Manual transmission clutch behaviour

[mrdubya]

I really hope it's not because of the console version. From what I read the changes were made for the Road Trip functionality, to accommodate lighter vehicles. That's fine in principle but it still needs work, especially since they broke the truck behavior in higher gears when accelerating from a stop and the speed of manual shifting.

How I wish ATS had physics more like BeamNG! That one has the physics, this one has the trucking delivery gameplay and progression.

This might be the real reason come to think of it, I've been playing around with the physics this afternoon and finally it clicked in my head what is up...The truck feels like driving a car, the way it responds to acceleration, and there is a sensation at high revs as if the clutch is massively slipping (once it passes the peak of the torque curve). So it seems that the game doesn't switch or know which type of vehicle the player is in perhaps

[Unster]

I really hope it's not because of the console version. From what I read the changes were made for the Road Trip functionality, to accommodate lighter vehicles. That's fine in principle but it still needs work, especially since they broke the truck behavior in higher gears when accelerating from a stop and the speed of manual shifting.

How I wish ATS had physics more like BeamNG! That one has the physics, this one has the trucking delivery gameplay and progression.

This might be the real reason come to think of it, I've been playing around with the physics this afternoon and finally it clicked in my head what is up...The truck feels like driving a car, the way it responds to acceleration, and there is a sensation at high revs as if the clutch is massively slipping (once it passes the peak of the torque curve). So it seems that the game doesn't switch or know which type of vehicle the player is in perhaps

I don't feel that way, and obviously trucks would still have their greater mass and other specs that are different from cars and pickups. I think the problem is isolated to the manual transmissions that used to be more accurate. Now they shift like automatics except the shifting isn't triggered automatically.

[Unster]

BTW, I started a new thread in the wishlist and suggestion subforum. Perhaps this issue doesn't really count as a bug, as it's by SCS's current design. So feel free to chime in there.
viewtopic.php?t=348757

[DracoTorre]

Note: the choice of truck matters when observing this issue.

To review the gear shifting issue:

• when shifting without using the clutch, the RPM range without gear-grinding noises has roughly doubled.
• when shifting with or without the clutch, the tachometer needle gradually moves as if there is phantom clutching — (EDIT:) analog tachometer lags behind HUD tachometer as pointed out in post below.

(To better observe behavior, avoid perfectly matching the target RPM of gear.)

To reproduce the above behavior try one of the following trucks:

• Western Star 49X
• Western Star 5700XE
• Mack Anthem
• Mack Pinnacle
• International LT
• International LoneStar
• International 9900i
• Peterbilt 389
• Kenworth W900
• 2018 Volvo VNL

The following trucks still shift the same as in prior game versions when using clutch + H-shifter:

• 2022 Kenworth T680
• 2024 Freightliner Cascadia
• Western Star 57X

For multiple trucks, I tried testing two different engine makes (such as Detroit and Cummins) and two different transmissions (Eaton UltraShift and non-Eaton). As far as I’m aware only the truck model matters. Transmissions I tested: 12-speed, 13-speed, 18-speed.

[paulnice]

I'll say it once again like I did on page 2. The trucks that are not affected have a screen rather than analog gauges. The behaviour has nothing to do with the clutch. It's the rpm needle animation that does that.

[Bandit & The Snowman]

Like the analog needle trails the actual rpm with a delay, to emulate the inertia of analog needles? Hmm… that would actually be realistic. I haven’t watched the needle though, as it has never come to my attention. Does the UI tachometer emulate this too?

[automaton]

The UI tachometer seems more responsive than the truck tachometers.

[DracoTorre]

Yes, that’s the issue as paulnice points out: the analog tachometer animation lags behind—out of sync with HUD—causing the side effect making it easier to avoid grinding gears when shifting without using clutch.

[Bandit & The Snowman]

Fun fact: Analog needles do that in real life. At least the traditional mechanical ones. I wonder if SCS purposely emulates this behavior.

[DracoTorre]

Yes, that may be the intent. However, as of 1.58.1.3 this gauge animation is much too slow compared to real-life gauges. Since the gauge animation needs to synchronize with other events, like sound and player input, this slow gauge animation effectively alters the apparent behavior.