The Difference Between Quality and Low Quality Mods

I've noticed a lot of questions on the forums relating to modding, and what mods are good and bad. So, I've decided to make a thread intended to provide as much information as possible to BeamNG Drive users wanting to download quality mods.

Many users end up downloading unofficial and sometimes low-quality mods when looking for content. Rightly so, since the first three results in a Google Search for "beamng mods" bring up unofficial websites which offer downloads for mods. These websites are often referred to as "Russian" modding websites, even though most have been fully translated to English by now. The main focus of these websites is not to provide quality mods, but instead to provide free mods to those who have pirated the game, and to upload mods in bulk while making advertising revenue. In fact, a lot of these sites are aesthetically similar, and upload the same mods at the same time. For example, here are two sites which look almost exactly alike, but are hosted on completely different domains.


You may be wondering what's wrong with these mods. A highly detailed McLaren MP4-12 or Ferrari 599 GTO sounds very appealing at first, but many of these aren't worth downloading.

Let's take a look at a recently released Ferrari 599 GTO. The model looks good, which they've sort of credited the author of, but it's actually rather terrible.


As you can see, the jbeam does not fully match the model of the car, specifically around the front, where it is clearly shown that the car is built onto the jbeam of a completely unrelated Gavril Grand Marshall. This means that this recreation of a V12 Ferrari with over 600 horsepower is actually powered by a 4.5 L Gavril V8 engine which is paired with a 4-speed automatic transmission. The inaccurate jbeam on cars like this causes them to deform oddly, especially in high-speed collisions.

Take a look at this 80 MPH crash in the Ferarri compared to an 80 MPH crash in the Civetta Bolide.


These websites will also reupload mods that have been released on the forums - usually without the author's permission.


As far as maps go, nearly everything uploaded to these modding websites has been released on the forums first.

Occasionally, you'll come across some "original" content, which includes maps like this quick arena conversion from FlatOut 2. Probably not worth navigating advertisement-filled download pages to get.


So, try to avoid downloading mods from these websites, and instead use the official forums. Sometimes it can be hard to find fully released mods on the forums, but you can sort threads by their prefix if you like.


Video Explanation Made by WhyBeAre:

This video nicely shows the difference between a low-quality mod and a high-quality in-game vehicle. YBR is a well-known YouTuber who looks at BeamNG vehicles and terrains released on the forums. He made this video to show his viewers that many mods, like the Lamborghini Aventador featured in the video, are badly made and do not perform well.

"Improved" Low-Quality Mods
As of July 2015, many users on the BeamNG forums have started projects with the goal of improving mods released on other websites. These projects include vehicles such as a Dodge Charger, and a VAZ 2107. These improved mods have garnered much attention and controversy for various reasons. Some discussions based on the controversy surrounding these mods can be found here.

Many believe that these improved mods are a good idea, and should be welcomed here on the forums. However, most of the improved mods contain only minor changes, and it is debated whether the changes affect the mod in a positive way. Since making minor changes to a mod can be relatively simple, creators have taken on these projects without in-depth vehicle creation knowledge. This prompts many to say that these mods are not improved as much as they could be, and that they are still low-quality mods. Regardless of how minor the improvements are, improving a mod can still help one learn jbeam skills, although releasing it for everyone may not be the best choice when it's one of your first projects and the improvements are minor. You may choose whether or not you want to download an improved mod from the forums, and you can judge for yourself whether or not the improvements meet your expectations.

Please let me know of things that I can add to this thread. It's intended to clarify this topic for anyone who is wondering. The developers will eventually implement a repository, which will hopefully make downloading quality mods easier.​

 

Great idea. A majority of people are eviscerated alive for downloading these and just have to take some pissed off forumer's word for it. Explaining the phenomena in detail
would go along way in educating noobs as to why they are watching their entrails being strung all over the place. Certainly, wanting that beautiful Ferrari would outweigh any pesky
details as to WHY it SHOULDN'T be downloaded. For me, simply knowing that that beautiful Ferrari is sitting on the GM beamset would deter me immediately.

 

Great idea. The centered text makes it a little bit hard to read (in my personal opinion), but I think that this, or an official variant, should be a sticky. Not that anybody would read it...

 

What is a Jbeam anyways? Is that the wire mesh around the model? People ripped me for using stuff like that in my video but I have no clue about such things. I just got the early release. They seemed to deform alright.

 

The jbeam is basically the physics skeleton of the car, its what makes it deform the way it does, from the wiki "JBeam is the file format that defines the physics skeleton in the BeamNG engine. It is called JBeam as it is based on JSON (with some exceptions) in order to define node/beam constructs.Just about everything is case sensitive, and it is not at all friendly to syntax errors, so be careful! You create and edit jbeam files using a program such as Notepad++."

 

Yeah , them mods are annoying and give me popup ads on my chrome (now fixed ) .
They look appealing at first but you just want to bleach your eyes after seeing them crash .
Make this sticky !

 

I think part of the problem is that nobody seems to care about those supercars/classics here. A lot of people really like to drive fast cars, or classic cars and they're simply not present (on the official forums). I don't really know why no talented/experienced guy decided to make one. And I can tell you, most people would prefer to download a mod containing a Ferrari F40, a Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport or a Rolls Royce Silver Cloud II to some random and relatively boring street car. That's why you see people using those mods, because it's the only alternative they have.

Another problem is that (I know I already said that) the devs need to make downloading, installing, rating, updating etc. mods easier. Right now, you have to register at the forums to get the mods. That's a problem because a) I never expected mods to be featured (that prominently) on the official forums; many people won't and b) it's slow and really inconvinient.

Preferably, it should be a direct implementation into the game (with a one time online check whether you got a legit copy). That way you it would be a proper depository, unlike the current clumsy one.Seriously, this needs to be done. Really badly. Not because I'm saying so, but because one needs to make modding for this mod-driven community as easy and accessible as possible. Right now there's no rating system (carfag, volksfagen), mods require manual installing & updating, mods break often or don't work in certain builds and it's unwise how the system for browsing through them works.

And all that could and should be addressed.

 

This is a great thread, T-up
There are many cars I want to download from these sites (Old American cars / muscle cars)
but i dont, I stick to these forums, then I know what I'm getting... Which is, People who like what they are doing,
and who really try to create quality vehicles.

 

The McLaren on photoes have got... Covet jbeam! (no joke)

 

I'm assuming once the game is fully on steam then the devs will implement the workshop. That will effectively cut down all this, shitty mods will still be on the workshop though, not sure if they'll be able to moderate that content. That's the only reason why the haven't integrated a repository so far.

 

They said they won't do Steam Workshop and claimed to make it better.

 

Tdev specifically said he will not use steam workshop because since it is community rated there is no way you can filter the good and bad mods, because little kidos will upvote anything

Gabe already posted some progress on the official repo.

 

Great post man. This should be a sticky for sure!

 

Thanks a lot! Making this a sticky would help more people see this thread understand this topic, so I'm all for it if a moderator thinks this thread is worthy.

 

Finalized thread by adding hyperlinks to various sources, including the jbeam wiki page, showroom on the forums, and a quote from Tdev about the upcoming repository system. Also featured a video from WhyBeAre in which he shows the problems with a low-quality Lamborghini Aventador. I'm all for this becoming a sticky, just so more people can see a detailed post about finding quality mods.

 

Should also add that for even more official mods sort it by "WIP Beta Released"

 

I do agree with you on this point, I have several car bodies modeled but the thing that's stopping me from putting them in game is the thought of tuning suspension and deformation. Also, if you have figured out a lot of the process, why not contribute to the wiki? It would a lot of people like me who haven't yet started it