SCS Teases ETS & ATS 1.49 Update Including HDR Skybox, The Moon, Used Truck Dealers

SCS Software has recently shared some information for their upcoming V1.49 update for both Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator including improvements to the visual quality of the game as well as some big improvements to the damage and wear system.

New HDR Skyboxes and The Moon

The first teaser for the update was shared on Saturday and involved some improvements towards the HDR Skyboxes, Moon and new weather effects. This may sound like a small change, but it’s a good change and any improvement to the visuals is very welcome, despite the claims of some of the losers in the community who whine about these features being in mods before and apparently, that is a problem. Going into the meat of the improvements, the key addition is the moon which was removed from the game in its early days and I genuinely never noticed until the announcement. The delay in implementing the moon was down to the work surrounding “casting, rendering and calculating lunar light, managing reflections in water bodies, dealing with wet roads and addressing mirror effects.”

To accompany the moon is a reimagined night sky which features dynamic stars to truly enhance the nighttime driving experience and immerse the game even further. I’m looking forward to these changes as currently I’m not a fan of night driving in-game, (or in real life) as I enjoy looking at the environment and the lack of moon illumination makes the game too dark.

The final change here is HDR skyboxes and weather improvements which will offer richer, more vibrant colours in the skies and more dynamic and natural weather including thunder that illuminates the environment. A video showcasing some of the changes can be seen below

Used Truck Dealerships & Damage System Changes

Yesterday another blog post was made sharing the new Used Truck Dealers which provide newer players a cheaper option for buying themselves their first truck, the caveat being that these trucks have more wear and tear which coincides with the new damage system. The current system has parts categorized into 5 categories; Engine, Transmission, Chassis, cabin and wheels which are then given a percentage by their damage. With the new system the parts will now be categorised into three types;

Damage which can be fixed by standard repairs like before.

Parts Wear components showing wear and tear which will need replacing.

Permanent Wear parts which need a complete restoration of the entire vehicle.

This new system seems pretty good and gives the realism of general wear and tear with a lot more control over what parts you repair or replace first. I wonder if you’ll be forced to write off the truck if you crash hard enough. Hopefully, this introduction leads to some more in-depth damage features such as visual damage or even tyre blowouts just to really spice things up.

My only concern with all of this more surrounds the used truck dealers. Now whilst you get a cheaper truck with a bit of damage, I’m not sure if it will actually be worth using as the cheapest new trucks are around 100-130k which you can get fairly quickly especially if you take out a loan. For this to work there needs to be some work done to the game economy.