Using BeamNGpy to control scenario start routine

Hi,

I was wondering if it is possible to use BeamNGpy to control the scenario start routine including the initial message which is shown to the user.

self.beamng.load_scenario(scenario)
self.beamng.start_scenario()
self.beamng.switch_vehicle(vehicle=player_vehicle)

For example, when I was testing the above with BeamNG.tech.v0.25.4.0 sometimes it would show the scenario start message, but other times it would show briefly and go away and give the player direct control of the vehicle without interacting with the GUI.

Would it be possible to:

• configure scenario start message, including title and description?
• configure if the GUI appears or not (i.e. completely disable it)?

[aivora-beamng]

The only small thing which I noticed was that if the player clicks ESC key ➡️ pause menu ➡️ ESC key again to go back, then the scenario start dialog with Start button appears again. I was expecting the start_scenario() method to clear that once and for all.

Ah, I see, thanks for reporting! Unfortunately, this is a bug. It will be fixed in the next major release.

I also have another question regarding the Scenario class, what are checkpoints? and how do checkpoints differ from waypoints?

The waypoints field in the Scenario class is unused (we’ll remove it to decrease confusion). To get the waypoints of a scenario, you can call the function Scenario.find_waypoints().

Waypoints are nodes of the navgraph - you can think of them as named positions in a map. If you call find_waypoints, you’ll see that there are tens of waypoints already predefined on most of the maps.

Checkpoints of a scenario are positions that are needed to be driven through in order to finish a scenario. To create checkpoints in your scenario, you can call the function Scenario.add_checkpoints (see the example below).

If you run the example, you can see that every checkpoint created through the add_checkpoints function has its associated waypoint.

from beamngpy import BeamNGpy, Scenario, Vehicle

bng = BeamNGpy('localhost', 64256)
bng.open()

scenario = Scenario('west_coast_usa', 'waypoint demo')
vehicle = Vehicle('ego', model='etk800')
scenario.add_vehicle(vehicle, pos=(-712.76, 105.05, 118.66), rot_quat=(0.0010, 0.0057, 0.9187, -0.3949))

positions = [(-705.03, 112.40, 118.67), (-696.67, 120.39, 118.65), (-687.03, 129.76, 118.15)]
scales = [(1, 1, 1)] * 3
ids = ['my_waypoint_1', 'my_waypoint_2', 'my_waypoint_3']
scenario.add_checkpoints(positions, scales, ids)
scenario.make(bng)

bng.load_scenario(scenario)
bng.start_scenario()

waypoints = {waypoint.name: waypoint for waypoint in scenario.find_waypoints()}
print(f'{len(waypoints)} waypoints found.')
print(f'Waypoints: [', ', '.join(waypoints.keys()), ']')

vehicle.ai_drive_in_lane(True)
vehicle.ai_set_waypoint('my_waypoint_3')

[purple-mesh]

@aivora-beamng thanks for the explanation and demo.