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

The update, sir.

Got it.

 

Quick question: what is the map based off of? Right now, its seems very Los Angeles inspired.

 

A bit of Los Angeles, a lot of California including sections Route 1. There's a lot of Palm trees and decorative gravel yards / landscaping like California/Nevada has.
Bit of rust-belt states like Camden NJ, Detroit Mi, or Gary Indiana, or other heavily depressed/distressed cities. The Frank Douglass towers (both abandoned versions and not abandoned versions exist), Packard plant, and an abandoned mall round out some of the more distressed areas, among other buildings.
Has a civilian airport inspired by Hartsfield-Jackson with 5 concourses and 145 gates, and a two-level terminal building like (possibly) Orlando has and several other airports have. Long runways for jumbo jets aren't in yet but the 1.2 mile 'normal' sized aircraft runways are in. There's also what will be a future air force base but only the runways, hangars, and guard shacks are in yet. There's a long bridge running to it that feels like one of the bridges to the Florida keys or ones along the Louisiana coast. There's also a private airport for small jets and provides challenge with it's runway that's on about a 4~5% grade. Not 100% complete but 100% usable if you're good at it.
Subway system which will be a little like one of the subway systems in California or New York, depending on where you're at in the map. This is not set in stone.
Plenty of old and new highway that makes you feel like you're driving through California and the Rocky Mountains.
There's even a Redwood forest, the trees/foliage used across the map differs from area to area.
Some of the houses are themed closer to North/Northeastern homes, while others have a decidedly art-deco look to them common in the southern regions (of the USA).
Some roads are taken care of, well maintained and striped, others have rather uneven pavement and many patches / repairs, and very few roads 'look the same' as one another.
There even is an 11-foot-8 height bridge, though it doesn't much look like that in-game. I will be making a better, more realistic version of it sometime in the near future, and that won't be the only low & narrow underpass under a train bridge. Who wants a convertible piano? CRUNCH!

So no matter where you are, it'll always feel a little different/unique. Another game that did this was San Andreas, and I loved San Andreas for that, it made each area have it's own character - like LA, SF, and Vegas. I got a lot of inspiration from San Andreas as I think it's a very well made and enjoyable game. That being said, I won't directly copy things, I'll still give it my own 2¢ when putting it together. Nothing from this map was taken from any other game(s) - HOWEVER, I must also add it's possible to see a texture or a model in my map that was used in another AA or AAA game - due to the simple fact that I get my textures and models at the same places pro studios do (hence the Patreon, it's not just to cover monthly and yearly software bills).

Cliffs and jumps however, are everywhere, this map is virtually infested with them... so drive with care! ...or don't.

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There's a road here now, which I am still in the process of finishing/detailing. This is a bypass to get from the city streets in downtown to the Route 1 area, and the best part is you can go pretty good speed down this road and get there fast. The hill is also not very steep nor high here so it's good for trucks too.

I will have more pictures in the coming days (likely each day, if I get enough done).
--That is all for right now

 

Do you think the "speed limit" will be 70 or 80 on that road? Also, will Route 1 be a long road or a short one?

 

Wow, so there's a lot more to come, really excited now. .

 

Sorry for the late reply. There's way way more to come, loads more, insane amounts more. This will be a cutting-edge tech city for a driving simulator when it's done. Surely I can't top what hundreds of artists spend years doing for other AAA games but I CAN make it run nice and look nice for a driving simulator. I've purchased no less than 10gb of assets for this map between textures and models. That said, it certainly won't be 10gb worth when it's added to the map - much less actually, so no worries there.

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Map progress...
I've got the first part of the tunnel model 100% done, the second part needs to be properly bent so that I can curve it as it needs to have about an 85~90 degree bend in it. That might take two more days to do depending what the vertex normals do. I am pushing 100% quality this time, and this tunnel model may be used in part to spruce up other parts of tunnels, or entire other tunnels, at a later date.
Right now however i'm stuck in my chair having 'slept wrong' and can't turn or bend my upper body. Oops. I have to walk around in a manner what feels like a poorly made late 90's role-playing game, turning my entire body to look at or face something - I am actually laughing a bit at myself but IT HURTS TO LAUGH.
Don't feel bad, know I am busy working on models. This is a required thing and must get done, as a bunch of empty roads to nowhere only are fun for 'so long' and then it gets boring.
Textures for the tunnel, I got about 80% of them done yesterday. They all had to be sized power of 2 (most were not, but hey it came with textures - lots of useful ones that show age/weathering!), wait a minute, weathering in a... tunnel? Well anyways, yes, they needed to be converted to the right formats, too. I still have to do normal and specular maps for them before the beta.
Pics will show up when it's in, whenever that is! No really, i have no clue right now, sorry about that. I hurt like you wouldn't believe - some days you win, some days you lose. Pulled the short-straw today that's for sure.

 

Go crazy! I really can't wait for the finished product, even the Beta is looking good! Keep up the good work Bob!
Really love the map!

 

Just curious, how's the progress of this map been coming along?

 

Just to let you know, yes I am still working on my tunnel. This thing is taking ages, as it didn't covert to Maya's format perfectly, and I still have to do a little more UV scaling, draw call reduction (which I am getting pretty darn good at now), and making things like LOD's and collision meshes. I'd say by the middle of the weekend I should have this in. Normally models don't take this long, but this is over a 1.2 MILLION vertices, that's A LOT - over a million triangles - but it'll only render fully when you're right near it / over or in it. Most models number in the thousands, if that, and some of my most complicated models may get upwards around 10,000 or so (maybe the mall + parking lot is more?), but as stated, this is way more complicated by orders of magnitude. No different than some of the stock maps.
Weather is being crazy too here, if you noticed what Tennessee has been getting, and more storms are moving in right now as I quickly type this.
This will be the most impressive model yet, and this - along with some others I bought - will provide a nice chunk of textures to the map. Nice aged/worn textures, not 'brand new' like the highway that goes through the current mostly-built areas (which is a nicer section of town with lots of working-class folks). This tunnel will be for the industrial area not far from the ports, and will show it quite a bit.
Expect map size to vary a bit wildly in the next few updates, it could change by as much as half of a gigabyte each time (as I add new, and remove old stock BeamNG assets).
My busted pinky finger that got the ligament torn off when I defended myself from being bashed with a door way back in April, is pretty much done healing, I'll have this stupid splint off in another week - hooray - then I can work, and type books into the forum FASTER.
I will be splitting the tunnel into several chunks (half-dozen or so), so that it batches better, and loads quicker / without hitching (as an object THIS big WILL hitch if I don't split it). Don't worry though, when you're a mile away it doesn't need to render at all, and when you're about a half mile away, it'll just render something simple that will only use up 1% of the entire render/scene budget, until you get right up on / in it.
--- Post updated ---

That wasn't me saying that, but it's pretty much the best answer one could give. This is THE LARGEST (by assets) map out there, and will be the one with the most road mileage and detail. This will be almost current-gen AAA quality when it's closer to completion. I'm basically making an entire city here, with all the benefits that having a true metropolis provides, without absolutely murdering a mainstream-grade computer (a computer to which a majority of the folks running this game will have either access to, or a better pc than that). It should - aside of RAM and VRAM requirements, be no higher than the stock game. It will be require a little more RAM so not as much stuff repeats and due to the huge AI grid, and more VRAM for high-fidelity textures and large variety of models.

When you play it, you'll know why it's taking so long. There's already 10,000+ (I think it's just north of 16,000) uniquely placed objects in this map, and some 4000 chunks of decal road. There's A LOT of stuff.
However, that having been said, everything comes in a modular form that almost snaps right together, to make building a city easier than getting a fresh map started (which requires some skill, but isn't impossible). It'll be like creating a Simcity city in BeamNG. So for all those who loved Simcity, and love BeamNG Drive, it's the best of both worlds coming together in a time-wasting culmination far superior to anything you could ever dream of. Roads, bridges, highways, tunnels, train tracks and subways, homes businesses and derelict apartments and malls, a major hub airport with 5 concourses and a two-level terminal, this has it all - or it will one day. From the over 100 miles of surface roads, and 50 miles of unique highway, to long straight-aways, double-decker sections of highway, to mountain crossing/hugging highways, cloverleafs, 3y interchanges, diamond interchanges, and huge four-level flyover interchanges, to the tapered surface road intersections that launch your car to the 2nd and 3rd floor of nearby buildings, and even the ever-present nag of construction (not completely implemented yet) there's always something new up ahead or around the bend. It's barely 35~40% done at most, so lots of new things will be added for quite some time, even if it takes me years.

You could make a billboard for an antique car museum, or a car show, if you wanted; but know this will be entirely voluntary and I do reserve the right to edit or make small changes to it if necessary.
If it's good you'll get on the beta list when I do my next mailer / update to Patreon page (in all fairness, Patreons still get it first, but for those who contributed, do get an update access link a day or two later to 'almost' every beta).

I'm not stingy about the betas, but this project does cost me money out of pocket, paying monthly for Maya and paying for programs like Photoshop, Substance Designer and World Machine among others (these were all triple-digit priced software, I have spent over 1000$ USD in software in the just-over-two-years time of this project!). Just know going in that the betas are obviously less polished than the public-facing repository version, but are there for folks who wish to help this project or just love to be on the bleeding edge of tech / game / game mod design in general. Please only donate time, effort, or money to the project if it won't cause you hardship of any kind though; as this market is rather uncertain right now.

 

Tunnel progress, it's almost done (still have to make collision, LOD's, but that doesn't take humiliatingly long).
Just take a look at the amount of triangles and vertex totals up in the top left on the in-modeler software screenshot. Ouch. Yes that's a lot of triangles / vertices / poly surfaces and so-forth, but it'll be 100% AAA-game quality when it's done. Versions/variations of this tunnel will be used in more than one spot in the map. I currently do not know when the next beta will be, but I will make sure to keep you folks updated as time draws closer to the next supporter beta.
Ignore the bright blue fences, they're not going to be deep blue like that, it's chain-link that hasn't yet been textured.
*mutters swears about 1700 poly light fixtures in the classic Muttley-muttering way* Raggin-fraggin-sassa-frassin...

 

Just finishing up the tunnel model now. Spent some hours of time lowering draw-calls (joining UV's), as no one seems to do that as much as I try to do (well except some of my original house models, those need some optimization yet, but it's only 2~3 FPS of a penalty right now). This is the level of detail in the tunnel. This tunnel will now be broken into several parts after I do the collision mesh and LOD for it. It might only have one LOD level after full-detail, for right now, depending on how long it takes (it should still be just fine and not mess up immersion or fps bad, the tunnel actually isn't bad for FPS). Before I do that, I must make a cap for the vent areas first, as they will come up to street level (you can potentially fall in the open ones if you fly over the short wall that will be there), will try to make the street grating 3D if it doesn't eat too much time or resources.

 

Please don't mind our mess:
I am currently migrating over to the full-fledged Maya software as they're releasing 'Indie License' pricing plans on August 7th, 2020. I ran head-first into a rock wall (that is the limit to Maya LT) painted to look like a 2-million polygon tunnel. Maya LT has a 250,000 poly limit, and this object was over EIGHT TIMES that or there-about, at full detail.
So versus artificially raising draw-calls by splitting the object up more times than necessary, I've opted to go through the somewhat arduous conversion process. This of-course will delay my next beta, and later public beta, by a few days hopefully at-most, but will be worth it as I can pump out high-detail objects with no limits. Should the Indie License program not be continued after a year's time, I will then transition over to Blender 2.8x or whatever is out at that point. The non-Indie standard license of Maya weighs in at a whopping 1620$ a year however, so I don't think that's within the ability of this project to afford. So long story short, I've decided to kick things up a notch, and we all should benefit. The next beta, tentatively will be out sometime in the middle to end of next week - or roughly 8~10 days from now. I cannot make it any sooner as I have too much to do currently, and wish not to make it more incomplete looking than betas currently are subject to. It will however, be worth the wait.
Thank-you for your continued patience while I navigate the field of game development, occasionally while blind.

Oh, and yes, you can be sure that leading up to this decision, I had given them quite an earful about Indie developers and game-modders who wish to use the software, but are prohibited from it financially! At-least Autodesk listens to it's customers.

 

After a few days of bumbling and blundering - of course living up to my oh-so-very-apt name - and almost completely botching everything once or twice - I am settled into the new 3D software now, and I am back to modeling with ease. This time, without limits in place. Much more is getting done! I've got the entrance road leading up to the tunnel in place, and will now be working on the railings/barriers and the area on-top of the tunnel. The terrain will pick up the duty of carrying vehicles over-top the tunnel, once the road is past the fans and ventilation areas which are near each entrance (only one entrance is shown, as I'll mirror it as much as possible to create the other entrance, for rendering / FPS reasons before run-time, and for it to look congruent). Very close to having this in-game though, only a day or two away.
In the first attached picture it shows the roads leading into the tunnel, which will convert an 8-lane highway into two pairs of two lanes per side *the view is shown from the highway side. The slower outside two lanes will service the industrial area above the tunnel, and allow you to turn to go to the residential area up on the hill (by where I redid the other section of highway and it looks nice just last month). The inside two lanes on each side will go into the tunnel as a bypass, and eventually dump you out on the 'route 1' project area a half-mile to a mile ahead, which will be a wide multi-lane surface road with at-grade crossings and a large left turn lane from where the tunnel exits and for several miles afterwords. The route 1 area will run somewhat close to the coast, giving you a nice view and a good opportunity for speed, and a bridge with a raised center going over an inlet where you can get some good (or bad) air-time with said speed. It will be fun none-the-less, and detail (at-least for the tunnel) should be close or on-par with AAA games in this area when it's done.
The second picture just shows the angle from the opposite end, to the side to see contour a bit better. This shot has a less finished look to it, due to work in the area.
Speed in this area will be around 40mph at these junctions/splits and also on the surface roads, and likely 45~55mph in the tunnel itself.
I'd reckon I should have this tunnel in-game and fully functional with it's details done in about a week, give or take a day or two.
More pics the next time the weather is decent, it's been absolutely rubbish lately with storms every day.

 

Got more done on the tunnel, including some grating on the road surface, for airflow and just generally 'something neat' to look at.
I am now getting very close to finishing it. I will need a day* to work the collision and single or dual LOD meshes. I made the walls around the ventilation area lower than regulation would dictate so that if you happen to crash nearby, you have a chance of going over it and falling into the holes in the tunnel ceiling and down into the tunnel itself. Have to keep the fun factor.
*I still have a little more work on the detail mesh for tonight, but not too terribly much more.

 

LOD's are over 50% complete - the other 50% will take but mere moments as it's a two piece tunnel and I set the other piece up as multiple components with the details separate from the super-structure (walls/ceiling/floors), so it takes only a few minutes to do. I just have to make them into a single component per detail level before I export it, which is a few mouse clicks.
On the bottom is full detail of the tunnel entrance which is 116,000 triangles. The top shows it at it's medium detail level, which is 20,000 triangles - much less. The lowest detail level - not shown - lacks the tunnel interior, instead concentrating on what you'd see from the airport when landing or taking off, for a lowly 8,000 triangles with almost full detail to the surface areas. In place of the tunnel interior on the lowest detail (which you won't see if you're in it!), is simple backdrop of dark texture to simulate it still being there. I will adjust detail levels as necessary but I am trying to avoid pop-in that plagues some of the earlier models (which used to be much, much worse until I fixed a lot of them).

 

Small note:
Game version 0.20 just landed. This may or may not add a few hours to one day extra time to iron out any bugs.
Broken sign textures (the small signs like stop and speed limit signs) will be addressed in the supporter update after the weekend is through.
If you notice anything else mangled or otherwise not up-to-snuff, let me know please in the near-term.

 

Oh, don't take that old road, it leads to nowhere...


unless I forgot to download an update, because if you want to have 200 mods, the manager is just a clustertruck

 

No, that doesn't lead anywhere yet, but you can have fun escaping the confines of the map if you wish for now. It will surely go somewhere one day.

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NOTICE: My internet was down. I JUST FIXED IT, by getting into a screen I'm not supposed to/allowed to, and re-registering it with their systems possibly due to me having more tech knowledge then tech support may have.

 

Now that I have internet I should be able to get the tunnel in this week, and have it tested / populated enough to put together by the end of the weekend.
Sorry for the delay but my internet was down for FIVE days - and yes, that sucks! I have to finish up the collision mesh for the tunnel today/tomorrow and should have some pictures in afterwords. At-least now I can grab a few of the purchased industrial building models as I need them since I have internet.
Thankfully I just got the splint off my finger now, so maybe I'll be a little faster too.
Again, sorry for the delay (even if it's beyond my control), but real life matters sometimes make a mess of things like this. I just really really HATE missing deadlines.

Also, due to rampant bugs in 0.20 game version with editor 2.0 (the new map editor), I will be developing this map on 0.19 game version with editor 1.0 (as editor 1.0 decal road edit mode is broken in game version 0.20).
I can find only one person who has something nice to say about editor 2.0, everyone else despises it and outright WILL NOT USE IT. I hate to be so negative, but I couldn't keep 2.0 stable for FIVE MINUTES without getting kicked out of the editing mode. My map will continue to work, and I can test the map with 0.20 as-needed, but I must do the editing from 0.19 in the 'old editor 1.0', as otherwise I won't be able to progress with my map if I try to use the new editor on the new game version.
I really do love BeamNG and those who make it, but I just don't like the editor 2.0, along with 90% of the other folks I know who edit for BeamNG who also do not like the new editor, dread using it, or outright refuse to use it.
I have contacted the developers and told them this in the nicest way possible, and for which I wouldn't blame them one bit if they hate me, but I can't currently even use game version 0.20 editor 2.0 at all, and game version 0.20 old editor 1.0 is broken. So I either use 0.19, or I don't make any map progress at all!
This is also another reason for lack of progress shots, but do know that I will have a few miles of new road in the new version of the map that'll come out before the next week is through (I'm shooting for the end of the weekend, who knows, I will do my best to keep on schedule).

Don't get me wrong, 0.20 BeamNG is excellent, just not what happened to the map editor, and I don't see an excuse to get rid of the old working editor for a new one full of NIL errors that's much less intuitive (especially not when the editor 1.0 worked for 4.5 years of editing just fine and all bugs were ironed out a while ago).
If it's not broke, don't fix it! Hopefully something of what I spoke to the developers about can help make progress on that editor 2.0, but for now, I will update the map using 0.19 for the forseeable future.

 

So over the last 2~3 days I have managed to build... THIS!

Completely new interchange of two different four-lane surface roads, which will handle a good amount of traffic. Nicely banked turns and a raised ramp to avoid the weaving of the disused (last pic and also 2nd pic) ramp that now has a mound of dirt to jump off at the end as a quicker way (will adjust as required).
In the 3rd last picture, you can see the lighter colored 4-lane road leading away from the camera position along the canal, this will go out towards the route 1 area of the map that I am working on adding roads to (which will connect to this tunnel I've been working on about 3 weeks now, it's ALMOST done). Good opportunities for speed and of-course mangling vehicles as always, can't forget the main mission objective here.
I will make the supports for the raised ramp a little narrower as I furnish the area with signs and plant-life, they look a little out of place with it so low to the ground.
After-all, what good does a fancy tunnel do when it doesn't go anywhere - this is one of the means to access it.