I would love to see some type of official Jbeam editor for importing, editing, and exporting Jbeam files. I would really love to start modding cars, but for now it's sketchy and frustrating. The only avenue I've thought of is using the old Rigs and Rods tools and then porting it over, but many of the plugins and tools are outdated and buggy and finding thorough and accurate info is incomplete.
I'd love to see the devs make a JBeam editor but right now, I think they are very busy at the moment. You can check the wiki here for BeamNG how to convert RoR .Truck to .Jbeam but I know its quite annoying knowing that importing and changing data is tiring. You should ask Gabester, Tdev and the other admins about this.
I'm curious as to what they use to create their jbeam files? I wonder if it's like an ancient Chinese secret type of program or if they do it all by hand using a text editor or something. If there was a built in editor with the Torque editor like you can use to create terrain that would be the bees knees.
Really? You mean to tell me, there is no procedure for graphically generating these model files and JBeams? What procedure was used for each vehicle already created? How were their procedures different? I have better things to do than generate 3D models by 1D processes... From what I have studied, I determined three paths to creating vehicles: 1. Code each jBeam, line-by-line, using notepad (++) 2. Pay BeamNG coders big bucks to do it for me 3. Write a program to recode to jBeam, an open-source model file such as POV, DXF, VRML. What's it going to be? What have other designers done?
Re: Really? 1. every time they make a change in notepad they reload the car so the change is loaded and visible 2. no 3. I believe gregblast is already/already has made this. You can also use the editorizer from ror and then convert that to jbeam
There's no way they just stare at a 3D model and start typing code in Notepad++ and magically create files that work...
you're correct, they use stock notepad (or at least gabester does) in reality they have the model open in blender, find a spot they want to add a node/beam, get the coordinates on the model, and put it in the jbeam, boom, that part now has a node/beam
I think if they added a JBeam editor that made it easy to use a lot of people would contribute to the mods and the game itself. The amount of people who would use this tool would make a lot of people get BeamNG and try and make their own creations. Me, my friend, and friends of ours would use this a lot. I think a lot of people would agree in the community.
Beamng has a editor you can find it here : Games/steam/steamapps/common/Beamng.drive/utils/editor/BNEditor
Out of curiosity, do you happen to know what version of the game that was added in? I am not at home to see whether mine has it or not, but I am using the DirectX 9.0 version as my graphics card is not DirectX 11 compatible. So if it was in that one that would make modding quite nice! But if not, then I will just keep doing what I am already doing.
For some people the version that's included in the game doesn't work, in this case the one in the thread might do it: http://www.beamng.com/threads/nodebeam-editor-v-0-37.6103/ Also leave a like, Masa deserves it
There are a few tools I have found to make life easier. The most functional so far is Dummiesman's truck-to-jbeam converter. It can be found at https://www.beamng.com/threads/truck2jbeam.29428/ . .Mesh files (used in rigs of rods) can be converted to .xml and imported to Blender with a torchlight importer. (meshes can then be re-exported as .dae with proper names in Blender.) I sadly don't have a link for the converter nor import file, though I think Rigs of Rods already has the converter inside of it's program file. (C:\Program Files (x86)\Rigs of Rods 0.4). Another alternative is RORMasa's NodeBeamEditor (https://github.com/RORMasa/NodeBeamEditor/releases/tag/v0.37). This imports RoR files and can re-export them as jbeam, or RoR. As somebody said already, there is editorizor for Rigs of Rods, so just make a .truck file and plug that into Dummiesman's truck-to-jbeam and boom - instant Jbeam. GregBlast has a pretty useful editor, though personally I think it's inferior to the NodeBeamEditor. Finally, there is the Blender-to-jbeam exporter that will literally take the edges and vertexes of a Blender mesh, then export it as Beams and Nodes (though you still have to manually input the nodes and beams to a jbeam template, and make wheels). A link for this is on the introduction to vehicle creation. This is the information you pick up when you're lazy like me and want something else to do it for you every time. Leave a like if it helped
