Traffic Density
Traffic Density is the feel of the road — how tightly cars are packed, how often a new one appears, how wide the band of traffic is around you. The three density buttons (Light, Normal, Heavy) each apply a complete set of spawn rules tuned for a specific feel. The Car Amount slider above them controls how many cars are requested in total.
Where to find it
Main tab, Car Amount section: three density buttons — Light,
Normal, Heavy — plus a None button to clear traffic, and a slider
above them for the total car count. The active density preset is highlighted.
Car Amount vs. density
The Car Amount slider sets the total number of cars the tool will try to keep alive around you. It does not, by itself, control density — car-to-car spacing, spawn rate and lateral spread come from the Light / Normal / Heavy density preset.
Each density preset also sets a Car Amount value that is already tuned to match. You do not need to raise the slider after clicking a preset — the combination that ships with the preset is balanced for that feel. Pushing the slider higher is optional personal preference: it can make cars appear a bit further out into your view by padding the fleet, but for most players it is unnecessary. Think of the slider as a fine-tune you usually do not need to touch.
What each density button actually does
None — clean the road without turning the app off
Stops spawning new traffic and removes existing cars. Police, pedestrians, ambience and extra cars keep running. Use this for screenshot sessions or time trials where stray AI at the apex would ruin the run.
Light — slow spawn rate, wide gaps, wide band
New cars appear rarely and at long intervals. The minimum gap between cars on the same lane is very large, so any two cars you meet have clear space around them. The lateral band is wide, so some of the traffic budget ends up on parallel streets rather than on your road.
The result is a countryside-afternoon feeling: a single car drifts into view, you catch up, you overtake, and the road is empty again for a while. Choose Light for scenic cruising, hot-lap warm-ups, and anything where traffic is atmosphere rather than obstacle.
Normal — balanced rate, real-world gap, medium band
The spawn rate matches what a real city-to-highway mix produces. Car-to-car gap is typical following distance; lateral band is wide enough that nearby roads see some traffic without draining the main road.
This is the default for good reason — most scenarios feel right here. Start with Normal and move to Light or Heavy only when a specific road character calls for it.
Heavy — fast rate, short gap, narrow band
New cars appear quickly and in close succession. The car-to-car gap is short, so cars stack tightly. The lateral band narrows so the tool concentrates its budget on the road you are driving, not on the map as a whole.
The outcome is rush-hour feel: overtakes become real work because openings are small and the next car is already closing. Chases get crowded because civilian traffic fills the escape routes. The trade-off is that on a narrow or short track the tool may not be able to place every car it wants — the count can settle a few below the slider target. Heavy prioritises realism over hitting the exact number.
Per-track memory and manual overrides
Both the chosen density profile and your Car Amount value are saved per track. Clicking a density button reapplies that preset’s default Car Amount for this track, overwriting any manual slider position. That is why the “my count keeps jumping back” problem is usually caused by clicking a profile after tuning. Do the profile click first, the slider adjustment second, and it sticks.
Saving your own density profile (Shift-click)
Hold Shift while clicking a profile button to overwrite that profile’s defaults with the current settings. This makes your tuned values the new default for that button. The change is written to disk and affects every track, so use it only when you are sure your values are a better baseline than the shipped ones.
Automatic density overrides during events
Two scenarios temporarily override your density without touching your selection:
- Police Chase. Spawn rate briefly slows and the car-to-car gap widens so the pursuit has room to play. Ends when the chase ends.
- Race proximity. When an AI racer is within about 250 m, the active car cap drops so the duel stays readable. Ends when the racer disengages.
Both kick in automatically. Your button selection and slider value are untouched during the event — only the live spawn behaviour shifts for a while.
Developer mode — unlocking all spawn settings
The three density buttons and the Car Amount slider are the intended surface for most players. Underneath them, the density profile is really a bundle of many individual spawn settings, and every one of them can be exposed for manual tuning.
To unlock them, click the “Advanced Settings” text button ten times. This enables developer mode and reveals the full set of spawn sliders described below. Changes you make here override the preset values until you click a density button again, which reapplies the preset.
Spawn Distance (Min / Max)
The distance window in front of the player at which new traffic may appear while you are driving at speed. Min is the closest distance a car is allowed to appear; Max is the furthest. Widening the window gives the tool more space to find valid spawn positions; narrowing it produces a tighter, more predictable traffic ring.
Slow Spawn Distance (Min / Max)
A second spawn window used when you are driving slowly (below roughly 100 km/h). At low speed a huge spawn radius is wasteful — cars spawned a kilometre ahead will never reach you before they despawn. The Slow Spawn window pulls the ring closer so traffic stays relevant at low speed.
Spawn Range
Lateral width of the spawn band around your road. A narrow value keeps traffic on your specific road; a wide value lets cars populate parallel streets too. Widening the range is the most reliable way to fix a track that keeps falling short of its Car Amount target, because it gives the tool more sideways room to find seats.
Car Gap Distance
The minimum distance the tool enforces between two traffic cars on the same lane before a new spawn is allowed. Short gap = dense, stacked traffic. Long gap = relaxed spacing with empty stretches between cars. This is the single biggest dial for how “busy” the road feels.
Despawn Behind
Distance behind you at which traffic cars are removed. Increase it to keep cars you overtook visible in your mirror longer; decrease it to free memory sooner. Has no visual effect on traffic ahead of you.
The density buttons set all of these at once to match their feel. Developer mode simply lets you break apart that bundle and tune one dial at a time — useful for very specific scenarios (a chase sequence that wants a fixed spawn window, a cinematic pass that wants a particular spacing) but usually unnecessary for normal play.
Troubleshooting
- I set 55 but only see ~20 cars
- Heavy’s short gap and narrow band cannot fit 55 on this track. Switch to Normal (wider band) or accept the shortfall — Heavy prefers realism over hitting the number.
- I raised the Car Amount but traffic doesn’t feel any denser
- Car Amount is count, not density. Switch from Light or Normal to Heavy to actually tighten spawn rate and car gap.
- Slider resets after I click a profile
- Expected. Profile buttons always reapply their default Car Amount. Click the profile first, then adjust the slider — it persists on this track.
- I want to see the spawn sliders
- Click the “Advanced Settings” text button ten times to unlock developer mode, then look for Spawn Distance, Slow Spawn Distance, Spawn Range, Car Gap Distance and Despawn Behind.