Beamng, What should be improved?

I was bored this morning, mostly because snow day, and no-one's up yet so I went on pretendracecars.net . As I find it funny reading people's comments on how terrible the new Need For Speed is, I kept reading articles. Then I drifted into Asseto Corsa.

Then I saw this:


I've seen this argument in many different places, and I really wonder if any of them even played the game. The only "Lifeless" thing about BeamNG is the audio, and there are already people working on it, and hopefully we could get music too (Most likely Gabester's work as he also did the credits music) I understand that BeamNG is obviously not finished, but we're still in alpha.

But it brings up a good point. There just isn't enough to do. For example, I love getting all of the AI to chase me. Sure, the AI still needs serious improvement, but the foundation of a good car chase game is there. I've seen scenarios where people have got the AI to even race. BeamNG is probably the best vehicle sandbox there is, but much like Grand Theft Auto, another great sandbox, there need to be things to do.

Sure, we have scenarios, and campaigns (Which seem like a bunch of scenarios tied together. Not that that's a bad thing, as I was impressed by the open-world setup of "A Rocky Start" and I hope to see more campaigns use that format). But the issue is that scenarios are limited. Sure, we can set up the AI, but it gets annoying when you have to manually reset EVERY CAR.

QuickPlay was something added in 0.8 that I didn't expect and I liked the "Make your own scenario" sort of feel it had. If we actually had a scenario editor, where you could EASILY make your own scenario (Place vehicles, checkpoints, objects, etc. Quickly set up the AI) the game would allow for a lot more diversity and plain FUN.

BeamNG currently has a great roster of cars and maps, and even though people constantly demand those (I'm looking at you Vehicle Suggestion Thread), we really need more things to do.

I'd like some feedback to see what you'd all like to be able to do in BeamNG!

 

I mean, it really is pretty lifeless and unfinished, that's why it's not even a beta.

As long as it doesn't end up dying as a project, there's no problem with that.

 

My personal(!) priority list would be:
-rework/improvement of the graphics engine to be way more performant. Pcars or AC are working on my PC almost maxed out but Beamng just laughs at my "shitty" AMD 380x when i turn on every option in the graphics menu. But I know it is beeing worked on and to be clear i dont want another engine.
-Motion Blur or other developers magic to improve the feeling of speed. When i switch back to Beamng after hours in other simulators i destroy my car constantly because i get the corner speed wrong. It feels way slower than other games. I already played with FOV-settings and seatpositions but it didnt better too much.
-Force Feedback. Its okay atm. It gets the basics right but its nothing more. I'm having more fun with my 360 controller.

Still I'm happy, development is slow but steady. Time is and has been taken for getting the basics right and now slowly the fancy stuff is coming with the updates to make it less liveless.

/The title of this thread is btw so clickbaity. Learned from the best at prc, huh?

 

Added sounds and visual effects as an option

 

You can play Live for Speed demo for little bit, then try Jungle rock island or Small island on hood view and come back to tell if BeamNG feels slow.

Feeling of speed is directly proportional to distance of objects around your vehicle, when you have wide open flat area 200kph is nothing, narrower road and less space between objects at side of the road is what creates illusion of speed.

Not sure if you have tried Richard Burns rally, most roads there were narrow, add to that close ratio gearboxes and you feel like flying at speed of double digits.

I'm quite sure that many guys have slow fps, but also many think it is GPU while it really is CPU killing fps. Of course depends from many variables, but I think shadows could use less CPU and more GPU, there might be other optimizations too, but when to make them, would it be best to wait until all bits and pieces are there so that optimization is done at beta stage?

I can kill my i7-6700 with shadows on any high object count map, single core performance is not much more than slower CPU models and there is not many faster CPU models (when looking single core performance), so I think many guys with i5 and such don't even realize what settings can kill performance because GPU is not getting enough data from CPU.

Well, they will surely look that when they start using more time to optimization, I'm just trying to give some ideas how guys could help their framerate, new GPU is not necessarily helping, of course that depends, resolution etc matters.

 

For me the video isn't the problem, it's the processing power required. But I can run JRI at 30 FPS now that I got the latest update!

 

Youre right with the bumper/hood view, it feels a lot faster as are the 3rd person cameras. I forgot to mention I was talking about the cockpitview. Driving fast through small island is intense, no doubt. But i compared Beamng with really wide FOV on narrow roads with Pcars and AC with narrower FOV and wider tracks and still Beamng feels slower. Its a subjective thing and all, but i personally would prefer to have a faster feeling.

I'm using a I5 6500, 16GB DDR4 and the AMD 380X. I get my locked 60FPS with >four cars, but i have to juggle with the graphics menu. e.g. Postprocessing effects are a no-go. If i want decent AA i have to lower some settings from high to medium. Its an alpha, its okay. Graphics are good, i like them, but there are better looking games which still perform better. I dont know if the CPU or the GPU is bottlenecking the graphicsengine, but its very demanding.

 

Not sure if this is any use for you, if GPU < 99, then CPU is limiting fps, also combined eye candy boxes (SSAO and such) do make lot more load than just one of them as in chart. This is test in East Coast USA, which is guite heavy on GPU compared to many mod maps. i7-6700 and gtx1050 Ti OC 4GB used in test with 720p windowed, higher resolutions will be more demanding for GPU.


Now who would kick my arse so that I get around to do tests with higher resolutions and finally make some overview and guide based on findings?

 

my friend is a Forza person and he says the game is realistic but the graphics and sound are crap. He said the engine mod sounds sound like a piece of tinfoil in a vacuum cleaner.

 

I'm so happy that 'Sounds' is winning.

 

Another proof of my overwhelmingly great abilities, I did not notice sounds option until I read your post, insert face palm here.

I would trade scenario editor for sounds I think, for me sounds are more important that graphics, I think at least, but then again with my incredible abilities, I'm most of the time unable to tell if I really am thinking

 

Sounds are coming for sure, I'm just impatient!

 

Technically, motion blur is actually ingame, just hidden in post process effects in the files. It's sketchy as hell and makes the game randomly blur.

 

Oh yeah. I have a very good feeling about how a good sound scheme will change the entire view of this
game the world world over. A sound system that matches one for one the physics capabilities.

The chilling sound of a vehicle impacting something for instance, will change everything when
finally in game. I felt that realism when the vehicle 'creaking' appeared.

 

I have a 380X paired with a 3770K and get 40 FPS with the high preset, with everything else checked (dynamic reflection is tuned down a bit though).

The GFX engine is getting better and better every update, it may not be the best but it will do.

 

People hate it because they either have a distorted vision of what "realistic" driving and damage is (12 year olds that think Forza Horizon and GTA5 is realistic) or they don't understand that it's just an automotive physics and soft-body simulator that's still in alpha. That isn't for everybody.


How to improve it? Easy- I talked about this at length before but..

-CPU races ala Midtown madness (so much want). They already have a performance class system.
-Same thing but with online multiplayer. Oh yeah, Why no demo derbies yet? It's practically made for them. Somebody even made a relatively successful mod nearly a year ago, so it's definitely possible.
-More scenarios and campaigns.

I don't want this to die on the vine like Spintires (which I also paid $30 for in 2014), way too much potential here. The Devs should play the first two MM and Test drive: eve of destruction for inspiration.

 

Easily sounds, and certainly maps after that as there are barely any official maps atm.

 

Sounds, optimization, and ability to make much bigger maps are my most wanted features.

 

I'd like more engine customization options and more drag slick variants.

EDIT: I would also like more visual engine customization options, especially for the I6.

 

IMO maps should be more lively, there is nothing to do in them. There should be some kind of interactions, something destructible like animals, pedestrians, other cars or whatever. Houses you can crash into (you know those american ones, made of paper ), small trees to run over... Of course Multiplayer would be great, but it could as well ruin the game if made poorly due to network and performance limitations.