Color Overhaul for Autos and Trucks (C.O.A.T) Mod
This project is dedicated to the glory of God. Every mile driven and every line of code written is an expression of gratitude for the journey. May this mod bring a little more order, peace, and grace to the virtual highways we all travel.
Tired of the highway looking like a bag of Skittles?
Vanilla American Truck Simulator traffic tends to spawn with arcade-like, highly saturated colors that can pull you out of the simulation. Using data from 2015–2027, C.O.A.T. is a comprehensive visual realism mod that overhauls color palettes and spawn ratios for both active AI traffic and static parked vehicles across the entire game.
Branched directly from the realism-focused SGSB (Smart Gates, Dynamic Parking Lots, and Safety Buffers) project, C.O.A.T. pairs well with it and applies a much-needed fresh coat of paint to the ATS world.
Active Auto Traffic (model/textures, def/car_color.sii)
– Realistic spawn ratios: Highways are now accurately populated with high-volume fleet colors, including Fleet White, Standard Silver, Modern Magnetic Gray, and Charcoal.
– 38 custom RGB definitions: A large custom floating-point color array has been translated into the game engine and divided into distinct demographics: Commuter and Economy, Executive and Luxury, and Truck and Utility.
– Ultra-rare classics: Neon colors have been drastically reduced. Keep an eye out for ultra-rare vintage spawns such as the 2010 Jeep Mango Tango Pearl, 1970 Dodge Plum Crazy Purple, 1988 Ford Mustang Cabernet Red, and 70s Vintage Mustard Gold.
Semi-Trucks and Heavy Fleets (def/vehicle/ai/)
Semi-trucks no longer pull from a generic pool. Dozens of new custom RGB definitions have been added directly to specific AI truck brands to match their real-world counterparts.
– Authentic fleet tones: High-volume corporate fleet colors, construction ambers, and heavy-haul metallics are tailored specifically to Freightliner, Kenworth, Mack, Peterbilt, Volvo, and Western Star AI models.
– Heritage and owner-operator customs: Look for ultra-rare, brand-specific factory paints such as Mack’s Classic Bulldog Bronze, Kenworth’s Vintage Hawaiian Blue, Volvo’s 1954 Titan Heritage Orange, and Peterbilt’s Legendary Special Editions.
Parked and Static Vehicles
The immersion extends beyond the interstate. C.O.A.T. overhauls how the background world handles vehicles so that rest stops, residential areas, and industrial lots match the visual realism of active AI traffic.
World textures (model/textures/): Custom-painted .dds grids replace the vanilla static color maps, mapping the new 38-color array directly to the background world geometry.
Compatibility and Load Order
– Fully compatible with global AI density and traffic behavior mods.
– Load order: Place C.O.A.T. above other traffic or AI density mods in your mod manager so its custom color definitions, models, and spawn ratios can overwrite vanilla or modded defaults.
Roadmap
– Model-specific auto palettes: As with the brand-specific treatment applied to semi-trucks, future updates will go vehicle by vehicle to restrict specific color selections to only the AI car models that would have offered them from the factory in real life.
Credits and Technical Acknowledgments
– Development group: Smoke Show Studios, Smoke Show Creations, and Harambes Children
– Lead developer and tester: meanshadows35
– Technical consultant: Overdrive
– Developed natively on Ubuntu 26.04.1 LTS
