Any tips on keeping your truck inside of the lines?

[Legendhidde]

Hello there, I was told that this is a very nice forum and I ask for your help now. I am starting to get into this game and I want to drive as realistically and neatly as I can. How am I supposed to stay in my lane without constantly checking my rear view mirrors? I am very bad at detecting whether I am or am not in my lane.

Also, traffic lights are a bit weird, when my side turns green, why are other cars still allowed to cross my path? I thought traffic lights took care of that not happening.

One more question, where is one supposed to drive? If I drive on the far right constantly sometimes a turnoff comes up and I forget to switch to the left lane. What is one supposed to do here?

Thanks in advance for the tips!

[SundayPilot]

Well.. As you say, you cannot stay in the lane without having a look in your mirrors. You must watch all the time your surroundings, wich include your trailer's wheels. One thing you can do is aligning yourself (driver position) to where your corresponding wheel should be on the road. Imagine that your left front wheel is just below yourself, that way you manage to stay where you should. And yes, you stay on the slow lane but you have to change lane to avoid getting stuck in the wrong junction.

[snavis]

As far as staying in your own lane that comes with game practice and general driving knowledge. There seems to be, as far as I've noticed so far, no traffic signal lights with green arrow lights signaling you to turn freely, just green lights, which would technically mean that you must yield to oncoming traffic before turning. I've discovered that by just driving straight out into the intersection, once the light turns green, will cause the oncoming traffic to come to a stop and allow you to turn freely with no penalties. While driving make sure you're constantly looking at your gps, and after time you should be able to avoid going off exit's when you meant to keep going down the main road lol, idk hope this info helps. Keep on truckin'

[Legendhidde]

Originally posted by Frank:

Well.. As you say, you cannot stay in the lane without having a look in your mirrors. You must watch all the time your surroundings, wich include your trailer's wheels. One thing you can do is aligning yourself (driver position) to where your corresponding wheel should be on the road. Imagine that your left front wheel is just below yourself, that way you manage to stay where you should. And yes, you stay on the slow lane but you have to change lane to avoid getting stuck in the wrong junction.

Originally posted by snavis™:

As far as staying in your own lane that comes with game practice and general driving knowledge. There seems to be, as far as I've noticed so far, no traffic signal lights with green arrow lights signaling you to turn freely, just green lights, which would technically mean that you must yield to oncoming traffic before turning. I've discovered that by just driving straight out into the intersection, once the light turns green, will cause the oncoming traffic to come to a stop and allow you to turn freely with no penalties. While driving make sure you're constantly looking at your gps, and after time you should be able to avoid going off exit's when you meant to keep going down the main road lol, idk hope this info helps. Keep on truckin'

Thanks a lot you guys! Turns out I wasn't doing anything wrong then. I thought there were some better methods to take care of these things but turns out it's just the way it works. Thanks for the help!

[[Travis]]

My tip for staying in the lane (works most of the time) is to keep the white line intersecting the point where the arc of the steering wheel and the dashboard meet on the outer edge. Keeps you roughly centre.

[Nono54Fr]

Originally posted by Tacoman500v1 Travis:

My tip for staying in the lane (works most of the time) is to keep the white line intersecting the point where the arc of the steering wheel and the dashboard meet on the outer edge. Keeps you roughly centre.

That was perfectly true before (I have a screenshot here depicting what you're telling) but with one previous update, we can move the driver seat, hence the driver POV and that reference point become mostly useless.

[Bob]

Originally posted by Legendhidde:

How am I supposed to stay in my lane without constantly checking my rear view mirrors?

The trick is to drive so fast that what happens behind you becomes irrelevant.

[Legendhidde]

Originally posted by Ottis:

Originally posted by Legendhidde:

How am I supposed to stay in my lane without constantly checking my rear view mirrors?

The trick is to drive so fast that what happens behind you becomes irrelevant.

Stupid truck doesn't go any faster than warp speed.

[SnipesProductions]

using keys on keyboard doesnt help with staying in your lane, i would use a controller or a wheel as you can do slight adjustments to keep in your lane, mainly stay in the middle lane or left lane as its easier to see turn off and stuff and for the traffc lights it seems like the other cars have priority over you when there crossing your lane

[Mister E]

It can take a bit of practice to get used to driving a big rig (same as in real life). One thing that can be helpful to make sure you're in your lane is to pick something out in the truck's cabin that lines up with the lanes. The gearshift lever, for example, often will appear to line up with the lane marker, but as was noted above, being able to adjust your seating position can alter this. That brings up another point though -- go ahead and adjust your seat in the game until it feels "right", and hopefully that will help. On top of that, remember the truck is very wide, almost filling the lane, so you as the driver will generally be far off the center of the lane, depending on how you have the seat positioned.

For the green light thing -- where are the other cars coming from? Green just means you can pass through the intersection. Depending on how far away you are and your speed, oncoming traffic that is turning may still pull out in front of you (which, if you talk to a real trucker, isn't surprising!).

For lane choice, you generally are supposed to travel in the furthest lane away from oncoming traffic (in UK, you would be in far left, everywhere else it would be the far right lane), ofc depending on speed and if there is a ramp you need to use.

[Sirrus]

"Practice makes perfect" is perfectly fitting for this game.
First try to find some safe spot, free of AI vehicles (hard to do that at night on roads, as you can't see things, so try big "bus stations" placed in some cities, or use hotel parkings, if you don't have trailer attached, or fuel station or service station parkings, if you have. Just mind surroundings and try not to crash into anything. Your job is to learn your vehicle size, footprint, and blindzones.

Let's start with latter. Part your truck somewhere in the middle of said parking. Before going to mirrors, look front. What you should know, that there is a big blind zone in front of your truck where passenger vehicle could hide. Without front mirror you would not be able to see it there. So, before you start to move from stop at traffic light, remember whether there was a vehicle when you stopped. Otherwise, keep your distance, especially on inclines and use parking brake, to prevent rolling.

Now look at each side. Your driver's side offers better view, allowing you easily look there to see if there's anything. Yet your passenger's side view is heavily obstructed, you wouldn’t be able to see passenger car there (higher vehicles are easier to notice though).

Now look at side mirrors. There is no precise rule of thumb here, but there is blindspot at your sides, where another passenger car could hide. It disappears from your side mirror, but not yet appears in default field of view. Again, longer vehicles may be visible. So don't just turn there because you can't see anything in mirrors - if you can't see it, it doesn't mean it's not there.
If you're driving in environment, requiring a lot of attention and you can't press "look sideways" button, try to use your ears, as this game offers nice sound positioning, generally allowing you to hear nearby vehicles.
To somewhat ease your problems with objects from passenger's side, there is kerb mirror at passenger's side, looking downwards. You can "bend" it outwards, so it would show if there is anything at passenger's side of your vehicle, hiding in your blindzone.
Although game offers no shadows in mirrors, you still have little helpers - in addition to abovementioned sound, there other vehicles' lights and blinkers.

To learn exact field of views provided by your mirrors, use markings on the ground, they are generally present on those parkings I mentioned above. Carefully move to such position so you could barely see an object, then peek out (default key "5"), or use external camera and see how much space there is.
To improve field of view a little bit, you can "bend" these mirrors out too, so only a minor part of your truck (and rear markers of your trailer) would be visible by default. This way you'll see a little bit more. Move around that parking lot, trying to understand field of view and learn blindspots.

Why this long lecture? It'll help you a bit while trying to keep your truck in your lane while doing U-turn, while there is truck on incoming lane doing same thing. You wouldn't want to scratch it.
tl;dr - your mirrors are your friends, especially wide angle ones.

Remember, some trucks have small mirrors, or mirrors that cropped by screen borders, if you use smaller screen.
Totally forgot to add. Regarding different trucks' chassis. Although I tested them before we got liftable axles, I'd say that kerb-to-kerb turn radii of different chassis of different trucks have rather small difference - tightest and widest radii are different at around 2.5 metres only. That's truck's width. While chassis' turn radius important, trailers' legth is more important for maneuvering - it's a long thing.


Lanes.

As previous posters said, at default seat/view position you could look for certain points on dash/cabin elements and use them as referent points (old DAF XF 105 has awesome "markers" - a bit right from leftmost wiper's axis" and on that edge provided by central "shelf"). It's still possible, but you may need to adjust those referent points, should you changed seat/view position.
As rule of thumb, try to look at tarmac in front of view (assuming you a) made a reserve save prior this, and b) road stretch is straight). Do you see slightly darker "furrows", two of them, actually? Well, center your steering wheel at one of those furrows (left, if you drive continental truck, and right, if you're in UK) and use it for reference. Beware, certain roads have these furrows misaligned, furrows should be placed equally between white lanes.

Now some stupidly sounding mumbo-jumbo. When you do a curved turn (i.e. not T or cross junctions), and it is below 90 degrees, then outer line (if you do left turn, then it is right line, and vise versa) should go somewhere through vertical axis that goes through centre of steering wheel. If turn is sharper (U-turn or those trumpet style junctions), then outer white line should go to inner side of the wheel (if you doing right turn, then left line should go through right side of wheel). There is nice "box" just south of Kiel that would allow you to practice those trumpets and sharp turns by simply running in circles with little to no interference from AI traffic.

When it comes to ordinary junctions (T or cross), remember that you have a long-long tail behind your truck, so don't turn immediately. On two-lane roads (single lane into each direction), you had to drive straight until outer line will disappear from your field of view. Just remember, there are 3 metres of space in front of your truck, don't waste it. to ease yourself turn a little, try to go slightly outwards (in direction, that is opposing your actual direction). Don't overdo it - leave some breathing space for your cab's nose and trailer's rear.
Safe speed to do 90-degree turns is below 40 kph, so don't go fast. For most trucks it's around 8th-10th gears. Trumpets' curves could be passed at 50-55 kph in case of emergency, but don't go faster, you may tip your truck or ram into obstacle.

At nights (specifically between 23:00 and 04:00, when it's pitch black dark) use light provided by your position lamps, blinkers, and beacon, if you have it. Sadly, game does not incorporates cornering lights, and there is little reflection from your light to help you in tightest turns, so practice at daylight and use rear markers on your trailers. In few (dozens of) hours, you'll learn your vehicle footprint and wouldn't need those helpers to understand your truck position.


As for traffic lights, unless devs changed something, traffic lights work on following cycle: green light is lit for 12 seconds, then 3 seconds of yellow, then 12 seconds of red, then 3 seconds of yellow, then green again. Apparently there is some grace period of "red both ways" at some junctions, but can't say for sure - I can't see it and judge only by glare/reflection given by traffic light, but I'd say game is relatively honest here. That apparent grace period between red light on one direction, and green light on another - to let vehicles that were blocked from maneuvering to pass. At dense traffic that grace period is not enough to let pass whole bunch of vehicles.


Regarding changing lanes. Generally right lane is "trucks' lane", but given game's handling of exit/entry ramps, it's not exactly "safe" to drive on the right (and it creates funny situations, when vehicle that left Luxemburg drives back to Luxemburg, for example - trucks do not know how to change lanes to left:)). There is no rule of thumb here, because even map is not always hints on type of road intersection - whether it has departure/accelerate lanes or not (generally it does not, so rightmost lane goes sideways). There are very few exceptions, so either change lanes when approaching intersection, or drive middle, if you can.

[Mister E]

Can I just say, this thread is really refreshing compared to the ever-popular "how fast can i go lololol?" threads :)

[Legendhidde]

Originally posted by Mister E:

It can take a bit of practice to get used to driving a big rig (same as in real life). One thing that can be helpful to make sure you're in your lane is to pick something out in the truck's cabin that lines up with the lanes. The gearshift lever, for example, often will appear to line up with the lane marker, but as was noted above, being able to adjust your seating position can alter this. That brings up another point though -- go ahead and adjust your seat in the game until it feels "right", and hopefully that will help. On top of that, remember the truck is very wide, almost filling the lane, so you as the driver will generally be far off the center of the lane, depending on how you have the seat positioned.

For the green light thing -- where are the other cars coming from? Green just means you can pass through the intersection. Depending on how far away you are and your speed, oncoming traffic that is turning may still pull out in front of you (which, if you talk to a real trucker, isn't surprising!).

For lane choice, you generally are supposed to travel in the furthest lane away from oncoming traffic (in UK, you would be in far left, everywhere else it would be the far right lane), ofc depending on speed and if there is a ramp you need to use.

Thanks for that! I did manage to do that, the steering wheel lines up quite well but it still doesn't really give me that secure feel. I did notice it was a lot smoother driving the truck this time around, maybe because I got used to it a bit. With the green lighting, the lights for me to pass straight through the intersection were green but a car still managed to cross my path my turning left (his view) causing me to panick since a car was coming straight after me.

I tried the adjustment things but I found that the standard adjustment worked quite well since it was what I got used to. Thanks for the helpful tips though!

[Legendhidde]

Originally posted by Sirrus:

"Practice makes perfect" is perfectly fitting for this game.
First try to find some safe spot, free of AI vehicles (hard to do that at night on roads, as you can't see things, so try big "bus stations" placed in some cities, or use hotel parkings, if you don't have trailer attached, or fuel station or service station parkings, if you have. Just mind surroundings and try not to crash into anything. Your job is to learn your vehicle size, footprint, and blindzones.

Let's start with latter. Part your truck somewhere in the middle of said parking. Before going to mirrors, look front. What you should know, that there is a big blind zone in front of your truck where passenger vehicle could hide. Without front mirror you would not be able to see it there. So, before you start to move from stop at traffic light, remember whether there was a vehicle when you stopped. Otherwise, keep your distance, especially on inclines and use parking brake, to prevent rolling.

Now look at each side. Your driver's side offers better view, allowing you easily look there to see if there's anything. Yet your passenger's side view is heavily obstructed, you wouldn’t be able to see passenger car there (higher vehicles are easier to notice though).

Now look at side mirrors. There is no precise rule of thumb here, but there is blindspot at your sides, where another passenger car could hide. It disappears from your side mirror, but not yet appears in default field of view. Again, longer vehicles may be visible. So don't just turn there because you can't see anything in mirrors - if you can't see it, it doesn't mean it's not there.
If you're driving in environment, requiring a lot of attention and you can't press "look sideways" button, try to use your ears, as this game offers nice sound positioning, generally allowing you to hear nearby vehicles.
To somewhat ease your problems with objects from passenger's side, there is kerb mirror at passenger's side, looking downwards. You can "bend" it outwards, so it would show if there is anything at passenger's side of your vehicle, hiding in your blindzone.
Although game offers no shadows in mirrors, you still have little helpers - in addition to abovementioned sound, there other vehicles' lights and blinkers.

To learn exact field of views provided by your mirrors, use markings on the ground, they are generally present on those parkings I mentioned above. Carefully move to such position so you could barely see an object, then peek out (default key "5"), or use external camera and see how much space there is.
To improve field of view a little bit, you can "bend" these mirrors out too, so only a minor part of your truck (and rear markers of your trailer) would be visible by default. This way you'll see a little bit more. Move around that parking lot, trying to understand field of view and learn blindspots.

Why this long lecture? It'll help you a bit while trying to keep your truck in your lane while doing U-turn, while there is truck on incoming lane doing same thing. You wouldn't want to scratch it.
tl;dr - your mirrors are your friends, especially wide angle ones.

Remember, some trucks have small mirrors, or mirrors that cropped by screen borders, if you use smaller screen.
Totally forgot to add. Regarding different trucks' chassis. Although I tested them before we got liftable axles, I'd say that kerb-to-kerb turn radii of different chassis of different trucks have rather small difference - tightest and widest radii are different at around 2.5 metres only. That's truck's width. While chassis' turn radius important, trailers' legth is more important for maneuvering - it's a long thing.


Lanes.

As previous posters said, at default seat/view position you could look for certain points on dash/cabin elements and use them as referent points (old DAF XF 105 has awesome "markers" - a bit right from leftmost wiper's axis" and on that edge provided by central "shelf"). It's still possible, but you may need to adjust those referent points, should you changed seat/view position.
As rule of thumb, try to look at tarmac in front of view (assuming you a) made a reserve save prior this, and b) road stretch is straight). Do you see slightly darker "furrows", two of them, actually? Well, center your steering wheel at one of those furrows (left, if you drive continental truck, and right, if you're in UK) and use it for reference. Beware, certain roads have these furrows misaligned, furrows should be placed equally between white lanes.

Now some stupidly sounding mumbo-jumbo. When you do a curved turn (i.e. not T or cross junctions), and it is below 90 degrees, then outer line (if you do left turn, then it is right line, and vise versa) should go somewhere through vertical axis that goes through centre of steering wheel. If turn is sharper (U-turn or those trumpet style junctions), then outer white line should go to inner side of the wheel (if you doing right turn, then left line should go through right side of wheel). There is nice "box" just south of Kiel that would allow you to practice those trumpets and sharp turns by simply running in circles with little to no interference from AI traffic.

When it comes to ordinary junctions (T or cross), remember that you have a long-long tail behind your truck, so don't turn immediately. On two-lane roads (single lane into each direction), you had to drive straight until outer line will disappear from your field of view. Just remember, there are 3 metres of space in front of your truck, don't waste it. to ease yourself turn a little, try to go slightly outwards (in direction, that is opposing your actual direction). Don't overdo it - leave some breathing space for your cab's nose and trailer's rear.
Safe speed to do 90-degree turns is below 40 kph, so don't go fast. For most trucks it's around 8th-10th gears. Trumpets' curves could be passed at 50-55 kph in case of emergency, but don't go faster, you may tip your truck or ram into obstacle.

At nights (specifically between 23:00 and 04:00, when it's pitch black dark) use light provided by your position lamps, blinkers, and beacon, if you have it. Sadly, game does not incorporates cornering lights, and there is little reflection from your light to help you in tightest turns, so practice at daylight and use rear markers on your trailers. In few (dozens of) hours, you'll learn your vehicle footprint and wouldn't need those helpers to understand your truck position.


As for traffic lights, unless devs changed something, traffic lights work on following cycle: green light is lit for 12 seconds, then 3 seconds of yellow, then 12 seconds of red, then 3 seconds of yellow, then green again. Apparently there is some grace period of "red both ways" at some junctions, but can't say for sure - I can't see it and judge only by glare/reflection given by traffic light, but I'd say game is relatively honest here. That apparent grace period between red light on one direction, and green light on another - to let vehicles that were blocked from maneuvering to pass. At dense traffic that grace period is not enough to let pass whole bunch of vehicles.


Regarding changing lanes. Generally right lane is "trucks' lane", but given game's handling of exit/entry ramps, it's not exactly "safe" to drive on the right (and it creates funny situations, when vehicle that left Luxemburg drives back to Luxemburg, for example - trucks do not know how to change lanes to left:)). There is no rule of thumb here, because even map is not always hints on type of road intersection - whether it has departure/accelerate lanes or not (generally it does not, so rightmost lane goes sideways). There are very few exceptions, so either change lanes when approaching intersection, or drive middle, if you can.

Wow, that is basically what I needed to get some smooth driving going. Thanks a lot for the helpful guide! And thanks for spending your time typing it out for me. It's really nice seeing a friendly forum for once. (competitive games' forums are mostly trolls and shouting)

[Legendhidde]

Originally posted by Mister E:

Can I just say, this thread is really refreshing compared to the ever-popular "how fast can i go lololol?" threads :)

Oh thanks mate! I'm not quite used to this forum yet, but I like what I have noticed so far. One thing is for sure, the game gets you hooked, the community keeps you anchored.

[Mister E]

Originally posted by Legendhidde:

Thanks for that! I did manage to do that, the steering wheel lines up quite well but it still doesn't really give me that secure feel. I did notice it was a lot smoother driving the truck this time around, maybe because I got used to it a bit. With the green lighting, the lights for me to pass straight through the intersection were green but a car still managed to cross my path my turning left (his view) causing me to panick since a car was coming straight after me.

I tried the adjustment things but I found that the standard adjustment worked quite well since it was what I got used to. Thanks for the helpful tips though!

Sounds good, happy trucking!

The green light traffic thing sounds more or less normal. I've had that issue a lot where oncoming traffic will kind of creep up and then if you hit the brakes it seems like they take it upon themselves to just dart out. The same can happen if you are pulling out of a warehouse or side-street, they'll start to stop once you pull out enough -- which can be really annoying because you just want them to get out of your way! (again, knowing a trucker in real life, none of this is really surprising :))

I agree the default positioning is pretty good. I started playing a little before the update that added that feature, and also just got used to it. I do find that moving the seat back and pointing either up or down though can help to focus further out.