It’s been a while since the last blog, and with the first three months of 2021 already behind us it’s high time we looked back at some recent milestones and our 1.40-compatible releases. Finally, read to the end for some teasers of what’s to come in both ETS2 and ATS!
We recently reached 30,000 subscribers on our YouTube channel, an especially impressive milestone considering we crossed 20,000 almost exactly one year earlier. Make sure to subscribe for development updates, livestreams, and of course our official teaser trailers. Our other social media channels also continue to grow apace. We reached 20,000 Twitter followers and 20,000 members on our Discord server back in January — Discord is the best platform for keeping right up to date with development and getting more involved in the community. And while you’re at it, don’t forget our Facebook page and Instagram!
SCS recently updated both games, American Truck Simulator and Euro Truck Simulator 2, to version 1.40. The main challenge for the compatibility updates of our ProMods maps was the completely overhauled lighting system in both games. We had to adjust all of our light hookups (sources) and self-illuminating textures to be balanced in the new system, as well as readjusting the climate files to match with the new skyboxes.
ProMods ETS2 2.52
As well as allowing you to enjoy our map in the new lighting system, ProMods 2.52 contains a scattering of additions and rebuilds in Germany, the UK, France, Iceland and more! Furthermore, the Middle East Add-on sees new cities and roads in Iraq, Turkey and Jordan. Take a look at the details:
This is a pure compatibility update, as well as fixing the bugs reported in version 1.0.0. But don’t worry, we are working hard to expand our Canada map!
2.52 is only the beginning of new content coming this year across both Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator. The team has been working hard on many projects, big and small. We’ve decided to give you a few teasers to get you excited about what’s coming up!
Canada Sounds
With the new sound system added, Sam, along with other developers, have been hard at work adding it into both our ETS2 and ATS maps. Below you can see a preview of the new sounds being added around Canada:
These will appear in the next Canada update.
Well that’s it folks, there’s a lot to look forward to, make sure to keep an eye out on our social media for announcements and upcoming development news!
Over the past two months, we showcased the new content in our current map release. And now you can explore ProMods 2.50, compatible with ETS2 version 1.38, for yourself.
This major update features over 40 new or rebuilt cities across 20 countries. For the first time, Albania, Montenegro and Georgia are represented. The changes are summarised in the following image:
As usual, this update both expands the map in many directions, and rebuilds/upgrades existing parts of the map. We want to keep as much of the map as possible at today’s highest standards, which sometimes requires improving ProMods mapping from just a few years ago.
For more screenshots and details of what’s new, just look through the recent posts on this blog, where we published numerous in-depth previews while getting the update ready for release.
To give you an idea of the scale of work involved: since we entered the beta-testing phase in late June, the developers have fixed almost 3000 bugs, and placed signs and other finishing touches all over the map. And in the first 3 days, we already served 30 TB of data to the community. So, what are you waiting for? We hope that you enjoy ProMods 2.50!
Still need convincing to give our map our go, or just want something to watch while downloading to help you decide where to explore first? Our media promotion partners have made a wide range of content with a beta-version of the mod to inform and entertain you. One video from each promoter is listed below. Some of them have made many more!
We must start with our own official teaser trailer. TGM once again did an amazing job with this trailer!
For more in-depth, but still self-contained, cinematic preview videos:
We’d like to thank our promoters for all the hard work they put into creating their stunning content.
ProMods 2.50 Trailer Skin Pack
Look carefully at the start of our video trailer and you will notice a special trailer skin. Our add-on developer tkk7406 has made this trailer skin pack to celebrate the release of ProMods 2.50! It features screenshots from some of the top locations throughout the map. There are skins available for all types of box and tank trailers from the base game and both the Schwarzmüller and Krone Trailer Pack DLCs, so you’ll be able to match your entire trailer fleet to the ProMods 2.50 theme and design!
In addition, some of our promoters received personalised trailer skins, which you can see in their videos—again thanks to tkk7406. He collaborated with Clumsy and Squirrel to design their very own ProMods 2.50 trailers as a token of appreciation for supporting ProMods.
All three skin packs are available to download now in the Steam Workshop, separately from the main mod. Make sure you don’t miss them! You’ll find the main skin pack by clicking here, and if you are a fan of Clumsy or Squirrel or if you are a member of their VTCs, make sure you download Clumsy’s trailer skins and Squirrel’s trailer skins.
Add-On Packs
Of course, our official add-on packs needed updating to ETS2 version 1.38 as well.
The Middle-East Add-On Pack version 2.50 features a new road connection amongst other minor improvements.
Less than one and a half years ago we were celebrating reaching 40,000 likes on our Facebook page, and we challenged the community to reach 50,000 likes as quickly as possible. Well, considering the huge numbers involved, it didn’t take long to reach this even more impressive milestone. We’re always happy to see our community continue to grow after all these years, so thank you to every one of you for your ongoing support. To celebrate this achievement we thought we could share some more overall progress to see what you can look forward to in the next major updates. The team is working hard on both our ETS2 project as well as Canada for ATS.
Ironically, just as we were getting ready to publish this post, we discovered a problem on Facebook. Facebook has decided that our website goes against ‘Community Standards’, and therefore blocks all content containing links to our domain, promods.net. All the posts on our Facebook page linking to our website, including the blog, have been deleted, and Facebook will not allow anyone to make a comment or send a message (to anyone) containing a link to our domain. While we still have access to our page, at least for now, this restricts our ability to use Facebook as a communication and promotion tool. As part of the Facebook suite of products, Instagram seems to suffer from the same problem.
Fortunately we do have alternatives: Twitter, YouTube and our public Discord server. If you don’t already, make sure to follow us on these platforms, and spread the word that everyone who is interested in getting updates from us should follow us somewhere other than Facebook. As well as posting trailers, previews and occasionally livestreams, we’re already using the community section of our YouTube channel for updates and will continue to do so, while our Discord server is the perfect place to get more involved in the community and is already over 10,000 members strong. Hopefully we’ll get the issue with Facebook and Instagram resolved soon, but in the meantime let’s see whether we can quickly reach some more nice milestones on these other platforms!
Compatibility for ETS2 1.37: ProMods 2.46
Two weeks ago, we released ProMods 2.46, along with a corresponding version of the Middle-East Add-On Pack. These are compatibility updates for ETS2 version 1.37. In terms of the map itself, the only changes are to merge in the rework of four French cities by SCS. However, under the hood there have been some bigger changes.
Some time ago, SCS changed the projection used for the background/UI map. As of 2.46, we are using the SCS map as a base, extended to the regions added by ProMods. Since our early days of pioneering groundwork, cities and roads were placed on best effort, because no guidelines were available at the time. Since SCS introduced the new background map, they didn’t always line up with the SCS map, requiring tweaks to the map in several areas. The biggest offset was in the Middle East as this is furthest from the centre of the map projection. Platypus, developer of the Middle-East Add-On, had to move the content to its correct position in chunks, before reconnecting them. This change means that mods which change the background map (to satellite imagery or a paper map look, for example) and were compatible with ProMods will need to be updated. To assist with this, the new background map files are available here.
Of course, the biggest change in ETS2 1.37 is the implementation of the FMOD sound engine. ProMods adds quite a few new sounds and they had to be converted into the new formats. This proved to be quite difficult, showing that changes under the hood are just as capable of causing problems as more obvious map expansion. This is why it can take some time for us to release a compatibility update even when the ETS2 update is seemingly irrelevant to map mods. That being said, the long open beta period of ETS2 1.37 meant we were able to release our updates around two weeks after the finalisation of the game update, despite the complications from FMOD and the new background map.
Our other official add-ons have been updated too. The Trailer & Company Pack (TCP) version 1.25 includes skins for more trailer models including the Krone and SCS box trailers, whilst the Cabin Accessories Pack (CAP) version 1.11 is a pure compatibility update.
Progress on 2.50
It has now been more than a year since the last ‘major’ ProMods update (2.40) and we’ve been talking about 2.50 being in the works since last year. What’s going on? Well, the largest delay has been caused by merging the Road to the Black Sea DLC. As we’ve explained before, it is surrounded by ProMods work in many directions so required more than 10 connections to be made. Each of these includes a border crossing which, in true ProMods style, we wanted to represent as realistically as possible, requiring more research and mapping time. Therefore, the merging process took up the time of numerous developers.
At the same time, the more our map grows, the more areas we have to maintain. Our oldest work does not stand up well next to new mapping from both us and SCS – this is why DLC merges have tended to favour SCS content over the old ProMods work. A strong example of this is Moldova, which looked so outdated compared to SCS’ latest standards in Romania that we have no choice but to rebuild it from the ground up. So, increasing amounts of time need to be spent upgrading/rebuilding our existing content to keep the whole mod at an acceptable standard.
The coronavirus pandemic has had mixed effects. On the one hand, many team members have more time off work, university or school, while in-person hobbies are cancelled. But, as many of you have no doubt experienced yourselves, suddenly gaining a lot of free time in these circumstances does not automatically lead to increased productivity. Motivation for hobby projects may be inconsistent. For those working or studying from home, continuing to sit in front of the computer after the end of the working day may be less appetising. So, as in all aspects of life, every team member’s response to the situation is different.
Finally, some of our developers have to split their time between working on our ETS2 and ATS packs. It is important to note that a relatively small number of developers are involved in the ATS Canada project, but this does mean that we are spread a little more thinly. Fortunately, an increasing number of the developers in question have completed their contribution to the ETS2 project for 2.50, so can focus almost exclusively on Canada. Progress has ramped up in the last couple of months, and you can look forward to some more previews here soon.
We are doing our best to take these complications in our stride, and are shifting to focus on wrapping up as many projects as possible into releasable sections. But as always, there is no release date, not even internally. Any number of things could cause further delay, not least the graphics updates expected in future game versions.
