The Unconventional Racing League

Sooo this is an idea that I had yesterday, after @Codeslamer and me tried to race in the BeamNG Racing Competition using drawing tablets to drive. Despite a tablet being objectively terrible for driving a car, it was actually super fun! So then I started wondering what other weird and unconventional controllers could be used to race in BeamNG. So that's what this is; a BeamNG Racing League for racing with drawing tablets and other weird controllers! (;^.^)

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Rules

• You must use a weird or unusual control setup for your race. So basically, not a keyboard, gamepad, or steering wheel. Drawing tablets are encouraged if you own one, but even just a mouse is probably acceptable. The weirder the better really.
• At least throttle and steering must be mapped to your controller. You can use the keyboard for like brakes and shifting and stuff if you want though.
• You may only use official vehicles (at least for now), but mild performance mods are allowed. To be honest though, you probably won't want a super fast car for this challenge. It's hard enough as it is... (´꒳`∗)
• Have fun! This isn't a super-serious competition, so don't worry if your time isn't great! It's really just about having fun racing with weird and objectively terrible control setups.

How to Enter
Simply complete a race of at least 2 laps on the "Short Race Circuit" on Hirochi Raceway, using an unusual control setup. You can do as many laps as you want, but your final score will be your fastest lap time. After you've finished the race, take a screenshot of your time, and post it here. Be sure to include the details of the control setup you used!

Results

[position] user - time - vehicle - controller

[1] @Codeslamer - 01:09:943 - Covet Track - Drawing Tablet
[2] @Tsutarja495 - 01:13:514 - I-Series Track - Mouse
[3] @monobrau - 01:30:219 - Box Van - Mouse
[4] @CaptainZoll - 01:30:700 - Miramar GTz - Programmable mouse buttons
[5] @TechnicolorDalek - 01:41:642 - 2.0L Stanced Pessima - Wii Balance Board
[6] @default0.0player - 01:43:693 - Roamer V8 Sport - On-Screen Keyboard
[7] @The F12 of Maranello - 01:44:421 - Legran Se (Manual) - Virtual Drawing Tablet App
[8] @ChromeAdders - 01:54:864 - 2400i - On-Screen Keyboard
[9] @Alex_Farmer557 - 02:08:250 - Piccolina 130b - BeamNG Controller App

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If anyone has any suggestions on how to make this better, be sure to let me know! I'm super excited to see what kinds of weird control setups people race with! (´▽｀*)

 

some 2 liter stanced pessima, wii balance board edition, for full japswag

I just mapped the balance board axes to combined throttle/brake/steering

you too can do this ez trick with the power of the generic wii HID driver

 

I know you said no keyboards.. but do on-screen keyboards count?

I used an on-screen keyboard, only using my physical keyboard for the clutch, since it's not possible to hold two buttons at the same time using the on screen keyboard, that I know of at least. I hope this counts, haha. The car used was a stock ETK I-Series 2400.

I also recorded my (bad) laps if anyone wants to see, and also as proof:

 

Wow, that’s really cool! Is the software able to track motion input from regular wii remotes as well? It’d be really interesting to have motion-controlled BeamNG like that. (^^)

Absolutely! That’s a fantastic idea! That’s some really impressive driving as well, considering you had to point and click each “key.” (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)

 

https://www.julianloehr.de/educational-work/hid-wiimote/

this is what I used, it doesn't have pointer tracking

it just translates the basic accelerometer into axes and exposes the buttons, as well as the nunchuk

there are other options, like touchmote and wiimotehook, I think they're called. this is just the simplest.

 

Finally, a good idea. Probably going to compete in this competition, but currently I have no idea for using some crazy thing to do it. (thinking about voice control, but my English isn't 10/10...)

 

Imma enter with a joystick later lmao

 

I tried driving with my G300 mouse, but not in the "usual" way. It has programmable buttons that I never use, so I just set them up for accelarator, brake, steering, and shifters, and turned the clutch assistant on.
(the fancy GUI shown with my setup below. (side note - I held the mouse backwards, that's why "up" is below "down")

This was surprisingly difficult to get accustomed to, mainly because the buttons have really weird feedback, and make heaps of noise, and are just generally awkwardly placed. however, once I did get accustomed, it wasn't too bad, it was kind of similar to using keyboard.
as for my time, the best I could do was a 1:30.700 in an unmodified miramar GTz.

 

Does using the scrollers of a ball mouse count?

 

Like one of these?

Definitely! (^.^)

 

Drawing tablets? Pffff, peasants.
Instead, I tried something worse than a drawing tablet, i.e. using an Android phone as a virtual drawing tablet.
The controls sucked, and I tried several times to get decent times.

Spoiler: Setup

Phone: my Huawei P9 lite (not the best but it just works)
Gaming setup: my Dell Inspiron 7577
Car: Bruckell Legran SE manual (stock)
App: VirtualTablet Lite (S-Pen)
Time: 01:44.421 (fastest)

and yes, I have just scrapped my old voice control idea, it sucks.

 

no, like the inner part of an old trackball mouse

 

Oh he means actually articulating the x/y axis rollers inside an old trackball mouse with his fingers lol id say thats quite strange but it is basically just using the mouse, but in a unique way lol

 

using the controller app and a piccolina 130b

 

I decided to post a time here too, using just a tablet again (because I'm uncreative)
This time I used the base model Miramar, and I did best of 5 laps, where the 4th lap was the quickest with 1.27.321
Then I made a complete mess of the last lap.. (＃＞＜)
And ofcourse that's the one the game posts in huge letters ;-;

I don't think I did so bad atleast. Maybe playing too much osu! is helpful in the art of tablet driving too

 

ETK I-Series Track, throttle mapped to LMB, brake mapped to MMB, steering mapped to mouseX.

 

Does using AIControl count?
I just open up the UIapp and manually select Map target to waypoints. When arrived then select the next one
Car was a Pessima Track (M)

 

Oh wow, that’s even better! (^.^)

Wow, your times are suuper good compared to my tablet times! (๑>.<๑) I need to practice! *drawing intensifies*

Also, I opened BeamNG yesterday to work on mods and stuff, and all of a sudden my car just started moving on it’s own and wouldn’t stop. I, like, thought my game was glitched out or something, until I rembered that “oh yeah, I have the controls set up to use a tablet.” (#^^#)ゞ

Well, I mean, isn’t the ai doing the majority of the actual driving? It’s certainly an unusual way to do a race, but I’m not sure it’s exacly an unusual control setup, per se.

 

Hmm, I have bicycle cadence and speed sensor as well as HRM chest strap that can connect to computer, but I'm not sure how those would work as controller for BeamNG.

Sadly it might not be possible to make those operate game, kinda would be interesting how fast I could pedal Covet...