How do I properly use and chart out a AI race with the Race/Path editor?

Hi!

Making AI races in BeamNG is a tricky thing to do. Hopefully, this process will improve in the future. The Race/Path Editor is very flexible, but also confusing for what to do when you're done. You can write a lengthy Lua script to use the race file, or you can create a flowgraph and use the Race/Path nodes to setup a race. Both methods take time to learn and do, but I've created a graph to help you out! See attached .zip file .

To use it, copy the .zip file into your BeamNG mods/repo folder, load the West Coast USA level, press F11, go to Windows > Gameplay > Flowgraph Editor, and open up aiRace.flow.json . I've included a sample race, so you can press Play, and it will load the included aiRace.race.json and play the race (it can be a bit glitchy, because I made this flowgraph quickly; you might need to press your vehicle reset key if the scenario gets stuck).

If you want to use your own saved race/path file, make sure that you have 4 start positions, named: start1, start2, start3, start4 . The position start1 is for the player, and the others are for the AI racers. You can name your race/path file as aiRace.race.json and overwrite the old one, or name it whatever you want and edit the File Path node in the flowgraph (at the far left side of the graph view). The current flowgraph supports 3 AI racers, but you can add more by copying, pasting, and linking some nodes. You can also edit the aggression (risk) and avoidance (avoidCars) variables in the Variables tab. I might edit the graph later to make things even more smooth. Let me know how this works for you!

Edit: You can also open aiRace.race.json in the Race/Path Editor to see how I've set it up. That should help too.

Edit 2: Fixed stuff in the .zip