Chicago, the city that never stops moving, best known for its iconic skyline, hot dogs, and historic architecture. Today, we’re excited to give you a closer look at the Windy City, its unique road network, and the new Special Transport routes coming with our upcoming Illinois DLC for American Truck Simulator which releases on May 14th. Ready to take a look? Let’s head downtown!

As you can imagine, recreating a city of this size and scale in ATS is no easy task. With so much detail to capture, industries to represent, and road networks to connect, there have been many challenges. We spoke with Lukas, one of our Senior Map Designers who has worked on recreating the Windy City for more than a year, to learn more about our in-game version of Chicago and what players can expect.

"Chicago is a unique city" Lukas shares. "Many people know it from movies and games, even if they’ve never been there. My personal goal was to create a believable version that we could all be proud of, not just for our players, but for locals too."

One of the most visually striking features players will notice is Chicago’s skyline. It's the largest we’ve created to date. Lukas shares more "We tried to make the skyline as accurate as possible in terms of scale, space and optimisation... the fact that you can actually drive right into it is crazy, and I'm really glad we managed to make that possible."

When it comes to trucking through the city itself, players will be able to drive through key downtown areas, including the famous Chicago Loop, parts of Streeterville, and the Near South Side. These districts have been recreated with attention to detail. While certain areas such as Navy Pier are represented creatively within the game’s scale, they remain recognisable and true to their real-world inspiration. Alongside this, iconic routes such as Lake Shore Drive offer stunning views of Lake Michigan and the city panorama. 

As you can imagine, for many living in the city, driving isn’t the fastest or most affordable way to get around. For many, the Chicago ‘L’, the city’s rapid transit system, is part of the daily commute, and something we couldn’t miss including in our recreation. Complete with a brand-new train model created by our vehicle team, this iconic mode of public transport weaves through the city with elevated, subway, and surface-level lines. Its distinctive steel elevated structures, dating back to 1892, are a defining feature of Chicago’s streets.

However, there’s more than meets the eye than just what’s on the surface. Our team has also recreated Lower Wacker Drive, an iconic three level underground roadway system in Chicago, running beneath the Loop to help alleviate congestion. Completed in 1926, it serves as a fast-moving, often confusing through-route and key shipping artery for the city. We look forward to you experiencing these unique road networks rarely seen in American Truck Simulator.

A city this big couldn’t run without its truck drivers, and Chicago brings a wide range of industries and delivery opportunities. One notable location is O’Hare International Airport, the sixth busiest airport in the world, handling more than 850,000 aircraft movements each year. Here, players can take on deliveries within the airport and its cargo operations, including transporting goods to and from a cargo warehouse, unloading at a custom fuel depot, and even delivering directly to a specialised large cargo aircraft on the apron. 

Beyond the airport, Chicago features a variety of other depots, including a large intermodal yard, and locations such as a car factory and a custom car export depot. Players can also deliver to a construction site located next to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Bridge along Lake Shore Drive. Other delivery locations include the marina, a food processing facility, a heavy machinery service, and a chem oil industry. Some of the most unique deliveries can even take players underground, with the custom-built Undercity storage depo on Lower Wacker Drive, and the Wallbert warehouse situated even deeper below the city.

One industry we could not miss is the iconic Thornton Quarry, one of the largest and most recognisable quarries in the region. This vast, custom-built depot is a standout location for players looking for work, and a landmark in its own right. With its real-life counterpart spanning an immense area, our team has worked hard to bring that same sense of scale and depth into its virtual recreation. Whether you're hauling heavy materials and equipment in or out of the site, or simply passing by, be sure to take a moment to admire this impressive operation located south of Chicago.

Of course, no city would be complete without its landmarks. From towering skyscrapers and historic buildings to well-known attractions such as Buckingham Fountain, the Shedd Aquarium, the Field Museum, and Soldier Field, there’s plenty to see. Navy Pier is also represented, complete with the Chicago Children’s Museum and Centennial Wheel. Love bridges? Be sure to check out the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Bridge and the William P. Fahey Bridge, both of which are dynamic. And that’s just scratching the surface!

So as you can tell, there's plenty to see, deliver and explore in Chicago, but we will leave the rest to you! However, the city is not the only thing that is BIG in Illinois... 

If you're looking for a challenge in Illinois, then maybe our new Special Transport routes are for you! Truckers who are ready to take on these mighty loads will find several new Special Transport job contracts.

Whilst these routes have been carefully pre-planned by our dispatchers, you can expect there to be some challenging manoeuvres and scenic views on the road to your final destination. As always, trained escort teams and local police will assist in guiding you along the correct route, and where necessary, help block traffic to allow safe passage.

Think you've got what it takes? Special Transport DLC owners will find contracts on offer between the following cities: 

Peoria to Chicago
Moline to Quincy 
Springfield to Marion So whether you're taking on Special Transport routes or hauling cargo through the busy streets of Chicago, we truly hope you enjoy all that the Illinois DLC has to offer in American Truck Simulator when it releases on May 14th! If you like what you see, be sure to add it to your Steam Wishlist, and until next time, keep on truckin'!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3486960/American_Truck_Simulator__Illinois/

We're thrilled to announce that the 1.59 update for American Truck Simulator has officially been released and is now available on Steam!

First of all, we would like to thank everyone who took part in the Open Beta and reported any issues or provided general feedback on our forum[forum.scssoft.com]. This makes it much easier for our team to fine-tune everything and helps ensure a smooth transition to the full update release.

We've been closely listening to feedback from our community, and one of the most common points raised in the new route advisor was that many players missed having quick access to information on vehicle damage and finances. While our teams are actively working on the next steps in our broader vision for a redesigned UI in this area, we didn't want to make you wait until that work is complete. Instead, we've prioritized implementing some of the most frequently requested improvements as soon as possible.

Based on that, we've implemented the Damage and Finances widgets. The widgets are designed to restore easy access to information about truck damage, plus trailer and cargo damage, if you are currently driving with a trailer and cargo, as well as your current bank balance, with an average profit over the last seven days displayed too.

These widgets can be turned on and off in the Widget Settings Menu, and if enabled, they will be displayed in the bottom-right corner above your GPS.

The Tow to Road feature was designed to improve the overall quality of life for players by reducing frustrating situations during gameplay. It will allow drivers to quickly recover if their truck overturns or gets stuck in a ditch or uneven terrain. It will also help prevent disruptions in multiplayer sessions, enabling players to continue with their convoy when they find themselves stuck, without the need to be towed to a service location, which could cause unnecessary delays.

So when you are in a difficult situation, you can simply find the new "Tow to Road" button under the Service menu (set to F7 by default). After paying a small fee for the towing service, you will be transported to your last safe location on the road. You can read more about this feature here[blog.scssoft.com].

The Skill Screen has received a visual rework while remaining in its original place within the interface. This update focuses on improving clarity and overall user experience without changing its core functionality.

You can now view both your current skill level and the next step in its progression. Tooltips also allow you to explore other ranks within each skill. Selecting a skill provides improved readability and clearer visual feedback, including a better indication of how many steps remain in that skill's progression path.

Each skill is represented as a clickable button, making it easy to access more detailed information. The redesign also improves navigation when using a controller.

We're continuing to refine the overall user experience with updates focused on readability, clarity, and smoother controller navigation.

The in-game news banner has received a visual refresh to better align with our newer UI style while improving readability. When hovering over a news item, a tooltip will now display a longer excerpt along with a clear call to action. Deactivated news items now feature a clearer status indicator, which also doubles as an activation button.

We're making navigation on the world map more intuitive for controller users. A new "undo last pin" feature has been added, along with remapped controls for adding, removing, setting avoid areas, and resetting pins.

Save handling has also been improved, with new saves now using the standard save icon instead of a black screenshot and overwriting clearly labeled as "Overwrite". Garage upgrade cutscenes can now be skipped more consistently using the (B) button, and the controller navigation has been further refined with improved D-pad accessibility across UI.

We’ve made some adjustments to traffic audio as part of this update. Sounds have been softened and rebalanced to better match real-world perception, with less emphasis on distant engine noise and more on the subtle “road hiss” of tires. Honking behavior has also been slightly randomized to reduce repetition. Overall, traffic should now feel less intrusive and better integrated into the ambient soundscape.

We’ve also made a few improvements to the Height Blend feature. Derived normal maps can now be enabled to help conserve GPU memory, and we’ve addressed several graphical issues to ensure more consistent, visually accurate results.

We've decided to temporarily disable the detour feature to focus on maintenance and further development. We've received numerous reports of Detours not functioning as intended, and the current system no longer meets our needs.

As a result, we'll be shutting down detours while we work on improving and upgrading the feature in the background to make it more stable and reliable. Please note that this change only affects detours - random road events will continue to be available in the game.

Gameplay

• Tow to Road Feature

UI/UX

• Advisor Update - Finances & Damage Widgets

• Skills UX Redesign

• QoL UI/UX Changes

  • Improved News Banner Readability

  • World Map Pin Enhancements

  • Save Icon Update

  • Garage Cutscene Skipping

  • D-pad Accessibility Improvements

Visuals

• Height Blend Improvements

Sounds

• Traffic Sound Rework

Other

• Detour Feature Maintenance

We hope you are also excited to try out all the new features! Make sure to keep up to date with the future updates by following us on X/Twitter[x.com], Facebook[www.facebook.com], BlueSky[bsky.app], YouTube, and Instagram[www.instagram.com], and by subscribing to our newsletter[www.scssoft.com]! Until next time, happy haulin' and we'll see you on the road!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/270880/American_Truck_Simulator/