Modding Guides

American Truck Simulator

Take a trip on the open road across a variety of American states.

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Side note:
Screenshots above are running without any graphics mods using DXVK.

Overview

This guide enhances the game's visuals and introduces additional quality-of-life improvements during gameplay. Essentially, it's a curated list of mods that enhance graphics, physics, and overall game experience in addition to optional map mods. Please note that maps typically require paid DLC and are included only if you wish to add extra content. Otherwise, you don't need anything else but the base game to enjoy.

Requirements

Recommended Specs

The game is surprisingly intensive at times, so it is recommended to have the following specs:

Optionally, a modern controller or a wheel. I am attempting to make or find a good controller config which works well with the game and provides advanced features.

Getting Started

Once you're ready to begin, follow these steps to set up the game:

  1. Download the game from Steam.
  2. Install the game and run it once to make sure it works.
  3. Begin in-game setup of your profile.

Then note your documents folder, inside is a folder where you will be able to install mods into simply titled "mod" which allows for drag and drop installation of mods. This is required for mods which need a manual installation.

Steam Workshop

This section may be expanded in the future to suit a realistic economy playstyle.

The game employs Steam workshop where you can download mods directly from others into your game. This is the easiest way to install mods as it is a one-click install. However, some mods are not on the workshop and require a manual installation. If you want to use the workshop, you will need to subscribe to the mod and it will automatically download into your game. You can then enable it in the mod manager in-game.

To enable mods in-game, go to the main menu and click on the mod manager. From there, you can enable or disable mods as you see fit by double clicking or clicking on the red button. If the mod is active, the button becomes green. From there, you can adjust the load order/priority of the mods by simply clicking, going to the bottom of the list and choosing the up or down arrow. The game is loading these mods From top to bottom, so the top mod will load first and the bottom mod will load last.

From here, the game is modded and you can stop, but if you're wanting to improve performance and graphics or, install different map mods for access to Canada or Mexico, continue to follow the guide.

Side Note: Trustworthy Mod Sites

If you're looking for mods outside of the Steam Workshop, you can use the following sites:

Some mod authors use file sharing sites like sharemods. These are usually safe but can have ads that download malware. Be careful when downloading from these sites.

DXVK

DXVK is a Vulkan-based translation layer for Direct3D 9/10/11 which allows running 3D applications on Linux using Wine. On Windows, it usually improves performance, especially true for titles utilizing DirectX 9. ATS already seems to use DXVK when you're using Linux. However, you can use it on Windows by following these steps:

This may seem great but:
Your GPU must support Vulkan in order for this to work and actual performance gains will vary.

  1. Download the latest release from GitHub.

  2. Using 7-Zip, open the main archive, then the second one. Go into x64. Extract the d3d11.dll and dxgi.dll file into the game's directory via the Steam install folder (Program Files > Steam > steamapps > common) then go into the game folder then bin > win_x64.

  3. Start the game through Steam which will prompt you to verify you're running it with DirectX 11 when booting up.

  4. Check back in the folder to see a new log file.

Graphics

If you don't think your computer can handle graphics mods, you can skip this section. However, if you think you can handle it, here are some mods to improve the graphics of the game.

Before installing any graphics mods, you're going to want to change your settings for the game using Notepad++ which is optional but greatly improves looks.

  1. Go to: \Documents\American Truck Simulator

  2. Open "config.cfg"

  3. Change the following settings to match the following:

    • uset g_bloom_standard_deviation "0.5"

    • uset g_bloom_override "0"

    • uset g_bloom "0.5"

    • uset r_buffer_page_size "30"

    • uset g_reflection "3"

    • uset shadow_texture_size "8192"

  4. Save the file (CTRL+S) and close it.

  5. Run the game and see if some graphics settings say "custom" meaning they are in effect.

  6. Change scaling to 400%

g_reflection may be hard to run at 3 so you can also lower it to 2.

Graphics Mods

By default, there is a graphics mod that comes with the Steam Workshop bundle. However, there are some mods that can improve graphics even further. These are optional as they cost money.

If you plan to pay for one of these mods, remove Realistic Brutal Graphics And Weather from your list.

Maps

Maps are a great way to add more content to the game. However, they require paid DLC to work. If you want to add more content to the game, you can install these mods.

Miscellaneous mods

These mods fit into a category but are not required for this guide. They require a manual download. They are not on the Steam Workshop.