Transmissions - BeamNG’s Physics Engine Is Capable of More Than People Realize

Over the past few months I’ve been quietly working on something for BeamNG that’s become way bigger than I originally intended.

What started as experimenting with transmission behavior has slowly evolved into a full drivetrain simulation project focused on mechanical behavior, wear, heat, clutch dynamics, and failure modeling.

A lot of BeamNG mods focus on adding power, parts, visuals, or realism through configs. What I’ve been interested in is something different:

“What if the drivetrain actually behaved like a living mechanical system?”

Right now we’ve developed systems capable of:
- Dynamic clutch wear
- Gear-specific torque capacities
- Heat accumulation and cooling
- Progressive clutch slip
- Launch abuse damage
- WOT-only overload detection
- DCT-specific clutch behavior
- Mechanical clutch disengagement after catastrophic failure
- Transmission states that change based on how the vehicle is driven

One of the biggest breakthroughs recently was getting a DCT to physically disconnect itself after catastrophic clutch failure instead of simply “pretending” to be in neutral. The gearbox can now mechanically separate while the engine continues running and free-revving realistically.

That may sound small, but under the hood it required completely rethinking how the drivetrain and gearbox devices interact internally.

There’s a scene in The Matrix where the kid tells Neo:
“Do not try and bend the spoon. That’s impossible. Instead… only try to realize the truth.”

That mindset weirdly applies here.

The breakthrough moments haven’t come from trying to fake effects visually. They’ve come from understanding what the systems are actually doing mechanically underneath the surface.

The goal here isn’t just to make cars faster.

The goal is to push BeamNG further into true vehicle systems simulation territory.

Long term plans include:
- Progressive transmission degradation
- Adaptive TCU behavior
- Fluid temperature and pressure simulation
- Gear shock damage
- Launch memory / abuse tracking
- Different clutch material behaviors
- Intelligent drivetrain protection systems
- Persistent mechanical wear

What excites me most is that BeamNG already has the physics foundation capable of supporting things like this. I think we’ve only scratched the surface of what’s actually possible within the engine.

This project has honestly changed the way I look at modding entirely. Instead of asking:
“How do I fake this effect?”

I’ve started asking:
“What is ACTUALLY happening mechanically?”

That mindset has led to some pretty crazy breakthroughs.

I’m still refining everything and there’s a lot more work to do, but I wanted to finally share a little bit of what’s being developed behind the scenes.

I genuinely think the future of BeamNG modding is deeper simulation behavior, not just more horsepower.

We’re trying to push the envelope and see how far BeamNG can actually go.

Would love to hear what the community thinks.

 

Interesting, I love technical detail potential. But your wording reads like an infommercial and thus inspires immediate distrust, make it blunter and shorter.

 

I’m trying to squeeze 10 lbs in a 5 lb bag I’m not going to charge for it. It’s going to be free

 

My only comment would be for things like clutch wear or launch abuse damage, how is any of this being “simulated”? I understand you want to represent these realities in-game, but without real-world data, what are you basing these values on? It’s the same way I look at these modders making “advanced tire physics mods” with wear and thermals. And all it is is a guess, and not even an educated guess at that. I’m sure the BeamNG devs are guilty of the same thing in certain instances where getting that data is next to impossible. But I’m curious if you have any data to back up your ambitions. Wish you all the best, regardless.

 

custom lua with a fuckkkk ton of functions

 

Yeah, I don't think that's what he means.

We all know that if you're planning to mod in transmission wear/damage, you'll do it using custom lua scripts (it'd be a real hat trick to do it without custom lua). But when you set the amount of damage that certain conditions do to a transmission, how do you know that your inputs are true to real-life? There's not really a lot of dependable data out there, and the actual amount probably varies significantly from car to car and setup to setup. Not trying to dissuade, ofc. Just something to keep in mind.