BeamNG.Earth is a 1:1 scale streamed Earth for the BeamNG.drive game
BeamNG.Earth lets you drive anywhere on the planet at 1:1 scale, on real elevation and aerial or satellite imagery, with view distance out to a curved horizon. The world is filled in from real data: land-cover ground textures, 3D grass, regional trees with seasonal colours, buildings with local architectural styles, and roads with lane markings, sidewalks, signs, signals and street lights. It also includes bridges, sea and lakes deep enough to sink in, rivers, and airports with marked runways.
Drive anywhere: the physics ground follows the car at 100+ mph, the world origin moves with you (floating origin), and the world streams ahead of you; you never fall out of the world. Buildings, sidewalks, curbs and bridge decks are solid (lean collision meshes near the car keep the physics' collision rebuilds cheap).
The sun, moon and stars follow real local time, the weather is live (cloud, fog, wind gusts that push the car, rain and snow), and gravity is the true value for your latitude and altitude. Stock AI, traffic, police and parked cars run on the real road network with each country’s driving side and speed limits. A world map (M) lets you search addresses, teleport, set GPS routes, and use Autodrive to have the car drive the route itself. Saved places, a status bar showing street, town and country, in-game settings, offline play from cache, and in-game update notices round it out.
This is an open-source Python companion app that runs on your computer. It mods the BeamNG.Drive game (importantly applying this seamlessly and presenting the BeamNG.Earth option under Freeroam in the game. It works for Linux with an AppImage file, or with Windows using an EXE file.
It is not difficult to get started with it at all. For Linux I just did this:* Installed the AppImage file.* Started Steam Games and ensured BeamNG.drive was up-to-date.* Started the AppImage application, and it did the mod and then opened BeamNG.drive.* I went to Freeroam, and clicked on BeamNG.Earth.
I decided to test it out a bit around Cape Town. The Cape Town part of the map does not have the Lidar accuracy that Europe and other areas have, but the general heights are correct and quite a few 3D structures are where they should be e.g. the stadium, lower cable way station, and all the roads. Cars are driving on the left side of the road as it should be. While driving down a road it does display the names, but if you're familiar with Cape Town you'd see the roads are all where they need to be.
I actually drove from the Cape Town CBD all the way to my house, and I could follow the roads by just know which ones to take.
I started out above from the parking area on Signal Hill. That view is perfect, even with the few pine trees that stand up there.
Rounding the bend from the Signal Hill parking area, brings you to this spot where you get another great view of Table Mountain from Signal Hill.
I arrived at the lower cable way station and the building is where it should be. Quite a few buildings though, including stadia and pyramids, are shaped out of standard buildings, so they may not be 3D accurate. It seems though that updates are being done regularly, so this could improve over time.
I'm still at the lower cable way station, and have my door open to enjoy the view over Cape Town CBD with Devil's Peak seen on the right side.
Above, I'm still parked at the lower cable way station. In the background lies Cape Town CBD with Signal Hill on the left.
Now this is impressive! I've driven down through the CBD and past the International Convention Centre, and I've stopped here on the elevated freeway, FW de Klerk Boulevard, and am amazed that the actual elevated roads are shown. OK that on/off ramp on the left does not exist, but still, this is pretty good considering this is auto-generated.
Same location as above, but looking towards Devil's Peak. We can clearly see the elevated freeway curving around towards Nelson Mandela Boulevard.
I'm now where FW de Klerk Boulevard merged into Nelson Mandela Boulevard, and have stopped a bit further along it. You can see Lion's Head in the background, but also the Cape Town Civic Centre, which is the large buildings to the right.
By way of an example, look at the above Google Street View image from around the same location.
Driving up Nelson Mandela Boulevard feels quite correct as it rises gently up towards hospital hill (as we call it). But here I did start to encounter glitches. All along this stretch the overhead pedestrian bridges were not at their correct heights. Even further along Settler's Way, some overhead road bridges were basically flat on the ground. As you can see above, the bridge is solid!
Press m brings up the map view. Here you can zoom out and select any spot on Earth, and then opt to auto drive or to teleport to it. There are also some example locations on the right side, and you can save favourite places there too.
All in all a very nice addition to BeamNG.drive. The game is already so interesting, especially since they added a full-blown rally driving addition too. The whole user interface has been fully overhauled too. And of course it's claim to fame realistic physics is still all there.
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GadgeteerZA
BeamNG.Earth Is A 1:1 Scale Streamed Earth For The BeamNG.drive Game
BeamNG.Earth lets you drive anywhere on the planet at 1:1 scale, on real elevation and aerial or satellite imagery, with view distance out to a curved
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