WIP Beta released Pikes Peak - LIDAR Edition

That is very much of BeamNG modding, things just get broken faster one gets them fixed, but at the end it is something small that makes it work

There is also another issue at that Glass view, I don't think trees have any LODs, I took all meshroad objects away in editor and it still lags, so it is possible there are combination of issues, removing prefabs that are buildings cures a lot, setting shadow distance to less than original 1400 cures a lot too.

I'm not sure shadow distance from camera has been always there, but certainly setting that to 200 or something lowest that will work visually helps a lot with performance.

Making map to perform well is not so easy, that is why I was so impressed with Pikes Peak, being 8K terrain it still performs better than some 2K terrains, really looking forward of what you can craft with new roads

 

In update it says that grip levels for gravel variant have been made more realistic. So is there going to be more or less grip?

 

I'm using the standard dirt and dusty dirt groundmodels now, instead of gravel. The differences between them are only 5-10%, so you won't be able to tell.

 

Well, I was able to tell. Those 5-10% are noticeable when you go over 100 mph on corners in almost 800 hp rally car. And that's noticeable the hard way when I wrap around a tree on 3rd corner.

 

I generated the height map in 3DS Max using its render to texture tools to produce a perfect scaled copy of the LIDAR and DEM geometry. 16 bit is supported and what I used.

I made a write-up on it https://www.beamng.com/threads/mesh-terrain-to-heightmap-in-3ds-max-solved.52123/

One problem I had to work around is that the LIDAR is inherently noisy due to it being 1m aerial type. The roads had to be smoothed post-render using very smooth mesh roads and the align to mesh tool. The terrain's maxHeight is close to 1989 meters which is slightly less than Cliff, so its weird that its not smooth with this one. The subtle road noise may have to do with the 8192 map size in combination with the high maxHeight.

I have an early rendition of the Nurburgring that's 8192 size and silky smooth, but its only 500 or soo meters tall. The clue that there was no way around the problem is that when I tried to use the super-smooth tool on the road surface, I was still unable to get the terrain any smoother.

 

3cm is only slightly higher precision than my LIDAR which is 5cm. Im pretty sure that nails down the problem.

Luckily, this project was always just an experiment to test the upper limits, so it was no great supprise when I hit the ceiling. Its just an inherent limit of the game engine. One positive result is that the gravel version has the perfect amount of roughness due to the noise.

When I stared this project I just assumed that vertical resolution wasnt an issue. I was more preoccupied with cropping the terrain to get the most horisontal precision. I only encounted the surface noise problem after the final terrain was finished. I had been testing with rally cars, so the problem was nearly undetectable.

Ideally, for a long and narrow race like this or any point to point rally course, using multiple terrain files placed in parallel would be the most practical solution - if it were ever possable. Two or three 4096 terrains would be exponentially less intensive and have twice as much vertical resolution verses a massive 9Km block.

Ive researched it, and there are quite a few requests for this type of issue on the Torque3d forums, but no solutions other than what we've established here.

 

So i know this is off the main topic but my time trial isn't working, like there isnt any final checkpoint on the full length uphill time trial. I don't know if its cause its a point A -> B trial but it seems like the last checkpoint

 

Yep, I accidentally set the start and finish points backwards. Its fixed in the latest version.

 

any progress on conversion or anything at all?

 

I'm taking a small break but will have an update to fix the stuff that isn't working perfect. Ive done some modeling of the roads for the asphalt version, but need to redesign it again so it molds to the terrain better. It didn't have enough control points and made the road too smooth and the corners banked weirdly. Im also working on the side objects from the old version and adding them in too. They are a mess and have 3 or 4 LODs merged into each object which causes all kinds of problems. I did manage to rip the model of the Glen Cove Inn apart and rebuild it just about from the ground up, with a Colmesh also.

 

Here's a look at the 3D modeled roads I'm working on. I matched them up perfectly with the LIDAR (gray geometry). The orange wires are the control lattice I move the mesh around with. The pink mesh is a helper object. The finished model will be raised just above the terrain and the terrain will match the road shape so you wont see bleed-through, like this render.

 

I recorded the new road 3d model - in action. It will replace the bumpy terrain based roads on this race track. Drastic differences in smoothness at the end.

 

neat. keep it going mate.

 

The 3D modeled roads are all done. I took pains to get it placed correctly using the orthographic map and LIDAR geometry. Unlike any other project Ive done, I also paid close attention to the lateral shape, so the banking is very good, and used a special trick to model in the lateral curvature too.

I'm also ready to add the buildings to the level, so check it out too. They work with the main asphalt version, but the textures don't load on the dirt course for some strange reason.

 

hey guys i apologise if this is a known problem or if i'm just being an idiot (also this doesn't count as a bump right?) but from pretty much every point of the map if i look out into the horizon i see a massive bunch of red or sometimes yellow boxes mashed together covering it. i'll attach a picture when the game loads of what im seeing, i got this on a couple of maps before i cleaned out my mods but i can't remember which ones but is this a known issue? i play the game on pretty much lowest settings because i value framerate over graphics but could that be to do with it?

 

this is a quick video i made whilst drifting that shows the problem perfectly, any help?

 

That looks really bad, and makes it unplayable for sure. I haven't experienced this or heard of it yet. I just went through all possible graphics settings to so see if that was your low sittings were the problem, but couldn't recreate it on my side.

I have a feeling it has to do with the old skybox that I borrowed from the old version of this map, to hide the black sky bands from view. I can make some changes and send you a test version without the extra sky element and maybe that will help. Then you will just have a black patch on the horizon, rather than a horrible red one everywhere in front of you.

 

I was flying here and hit something invisible: