American Truck Simulator gains big new features in new open beta

After spending recent weeks teasing new features for American Truck Simulator, the folks over at SCS Software have rather speedily granted players access to them via a new open beta. This beta is version 1.37, which adds a good chunk of new toys to play with, most of which have been shown off prior. Here’s a list of the major new stuff:

• Rollable Windows – A heavily-requested feature from fans is finally available here in American Truck Simulator. Just like in real life, players can now roll the windows of their truck down. The ability to do this ties directly into the next few feature…
• FMOD Support – The sound designers have been hard at work incorporating FMOD into both American Truck Simulator, and its sibling, Euro Truck Simulator 2. The first version of this new sound system is featured in the new open beta. Improvements will be noticeable with the environment and AI traffic, in addition to other AI vehicles, like trains. Tune your eyes to look for the “doppler effect”, which is that sound that’s most noticeable when a siren is approaching and then passing.  Rolling down the truck’s window will result in a unified sound system that combines SFX from both the interior and exterior.

• Walk Around –  No, you can’t jump out of your truck’s cabin and explore the world of American Truck Simulator on foot now. However, you can “walk” around your truck when it’s in the garage. This is useful for customization, as you can now get extremely close to just about every area of the truck to make any fine adjustments you see fit when you’re decking out like it’s a giant art project.
• Own a Food Tank trailer – If you’re into having your own trailer, there’s a new type to own: a food tank. They appear to be for liquid food types. Of course, they can also be customized just like your truck. The aforementioned walk-around feature is also usable when customizing trailers.

Get in on the action

Those are all just the main highlights of the new public beta for American Truck Simulator.

To access it, simply right-click on ATS in Steam, select “Properties” and then go to the “Betas” tab, to the right. There, select “public_beta – Public Beta 1.37” which will then trigger an update that will download to your system (it comes in at 3GB, so it’s a somewhat beefy update). Once complete, you can enjoy all the new features. Keep in mind that some mods may become incompatible. If you have sound mods, those will have a lot of issues if you try to use them with the new game files, so be careful.