WIP Beta released A new *CITY* map - LOS INJURUS 2023-12-20

Ah yes.. you know the thing is, I love my machine so dearly.. After operating it for many years it became
fine-tuned in such manner to call my own.. Indeed I read a lot about Ryzen here on the forums but I'm
an Intel user all of my life you see and no I'm not afraid popping open the case and install stuff myself.
I have been thinking of a last video card renewal maybe before I give up this machine. After all, with
16 Gigs of ram and 3.10Ghz i5 that wouldn't be too bad would it ? In that case I would never by a used
graphics card though, who knows how hot these fellas have run.. I believe I tried checking shadows
off, which makes the scene really ugly imo, and yes all the rest is practically set at lowest (for this map).
I don't know exactly what you mean by player only for one but I'll try and check it out again, in fact I
only tried tinkering once before deciding the map is too heavy on my system.
Many thanks for your dedicated reply

 

No problem. You can get a cheap refurbished board or other ones so cheap it doesn't make much of an issue. It will likely last the length of time the machine is useful for anyways. However, that being said, it's your money and I cannot tell you how to spend it. Best of luck with it, and try to enjoy the map anyways.

 

Looks amazing! I unfortunately installed and tried to play before I found out about this mod conflicting with So-Cal interstate.. I have since deleted both mods, and reinstalled Los Injurus (multiple times), but I still see the So-Cal Interstate map as it was in the past without any features. Any ideas on what I can do to solve this problem? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

Look for any so_cal zips in your documents\beamng.drive\mods folder. Then clear cache (if you work on maps, and it deleted them, fear not, it puts them in a 'backups' folder somewhere in the beamng documents folder, disregard if you DO NOT use the map editor). Then try it. Get back to me.
Failing that working, make sure there's no folder in documents\beamng.drive\cache.0.YOUR.VERSION\TSH <<<< That's the cache folder for this.

*fun fact: the TSH code name was coined (I don't use SO_CAL or LOS_INJURUS as it's longer to type) when I was needing one as I was watching some Huckleberry Hound (I am a sucker for old cartoons) and they opened with the 'Highway Patrol' episode with "The Super-Highway..." ... so TSH it way.
I am sure someone out there is wondering 'well no wonder there's confusion' but that's how project codes work, as I can easily just type these in when scripting, as most maps have no less than 10,000 up to 100,000 chars of script. Big maps like this one and Roane County have much, much more.

I am working on textures over here* - have also built another block or two of city and some roads got carved in. I'm modifying buildings and such, I might even be able to cram in a grocery store before the next beta in about a week. That's right folks, Next supporter beta comes out within the next 7 days or so, give or take a day or two. The next PUBLIC BETA will coincide with the December supporter Beta as a Chris's Mess present to the BeamNG community.
Other news:
Maybe I'll celebrate by finally replacing my junk video board with one that works, that I don't have to remember to down-clock for stability every time the computer reboots (not often if I can help it). Already got my sister's kid a used Pretendo for Chris's Mess... she murdered the screen on hers. Have to buy a few things but I think it'll come before replacing the car's exhaust that's held up by COAT HANGARS!!! It's been held up for 4 years like that, too... ***rattle rattle*** *slams door* *RATTLE* ... a bit embarrassing to some but hey IT WORKS and it's gone 10,000 miles in four years like that (don't drive much!). Go little Corolla go! Good car though, floor pan and body is all but devoid of any rust, so I'm keeping it with it's 162,000 miles and all... at-least it has a sunroof, I've always wanted one of those.
I looked at used or open-box Vega / 1660Ti cards, but they don't hold much value when 5700 series starts at merely 299$ when used Vega's go for 225~250 or sometimes a touch cheaper on Flea Bay, the 5700 being more power efficient, less of a heater, and much faster / newer / has warranty... so I guess I've gotta pony up for one of those or an 8gb 2060 nvidia card. This sucks, The Bob hates spending money.

Going to be picking up a lot of ASSETS out of the Unity store, over the next few months, so look forward to THOSE! I've got the go-ahead to release these under the decidedly broad name of 'BeamNG Map Mods' included and used in (only) this map.
Once I get the video board taken care of I'll be OK to get some, want to see more - sign up for the Patreon if you haven't for them map. It would be appreciated! Would have bought more by now but my video board (and whole last computer for that matter, replaced THAT with funds from fixing my nephew's car) started acting up in May when the substation blew up... so when life deals you lemons, make lemonade! Still working on that. Smells good in here though

Will have some pictures in a day or two.
*yes, actually, it might not be a bunch of 'big black nothing' when you turn off the Sun soon, I hope. Will be using Nadeox1's light script to shut off street lights at night (I won't have those lights in place until I have the script in).

After horsing around with the texture emissive light and reflections, I have reflections working, going to leave it at that for right now, as it's exceeded it's time budget for right now.

 

EDIT: THIS is what I've been up to building...

Yes, the properly abandoned Frank Douglas towers are now in, a set of 3, just across from the abandoned mall. The smaller 5-floor buildings right next to them are also abandoned and boarded up. There will be overgrowth and such on these buildings as I get time to get more of that in.
In the first shot, the blank lot next to the on-ramp on the corner, is going to be an (open) gas station. In the last shot that road far to the right crudely carved into the mountain will be finished up a bit better (along with most of the stuff seen here). Most all roads in the last shot are already carved/shaped.
That's all for right now.

 

I know this is Off topic but any recommendations for making a map? I have already looked in the wiki.

 

I got it working! I ended up deleting my backup folders (more than 550k files apparently, lol) and a copy of tsh I had in my beamng/levels folder, in addition to what you had mentioned. I may have had additional problems due to the fact that I had changed the spawn point in the original so-cal map. Thank you for taking the time to reply, and keep up the amazing work! Your maps are some of my most played : )

 

You may use the stuff in the levels/TSH/art/shapes/MRK folder as that's where my city kit roads, sidewalks, bridges, train tracks, medians, barriers, etc is ALL stored. Only exception is the subway station / in-ground stations (two total right now), which are buildings in the levels/TSH/shapes/buildings/Metrocity folder (yes, METRO CITY).
You can use either a free or indie (paid) version of World Machine, or use Bundysoft's L3DT which is about 35$ when I last checked and it will do a lot of stuff with terrains. You can also make a random 'noise pattern' height map inside the editor. The editor can support easily from 512x512 up to 4096x4096. It may even support 8192 x 8192, though that and above does not compress currently and hence eats a LOT more RAM when running. So maybe stick to 4096 x 4096 for now. There's a few programs out that can work with terrain, so do take a look. I think Blender may be also able to if you configure it with plug ins (it does everything else, so why not, I haven't confirmed that though). The developers use World Machine for what it's worth - but be warned it's SUPER complicated... much more-so than the other option. Height Maps *MUST* be 16-bit PNG greyscale, 8-bit or 24-bit (or otherwise NOT 16-bit) will NOT work right when importing the map. Many graphics programs don't work with this format often as it's deprecated outside of height / depth maps. Engine Limitation: There can be only one single terrain that will have collision at any point in the level / map. If you make additional terrains, there will not be collision on anything but the first terrain.

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You can use Lidar maps in the resolution of choice (most detailed), it must be a power-of-2, and square. Other shapes will not work so please don't try. There are other sources such as the terrain party site used for Cities Skylines though the resolutions from there are 1081 x 1081 only, you'd have to re-scale it if needed here.
Notepad++ is great for scripts, and also to open up model files (DAE collada files are the models), and look at the library of texture entries, which correspond to MAPTO names in the texture entries in materials.cs and main.materials.json files (second one is new format, 1st one is old format). On my DAE objects, the material names are listed first in the files, but on the game developer's files they could be anywhere, often near the very end.
Paint DOT NET is a free graphics program (unless you get it off the Windows store), and is very powerful and light / easy to use like original Paint but is much more full-featured and can work with many (but not all) formats including DDS (Direct Draw Surface) textures.
PaintShop Pro. Recommended - Commercial Software BUT very good - not cheap though.
BLENDER, it's free, it's good modeling software if largely unintuitive at first. Maya is much easier to learn, and Maya LT is only about 33$ a month if you pay monthly. Pick and choose, each has it's good sides and downsides. If you should choose to model, please learn and get adjusted to how you can keep draw calls - the bane of all modern 3D - to a minimum. Draw Calls will murder performance long before triangle fill count and lights will.
Ready the 'something about roads...' thread here on this site to learn how to carve nice, gentle, sweeping curves in roadways.
Use decal roads whenever and wherever possible, as these conform to the terrain. Try to make things realistic looking and feeling. Try to only use mesh roads as a road-bed carving guide, and delete it when done. Decal roads on the terrain surface are the easiest thing to set up AI on.
The F1 object editor can copy and paste things, by holding shift before then dragging an object (while still holding shift). You can also rotate on fixed 15 degree angles in the forest editor and f1 object editor by holding shift and then rotating as normal.
EDIT>SNAP OPTIONS in the editor is your friend.

(only if you use the MRK kit!) When setting up city pieces, turn on 'snap to grid' and then level an area with the terrain tool without destroying too much of the map. Use this as your road-building area and to see what parts you need. Line them up as best as possible, then rotate it to get the slope you need, then rotate it to get the road direction you need.
CTRL+Z is UNDO command, CTRL+Y is the redo command if you UNDO too much. CTRL+S or the appropriate menu option is saving the map. Changes are saved to documents\beamng.drive\levels folders and can possibly mess things up if you edit a map one night, and download a new version a week later.
Look how to bulk-replace texture entries in maps using notepad++.

That's all I can think of right at the moment. Good luck. This learning will not be an overnight affair however.

 

Textures are overrated, if no experience at all of making 3d models, there is nothing wrong with going textureless, you can build perfectly fine cartoony buildings and other objects without textures:

Even road markings are modeled, not textured and building all those snakes took less than 3 hours, including learning of how to use Blender to make those roads.

Just export to new folder and game makes all material settings needed, except for transparent windows, for those one need to add a line to main.materials.json, but other than that, building objects and putting them to map is quite simple.

Using NURBS paths and curve modifier allows building roads relatively easily in Blender, then just export same as buildings and carve terrain for road, much faster than working with in game editor, also one can get bumps and all real road features like ruts, overall shape etc so road is not boring glass smooth kind, one thing I like of Bob's roads is that they do have features and with BeamNG physics car's really feel good when driven on realistic road surfaces, but on glass smooth surfaces car's feel kind of dead, imo.


Yeah, well, I still need to make intersections properly, but I'm leaving that to later, when I have all buildings and I have tuned roads to best driving experience, then making proper intersections is going to be done last as after making those it is bit harder to change shape of roads, but point here is that don't get overwhelmed by trying to get all features in to first map, do everything simple way, so that it remains fun and motivating to build, then after few maps add more new things to learn, like textures or making actual separate map etc.

KISS does apply even to learning of map making.

 

I have looked around on the Beamng.Drive forums and found it to not be useful. Even @B25Mitch 's "A Map in a Month" was not really helpful (it did show that blender was able to do to height maps). I was making a map for an indie game (Unturned btw), sadly the progress was lost after an update. I have looked on the wiki and found some useful stuff. I wanted to give it a shot again but with Beam and sadly do not have the understanding to do that "yet."

 

Reminds me of those carpets everyone had as a kid.

 

I was thinking about that as well, personally I did not have one of those but I remember going to a daycare in the afternoons after school (4th grade year) that had one of those.

 

Because it is, I did eyeball that these roads will make perfect drift map

Image search found image from etsy.com, but sadly I don't have any more information about this.

What I can tell is that working on something like this for 1st map would be really nice project as you don't need to tackle difficult terrain heightmap stuff or textures, art style of this really demands that one uses shaded, not textured graphics.

There is still lot of simple objects to make and things to fiddle and learn, so I would recommend anyone to try making such as a first map.

When I have done all objects and perfected roads with proper intersections, I will release Blender file so anyone can learn from it and have a go at building something with very low entry step.

For me this is like playing Lego's, basic modeling in Blender is quite easy to me, uv mapping, textures and rounded shapes are something I struggle at.

@zestyfolfdude I though of making that exact one that you posted, but I could not find enough big picture of that angle, but I think what I'm currently working on is quite bit easier to make and might be giving better user experience as these smooth angled corners are really nice to drift, it is like dodging cones, but without cones, 1st gear all the time.

 

Slowly but surely this area is getting built up. Needs a lot more finishing touches though, but I am fairly pleased with how far it's gotten.

Oh, and something that was missing oddly before, a lot full of angled parking.

End of current post because my internet is POO.

 

So the projects are right next to the mall? I guess the lore could say that it was at one time a nice neighborhood that served the Factory. At some point the factory closed and the people that could afford to move, moved. The mall was built to attempt to keep the area alive, alas that was poor planning. Eventually the small neighborhood was replaced with the tower blocks. Unfortunately the mostly poor residents could not afford to shop at the mall. The mall quickly deteriorated and was closed. The factory would be the oldest surviving building in the neighborhood. I think the area needs more ruins and more blight. Maybe some boarded up/burned out windows in the blocks. Possibly make a partially collapsed one, could of been the victim of arson or possible a gas explosion. Maybe have a tower crane that is in the process of demolishing the structure. These are just ideas. This map is one of the main reasons I still play this game.

 

Low-rise residential goes 'above' the mall in the shot in my previous post, where the big ??? is on the terrain. The boarded up housing blocks in the pictures are closed public housing modeled after the Frank Douglass housing (towers) project. I believe it was referred to as 'Brewster Douglas' (it was 'two projects in one', high rise and low rise) These were closed, stripped out, and eventually demolished. Some of the low-rise 2 floor (Brewster) buildings were burned out though by the time the crane knocked the project down.
I will be adding in Cabrini-Green (don't hold me to the spelling) at a later date as I have some old pictures of them - while I am on the topic. While housing projects aren't a great memory in many ethnic folks in this country - first it was the Irish, then the Italians who lived in them, then it was African-American and Hispanics who lived in them - they are still an important part of American History.
Link to mentioned project: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabrini–Green_Homes
Also mentioned: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brewster-Douglass_Housing_Projects
This is unmentioned until now but will be built https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Ickes_Homes
If you google "Brewster-Douglass" you will see the red brick towers I modeled into the map which are located right next to the highway and the (abandoned) mall.
If you look up https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Housing_Authority you will see many buildings which will be in the city likely somewhere near the mall. There will be 1000's of units of public housing built in the poorer section. Some will be dilapidated / vacant and some will be occupied but in somewhat a state of disrepair. This map won't be such a happy paradise after-all but the reality of life in America isn't always one of high-paying jobs and homes on corner lots with white picket fences.

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You are right though, the factory (old Packard Plant in this case) was built, then there were many homes around it built. Some homes were cleared early to mid century for housing project towers for the working (and non-working) poor to middle class. The mall was there since the late 50's into mid 60's. As the story goes for all-too-many towns, the factories closed, the jobs left, the stores left soon after the income dried up, the rest of it is 'history', so-to-speak all-too-obviously.
You know what they say about history - those who ignore or otherwise wish to forget about history are doomed to repeat history.

While it looks like I've just plopped down a bunch of buildings, there's lots and lots more to it than that, I assure you. The brick buildings all have a very similar theme and there's a point to it. It's supposed to look hastily built all by one architect in closely-timed phases. The low-rise residential that goes into the ??? area will look like the blocks of homes they're currently clearing in Detroit (somewhat like the style of Occam's Razor's stuff from Garfield Heights but not using his models). There's going to be a LOT of ruins in this side of the map, large and small. I may sparsely use a JRI asset here and there (Jungle Rock Island), but those won't make up the majority of it however; I will be modeling/building much of it myself.

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TO DO (before the beta) -
Fix up that road along the mountain enough that it's within realm of the detail of the others
Need to place a few houses yet here and there along said road. Might not as I haven't decided what goes there yet 100%.
Might have time to bring more length of train track to the map - not required but would be nice.
Finish off some lots and part of that main concrete avenue I've been working near, including add a few traffic lights (half done).
The ??? area will not be filled in BUT I have some major road re-work to do, and some off-ramps to do to, to make up the majority of the work needing done. This last bit is most important and takes precedence... the rest of the stuff by comparison can wait if needed.

Maybe two days of work. I'd like to upload this beta version Wednesday-Thursday so the supporter beta can be out by the weekend.
The December supporter beta will come out a number of days before the public beta gets updated. Plan on around December 15th or so for the next public beta, so the December supporter beta would be 3~7 days before that (it's hard to give an exact number, as there's many things/variables depended on, for that). I'd reckon supporter beta in December would go out after the close of the 1st week of December (plus 2~3 days), that gives me time to do all the IRL things I'll need to do, too. Will definitely be trying to get more of that 'rust-belt' theme in for December's beta.

EDIT: Added links and 'enrichment' ... yes I used that word, don't put me on blast. It's actually an interesting read. If anyone reads this and is still in school; tell your history teacher to cover public housing projects one day. It's history worth learning from / remembering.

 

Getting a bit closer to release. Tomorrow night I will do my final touches and get this wrapped up and uploaded. Got the interchange at the mall done (it's missing a traffic light, other side of highway vs 1st picture, it'll be in before upload time though).

A small start to some of the residential area on the high side of the highway, here next to the off-ramp. This won't be dilapidated or abandoned here on the high side of the highway, only the low side. Have been very busy with this lately, and the orange bit in the road on the second picture is a speed hump (not speed 'bump').

Added a service station / repair shop courtesy of ECA assets for now (they may be changed over in the future as I make more things).

There's also a drainage area behind the service station / repair shop. Also added a retention pond in-front of the mall where it used to say 'MALL' on the terrain before.
The clearing in the center of very last shot is an area you can use as a jump if you should come to the end of the road and not wish to make the turn, you'll likely clear the whole entire highway and land on the far side in a heap, if you've floored it for about two+ blocks.
All in all it's coming together for a nice update. The update should be available sometime on Thursday - failing that - on Friday (due to weather on Friday I'd like to post it Thursday!).

 

I so want to see more high-rise buildings and skyscrapers with glass all over them to give a more modern appearance

 

Spent hours and hours (8~10 hours) tonight and finished up another interchange. I think you guys will really like this classic diamond interchange.

I really pushed for quality here. Want to make this map worth every penny of your support, for those kind folks who do, and for the rest - well more goodness to enjoy. This used to be a very tall bridge, with just a boring 5-lane asphalt roadway underneath it... now it looks real (or at-least much closer to it). This interchange won't get signaled with lights, it is only signed. This won't be dense population and businesses out here, it will be more suburbia nearby with possibly a port or a bridge at the map edge to ... somewhere?
Also, below this I've got a road re-routed but it's rather crude. Entirely driveable though - just not that pretty! This one got re-routed when I re-did the highway.

So only another day or two until supporters get to bask in the urban decay beauty that was the Brewster-Douglas housing project...

This is nothing compared to what's coming though. It's not all glam and glory, it's going to have 'character'... character that just doesn't "buff out".

 

Hey @bob.blunderton, Have you considered adding telephone poles with wires in the map? If you have, great. If you haven't, that's fine to. By the way, this map is awesome. I love the abandoned mall. It's quite fun to make scenarios about to be honest. I'm glad you are constantly working on this map. Also, I noticed a yellow diamond sign in the one of the pictures of the previous post. I am curious about what that sign is. Anyways, keep up the good work on this map. I can hardly wait until the next public update gets on the mod repository on this site.