Enhanced Dashboard 1.0.17

Enhanced Dashboard is a dashboard-like HUD app that aims to provide you with all the info and features you may need when playing BeamNG.drive, particularly if you are into realistic driving.



Disclaimer: The mod is made by AI. I only contributed with graphics, instructions, ideas, polishing, design, testing, and other areas. AI was only responsible for coding, optimizing, and other "under-the-hood" things. Everything else is made by hand of a real human, including this post. Any hate for this being AI-made is completely understandable.

It started as a simple idea to add VAG-like cruise control with the ability to recognize and auto-apply speed limits. Then I decided to add a UI, and then things got out of control big time and real quickly. I made this mod primarily for myself and I did not plan to publish it, but here we are.

This mod works best with the Hood camera, but feel free to use it with any other camera.

Here is the list of available features (almost each can be toggled on/off):

Cruise Control and Speed Limiter:

• Three speed limit modes: auto, assisted (press to confirm new speed), and manual
• Three driving profiles with different acceleration and braking: Eco, Standard, and Dynamic
• Speed Limiter: prevents you from over speeding by smoothly cutting off power upon reaching the limit. Override speed limiter by double-pressing the gas pedal.
• Overspeed warnings: speed limit sign begins flashing and you hear audible que (can be toggled off).
• Important Note: This feature depends on how well the map is implemented. Automatic and assisted cruise control and speed limiter do not work on maps without properly mapped speed limits.

Important Note: This feature requires proper traffic light implementation. Does not work on poorly made maps.

Automatic Emergency Braking:

• Warns about potential collisions and automatically applies brakes in emergency (front collisions).
• Applies brakes automatically upon detecting an obstacle when parking (part of parking assist features).
• Front and rear cross traffic alert: detects cross-traffic and displays visual/audio warnings. Applies brakes automatically upon detecting a potential collision.

Driving Assistants:

• Auto Hold.
• Hill Start Assist
• Auto Start-Stop: ICE-only, arms only once the engine temp is above 40C
• Automatic Headlights: The mod simulates light sensors to automatically enable headlights in dark conditions (in evening or when entering a tunnel/dark area). The mod automatically turns off high beams upon detecting oncoming traffic or a car ahead of you. Note: Press the headlight button on one of the panels to enable automatic headlights. Pressing the standard BeamNG headlight shortcut does not affect automatic headlights.
• Shifting arrows and dots: in cars with manual gear box or in manual mode, gear indicator displays shift indicator arrows (up and down) at optimal RPMs (calculated depending on max RPM, idle RPM, and current gas pedal position). Shifting dots show maximum RPMs at last gear shift.
• Blind Sport monitor: audio and visual cues when trying to change lanes with a car in your blind spot.
• A dedicated view for toggling on/off various assists.
• A dedicated view for toggling assistants on-off (press the Assist button).
  

Parking Sensors:

• Front and rear 360-degree parking sensors with five zones. Front and rear zones have different sounds. Parking sensors work in first-person mode when the mod is not on screen.
  
  
• Note: Parking Sensor rays only see static, properly implemented geometry. If a map has objects that you can drive-through (no-clip), parking sensors and cameras will not react to them. Dynamic objects, excluding cars and spawnable items, are not detected.

Front, rear, and side cameras:

• Front, Rear, and Side cameras: Dashboard renders front, rear and side-view cameras using RenderView with guidelines, steering lines, and blind spot monitoring.
• Obstacle Highlight: Augments the camera feed with transparent boxes that help you see objects around you, including cars, objects, trees, buildings, etc. May not work on poorly made maps and objects without collision.
  
  
• Night View: Improves front and rear camera feeds by using "infrared" of a special bright mode. Infrared is simulated by placing several light sources on your car back when reversing (does not apply to front camera). Bright mode is set by default, as it provides the best result-to-realism balance. From top to bottom: IR view, Night View, regular view.
  
  
• Blind spot cameras: When changing lanes with blinkers on, dashboard displays side-view cameras with blind spot monitoring. This feature can be toggled off. When it is off, the dashboard uses regular blind spot monitors with icons and audio cues.
  
  
• Alternative Camera Mode: If you use Hood camera, shifting to R triggers the Look Back command to simulate a full-screen rear-view camera without hurting FPS.

Important Note: Cameras can decrease FPS (only when the camera is working), especially when driving with AI. You can balance things by changing the camera quality in the mod settings section or by switching to alternative camera mode.

Another Note: You may observe a minor exposure change when enabling/disabling cameras, primarily on sun and clouds. A fix will be available in a day or two.

Trip Computer:

• Fuel/Energy consumption and range calculation
• Instant consumption, average consumption, average consumption since start, average consumption since last refuel.
  
  
• The mod remembers the fuel level between respawns and game restarts (per-configuration, does not work in Career mode). You can refuel/recharge in the mod settings on maps without working gas or charging stations (does not work in Career mode).
• Fuel cost: you can set your own fuel price (gasoline, diesel, hydrogen, electricity) and track your refuel costs in a dedicated log in settings.
• Odometer: Trip A/B support with the option to reset both.
• Total mileage: the mod tracks per-config mileage and lets you set custom mileage for each config (not available in Career mode).

Off-road Mode:

• A dedicated button for toggling H/L gears, 2WD/4WD.
• Hill Descent Control: when enabled, takes over cruise control controls.
• Dedicated roll and pitch indicators.
  
  
• One-click off-road mode: turns off parking sensors, auto start-stop, and overspeed alerts.

Bus Mode:

• A built-in bus display controller with a line selector
  
  
• Additional buttons: all and separate buttons, kneel, ride height, and amber lights.
  
  
• Speed interlocks, door brake, door warnings.

Map and Navigation:

• Map View mode with 3D/2D view, current route support (click the view button to toggle between them), and point-of-interest markers (gas stations, dealers, service stations, etc).
  
  
• Full GPS support with navigation instructions (visual-only), ETA, and automatic route planning to the closes gas/charging station on low fuel/battery level.
  

Third-party mod support

• ArkFz Hybrid support with hybrid features, SOC adjustments, dual fuel-energy gauges, mode switch, power indicator, optimized fuel/energy calculation.
• Capsule support: changing hybrid drivetrain modes, opening/closing separate doors, route display configuration, and adjusting the right height.
• Hirochi Aero and Daewoon support.
• Additional sub-gauges: battery in the hybrid system, up to two extra air pressure indicators (vehicles with two air circuits display two gauges), and pneumatics pressure.

Note: No files from the mentioned mods were used in this mod.
Other conveniences and realism features:

• Traffic Light detection: Like in modern BMW, the dashboard detects traffic lights and displays them on the UI. If you remain stationary on green, it starts flashing. Green light also turns the engine back on (auto start/stop). Can be toggled off.
  
  
  
• TPMS: Puncturing a tire triggers a TPMS warning light
• Bulb check: Upon ignition, lights up everything on the dashboard to check if indicators work as they should. This is a purely cosmetic feature and it can be toggled off if you find it annoying.
  
  
• Eco Score: The mod calculates your driving efficiency in three areas: start, cruise, and braking.
  
  
• Transmission locks: you cannot start the engine without pressing the brake pedal (Automatic/DCT) or clutch (manual), you cannot shift into gear without pressing the brake pedal (Automatic/DCT), rev limiter, parking brake guard, auto-shifting into P (when shutting down the engine).
• Trailer support: the mod automatically turns off rear parking sensors, rear collision warnings, when a trailer is attached.
• Outside temperature with icing warnings.
• Built-in clock with in-game or real time (click the clock to toggle between the modes).
• Shutting down the engine with headlights on triggers a notification to turn off lights.
• Two side panels with additional buttons for quick access to various features. Both panels can be customizable or reset to standard layouts. Panels are context-aware and adjust their content depending on your vehicle (car, SUV, Bus, heavy machinery, etc).
• A rich set of user-defined shortcuts for quick controls on steering wheels, controllers, keyboards, etc.
• Language support: English, German, and Ukrainian

Things that are coming in next updates:

• Configuration presets that let you configure available features with a single click. For example, poverty spec with only basic rear parking assistant and simple cruise control.
• Two new views: Analog Gauges and Racing.
• Braking before lower speed limits (I tried to make this, but failed, will try again)
• More language support

Things that I currently do not plan/want to implement:

• Radar-based cruise control: I experimented with it, but failed to achieve a satisfactory result, plus AI traffic in BeamNG remains extremely whack, so I do not want to waste my time and energy on this feature, at least yet.
• Automatic braking in turns when on Cruise Control: I experimented with this, but again, after quite a few attempts and iterations, AI failed to implement a reliable system.
• Lane-keep assist: same story, but I am willing to revisit this in future.