Oh boy oh boy SHAREWARE! Wait a minute, SHARE WARE!???? *looks angrily @mingolovesdrive * When you get far away from your models, billboard them with: Code: <node id="bb__autobillboard250" name="bb__autobillboard250" type="NODE"> <matrix sid="transform">1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1</matrix> </node> Now you can adjust this up or down, for when it will go 2d. The game engine generates these at run time (hint: if you adjust this, delete your cache for your level, as it will need to be regenerated). This is what I've been doing in my map. I've also been adding in nulldetail, which is done exactly the same, except, instead of bb__autobillboard250, it's nulldetail10, which means, at 10 pixels of fill, it'll disappear. Autobillboard250 means at 250 pixels of fill (usefull for a ROW of buildings, or a large chunk, if it's a block of city, you may wish to use Autobillboard750, or 500, or something, you'll have to try it out. These go in (both auto billboarding and null detail levels) under the base00 and start01 levels, and sit next to your detail levels. They will help your map significantly if you can see very far ahead. If this was done to a regular ECA building, like typical house or store, it'd disappear about a half-block away. You wouldn't want that, but obviously, a whole block of the city is much larger exponentially so you must try it out. You can edit these levels inside of the shape editor or do it via text editing like I did. Please don't forget to clear your cache if you do these things though - any changes to models NEEDS cache cleared! You can look through my models. Look in the shapes/hice folder (yes HICE!), inside Roane County. You're on the beta, there's a brand new file for closed beta testing I just put in this morning. The brand new beta also does the ECA 'buildings' and 'buildings\East_Coast_USA\ (or buildings\eca\ whatever) folder. You'll see models have either billboarding and nulldetail, and also, some just forego the billboarding altogether (like bushes and grass) and don't draw when they're 8~20 pixels of fill or less to reduce amount of times RE-drawing the screen over and over as each bush is rendered, increasing FPS. Some people might not like it, but hey, for bringing the FPS up by 50%, it's not too bad. And credit to @synsol and the rest of the gang for filling me in on this so I could implement it properly. If it BLINKS on and off as you get closer/further etc, then it's a bug, remove either the billboarding or the nulldetail level to fix it. I haven't been able to trace or solve it but things like bushes and grass don't like it. The houses/ large trees don't seem to care though. Make sure that "matrix ID transform" line matches your model's other matrix ID transform lines - otherwise things WILL NOT line up!
They only go billboard when they're far away, when you're close enough to 'see' the difference reasonably, they won't do that. You should separate your scenery, from your driving surface, this would help seriously (I had mentioned this in passing, previously, this is one of the several reasons). Obviously you don't want to drive through a 2d tunnel. For examples of what I am saying, fly high over Harriman (the default spawn of the Roane County TN map), and look at some of the houses 2+ blocks away, they will billboard (more of them will if you have the version from 4/21/18 vs 4/14/18), but you can't see it unless you fly over or look *REALLY* hard while the car is stopped at just the right distance. In other words, you can't tell - except with the FPS counter going up --Good luck!
He Means Look up. Like into the sky. --- Post updated --- Hey also the download for the demo got taken down. Intentional or have the copyright lords known as EA struck again?
Nope, nothing there The download being taken down could be intentional. He might be uploading a new beta for us.
We hope so. We have waited so long for this it would suck if the project was scrapped for copyright. If he is uploading a new beta then I can't wait for it!
If it got struck for copyright it would have been a thread delete, you wouldn't see the thread anymore. He's likely working on implementing something new or trying to make it perform better. FWIW I let him know some of the things I have just implemented, tested, and successfully improved on my map (to help FPS in his map). My changes to Roane County will be reflected on the repository in a few days with the 0.9 Roane County version.
WHEN WAS THIS A THING!? As a Burnout player who knows the Burnout Paradise map like the back of myhand and upgraded from a Class E License to a Burnout Elite License in less than 2 days, I am ABSOLUTELY HYPED FOR THIS. I looked back in the thread and I've seen all the progress made since then, and I'm amazed. Everything looks so detailed and well-made! I haven't tried the demo yet but I requested access to it on the site a little bit ago, since I just want to see if it runs well on my PC. But please DO NOT let this die. Keep up the incredible work, man! And I'm super hyped for the finished product!
When I click "Download Now!" it tells me to sign in, so I signed in with Google and now it says that I'm waiting for your approval.
Well if anyone who has the time & talent pitches in, we all as a team could get a clean & clear shot to the target of being the best. I am not a selfish person who, unlike some others would withhold tricks, tips, optimization routines, and the such, for fear of my 'own mod being beaten' - heck no! (not really in this thread in particular, and mostly not even to do with this site, but other game sites with mods, it's more like a contest - and not a friendly one at that). Nope, I gave it my all and let Mingo know whatever I knew to do that could help, to make this map better. I will be doing some AI routes for when the map is far enough along (I may do stuff for the demo as I have time, BUT I don't have a google login so not sure I could even get it). Keep in mind I'm not in a huge rush to do AI for the 0.12.x game version because there are some new AI NAV-MESHING features that are but placeholders now, gleaming at us and teasing us from the editor, they're not functional (yet!). It's best to wait for 0.13.x to drop if they're fixed by then, but at-least you have a working shape editor until that point. I will happily fix up maps or help mappers when and where I am able. I sure have a heck of a group breathing down my collar about this city map reboot I've been neglecting to show off (because admittedly I haven't done a lot on it, due to the editor situation - mostly 0.11.x game version issues, and time constraints for the most part). In fact, the 'invisible road trick' first present in my Nevada Interstate - to hack the AI routine to saunter over bridges without a care in the world, as if they didn't even exist; was used in West Coast almost a full two years later by the developers. My maps virtually invented that, and I (mostly! this is up for argument) mostly pioneered the use of mesh roads as walls and bridges/bridge guide-railings - because they sucked as roads anyways "I don't need no stinkin' way-points!" The only time you *actually need* way-points is for curved bridges, or bridges that deviate Z-height greatly from what would be a straight line from abutment to abutment on the opposite side of whatever gap or obstacle is 'bridged'. So in the mean time, we'll cheer this project on and help out where we can, and go ahead and save the electric chair for the next person who makes a map that 'all the roads are mesh roads and have no AI' I hope this was both insightful and encouraging. --Bobbing Out!
Great words. I can send that demo to you now, but what does AI NavMeshing do? I tried it and it did something but idk what
