HOTW – Hands on the Wheel Mod Work in Progress For quite some time, I’ve seen people looking for a mod like this, myself included, so I decided to give it a shot. This mod adds visible arms and hands interacting with the steering wheel in first person, a mechanic that I’ve always felt was missing from BeamNG.drive, mainly because of how much it can improve immersion while driving. I’m currently converting the model and animations from Assetto Corsa to BeamNG.drive and developing the systems required to make everything work properly within the game. About the Development I have a background in game development and over 5+ years of experience with animation, especially in Unreal Engine, including: Procedural animation Additive animation Inverse Kinematics (IK) Animation blending Gameplay animation systems Because of that, I have a solid idea of what I need to achieve the result I’m aiming for. Lua, however, isn't a language I'm particularly used to, so I’m using Codex to assist me with certain stages of the implementation. And by the way, if anyone is interested in seeing some of my animation work, you can also check out my Sketchfab page. Current Progress The project is still a work in progress, and I currently don’t have an ETA for a proper release. The core system is already working, including the steering animations and hand positioning, and I’m continuing to improve the behavior, compatibility, and overall quality of the mod. The goal is to make the system flexible enough to work with different vehicles and steering wheel setups, including modded vehicles. So far, I have three videos showing the development of the project. Preview 1 – Day One This was the first working version of the system. At this stage, the mesh was limited to around 45° of steering rotation, and I was mainly testing the position of the steering wheel and how the arms would behave inside the vehicle. Preview 2 – Animation Implementation This version shows a more complete animation implementation. At this point, the mesh and animations were already working, although the hand positioning was still inaccurate and the animation was limited to around 360° of steering rotation. Preview 3 – IK & Steering Improvements This preview shows a newer version of the system with improved steering behavior and IK-based hand positioning. The hands are now positioned correctly on the steering wheel, and the steering animation has also received several corrections and improvements. The arms are disabled in this preview while I work on improving the elbow positioning, which will also use IK to help keep the arm poses more natural. Development Status ● Implemented ● In Development ● Planned / Not Implemented ● First-person viewmodel ● Full steering wheel rotation animation ● Independent IK positioning for both hands ● In-game configuration ● Elbow IK and improved arm positioning ● Better support for modded vehicles ● Adjust for all game steering wheels ● Gear shifting animations ● Full-body implementation Some planned features may change during development depending on what works best with BeamNG.drive and the overall direction of the mod. Known Issues & Bug Reports This section will be used to keep track of known issues during development and after release. Motion Blur: BeamNG.drive's motion blur can cause the arms and hands to appear noticeably blurry while moving. For now, the temporary workaround is to disable motion blur. Feedback & Suggestions I’d love to hear your thoughts, suggestions, and ideas for the project. If there are specific features, vehicles, steering wheel setups, or situations you think I should take into consideration while developing the system, feel free to mention them. I hope you enjoy the idea of this mod as much as I’m enjoying developing it! Credits Kunos Simulazioni – Models and animations (Assetto Corsa) 1Matzh – BeamNG.drive implementation and mod development
This is actually a really cool idea. Having visible arms and hands would add a lot to the first-person experience and make driving feel more immersive. I’m definitely interested to see how this turns out once you get it working properly.
Hi, im try work on gta style character system, and i want have two cameras(fps/tps) - can you say did you plan work on something more them hands? because why we need do the same I can easily cede this right to you.?) I plan release for free if final result will be playable. About mod, i like it, it looks good!! what im sugest is add L/R steer wheel support, handbrake and gear handle support, need also legs and body. PS i'm also have issue with MB when i put 3d mesh with bone in vehicle i think it is a engine problem... if find way how to fix pls share
Hey, I liked your project too,it looks really cool. As for my mod, the idea is for it to be exclusively first-person, so it wouldn't quite fit your project, my goal is to try and capture the same feel as playing Assetto Corsa. Regarding other mechanics, I do want to implement what you mentioned: gear-shifting and handbrake animations. The legs and body are interesting ideas too, maybe sometime in the future. Hand positioning is my priority right now. I should have a new update ready in a few days, and thanks for the suggestions!
New update on the mod's progress, featuring a video showing the use of IK for the hands. The next stage I'm currently working on is creating a settings menu for the mod, adjusting the hand settings for each steering wheel in the game, and fixing the arms.
Here's a new video for you guys, it now supports modded cars. The beta is coming for free, and the entire project will be available for free once it's released. Thank you all for your support, and there's much more to come.
Holy i was just playing Beamng and i was wanting to recreate no hesi as i have few mods that does that and then this was exactly what i was thinking of i needed as i wanted something with hands that actually arent just static and damn this is so sick cant wait to use this in game
