Refnodes

Ref nodes are used to define the orientation and position of the car, as well as the position of the cameras. They consist in a set of 4 nodes that define a coordinate system.

Important — refnodes set the vehicle coordinate system for the whole car.

The ref:, left:, back:, and up: nodes define BeamNG vehicle axes: +X = left (left:), +Y = backward (back:), +Z = up (up:). Forward is −Y, not +X. All node positions and BeamNG.tech sensor mounts use this frame. See Coordinate systems for diagrams and world-space notes.

A single set of refnodes must be present on the vehicle at all times, meaning this should be part of your chassis or body jbeam. A vehicle with no refnodes will fail to spawn.

While refnodes do not need to be precisely centered in the vehicle, all refnodes need to be perfectly aligned with each other in their respective direction, otherwise you might experience camera and/or spawning issues, like the vehicle spawning upside down. You might need to do some adjustments to your jbeam for this to be possible, and in some cases the addition of nodes that serve solely as refNodes might be required.

Required arguments

"refNodes":[
    ["ref:", "back:", "left:", "up:"]
    ["fr9", "fr10", "fr9l", "fr11"],
],

ref:

name

string

type

A node near the center and lowest point of the vehicle body

This node doesn’t need to be in the 0,0,0 position, but should be close to it.

back:

name

string

type

A node directly behind the ref node (y axis)

left:

name

string

type

A node directly left of the ref node (x axis)

up:

name

string

type

A node directly above the ref node (z axis)

Optional arguments

leftCorner:

name

string

type

A node at the front left corner of the vehicle.

Deprecated.

rightCorner:

name

string

type

A node at the front right corner of the vehicle.

Deprecated.

Refnodes

Required arguments

ref:

back:

left:

up:

Optional arguments

leftCorner:

rightCorner:

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