Most days find Chris Carlo behind the wheel of a Kenworth T680 High-Roof Sleeper, pedal to the metal, logbook nearby. Except that the freight Carlo unloads is virtual. So are the roads, and the truck. The rig is part of “,” a computer and online game that lets players pilot an 18-wheeler down highways and city streets from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Carlo, 18, wanted to drive big rigs since sitting in a 2004 Freightliner Columbia at a truck show at age 5. But he’s autistic and says the disability affects his speech, making it impossible to hold a regular job.
Although the Ontario, Canada, teenager has his driver’s license and owns the parked in his parents’ driveway, he spends a lot of time in his bedroom, which he’s outfitted to resemble the inside of the Kenworth’s sleeper cab. Chris Carlo playing ATS. (Photo: Chris Carlo) “I really enjoy it because it lets me experience my dream job, and I want to make it more authentic and realistic in whatever way I can,” Carlo wrote in an email interview.
Carlo is part of a truck-simulation game enthusiast community that numbers in the hundreds of thousands – if not more – and spans at least three continents. It includes long-haul truckers, retired drivers and people for whom playing a game is the closest they’ll ever come to steering a 40-ton semi on the open road or backing an 80-foot rig into a narrow loading dock.
It’s possible that hardcore players would take exception to using the word “pretend” to describe their pastime. Some become so adept at playing they apply their skills to landing.
A Small But Serious Gaming Niche Gamers who play truck simulations, or sims, obsess over seemingly mundane details such as choosing a paint color for the cab of their virtual truck or which route to take to make a delivery on time. And the games can get addicting, as one Vice writer found out in 2015 when he tried one as a joke and ended up. Simulation games have existed for nearly as long as video games, but sims based on driving a truck didn’t appear until the early 2000s. Today, two of the most popular are “American Truck Simulator,” introduced in February, and “Euro Truck Simulator 2,” which debuted in 2013. These games – referred to as ATS and ETS2, respectively – are produced by Prague-based developer SCS Software, which gained acclaim in the late 1990s making “Deer Hunter” and “Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project.” The company’s first driving sim was “Hard Truck: 18 Wheels of Steel” in 2002. To make the trucks in ATS and ETS2 as authentic as possible, SCS Software game designers attend trade shows such as the massive IAA 2016 that took place in Hanover, Germany, in September.
SCS Software also sends staff to truck manufacturers to collect information on new models, like their to a Paccar plant in Mt. Vernon, Wash., that makes. American Truck Simulator takes you through familiar landmarks, with a twist. (Photo: SCS Software) The resulting authenticity attracts players across international markets, including Europe, North America and Brazil, according to Pavel Medek, SCS’s head of marketing. He also believes part of the appeal is the lack of violence, which makes the games appropriate for all ages.
People play with family and friends, listen to internet radio through an in-game app while they play, “and of course can drink and drive safely,” he said. PlayStation 4. The popularity of ATS and ETS2 has led other software developers to copy the games’ graphics and images.
“The majority of those apps are fakes, frauds or tricks to get someone’s money,” Medek said. In the universe of computer and online games, though, truck sims occupy a narrow niche. Far fewer people play them than other simulations, sports or first-person shooter games. Among simulation games by the number of people who’ve paid to play, with about 3.5 million users, according to the popular online game platform Steam.
In the 10 months since ATS debuted, about 520,000 people have payed to play it on Steam. ATS also costs $19.99 to play and currently is Steam’s. Die-Hard Fans When they’re not playing, truck-sim gamers congregate online to trade tips and watch walkthroughs, which are real-time or recorded game play that people make with voice-over narration to explain what they’re doing or to answer viewer questions. Around 8,500 people subscribe to, a Reddit subgroup devoted to swapping truck-sim accomplishments, tips and screen shots.
Some hardcore truck-sim gamers connect with other players to form virtual trucking companies and compete against other teams of drivers. Miklos Paitz started /r/trucksim in 2011 and currently co-moderates the group, a sideline from his job as a graphic designer at a printing company in Budapest, Hungary. Now 35, Paitz started playing driving games such as “Stunts” and “Test Drive” in middle school on a relative’s computer. When “18 Wheels of Steel” and the original “Euro Truck Simulator” appeared, he was hooked. “I found the idea of simulating driving trucks with cargo and everything so fascinating, that it became one of the first games I purchased out of my allowance money,” he said. Paitz plays 10 to 15 hours a week, generally to unwind after work. “It never fails to relax me to watch the endless highway roll past,” he said.
A customized patriotic Kenworth in American Truck Simulator. (Photo: SCS Software) A Truck-Sim Broadcaster Named ‘Squirrel’ A British gamer who goes by the player handle “Squirrel,” has become something of truck-sim star since beginning to post walkthroughs of popular games over three years ago. A devoted to Squirrel’s truck-sim walkthroughs has 470,000 subscribers. Another 150,000 subscribers watch him on, a social network for gamers. One ETS walkthrough he created in 2013 of a simulated Volvo FH16 truck pulling a 64-ton baobab tree has. His 2013 ETS walkthrough of a super-size Kenworth W900L – the same truck that appeared in “Smokey and the Bandit” – has racked up 2.2 million page views.
The 40-something gamer quit his job as a software architect and consultant in 2015 after his walkthroughs became popular, and he now works full time as an online game broadcaster for truck sims and other simulation games. The Next Best Thing to Driving in Real Life Carlo dropped out of high school last year after repeated bullying about his condition.
Since then, he’s made playing ATS a full-time endeavor. It’s possible to play truck sims with only a computer, keyboard and single monitor, but aficionados add peripheral gaming equipment that better mimics a truck’s interior, including steering wheels, gear shifts and pedals. Carlo’s setup consists of a Thrustmaster T500RS steering wheel, TH8A shifter gearbox and SKRS add-on 18-speed transmission knob. He configures three monitors to resemble a truck’s front and side windows, and positions two office chairs in front of them that serve as driver and passenger seats. Everything is inches away from his bed, which he assembled from Ikea furniture and refers to as his “sleeper.” The layout, he said, “gives more of a feel that I'm in a truck, not playing a game.”.
Chris Carlo's American Truck Simulator room setup When Carlo plays, he pretends to drive for Marten Transport Ltd., a 70-year-old carrier based in Mondovi, Wis. He schedules pickups and drop-offs and uses a logbook to note hours on the road, which are extensive. “I try to live like I'm on the road as much as possible,” he said. Carlo says his family supports his hobby, including his father, who plays flight simulators. “Before truck sims I never really did anything,” he said. “Now that I have truck sims as a hobby, my life is way more interesting and better, which my family thinks is a really good thing,” he said. He appreciates the camaraderie of other truck-sim players on /r/trucksim and the SCS Software-hosted online forum.
“The truck-sim community is supportive when it comes to how realistic I take ATS, unlike other people who just look down on me,” he said. As a truck driver with over 25 years experience I like the idea of this game. It familiarize the general public with the complexities of truck driving. People think it is so easy driving a big truck through city streets until they experience it for themselves. When I was a driver trainer I would always have my students drive the truck in downtown city traffic and then back into an old loading dock at the end of an alley.
If someone is thinking of getting into truck driving I would highly recommend a game such as this to get your feet wet.
Truck Driving Simulator Game
How it works The truck drives out after making a right-hand turn and accelerates along the straight stretch of road ahead. Its engine speed increases and the trees flash past the cab windows. The vibrations from the uneven road surface can be clearly felt in the body. Nothing surprising there – except that everything that is heard, felt and seen is simulated by a computer! ”The basic idea behind the simulator is to create a feeling of reality. It should sound and feel exactly as it does when you drive a truck on a normal road,” says Kristoffer Tagesson, an industrial PhD student at Volvo Trucks.
This driving simulator, which is owned by the Swedish research institute, VTI (Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute), is regarded as one of the most advanced in the world. The research that is being conducted is designed to develop safety for current and future vehicles. Volvo Trucks is one of a number of partners within the transport industry that are conducting research in the simulator with a view to developing the world’s safest trucks.
Collision tests are excellent – they can be breath-taking to watch and they are also one of the most effective ways of testing truck capacity in a collision, but traffic safety is so much more than just smashed windows and windscreens and crumpled sheet metal. “In a collision test, we can see what happens at the actual moment of impact – but what happens before that? How do we know that the active safety systems don’t distract the driver in a critical situation but instead actually help him or her?
These are the types of question that are being investigated here,” explains Kristoffer Tagesson. He is sitting in the operator’s room, where a number of computers document the way the test drivers’ drives, watches and positions him/herself on the road.
Enormous amounts of information are collected. One of the main advantages of this driving simulator, which is a relatively new kind of test technology, is that it is now possible to include the driver at an early stage in the development of new products. “It has traditionally been necessary to build everything first – roads, vehicles and safety systems – before tests could be conducted to see if it works in practice.
However, it is now possible to do this in parallel,” explains Kristoffer Tagesson. In other words, the driving simulator makes it possible to test new vehicles in future driving environments and to do it now.
Peter Nilsson, another industrial PhD student at Volvo Trucks, is involved in precisely this kind of project. “The work that is being done on vehicle and infrastructure development is based on a long-term perspective. With this simulator, which is able to visualise basically any road environment, we can optimise these developments together,” he says. Peter Nilsson’s project is called Safe Corridors and it is investigating ways of finding safe corridors for long vehicle combinations, between 27 and 34 metres.
“By 2020-2030, I am convinced that we shall have these long vehicle combinations on the road, as they are such an environmentally efficient alternative. By then, however, we need to find a way of facilitating driving for the driver, as knowing the exact position of the trailer is a real challenge,” explains Peter Nilsson.
So, using a sophisticated driver system, it will be possible in the future for the actual vehicle to calculate a safe position for itself on the road, using information from the surrounding road, signs and other vehicles. “The idea is that this autonomous system will intervene and take control from the driver if it sees that the vehicle is outside the safe corridor. Our challenge now is to find out how this transfer should be made, as it’s important that it feels natural for the driver.” A test was recently conducted in the driving simulator in which 20 drivers tested two different autonomous driving systems. They were then asked subjectively to assess which of the systems was better. However, as an experienced driver knows better than anyone else how a vehicle should behave on the road, Peter Nilsson also allowed the test drivers to drive the long vehicle combination themselves. “We were then able to record and objectively analyse how these experienced drivers drove a 30-metre vehicle on challenging roads.
In the future, we shall be able to use this as part of the basic documentation when we develop safe corridors and design this autonomous system.” The tests that are being conducted are made possible by the sophisticated technology in the simulator. The simulator is located on two intersecting rails, which make it possible to create the experience of driving forwards and backwards, as well as turning. The truck cab is also able to move vertically. This creates a realistic driving experience, when it comes to both steering functions and chassis vibrations. The cab is also equipped with ten cameras, all of which document the driver’s behaviour.
Five cameras are visibly located in the windscreen in front of the driver. They use infrared light to record and register all the driver’s eye movements. This enables researchers to see exactly where, when and how often the driver looks at the road and looks down at his/her phone and GPS (satnav system), for example. Five of the cameras are well concealed inside the cab, so that the driver does not think about them. They document other typical things the driver’s do – everything from handling the steering wheel to accelerator and pedal movements using his/her feet is recorded. Another exciting project which is currently being run by Volvo Trucks is aiming to find a mathematical description of driver behaviour – a so-called driver model.
This will then be used to evaluate the active safety systems. Systems, already on the market, such as Collision Warning with Emergency Brake have been tested in the simulator. One by one, 46 drivers sat in the simulator without knowing what was going to happen while they were driving. After 30 minutes driving, a critical situation was simulated and the safety system was activated.
“This enables us to see how quickly the driver reacts to the warning, how he or she manages with and without the system and whether there is any difference in the reactions of the people who already have some experience of the system. By generating this detailed picture of the way the driver actually behaves, we can identify potential for improving our own safety system,” says Gustav Markkula, an industrial PhD student who is responsible for this project. “As a researcher, it’s important to be given the chance to meet our drivers and hear what they actually think of our products and solutions. Rome 2 total war unlock all factions.
I think this is the key to success.”.
How it works The truck drives out after making a right-hand turn and accelerates along the straight stretch of road ahead. Its engine speed increases and the trees flash past the cab windows. The vibrations from the uneven road surface can be clearly felt in the body. Nothing surprising there – except that everything that is heard, felt and seen is simulated by a computer! ”The basic idea behind the simulator is to create a feeling of reality.
It should sound and feel exactly as it does when you drive a truck on a normal road,” says Kristoffer Tagesson, an industrial PhD student at Volvo Trucks. This driving simulator, which is owned by the Swedish research institute, VTI (Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute), is regarded as one of the most advanced in the world. The research that is being conducted is designed to develop safety for current and future vehicles.
Volvo Trucks is one of a number of partners within the transport industry that are conducting research in the simulator with a view to developing the world’s safest trucks. Collision tests are excellent – they can be breath-taking to watch and they are also one of the most effective ways of testing truck capacity in a collision, but traffic safety is so much more than just smashed windows and windscreens and crumpled sheet metal.
“In a collision test, we can see what happens at the actual moment of impact – but what happens before that? How do we know that the active safety systems don’t distract the driver in a critical situation but instead actually help him or her? These are the types of question that are being investigated here,” explains Kristoffer Tagesson. He is sitting in the operator’s room, where a number of computers document the way the test drivers’ drives, watches and positions him/herself on the road. Enormous amounts of information are collected. One of the main advantages of this driving simulator, which is a relatively new kind of test technology, is that it is now possible to include the driver at an early stage in the development of new products. “It has traditionally been necessary to build everything first – roads, vehicles and safety systems – before tests could be conducted to see if it works in practice.
However, it is now possible to do this in parallel,” explains Kristoffer Tagesson. In other words, the driving simulator makes it possible to test new vehicles in future driving environments and to do it now. Peter Nilsson, another industrial PhD student at Volvo Trucks, is involved in precisely this kind of project. “The work that is being done on vehicle and infrastructure development is based on a long-term perspective. With this simulator, which is able to visualise basically any road environment, we can optimise these developments together,” he says. Peter Nilsson’s project is called Safe Corridors and it is investigating ways of finding safe corridors for long vehicle combinations, between 27 and 34 metres. “By 2020-2030, I am convinced that we shall have these long vehicle combinations on the road, as they are such an environmentally efficient alternative.
By then, however, we need to find a way of facilitating driving for the driver, as knowing the exact position of the trailer is a real challenge,” explains Peter Nilsson. So, using a sophisticated driver system, it will be possible in the future for the actual vehicle to calculate a safe position for itself on the road, using information from the surrounding road, signs and other vehicles. “The idea is that this autonomous system will intervene and take control from the driver if it sees that the vehicle is outside the safe corridor. Our challenge now is to find out how this transfer should be made, as it’s important that it feels natural for the driver.” A test was recently conducted in the driving simulator in which 20 drivers tested two different autonomous driving systems. They were then asked subjectively to assess which of the systems was better.
However, as an experienced driver knows better than anyone else how a vehicle should behave on the road, Peter Nilsson also allowed the test drivers to drive the long vehicle combination themselves. “We were then able to record and objectively analyse how these experienced drivers drove a 30-metre vehicle on challenging roads. In the future, we shall be able to use this as part of the basic documentation when we develop safe corridors and design this autonomous system.” The tests that are being conducted are made possible by the sophisticated technology in the simulator. The simulator is located on two intersecting rails, which make it possible to create the experience of driving forwards and backwards, as well as turning.
The truck cab is also able to move vertically. This creates a realistic driving experience, when it comes to both steering functions and chassis vibrations.
Driving Simulator
The cab is also equipped with ten cameras, all of which document the driver’s behaviour. Five cameras are visibly located in the windscreen in front of the driver. They use infrared light to record and register all the driver’s eye movements. This enables researchers to see exactly where, when and how often the driver looks at the road and looks down at his/her phone and GPS (satnav system), for example. Five of the cameras are well concealed inside the cab, so that the driver does not think about them.
They document other typical things the driver’s do – everything from handling the steering wheel to accelerator and pedal movements using his/her feet is recorded. Another exciting project which is currently being run by Volvo Trucks is aiming to find a mathematical description of driver behaviour – a so-called driver model. This will then be used to evaluate the active safety systems. Systems, already on the market, such as Collision Warning with Emergency Brake have been tested in the simulator.
One by one, 46 drivers sat in the simulator without knowing what was going to happen while they were driving. After 30 minutes driving, a critical situation was simulated and the safety system was activated. “This enables us to see how quickly the driver reacts to the warning, how he or she manages with and without the system and whether there is any difference in the reactions of the people who already have some experience of the system. By generating this detailed picture of the way the driver actually behaves, we can identify potential for improving our own safety system,” says Gustav Markkula, an industrial PhD student who is responsible for this project. “As a researcher, it’s important to be given the chance to meet our drivers and hear what they actually think of our products and solutions.
I think this is the key to success.”.
Download and play the Scania Truck Driving Simulation for free The downloaded game has no time limit on the play time, however access to some of the game areas is limited until activated. Play free to see if you like the game, and to check whether it is compatible with your computer. You can turn this download into the full-featured game. DIGITALLY DISTRIBUTED GAME?. No Internet connection needed to play.
No CD-ROM necessary. Convert to full version for only EUR 19.95 / $24.99 with no additional downloads Use Torrent: get the game fast, save server bandwidth!. Fast download links - Full Version Download size: 550 MB.
Fast download links - Extended Version Bonus media gallery. Download size: 1.5 GB. Local link (slow) Download size: 550 MB. Patches. Patches can be downloaded from the. For mod-related downloads please go to.
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Our Cookie Policy OK # no. The truck drives out after making a right-hand turn and accelerates along the straight stretch of road ahead. Its engine speed increases and the trees flash past the cab windows. The vibrations from the uneven road surface can be clearly felt in the body. Nothing surprising there – except that everything that is heard, felt and seen is simulated by a computer!
“The basic idea behind the simulator is to create a feeling of reality. It should sound and feel exactly as it does when you drive a truck on a normal road,” says Kristoffer Tagesson, an industrial PhD student at Volvo Trucks. This driving simulator, which is owned by the Swedish research institute, VTI (Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute), is regarded as one of the most advanced in the world. The research that is being conducted is designed to develop safety for current and future vehicles. Volvo Trucks is one of a number of partners within the transport industry that are conducting research in the simulator with a view to developing the world’s safest trucks. Collision tests are excellent – they can be breath-taking to watch and they are also one of the most effective ways of testing truck capacity in a collision, but traffic safety is so much more than just smashed windows and windscreens and crumpled sheet metal. “In a collision test, we can see what happens at the actual moment of impact – but what happens before that?
Euro Truck Simulator
How do we know that the active safety systems don’t distract the driver in a critical situation but instead actually help him or her? These are the types of question that are being investigated here,” explains Kristoffer Tagesson. He is sitting in the operator’s room, where a number of computers document the way the test drivers’ drives, watches and positions him/herself on the road. Enormous amounts of information are collected. One of the main advantages of this driving simulator, which is a relatively new kind of test technology, is that it is now possible to include the driver at an early stage in the development of new products. “It has traditionally been necessary to build everything first – roads, vehicles and safety systems – before tests could be conducted to see if it works in practice. However, it is now possible to do this in parallel,” explains Kristoffer Tagesson.
In other words, the driving simulator makes it possible to test new vehicles in future driving environments and to do it now. Peter Nilsson, another industrial PhD student at Volvo Trucks, is involved in precisely this kind of project. “The work that is being done on vehicle and infrastructure development is based on a long-term perspective. With this simulator, which is able to visualise basically any road environment, we can optimise these developments together,” he says.
Peter Nilsson’s project is called Safe Corridors and it is investigating ways of finding safe corridors for long vehicle combinations, between 27 and 34 metres. “By 2020-2030, I am convinced that we shall have these long vehicle combinations on the road, as they are such an environmentally efficient alternative.
By then, however, we need to find a way of facilitating driving for the driver, as knowing the exact position of the trailer is a real challenge,” explains Peter Nilsson. A test was recently conducted in the driving simulator in which 20 drivers tested two different autonomous driving systems. They were then asked subjectively to assess which of the systems was better. However, as an experienced driver knows better than anyone else how a vehicle should behave on the road, Peter Nilsson also allowed the test drivers to drive the long vehicle combination themselves. “We were then able to record and objectively analyse how these experienced drivers drove a 30-metre vehicle on challenging roads.
In the future, we shall be able to use this as part of the basic documentation when we develop safe corridors and design this autonomous system.” The tests that are being conducted are made possible by the sophisticated technology in the simulator. The simulator is located on two intersecting rails, which make it possible to create the experience of driving forwards and backwards, as well as turning.
The truck cab is also able to move vertically. This creates a realistic driving experience, when it comes to both steering functions and chassis vibrations.
The cab is also equipped with ten cameras, all of which document the driver’s behaviour. Five cameras are visibly located in the windscreen in front of the driver. They use infrared light to record and register all the driver’s eye movements. This enables researchers to see exactly where, when and how often the driver looks at the road and looks down at his/her phone and GPS (satnav system), for example. Five of the cameras are well concealed inside the cab, so that the driver does not think about them. They document other typical things the driver’s do – everything from handling the steering wheel to accelerator and pedal movements using his/her feet is recorded. Another exciting project which is currently being run by Volvo Trucks is aiming to find a mathematical description of driver behaviour – a so-called driver model.
This will then be used to evaluate the active safety systems. Systems, already on the market, such as Collision Warning with Emergency Brake have been tested in the simulator. One by one, 46 drivers sat in the simulator without knowing what was going to happen while they were driving. After 30 minutes driving, a critical situation was simulated and the safety system was activated.
“This enables us to see how quickly the driver reacts to the warning, how he or she manages with and without the system and whether there is any difference in the reactions of the people who already have some experience of the system. By generating this detailed picture of the way the driver actually behaves, we can identify potential for improving our own safety system,” says Gustav Markkula, an industrial PhD student who is responsible for this project.
“As a researcher, it’s important to be given the chance to meet our drivers and hear what they actually think of our products and solutions. I think this is the key to success.”.