BeamNG.drive version 0.39 is now available, bringing the driving sandbox its largest update yet. The release covers nearly every part of the game, from lighting and menus to vehicle physics, rallying, modding, audio, and memory use. The full announcement is available through the official Steam news post.
The visual work starts with a rebuilt shadow system. Shadows should remain attached to vehicles and other objects while the camera or vehicle moves, and VR shadows should now line up correctly for both eyes. Version 0.39 also improves GTAO, adds auto exposure, reduces flickering as the sun moves, and smooths the transitions between shadow cascades.
HDR output is now supported on Vulkan and Direct3D 12. The update also uses inverse-square light attenuation, volumetric clouds, and a physically based night sky that draws on astronomical data. The sky tracks latitude, longitude, date, and time of day, with Milky Way rendering and a constellation database included. Daytime lighting receives a new multiple-scattering sky model and dynamic ambient light based on spherical harmonics.
Those upgrades may affect performance on some systems. The default graphics presets should look better than before, but players who are close to their hardware limits may need to lower a few settings. The team also spent time reducing memory use during loading, after maps load, while switching between maps, and when spawning several vehicles.
A cleaner interface and a much better Photo Mode
The pause menu has been rebuilt around better gamepad support. A new vehicle tab lets players manage every vehicle spawned in a level, either one at a time or in groups. UI apps are now called HUD apps, while layout editing has moved into the System tab.
Replay management now lives inside the pause menu instead of requiring a separate app. The Options menu has also moved to Vue, allowing heavy graphics settings to be applied while the game is running. Display changes that need confirmation use a countdown and revert automatically when players do not accept them. The new system is also more moddable, with support for custom Options tabs and buttons.
Photo Mode gets its own overhaul. Camera, Scene, Effects, Overlays, and Capture sections offer controls for settings such as field of view, time of day, shadows, depth of field, autofocus, supersampling, and downscaling. Camera, Scene, and Effects presets can be saved with screenshots in metadata JSON files, then shared or loaded again from the new in-game gallery.
A flash option helps light up dark scenes, while Motion Capture briefly unpauses the game to create motion blur in a shot.
Meet the Cherrier Ardente
The new Cherrier Ardente is a two-door coupe built on the FCV platform. It comes with exterior and interior customization options, racing and street liveries, contrasting pillar and roof colors, and other upgrades.
Powertrain choices include front-wheel drive and all-wheel drive gasoline and diesel variants, along with rear-wheel drive and all-wheel drive electric versions. Every vehicle also receives movable sunvisors, which should make bright driving conditions a little less annoying.
Vehicle lighting has been rebuilt as well. Headlights and fog lights now project patterns based on the vehicle’s market and technology. Brightness, range, and color depend on the bulb type and wattage, while light materials use realistic nits values instead of the older emissive system.
Airflow now affects nearby vehicles
Version 0.39 expands the aerodynamic simulation beyond individual cars. Moving vehicles can now influence the air around nearby vehicles, enabling slipstreaming, bump drafting, and side drafting.
The same system applies to physics-enabled props. A fast-moving truck passing close to a flagpole, for example, may knock it over without making contact. That should give players plenty of new ways to test BeamNG.drive’s physics outside of traditional racing.
New rally content and a freeroam tutorial
Rally Mode receives its first all-gravel Rally Loop, NGRC Rally Utah 2026. It includes four special stages across 16.4 kilometers, with the complete loop covering 30 kilometers.
Pacenotes now come in three styles. Pro notes are written and voiced by Alex Kihurani, the 2024 British Rally Champion co-driver, and are tailored to every stage. Enthusiast notes contain nearly 200 distinct calls, while Casual notes use simpler instructions. The Enthusiast and Casual versions can be edited, and all pacenotes support mods.
Visual pacenotes have also been refreshed. An experimental Virtual Competitors option adds rivals with different driving traits at the end of stages and loops. Penalties and recovery have been adjusted to be less punishing, with further rally changes covering difficulty, repairs, and target times in the complete v0.39 patch notes.
Players who are new to freeroam can now use a tutorial from Main Menu > Quickstart Experiences. It covers controls, camera use, recovery, spawning and removing vehicles, walking mode, customization, and the map view. More than 50 new achievements are also available through Career Mode (WIP), freeroam missions, the freeroam tutorial, and vehicle modifications.
More tools for levels, audio, and mods
West Coast, USA receives updated building materials, improved levels of detail, and night lighting. East Coast, USA gains stop sign data, while foliage and groundcover receive optimization work. Lighting and environment setups across the levels now use updated skies, clouds, moons, fog, cubemaps, reflections, and environment cubemaps where possible.
For creators, BeamNG.drive now includes a source file for terrain and backdrop creation inside Blender. It supports procedural backdrop meshes for maps and is aimed at modders who do not have paid terrain or material software.
All levels also receive updated ambience, and the new Forest Audio Editor lets creators build dynamic wind and vegetation sounds from FMOD events tied to different biomes. The system reacts to details around the camera, including forest item size, density, and direction.
One change affects existing license plate mods. The new license plate renderer uses less memory and runs faster, but older license plate mods are no longer backwards compatible. Mod creators can update their work using the license plate tutorial.
BeamNG.drive v0.39 is a wide-ranging update with a sharper visual foundation, a friendlier interface, and plenty of new toys for racers, photographers, and modders. Share your thoughts on the update in the comments, and follow us on X, Bluesky, YouTube, and Instagram.
