V5.3 - Continuing on...

As a continuation of the previous update, I am still trying to keep our eyes focused on the road ahead, but have made a couple of improvements. I've made the main brighter part of the low beam broader about 75-100 feet in front of the truck and gave it a more even appearance overall. We are lighting up the width of the road surface a little better. This has also enhanced the turning visibility a little bit more. I'm trying to be very careful not to get too much bright light too far off to the sides as too much over and it will just shoot out into the countryside. So far, so good.

I did a little work on the high beams in this update. I've eliminated some of the light that fans off to the side further out. The high beams are a little more direct to the road but still light up a nice width.

Improved the light output on the Mercedes Actros (early model), Renault Premium, and Volvo FH4.

I think we are getting closer and closer to a finished product.

V5.2 - Fighting the "falloff" and "blowthrough"

There is a game lighting issue that has plagued these headlights since day one. It actually affects all headlight mods and even the stock SCS headlights. However, it is not as noticeable with the SCS headlights due to their weaker design. The issue is similar to the problem the street lamps had until SCS fixed them not long ago. The street lamps would shine through an overpass and light it up underneath. The street lamps would also shine right through the roof of the truck and light up the whole interior. Similarly, the headlights will blow right through solid objects. In fact, it will shine right through any road surface such as an overpass or the road surface of a bridge. It will light up every thing underneath quite brightly, even brighter than what the headlights normally do 200 feet down the road. It can shine right through the road and all the dirt underneath and out through the side of the hill. There is also an issue that I call falloff. If you are driving down a road that is elevated above the surrounding terrain such as along a hillside, any light from the headlights that shines beyond the level part of the road will fall off the side of the road and way down into the valley below. It will light up a large area of the valley and quite brightly. You can be driving alongside a tall concrete wall and even though the headlights are shining lower than the wall, everything on the other side of the wall will be lit up because the headlights blow right through the wall. None of this is very realistic and hopefully SCS will do something about it soon.

In this update, I am taking steps to help minimize this effect. The light that shines to the sides of the road is being dimmed down slightly while the light that projects out front and down the road is a little bit stronger. The light being sent forward down the road might look brighter mainly because there is more of it. The beams don't shine any further overall, but the brighter part of the beam shines further. The fade off happens more abruptly so that the point where total fading happens is about the same as the previous update. The stronger light on the road tricks the brain and helps to keep the eyes focused on the road with the falloff issue being less noticed at places where it occurs.

The end result of this is better visibility looking forward down the road. And even though I have lessened the brightness to the sides, I have been able to maintain good turning visibility, possibly even better, due to a couple of tricks employed.

I hope everyone enjoys how this is turning out. Please leave a comment whether good or bad. I am the only developer and the only beta tester, so any comment helps steer me in the right direction with the development of the lights.

V5.1 - Getting even

I decided I didn't like the coloring change I made in the last update and reverted back to the original coloring I had been using since the beginning. I think this is more accurate to the different types of lights.

There is no major change in this update, just a lot of minor adjusting to each truck to make the light they project on the road look as close to the same on each truck as possible. Each truck now uses a different aspect ratio for the light masks which is based on how high the headlamps are mounted. The height of the headlamps as well as the design of the light mask affects how the aspect ratio should be adjusted. Until this update, the aspect ratio has been the same for every truck.

V5.0 - Same concept, but with a more conventional look

Just when I think I've got a finished product, I find more that I want to do to these headlights. So, here we go again...

I completely skipped over V4.9 and went to V5.0 with this release. I had issues with 4.9 after making a few minor changes to the light masks. No matter what I did, I was not happy with the results. So, I decided to try something different and the result is in this update. The headlight beams have a different look to them while still maintaining some light shining to both sides near the front of the truck to help with turning visibility. That light shining to the sides is the trademark of this headlight mod and I will never do away with it.

Turn on the low beams and then press 2 to hop out of the cab. Take a look at the ground in front of the truck. You will now see two distinct headlight beams shining on the ground and projecting forward and with some of the light shining off to the sides. Switch on the high beams and you will now see 2 distinct high beams shining over the top of the low beams.

I really like how this is turning out and hope that everyone else does as well.

For the first time since the start of this mod, I've adjusted the coloring of the Halogen, LED, and Xenon lights. They seem to produce a better and more even light. With this change along with other settings and the new light mask designs, the headlights appear to be working equally well on all the different pavement colors.

For the DAF XF105, I increased the light output enough to compensate for the extra tint on the interior view of the windshield.

V4.8 - Attention to detail

I decided that the headlights were a little too bright. It is mostly evident when traveling on white concrete pavement. The headlights looked good on dark asphalt, but had too much of a glare on the white concrete. So, I calmed them down a little, mainly just took the bite out of them. They still look good on black asphalt and not so disturbing on the white concrete.

I worked some more on the turning visibility. I gained a little more visibility, again without making the beams wider.

Once again, I adjusted the vertical angle of the headlamps on every single truck. Based on the design of these headlights, I believe I now have the angle adjustment on each truck set just about right.

The high beams are a little stronger in the first 200-250 feet. This can help you to locate your turn as you approach it. They also don't project out as far.

Both the low beams and high beams have a nice fade off into the distance. The distance appears to be very similar to most typical headlights in real life.

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: Whenever I'm working on a software project, I never release it until it is truly ready to go and with NO known bugs. If I catch a bug, I fix it first. This mod isn't really a software project, but it is still a project that is used by many people. In a way, I broke my own rule and released this mod real early in its development. I began work on this in November of 2024 and released it for the first time in January of 2025. It really wasn't ready or finished, but was good enough that it was still an improvement over the stock SCS headlights. And there was no possibility of it having any bugs that could crash the system. So, I released it early. If I had followed my rule of waiting until it was finished and ready to go, I would not have released it until a few weeks ago, or more accurately, a few updates ago when it finally got to looking and acting how I wanted it to be. The mods for ETS2 were especially not ready until recently when I finally figured out what the lighting difference between the two games was. There wasn't actually a lighting difference. Instead, the difference was that most all of the ETS2 trucks had the vertical lamp adjustment wrong. This made the lights shine at more of a downward angle which meant they didn't shine out far enough. So, I always had to increase the brightness and strength of the headlights in comparison to the ATS headlights. The ETS2 headlights just never looked good until I made this adjustment. That issue got fixed a couple of updates ago. Updates from now on will be very simple fine tuning and touching up as needed. If you are one of many people who have been using these headlights since the early releases, I hope you have enjoyed seeing the evolution as I made an update almost every week. Updates from now on will be very minor, such as if I see a small detail that could use some improvement. Of course, an update will happen if a new truck gets added or if an adjustment is needed for an existing truck. Thank you to the many people who are using my headlights, it is great to see so many people enjoying them.

V4.7 - Being very careful

I'm being very careful not to alter the look and feel of these headlights now as they are getting very much like good real life headlights but with maybe a little extra lighting to the immediate sides which helps to compensate for our eyes not being able to adjust to the darkness on the screen like they can in real life.

In this update, I was able to again improve the turning visibility a little bit more and did it without making the beams wider. Sorry, but it is too difficult to explain how I did it.

I'm also focusing on getting a nice balance between the low and high beams. They serve two different purposes, but need to be matched to each other. I'm getting the brightness levels on the pavement ahead looking better and better, I feel. This update mainly consists of many little detail refinements.

It appears as though there is more light shining on the pavement ahead during the transition periods when the sun is coming up and going down.

V4.6 - Got the tools out again

With the changes over the past several updates, I determined that the vertical angle on the headlamp adjustment might need some attention. So, with the screwdrivers and torx bits in hand, I went through the painstaking task of finding the correct setting for each truck and adjusted the headlamp angle on each individual truck. Combined with a few other settings, we now appear to have a nicer brightness level when looking forward down the road while still maintaining a similar fade off into the distance.

I decided that the high beams were projecting out farther than they should, so I calmed them down a little. They still project out nicely, just not quite as far.

I also continued working on the turning visibility. I think it is looking pretty good now.

Early in the development, I added a halo that reflects up and over the low beams. It was also there when the high beams were switched on since the low beams were on at the same time. You could usually only see it if you were driving through a dark tunnel or driving along a rocky hillside. It was also visible when driving next to another large vehicle. It's primary purpose was to eliminate the dark feeling when driving through a dark tunnel. With this update, I decided to remove the halo. To compensate for this, I made the raised portion of the beams that shine above ground level a little bit more prominent. That seems to work ok.

V4.5 - Nothing major

I was able to slightly improve the turning visibility without negatively impacting any other aspect of the headlights. I was also able to reduce the brightness slightly near the front of the truck while maintaining the brightness everywhere else. This update consists mainly of a lot of little detail work, just looking for very minor improvements that I can make.

V4.4 - Just a little refining

Over the past couple of updates, the high beams have grown a little narrow. So, with this update, I widened them out just a little bit. This helps when driving through curves as it will add some light to the inside of the curve. It also helps when looking for an upcoming dark street that you will be turning on. Once you get close, you can switch the high beams off and you will see your turn with the low beams. I also noticed that I was beginning to get some glare or washout on the road signs. That required a lot more work, but I believe I got that under control. There was also a lot of minor detail work to the low beams that you may or may not notice.

AN ADDED NOTE: The headlights are finally looking the way I had originally envisioned them. It took a long time and a lot of work to get to this point. If you have been using these headlights from the beginning, you have seen the gradual evolution as they slowly took shape. You saw a lot of changes, a lot of experimentation, some good, some not so good. But, now, I think they are "Real Good".

V4.3 - Not too bright

Since the previous update, after driving various trucks for a few days, I decided that the light hitting the pavement near the front of the truck was too bright. I was able to tone it down a bit while being able to maintain the desired brightness further down the road. It is more pleasing to the eye now.

My headlights in ATS have always been better than they are in ETS2. But, with this update, after considerable work, I believe I have finally conquered the lighting differences between the two games. I have finally created a decent set of headlights for ETS2.