BeamNG JBeam Editor

This is a lightweight visualizer and tool for working with the physics definition files of BeamNG (called jbeam).

Install via the Visual Studio Code marketplace here

Project contributors, please read contributing.md!

⚠️ Experimental ⚠️

Warning: this plugin is still very experimental and might crash. We are working on bugfixes and stability improvements

Features

• custom syntax for jbeam that ignores missing commas

  

• Outline / Symbol provider: you can jump between parts and sections with the outline window

  

• Custom Json / JBeam parsing that is very close to the actual used parer that provides more useful errors and warnings with ranges

  

  

• Extensive hover information: the parsed object and a clickable breadcrumb

  

  

  

• Documentation integration to lookup the value, key and path of the hovered item in the docs to provide useful information. Currently looks for the breadcrumb: beams > optional, the key of the hovered item beams > id2 or the word itself FLT_MAX

  

• 3D Preview of the JBeam

  

  

  

• Node multi selection

  

• Beam multi selection

  

• Mesh multi selection

  

• Node translation gizmo support

  

• Flexmesh translation / rotation support

  

• Mirror planes and symmetry detection (with error support)

  

  

• Ground smart helper

  

  

• visualize current part or all parts

  

• triangle and quad visualization, with shading that shows the surface angle and the front/back side

  

• transparency slider in the 3D toolbar, which fades meshes and collision surfaces

• node label opacity slider and smaller default labels

• slot checks for slots and slots2: missing table header, missing name, allowTypes that is not a list, slot names used more than once and parts that define both slot sections

• variable evaluation for $name, $=expression, $.name, $>>components.path, and slot variables

• exact $components values from the connected player vehicle, with current-part values as the offline fallback

• lazy JBeam archive: only the current vehicle, /vehicles/common, and open vehicle namespaces are parsed

• Settings shortcut in the top right corner:

  

• Extensive settings, live updating the 3D scene as well:

  

  

• BeamNG Log file syntax highlighter and parser included

  

Known Issues

• Mesh functions are a bit unstable still. Especially if you change tabs, etc while it loads the data.

Unsupported jbeam features

Sections with no 3D visualization, sorted by how often they are used in the stock vehicles:

section	uses	note
pressureWheels (and hubWheels)	~4500	no wheel visualization at all, the largest gap
powertrain, controller, energyStorage	~4000 total	data only, a powertrain graph view is missing
props	~2240	meshes are drawn, but they can not be picked in 3D
slidenodes + rails	~1475 / ~1410	a node sliding along a rail of nodes
triggers2	~1045	trigger volumes
couplerNodes	~840	coupling points
glowMap	~820	light glow positions
cameraExternal, camerasInternal, cameraChase	~910 total	camera positions
refNodes	~400	reference nodes that define the vehicle axis
mirrors	~295	mirror positions

Other known gaps:

• the slot chain is not followed: parts are read one file at a time, so part config (PC) files can not be loaded
• "$+key" and other section merge operators of the slot system are not applied
• external include() expressions stay unresolved

Wishlist

• JBeam beautifier: clean up the file, format everything nicely

• make grid and ground plane being as big as the vehicle at least for big vehicles

• picking flexbodies and props in 3d space

• working slot system: part chain loading support, part config (PC) loading

• powertrain viz

• trigger viz

• variables debug UI

• specific help for sections using proper error checking and links to documentation

• Robustness and future-proofing: Add exception handling and error mitigation to the code so it will continue working in the future

• zip mod loading?

• convert all JS files to proper JS modules / remove hacks

• implement more providers from here

• use more icons throughout the UI: from here

• multi-line selection of elements also working in 3d space

• direction connection to BeamNG: sync/reload automatically

• highlighting of scopes

• dedicated data view

• dedicated documentation view

• walkthrough: https://code.visualstudio.com/api/references/contribution-points#contributes.walkthroughs

• getting started page

Requirements

None

Troubleshooting

JBeam file association

If the file association does not work out of the box, pelase configure your setup:

1. Open a jbeam file. On the bottom right corner of the window, click on the language mode:

   

2. In the resulting popup, select Configure File Association for '.jbeam':

   

3. enter jbeam - It should look like this:

   

If all worked, it should show up like this now:

Release Notes

0.5.0

• Features:
  • slots2 support: hover documentation for all slot arguments, part name completion in PC files now resolves allowTypes / denyTypes instead of comparing the slot name with the part slot type
  • Slot checks for slots and slots2: missing table header, missing name, allowTypes that is not a list, slot names used more than once and parts that define both slot sections
  • quads section visualization
  • Shaded collision surfaces: a key light shows the surface angle, back faces are darker and silhouettes are more opaque, so stacked surfaces can be told apart
  • Transparency slider in the 3D toolbar, which fades meshes and collision surfaces
  • Safe evaluation of jbeam variables and expressions, including variables passed through slots2
  • Rows with a resolved disable: true option are not visualized
  • JBeam files are loaded by related namespace instead of parsing every vehicle during activation
  • Node label opacity slider and a smaller default label scale
  • Live processed $components, tuning variables, and active parts from the connected player vehicle
• Bugfixes:
  • The perspective button now matches the camera. Before it showed off while the view was perspective
  • Hover documentation lookup was broken and never found an entry
  • Part name completion in PC files never offered a part, because the part slot type is moved into the part options while the tables are processed
  • The collision surface buffers grew on every edit and the shader was recompiled on every edit
  • Mesh loading no longer repeatedly scans every common DAE or mixes callbacks after file switches
  • Game DAE files are included in the webview resource roots
  • Connected vehicle context uses serialized TCP writes and safe reconnect handling

0.4.3

• Bugfixes:
  • Tweaked tooltip size
  • Fixed node positions displayed in wrong coordinate system
  • Fixed visualization status bar being larger than it should be, which was preventing a large portion of the UI from being interactable
  • Rounding node position to 3 decimal places after moving nodes

0.4.2

• Features:
  • Tweaked node visualization tooltip size
  • Tweaked BeamNG connection status bar message

0.4.1

• Features:
  • Added status bar button to toggle connecting with BeamNG

0.4.0

• Features:

  • Node translation gizmo support - now you can translate nodes with a gizmo

    

  • Flexmesh translation / rotation support - now fits the visualization in the simulation

    

  • new 3D view toolbar - quick switches for most commonly used tools

    

  • Mirror planes and symmetry support - highlights nodes across any detected mirror planes

    

  • Symmetry error detection - detects where the symmetry across mirror planes seems to be broken

    

  • JBeam legend pane - shows a legend of the JBeam types and colors

    

  • Hydro and torsion hydro visualization

  • Font changed to Cascadia Code for better readability

0.3.92

• Bugfixes:
  • Duplicate beam detector now works pretty much like in game

0.3.91

• Bugfixes:
  • Duplicate beam detector now works like in game

0.3.9

• Bugfixes:
  • Fixed JBeam file/parts counter
  • Fixed JBeam diagnostics clearing on closing file
  • Tweaked diagnostic message for duplicate beams and degenerate triangles a bit

0.3.8

• Bugfixes:
  • Fixed bug where "tableSchema" processing didn't happen due to even just JSON warnings existing, which isn't a problem to process.
• Features:
  • added duplicate beam detection for current file
  • added degenerate triangle detection

0.3.7

• Bugfixes:
  • fixed jbeam being hidden under z=0 plane
  • fixed node label resizing in perspective mode when rotating camera
  • no longer rendering "virtual" jbeam objects as it can be confusing
• Features:
  • added torsion bar visualization
  • added a setting "Show Node IDs" to show node ids regardless of where your cursor is in the jbeam file
  • "focus Selected JBeam" enabled by default and works with other JBeam objects

0.3.6

• Bugfixes:
  • tweaked node sizing
  • tweaked node label sizing in orthographic mode

0.3.5

• Bugfixes:
  • fixed plugin not working under Linux
• Features:
  • now mouse double click in order to select nodes
  • added ability toggle focusing on selected nodes (off by default)

0.3.4

• Bugfixes:
  • fixed bug with duplicate diagnoses, when the archivar processes all jbeam files, and then you open a jbeam file, and you modify it
  • fixed showing nodes in 3D view from a different vehicle
  • ignore processing "slotType" with "processTableWithSchemaDestructive"
  • in 3D scene view, virtual nodes colored blue and have "(v)" appended to the node name
  • fixed JBeam files parsed counter
  • fixed parsing jbeam/sjson files that don't have an outer object
  • more parsing bugs fixed
  • fixed/updated jbeam/part config file icons thanks to Sopze92

0.3.3

• Bugfixes:
  • fixed syntax checker not working in some cases
  • fixed displaying duplicate diagnostics
  • fixed JBeam file/part counter
• Features:
  • added ability to detect duplicate dictionary keys

0.3.2

• Bugfixes:
  • fixed tooltip textures not updating correctly
  • improved label scaling
  • improved error handling on sim sync
  • fixed CTRL + SHIFT + P : "Sync with simulation"
  • improved simconnection protocol to have message identifiers and lengths

0.3.1

• Bugfixes:
  • fixed node selection scrolling the viewport when leaving and re-entering the 3D view

0.3.0

• Bugfixes:
  • improved groundplane size for large models
  • improved stability
  • nodes are picked in 2d space for better accurancy
  • exchanged left/right mouse button for pan/rotate
  • fixed node sizes in orthographic view
  • fixed json number parsing for numbers with a leading plus sign
• Features:
  • completely new json parser with better and improved metadata support and improved error diagnostics
  • added 3D line to mark the origin 0,0,0
  • beamng.log parser
  • triangles are not visible unless editing that section
  • only show 3d meshes if in flexbodies section
  • support for floating 3D labels. Used to display node names right now
  • added simconnection: will connect to the simulation and interact with it (if running)
  • added knowledge of all existing jbeam files for part finding reasons
  • added partconfig parsing and completion basics - experimental

0.2.5

• Bugfixes:

  • fixed empty sections crashing the parser
  • improved error handling sjson/table parsing
  • improved stability with multiple webviews open
  • improved stability with changing documents
  • fixed memory leaks due to improper geometry/material management
  • Fixed meshes disappearing: fixed normal and bounds calculation

• Features:

  • Added extension settings. Open with Open Settings on top right corner
  • Added new settings
    • Enable/Disable hover
    • Enable/Disable hover highlight with the breadCrumb
    • Enable/Disable hover documentation
    • Enable/Disable hover data
    • Enable/Disable mesh default loading
    • FPS Limit
    • Load common folder

0.2.4

• fixed leaking options in the table parser
• removed ground floor for now
• implemented triangles section visualizer

0.2.3

• Improved readme a bit

0.2.2

• Remove icon theme to not overwrite any user themes

0.2.1

• Fixed Mesh loading crashing when the opened file is outside the workspace. Enforcing a workspace now and showing an error message.

0.2

• fixed documentation a bit up

0.1

Initial release :)