American Truck Simulator 1.61 open beta adds proximity exploration

The 1.61 Open Beta for American Truck Simulator is live now on Steam. It introduces Proximity Exploration, an Improved Material System for the International LT and LoneStar, new cargoes, and map prep for the upcoming Road Trip project. The MFD and In-Game Menu tested during the 1.61 Experimental Beta are not in this build; the team says they need more polish and will arrive in a future update.

Keep in mind this is a beta, not a stable public version, so expect bugs, instability, or crashes. Feedback and bug reports go to the dedicated forum section.

The headline quality-of-life feature automatically reveals a small area around your vehicle as you travel. You no longer need to drive over every tiny road segment to mark it explored — a big help around tightly packed spots like rest stops, toll gates, border crossings, and gas stations.

Secret roads still have secrets: getting close reveals only the first segment as a hint, and the rest must be discovered by driving along it.

The redesigned interior material system makes leather, fabric, plastic, and metal read more clearly by improving how surfaces react to light, including in low-light conditions. It uses multiple dynamic cubemap variants so interiors reflect their surroundings more naturally. The system arrives on the International LT and International LoneStar in 1.61, with other trucks across both games to follow in future updates. More details are in the SCS Software blog post.

Inactive Tourist Boards have been placed across California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and the upcoming South Dakota DLC. They will remain unavailable until the Road Trip project releases, alongside small visual polish in selected areas. New gas stations have also been added across the map; they'll serve trucks now and become available for cars when Road Trip launches.

New cargo types are available now: Seed Containers, Trailers, and Truss. Existing Rails cargo also gets a new model and improved textures.

The team is aware of a rendering issue affecting OpenGL, the primary rendering API on Linux and macOS and an optional rendering mode on Windows. OpenGL users may encounter visual glitches; a fix is in progress.

To join the 1.61 Open Beta: Steam → LIBRARY → right-click American Truck Simulator → Properties → Betas → Beta Participation → public_beta. No password is required, and you may need to restart Steam to see the branch.