Overview
In this guide I’ll show you how to get fully functional twin sticks set up in the game, complete with a real transmission and shift pattern
Introduction
Howdy fellow truckers, still enjoying that beautiful Mack R truck and those oh so sweet screamin’ Detroit sounds? I know I am. One thing about some of these old (and, surprisingly, new) trucks is that they used compound transmissions before airshifts became common. Compound transmissions are two transmissions married to each other, usually an auxiliary box behind the main box. The main box has 3-6 big gears and the auxiliary has 2-4, perhaps more depending on the box. A simple arrangement of these would be a 5 x 2, with 5 in the main and 2 in the aux. This is the old equivalent of the Eaton 10 speed of today and the 2 speed rear end of yesterday. One of the more complex compounds would be something like a 5 x 4. In this arrangement, the 5 gears in the main can be “split” by the 3 or 4 in the aux. The main would typically have 1-5 + R, and the aux would have something like Lo-Lo, Lo/”Under”, Direct, and Over, though sometimes the main might not even have reverse and the aux would take over that gear. Usually Lo-Lo is saved for 1st and reverse as well, and the shifting sequence would go something like 1LL, 1L, 1D, 1O, 2L, 2D, 2O, 3L, 3D, 3O, 4L, 4D, 4O, 5D, 5O. Notice I left 5L out. Depend on the transmissions and ratios, gears can overlap.
So with the basics out of the way, why would you want something overly complicated like that in your rig? Well I don’t know I’m not a mind reader. However, if you like to maintain realism in your game or maybe just like a fun challenge, it can be rewarding trying to wrangle 2 sticks while being a virtual asphalt cowboy.
Equipment, “7th” gear, and controls.sii editing
So, how do we go about doing this? Well, first thing’s first, this tutorial assumes you do have 2 H-gate shifters, and more specifically, I’m going to be using a Spicer 6 x 4 compound, which has an unusual layout that requires a shifter with 8 gates (7+R), but it is trivial to adapt this text to something like a Mack 5 x 4 setup, which would let you use 2 normal 6 gate shifters. If you’d like to try a compound setup using buttons as the aux box, JackBurton has an excellent tutorial on how to do that on the SCS forums[forum.scssoft.com]
So you got your shifters all plugged in and ready to round off some teeth eh? Well slow down supertrucker, because now comes the fun part, config editing. Open up File Explorer and open My Documents/American Truck Simulator/profiles/[profile numbers]/. Make a backup of controls.sii, then open controls.sii in your favorite text editor. You’re gonna want to eye somewhere near line 415 or so, where it says “mix gear1” and so on, my exact line is actually config_lines[409] for reference. This next part just applies to those who have a TH8A or similar and want to use the weird Spicer 6 x 4 pattern, if you just want a normal 5 x whatever, ignore this next part.
We need to have ATS recognize the 7th slot in our TH8A. If you’ve gone through the input wizard in game, it only asks for 6 + R. So looking at the “mix gear” lines, we see that gears 1 – 7 are already assigned, with gear1 actually being reverse. If we look at “mix gear7”, we see that it’s populated with our 6th gear, my exact line is “mix gear7 `joy2.b6?0”, this is our 6th gear, assigned to the second joystick (in my case my TH8A) in the 6th gear position (b6?0). So, logically, all we need to do to enable the 7th gear position we just go to “mix gear8” and manually populate it ourselves. My exact line is “mix gear8 `joy2.b7?0”.
Ok, so we got that out of the way, not too bad right? Everyone back on board now? Good. Now comes the slightly harder part. ATS can’t actually recognize that we have 2 “transmissions” in game, but it can recognize that we have inputs for ranges and splitters. Those keen-eyed among you might’ve noticed the mixes above the gear mixes named “mix gearsel1” and so on. Those are what we have to edit next to get our auxiliary transmission functional. With ATS logic, we can have a max of 4 “gears” for our aux box, and this is because we only have 2 buttons for the range and splitter of our actual transmission, and these buttons have 2 states; on and off. 2 x 2 = 4. So, we setup our secondary shifter’s gear positions to act as the buttons.
Figuring out controllers and range/splitter editing
The first thing we have to do is learn what the game’s assignment number is for our secondary shifter, and what the assignments are for the gear positions we want. The easiest way to accomplish this is to save the config file and close it, open the game and assign gear positions in the game via the secondary shifter. Just assign the 4 or however many you want, save the game, and reopen the config file. Go back to the gear mixes and you’ll see the new gears will have the new shifter’s joy number (mine is just joy since it’s the first controller in my computer) and the button assignment for the gear. So in my profile, I have a G27 shifter as my secondary shifter, so if I assigned first gear in the game to the first gear on the shifter, my gear2 mix would be joy.b9?0.
So we know what our aux box gears are, so how do we get them working in the game? That’s where the gearsel mixes come in. In my config I have 1st, 2nd, 5th and 6th as my aux gears for my G27, so I’ll be using those. So we have 4 gearsel options, on/off for gearsel1 (range) and on/off for gearsel2 (splitter). Logically, we have to have it so that each gear position operates both the range and splitter buttons uniquely. For example, if I have my aux box in 1st, that should tell the game that both the range and splitter are off, 2nd would be having just the splitter on, 5th would have just the range on, and 6th would have both on. To achieve this, we have to use a logical operator, this operator being | , which means or.
So to make this logic happen, we start assigning the aux gears to the gearsels. Using my gears and example for the 6 x 4, I have my gearsel1on mix as “mix gearsel1on `joy.b13?0 | joy.b14?0 | semantical.gearsel1on?0`”. The semantical statement was already there, so I just left it and put an or operator in front of it. So what this line says is we turn the range on if our aux box is in 5th or 6th gear. Our next line will read “mix gearsel1off `joy.b9?0 | joy.b10?0 | semantical.gearsel1off?0`”, meaning to turn the range off if the aux box is in the 1st or 2nd gear. We can ignore the gearsel1tgl, since we won’t actually be using a button for this that will change states if we release it. Moving on, we then have “mix gearsel2on `joy.b10?0 | joy.b14?0 |semantical.gearsel2on?0`” which will turn the splitter on if we’re in 2nd or 6th. Finally we have “mix gearsel2off `joy.b9?0 | joy.b13?0 | semantical.gearsel2off?0`” which turns the splitter off if we’re in 1st or 5th. Save the file for now.
Shifting layout and in game transmission
So now our aux transmission is recognized in game and the gears are assigned (btw, don’t forget to reassign the mix gears back to the TH8A), what now?
Now, we need a shifting layout for the 6 x 4. I’ll be honest and say that making a layout is tiresome and most people don’t really need to bother. Having said that, experimentation is always welcome. For example, I’ve made “oldschool” Eaton patterns with 5th and 6th (3rd and 4th in game) reversed to simulate old RTXO transmissions with the last 2 gears flipped to give overdrive in the box. I also have “real” 13 and 18 speeds that have the “secret” 4th gear in high range. Lightning 10? Check. Deep Reduction 15 speed? Yep, and all of them were a PITA to make, not to mention create the corresponding transmissions for them. So to save everyone some headache, I’m going to lift JackBurton’s 6 x 4 layout because it’s exactly how it should be done. Jack if you aren’t ok with this please PM me and I’ll make my own ever so slightly different pattern by including the overlapping low gears. Grab Jack’s pattern here[pastebin.com] and save it as gearbox_layout_S6x4.sii in your profile folder.
Almost there, I promise. The next thing we need is an actual transmission for truck in game! This can also be a colossal PITA if you’re making one from scratch, but I’ve already done that for you guys. I made this one using Wilson212’s great real engines and sounds tool. It was an excellent tool that let you create engines and transmissions for whatever truck you wished. Unfortunately, the mod is outdated and actually breaks the sound in the game due to FMod. But while it was active, I did make a 6 x 4 transmission for the wonderful Mack R. Grab the transmission here[pastebin.com] and save it as spicer6a4.sii in your downloads.
Now, you have an option, either you can chuck the transmission file in the Mack’s transmission folder, or add it to the game by making a mod. I used to just make a simple mod for it instead of dumping it in the Mack’s actual folders, risking deletion every time the mod updates, but it seems that no longer works for some reason I can’t be bothered figuring out, so I’m just going to throw it in the Mack’s folders. To do this, open up your workshop folder (C:Program Files (x86)Steamsteamappsworkshop), double click content, find ATS’s folder, which is 270880, then find the Mack’s folder, which is 1463066263, then navigate inside the 138.zip folder by double clicking it, and going to def/vehicle/truck/mack.rhpl/transmission/ and copy or click + drag the transmission file you saved into that folder
Logic-ing the game into thinking the range and splitter buttons are gears
Now, technically, you could fire up the game and start working the sticks. However, if you did, you’d notice that the aux acts funny. Going from L to U acts like a split, with no neutral, and you have to go to neutral in the main box is go from U to D! Ya know, like a range shift. That ain’t how it should be! So, what do we do? Well, we have to give the game some more logic so the aux acts more like an aux and less like range and split shifts. To do this, open controls.sii back up, and go back to the gear mixes. We have to have it so that the main box gears won’t activate until the aux box is in one of it’s gears, effectively forcing neutral if the aux box is actually in neutral. This is great because it realistically simulates 2 transmissions and let’s you rev match the aux box without needing to touch the main. To accomplish this using logic, we tell the gears to activate only when the main gear is in, AND the aux is in 1 of it’s 4 positions, and if it’s not, the main gear does not engage. Here’s how we do it: “mix gear1 `joy2.b8?0 & (gearsel1on | gearsel1off | gearsel2on | gearsel2off) | semantical.gear1?0`”. This reads as “Activate gear1 (reverse in game USING THE STANDARD LAYOUT, if you use another layout, like an eaton fuller 10 speed, this gear isn’t even used, since 1st is technically reverse in that layout) if joy2 (my TH8A) is in the b8?0 position (reverse on the shifter) AND gearsel1 is on OR gearsel1 is off OR gearsel2 is on OR gearsel2 is off, otherwise don’t mix (engage). I don’t know if I explained that clearly enough or not, it needs to be done otherwise the aux would just behave like the range and splitter buttons. Do this for the rest of the gears we have assigned as well (“mix gear2 `joy2.b1?0 & (gearsel1on | gearsel1off | gearsel2on | gearsel2off) | semantical.gear2?0`”). I’ll post my controls file[pastebin.com] for reference in case this is confusing.
Outro
Whew! I know that’s a bit of work, but considering we’re really just tricking the game into making the range and splitter buttons gears on another input device, it works VERY well in my opinion. All that is left is to drive your Mack to a shop, buy the custom transmission (should be the first one and only cost $1000), and set the shifter layout in the options. Now put ‘er to the dash and into the wind!
Thanks for reading this tutorial, feel free to leave me feedback because I’m sure I didn’t explain some things clearly. I’ll do the best I can to assist anyone having trouble, but overall this took a LOT of experimenting to get down. I actually just tinkered with the logic a few days ago that made it possible for the aux box to force neutral. For the past few months, I’ve had to deal with it acting like a splitter and range with no way to get into neutral without going to neutral in the main box. That breakthough was what inspired me to make this tutorial, now that it’s actually viable and realistic in game. I hope you enjoy gear jamming compounds as much as I do big strappers! Here’s[www.bigrigchromeshop.com] your shift pattern and here[www.thetruckersreport.com] are your gear ratios