Flowgraph Visual Scripting

Flowgraph is BeamNG's built-in visual scripting system. It lets you create scenarios, missions, and gameplay logic by connecting nodes in a graph — no Lua coding required. If you've used Unreal Blueprints or Unity Visual Scripting, the concept is similar.

---

Opening the Editor

1. Press F11 to open the World Editor
2. Go to Window → Gameplay → Flowgraph Editor

The editor shows a canvas where you place and connect nodes. Right-click to open the node browser and add nodes to the graph.

---

Core Concepts

Nodes

Nodes are functional blocks that perform a specific action — spawn a vehicle, wait for a timer, display UI, check a condition. Each node has input pins (left side) and output pins (right side).

Pins

Pins are color-coded by data type:

• Green — Flow pins (execution order)
• Yellow — Vector data
• Other colors — Numbers, strings, booleans, etc.

Flow pins control when a node executes. Data pins pass what data to use.

Links

Links are connections between pins. Drag from an output pin to an input pin to create a link. Flow links determine execution order; data links pass values between nodes.

---

Creating a Graph

1. Right-click on the canvas → browse the Node Library
2. Add an onUpdate node (triggers every frame) or an event trigger
3. Add action nodes (spawn vehicle, display message, set timer)
4. Connect flow pins to define execution order
5. Connect data pins to pass values
6. Press Play to run the graph

---

Key Node Categories

The flowgraph system includes hundreds of nodes organized into categories:

Browse the full library in the editor via Window → Node Library for previews and descriptions of each node.

---

Modules

Modules provide shared state and services to nodes within a flowgraph. They act as persistent backends that nodes can reference.

Modules follow a lifecycle: init(mgr) → executionStarted() → onUpdate(dtReal, dtSim, dtRaw) → executionStopped() → clear(). The moduleOrder property controls which modules update first.

---

Stategraphs

For missions with multiple phases (intro, gameplay, retry, success, failure), flowgraph supports stategraphs — state machines where each state contains its own flowgraph. This is how the game's built-in missions manage phase transitions.

---

Connecting to Missions

Flowgraphs are the primary way to build missions and scenarios in BeamNG. A typical mission structure:

1. Setup phase — Spawn vehicles, position camera, display intro UI
2. Gameplay phase — Monitor objectives (checkpoints, timers, damage thresholds)
3. End phase — Display results, award progress, clean up

The career and mission systems use flowgraph extensively — exploring the game's built-in missions is one of the best ways to learn.

---

Tips

• Group nodes with comments to keep complex graphs readable
• Test iteratively — press Play frequently to verify small changes
• Explore the Node Library — there are hundreds of nodes; browsing them reveals capabilities you might not expect
• Use subgraphs to encapsulate reusable logic into prefabs
• Check built-in missions for real-world examples of flowgraph patterns

---

See Also

• Flowgraph Base Module — Module lifecycle and factory pattern
• Flowgraph Builder — Visual rendering and node layout internals
• Flowgraph Variable Storage — Variable persistence system
• Hook Catalog — Hooks that flowgraph nodes can listen to