BeamNG.drive v0.30 Adds Vehicle, VR, Map, Gear Code Re-write

BeamNG have released a new build of BeamNG.drive that adds a new vehicle, experimental VR support, a new West Coast US map area and what sounds like a re-write and improvement of the Gear simulation. As usual, their blog and build notes are spectacularly detailed and you can see the blog text below.

Their text:

Greetings, drivers!

As the landscapes transition to the mesmerizing autumn hues and a gentle breeze signals the approaching winter, it’s time for transformation and renewal. Embracing the spirit of change that this season embodies, we’re excited to unveil a heart-warming selection of new features and improvements. So let’s dive in!

NEW VEHICLE: Hirochi Aurata
First on the list is the new addition to our vehicle lineup: the Hirochi Aurata.

This two-seater ‘Side by Side’ UTV was built for entry-level racing and recreation. It features a 3-cylinder engine with factory and aftermarket turbocharged variants, a continuously variable transmission, with selectable Four-Wheel-Drive and low-range box (also available with RWD conversion), and two new vehicle-specific wheel styles in two sizes, with tires to match. This model also comes with a full range of factory and custom configs, including off-road and track-ready specifications, a long travel suspension, and two different rollcage styles. Take this baby out for a spin, you won’t regret it!

View this video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/xj7AHIEcSUg and please consider subscribing to RSC’s main channel.

NEW TRAILERS
Next up, we are adding two new trailers – the Tilt Deck Trailer and the Enclosed Cargo Trailer.

Introducing the Tilt Deck: outfitted with a hydraulic-activated deck, this trailer offers versatility with three length variations, several suspension configurations, and a choice of two tongue options. Designed for the demanding tasks, this heavy-duty trailer is tailored for robust tow vehicles in our lineup. It boasts a deck-over hydraulic tilt structure coupled with a load-balancing leaf spring suspension, making it perfect for transporting a variety of loads – from hay bales to off-road vehicles.

Meet the Enclosed Cargo Trailer: it comes with a secure fold-down ramp and an additional side door for easy access, offering peace of mind while on the road. Choose from a range of pre-configured loads and enjoy the customization flexibility with support for paint designs.

View this video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/s7YLDMZHUwo and please consider subscribing to RSC’s main channel.

EXPANSION: West Coast, USA
But wait, there’s more! The West Coast, USA level is getting expanded with the addition of several new areas that will pave the way for a broader range of gameplay experiences.

Welcome to Spearleaf Island, accessible through an entirely new road network, boasting unique locations to explore and missions to tackle. The Refinery will serve as the starting point for a variety of missions, including police chases and different types of deliveries, to name a few. The Steel Factory, especially its underground area, is an intricately built environment ideal for racing aficionados.

The map also includes a new dealership, a dock area, and a movie studio lot, as well as an update to the fuel stations.

View this video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/7gykKVvvcSw and please consider subscribing to RSC’s main channel.

New Missions
We’ve added a number of new missions to the the available selection, including the Downtown Rush and Superhighway Sweep on West Coast USA, Mudslide Gladiator on Jungle Rock Island, and Small Island Sprint and Downhill Sweep on Small Island.

View this video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/pXP3bbuF7I4 and please consider subscribing to RSC’s main channel.

Additionally, all Time Trials that were previously only available from the Main Menu are now available as missions, and have been improved.

We’ve also added some new recovery options to missions. Many mission types will now allow you to flip your vehicle upright or recover back onto the road, without needing to restart the mission completely.

Gear Shifting Rework
We’ve heavily revamped how manual transmissions function under ‘Realistic Mode’. The main change which will be visible from the player’s end in this first iteration, is that we are now taking into account how long the driver holds down the gear shift buttons. Previously, the gear shift buttons triggered a ‘user wants to shift’ event, but in the new version, we are measuring how long the buttons are held down, and use that information to determine how quickly the user wants to shift gears.

We have several reasons for this: First off, it allows for a much broader range of realistic manual transmissions. It also lays the groundwork for future improvements, and the new method is easier to capture into muscle memory. The change will also make it easier for us to simulate normal city driving as opposed to racing, and will bring an additional layer of realism to a wider range of vehicles – for example, it is not realistic to be able to shift a truck as quickly as a race car, and the new system will eventually reflect that. This has not been tuned on the individual level yet, but that’s what this change is preparing for.

The practical outcome of all this is that a brief press will now lead to a quick gear shift, while holding the buttons down longer will lead to a more relaxed shift. Attempting to shift faster than the transmission supports will lead to audible gear grinding noises and damage to the synchronizers. The same will apply to H-Shift vehicles – these don’t have classical buttons, but the time you need to physically move the lever is also measured and used.

NEW EXPERIMENTAL FEATURE: Virtual Reality
VR fans – rejoice: version 0.30 includes an early experimental version of VR support!

Any VR headset that supports the OpenXR standard (that is to say, almost any VR headset) should be compatible with BeamNG. The current version of VR support includes the following: The ability to toggle VR on or off at any point, the ability to choose snap-turn or smooth-turn in-cockpit camera as well as walking mode, and interactive 3D cockpit switches, door handles etc. (experimental- requires a VR controller). A customizable option will allow your hands to reach faraway objects more easily.

The VR feature will also include stereoscopic and position-aware mirror reflections, directional 3D audio, instant 180º direction change in walking mode when using lookback, support for both regular HMDs and non-HMDs, as long as the hardware supports the OpenXR standard. To use Windows Mixed Reality headsets, you will need to set SteamVR as your default OpenXR runtime to bypass the missing Vulkan support in WMR drivers. Check the patch notes for more details!

As you might suspect – VR places considerable demands on your computer’s resources. Anticipate substantial hardware requirements and consider scaling back on the graphics detail, amount of traffic, and other settings to ensure a smoother experience.

NEW: Blender JBeam Editor
In addition to all of the above, we are also bringing you a Blender JBeam Editor! This new feature will allow modders to create JBeam parts from scratch, import existing parts, move, rename, add, and delete nodes, as well as export your changes directly to a JBeam file, with many more features planned.

Improvements and Fixes
Gas Stations and Electric Charging Stations now work across all levels! These facilities will now only fill your vehicle’s tank with the types of fuel available at the facility, and we’ve also improved the marker look and interaction logic.

This is just a sampler of all the adjustments included in this update – we’ve also made tweaks to the Autobello Piccolina, Civetta Scintilla, the ETK-I series, the Gavril Bluebuck, Bruckell Moonhawk, Ibushu Pigeon, Soliad Lansdale, among many others.

In the props lineup, we’ve done some tweaking on the Gate and Suspension Bridge props, added several new road sign variants, and reworked square hay bales to allow stacking.

And last, but not least, we’re sure you’ve noticed that we have done a bit of housekeeping when it comes to the version numbers. To future-proof our versioning and reduce possible confusion, this version will be known as Version 0.30.0, and all future updates will follow the same naming scheme. Please note that these are incremental number increases, not decimals.

Of course, that’s not even close to being all we’re bringing you in our latest update – the full list includes improvements to Input and Force Feedback, Lua fixes and features, tweaking and optimization of the UI, game engine, and much much more. Check out the patch notes for more details!

There have also been a couple of hotfixes released. Those are included below. You can view the full v0.30.0 patch notes here.

Hotfix 0.30.1:

Vehicles
Bruckell Bastion
Made trunk opening more reliable

ETK K-Series
Fixed wrong stalk orientation

Gavril Bluebuck
Fixed automatic console shifters wrong animation

Gavril D-Series
Fixed deformation on RL extended cab door

Hirochi Aurata
Fixed typo in Sport (CVT) variant descirption
Fixed mud tire rotation

Ibishu Covet
Fixed rear bumper trim name
Removed wrong file that made it look like there was an extra configuration in selector

Ibishu Pessima (1996-2000)
Fixed simple traffic trunk piece missing

Trailers
Tilt Deck: fixed incorrect behavior of wheel offset variables

Levels
West Coast, USA
Deleted several stretching decalroads
Fixed the workshop building to previous state
Fixed collision in steel factory underground area
Fixed grabby colmesh on island parking lot

Launcher
Support ID tool: fixed an issue that was blocking submission of logs

UI
Fixed setting a route to a Quicktravel point on the map screen causing errors

Career Mode
Fixed career saves breaking if you reached level 2 of the specialized branch
Fixed ability to add or remove parts from vehicles from the part inventory
Implemented a possible fix for the disappearing menus (for example the computer screen)

Game Engine
Screenshot Creator: fixed image format settings being ignored and using PNG all the time

AI & Traffic
Steam Deck: Adjusted default amount of traffic to avoid low frame rate issues

Virtual Reality
Fixed inability to activate VR due to Steam skipping our launcher (hiding the button to use Vulkan renderer, which is required for VR). BeamNG.drive will now detect this situation and automatically force Vulkan mode to be used
Fixed the Options → Display → VR → Center button not reacting to clicks
Fixed the ctrl + num5 VR centering binding sometimes not reacting if a menu was active

World Editor
Fixed an issue with ScriptAI Editor that was leaking into ScriptAI Manager tool

Hotfix 0.30.3:

Vehicles

Autobello Piccolina
Fixed watercooled engine single turbo using wrong intake pipes

Civetta Scintilla
Fixed FFB tuning slider not working

ETK 800-Series
Fixed random capitalization and other issues in many config descriptions

Hirochi Aurata
Added functional dashboard buttons to the Hirochi Aurata
Fixed inaccurate air intake position in Jbeam, leading to the vehicle flooding in water easier than it should
Fixed literally unplayable typo in high performance radiator name
Fixed driveshaft being unbreakable
Fixed intake pipe stretching
Fixed turbo pipe meshes not breaking when engine is ripped out
Fixed excessive amount of toe and camber adjustment
Made dashboard lights turn off with ignition
Moved spoiler and spare tire to slots into the “body” to prevent floating parts when body is removed

Ibishu Covet
Fixed random capitalization in many config descriptions
Fixed 1.5 ZXi being too expensive

Soliad Lansdale
Retuned strength of undertray and front bumper

SP
Fixed naturally aspirated race intake having supercharge3r mesh

Trailers
Enclosed Cargo Trailer: fixed incorrect taillight arrangement to match US trailer plugs
Tilt Deck Trailer: fixed incorrect taillight arrangement to match US trailer plugs

Props
Improved configuration thumbnails on engine props

Common
Fixed Cargo Box tow hitch location being the same on pickup as on the van despite different overhang
Fixed broken UV map on “LED oval aux3” light

Levels

West Coast, USA
Fixed flickering on billboard sign
Updated construction area sand barrels and road near movie studio
Fixed collision on steel factory machinery
Fixes several meshes on the island
Fixed export issue with island power cable UVs
Adjusted dealership’s garage door position
Added annotations

Gameplay & Missions
Fixed a few missing mission star texts due to obsolete star info
Prevented a few cases of giving the player a free car after a mission finishes

Powertrain
Increased allowed RPM difference for non-synchronized reverse gears
Fixed manual shift logic getting stuck when shifting to neutral
Fixed H-pattern shifter animation not returning to center position in neutral

Input & FFB
Fixed vehicle-specific bindings reverting to their defaults if you modified the bindings of some other vehicle

Virtual Reality
Disabled Depth of Field in VR mode
The headset will now recenter automatically 2 seconds after you first wear the headset (each time VR is toggled on). Remember you can use Ctrl+Numpad5 to finetune the center
Fixed Vulkan not being automatically selected if launching while Steam is in VR mode (therefore skipping the game launcher)
Fixed VR applying a second head position offset if 3rd party VR injection/emulation software has been installed by the user, trying to set a position on their own using our support for TrackIR. From now on, TrackIR-reported positions will be ignored while native VR is used
Fixed VR refusing to start if you had activated the checkbox in Options > Display > VR > Debug imgui menu
The checkboxes for Debug mode and Dump mode in Options > Display > VR will no longer activate VR by themselves (these checkboxes should never be used in any case, unless instructed by our Support team, as they will kill your framerate and have other undesirable secondary effects)

UI
Fixed error in game context UI
Game Engine & Rendering
Fixed crash in CEF during exit of the application
Fixed crash in multi-spawn code
Fixed crash when generating impostors with some materials

World Editor

ScriptAI Editor
Fixed an issues with scripts starting later than time zero
Fixed an issue with start/end offsetting in camera path were failing
Fixed an issue when removing last trajectory nodes