One of the things that I started milling over when the pre-race update was released in late June was the possibility of an automotive RPG. So far as I can tell, the devs have exactly that plan in mind, but the idea of traversing a massive open world has not yet been explored or even really discussed. I know that Torque has an extremely limiting terrain size ceiling, and that dressing a level even just the size of Rhode Island is a monumental task even in comparison to the current lineup of official maps. So, my proposed solution: interconnect the maps. Driving south from the New England-inspired East Coast, USA lands you in a map designed to look like Philly or DC. Drive west, and you're in farm country or alter-Memphis. In the event that you hit a level's edge-trigger, the game would take your current vehicle with its customizations and condition, and note the route you're on. Then, it loads up the corresponding map, and places the corresponding vehicle type and condition at the corresponding route's entrance into the map. Quite a few things need to and should be done prior to this point, and I'm not quite sure how to handle maps with no defined entrance (island maps), maps with a specified season (Derby Arena, and formerly Small Island), surreal maps (Grid Map and Pure Grid), or community maps. Still, long-haul driving sounds oddly fun when there's somewhere to go.
Its an interesting idea, but it would be a huge project to undertake, especially given beamng's current form
In its current form, certainly. But in the long run, why would it be? Vehicle condition/state saving is already planned, and vehicle rotation is already partly implemented. If you mean content-wise, I'm sure Hutch has plans to build at least three or four more maps, representing various parts of the world. All I'd be asking from him is that the maps include one or two constant routes that imply connection. I'm not quite sure what it would call for on the programming side, though. Probably some form of initiation section that would be able to detect if the player drove straight from another map.
for the coding, i could see a loading screen being used with words saying where your going. only real problem i see is the loading times of levels(for me at least) are kinda slow. I think it would still look/work ok though(i have no idea how that could be coded) as for visual aspects, i think having a picture of the other maps(like in east coast, where there are those non collidable mountains in the background) would look nice. Mainly so if you are going towards the previous/next map, it looks like you actually are.
Correct me if I'm wrong but Torque isn't even remotely close to being able to handle this idea at this time. "Stiching" maps together is about all it can do and driving games are not it's main forte', first person shooters are. I surmise in a few years time the whole BeamNG concept will migrate to a different and more powerful engine that can do this sort of sandbox, open world level loading while having 6, 8 or 12+ core CPU's being standard. Strictly in my opinion, I think T3D is a great way to get something like BeamNG of the ground and flying but T3D will never keep pace with the innovation the BeamNG crew are currently or planning to throw at it. BeamNG will grow out of T3D quickly once the big picture is stable and fully understood and by that time the revenue to afford a big time engine license will be nothing the hot new freshly graduated accountant couldn't handle.
To clarify, I didn't mean having every map inside of one, massive, persistent level. Even without the landscape considerations, that'd be risking major floating point inaccuracies. I simply meant moving from map to map as we do so now, but without the main menu and keeping the same car. That should be possible (if it isn't, it's probably due to Beam's complexity, not Torque's limitations). All things are. There would be a few extra parameters to make it more seamless, but that's it in a nutshell.
Understood. Thanks. So what you are proposing is simply driving to a predetermined "edge" around a map and it automatically starts loading another map of your choice and you wait for it to load and then drive on it......no menus, no nothing.
Yes and no. Okay, perhaps I oversimplified there... Like that, but the map that is loaded is at the level designer's/designers' behest, not the player's (unless they modify the map). Yes, no menus, and the map newly traveled to sets you up to seem like you are driving into it from an outside location, to give the player the impression of driving from one map into the other. Also, there'd probably be more than one triggerable edge, giving the player a number of choices as to where to end up.
