SCS Software to Ship New Lights With Upcoming ATS and ETS2 Build Updates

Paul Jeffrey

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American Truck Simulator.jpg

European Truck Sim 2 and American Truck Simulator developers SCS Software have revealed some preview images from the lighting changes due to hit the simulation as part of the next build update.

Now when we say lighting I don't mean the in game lighting and shaders that present the visual experience to the end user, but more the actual vehicle lights present on both the trucks that can be piloted by the gamer themselves and those of the many varied types of traffic found in both American Truck Simulator and European Truck Simulator 2.

According to a recent blog posting from the impressively communicative development studio, the team have never quite been happy with how the lights have been represented in either game up to this point in time. As such work has been underway back at SCS headquarters to improve the visual representation of headlights and as such the developers feel comfortable that the improvements realised by the team should make it as part of the next scheduled update to the game, due for release in the coming weeks.

To shed light (ha, see what I did?!?) on the subject SCS have released the below images and words about what goes on behind the scenes developing this part of the software..

We are working hard on addressing the remaining known issues before we can start the Open Beta process for the next major updates for both Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator. We thought that you may be interested in learning about one little visual improvement that we are planning to introduce as a part of the update...

We have never been quite happy with the way vehicle lights look, doing something about it was on our wishlist since the launch of Euro Truck Simulator 2. Our coders have actually improved the underlying system a while ago already, but finally, we have caught up with them and tweaked the "sprite" graphics, which in fact involved painstaking re-adjustment of a ton of various numerical constants that define light flare behavior.

The light flares in our games have always been growing too big at a short distance, masking out the entire headlight and any interesting shape and detail. Our goal for the change was to make sure that the lamp mask can be seen during both day and night without the excessive glare.

New ATS - ETS 2 Light Effects.gif

At longer distances, the new system adjusting the flare intensity still had to make sure that lights do not disappear. The eye is very good at catching the photons coming in even from a tiny source in the distance, and our system has to emulate it.

You can see the results of our effort on today's comparative series of screenshots.

ATS - ETS 2 New Lights 1.jpg
ATS - ETS 2 New Lights 2.jpg
ATS - ETS 2 New Lights 3.jpg
ATS - ETS 2 New Lights 4.jpg


American Truck Simulator and European Truck Simulator 2 are both available to purchase for Windows PC exclusively on the Steam Network. Additional DLC for both titles can be purchased via the Steam Store.

American Truck Simulator 2.jpg


At RaceDepartment we have dedicated sub forums for both American Truck Simulator and European Truck Simulator 2. Here you can find a wide selection of mods for the game, from new skins, trucks and even maps. If you want a cool place to catch all the latest news and engage with the ever faithful community around these two games, head over to the sub forum and get involved today!

Looking forward to the future development of both ATS and ETS 2? Happy to see more attention is to be paid to the lights of both trucks and cars in game? Let us know in the comments section below!
 
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