Bus Driver Simulator is now 3!
It's now three years since Bus Driver Simulator first appeared in Steam Early Access for everyone.
We can remember the moment when we started working on the game and when we presented you our first concepts. You can take a look at the first announcement of the game from March, 2017. You can clearly see that only a small area of Serpukhov and one bus (which was later fully re-made) were available. Probably, little of you know that cars, passengers and pedestrians on this video are pre-animated objects, meaning that there were no people who could enter the bus or walk around the city then.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M2SFVid6no
As usual, we'll take a look at what we've done in these three years:
[h2]Content[/h2]
A lot of content and functionality was implemented comparing to the initial Early Access Build. A big number of new buses, liveries and upgrades were added, as well as Career Mode with petrol stations and garages. Dynamic day/night cycle, weather and even season can have an influence on number of passengers and cars on roads. Thanks to map and mini-map, it's now much easier to navigate, and driving is more enjoyable with radio (which can be enabled by pressing V).
[h2]Cities and routes[/h2]
Of course, there are quantitative changes as well. The original city (Serpukhov, Russia) was expanded; another city (Cologne, Germany) was added and also expanded; finally, Murom with it suburbs of great area, was added. The number of various bus stops and routes has increased, a new passengers have appeared. Players have much more possibilities now.
[h2]Graphics[/h2]
We've dramatically changed (almost made from scratch) nearly all the textures and models of buildings, roads, cars, road signs. Lighting has been reworked as well, so graphics level now is at least two times better than it was two years ago.
[h2]Optimization[/h2]
Performance was increased too even when graphics became better. Now it loads faster, consumes less resources, so there are more PCs which support it. Now it can maintain stable 40FPS on Ultra Settings even on obsolete 5 years old PCs. Of course, we've still got something to work towards.
[h2]Controllers[/h2]
One of the most difficult tasks was to make a steering wheel work independently of its configuration, manufacturer etc. Also, we added presets for various steering wheel and made settings flexible. Also, we added presets for the most popular steering wheels and gamepads. The most important and difficult problem here is Force Feedback support. Players asked us to implement it since it was released in Early Access and we managed to do it. However, it still doesn't work perfectly fine, so we're aimed at continuing work in this sphere.
[h2]Other cars on roads[/h2]
Traffic cars were made from scratch, starting from models and finishing with their code base, which allowed them to accelerate and brake smoother, yield the road when necessary and behave more realistic in general. We think that almost none of you remember when cars drove at 20 km/h, jumped and swerved off the road like every minute right? :) When working on Murom Suburbs, we made the new traffic lights system and many other things.
Actually, we're a little bit ashamed of how much of the traffic system had to be re-made. There's nothing left from its very first version.
[h2]Pedestrians[/h2]
We've added pedestrians on the streets of both cities, and it made them much more alive. They can cross the road and avoid obstacles, so that the game is more realistic.
[h2]Localisations[/h2]
The game is now translated into 13 languages which allowed a lot of people from different countries to join our community.
[h2]Consoles[/h2]
Bus Driver Simulator has become available not only for PC, but also for Sony PlayStation 4, Microsoft Xbox One, Nintendo switch, and, thanks to backward compatibility, on Sony PlayStation 5 and Microsoft Xbox Series X/S.
All of this is possible also thanks to your support. Your feedback and moral support helped us not to lose faith in the project. It allowed us to continue working and implement these features no matter what.
We made almost everything we wanted, and now we're even more self-confident. Of course, more updates are waiting for you, and we're already working on them to make Bus Driver Simulator even better.
We can remember the moment when we started working on the game and when we presented you our first concepts. You can take a look at the first announcement of the game from March, 2017. You can clearly see that only a small area of Serpukhov and one bus (which was later fully re-made) were available. Probably, little of you know that cars, passengers and pedestrians on this video are pre-animated objects, meaning that there were no people who could enter the bus or walk around the city then.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M2SFVid6no
As usual, we'll take a look at what we've done in these three years:
[h2]Content[/h2]
A lot of content and functionality was implemented comparing to the initial Early Access Build. A big number of new buses, liveries and upgrades were added, as well as Career Mode with petrol stations and garages. Dynamic day/night cycle, weather and even season can have an influence on number of passengers and cars on roads. Thanks to map and mini-map, it's now much easier to navigate, and driving is more enjoyable with radio (which can be enabled by pressing V).
[h2]Cities and routes[/h2]
Of course, there are quantitative changes as well. The original city (Serpukhov, Russia) was expanded; another city (Cologne, Germany) was added and also expanded; finally, Murom with it suburbs of great area, was added. The number of various bus stops and routes has increased, a new passengers have appeared. Players have much more possibilities now.
[h2]Graphics[/h2]
We've dramatically changed (almost made from scratch) nearly all the textures and models of buildings, roads, cars, road signs. Lighting has been reworked as well, so graphics level now is at least two times better than it was two years ago.
[h2]Optimization[/h2]
Performance was increased too even when graphics became better. Now it loads faster, consumes less resources, so there are more PCs which support it. Now it can maintain stable 40FPS on Ultra Settings even on obsolete 5 years old PCs. Of course, we've still got something to work towards.
[h2]Controllers[/h2]
One of the most difficult tasks was to make a steering wheel work independently of its configuration, manufacturer etc. Also, we added presets for various steering wheel and made settings flexible. Also, we added presets for the most popular steering wheels and gamepads. The most important and difficult problem here is Force Feedback support. Players asked us to implement it since it was released in Early Access and we managed to do it. However, it still doesn't work perfectly fine, so we're aimed at continuing work in this sphere.
[h2]Other cars on roads[/h2]
Traffic cars were made from scratch, starting from models and finishing with their code base, which allowed them to accelerate and brake smoother, yield the road when necessary and behave more realistic in general. We think that almost none of you remember when cars drove at 20 km/h, jumped and swerved off the road like every minute right? :) When working on Murom Suburbs, we made the new traffic lights system and many other things.
Actually, we're a little bit ashamed of how much of the traffic system had to be re-made. There's nothing left from its very first version.
[h2]Pedestrians[/h2]
We've added pedestrians on the streets of both cities, and it made them much more alive. They can cross the road and avoid obstacles, so that the game is more realistic.
[h2]Localisations[/h2]
The game is now translated into 13 languages which allowed a lot of people from different countries to join our community.
[h2]Consoles[/h2]
Bus Driver Simulator has become available not only for PC, but also for Sony PlayStation 4, Microsoft Xbox One, Nintendo switch, and, thanks to backward compatibility, on Sony PlayStation 5 and Microsoft Xbox Series X/S.
All of this is possible also thanks to your support. Your feedback and moral support helped us not to lose faith in the project. It allowed us to continue working and implement these features no matter what.
We made almost everything we wanted, and now we're even more self-confident. Of course, more updates are waiting for you, and we're already working on them to make Bus Driver Simulator even better.