If I wanted to create a map from scratch, where would I start? BTW is this in the right thread. Im a noob to the forums
Nadeox1, that's your scenario tutorial! Jake Miller, there isn't a complete tutorial for map creation in this game. You don't really want to make a map completely from scratch - if that's what you wanted you'd already know what to do. What you want is to start with the 'shell' of a map with a few things already put in place. Let's see what we can do for you here: Find the stock Gridmap level in a place such as C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\BeamNG.drive\content\levels\GridMap.zip Extract the actual Gridmap folder from that and put it in C:\Users\your_user_name\Documents\BeamNG.drive\levels - this will become your working directory. Use this handy tool to fix the Gridmap into a new level. Use the "Duplicate" command, not the "Rename" command. Edit the info.json file for your new level, fix the name etc. Do not attempt to remove the preview image until you get a new one to replace it with. Delete all *.prefab files and all the files in the scenarios folder. Install Notepad++, it will come in handy before long. Load up the game, open your level, and drop into the editor with F11. Changes you save will go to your level folder. F1 to get into the Object Editor. Pause physics with "J" on your keyboard. In your Scene Tree, delete everything other than: Sky / Player Drop Points / CameraBookmarks / Physics / vegetation / thePlayer / AIDecalWaypointsGroup File - Create Blank Terrain Choose your settings, then put the terrain under your truck. You're on your own from here! Tips: Don't forget to pause physics when you're putting in work. Many changes cause the terrain to lose collision and you'll need to F11 back into the game before unpausing physics - or your vehicle will fall repeatedly. Only 1 terrain will have collision. For now do not attempt to have 2 terrains in the level. Moving the Spawn Sphere simply will not have an effect until you completely unload and reload the level. Don't forget to save! Make backups...
@torsion , why not copy smallgrid instead? Surely it would eliminate the steps of deleting prefabs, etc?
Good question @Dummiesman, and it took me a few seconds to remember exactly why. Gridmap comes with functional: materials (for Terrain layers [which is key IMO] as well as at least one or two Decal Roads) vegetation objects (that reminds me that I forgot to include instructions for erasing the existing vegetation) time-of-day object meshes (again, it's just a handful but better than nothing for a beginner) East Coast USA or Jungle Rock Island might be better, but I haven't personally stepped through this process on either of those so... EDIT: To clarify, this reduces the initial need for beginners to copy over lots of files, manually modify materials.cs files, etc.
Pfsh. Real map makers just open Notepad++ and start typing their .mis files. I wouldn't really consider the materials that come with Gridmap to be more important than the emptiness of Gridmap pure. Sure, it'll allow you to start painting terrain off the bat, but copying and editing material.cs (and related) files is so integral to the current map making process, that it's probably best to get started with it.
Probably 1080p. It doesn't make a big difference as far as I can see though. @ typing up a fresh .mis file. I see your point Scepheo. I suppose it's a matter of perspective. The learning curve can be steep, so a good hook is valuable to retaining people's interest (IMO). My feeling is that a beginner can delete a bunch of stuff comfortably, but syntax-sensitive text editing is more daunting for whatever reason. It's possible that I'm overthinking something of course. I'm also assuming that some people will look over the instructions and be motivated to hit F11 on Gridmap just to see. In that case they start with a somewhat blank and useable slate / sandbox to play with the terrain manipulation tools & etc. Not true in the smallgrid. IMO the best thing, at this point, would be to spoonfeed folks by providing a dedicated blank-slate level with some handpicked materials, layers, meshes, etc.
Anything bigger than 400 x 192 will be scaled down, if I recall correctly. So no need to add full HD preview images.
Both of you guys have perfectly valid approaches in my book. Early in the game it was all about copying over a map and simply re-naming pertinent files. Since the experimental age dawned that approach has obviously become much more complicated. There are folks who could learn from both avenues and like me use a process that incorporates a bit of both. I used to think my process was all wrong but I now feel if you have a working map without issues, zipped and in the mods folder, it doesn't matter how you got there.
Recently the maximum size of the preview images drawn on screen seemed to be based on a combination of resolution and AR - but I think that was actually unintended and patched out in one of the 0.4.3.x patches. That seems very small. What are your dimensions and settings? "Expanding" a terrain it is a big pain in my opinion. The only process I'm aware of to expand a terrain is exporting it to a heightmap, expanding that in an image editor such as Paint.net or Photoshop, and then importing it again. If you want to preserve your texture layers you'll have to pad everything correctly. Based on the complexity of what you've currently got, I'd just start a fresh terrain and be sure to give myself enough space. You can always crop it down later from 2048->1024->512 or whatever if you need to for some reason. Have you driven on that terrain yet?
Its done, my first map, not much but I added some obstacles, gas station, and a hilltop, with vegitation ovbiously.
Looks like a good first to me. If you take a look at the decal roads on some stock maps you'll see the blending options used to fade the beginning/end of the road. You can also steal a (mesh) backdrop from another map, add an ocean (water plane), or adjust the fog settings to help blend the horizon better.
Changing the square size after doing any work is going to result in tears. It's key to point out that this will scale the terrain up or down rather than just make it bigger or smaller. So if you've got a 200m wide hill with a 45 degree slope and you then you up your square size from 1 to 2... you now have a 400m wide hill with a 22.5 degree slope. In other words this is a good thing to get set up before you do any work on your terrain. As with expanding the size of your map, exporting a heightmap and re-importing it can allow you to change square size without changing the dimensions of your terrain features. It's a matter of getting that stuff into an image editing program, scaling/resampling/etc the file(s) correctly, and then importing it/them back into BeamNG.drive.
