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AI and Traffic

How to enable AI and traffic in BeamNG.drive: radial menu, AI Control and Traffic apps, AI modes and AI debug modes.

The AI feature allows the Artificial Intelligence to take over one or more vehicles, and drive using several different modes. This articles introduces its fundamentals and use.

 Activating AI

AI can be accessed and activated in different ways:

  • Radial Menu
  • AI Control App
  • Traffic App

 Radial Menu

The Radial Menu offers the easiest way to access most of the AI features.

This menu appears when you open the in-game menu (on PC, with the ESC key by default).

Then navigate to the AI button, and from there all AI modes can be activated by simply selecting the corresponding slice.

Modes like Chase, Flee, Follow, Random will be applied to all available vehicles except the player’s one.

Some AI modes will appear only if more than one vehicle has been spawned

The Traffic section will open a submenu that enables you to quickly spawn and manage traffic vehicles:

  • Spawn (Normal) to create traffic with a typical group of vehicles
  • Spawn (Police) to create traffic that includes a few police vehicles
  • Start Traffic to enable traffic mode for all other vehicles, including ones that you manually spawned in

When using the Radial Menu to create traffic, it will use your settings from Options -> Gameplay.

For example:

  • Use vehicle pooling spawns and cycles through a larger group of vehicles, at the cost of loading time and memory
  • Use parked vehicles can spawn on maps that contain parking spots data

 AI Control App

This app offers several settings to tweak the AI behavior. This app is mainly for advanced users and developers.

The AI modes will be applied only to the vehicle it has been activated on.

 Traffic App

Like the AI Control App, this app offers several settings for the Traffic mode. This app is mainly for advanced users and developers.

 AI Modes

Mode
Description
Mode
Random
Description
The AI will drive on random routes (if any are available)
Mode
Chase
Description
The AI will try to catch the player. At least two vehicles are needed
Mode
Flee
Description
The AI will try to escape the player. At least two vehicles are needed
Mode
Follow
Description
The AI will try to follow the player, keeping a distance. At least two vehicles are needed
Mode
Manual
Description
Allows the AI to drive to a determined position
Mode
Stopping
Description
The AI will stop, disabling any AI mode
Mode
Span
Description
The vehicle will travel semi-randomly, favoring unexplored areas for greater path variety
Mode
Traffic
Description
The vehicle will travel randomly following the traffic rules

 AI Debug Modes

These options are only meant for debugging purposes.

Mode
Description
Mode
Target
Description
Draws a red dot that indicates the current target of the AI
Mode
Speeds
Description
Provides the planned speeds and route to be taken by the AI vehicle
Mode
Trajectory
Description
Provides the detailed driving line actually taken by the AI vehicle
Mode
Route
Description
Indicates the map path and destination of the AI

Check out this forum post for more details.

Last modified: March 20, 2021
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