openNG.drive

A launcher for BeamNG.drive. You choose the car, the time of day, the weather and the map in one window, and the game starts right on that road. It also handles BeamMP for driving with friends, and gives you a different pause menu inside the game.

Download for Windows

What you get

Version	1.6.3
Download	8 MB zip, with the BeamMP installer
Needs	Windows 10 or 11 and BeamNG.drive 0.40 from Steam
Downloaded	– times
Price	Free

The first of three steps: the car. Time and weather come next, then the map and where on it you start.

Everything set before the game loads

Normally you load a map, wait, open the vehicle menu, pick a car, then change the time and weather. Here you do that first, in one place, and BeamNG.drive opens with all of it already done.

Every car and preset you have, mods included
Time of day, clouds, fog, wind, rain and snow, plus the temperature over the day
The start point, picked on a map of the level
“Last drive” starts the same setup again with one click

Time and weather step: a time slider, weather presets and detailed sliders — Weather and the temperature over the day, set before the start.

A different menu when you press Esc

In a game you started with the launcher, Esc opens a panel on the left. The game stays visible behind it and the mouse works as usual. From there you can:

repair the car, reset it or put it back on the road
switch cars or spawn a second one next to you
open BeamNG's vehicle setup straight on parts, tuning, paint or occupants
change weather, time and temperature, spawn traffic and police, use slow motion
start split screen, switch VR on, or change the screen mode and graphics

Start the game from Steam, or close the launcher, and you get BeamNG's own menu as usual.

The pause menu on the left with tiles for parts, tuning, paint and design, occupants and options, the paused game behind it — “Customise vehicle” opens BeamNG's own vehicle setup on the part you pick.

Weather and time in the pause menu, with average, daily low and daily high temperature and a curve over the day — Weather and temperature while you drive.

Sliders for AI traffic, police and parked cars — Traffic, police and parked cars.

Changing the car from the pause menu — Changing the car without leaving the map.

The loading screen with the chosen map, car and weather — While the map loads, you see what you picked.

Driving with friends

Host a BeamMP server from the launcher and send your friends the short code it gives you. They paste it in, and they spawn on your map in the car they chose. Mods you use are shared with them.

You can also browse the public BeamMP servers with map pictures and player counts, or play career mode together through CareerMP. The BeamMP installer comes in the zip.

The Multiplayer page: hosting on the left, joining with a code on the right — Host on the left, join with a code on the right.

Settings in the launcher

Graphics, DLSS and FSR, VR, controls, steering wheel, camera and sound can all be changed before you start. If the game runs slowly on your PC, performance mode turns down the expensive settings and puts yours back when you switch it off.

The launcher is in English, German, French and Russian, and it updates itself when a new version is out.

Installing

You need Windows 10 or 11 and BeamNG.drive from Steam.

Unzip the downloadRight-click openNG.drive.zip, choose “Extract All…” and put it somewhere like D:\. You get a folder called openNG.drive.
Start openNG.drive.exeThe first time, Windows may show “Windows protected your PC”. Click “More info”, then “Run anyway”. Windows shows that for programs that aren't signed with a paid certificate.
Pick a car and driveThe launcher finds BeamNG.drive by itself. If it doesn't, choose the game folder under Setup. For multiplayer, go to Multiplayer and click Install next to BeamMP.

Questions

Is this made by BeamNG?: No. It's a fan project, not connected to BeamNG GmbH or the BeamMP team. It starts the game you bought on Steam.
Does it change my game?: The game folder stays as it is. The launcher writes to your BeamNG user folder only: settings you change in the launcher, the files of the pause menu, and a backup of your graphics settings while performance mode is on.
How do I uninstall it?: Delete the folder. Everything the launcher keeps for itself is in openNG-data next to the exe.
What is the “launcher open right now” number?: Each open launcher adds one to a public counter every 15 seconds. No name or other data about you is sent. You can turn it off in the launcher under Settings, Launcher.
Was it made with AI?: Partly. openNG.drive was built with the help of Claude, an AI assistant by Anthropic. What it should do, the testing and the decisions come from someone who plays BeamNG a lot.

Something else, or found a bug? Ask on Discord.

New in 1.6.3

Bug fixes for the pause menu and the launcher.

All updates Support it on PayPal Discord