In today's blog, we bring you another piece of the puzzle from the upcoming 1.60 update for both Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator, which we hope will get our #BestCommunityEver very excited. In this update, we will be introducing the Improved Material System for the interior of selected trucks! Let's take a look.

The Improved Material System, which will be introduced in the 1.60 update for both games, significantly improves the lighting and visual quality of vehicle interiors in selected trucks. Its main focus is to enhance how interior materials react to light, which will result in a more readable, detailed, and visually pleasing cabin environment.

During the development of Project Road Trip, we implemented a wide range of visual and technical improvements. One of the most significant changes was a redesign of the materials used in vehicle interiors. 

This has been requested from our community for some time, as the previous system often made interiors appear too dark and flat, especially in scenes without direct lighting. As a result, it makes differences between materials such as leather, fabric, plastic, and metal far more apparent, even in low-light conditions.

"The main goal of the new technology was to bring more light into shadowed areas of vehicle interiors. The previous system struggled to handle indirect lighting in these situations, causing many details to be lost in darkness. The new solution uses multiple variants of dynamic cubemaps, allowing all materials to reflect their surroundings more naturally and respond to ambient light in a more realistic way. Environmental reflections are no longer limited to highly polished metallic surfaces. This change gives interiors significantly greater depth and readability," says our Vehicle Technical Leader, Daniel.

We have also carried out minor adjustments to the global lighting, primarily focused on exposure and contrast balancing, along with subtle visual refinements for bad weather conditions to achieve a more consistent and refined look. 

The development of this system took place in parallel with Project Road Trip, where its importance became even more apparent. Smaller, darker passenger vehicle interiors suffered from a lack of indirect light more than trucks with bright cabs and large windows, which often allow direct light to enter. Road Trip thus served as the ideal environment for developing and fine-tuning these technologies.

The entire system was designed from the start with the interiors of trucks in both games in mind, so the base games and their existing fleets will gradually benefit from these improvements as well. Throughout the entire process, we kept players with lower-end hardware in mind. We aimed to make the visual improvements as impactful as possible while minimizing the performance cost.

The first trucks to benefit from the Improved Material System will be the DAF NGD and MAN TG3 TGX models in ETS2. In ATS, players will see redesigned interiors for the Mack Anthem and the Western Star 49X. With future updates, we will gradually add this technology for other trucks across both games.

We hope this new feature has you looking forward to the 1.60 update even more, as it brings a major enhancement to these truck interiors and makes the view from the driver's seat better than ever! Please note that the Road Trip vehicles are not releasing with the 1.60 update.

Until next time, be sure to follow us on X/Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and YouTube for all the latest updates. Don't forget to sign up for our newsletter as well! See you out on the road, and keep on truckin'!

We have just shipped an updated Steam Deck Client to the Stable channel.

General

• The 'Legacy Steam Runtime' compatibility tool is now an optional standalone download instead of being bundled with the Steam client.

• Fixed an issue where the Steam Workshop would download an older version of an item if there were multiple versions of the item that were marked valid for game beta branch the user opted into.

• Fixed a rare case where the Steam Controller welcome dialog could appear while updating the controller's firmware.

• Fixed a crash related to the Steam Controller.

• Fixed streamable non-Steam games showing in Library when Remote Play is turned off.

• Fixed the "View friends list" link in the Big Picture home page opening the older non-QAM version of the friends list.

• Fixed some startup movies failing to play.

• Fixed option to clear custom backgrounds and logos not showing in library.

Library

• Improved EULA scrolling behavior when using a controller.

Settings

• Updated the layout and styles for client settings across desktop, Big Picture and controller configuration to improve readability and organization.

• Notification settings has been updated to allow changing e-mail, client, and mobile notification preferences in one place.

• Directly navigating to a specific settings page (i.e by activating the network icon in the header) will now focus the first setting in that section instead of the settings navigation menu.

Friends & Chat

• Friend status will now update much more quickly after waking your device from sleep or toggling network connectivity.

Steam Input

• Steam Controller: Minor improvement to gyro micro stutter (ignore clone packets).

• You can turn off "Track Pad locking" - by default each trackpad is disabled while the corresponding joystick is either deflected or the joystick's capacitive sensor has been activated. This is to avoid accidental track pad touches when using a joystick. Find the setting in: Settings->Controller->Details->Calibration & Advanced->Trackpad Lockout.

• Gyro to Joystick Camera: Defaulted Gyro Deadzone Speed and Gyro Precision Speed to 0 to aide tuning the correct Minimum Joystick Output - these settings would swallow the micro movements needed to check the minimum response to gyro movements. Also: added Minimum Joystick Output slider on the Configurator Quick Settings list.

• Added an extra option to Gyro to Joystick Camera - Angle Catchup can be active while gyro ratcheting.

• Fixed Gyro to Joystick Camera timing issue - should appear smoother across all controllers.

• Removed several configuration options from incompatible inputs. Digital Buttons can no longer be set Press types that require Analog input and Gyro can no longer be set to incompatible Radial Menu or Hotbar. These options will still be available for all compatible inputs.

• Fixed detecting the Steam Controller when it is charging on the puck at Steam startup.

• Fixed an issue with doubled input when the Steam Controller is charging on the puck.

• Fixed FlyDigi Vader 5 Pro in enhanced mode on Linux and macOS.

• Fixed "Reset Camera To Horizon" action operating inconsistently in different engines - turn commands chunked into 2 to improve consistency.

• Fixed quick settings Left Trackpad to point to correct settings, instead of toward Gyro.

• Fixed not being able to use Grip Sense to activate Touch Menus.

• Fixed Grip Sense sensor page Grip Range slider, and adjusted explanations.

• Added Grip Sense rumble effect to Grip Sense calibration screen.

• Fixed an issue where Steam Controller grip thresholds were loaded incorrectly in the device calibration screen.

• Fixed an issue preventing the Steam button chord configuration from being edited for the Steam Controller.

Steam Controller Firmware

• Fixes for trackpad 'dead zone' issues experienced by some Steam Controllers.

• Fixed an issue with occasional stutter on the gyro polling rate.

• Fixed IMU failures when using extended rumble.

• Fixed an issue where continuous rumble would sometimes break Gyro input.

Remote Play

• Added an advanced client option to enable microphone streaming.

• Fixed the client disconnecting after a short period of time when doing non-local streaming.

• Fixed the Steam Link app not showing the computer as online after pairing in some cases.

Desktop Mode

• Fixed a case where dropdown windows and profile hover windows could get stuck on screen.

A new Steam client has been released and will be automatically downloaded.

General

• Fixed an issue where the Steam Workshop would download an older version of an item if there were multiple versions of the item that were marked valid for game beta branch the user opted into.

• Fixed a rare case where the Steam Controller welcome dialog could appear while updating the controller's firmware.

• Fixed streamable non-Steam games showing in Library when Remote Play is turned off.

• Fixed some startup movies failing to play in Big Picture Mode.

• Fixed option to clear custom backgrounds and logos not showing in library.

Settings

• Updated the layout and styles for client settings across desktop, Big Picture and controller configuration to improve readability and organization.

• Notification settings has been updated to allow changing e-mail, client, and mobile notification preferences in one place.

In-Game Overlay

• Fixed a case where Performance Monitor could over report frame rate if a game erroneously calls NVIDIA APIs to get new frame tokens at a much higher rate than their actual Present frame rate.

• Fixed cases where the overlay may not immediately cover the entire screen when first invoked.

• Fixed cases where the Big Picture mode overlay notifications may be positioned incorrectly until the overlay is first invoked.

• Fixed a rare case where GameOverlayUI64.exe could stop responding and use too much CPU.

Steam Controller Firmware

• Fixes for trackpad 'dead zone' issues experienced by some Steam Controllers.

• Fixed IMU failures when using extended rumble.

• Fixed an issue with occasional stutter on the gyro polling rate.

• Fixed an issue where continuous rumble would sometimes break Gyro input.

Steam Input

• Steam Controller: Minor improvement to gyro micro stutter (ignore clone packets).

• You can turn off "Track Pad locking" - by default each trackpad is disabled while the corresponding joystick is either deflected or the joystick's capacitive sensor has been activated. This is to avoid accidental track pad touches when using a joystick. Find the setting in: Settings->Controller->Details->Calibration & Advanced->Trackpad Lockout.

• Gyro to Joystick Camera: Defaulted Gyro Deadzone Speed and Gyro Precision Speed to 0 to aide tuning the correct Minimum Joystick Output - these settings would swallow the micro movements needed to check the minimum response to gyro movements. Also: added Minimum Joystick Output slider on the Configurator Quick Settings list.

• Added an extra option to Gyro to Joystick Camera - Angle Catchup can be active while gyro ratcheting.

• Fixed Gyro to Joystick Camera timing issue - should appear smoother across all controllers.

• Removed several configuration options from incompatible inputs. Digital Buttons can no longer be set Press types that require Analog input and Gyro can no longer be set to incompatible Radial Menu or Hotbar. These options will still be available for all compatible inputs.

• Fixed detecting the Steam Controller when it is charging on the puck at Steam startup.

• Fixed an issue with doubled input when the Steam Controller is charging on the puck.

• Fixed FlyDigi Vader 5 Pro in enhanced mode on Linux and macOS.

• Fixed "Reset Camera To Horizon" action operating inconsistently in different engines - turn commands chunked into 2 to improve consistency.

• Fixed quick settings Left Trackpad to point to correct settings, instead of toward Gyro.

• Fixed not being able to use Grip Sense to activate Touch Menus.

• Fixed Grip Sense sensor page Grip Range slider, and adjusted explanations.

• Added Grip Sense rumble effect to Grip Sense calibration screen.

• Fixed an issue where Steam Controller grip thresholds were loaded incorrectly in the device calibration screen.

• Fixed an issue preventing the Steam button chord configuration from being edited for the Steam Controller.

• Fixed Steam Controller input in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II.

Linux

• The 'Legacy Steam Runtime' compatibility tool is now an optional standalone download instead of being bundled with the Steam client.

• Fixed firmware updates failing on systems where libhidapi was not installed.

• Fixed a case where dropdown windows and profile hover windows could get stuck on screen.

• Fixed a crash related to the Steam Controller on Linux.

Remote Play

• Alt-Enter now toggles windowed mode.

• Window mode, position, and size are saved between sessions.

• Added a windowed mode toggle and 1:1 resize button to the mouse/keyboard overlay menu.

• Added an advanced client option to enable microphone streaming.

• Fixed the client disconnecting after a short period of time when doing non-local streaming.

• Fixed the Steam Link app not showing the computer as online after pairing in some cases.

The Steam Client Beta has been updated with the following changes:

In-Game Overlay

• Fixed regression in FPS counter for a small number of games in this beta.

Steam Input

• Fixed the size of virtual menus on desktop to match Big Picture Mode.

We have just shipped an updated Steam Deck Client to the Preview/Beta channel.

Desktop Mode

• Fixed the size of virtual menus to match Big Picture Mode.

• Fixed regression in FPS counter for a small number of games in this beta.