The Entire History Of BeamNG.Drive

(Right click images, and then "Open In New Tab" for big versions of images)

Prologue
Our story begins long, long ago - all the way back in 2005.

2005 was when Rigs Of Rods was released, however I can only assume that Rigs Of Rods took a few years to develop.

6 Years after Rigs Of Rods was released and with rapidly improving technology and potential, the team developing Rigs Of Rods decided to create their own physics engine from scratch - utilising much of what they learnt from developing Rigs Of Rods, leaving their previous physics engine "OGRE" behind.

Come the end of the year, they had a name "BeamNG" (or BeamNG.Drive) as well as a website.
Thanks to a domain date checker, we can safely assume that the branding was thought of in late 2011.

BeamNG standing for "Beam" (the game using Beams and Nodes) and NG standing for Next Generation - either the Next Generation of Rigs Of Rods or the Next Generation of car games as a whole (I will mention that there are rumours of it standing for BeamNode Group - from what I've read this is incorrect).Drive is because...well it's a driving game, you drive.

2012 - The Start Of Something Massive...
2012 was a massive year for BeamNG.Drive - on 8th May, 2012 - they'd have a sparkling new website (or sparkling for 2012).

By the end of the month, they'd be ready to unveiled their project to the world...a video of a rather dirty (to be) D-Series on a very early rendition of the (to be) Grid Map. This'd be titled "Revolutionary soft-body physics in CryEngine3". BeamNG.Drive wasn't just about crashes, it was about handling, modelling suspension and just about everything else inside a car that moved.



to show just how far BeamNG has come in the time, I attempted to create the very first frame of BeamNG's first video 11 years later...(filter used)



This video absolutely blew up and still to this day is their (BeamNG's) most popular video on their channel, beating "BeamNG - 2019 Tech Showcase" by almost 1 million views.

By using the Wayback Machine, I could see old iterations of the BeamNG.com website - and just how far it has come - in early July 2012, I found these two on their FAQ page:


(if it doesn't appear any larger, as of July 2012, it stated that they were "a team of two programmers and two artists"...compare that to 10 years down the line, that's absolutely crazy.)



Days after this, BeamNG released a video...a video we had all been waiting for:

Cars smashing into eachother....and not just any old cars, cars that we'd all soon be able to drive and cause havoc in - not only this, we also got our first glimpse at BeamNG's first PROPER map - not just a grid-map - but maps to explore...


(Left To Right: Ibishu Covet, Gavril D-Series, Gavril Grand Marshal)

To any normal folk, these three may seem like just any three cars - but to those studying into Beam's history - these three deserve to go in a museum. Aside from the "Revolutionary Soft-Body Physics..." D-Series, these are the first to show gameplay and the true potential of BeamNG and car VS car accidents

In the heat of the summer of 2012, BeamNG subtly teased their 4th car....


(Sorry about the low resolution, was a small image)

In addition to this, the post for BeamNG's first ever mod called "PenguinvilleNG" got started (Aug 4th, 2012) - whilst this was available for quite some time, given how long it's been (10 years this coming August), the link has since expired


The very first picture in the "Development Screenshots" Thread.

November 2012, an early an unreleased example of "Dry Rock Island" was shown to the community

In 2012, progress began on the following vehicles (Unreleased):

The already-released Gavril D-Series (Aug. 6th, 2012)

The Gavril D-Series as of 6/8/2012.

In addition to:
Gavril Grand Marshal (1st Sept, 2012) (First car to have Police configs)
Civetta Bolide (10th Sept, 2012) (First car to receive reveal-video)
Gavril H Series (Van) (31st Oct, 2012) (First vehicle to have multiple body types - van, box etc.)
Ibishu Pessima (MK II) (13th Nov, 2012) (Second gen. Pessima out before the first - personal fave)
Ibishu 200BX (17th Nov, 2012)
Bruckell Legran (18th Nov, 2012)
Gavril Barstow (21st Nov, 2012)
Ibishu Pessima MK. I (1989) (10th Dec, 2012) - "Pessima" ironically (and unintentionally) translates to "Very Bad" in both Italian and Portuguese.

ETK 2400i/I-Series (10th Dec, 2012)

Interestingly, the Ibishu Covet never got one of these "development logs"

2013 - Going From Strength To Strength
If the Beam Team (that's how I'm going to refer to them from now on!) thought 2012 was a big year - they were in for a shock in 2013...


BeamNG's first tweet came in 2013 -

As far as I can work out (by 2012) Beam's strategy was to announce a load of cars (either on their Blog or Forums) and update by update, they'd eventually be ready to release the cars as and when, as well as working on still in progress cars.

In 2013, the following was released: (by the date of the "reveal" YouTube video - usually in the following update the car is released)
Civetta Bolide (17th June, 2013).


In early July, BeamNG also created their Facebook page (tidbit of info) and have been very active ever since - releasing teasers and updates on there. Their first few pictures were of the Bolide, Gavril H-Series Van and Dry Rock Island

Gavril H-Series (First video on YouTube is on 4th August)

In community news, one of BeamNG's first Russian third-party mod sites was published, and on September 3rd, 2013 uploaded a Coca Cola Van.

For those still using and/or considering using these sites - firstly: DON'T! Why?

1) You have no idea what is in those files - it could be spyware, malware, malicious content, you name it.
The download sites are usually full to the brim with ads, pop-ups, scams and all sorts of nasty stuff

2) 3/4 of the mods you'll see on those sites are ripped from honest, hard-working people with no credit - the amount of time, effort, energy and sometimes money our dedicated modding community put into mods is honestly taken for granted - and all it takes is one man to maybe do two clicks and viola put it up, taking all the credit for it.

3) A good proportion of them are "mesh-slaps" - basically a fancy skin put over a Civetta Bolide for a good thumbnail or clickbait title "OMG! MASSIVE FATAL BUGATTI CHIRON CRASH! MUST WATCH!" - ends up only the bumper falling off.

4) I'm sure there's many reasons I'm missing - but you've got content on the repository from 2013 - 2022, skins (liveries), original cars/content/knock-offs (Ibishu Prodigy), boats, planes..you name it - the forums/forum and repositry have enough content to keep you busy for hours.

5) If you do accidentally download something, or ending up on a site - firstly, don't come here to complain,
secondly, run an antivirus check or similar - the quicker you run a scan, the quicker you can catch gremlins if you caught any.

In early (5th) August 2013, BeamNG's first ever (Free) Techdemo went live - a way of users to "Try Before They Buy" - due to the relatively small size of BeamNG's content at the time - this was limited to the D-Series and Grid Map.


In addition to a TechDemo, users could also pay for an Alpha, (0.3?) which included some very spicy content.
This was:

- (the already released) The Gavril D Series, Grand Marshal and Ibishu Covet
- Newly released Civetta Bolide
- Newly released Gavril H Series (van) - which came in three configurations - a standard van, box van and offroad/sports van.

- The before-mentioned Industrial Site and Grid Map
4 brand new maps.
- Dry Rock Island (DRI),
- Cliff Map,
- Derby Arena Map
- Small Island, which at the time was going through a never-ending autumn.



To round out the year, BeamNG released the Bruckell Moonhawk (September, 11, 2013),

This year's additions to the "development log" were the:

- (1963) Gavril Bluebuck (To date, this car has been the longest car in development - The "Development Post" going up on January 28th, 2013 and releasing in update 0.17 on August 16th, 2019 (6 and a half years)

- Ibishu Miramar (1964) (11th Feb, 2013)

- Hirochi SBR4 - SBR4 originally standing for Shooting Brake Rear-engined 4WD/Wheel Drive, however, as it was RWD, this was changed to seats 4 passengers (comfortably)...ish.(31st May, 2013)

- Gavril T-75 (Truck) (11th Sept, 2013)

In October 2013, this screenshot appeared on BeamNG's facebook...and the speculation began to grow wild...

This'd turn out to be the sleepy town of Firwood in the East Coast USA.

On Christmas day, 2013 we were treated to one of our first looks at one of BeamNG's funkier vehicles: the Ibishu Pigeon. Surprisingly, this never appeared in any prior documentation (blogs/forums)



2014 - Steaming Ahead

As BeamNG pumped out the Pigeon (10th Feb. 2014), the community were hard at work - and so too were Russian third party sites. As time went on and BeamNG's popularity grew, so did the number of YouTubers (making BeamNG content) and so did the number of Russian Third Party Sites.

On BeamNG's website, a Ford Crown Victoria was created - back in 2014, it was just another mod - but come 2022, it appears to be only of the earliest fully-functioning car mods on the BeamNG Website that can still be used to this day

(February 2014 - February 2022: The Crown Vic somehow survived 8 years worth of updates - a feat very few others can match)

https://www.beamng.com/threads/1999-ford-crown-victoria.6557/

In terms of maps, I have only found a small handful that still appear in game (after all this time) but just like the Crown Vic, the earliest functional map I could find was (also) made in 2014.

Riverside Expressway.

Announced on May 23rd, 2014 it is one of the oldest (if not the oldest) fully functioning maps to this day and a long favourite of mine for realistic highway crashes - the long, inclined off-ramps ensure most cars take flight by the time the sharp turn at the top comes.


As we've been living our lives, day in, day out...Riverside Expressway has been sitting silently through it all - through presidencies, elections, wise decisons, unwise decisons and the horrors that plagued us through 2020 to this very day, The Riverside Expressway in Australia untouched since 2014.

This is one of the maps I used to try out as a teenager with my bucketloads of meshslapped Russian mods (I was 13 then, and have learned a lot since then - I'm 21 now)...NO...NO NOOOO! WHERE HAS MY LIFE & CHILDHOOD GONE?!?!!?!?! BEAAAMM! GIVE ME BACK MY CHILDHOOD (5K Hours on steam, mostly by leaving it on in the background & leaving on overnight)

Oh those were the days...

Back to February (2014) and BeamNG.Drive got greenlit on Steam - this certainly meant a massive boost in players and publicity.

In Other news, Small Island USA received a tunnel...(June 8th, 2014)


(After a near fatal accident in 2019, the tunnel was boarded up in 2020)



(For those curious, a flat-bed carrying metal ramps/pieces of metal dropped his load, and a young Covet driver, oblivious to the danger ahead, clipped the side of the tunnel, flipped himself over and then was launched into the air/out the side of the tunnel by the dropped load.

The bottom picture shows the finishing touches of the new (and re-enforced) tunnel being completed - ventilation, lighting and wires (electrical, etc.) being installed

Later on in the month, the Sunburst was released (although it was heavy WIP)

In the middle of the month, (September) BeamNG recieved it's very first purpose-built race track (I know the Industrial Site has one, but Hirochi Raceway was the first map to be entirely dedicated to a race-track.



2015 - BeamNG's Most Productive Year.

2015 was a VERY productive year for BeamNG drive - in total 6 brand new cars coming out over the course of 12 months...these were:

- The Hirochi Sunburst, a small, but sporty Japanese Hatchback - some configurations packing one hell of a punch! (7th September, 2015)

- The Hirochi SBR4 - A high-powered Japanese Supercar with a bit of R8 in it's DNA. (18th September, 2015)

- The Gavril Barstow - A high-powered, RWD Muscle car with an attitude (31st October 2015)
- A 1989 Pessima - the previous one to the generation already released. (18th December, 2015)
- The Gavril Roamer (According to a Wiki page, the Roamer was just listed as a variant of the D15/D-Series, in 0.5 (December 2015), it was deemed a seperate vehicle.

(Also, in July, there was a map that came out called "Jungle Rock Island") - Progress started in May, and went through to March 2016 - On July 31st (2015) BeamNG stated it was "released and stable" - Wayback Machine says it was on 5th July however (in game, but in development). Everything was sorted by Jan 1st, 2016

Last, but by no-means least:

The Burnside Special - A 1950's classic American car...By now probably cruising the streets of Cuba. (30th December) -

2016 - The Modern Era Begins

In 2016, The Hirochi Sunburst and Hirochi SBR4 were the only two cars to come from the last decade or so.

BeamNG aimed to change that with their ETK 800 released in February (9th) 2016 - this being the first to have onboard Navigation and MASSIVELY boosted sales for BeamNavigator (or should I say: BeamNaviGator) - the Sat-Nav company being asked to sell them by the hundreds as drivers of every vehicle under the (virtual) sun wanted to get their hands on them


Before the BeamNavigator came along, Grandad always used to say "When I was your age, we didn't have all these technical gizmos - we had to use good old fashioned MAPS! And I'll be using maps until the day I die!" This turned out to be a lie, after I introduced him to the BeamNavigator 3310 - a simple and sleek touchscreen design.

In late March (2016), I bought BeamNG.Drive off steam.

The first car after my "arrival" came in (19th) April and was the Ibishu Miramar which came along with a very nice map in "Utah" (ironically, the first map to receive a trailer - only "Cliff" having a dedicated video to a map beforehand).

So. After the ETK 800, was the Miramar and then another ETK in June. Quickly pausing there.

At the end of 2016, the Bruckell LeGran was released - a rather slow, old car - in front of every caravan is either one of four things, a Mustang (or similarly stupid), SUV, an Estate - or one of these "bad boys".

Now, back to where I was before.

A Short History Of ETK

ETK was on a roll - and after making a huge profit after their successful 800 Series (Feb), they decided to make a sleek sports car called the K Series (June, 2016)

Following the K Series, a third ETK model (called the ETK I Series) the came out the very next month in late July. This was a Mercedes-esk German sports/coupe.

I don't know if it's just a theory or coincidence, but of all community/mod content (by brand), ETK seems to have some of the highest unofficial/mod/member quality content of all the manufacturers.

That's not to say that other brands aren't as good, I'm just yet to find a "low-quality" ETK mod (I'm not counting Automation mods in this)

It's because of this, that I'm going to give a little section to ETK's unofficial models, not made by BeamNG.Drive, but at a quality that matches them - not just in looks, but almost in physics/damage too.

In 2016, came ETK's first proper mod - the ETK 6000 & 4000 series - a series of trucks that helped hundreds of people across the BeamNG world from the East Coast (USA), to Italy and Europe - from Dakar trucks, to fire-engines, to luxury RV'S, to military vehicles. it was (and still is) an awesome, well-rounded mod with lots to love and discover.

https://www.beamng.com/resources/etk-6000-4000-series.1343/

(I just think they used their leftover money from the ETK 800, I & K too have a little fun )

Thanks to the community, the ETK K-Series also got a drop-top variant (not a convertible as it doesn't convert!)

https://www.beamng.com/resources/etk-k-series-convertible.894/

The following year, in 2017, ETK were a little short on ideas - so decided to go down the luxury route - Maybach to the Mercedes if you will (I know ETK is based on BMW, but it's a hodgepodge) user NinetyNine gave us the gorgeous and sexy ETK-S Series with Stunning and modern looks and a J-Beam (I think that's the right terminology - damage model) to match. It was so good that ETK started bringing VIP visitors in their "Long Wheel Base" version. (the top of their luxury range)

https://www.beamng.com/resources/etk-s-series.1747/updates (contact ETK at "ctrl+w" to have them bring you a set of tyres, it's a common gremlin in this car)

Whilst building their own ETK Driver Experience Centre in 2016+, ETK went quiet in terms of updates...until 2019.

2019 saw TWO ETK's come out - the lesser-known ETK W-Series come out, based on a MerETKcedes W124 between 1985 and 1995.
https://www.beamng.com/resources/etk-w.7951/

In addition to the ETK 1300 - based on the BMW X5, it had the looks, feel and J-Beam/damage model so good, one could have easily have mistaken it for official content!

To date, it has over 800,000 downloads - putting it in one of the top five most downloaded mods...ever.

https://www.beamng.com/resources/etk-1300.9739/

Mid-2021 saw "ETK" (a mod for ETK) add the option for a 2021-2022 face-lift for the ETK 800 Series and K Series - ETK finally announcing a GT3 program for their K-Series model.

https://www.beamng.com/resources/etk-k-series-facelift-and-roadster.19205/

Taking the face-lifted drop-top for a spin

2021's final update was a Re-master to their Driver Experience Centre.

In early 2022, initially there was a car called the ETK A-Series, however this branched off into it's own brand called AW (Inspired by VW) there are about 50~100 individual ETK-A branded models out in the Beam World, so expect steep prices at auctions - especially for the highly-sought-after County Model.

To date, the community had one further ETK Surprise - another K-Series...but not as you know it.

LucasBE created a much-adored 1994 ETK-K Series, said to be the MK. I/First Gen of the K-Series - with the current ETK K-Series being loosely based on the BMW Z4, this was loosely based on the much-loved BMW Z3 of 1995-2003, even managing to sneak in a race-spec version too.

https://www.beamng.com/resources/1994-etk-k-series.20482/

From left to right: ETK A-Series/AW Astro | ETK W-Series | ETK I-Series | ETK 800 Series | ETK 1300 Series | ETK S-Series | ETK K-Series MK. 2 | ETK K-Series MK.1 | Rear: ETK 4000 & 6000 Series

(I did take a few without the AW Astro, if you're desperate, I'll PM them to you)

2017 - America! Flip-Yeah!

2017 was a fairly quiet year in the land of BeamNG

The Ibishu Hopper is released, it's a Jeep HEAVILY inspired by the Jeep Wrangler. (April, 2017)

- West Coast USA is released and is the biggest map on record, causing a fewer of the lower-end PC's to struggle. (November, 23rd, 2017), before some hot-fixes, mine was one of computer's that was weeping.

It wasn't all good news however, as Dry Rock Island became deprecated (the BeamTeam exploring DRI left the Island, exploring a nearby larger island dubbed "Jungle Rock Island".

2018 - Variety Show
In 2018, BeamNG.Drive released a wide variety of content - both cars and maps.

That year's content began in April with a bus called the "Wentward" - the longest vehicle (and one with the most seats) in the game yet!

Summer saw a collaboration with Automation - bringing the "Automation Test Track" (an area to test your automation vehicles) as well as the ability to make/build your own car/s using automation.

This would be the first official map to feature snow (and ice!)

2018 ended in style for BeamNG and the BeamNG Community with the release of an "Italy" map, just in time for Christmas (as northern Europe were freezing cold, we could take a virtual holiday to Italy)

Italy was to be the biggest map yet - dwarfing the previous record holder (West Coast USA).

A big map means big opportunities and BeamNG utilised the Italian space very well.

covering farmland, white, sandy beaches, quaint towns, sprawling cities, highways and everything in-between - I'm sure I could find a spot to park every last car on the game!

Along with this Italy Update, came an adorable little Italian Hatchback based off/inspired by the Fiat 500.

It was called *exaggerated Italian accent* The Autobello Piccolina.

2019 - The Year Of Remasters
It's fair to say, that 2019 & 2020 weren't our "best" of days - but the BeamNG crew ensured we were not left bored during our countless days inside, so they decided to give a few old maps a little refresh!

2019's content began in May, this would consist of a new electric version of the SBR4 called the "ESBR4" This'd be the first electric vehicle in the game.

2019 also saw the beginning of a major "remaster" of many aging maps - first to receive "The Golden Digger" were:

- East Coast USA (8th Aug)
- Hirochi Raceway (8th Aug)
- Derby (Arenas) (8th Aug)
- Utah (8th December)

Whilst the residents were overjoyed at the new roads being laid, mechanics at FMC (Firwood Motor Company) were disheartened that the better paved roads meant fewer frequent customers.

Business has been slow with the combination of brand new cars and better roads...

Many of the racing drivers who use/d Hirochi Raceway Frequently were very supportive of the new and MUCH safer layout of the track.

In terms of totally new car-content: The Gavril Bluebuck came out after being announced 6 and a half years ago on the forums/blog-post.

It wasn't only maps getting a refresh either, the Gavril Grand Marshal (one of the first trio on the service) also got a little re-fresh in August and the Gavril D-Series got one in December (2019)..which leaves the Covet as the oldest untouched car on the game.

2020 - Business As Usual In Firwood
Whilst the outside world was a mess, the residents of BeamEarth continued their lives as normal, well, most of them did...some had to put up with diggers for a few weeks as yet more maps were remastered.

2020's batch were:

- Industrial Site (BeamNG's first map)
- Small Island (after an update making it "endlessly summer" this overhaul was a big relief.
- Jungle Rock Island (after 2015-2016 launch)
- GridMap (new items to crash into and things to avoid

In car news, we got two for the price of one as a brand new manufacturer joined BeamNG: Cherrier.
A French, modern car manufacturer who took inspiration from the likes of Peugeot - their first two cars being inspired by the 2021 Peugeot 308 (Vivace) & 3008 (Tograc) of the real world - both having electric options.

Launched in April, it only took the community 8 days to release the first Cherrier mod - a high-quality sedan version of the Vivace


Vive La Communauté!

In terms of re-mastering cars, it was the turn of the Roamer and The D-Series (again).

2021: Rinse & Repeat
With a certain world-wide event stabilising (the 2019 - 2020 one, not the 2022 one) work could slowly return to early 2019 levels again - but not before a few more cars were remastered and released

To start the year, The LeGran was remastered (March 2021) including a very stereotypical caravan-pulling station-wagon variant and some sportier/race versions.

2021's first car release was one of the few cars not previously published or teased or detailed in a development blog/forum. It was called the Soliad Wendover and was rather similar to the LeGran (boxy, 80's/90's shape) (March 2021)

That Summer, Ibishu decided to stick a brave face on and returned to the dark world of Three-Wheeled cars, launching (literally) the Ibishu Wigeon in June 2021.

"Wigeon" both rhymes with Pigeon and is a pormanteau of the words "Pigeon" and "Wedge" (the Wigeon being a wedge shape

After this release, both the Gavril H-Series and (New) Ibishu Pessima had a remaster aro (Dec. 2021)

After a successful couple of years, ETK found themselves with enough money to remaster their facilties.

The BIG talking point of the 2021 Christmas Holidays was the Bruckell Bastion - some said it was too boring/realistic - me personally? If I had to choose between the Bastion, LeGran and Moonhawk - I'd take the Bastion any day of the year.

Each are entitled to their own opinion and I like the direction of realism BeamNG is going with their cars - I'd rather see Bruckell-esk cars than hotwheel cars, but at the end of the day, a GT3 never hurt anyone...


If you did get this far, thank you so much for reading, this took quite a bit longer than anticipated and I hope you found it interesting.

Thank you.


"Do you have ANY idea why I pulled you over?"
"No :/"
"Coz it's funny."

 

my laptop froze just trying to load this page xd, anyways its so fun to see the history of beamng in one page!

 

This is very thorough, well done.

 

Very nice and detailed history. I started following BeamNG in early 2015 and it was cool seeing how everything developed from the very start to now. The BeamNG devs are the most amazing and hardworking team ever!

 

I wanted to let you know that towards the top where you list some of the cars, it says ibishu grand marshal.

 

Wow what passion and care this was. A very enjoyable read. Well done

I remember when i was young plaything ROR and seeing BeamNG and going woah.

To this day i play it as my main ( this and teardown )

 

Thanks for the nostalgia trip. Maybe I should fire up the old copy I have on an old laptop.

 

yesssss. Do you know what version?

 

wow. this was an amazing read. mods, please pin this

 

It is so well made and entartaining, but you forgot about walking mode

 

Not just that, the wigeon is also a type of duck. Meaning that like the pigeon its a bird.