In December, we released the Christmas Winterland occasion for Euro Truck Simulator 2 andAmerican Truck Simulator This wound up being just one of our greatest and most effective World of Trucks occasions in which truckers finished over 2,600,000 distributions. Recently, we talked to several of the designers in charge of developing the occasion to bring you one more “Under the Hood” blog site.
As this task included lots of individuals, we could not talk to every person, so we chose a few of them from numerous divisions to bring you an understanding right into their deal with the enchanting Christmas Winterland! Let’s have a look at just how we placed this interesting occasion with each other.
“It was the largest World of Trucks event we’ve ever produced, incomparable with anything previously attempted. We wanted something more engaging and visually stimulating than previous Christmas events, but the final result was much larger than what we initially discussed,” claims Gavin, our game developer.
The conversations concerning the Christmas occasion initially occurred in November 2022, so greater than a year prior to its launch. “The initial idea we had for this project was to create a wintery and magical depot, impressive in looks, with an environment attractive enough that you would be willing to come back to it for the duration of the event, with three portal entrances offering different routes to reach the depot,” Gavin show us.
An occasion this large necessary every person to contribute to make it in a timely manner so we can supply the Winterland to our neighborhood in ideal form. “A lot of people were involved! There were sixty people in the event channel. On the whole, the event called upon many disciplines; gameplay and event design, production, map design, asset design and research, vehicles, technical art, programming, audio design, 2D graphic design, and quality assurance. It was the incredible effort made by all the teams that made this event possible,” Gavin informs us.
Lucie, our manufacturer, handled the Christmas Winterland map and property manufacturing, which needed assisting in interaction and helping all groups in recognizing and dealing with concerns. Her previous map developer experience was of wonderful assistance in this procedure.
“It was my first project and it wasn’t exactly a small one. Challenges were found almost every other day, from unfixed bugs to lost assets, and map hacks. All year I acted as a sort of organizational glue connecting people pushing the production forward and doing everything I could to make sure we got it done in the end and surprised our community. I’m so happy that we did it together and it was a great honor to work with everyone,” Lucie reviewed her deal with this task.
The enchanting snowy Christmas Winterland map was developed by our map developer Milan that strolls us with the procedure: “The map was done in several steps and it was a bit different from a normal production. We had to find an angle that had the reality of trucking while evoking the festive and slightly fairy-tale feeling of Winterland. We ultimately chose a world resembling old Christmas postcards. We also tackled the size and content of the map, the result was determined by the time limit we had. Also due to this, the map creation was done through the heavy use of placeholders and alternate solutions, which pushed the final testing phase a bit and led to some hectic work at the end of the project. But otherwise, it was enjoyable, thanks to the enthusiasm of everyone involved.”
“Probably the most complicated part of the whole project was the fact that the map and the assets had to work for both ETS2 and ATS and since it was the first time we did such a thing, it was not without problems. But we made it,” Milan claims.
What makes every map revived are the properties such as homes or autos and the environments. In Winterland, we needed to provide a layer of snow for the very first time which was fairly tough as Anna informed us.
“I used procedural generators to decorate and cover most of the assets on the map with snow. The biggest challenge was to maintain a balance between beautiful visuals and performance. Due to the geometry of the snow, the 3D model polycount was significantly higher than our usual standard. We had about two hundred such models in Winterland, so there was a bit of a risk. Players could officially see snow for the first time, that’s why everyone on our team was excited to give the best Christmas gift to our best community,” claims Anna, our musician.
The very first component of deal with the properties was done by our study group that collected recommendation product as assistance and ideas for our property manufacturers.
“This event was special for ATS & ETS2 in many ways, it was important to gather all possible references and inspiration that would help the process of creating the Christmas map. Part of that work was also the design of Christmas depots, including their brands. We made sure they felt warm, welcoming, and in the right spirit for the event. That was the fun part for us,” claims Mary, our scientist.
Not just did we think of a brand-new map, however we likewise made details trailer and vehicle repaint tasks for this occasion which became harder than one may believe. Tom áš, our visuals developer in charge of the paint tasks, informed us even more concerning it.
“The main goal was to come up with 5 trailers, each representing a specific Winterland depot. Dealing with the paint job was complicated, as it had to be compatible with both European and American trailers, which differ in size. In the end, we created one identical frame that was the same for all the trailers, but only the inside of the frame was changed.”
“The next step was to come up with a paint job for the truck that would match all the trailers. As with the trailers, we created a single paint job for the cab that was compatible with both ETS2 and ATS. Despite the initial nervousness, I ended up appreciating that the team gave me this task and I was able to be part of my first big project which allowed me to develop some new skills. I would like to thank everyone who contributed to the success of this project,” Tom áš claims.
The Character Assets division had a great deal of deal with their plate. They needed to establish entirely brand-new personalities for the Winterland map and produce brand-new computer animations for them. The most remarkable ones were possibly the ice skaters on the icy fish pond.
“For the event, we have created an extensive list of new characters and their animations in winter clothes with a sufficient number of variants – 16 women and 8 men with 10 versions of each character. In addition to human characters, a group of reindeer and an animation of the crank mechanism of a steam locomotive were created for this event. Another task we participated in was the modification and creation of new particle emitters like snow coming from the truck and trailer wheels and different types of smoke from chimneys and the locomotive,” claims Rado, our Character Assets lead.
Another job the group needed to deal with was the layout and application of the portal technology. “Early in the project, we decided that each generated Christmas event job should have a decent selection of portals available nearby. We also did not want to place the portals at services or garages; those would not feel magical enough. In the end, we decided to use parking areas outside of cities,” Sipak, our designer, claims.
“This was a challenging task since parking areas weren’t designed to support the spawning of vehicles after players teleported there. We developed a set of algorithms that automatically decided which parking areas are suitable for portals, find safe spots where the player’s vehicle teleports to, and decide which portals to use so it’s neither too far from nor too close to the destination and also on the correct side of the highway. We also had to teach the servers about the portals to enable them to generate the event jobs, and to update the game’s UI in many places to correctly support jobs where the player, not the GPS, chooses the path,” Sipak show us.
To include as much realistic look as feasible, we likewise required to change the vehicle’s physics of driving on snow and ice, which our designer Max informed us around.
“Creating the support for snow, snowy roads, and ice physics simulation was fun indeed. Since we introduced an electronic stability protocol with more precise simulation and refined physical behavior in the previous update, we could make use of that even further. The rest was just a matter of fine-tuning the ABS, ASR, and automatic gearbox shifting conditions to fit the new terrains and physical materials. Now we have another source of trucking fun, especially if you disable all those assistants,” Max informed us.
And we can not ignore those attractive cabin devices you obtained if you efficiently finished the occasion! Those charming Christmas- themed designs were made by our visuals developer, Wolfka.
“This year, thanks to a completely new map for the Christmas event, the approach to inventing accessories was a little different than in previous years. In the past, the overall theme of the event was more of an issue, but this year it was necessary to connect the interior decorations to the individual depots the players were going to while still maintaining the connection to Christmas and the event theme. The biggest challenge in creating the Christmas toys was to make them in a short time so that they were presentable and exuded the Christmas spirit, which I think was successful and resulted in a beautiful collection that combines the classic Christmas colors. Does anyone have any idea where you can get a sweater exactly like the one I made? I’d love to wear it next Christmas,” claims Wolfka concerning her deal with the task.
Of program, prior to we launch any type of brand-new material, we need to check it completely to make sure that our #BestCommunityEver can appreciate it with no troubles along the road and this occasion was no various.
“Testing the Christmas event was a fascinating and challenging experience. At QA, we were aware that this big event required the utmost care as it was a Christmas gift for our community. I was excited about finally having snow in the game, and eager to see the players’ reaction when they saw it. It was very interesting to tweak the behavior of the truck on the snow. Our programmers did a great job of maintaining a sufficient simulation without affecting the fun of truck control. Zigzagging on a frozen lake leaves many fond memories, especially when a flying tree suddenly appears next to you or you plummet under the roadway into an endless abyss,” claims Petr, our Senior Tester.
We likewise had a stunning traditional heavy steam engine driving around the map which offered it a much more fanciful sensation. Our visuals developer Dino informs us concerning making this engine. “One of the things I didn’t expect to work on in our games was a steam locomotive. I didn’t have any knowledge of it prior to this task, so the researching of the components was very fun. And since it’s supposed to be an AI vehicle, it means it will be animated so all the logical moving parts should be there. Texturing was very fun too, and it was all very well coordinated by Lucie, the producer. She was giving quick feedback which helped to achieve the Christmas feel of the old locomotive and wagons,” Dino claims.
With a task this large, the groups needed to get rid of a great deal of difficulties. “Especially understanding and agreeing to the artistic vision as a team; there were many challenges in conveying and iterating the creative vision with all key stakeholders. Effort forecasting and scheduling were difficult, because of the uncertainties surrounding the new map-loading technology and the portals,” claimsGavin
“Testing posed another significant hurdle, due to new gameplay mechanics, especially regarding the impact on convoys in multiplayer. The logistics and resource management were also complicated due to other competing high-priority projects. Moreover, fine-tuning assets and refining the environment presented their own set of obstacles, due to the nuances of the Christmas event lore and the information that we wanted to convey to the player,” Gavin includes.
Even though there were a couple of final worries and difficulties, we fortunately solved them and launched the occasion in time. “When we finally saw what the event was going to be like, once it came together and was being reviewed and tested, it galvanized the teams to commit to the final level of polish to make the map and event really shine. And typically, it’s that last ten percent of polish that requires the greatest effort. We simply saw that the event was so good, we had to nail it for the players, and for ourselves, since we had been working on it for such a long time,” Gavin ends.
This most definitely isn’t the last time you’re seeing the enchantingChristmas Winterland We are currently having conversations and layout conferences on just how we can boost the entire idea and innovation for future occasions to find, so remain tuned for that! [/u]Remember to follow us on our social media sites (X/Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok) so you will not lose out on any type of information concerning our upcoming occasions. Until after that, we’ll see you when traveling!
