Game features

Traffic, trailers, photo mode, replays and more

Photomode

How to use Photo Mode in BeamNG.drive: camera settings, known issues and tips for taking better screenshots.

Overview

Photomode allows players to take spectacular screenshots of the game, with the ability to adjust various graphical and camera settings to get the best look.

To open Photomode, open the in-game menu (on PC, with the ESC key by default) and select it in the menu on top.

Camera

When enabling Photomode, smooth free camera is enabled. The controls are the same as for the standard free camera. The table below shows the default keyboard and mouse bindings on PC. You can see and change the bindings for your controller in Options → Controls → Bindings.

Binding
Action
Binding
W A S D
Action
Move Camera
Binding
Right Mouse Button + Mouse Movement
Action
Rotate Camera

Interface

The Photomode interface is divided into multiple sections.

  1. On the top left corner are buttons to take screenshots in various ways:
    • Take a screenshot
    • Take a big screenshot (approximately x4 the resolution)
    • Take a Steam screenshot (Steam version on PC only)
    • Take a screenshot and upload it to the BeamNG server
  2. In the bottom right corner is the Photomode settings’ panel. Here you can find located all the settings, such as:
    • Camera settings (Field of View, Speed, Roll)
    • Time of Day and Sun Direction
    • Filters
    • Bloom, Depth of Field and Ambient Occlusion Controls
    • Post Effects toggles and settings
  3. On the bottom left corner is a button to exit Photomode
All changes are temporary, and are reset when leaving Photomode.

Issues

PostFX settings weren’t reset

Closing the game abruptly while in Photomode may not reset the parameters properly. In this case, use the Reset PostFX Settings button located in Options -> Graphics to force reset those.

Game is frozen

This usually happens when you take a Huge screenshot. This produces intensive load on your computer or console. Please wait.

Tips & Tricks

  • Photomode is a powerful tool not only for screenshots. Recording clips can take advantage of the Photomode settings and smoothed camera by just hiding the User Interface
  • On PC, access Photomode while using the Path Camera tool to be able to access its features

Shortcuts

Some useful default keyboard shortcuts on PC are:

Binding
Action
Binding
CTRL + ALT + P
Action
Toggle photomode
Binding
CTRL + P
Action
Take normal screenshot
Binding
ALT + P
Action
Take big screenshot (up to 8K)
Binding
ALT + Mouse Wheel
Action
Change camera speed
Binding
SHIFT + W A S D
Action
Double camera speed
Binding
ALT + U
Action
Toggle User Interface
Binding
SHIFT + Page Up/Down
Action
Zoom in/out

Custom Filters

The filters relies on the Color Correction Ramps PostFX features, and can the selection can be easily expanded with custom made ones. An image editing software is required (Gimp, Krita, Photoshop, etc.)

This is only possible in the PC version, because it requires access to the game files and the user folder.

  1. Take a screenshot of the game and open it in your image editing softare
  2. Add BeamNG.drive\gameengine.zip\art\postfx\default_color_ramp.png to your image, in a new layer
  3. Use the Color Curve adjustments to do your changes
  4. When you are happy with the changes, export the color ramp with the color curve applied. Name it as you wish.
  5. Move the file to your user folder and place it inside:
    • Create a folder art in your user folder
    • Create a folder postfx inside the art folder
    • Move your file into postfx folder
      • Example: 0.33/art/postfx/mycorrection.png
The color ramp size must be 256x1. PNG format is recommended.

Last modified: December 29, 2018

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