OK, I know this has been talked about before, but it just looks wrong having no driver in the driver seat. I thought over time I would get use to it but I've had the game 7 months now and it still just looks wrong. I've heard several arguments for why there is no driver in vehicles... It's too complex and complicated to do the physics... The game is about vehicle simulation... But, for the most part, the most important component of almost any vehicle these days IS the driver. A vehicle generally doesn't move without one. Now, whether that's a good enough argument or not for adding drivers to vehicles is irrelevant. The fact remains... it just looks wrong. I understand the weight of a driver would change the physics of a car. But, a least a simple visual of a driver (with no weight and no physical interaction would be a huge improvement). Even if it's optional so people who must have the realism of accurate simulation would be great. Although, I would argue that a car no driver is not an accurate simulation. & yes, I know there are abundant driverless cars in the world now. But, these vehicles are not driverless cars, the driver is just not there. My hope in bringing this up is not to create conflict, or generate excuses as to why, or why not drivers should be visual, but rather to hopefully find a reasonable solution to this issue. Literally Every person I've showed this game to so far points out that no driver just looks wrong. There must be a good solution to this.
I think one of the biggest problems with having a driver visible would be how the model for the driver (even if its very basic) interacts with the softbody. You can't have something realistic for fear of depicting violent imagery in the event of major accidents but if the driver model is too rigid its just going to introduce loads of clipping and look really bad. I personally don't mind having no driver, especially pointless if you play with a wheel and have the steering wheel hidden anyway
Good points. Thank you for your feedback. The soft body physics is what makes this a unique challenge. And maybe it isn't worth it. But I do feel there is a "somewhere in the middle" solution for this. I wouldn't mind if the driver had no physics collisions and as far a body parts coming through the vehicle model (clipping) it wouldn't bother me if upon heavy impacts the driver just became invisible. Another possibility is humorous ragdoll physics, but that imposes it's own unique issues. I know a lot of people play in first person mode and don't care about a driver visual (and in fact it would need to be made invisible in that case). I don't play 1st person and do care though, and I know a lot of people also do. It's a mix, and again I do think if a solution - a compromise - is found, it should be optional. There are a lot of driving games out there that have drivers in the seat. Granted, they don't have the excellent physics the Beam developers have created. I still feel there must be a middle ground here somewhere.
Honestly, I feel like the middle ground you're referring to is probably best answered with mods. There are quite a few (or, have been quite a few) attempts at ragdolls for drivers/passengers both for immersion and crash testing. Crashhard has a paid mod for dummies and from what I've seen the interior collisions and such work rather well but I think it makes use of specific interior models as the interiors need modified jbeams to support the dummies. It'd be cool if there was a blanket vanilla solution for it but its probably ultimately too much work to bother supporting in any official capacity
I've seen some of those, and yes, they are close but just not quite there. I sometimes use the "crash test dummy" and it's kind of cool, but also has some flaws. & You may be right. It may just be something that can't be done, or more accurately not worth the time and efforts to achieve. Thank you again @zachariah.74 for your feedback.
I have to agree 100% Even if there is no driver in YOUR car (I mean you are the driver) When you have other cars / traffic, it's just so unrealistic and breaks the sense of immersion to have all empty cars driving everywhere.
Just to add, and this is just a personal opinion of course. As a relatively new player, who really does enjoy the driving (crashing) experience. what struck me, after the initial few hours went by was just how empty and dead the "World" feels. No drivers, No animals, Almost no animation on anything. Don't get me wrong, it's a great game, and amazing, but it feels like BeamNG needs to be lifted out (like a package) and dropped into another animated world. Does it have anything to do with car physics simulation no, but it would instantly feel like you are driving for real, in a real world that has life. I may just be me, and how my brain/mind works, but apart from a flowing river, the world feels cold and empty. Even if it's just for aesthetic reasons, I'd love to see some life in the game.
For me the idea of a "Simulation" is to represent the feel of a real world, or "hyper real" world experience. So the more aspects that make it feel real (including aesthetics) that can be realistically achieved, the better.
