Euro Truck Simulator 2 1.60 improves truck interiors with new material system

The 1.60 update for Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator introduces an improved material system that adds realistic reflections and indirect lighting to vehicle interiors without a major performance hit. The system is currently live on four trucks across both games, with more to come in future updates.

The update uses clever mipmap manipulation on reflection cube maps to simulate different surface roughness levels—from glossy chrome to matte fabric—at virtually no extra performance cost. Every interior material now carries a reflective component, meaning players will see subtle color casts from the environment, like a green tint when driving past trees.

“We have created several different levels of reflection smoothness, ranging from perfectly glossy surfaces like chrome, through smoother reflections such as those found on leather seat materials, to rough, nearly non-reflective materials like fabrics,” said Daniel, Vehicle Technical Leader at SCS Software.

Rather than using compute-intensive ray tracing or global illumination, the system extends the existing rendering pipeline. By accessing individual mipmap levels of reflection textures, lower-resolution copies automatically produce softer reflections for rough materials. The game already calculates mipmaps, making this change effectively free in terms of performance.

SCS selected a small initial group of vehicles because each truck’s interior uses different source data and requires individual testing in daylight, night, rain, and cloudy conditions. “It was not possible to update the entire fleet at once,” Daniel noted. The team will continue converting remaining vehicles using a new material library that standardizes settings.

The system was originally developed for the upcoming Road Trip project for American Truck Simulator, where smaller, darker car interiors exposed the old system’s limitations more clearly. The Ford Mustang served as a testbed for fine-tuning values. Players can wishlist the Ford Car Pack and RAM & Dodge Car Pack on Steam to see the system on cars when they release.