22 replies to this topic

[Stefan Roess]

Euro Truck Simulator 2 (ETS 2)

Is there anyone around here who also plays it?

I have recently bought Euro Truck Simulator 2 as it is on sales (-76 %) at Steam:
https://store.steamp...ck_Simulator_2/

I think it is really great. It is very relaxing and a good simulation with nice graphics (a mod brings the graphics almost to todays standard).
It has several DLCs for low prices and many hundred addons by the community you can download on Steam from the Workshop. And additionally, you find many mods and new maps on fan websites.

Quote

“Unexpectedly engrossing. Heed the mockers and you'll miss one of the PC's finest and freshest driving games.”
85/100 – PC Gamer

“With its stellar gameplay and presentation, Euro Truck Simulator 2 set a new standard for the simulation genre.”
95/100 – Gaming Nexus

“There are titles in the simulation market which can be sold on the novelty factor alone, but tend to be disappointing games. Euro Truck Simulator 2 is not one of them, it is strangely cathartic, engaging and relaxing.”
True PC Gaming

Travel through Europe as the king of the roads, as a truck driver who delivers important loads far away! With dozens of cities from Great Britain, Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and many more, your endurance, skill and speed will be put to the ultimate test. If you have what it takes to become part of an elite department of the forwarding business, get behind the wheel and prove it!
Key features:

• Transport a huge variety of loads through more than 60 European cities.
  
• Run your own business that grows with every successful delivery.
  
• Build your own fleet, buy garages, hire drivers, get the maximum profit from your business.
  
• A wide range of truck tuning options, from performance to appearance.
  
• Equip your vehicle with optional lamps, grilles, horns, flashing beacons, exhaust systems and more.
  
• Thousands of miles of real road networks with hundreds of famous landmarks and buildings.

Official Website:
https://eurotrucksimulator2.com/


Released
19. October 2012

Supported platforms
PC Windows
PC Linux
Mac

DLCs Released
Going East! (2013)
Scandinavia (2015)
Vive la France (2016)
Italia (2017)
Beyond the Baltic Sea (2018)

Truck manufacturers
DAF
Iveco
MAN
Mercedes-Benz
Renault
Scania
Volvo

Steam rating
96 % (2019)

Metacritics
79 % (2019)



Euro Truck Simulator 2 Promo Trailer
https://www.youtube....h?v=xlTuC18xVII

Euro Truck Simulator 2 - Scandinavia trailer (DLC)
https://www.youtube....h?v=NpybgwVnTp8

Euro Truck Simulator 2 - Italia trailer (DLC)
https://www.youtube....h?v=OtYNJ077oWA

Euro Truck Simulator 2 - Vive la France! trailer (DLC)
https://www.youtube....h?v=xm3T-3IzigM

Euro Truck Simulator 2 - Beyond the Baltic Sea (DLC)
https://www.youtube....h?v=vTGAW3vuY0g


Edit:
See my settings here: https://srmz.racesimcentral.net/inde...58



Screenshots:

Edited by Stefan Roess, Jul 21 2019 - 01:18 PM.

[twinpotter]

Hi Stefan.

I have this game plus others. Euro truck 1, UK truck sim and the American truck ones, Pedal to the metal, Across America and so on.

Really enjoyable games that pass on the time. Driving is a bit tough with the steering and I only have it on a PC that's not got great spec. So sometimes get slowdown. May account to the unresponsive steering?

I know though that some people even with top PC's have struggled with performance too 🤔

TP:

[Saiph]

HONK! HONK!
Yeah, I have Euro Truck Sim 2, and I recently bought American Truck Sim in another sale, for a change of scenery. I always wanted to know what it felt like to drive a big rig, and especially I wanted to learn how to manoeuvre an articulated truck in a yard, where you might need to reverse it into an unloading bay. Great fun.

In addition to the links you posted Stefan, check out "World of Trucks": https://www.worldoftrucks.com

You can log your jobs on the site, upload and compare screenshots, see the profiles of other players (I'm on there as "Saiph"). You can even get online trucking jobs from World of Trucks while you're in the game.

One tip: Be careful about using third-party addon maps in the game. ETS2/ATS are still being updated regularly, and if SCS Software update the game, sometimes it can make mods incompatible for a few days until the third-party modders catch up. This can cause error messages in the game, and can sometimes prevent the game from starting. You might need to disable mods to get it running again.

Attached Files

•  20190520130720_1.jpg   79.25K   19 downloads
•  20180610165913_1.jpg   134.26K   20 downloads

Edited by Saiph, Jul 01 2019 - 01:48 PM.

[leon_90]

I have it too

[Marx]

Yes, since about a year now. Great simulators, ETS2 and ATS. I am spending hours and hours cruising across Europe and the Americas

Edited by Marx, Jul 02 2019 - 03:03 PM.

[Stefan Roess]

Hey, nice to see some GPL drivers who also like Truck sims.

@twinpotter: Your slowdowns can cause steering input lags/ unresponsive steering.
I am also still trying to find the best graphics settings for ETS 2. It was running fine with high settings but now I have stutters at night (I haven`t played at night before). I have reduced the settings (shadows, lights, range of the light cones, ...) but it is still not good yet. The game still tends to CTD when the stutters get too much. I guess my next step will be to deactivate all graphics mods I have actived. Maybe one of them is the cause.

@Saiph: Thx for the tips.
I already had to deal with old mods that are not supported buy the current game version. But the implemented Mod Manager makes it quite easy to handle even if the game crashes and/ or does not start anymore.
"World of Trucks" sounds interesting. I will have a closer look at it.
There is so much to explore, the DLCs are already very extensive. Then there are also some good maps that support the latest game version. The game will keep me buissy for a long time until I might think about trying the ATS.

Edited by Stefan Roess, Jul 02 2019 - 07:52 AM.

[Saiph]

The ETS2/ATS graphics engine is one of the weakest parts of the sims, unfortunately. Generally the graphics are ok (especially sunrise/sunset which are popular for screenshots), but if you look at details such as power lines crossing over the road, they are often extremely pixellated and blocky. I'm thinking of telling the devs about the GPL rasterizers and showing them screenshots of power lines/phone lines in the Targa Florio towns - they look much better!   Another problem is frame rate. No matter how I change the graphics settings, I sometimes get an effect which is known in the ETS2 community as "surging", where the frame rate, and animation rate of game-world objects speeds up and then slows down continuously when you're driving through a detailed area, such as a city centre. I don't have any definite fix for that problem, but I recommend not trying to push the graphics too hard, even if you have a good graphics card.

The business simulation in the games is also a bit weak. If you get to the stage where you've bought yourself a nice, more powerful truck, and you're thinking of buying more trucks and hiring other drivers to drive them, don't spend too much money. Hired drivers earn the same amount of money when driving a low-powered, cheap truck as they do when they're driving the most powerful truck in the game. That may not seem to make a lot of sense for a garage based in (for example) Zurich, where you'll have a lot of mountain roads on your routes. But that's how the business model works. It's very basic.

Also, when you're considering how to improve your own truck, the best thing to go for is better torque. You might think that horsepower would be important, but it's extra torque which allows you to pull away on a hill with a heavy load, and to keep up a decent speed on hilly highways.

The other thing to mention is the poor AI of non-player vehicles. Watch out for computer-controlled vehicles being really dumb, especially when you're on roundabouts (traffic circles). Vehicles can enter and drive into the side of you as if you were completely invisible. You'll also see AI vehicles changing lanes multiple times when approaching motorway/highway exit junctions. One thing which can help keep you safer is using your indicators (blinkers) all the time. AI drivers do seem to take notice of your indicator lights. For example, if you're trying to turn left across traffic (perhaps turning into a company yard), if you have your indicator on, sometimes the traffic from the opposite direction will stop for you and let you cross, even though they would normally be able to drive past quite safely. This can also help on a motorway/highway if you need to change lanes. Even if traffic is heavy, you can turn on your indicator, and the traffic on the lane next to you will often hang back and create a gap that you can (carefully) move into.

Edited by Saiph, Jul 02 2019 - 08:33 AM.

[ginetto]

I have it since 2017.

[twinpotter]

I really love these kind of simulator games.

I kind of got in to the SIM games and it as snowballed onto others. Some are good whilst others not so. From Forklift simulator in a warehouse to ship simulator and garbage truck sim. There are so many.

Also a good one is the Omsi Bus Simulator if you fancy a bit of bus driving.

I've always had a weak PC when playing these games and struggled with the lag. But from research so have people with a top of the range gaming PC. So nobody as worked out a solution.

Okay time to revisit Euro Truck SIM 2. Thanks for the reminder Stefan. Saiph some really good tips too. Right time to get out my checked shirt, munch on my Yorkie chocalate bar and try sun tan my arms out of the window 😁

TP:

Edited by twinpotter, Jul 02 2019 - 02:12 PM.

[Stefan Roess]

I have fixed my stutters and CTDs.
I just had too many AI Traffic Packs by Jazzycat activated. They were all updated to the latest game version and loaded fine, but I guess they were just too much to calculate for my (hexacore) PC. Now I have only one of his AI Traffic Packs activated.
My graphics settings are now set to full in game and in graphics card and the game runs fine again. I didn`t expect it could have been too many activated AI Traffic Packs.
This thread opened my eyes:
Game crashing due to AI traffic mods?
https://steamcommuni...92549027299463/

Edited by Stefan Roess, Jul 17 2019 - 08:02 AM.

[Stefan Roess]

I have changed my mind.

I will also get American Truck Simulator (ATS) as it is on sales on Steam until 9th of July.
https://store.steamp...ruck_Simulator/

Let´s go truckin.

[twinpotter]

There is one called Rig n Roll which is supposed to be well okay 🤔

Let's rename this site SIM Trucking Mirror Zone (STMZ) 😂🤭

TP: 👍

[Saiph]

Another quite important tip: In ATS, if you're driving on highways between towns in the desert states (Arizona, New Mexico etc), watch out for large, round, brown objects rolling onto the road right in front of you. Don't panic like I did, as my brain triggered the word "BOULDER!" and I slammed on the brakes and tried to steer behind the objects. I almost turned the truck and trailer over. After I came to a stop with sweat on my forehead and my hands shaking slightly, I suddently realised that there weren't any roadside cliffs or outcrops where the "rocks" could have come from, so I was puzzled for a few moments. Then just ahead, a couple more of these objects rolled lazily across the highway. There was a small amount of AI traffic around, and they were simply ignoring these objects, driving straight past them and even through them. I also saw that the objects were partially transparent. I then realised what they were. Tumbleweed! Those SCS b******s have modelled tumbleweed blowing across the road, just to give novice non-American drivers a little "surprise"!

So if you see any of these things, just ignore them as they can't damage your truck. And if you do get panicked, feel free to do what I'm going to do and send your laundry bill to SCS!

Edited by Saiph, Jul 03 2019 - 05:03 AM.

[twinpotter]

I've wore many hats in the past job wise and one of my roles was an H.G.V driver in the UK driving class 1 articulated vehicles, for about 15 years. These games therefore relate to me. As my mate says all truckers are Cab Jockeys 😂😂

For me ETS1 was easier to reverse than ETS2. Maybe more realistic🤔

TP:

[Millennium]

I played it a lot when I just came out, such a relaxing game. I always used to listing to an 80's Hotmix Radio channeI you could connect to in game, discovered quite a lot of nice music.

But I haven't played ETS2 in the last 4 years or so anymore, eventually I got a bit bored. (350 hours played)

Edited by Millennium, Jul 03 2019 - 10:56 AM.

[GrandPrixYannick]

I'm slowly getting started on it as well. One thing I like right of the bat is that you can listen to the radio on it

I'm going to discover it even further.
I have only purchased ETS2, but I might pick up ATS as well

Edited by GrandPrixYannick , Jul 09 2019 - 04:55 AM.

[Stefan Roess]

Thx for all the tips and input.

As I have spent some more hours with both sims (mainly with ETS 2) here are my settings. Maybe they are of value for anyone.


Music:
Besides listening to radio stations you can also listen to your own music files you have stored on your PC.
The easiest way to do so is that you just add a link to your music folder where you have stored your music files on your PC within the folder

C:\My files\My documents\Euro Truck Simulator 2\music

C:\My files\My documents\American Truck Simulator\music

Subfolders within your own music folder are automatically taken into account by the ETS 2 and ATS music player.


Graphics:
I am using
JBX Settings - Reshade and SweetFX v1.9.18 for ETS 2 and ATS:
https://www.racedepa...-sweetfx.16623/

Quote

The post-processing effects of Reshade and SweetFX + JBX Settings offer more realistic graphics and compatibility with many Games.

Important: Activate the effects and settings by pressing the Insert key on your keyboard every time you enter the game!


Edit:
In addition I use exactly the settings of this video and those are the best settings I have tested so far. With those settings both sims look great!
Best graphics settings for Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator
https://www.youtube....h?v=R_Vuu10nCAo
https://roextended.r...opic.php?p=1100

Quote

In Game settings, both for ATS and ETS2:

Scaling 100%

MLAA off!

--------------------------------------------------------------

Nvidia Profile Inspector (Different profiles but same settings for ATS and ETS2)

Antialiasing compatibility    0x404012C1

Antialiasing - Mode   Override any application
setting

Antialiasing - Setting 4x [4x Multisampling]

Antialiasing - Transparency Supersampling
4x Sparse Grid
Supersampling

Toggle FXAA on or off   Off

Anisotropisk filtering mode User-defined / Off

Anisotropisk filtering setting    16x

Texture filtering - Quality    High quality

--------------------------------------------------------------

Mods:
ProMods v2.41 (only available for Euro Truck Simulator 2)
(the new v2.41 works with the latest Euro Truck Simulator 2 1.35 update)

https://blog.promods.net/

Quote

ProMods is a map expansion for Euro Truck Simulator 2 which adds over 80 new cities and 8 completely new countries to the standard SCS map. The map tries to bring an enhanced experience by rebuilding the standard map areas like Germany, Benelux, Austria etc. as well as tweaking older ProMods areas.

Official ProMods 2.40 Teaser Trailer
https://www.youtube....h?v=T01RUtte8Bo



Any other type of mods like AI traffic, graphics, sounds, weather, trucks, trailer, ...   you need to test if the game still starts and works with the latest game version.
If not you need to deactivate it within Mod Manager and hope that the author will do an update to make it compatible with the latest game version.

Atm I am not using any other mods than the ones mentioned above.

Edited by Stefan Roess, Sep 04 2019 - 05:52 PM.

[GrandPrixYannick]

Thanks for the info, Stefan.

I'm planning not to use any mods, apart from the one posted just above me.
It looks very promising and driving through more European countries is always good.
I'd like to drive Spain/Portugal/Greece and Sápmi, and see more of Scotland, the Alps and Norway.
The route of Stavanger to Bergen is gorgeous <3 Reminds me of Tronaassen.

I've driven it a severe amount now and it has got me insanely hooked. It is massive fun, and I'm looking forward to try out ATS,
I'd bet the scenery is even more diverse, if not more beautiful.

Edited by GrandPrixYannick , Jul 21 2019 - 01:13 PM.

[GrandPrixYannick]

Prefer the snow over forests and deserts?
Alaskan Truck Simulator is apparently in the works as well.
Different developer/publisher though, but it looks pretty promising, albeit demanding for your system.

https://store.steamp...?snr=1_7_15__13

There is also a FIA sanctioned truck racing game
https://store.steamp...?snr=1_7_15__13

Edited by GrandPrixYannick , Jul 24 2019 - 12:25 PM.

[leon_90]

Do truck drivers in Alaska really bridge over ladders and hunt hares in their free time??