BeamNG.drive 0.40: split-screen for up to 64 players on PC, Bob and the Percheron tractor unit

Update 0.40 for BeamNG.drive arrived on October 19 and coincided with the simulator's first appearance on consoles — the PS5. But for those who play on PC, the central event is different: split-screen multiplayer has finally arrived.

One screen — and up to 64 participants

Developers have addressed one of the community's most frequent requests: a session can be started from the main menu by adding participants and choosing free roam or a specific discipline, or right on the map via pause.

• Platforms: four on one screen on PS5, up to 64 people on PC;
• Disciplines: racing, drag, chase, derby, drift, rock crawling and soccer;
• Content: more than 85 layouts in Time Trial and AI Race, and each mode has its own settings — tracks, lap count, points, penalties.

Soft-body physics in BeamNG demands serious resources, so 64 participants is a story for beefy configurations. The game itself will warn you if frames drop below 25 per second — including when the system is already struggling and you add another car.

In free roam, participants start at a random point, each gets a vehicle suited to the map, colors are handed out automatically, and assists — gearbox, clutch, throttle — are configured individually. You can get out of the car and ride along with a friend as a passenger: he has the wheel, and you explore the interior.

Passengers that carry weight

The arrival of passengers changed not only the visuals but also how vehicles behave.

Each such body adds 89 kg to the car, is fully simulated via JBeam and swings in time with maneuvers. In a light car such ballast shifts the weight distribution, and for rally models the mass distribution has become more realistic after the change. The main hero, of course, is Bob — he and his colleagues are visible in the cabin, and character colors are preserved when boarding so players don't get mixed up in split-screen.

In walk mode the character has a new model: the head turns with the camera, and you can now see yourself in the mirrors. The driver camera has been replaced by a universal "passenger" camera — usable by anyone in the car — and rotation limits have been expanded so you can reach any switch in the cockpit.

Cherrier Percheron: cab, frame, engine

A European cab-over from the early 2000s and, according to the developers, the most interactive vehicle in the game. Drawers, the dashboard and the left spoiler open, skirts slide down to the fuel tanks, a sunroof with a blind works, and there is interior and door lighting.

• Cabs: three sizes — S, L and XL; the low day cab S is meant for weekdays and special work, while L and XL got a sleeper. Each is suspended separately from the frame on springs or air bags at all four corners, unlocks from inside and tilts via electrohydraulics from the panel at the rear right;
• Chassis: five frame lengths from 6.17 to 9.80 m, spring or air suspension, from two to five axles — over 50 configurations, from a road-going 4x2 to an 8x8 for off-road;
• Powertrain: a 12.8-liter turbo straight-six producing 310–500 hp paired with a 12-speed manual or 7-speed automatic. Plus its own horn and reverse beeper;
• Bodies: a flatbed or insulated van, concrete mixers of various sizes, a tanker with liveries for fuel or food.

The tractor comes with new European trailers and semi-trailers, including the FPU, and the dairy brand Muhten Tag. Percheron differs from previous trucks not so much in size as in freedom of assembly: almost every part can be combined your own way, and the cab lives on separate suspension and tilts — for heavy machinery in BeamNG this is a notable step forward.

Upscalers, reflections and menus

The graphics side was built around anti-aliasing and scaling.

• Anti-aliasing and upscaling: SMAA T2x, DLSS from NVIDIA, FSR 3 and FSR 4 from AMD, XeSS from Intel, a sharpness slider and upscaling support on multi-monitor setups;
• Reflections and light: stochastic SSR for bodies, glass and water, Specular Occlusion with darkened reflections in recesses, a light source radius for softer shadows from point and spotlight lamps. Night-time light bleed has been fixed;
• Engine: bindless rendering in Vulkan and Direct3D 12 reduces CPU load in scenes with lots of objects and materials, and legacy post-effects have been removed.

The graphics menu has been reorganized into groups — image, detail, brightness and HDR, refresh rate and sync, multi-monitor, light, reflections. A resolution scale slider and separate SSR quality have appeared, the ambient occlusion toggle and quality have been merged into one item, and dynamic reflections and mirrors have been consolidated into unified quality presets.

What else is in the patch

The Windows on Arm build is now native: on compatible devices you can choose it instead of the emulated x64, although the Steam SDK and overlay are not included. PC VR has moved to OpenXR on top of D3D12, and the PS5 got support for 11 force-feedback wheels.

The First Drive tutorial has replaced the old free-roam tutorial: lessons on towing, assists, spawning and configuring cars, the radial menu, the map and challenges. The main menu has been redrawn with large tiles, the environment tab in Photomode has been refined, and optimizations touched mod installation, car selector loading, replay recording, AI and traffic, video memory in DX12 and soft foliage collisions.

Have you already gathered a group for a split-screen race? Share your impressions in the comments and follow the updates on nfs.place!

👉 Source: BeamNG