Greetings, drivers, and welcome to our first big update of 2024! We’ve got some great stuff waiting for you in this update, including a remastered vehicle, the continuing remake of Gavril T-Series, new props, new camera mode, and a ton of fixes and improvements.
Remastered Ibishu BX
First up, we have the artist formerly known as Ibishu 200BX - now the Ibishu BX-series -, which has undergone a full remaster in this update. This includes fully updated meshes and textures throughout, new bodykits and customization options, and a V8 Swap. We’ve added the new ‘Diana’ variants, completely overhauled the suspension geometry, and turned the old coupe bodystyle into a liftback. The BX-series is getting an additional coupe bodystyle with a brand-new design, and we’ve doubled the number of playable configurations!
Gavril T-Series Remake Part 2
As part of its continuing remake, the Gavril T-Series is receiving a logging upfit, with two frame variants: a long upfit frame with a short straight frame end, and a medium upfit frame with a medium straight frame end. The new headache rack will be equipped by default on the logging upfit, but is also available for the fifth wheel upfit.
We’ve also added a ton of visual customization options for parts like bumpers, grills, and exhausts. The Gavril T-Series is also getting a low air wig wag warning, more customization options for the 900CUI Belasco diesel engine, beacon lights, and mirror antennas. The Mixer Upfit is being remastered, with a new realistic self-leveling pneumatic suspension. This new system offers single and multi-axle support, mechanical input for the self-leveling control, and a manual ride height override.
Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties, some of the planned features were not included in the current release. This means that you have more to look forward to in future updates, including a V8 engine, additional frame options, and more axle configurations.
New Trailers, Loads, and Props
We’ve added a new Log Trailer, with two variants - a two-axle 27ft variant and a three-axle 40ft variant, each with an optional headache rack. The 40ft variant is equipped with a fifth wheel, making B-Train configurations possible. You’re also getting empty and loaded variants, with either eight or 12 logs of varying types of wood. The new trailers are compatible with the new 4m Logs prop.
In addition to the new trailer, we’ve made some changes to the Dry Van, Flatbed, Small Flatbed, and Tanker trailers, as well as the Trailer Dolly. We’ve made a number of fixes to trailers as well, including fixing the locker position on the three-axle trailer bogie (we know you’ve been worried about that), addressing light-related clipping issues, and we did our best to fix a rare issue that caused trailers to explode when attached to the dolly.
In the props department, two new props have been added. The new Logs prop is compatible with the Log Trailer as well as the T-Series’ new logging upfit, and comes in several variants, including single logs and stacks of between six and 23 logs. The length and diameter of the logs are adjustable, and will affect the logs’ weight, as will the type of wood the logs are made of - there are eight wood types available, each with its own density which will affect the weight of the log. All the logs can float on water.
The new Steel Coil comes in 5, 10, 20, and 30-ton variants, and is excellent for overloading trailers and crushing cars. The size of the coils can be adjusted from the tuning menu when used as a standalone prop, which will affect their weight. The Steel Coil can be loaded on the Flatbed Trailer.
West Coast, USA Improvements
The West Coast, USA map has received further improvements!
We’ve updated the concrete batching plant area, the Quarry, and the Fast Automotive facility. Several floating and collision bugs were hunted down and eliminated without mercy, and we’ve continued the process of updating to PBR by updating some more materials. We’ve added a fuel station next to the logistics garage, reworked the residential area near the movie studio, and reworked the fences of the single houses in the suburbs. We’ve also updated roads and road markings to improve the driving experience, reworked major intersections and highway sections, and installed speed cameras. Big Brother is watching, now and always…
Missions
We’ve added five new missions - Desert Rally Stage and Outlander Valet in Johnson Valley, Prospector’s Return in Utah, Mixed Surface Stage in East Coast USA, and Drop and Dive in West Coast USA - and made a ton of tweaks, changes, fixes, and general polish to missions in general. This includes new anti-cheating barriers in BeamNG Sport Race - Automation Test Track, improved camera paths for Time Trial missions, and much more.
We’ve been hard at work on improving the drifting systems as well. The drift backend has been almost entirely refactored and optimized, which will make future implementations much easier and more robust. We’ve improved drift detection - ‘Drifting’ is now detected sooner than before, which will make chaining drifts significantly easier. Drift scoring has also been improved. The score spread between experienced and beginner drifters has been reduced, which will make it easier to balance drift missions. The scoring will now more accurately reward players for drifting at higher speed, with bigger angles, and near walls. The combo increment has been reduced, and its logic has been changed to reward players for longer drifts.
Drift logic is now always running in the background. Thanks to this, we now have drift-related statistics! Everyone loves statistics, right? We’ve also added an experimental ‘spinout’ logic. When spinning out (or crashing), a “Drift Failed: Cause” message will appear. We’ve also added a ‘Wrong Way’ message if you’re heading in the wrong direction on an A to B drift mission, which will be displayed if the player is heading the wrong direction. To make this experience less stressful, we’ve also removed the timer for these missions.
Vehicle Improvements
All of our cars have received detailed mirror support, while some of the more modern ones have undergone a mirror physics structure revamp to allow them to fold manually without breaking off straight away. We’ve also done some tire work, retuning a number of tires, and added two new wheels - the Civetta Stradale and Civetta Dark Owl 22x12 wheels, with matching tire sizes.
The Autobello Piccolina’s doors will no longer sustain damage when opening wide, and we’ve also fixed a literally unplayable typo in a skin name for the Autobello Stambecco, given it a roof bars option, added body-mounted license plate options, and introduced cargo load options.
We’ve added a couple of new simplified traffic cars: the Bruckell Bastion, Soliad Wendover, Gavril Grand Marshal, Gavril Roamer, Gavril D-Series, and the Gavril H-Series. In addition, we’ve improved the suspension for the ETK I-Series, ETK K-Series, ETK 800-Series, and the Ibishu 200BX. The simplified traffic LeGran has received many fixes, and we’ve added the wagon and facelift variants. For all traffic cars, we stiffened the tires to improve AI handling and reduce the chances of rollovers, tweaked deformation on head-on crashes and side impacts, and fixed some spiking issues.
We’ve also made improvements and fixes to many other vehicles, like the ETK I- and 800-Series, the Soliad Wendover, and the Soliad Lansdale, and Hirochi Sunburst, among others.
Force Feedback Improvements
We’re constantly looking into ways to make vehicle handling more realistic, and to more transparently transmit the steering rack torques to your steering wheel. For this update, we’re glad to announce that some of our ongoing research has led to a minor but noticeable improvement on this front.
Your mileage may vary: for some, this improvement might feel almost imperceptible, while for others it’ll be really noticeable. This depends on framerate, steering wheel and settings, vehicle suspension geometry, road surface detail and driving style. The improvements should be most noticeable when trying to catch minor accidental slides, when avoiding tankslappers, and when drifting intentionally. Those should happen more transparently now, helping drive with more confidence than before. Players might also feel slightly reduced vibrations in the wheel, especially when racing normally.
New Engine Sounds!
We’ve updated the i4 1600cc ‘Motorsport’ and i4 2000 ‘Endurance’ turbo engine/exhaust, which you’ll be able to hear on the BX series for 1600 and 1600 & 2000 on Cherrier, among other engine audio changes. We also introduced water splash sounds and a new way of naming blends for better future-proofing, check the patch notes for more details on that.
Crash Camera
And last, but certainly not least - we’ve added a Crash Cam! Once enabled in the gameplay options, the Crash Cam will automatically capture your crashes in glorious slow-motion. It includes several modes and will select one of them at random. The Crash Cam is currently only available in Freeroam mode, so go check it out and please share any feedback with us in the dedicated forum thread!
This is by no means all of the changes we’re bringing you in this update. There’s a whole truckload of fixes, tweaks, changes and polish, so check out the patch notes for more information.