Does Truck Simulator use real roads?

As a long-time truck simulator aficionado and industry analyst, I get this question a lot – do games like American Truck Simulator (ATS) and Euro Truck Simulator 2 (ETR2) accurately model real road networks with complete geospatial precision, or are shortcuts taken?

The short answer is no, these consumer-grade trucking simulators utilize approximate digital recreations of real interstates and highways, not engineering-level replicas. However, they capture the essence of traversing vast environments in intimately familiar vehicles. The aim is delivering an enjoyable virtual road trip, not hardcore transportation infrastructure simulations.

Balancing Realism and Playability

SCS Software, developers of ATS and ETR2, leverage actual maps, satellite imagery, and location data to construct believable trucking sandbox environments. However absolute realism is not the top priority according to project lead Pavel Sebor:

“We aim for a believable representation that evokes the feeling of crisscrossing America or Europe as a long haul trucker. But optimizing for scale and performance prevents 1:1 replica accuracy from being feasible given today’s technology.”

So while drivers traverse between accurately placed urban hubs along major interstate routes, the specific implementation of surrounding topography, bridges, junctions, and scenery makes key approximations rather than acting as complete geographic duplicates.

Under the Hood: Map Scale Abstractions

For example, the base map ratio in ATS is set at 1:20. For every 1 meter in the simulation, it would represent 20 meters in reality. At this compression, developers can render expansive playable areas while maintaining illusion of expansive distances between locations.

Let‘s contrast the scale deltas (source: ATS wiki):

So while urban depots and landmarks retain fidelity, driving between them compresses hundreds of real-world miles into a condensed game adaptation.

Sample Inaccuracies vs Reality

How does this abstraction manifest in actual routes? Having extensively driven the virtual I-10 and I-40 corridors between Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Albuquerque and comparing to my years as a real OTR driver, specific discrepancies stand out:

• Road gradients simplified, lacking true elevation contours
• Narrow bridges widened for truck access
• Direct junctions substituted for intricate interchanges
• Landmarks relocated from precise real-world placements
• Rest stop distribution concentrated rather than dispersed

So essentially, SCS prioritizes playability and performance over geographic accuracy in cases where they conflict. Their objective is crafting an enjoyable trucking sandbox, not a ditch finding simulator!

Simulation vs Recreation Priorities

In contrast, true geospatial simulators used for professional purposes like urban infrastructure modeling or autonomous vehicle testing painstakingly replicate every minute detail of target environments.

For example, Applied Intuition‘s Carla automotive simulator uses full Lidar scans and hydromapping to completely duplicate locales of interest. This allows testing edge case scenarios unfeasible in real life.

But for a mass market entertainment product meant for escapist immersion into romanticized versions of iconic roadways, total precision reproduction would hinder rather than help the core vision. Some clever smoke and mirrors are forgivable in the name of fun!

Evolutions in Accuracy Over Time

Nonetheless, SCS continues honing accuracy of their trucking playgrounds with each new iteration. Roads become more true to life, landmarks more accurately placed. ATS lead mapper Stefan Schmitz notes:

“With new surveying and processing techniques, we inches closer to our goal of indistinguishability from reality with each release. It‘s an asymptotic journey fueled by tech advances.”

Let‘s examine how Oregon DLC evolution showcases steady gains:

v1.0

• 190 mls of road
• No highway 39, 218 or US-20 trunks
• Generic foliage and landmarks

v1.9

• 402 mls of road (+112%)
• Added missing trunk lines
• Signage and scenery modernized

Community Mods Further Enhancements

An active mod ecosystem around these truck simulators also underscores the appetite for even greater realism. Offerings like Coast to Coast aim to model the entire continental United States in 1:20 scale for a fully unified cross country run.

Meanwhile asset packs continually upgrade environments with nuanced details like:

• Realistic traffic density variation
• Enhanced nature textures
• Brand name establishments
• Local architecture flourishes

This steady trajectory towards matching reality sparks an interesting thought experiment…

Future Speculation on Potential Fidelity

In an era of exponentially improving computing power and consumer grade VR/AR penetration, how long until simulated environments reach genuine indistinguishability from our roads as we know them?

Asset digitization initiatives like Google Street View, Mapillary, and crowdsourced geospatial datasets aggregate terrifying levels of real world data down to the minute geospatially referenced detail.

Combine that corpus of source material with emerging metaverse-anchored frameworks leveraging cloud computing and we could foresee near term adoption of public works modeling sophisticated enough to plan a real truck route syncing perfectly between virtual manifestation and tangible counterpart!

And executing a fully replicated trip in ambient VR could offer mystical levels of world merging presence. Imagine concept truck configs driving live trials through the exact planned path carved into an on-demand generated hills and peaks procedurally formed based on surveyed topology metrics. Supplemented by media synthesis channels to populate environments with context realistic ambience and actors.

Such a bountiful frontier awaits with the next waves of computing evolution! We‘ll revisit then to evaluate how closely the promise came towards actualization a decade hence.

Wrapping Up

So in summary – today‘s incarnations of American and Euro Truck simulator capture the essence rather than the micro detail of traversing the open road as a hauler between familiarly named locales. Their masterful illusions transport drivers into believable encapsulations of long hauling adventure, heightened by the human imagination filling in gaps that science cannot yet conquer cost effectively.

But steady progress marches towards closing that last delta between fantasy and reality until we arrive at mirrors indistinguishable from looking through windows. An exciting road lies ahead!