BeamNG with a steering wheel

[RockstarCRO]

Hey all,

Avid racing/driving fan here. Love it all - from Euro Truck to F1, to Assetto, to GTA. I've recently purchased a racing wheel and this game has been on my radar for the last few years. Just wondering what the game offers besides collisions?

From what I understand, this game is mostly an "engine" for driving, correct? I'm wondering about the accuracy, force feedback, and the overall general feeling of driving in this game. Here are some questions :

1) Are wheel compatible with this game?
2) Is the driving authentic? Meaning, do the rally cars feel like rally cars; do the racing cars feel like racing cars; do the trucks feel and drive like trucks?
3) What is there to do in this game? Just set up scenarios / download from the workshop and crash? This game looks like it's got massive amounts of potential and I'm wondering why a lot more people (who own a wheel) aren't going to this instead of Project Cars, or iRacing, or F1??? Seems like the dream "car" game where the possibilities are endless. I've always loved to experience a city driver (especially with a semi-truck, where you actually have to go around tight corners and not relatively the same intersections as Euro), and then randomly jump into a race or rally.

I guess what I'm asking is, what is your opinion and what do you usually do with this game?

Thanks for taking the time to read.

[RickHassolhoff]

Hello

1. Yes i am currently using a Logitech G29 and it works great, and i think the general rule is that if windows detects it and is properly working then it'll work with Beam with some configuring.

2. I can't attest to this as much i don't have much experience in other 'driving/racing' games but each vehicle does feel and handle differently and i have seen other people say it is quite good but i know i enjoy it greatly and believe it is quite authentic, hopefully someone else can chime in and add a perspective

3. Well for a start there are 'campaigns' that sort of act like a series of scenarios or challenges put together following some sort of story or narrative, they aren't that long but they are some good fun and currently there are 4 campaigns. Next are Scenarios, they are individual challenges of varying difficulty, the challenge can be anything from Delivery, Offroading/Crawling a difficult trail, Police Chases, Races and just many challenges, I count 68 Scenarios, Next is Freeroam where you pick from 13 different maps (Technically 16 but other three are just plain flat endless gridmap with nothing on it, a template map and Showroom for screenshots) that basically acts as a openworld on your selected map where you can do whatever you want. Then there are Time Trials where you select a map, layout, vehicle, and maybe change some settings (Such as "Reverse" "Rolling Start" "Laps" and Time of day). Then there are some oddities such as
Bus Routes( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1GzR71D04A ),
Light Runner( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8J-lVqLRgnw ) and
Track Builder ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAy9_EJs404 )
While there isn't a steam workshop there is the forums ( Link [www.beamng.com] ) where there is a good-sized modding community where you can subscribe to and download mods from either the website or the through the built-in ingame-repository. If I was to guess why it's not gaining much popularity from the Sim racing or just racing fan crowd would be partly Beam's youtube presence where loads of youtubers make it look like a glorified crash simulator and nothing more which is just so wrong and that beam lacks a lot of racing game feature such the ability to easily setup a race around track with any other vehicle than your own

Well hope that helps somewhat, If I was just to make it short I can easily recommend this game to anyone who would be interested in a very good vehicle/driving simulator with steady and consistent updates (about every 3.5 to 4 months are major updates).

[Jaidensky]

1: Yes, it is wheel compatible, I currently have ~200 hours with a g920, Thrustmasters seem to work too, and I used to play on some janky 60 dollar wheel from ebay. Lots of calibration options.

2: Yes, the game engine is more than just soft-body physics, the handling is very realistic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPX2qRQAnBo&ab_channel=BeamNG
You can feel the weight shifting around when racing, semi trucks do feel very heavy and tipsy, high-power fwd cars can have mega torque steer without power steering, and even brushing by a bush at 100+ mph can suck you into a tree. Force feedback is mostly fine,besides the fact that (at least with my wheel) there feels to be a bit of a delay, making drifting in this game next to impossible (sadly.) But, the majority of the time it's fine (no ffb issues doing track/drag/rally/street races, mainly just drifting or letting go of the wheel at 100+ mph.)

3: Gameplay-wise, this is very much a sandbox game. Open maps with dirt roads, fast roads, city roads, and race tracks, along with a heap of different scenarios/campaigns/time trials to do. The reason other racing games are more popular, is because this game is lacking a competitive scene. Sure, you can compete with time trials, and there is also a multiplayer mod for the game where you could race your friends, but there aren't any global leaderboards, It's less polished, and a lot of content in other games is not in this game (racing rules, pit stops, etc.) Where this game does shine though, is in it's sandbox scene. It doesn't do one thing very well, track racing buy Project Cars, rallying buy DiRT Rally, etc. Instead, BeamNG.drive does everything. Offroading, street cruising, semi truck driving, track racing, street racing, and so on. You could take a bone stock 240sx, and mod it out for offroading, then proceed to load it into the back of a semi-truck and haul it up a mountain you proceed to (attempt) to drive down a big jump. And with the addition of mods/multiplayer, there is always new fresh things to try out and mess around with, even your friends, and you could literally turn this game into a flight simulator.

TL;DR:
Yes, almost all controllers are supported.
Yes, the handling is very realistic.
It's lacking a competitive scene, however, is more of a hyper-realistic "jack-of-all-trades" type of game, and mods are constantly changing the game in extreme ways (including multiplayer.)

[RockstarCRO]

Thank you guys for you replies. I'll be keeping a close eye on the game.

Last question, does it support clutch (with H shifter)? Like does gradual release of the clutch do anything.

[dubwise professor 2]

Автор сообщения: RockstarCRO

Thank you guys for you replies. I'll be keeping a close eye on the game.

Last question, does it support clutch (with H shifter)? Like does gradual release of the clutch do anything.

yes, the clutch simulation in this game is the best ive seen in any game, but i would set a deadzone to your clutch so it feels right

[Jaidensky]

Автор сообщения: RockstarCRO

Thank you guys for you replies. I'll be keeping a close eye on the game.

Last question, does it support clutch (with H shifter)? Like does gradual release of the clutch do anything.

Yes, I use a 3-pedal system with a 6+R h-shifter and it works more than fine. In fact, another thing i love about this game, is that you can shift without the clutch if you rev-match perfectly, without damaging the gears like it would if you didn't use the clutch or rev-match, however using half the clutch can help reduce damage as well as increase the no-damage rev-match range. Safe to say manual transmissions are heavily simulated, even more than most sim racers. But, this game being early access, you could floor an automatic jamming it from drive to reverse and it wont do a thing. (To the transmission, as it will spin your wheels and maybe pop a driveshaft.) However this game being early access I would consider it excusable, along with the fact it also features DCT transmissions, Sequentials, and even a CVT in the Sunburst.

[bmwcrazy456]

1) Are wheel compatible with this game?
Yes! There are plenty of tuning options as well, so you can get the Force Feedback just the way you like it.
2) Is the driving authentic? Meaning, do the rally cars feel like rally cars; do the racing cars feel like racing cars; do the trucks feel and drive like trucks?
Yes. Having driven a car and the BeamNG counterpart, it's exactly the same. They feel different, and they are variable - if you overload the bed of a truck, the steering gets looser.
3) What is there to do in this game? Just set up scenarios / download from the workshop and crash? This game looks like it's got massive amounts of potential and I'm wondering why a lot more people (who own a wheel) aren't going to this instead of Project Cars, or iRacing, or F1??? Seems like the dream "car" game where the possibilities are endless. I've always loved to experience a city driver (especially with a semi-truck, where you actually have to go around tight corners and not relatively the same intersections as Euro), and then randomly jump into a race or rally.
There isn't much competitive racing per se, save a few official 1v1 scenarios and a few on the forums, but there is a lot of hot lapping. I like to hot lap here for a few hours, and jump onto RaceRoom. I'm all set!

I guess what I'm asking is, what is your opinion and what do you usually do with this game?

Get it. I don't think there has been a sale... ever... but I could be wrong. My advice is don't wait, and get it now. You have nothing to lose - save 25$. I have ~900 hours on this, and I've played since a very early update. the game is even fun and addicting on a lousy desktop on grid small pure with 1-2 cars- and 2 fps. (that's how I started... and stayed for 300+ hours.)

[Jer]

yo guys, it was my birthday yesterday i FINALLY got a drift wheel!!

super fun, still getting used to it.