical as some of our later posts but it reveals some of the most important work we do. So you can sit back, relax, and enjoy this piece about how SCS works „Under the Hood“. What's next? Imagine the following scenario: you are a member of the SCS Software team and you are just returning from a design meeting where it was decided that the next step in American Truck Simulator's life cycle is going to be the creation and implementation of the state of Arizona. From that moment on, the research phase begins. And this phase is the first and one of the most vital steps in the process of creating all the content which you can see in our games. As you have probably guessed, we would like to keep our products somewhere between the well optimized/hardware friendly and fun-to-play computer games, and the based-on-reality truck simulators. And to be able to hit the right spot in this balance, we need to gather as much quality data as we can before we actually start creating any new content in our in-game worlds. So first we need to ask ourselves many questions like what does it look like in the state which we want to implement, which cities are there, how many people live there, which factories have their branches there, which industries are located in this state, what kind of vegetation grows there, which mountains are located in this zone, which rivers are crossing this country, in which areas and so on. The answers for these questions are the fundamental building blocks of our work. And everything is quite connected together. As you can imagine, for example, when we need to create the rest areas in Arizona, we need to know what do they look like. Do they generally have any vegetation, like trees? How many parking spots are there on average? Do they exist in isolation or are they usually part of some bigger complex that includes shops, hotels or gas stations? In which ways the trucks enter these places from the highways? Are there any different speed limits, and if so, are they enforced by law, and if they are, what law is it? Are there any state-specific traffic signs? And simply nearly everything else that could help us to enhance and correctly capture the resemblance of the things and situations we want to implement into our games. And that is not always an easy task. In fact, sometimes it is fairly tough challenge for our game designers. And sometimes parts of their work are gone because something has changed during the process of creation. For example, we recently encountered situation, in which we gathered some data about traffic rules in one state and when nearly everything seemed to be prepared for release, we found out that some of these traffic rules just have changed. And as you probably can imagine, unexpected situations like this can always do some damage to our plans and visions. And it is the good research with quality sources of information, that make us be able to face and overcome this threats. It‘s still all about the highways… or not? What is the first step of the research phase then? Some could say it‘s all about studying the road networks and to a certain extent, they would be right. But that is not really surprising, is it? We are doing truck games, of course that it is going to be about roads and highways. They are, after all, the backbone of traffic infrastructures. But it‘s still quite different look in this case. It truly is about the highways, but not only. We primary focus on roads which are connecting the cities and industrial areas that we are going to create for our games. Secondarily, we focus our work on road networks connected with the points of interests, which are some special places that you, our beloved truckers, will recognize and appreciate when you will be driving among or along them. These places are for example unique landscapes, mountains, atypical parts of the countryside, special bridges, buildings and things that make some places unusual and highly memorable. To design these elements right, we use any possible and obtainable data and material like our own experiences with these places, information from our international colleagues and co-workers, photos, videos, articles and other multimedia channels. Also the big help comes from any satellite images or the 360 degrees apps which let us actually see that place like as we would be standing right there. And of course, another big help in this case is all the good and highly appreciated feedback that we are gathering from you ! ( Big thanks to all of you ! ) So for good research, we are gathering as much of these information as we can. Sometimes, when we are preparing a new state into our games, we find out that the countryside and other things are quite same as they were in the previous part of the map, so we can use some of our already created material. But sometimes we find out that we are going to need a lot of new stuff. And that is not always easy. As we here in Czech Republic say, different region, different manners. But I guess you will better know this proverb as „So many countries, so many customs“. So often we are going to need new type of vegetation, new textures for terrain, new traffic signs, new rules for speed limits, new looks for the buildings, bridges, landmarks and so on. And that‘s why we need as much accurate data as we can obtain. We don‘t want to create flat land with a coastal city named Paris and call it Arizona, right? Even deciding which cities we are going to put in the game is really affected by the quality of the research phase. And you can trust us that to decide what city is going to be created, is nothing to be easily said. These cities have to meet our requirements as are the location, size, agglomeration, industry, points of interest that are surrounding it and many many more. It is quite hard to make decisions like that, but we are doing our best to pass this challenges over and over again. As the next step in this phase, all these gathered data are further divided to smaller teams of designers, or to individual map designer and then they are going to start creating the actual state in our map. If you want better example, I can give you some information that one of our map designers for American Truck Simulator has provided to me. His name is Patrik (the guy on the left in the photo below), he is 21 years old and he is behind the US 101 part of the ATS map, which starts in Oxnard and ends in the crossing with CA 58 road. Some first hand testimony… A quote from Patrik: „When I was working on this part of our map, I relied on data and images captured by the satellites and the 360 degrees apps that we are using. I‘ve also got some hints from our great fans and international co-workers, who know these places well. Digital map gives me information about elevation profiles, satellite images show what is visible from the ground or road and classic photos or apps similar to the „streetview“ give me the right touch of how it looks like there in reality. Then I‘ve further identified particular places, which I found interesting and which I was able to put in. Let‘s call them ‚Points of Interests‘. So for a small example, outside the city of Oxnard was an unusual railway bridge, or in the location of Shell Beach it was atypical exit from the highway which leads right next to this small town. The feedback that we are getting from you is highly valued source too. It was your feedback that leads me to the making of the city of Santa Maria which is located in Santa Barbara County. Or the tunnel pass which is going trough the mountains in this part of the US 101 was also based your on suggestions and feedback. I hope that one day we will be able to put all of your wishes and suggestions into our games. But as you should know, we are quite limited by the scale of the map, issues that come with it and other similar restrictions. So we are not able to put everything into the game for the time being, nor in the actual/real size, even though we would really like to. After the including of these points of interests, we continue our work by filling the grounds, countryside, cities and whole locations with textures and models that fit well in those places. But that is rather a topic for an article about map design or model creation, so I will save that for later“ Factories, imports, exports… Different look into the phase of research is the look to the economy part of the new state creation. It‘s still about gathering as much good information as we can, but this time, the material is based on the macroeconomics of the state and each city that we are going to put in. We need to know what is produced in that country or state, what is located in which city, what they import, export and things like that. Based on these data we are further making our balanced in-game economy. So for another quick example, if there is some huge chemical factory in one of our prepared cities, we need to know it so we would be able to put the imitations of these factories and industry into the game. You know, it‘s always good to haul some cargo which perfectly fits into the scenery and destination. When you are unaware of a huge agriculture zone around some city, you probably won‘t appreciate its presence in the game. But for players who actually were in these zones, it's really good to imitate this area according to the reality. It is always another bit of a challenge for us, but as was mentioned already, we are always doing our best to overcome them all. It is not internet browsing, it‘s research! Someone might say that the phase of research is just about browsing the internet and copy/paste some info, and so because of that it‘s a deficient activity. But that is not true. Research is extremely important. It is a fundamental pillar and backbone of everything we put in our games. Without good information and their sources, like were mentioned above, we would not be able to create states even a little similar to reality. We know that maybe every single one of you would like to see something a little different in our games, because as you know, we all are unique individuals with different tastes. But please keep in mind, that we are working hard to create content that you, our beloved truckers, would like to explore and drive thru with your mighty and heavy metal beasts. And so every single day, we are racking our brains on how to hit the right spot in the balance of what we are able to create, what visions are in our hearts and what you would like to see in our games. Finally, we would like to thank you for your time and attention, for staying with us this far. We hope you find this article both illuminating and as interesting to read as it was fun for us to write. Please, let us know your opinions, suggestion and feedback in the comments below. What topic would you like to read next ? Let us know. To our great fans, see you next time and remember…. ...IT‘S NOT DRIVING, IT‘S TRUCKING! Source: http://blog.scssoft.com/2016/10/under-hood.html PS. What a long blog post, probably the longest I have ever read