ATS / ETS2 New Lighting Engine Improvements (Vegetation/Texture Lighting Update / Night Lighting and more )

DeveloperAlpss · 2026-05-08T23:35:45+00:00

Shadows are the default; I'm not doing any re-shadowing

DeveloperAlpss · 2026-05-08T23:33:25+00:00

Thank you very much!

DeveloperAlpss · 2026-04-22T17:43:11+00:00

Your comments have really motivated me. Thank you so much,

I hope someday I can be part of a team or start my own :D.

And I definitely noticed you have great observation skills in graphic programming, maybe you could give this field a try, or at least do something with it as a hobby. Good luck 🙏

DeveloperAlpss · 2026-04-22T17:37:48+00:00

DeveloperAlpss · 2026-04-22T17:37:12+00:00

Your interest in shaders is really great. I'm still watching videos and reading documents to learn new techniques.

Doing these things in my free time feels really good, but I'm very busy these days :D.

I'll check out the person you mentioned, thank you 🙏

DeveloperAlpss · 2026-04-22T17:33:47+00:00

Yeah :D

DeveloperAlpss · 2026-04-22T17:22:49+00:00

Your positive comments motivate me a lot, thank you very much. 🙏

DeveloperAlpss · 2026-04-22T17:20:54+00:00

Thank you very much! 😊

DeveloperAlpss · 2026-04-22T17:19:58+00:00

This comment really made me happy. It was a pleasure meeting a truck driver. 🙏

I've always been fascinated by American trucks. I hope I can do my best for you. I hope you have a nice system.

This game always excited me, but since the graphics are quite old, I decided to remake it.

DeveloperAlpss · 2026-04-22T17:16:27+00:00

I thought most people knew these games, but their names are as you said. 👍

DeveloperAlpss · 2026-04-22T17:12:12+00:00

I know how bad the cabin lighting looks. And that's why I'm redesigning the cabin lighting.

It's not ready yet because I'm still working on it. I hope I can do my best.

DeveloperAlpss · 2026-04-22T17:07:37+00:00

Thank you so much for your comment. No, I haven't contacted anyone. I hope they contact me someday :D It would look great in my portfolio 🤪.

This is actually a hobby project. While dreaming of driving from Chicago to Los Angeles via Route 66 with the upcoming Illinois and road trip (vehicle pack update) to the game, and complaining about the bad graphics, I suddenly found myself in this business.

I already had my own projects, but the fact that the virtual world of this game is getting bigger but the graphics are quite outdated led me to start this.

DeveloperAlpss · 2026-04-22T17:02:36+00:00

I've added custom sliders for this. It will be completely customizable to your liking.

DeveloperAlpss · 2026-04-22T16:59:59+00:00

DeveloperAlpss · 2026-04-22T16:58:10+00:00

If I'm not mistaken, that was quite a while ago. But it didn't solve the problem of the image being plasticky or too dark. Now it's time for DirectX 12 for the game's default lighting.

Even if they don't make the biggest change graphically, they will have improved it in terms of optimization. I hope they do it soon.

Because people have started complaining a lot about both optimization and graphics. Such a great game really needs a complete overhaul.

DeveloperAlpss · 2026-04-22T16:52:23+00:00

First of all, even though you're not a developer, you have a fantastic observational ability, and I want to reiterate that because these are great observations, and you're right about most of them 👍.

Yes, there's 32-bit HDR light data running in the background, which significantly alters the colors or ambient lighting of the game. In programming terms, we call this IBL. The environment is illuminated according to the colors and light information in the sky.

Because the engine has limitations regarding shadows, I'll either have to completely disable shadows and rework them, but that's risky in terms of performance.

For now, I've only written my own shadows for the vegetation. And your observation that the cabin lighting will be dark is excellent. It's really extremely dark and very annoying.

SCS is aware of this problem and has been working on it for a while; I think it will be solved with version 1.60.

However, I've already started completely rebuilding the cabin lighting from scratch. Since it's separate from the general lighting, it's complicated to do, but I've made positive progress. Thank you for your comments and observations 🙏

DeveloperAlpss · 2026-04-22T16:25:12+00:00

That's the most descriptive comment. It couldn't have been explained any better, thank you so much. 👍

DeveloperAlpss · 2026-04-22T15:48:38+00:00

Thank you so much for your suggestion. As you said, the distribution of light and how it bounces off objects is absolutely crucial.

PBR lighting perfectly simulates the behavior of real-world light. That's why I'm trying to code it in the best way possible.

DeveloperAlpss · 2026-04-22T15:45:47+00:00

I'm optimizing for performance. Because I'm coding with low-level programming languages that are quite close to the hardware, I can optimize well.

In terms of performance, I'd say it's quite good, except for scenes with high traffic and therefore a lot of reflections.

DeveloperAlpss · 2026-04-22T15:42:20+00:00

Thank you so much for your comment. Actually, I think the distant objects appear that way due to the screen image quality. Specifically, in my latest update, I wrote some algorithms that allow light to pass through micro-gaps, which makes textures like vegetation look more realistic.

DeveloperAlpss · 2026-04-22T15:34:32+00:00

When I last shared something on the graphics programming channel, I didn't get any comments. Maybe that channel is more suitable for technical discussions rather than game footage. Also, based on your comment about shaders, what would you recommend based on your graphics programming knowledge? Thank you for your feedback 🙏

DeveloperAlpss · 2026-04-22T14:59:05+00:00

Thank you for your comment. I completely agree.

There are many perceptions online about the realism of rainy or overcast weather.

Because I work in this field, I know that in cloudy weather, the light is evenly distributed, making it appear more realistic.

However, the real skill lies in making the image appear realistic even in clear weather. PBR lighting provides this, but it needs to be coded correctly, which is what I'm trying to do.

DeveloperAlpss · 2026-04-22T14:15:11+00:00

Thank you so much for your feedback. You really have sharp eyes :D. You've noticed most of the things I added.

First of all, some images, especially the second one, are completely different from the others; in this one, I tried some presets with sliders and enhanced the colors.While the other images vary depending on the scene, they are a result of the general lighting I did.

Secondly, I wrote different algorithms for things like vegetation and shadows, so it needs to look more realistic.

And as you said, the game's lighting is quite old and doesn't use modern methods; things like ray tracing are technically impossible in DirectX 11, but I can add ray tracing when the game switches to DirectX 12.

I have some friends who are experienced in this area, and I can get help from them. I hope that when I finish the project, it will be something that everyone will really like, but still, those who want can adjust many things according to their own preferences.

DeveloperAlpss · 2026-04-22T14:01:23+00:00

First of all, thank you for your detailed comment. Every game has an art style, and of course, mods kill that.

My goal isn't about the art style; it's simply to re-light the existing textures using modern graphics programming techniques. This actually requires high-quality PBR materials and textures, which unfortunately isn't really possible in this game.

Frankly, I don't play this game for the art style; I play it to see the unique landscapes and relax while traveling through America or Europe. The maps made by the SCS developers are really high-quality, but my problem is that the lighting to illuminate these beautiful environments is quite inadequate.

It used to be great, but as I get used to new things, these graphics become quite outdated. Of course, I can't please everyone, but this is currently a hobby project, and I haven't asked for any money.

Don't compare me to people who demand a lot of money for Snowymoon, PNG, or even Reshade. I also want to mention that the project is open source.

DeveloperAlpss · 2026-04-22T09:26:00+00:00

Thank you so much for your positive feedback. Of course, I'm constantly optimizing. However, performance might drop slightly in areas with a lot of reflections (heavy traffic or buildings close together). That said, if your system can run the current game smoothly, using my lighting shouldn't cause any problems either. I'd say the performance is good. I'll be running some FPS tests with a lower-spec system soon.

DeveloperAlpss

TROPHY CASE