Dirt/Sand/Mud Patches

A small feature which gradually adds patches of dirt/sand/mud over the vehicles when Off-roading.

- How would this work?

So when Rallying or Off-roading or just general driving on dirt/mud, patches of dirt would appear over the body of the car depending on how much time you spend on the terrain (this would also work on Liveries/ Skins as well)

- Why would we need this?

It's not a "need" but it's 100% an awesome feature to add into the game considering it's about Realistic Physics, Deformation, Freeroaming etc. I don't believe this should be No.1 on the list of things to do, it's certainly way down below of things to do but should be taken into consideration to make the game feel more alive.

- Would it not cause lag issues and possibly not work on certain mods?

I mean absolutely. There is bound to be issues as with all things that get added into Beam, but that's the fun part right? That's when we show the issues and have them readjusted/ fixed/ resolved and improved! Regarding the mods, most likely. Unfortunately not everything would work with this feature... But it's not impossible that is for sure, and I'm sure the Dev's can agree it's possible but I'm assuming it would be very difficult to complete and work.



Please, feel free to comment on what you think of this and if it would be something you'd like to see in future updates.

 

This is one of the most requested features, but will probably never be implemented. While it is technically possible, it would be extremely hard to do and be too much effort for such a small detail while the same effort could be used on features that actually need to be added such as tyre temp/wear.

 

Do you not see the irony in that statement? Why should a most requested feature never get implemented? Why do people like you always assume that it's incredibly difficult to implement, as if the BeamNG dev team is incompetent, which they're clearly not? Please let the devs decide what is feasible, and stop trying to make the decisions for them.
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As a first step, which is already partly implemented, I'd suggest to start with tires, i.e. dirt/wetness on tires before doing anything to the vehicle body. We already have dirty textures on some tires. They look awesome, for example those crawler tires. If the game could transition between clean & dirty tires dynamically on all vehicles, I think that would be a first great step. I'm a strong believer in incremental progress, which I think the devs have already embraced.

 

I do agree, but I did mention the feature being way down in the list of priorities as well as the possibility of said feature taking a lot of time to work. Still, a feature that would be cool to see in the game.

 

Read my 2nd sentence please.

Because it literally is. If it's so easy to implement, maybe you should do it. Don't you think there's a reason why it isn't in the game yet?

And I said that where exactly?

How am I trying to "make decisions for them"? I'm only stating that this feature is hard to implement and that the developers probably will want to spend their time doing something that will actually improve the game in a significant way.

Dirt and mud being textured on is completely different than tyres gradually getting dirty. The developers would want to take the most realistic approach to this, and having multiple textures for different states of dirtiness is definitely not realistic.

Then you should let the devs do what they think they should do, mate. The developers probably have a better plan for the future than you do.

 

Where did I say it's "so easy"? Does every suggestion here have to devolve into an argument about how easy/difficult it is to implement or what the impact on FPS would be when no one here has a clue?

Is the real reason you're shooting down this suggestion that you fear it will displace your preferred feature (tire wear) in the priority list? That's what it comes down to, isn't it. I think people need to chill about that, and again, let the devs decide their own schedule and priorities. Besides, no one said this has to be a higher priority than tire wear. The OP even made it clear it's low priority, I think because people like you scared him into being so timid, so as not to offend the "gate keepers" here. I really wish this nonsense would stop. Why can't we discuss suggestions on their merit and relevance to the game, not whether some lay person thinks it's incredibly difficult for the devs to work on?

 

Nah mate, tyres getting dirty would be an amazing feature. Not sure why or how you came to that conclusion, as the only way I mentioned that is because I believe that the developers will want to work on that first. You should honestly want tyre wear, as doing that would already introduce the basics of dirt on tyres. And I'm not "shooting down" any ideas, I'm just talking about them which is exactly what you want.

How?

Finally, something I can agree with you on.

 

So it's more realistic to have tires stay clean the whole time? Why does everything have to be perfect before an improvement is made? That's not the approach of the devs anyway.

 

Yet, we recently got the walking mode when the doors don't even open yet. Of course incremental progress may have some drawbacks, but it's even harder to make something perfect from the get-go and have it stay perfect 10 years down the line. It's just unreasonable. Perfect doesn't need to be the enemy of good. Things can be improved over time. That's normal in software dev.

 

but the door triggers isn't incremental progress as in "throw in a half done feature, we'll replace it later", that's "fully flesh out the feature, but don't worry about applying it to every door yet". there's no work they have to redo in the future, they just have to do the menial task of implementing it on every vehicle.

TL;DR for the whole thread:
yes, people have been asking for it since 2012, and the devs have been considering it since then.
but they haven't implemented it because it's:
a. Complex to make work in a fully functional way
b. lower priority than other technical improvements.

 

Understandably, I'd also suggest that if the devs use the incremental approach, they start with something they can build on, not something they'll have to throw out later. I'm sure they know that and I favor that approach myself. The approach doesn't have to be texture swapping on tires. That's just one possibility. It can be dirt particles that stick to the tires or whatever else the devs decide. Some games like Spintires use both in combination.

And all these visual effects can be accompanied by physics changes. They don't need to be visual effects only. With the water splash particles, we also got water currents that actually move the vehicle and that was great. With tire dirt, there could be physical changes to tire traction as the tread gets filled up. Visuals and physics can go hand in hand.