American Truck Simulator

“Haul through the legendary roads! American Truck Simulator will take you on a journey throughout the vast landscapes full of breathtaking landmarks of North America. Drive iconic American trucks and become the King of the Road while building a large transportation company from scratch.”
American truck simulator

Client:
SCS Software

Genre: 
Simulator

Official Website: 
SCS Sowftware

Steam page:
American truck Steam

Team Size:
200-240 (total)
10-15  (Colorado Design Team) 
20-40 (Tx Design Team

Programs Used:
In-house editor (Prism3D)
Mantis (Bug tracker)

Platform: 
PC

Duration: 
From: 1-10-2019
To:     Current

Project & Role Overview

After a entry test and a 3 month trial period, I was praised for the work done and offered a full time contract. I gladly accepted and was hired as a map designer for the Colorado DLC, afterwards I continued working on Texas and Kansas.

Level Design

  • Creating 2D map layouts based on google map data.
  • Translating the 2D map layouts to in-engine 3D road and city layouts using prefabs and spline based roads.

Set Dressing

  • Sculpting various types of terrain in engine including:
    farmland, dry plains, mountainous and forest landscapes.
  • Creation of settlements & cities. 
  • Set dressing using props and animated models to create interesting scenes and scenarios.

Bug Fixing & optimization 

  • Ensuring view distance (1500 Meter) and a stable fps was maintained.
  • Using Mantis to fix bugs across each project near the end of the project.
  • Optimization of fps heavy areas.

The Following video is not made by me, however, it contains one of the roads I made.
The original creator of this video is: 5 Minute Simulators
From 1:35:20 to1:41:20 is the Us-287 Lamar – Limon

Evening_Bridge
Drainage_Damage
Mountains
The mountainous pass near Poncha Springs
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A more urban environment near Denver
The Rio Grande near Monte Vista
Typical farm landscape near Limon
A rural settlement (johnson village)
One of several events to liven up the enviroument

The Following video is not made by me, however, it contains one of the roads I made.
The original creator of this video is: Sim Passion
From 25:40 to the end is part of the city of Huntsville

Kansas Pittsburg
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Learned

  • In-house engine (Prisma 3d).
  • Recreation of real world locations under technological constrains.
  • Attention to detail where necessary.
  • American city, road layouts and traffic rules.
  • Working within big projects & teams.

In Conclusion

While the theme of project did not capture my personal interest, the company with its professionalism and friendly environment remind me of NHTV.
SCS software is a great place for professional improvement and a friendly day to day environment.
While the work itself had less to do with level design in regards to grey-box design, I think leaning more about environmental set dressing will help me further in my career as a level designer.
While the Prism3D engine felt old in comparison to the more industry standard tools I am used to, it thought me to do more with less, and forced creative solutions.