Hello BeamNG Team and Community, I would like to suggest a new feature that would open a lot of possibilities for modders working on modern vehicle lighting: support for dynamic light cookies or dynamic light textures for headlights. Why this is important Modern real-life headlights (Audi, BMW, Mercedes, VW, etc.) use Matrix LED systems with multiple segments that can dynamically turn on/off or block parts of the beam to avoid blinding other cars. Right now, BeamNG modders cannot recreate this realistically, even though the physics engine and Lua system are perfect for such adaptive behavior. Current limitations (explained by modders) Several experienced modders explained that real Matrix systems are impossible to implement because: Light cookies can only be static and cannot be updated dynamically at runtime. HTML textures cannot be used in the lighting pipeline and are not recognized. Exporting HTML textures to an image causes severe lag spikes. Using multiple spotlights to simulate segments is extremely GPU-heavy and not viable. There is no API function in Lua to change the texture/cookie of a light. Because of this, functional adaptive headlights cannot be created in mods today. What modders would need Even a simple, limited version of dynamic light cookies would make Matrix LED mods possible. For example: Allow switching between multiple predefined cookie textures Allow updating the cookie at runtime (even with restrictions) Allow binding cookie changes to Lua logic (detecting cars ahead, angles, etc.) Provide a lightweight GPU-friendly method for dynamic beam shaping This would let modders create: Matrix LED headlights Adaptive high-beam systems Dynamic projection lighting Realistic modern OEM headlight behavior Why this could benefit BeamNG BeamNG already has one of the best lighting and physics systems in any driving simulation. Giving modders more control over light textures would massively expand creativity and improve realism in vehicle mods. Many players — including me — would love to see modern Matrix/Adaptive lighting featured in mods and maybe even official vehicles. Thank you Thank you very much for reading this suggestion. BeamNG is an amazing game, and I truly appreciate the work the dev team puts into it. I hope this feature can be considered in the future.
