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/