BeamNG.drive v0.31 Focuses On Moving Cargo, Trucks And VR Improvements

BeamNG have released a new update and a few hotfixes that appear focused on heavy trucking, cargo movement and updates to the experimental Virtual Reality implementation in the software.

Here is the text of their update:

Season’s greetings, drivers!

It’s that special time of year again, and our festive update has arrived, ready for you to explore!

VEHICLE REMAKE: Gavril T-Series

The iconic Gavril T-Series has received an extensive overhaul. Key highlights include a brand new cabover variant, a remake of the conventional cab and mechanical components, complemented by new aerodynamic sleeper variants, tanker upfit, and new walking beam tandem rear suspension.

The overall lineup has been expanded with an added early model with round headlights and no front brakes (on some configurations). The updated T-Series offers many new frame options and different cab and sleeper configurations.

On a more technical note, we have implemented compression brake support and slidable fifth wheel with overhauled, more realistic coupling, as well as pneumatic simulations.

View this video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/oMhe94fATIc and please consider subscribing to RSC’s main channel.

As part of this remaster, we’re also adding a preview of the physical mirrors, currently available only on T-Series.

View this video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/7DW5zRWGS34 and please consider subscribing to RSC’s main channel.

NEW TRAILERS & LOADS

In addition, we’re adding two new trailers; the Container Trailer and the Frameless Dump Trailer.

The Container Trailer has an extendable chassis with a scissor wire system and a pneumatic locker, which can be customized in real-time or in the Tuning menu. You can attach and detach containers in real-time, just like you attach trailers to vehicles, and the Container Trailer offers diverse load configurations. The Container Trailer comes in two variants – 20ft and 40ft. The 20ft variant comes fitted with a fifth wheel to pull another trailer behind it, while the 40ft variant allows the transport of containers in three different configurations, adaptable in real-time.

The Frameless Dump Trailer is a 45ft square box end dump semi trailer, with a unique frameless design popular in North America due to its low weight. Available with multiple axle configurations, from standard and wide spread 2 axles to a 3 axle variant.

You’re also getting a new trailer dolly, which can be attached to pintle hitches on the Gavril T-Series and trailers. Every semi trailer can be equipped with a pintle hitch, which enables players to create long road trains. The new dolly is available in two variants – a single axle with a fixed tongue, and a tandem axle variant with a drop-down tongue.

That’s not the only love the trailer line-up is getting, however – we’re making fixes and adjustments to the Dry Van trailer, Shipping Container, and the Tanker trailer. The latter of which is getting a 20ft variant as well as a 20ft tanker variant featuring openable lids and multiple liquid load options, among other things.

View this video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/W8_lHcvqXjk and please consider subscribing to RSC’s main channel.

You can learn more about the realistic fifth wheel operation and trailer usage in this tutorial:

View this video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/0kaetAfvM0E and please consider subscribing to RSC’s main channel.

Next up in the selection of parts is the new Cargo Load Box. It comes in various sizes and adjustable weight capabilities, and can be installed on most vehicles.

View this video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/NwE1oiCMjv4 and please consider subscribing to RSC’s main channel.

EXPANSION: West Coast, USA

We’ve continued the expansion process of West Coast USA, with a new fuel station location, a commercial garage, and updated police station that features a whole new parking garage facility.

Several smaller improvements were made to the port area, as well as a wide variety of updates and fixes.

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

Missions

We’ve also added a number of new missions, including the Portside Slide, Spearleaf Loop, Stolen Steel, and others on West Coast USA, Shipment Shunter on Industrial, Desert Driver on Utah, and Abseiling Fuel on Italy, among others.

The format of the vehicle setup module in missions has been updated – multiple preset vehicles can now be assigned and used for challenges. You will no longer be able to start a challenge on foot, and if you wish to use your own vehicle in a challenge, it will need to be repaired if damaged.

Improvements and Fixes

In gameplay changes, you will now be able to use the vehicle triggers for any vehicle without having to leave your current vehicle – for example, you can operate triggers on trailers without leaving the truck they are attached to.

We’ve also made fixes and improvements to a wide variety of vehicles including the Civetta Bolide, Gavril H-Series, ETK I-Series, Autobello Piccolina, Gavril Bluebuck, Cherrier Vivace, and the Gavril Roamer, among others.

The I keybind has been deprecated in favor of leaving only the R key in order to free up as many keys as possible. The Alt+R and Alt+Shift+R bindings have received the same treatment, in favor of leaving only F2 and Shift+F2.

For those of you who used the I key, you can reassign the old key, adapt to the new key, or use the more advanced Insert key. While it can be annoying to have to re-learn keybinds you have grown accustomed to, we hope you understand the need to free up duplicate keys.

AI will now have improved lane awareness and traffic path planning. The latter will now take into consideration the previous path traversed, in order to avoid taking a path that would have been the natural continuation of the previous one, such as when getting off and on again on a main road.

EXPERIMENTAL: Virtual Reality

The experimental VR mode is also getting some love in this update! We’ve added a new option to control the headset resolution, fixed several issues relating to headset and camera position, and fixed a VRAM memory leak when modifying graphics options. We’ve also revamped the VR section of the Options menu – it now shows help for possible errors when attempting to enable VR, as well as the VR system name.

Vehicle triggers like door handles and buttons can now be used with your VR controller from a small distance, instead of requiring your hand to be in direct contact with the trigger. We’ve changed the representation for this to a blue line per controller instead of the blue dots from previous versions. You can also now customize the vertical tilt of the VR controller pointer, if the default angle doesn’t feel natural to you.

NOTE:

While we continue to ship a number of fixes and optimizations for VR, please keep in mind that it’s still an experimental feature.