[SCS Blog] American Truck Simulator Update 1.37 Open Beta is here!

[SCS Blog]

We love to bring you new game updates, especially when they contain some cool features that you have requested for a long time; and we really appreciate all the help our great community provides with testing each new update during the open beta stage. Today, we'd like to invite you to help us finalize the features that are coming to American Truck Simulator along with the next update. Please read below, and if you like living on the edge, get ready to join the 1.37 Update Open Beta.

So what's coming with it, you ask? Let's start with the major thing on the list - a new sound engine! As you probably read in our first tease of this development (if not then you can find it here), this is the first planned phase of bringing new and better sounds to our games. With the 1.37 update, we are radically redefining the way we mix vehicle and environment sounds. We are switching from having two separate sound sets for the interior and exterior of your truck; to a new system which is based on a unified SFX set with various filters and effects applied on it during the final composition.

The end result sounds fantastic to our ears already, and we are just getting started. We are really looking forward to your reaction! You can also expect new sound for most of the AIs (including trains) and experience true Doppler effect as the first fruits from the integration of the FMOD sound library. Please note that any of these new sounds still might be subject to further changes according to the feedback we need to gather first.

As a benefit from the new sound mixing approach, we are happy to bring you a new feature that we have already quietly teased here. Did you spot it? At long last, you can open your truck windows! Some may consider it a gimmick, but many of you have been calling us to introduce this feature for years. You can now enjoy the continuum of sound levels between a well-insulated cabin with windows closed and the roaring traffic coming from the outside when you roll the windows all the way down. Give it a try especially when you hit the rush hour on the road or at some big junction.

Back to the most important thing, your help! We are releasing this open beta today with sound modders in mind. The changes are radical from their point of view, as they will need to re-learn a lot of the techniques used. We appreciate our modding communities' passion and dedication and we expect modders to be able to raise the bar again as they become familiar with the new way to implement sounds into the game. 

We are bringing out the open beta early as we are eagerly looking forward to receiving your feedback and constructive criticism to be able to iterate where needed. Because our programmers and SFX guys have already invested a huge amount of time into this feature, we understand there is still a lot of work ahead of us. If you want to read more and help us with this task, please visit the dedicated modding wiki at this link. More info will be added there with the progress.

Another addition you might have spotted in a recent social media teaser is the "walk-around feature." Our game world is generally not designed for exploration on foot, but we figure that fans of trucks may welcome a new closer perspective to view their favorite machines and appreciate how impressive they look. Getting up close may also be of use when you need to tune up your rig and match the color of your rims with the cabin's paint just right. So here we are with a little bonus feature of 1.37, an alternate way to control the camera in the game's service and vehicle browser. We had to redesign the "garage" scene a little to make more space and way for the cameras, hopefully, you will appreciate it. 

Hungry for more? Then get ready for some food tanks! And we mean literally food tanks because, with this update, a new type of trailer comes available to buy and customize. These beauties were highly demanded for some time and so we're glad and proud we can bring them for you, our #BestCommunityEver!

Last but not least, for owners of the Steering Creations Pack DLC, we are about to expand the content of the DLC with an additional bunch of steering wheels. Not all of them are ready yet, but our 3D graphic artists are finishing them and we expect to introduce them in stages during the open beta period.

Let's take a look at the full list of the new features coming with 1.37 Update for American Truck Simulator:

VEHICLES

• Food tank trailer (ownable)
• Paintjobs for bulk feed and hopper trailers (including the content of Classic Stripes Paint Jobs Pack and Halloween Paint Jobs Pack DLCs)

FEATURES

• FMOD implementation with all existing sounds and few improvements
• Openable windows on all trucks
• AI movement and sound behavior improved (featuring FMOD)
• Walking camera in truck or trailer configuration screen (plus new garage scene)

TOBII EYE TRACKING

• Eye-tracking pause key function fixed
• Automatic eye-tracking pause while the game is paused/in UI
• Settings hotkey visibility in UI

MOD

• Ingame sounds completely reimplemented for FMOD
• Engine power range data (instead of boost value)
• Exhaust gas temp gauge animation
• AI data tweak (engine power instead of torque and gearbox, vehicle_mass override for trailers)

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, kinks or crashes. 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.

During open betas, we are operating a dedicated alternate site for World of Trucks, which is used to safely test all new features. Please visit the World of Trucks Open Beta web for more information. Also, 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 → 1.37 public beta. No password required.

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