This mod allows you to easily record your own pacenotes completely within BeamNG.drive (after a one-time setup), and seamlessly playback pacenotes without any additional steps. This mod has been officially released as part of the BeamNG mods repo: BeamNG Mod Link You can also get pre-recorded tracks (or download the source code) from my github: Github Link Key Features No robotic-sounding pacenotes No need for the map editor No editing text files Easy adjustments to existing pacenotes How to Play Pacenotes Install this mod - follow the instructions in the Github link above Obtain or record your own pacenotes - the GitHub release includes some pacenotes I've recorded for several stages East Coast Usa, Small Island, Johnson Valley, Italy, and Utah. Start the scenario or time trial – Pacenotes will load and play automatically. Tuning Playback Lookahead Distance: Determines how many meters ahead pacenotes are triggered. Example: If set to 40, you’ll hear about a turn 40 meters before you reach it. Speed Multiplier: Adjusts the lookahead distance dynamically based on your speed. Experiment with this to find the best balance for your driving. Volume: Controls the playback volume of pacenotes. How to Record Pacenotes Set up the mic server as detailed below (required since BeamNG.drive can't access microphones natively). Bind the "Record Pacenote" action to a button or key. Start a scenario or create a new rally course using the Pacenote Editor UI. Drive the course slowly. Press and hold to record when you encounter a turn or hazard. Note: The track is not editable after the first drive. Avoid backing up or crashing while recording. You can edit and record new pacenotes after finishing the course. How to Set Up the Mic Server One-time setup steps: Install Python (if you don’t have it). You can get it from many places, but the Microsoft App Store might be the easiest option. Install the necessary modules: pyaudio pathlib (this may already be included in some installations) Launch the mic server: Open CMD or PowerShell, and navigate to this mod's server folder. Either download the server folder from github, or copy the mod's zip file and unpack it. Run the server with the command: python server.py Note: If your mic isn’t connected, the server will prompt you to connect it, and you’ll need to run the command again. Launch (or switch back to) BeamNG.drive and click "Connect" in the Pacenote Editor UI. Security Note: Python was chosen for the server to ensure transparency. Be cautious when running programs from sources you do not trust or understand. Editing Pacenotes While in a rally, you can record a new pacenote at any point by pressing and holding the "Record Pacenote" keybind (you must be connected to the mic server). The Pacenotes Editor UI lets you: View all recorded notes and see your current position on the track. Click on a pacenote to edit: Name: For convenience; does not affect playback. Distance: Adjusts when the pacenote is triggered. Continue Distance: Blocks playback of other notes until you are X meters away from the turn or hazard (useful for hairpins or square turns). Delete: Marks the pacenote for deletion (playback will stop, but the deletion is not finalized until you "Save" the rally project). This Project is Still Being Improved! Please provide feedback on how editing works for you and any features you would like to see.
great job! it's good to see the rally scene growing! i will try this mod as soon as i get the time.. but actrually i use the ai pacenotes mod as i found it really good at editing within the world editor, it is a really powerful tool and a lot of things like distance calls are automated, also it calculates the position where to trigger the notes based on your speed while driving. also the recce mode is great! i believe it would be great if we can get people to collaborate instead of creating a mod from scratch, maybe we can improve what is already there and save a lot of work and make something even better...
Thanks! Definitely let me know how you find using it. While I do agree that making multiple tools from scratch can complicate things, my specific use case is sitting in a rig with a VR headset on, so I wanted to build a tool that was very easy to use from in-game without the map editor. As a by-product, I think it's a tool that makes creation and editing uniquely simple compared to a lot of other solutions. Once you've done the setup steps, you really can have pacenotes for a stage in a matter of minutes, with adjustments in a matter of seconds. If there is enough interest, I do think it could be worth exploring adapting my tool for ai pacenotes or some other way to make them interchangeable
Now that BeamNG has an official rally mode, future mod work will likely start to move towards being a simple in-game editor for the built in rally engine. However, the current built-in game mode doesn't support audio, and you can use my pre-recorded audio pacenotes for it right now:
I'm loving it! It's become much more fun with this, and easy to set up too compared to AI pacenotes (I actually couldn't wrap my head around AI pacenotes lol) Some piece of feedback I have tho is by default it's reeeally quiet, I had to bump it up to 50 instead of 10, then I could comfortably hear what you were saying (my game's master volume is at 50). And I ended up dropping lookahead distance to 1, I felt there were too many corner callouts too soon, I couldn't wrap my head around what was coming that early
Glad you're enjoying it! One of my top priorities was simply out of the box use, and I'm glad that came through. Interesting that it's so quite by default - I think maybe I leaned too far on the side of not hurting peoples ears, perhaps I'll test this some more on a clean install. As for the lookahead distance, I'm glad you were able to tune it to your liking. Did you play with the speed multiplier at all? That setting is a little aggressive and I'm thinking about changing how it works, it may be why 1 made the most sense for your base lookahead distance
Actually no, I didn't touch it at all lol. I thought it like stretched the audio to be faster or slower, and that was fine for me by default. I would need to play around with it next time As for lookahead distance, I did also try some other stages outside of the Rally Mode... East Coast USA Stage was fine with 1 lookahead distance, but Small Island Mixed Stage 3 was suddenly too late for me for most calls, I increased it to 20 and that seemed fine for that stage (tho some callouts cut out abruptly, like the first few "Crest" callouts, I was driving Sunburst rallycar). I guess maybe that's a combination of a lot of corners on that stage being very close together compared to other stages. But I also found some callouts a bit redundant on that stage, like where you basically go on a "wiggly" straight, but there's still a "slight left" and "slight right" callouts, which I felt were a bit redundant, you kinda don't treat them as corners as you're driving
Mixed Stage 3 was I think the third stage I recorded, and I definitely was a little too detailed earlier on. That one could probably use some cleaning up or maybe a rerecord as that was also on an older mic. Also the incomplete crest callouts are definitely me releasing the button too early lol I think the fine tuning I did for the rally mode stages worked out pretty well, although there are some details of Fastello that don't always feel quite right like the rocks on the inside/outside of turns One of the things I've actually been working on this week is a way to analyze how notes were queued up (distance to feature etc...), allowing anyone editing their own notes to see if calls are stacking up, hoping this can contribute to fine-tuning. It may work better as a visual though, it's a little text heavy: Anyway, hoping to record some more stages soon, lmk if you have any requests (focusing mostly on vanilla maps for now)
I've made a new way to record Pacenotes, it's a new mic server that's much easier to install and run. Check out the video for details:
If you've had any trouble setting this mod up or tuning the volume / call timing, this new setup video goes through everything you need for playback in just 2 minutes:
