ATS.world: How to make American Truck Simulator more realistic

First off, I know there a more guides like these but for the sake of completion I'll be posting all my guides on steam. Next, this guide is solely my opinion of what is realistic. Feel free to adjust these settings to your personal needs.

In this guide I'll cover hardware, software, settings and mods the make American Truck Simulator more realistic. As with all my guides you can find a more extensive and

Hardware

Let’s start with the setup. For me the change in setup, or in other words, the hardware, has had the biggest impact on my driving experience.

Wheel
I’ve played Euro Truck Simulator 2 with keyboard and mouse for a while before switching to a steering wheel. I started with the Thrustmaster Ferarri GT Experience. A basic non-motorized, 360 degrees (180 left and 180 right) steering wheel. At 60 bucks it’s a reasonably cheap steering wheel. With the launch of American Truck Simulator I switched to the Logitech Driving Force GT. The Logitech Driving Force GT is a motorized, 900 degrees steering wheel with a basic gear shifter. This wheel made quite the difference, especially the ability to turn it 900 degrees.
For me the setup defines the way I experience American Truck Simulator. Even my starter wheel was a huge improvement. Want more realism, go for a Logitech G29 with a shifter unit.

Optical Motion Tracking
An optical motion tracker is a device that can track the movement for objects and translate it to the computer. You might be thinking, how is this useful for American Truck Simulator? Well, they are mostly used to track to movement of a head and translate this to camera movement. So if you move your head to the left like you would when looking left, the in-game camera moves to the left as well. It will improve the way you look at your mirrors, or how you cross an intersection. There are several devices available and it seems you can even built one yourself with a webcam and the right software. Well known Optical Motion Tracking brands are TrackIR or Tobii (eye track movement). Edit: @gamemodreviews suggested TrackHat as well, so there’s enough to choose from. Each with their own advantages.

Gameplay settings

As opposed to hardware, gameplay settings are available to anyone. There are several gameplay settings you can change to make American Truck Simulator more realistic:

• Gearbox type
  
• Fatigue simulation
  
• Braking intensity
  
• Trailer stability
  
• Automatic retarder
  
• Automatic exhaust brake
  
• Automatic engine and electricity start
  
• Automatic drop of liftable axis
  
• Airbrake simulation
  
• Realistic fuel consumption
  
• Parking difficulty

Gearbox types
There are 4 different gearbox types: simple automatic gearbox, real automatic gearbox, sequential, H Shifter.
The simple automatic is, you guessed it, simple. You accelarate and the truck automatically shifts to the right gear. You press brake to brake and keep the brake pressed to eventually reverse the truck. So you only need to 2 buttons: accelerate and brake.

Real automatic: Almost the same as the simple automatic gearbox, except that you need shift between backing up and driving forwards. There is no shifting involved in normal driving.

Sequential: Now this is where it gets interesting. Sequential gives you full shifting control, you decide when to shift up and when to shift down. This requires 4 buttons: Accelerate, brake, shift up and shift down. This can get quite tricky in the beginning but you will get used to it over time.

H Shifter: You need a shifter unit for this to work. I recommend using a G27, G29 or G920 for this setting. This is the top of top and the closest to real driving, but remember you need a shifter unit for this to properly work.

Fatigue simulation: On
This setting requires you to stop every once in a while to get a rest. If you don’t the driver will start yawning and eventually dozing. Dozing will make your screen black and prevent you from controlling the truck.
My recommendation: On

Braking intensity: Slider all the way to the left
Big rigs, especially the ones with a heavy load have much greater braking distance than regular cars. This setting increases the braking distance required to come to a full stop.
Recommendation: slider all the way to the left.

Trailer stability: Slider all the way to the left
This will increase the effect speed, turnings and turning at a high speed have on a truck and trailer. Watch out, if you are used to taking your turns at a high speed you might tip over your trailer with the slider all the way to the left.
My recommendation: Slider all the way to the left.

Automatic retarder and Automatic exhaust brake: both Off
Put this to off and you can control when you want to use the retarder. The retarder is basically a mechanism that can help you to slow down without using your brakes. If you like to know more about braking and braking in ETS2 or ATS I can recommend this Reddit topic.
My recommendation: both off.

Automatic engine and electricity start: Off
With this setting turned off you need to press ‘E’ (default) twice to start the engine. With this setting turned on you only need to press the accelerate button once to start the engine.
My recommendation: Off

Airbrake simulation: On
In trucks, braking works through air pressure. If you brake often you risk running out of air and not being able to brake anymore. Again I recommend reading this Reddit topic if you want to know more about braking.
My recommendation: On

Realistic fuel consumption: On
Like the name says, trucks have more realistic fuel consumption. Look at your fuel gauges often, you don’t want to run out of fuel in the middle of the desert. :)
My recommendation: On

Parking difficulty: Random
You can set this to the most difficult setting, but in real life, parking is actually quite random.
So my recommendation will be: Random

Graphics

You might have guessed this one, the higher the graphic settings, the better. If your computer can handle it put everything on the highest setting. Don’t forget scaling, put it all the way on 400%. There are also several mods that make the graphics a little more realistic. More on that later in this guide.

Mods

By now American Truck Simulator has been out for a little over two weeks and already there are a lot of mods. Mostly due to the fact mods that ATS mods are almost the same as ETS2 mods, which makes porting a mod relatively easy.

ETS2 and ATS are lucky to have talented modders, scripters and modelers that take the game to a new level. There are several must-have’s that greatly improve the realism of the game. I won’t be covering all the mods on this page. Instead, here is a link to my modlist[ats.world], every mod has a short description of it’s purpose.

SweetFX
Next there is SweetFX. SweetFX is a tool to apply after effects that are not available in the game, for example contrast. This is a very powerful tool and if you want to adjust your settings to the max, this is the way to go. Luckily you don’t need to reinvent the wheel, I will write an extensive guide here is an extensive guide on installing and using SweetFX[ats.world].

Approach

Even without adjusting any settings you can achieve a more realistic game by changing your own approach. For example, do a pre-trip everytime you hook up to a trailer and get ready to get on your way. Check if the rear blinkers work, rear brake lights, front blinkers, trailer blinkers, headlights and wipers. Also, make sure to stop every once in a while at a truckstop.
Plan your trip ahead. After hooking up check your route. Do you need to take a sleeping break? Pick your parking spot ahead.

Conclusion

There are a lot of settings you can change to make the game more realistic. It’s up to you, if you like to play the game as realistic as possible use the settings as described above. But you don’t have to use everything. If you like to keep trucking non-stop, by all means, turn fatigue simulation off.
This document will change over time when new settings, mods and tweaks come available some make sure check it every ones in a while.

Need more information or do you have questions about this guide? Check out this support thread: http://ats.world/forums/topic/guide-how-to-make-american-truck-simulator-more-realistc/ or head over to our forums[ats.world]!

Contact

If you have any questions about this guide or about American Truck Simulator you can find me on:

Website: http://ats.world
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ATSWorlds
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/atsworld
Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/atsworld/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/atsworlds/

Or join the ats.world steam group @ http://steamcommunity.com/groups/atsworld :)

[MakeAnaki]

Decent guide but very outdated and full of broken links.

[Brikan]

IRL driver, braking needs to be all the right. Trucks stop on a dime until you start nearing 80k LBs and surpass that weight amount. The biggest IRL limitation is driver skill, as must people just jam the brake pedal to the floor, which locks the tires up.

Same goes for steering sensitivity, i was appalled when i tried to make a turn only to realize the wheels kinda just stop turning unless you slow all the way to a crawl. Granted it means you need make far more adjustments at speed if you only have a keyboard.

[S-Y-N-T-H-E-T-I-C]

Great guide much appreciated

[Gouranga]

"Braking intensity: All the way to the left"
Okay now lemme tell you a little story.. I've once had my 2019 Freightliner New Cascadia freak out because it saw someone (on it's safety™ radar) slow down on the shoulder, on the interstate, my truck started beeping it's city horn like a car alarm and applied maximum brake pressure, there was a brief moment when the truck was just beeping, then once the air got to the brakes, I went from 63MPH (speed lock..) to 0MPH in under a second. On the interstate.

What I'm trying to say is, with today's ABS the slider is probably all the way to the right. It's not until your brakes have heated up that you have to apply more than minimum pressure to slow down, and by that time you have already overheated the brakes. And then, then you have no brakes. Whatever's in front of you is what's gonna stop you. And that's true for all the kenworth, volvo and Freightliners I've driven.

[SquirmysAvenger]

you mentioned a head tracking would a kinect do the job?

[11ghii]

are there any other wheels you can get?

[Kaotic_Slaughter]

Excellent guide! Thank you.

[Dracula Strikes]

Thank you!

[Ways71]

The Thrustmaster T150 is also a good wheel for you guys who are on a budget. I got it for $160 on Christmas and it can rotate 1080 degrees (I keep it on 900) and it uses a pulley-system which makes it more modern, quiet, and efficent than the driving force GT. I suggest a T150..However, if you are on a high budget, and can go big, go for a G29 or a T300RS.

[jv]

Thanks dude!! :D