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

Los Injurus 2023, now featuring 11-foot-8 bridge!

  1. bob.blunderton

    bob.blunderton
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    A little more progress. Had to do some real-life stuff today. Still getting some more work done tonight but just thought I'd post this as I've started prettying up the terrain around here. Still TONS more work to do, another 5 days of it at-least. At some point I will start getting the rest of the 50GB of assets integrated into this map. Yeap, and the project files, unpacked, in whole, total around 2.5x that much, uncompressed. Generally, I will slim down models, textures etc, by using 'texture sharing' (I don't need 100 different red brick textures for example), texture layering, shader texture difference (coloration) to share otherwise different shaded textures from the same files. E.G. red brick texture can be done with 1 mortar layer with very light grey bricks with a red shader will look like normal red brick with tan mortar, since the mortar is colored via another layer behind the red brick. Now you can duplicate just the texture index entry, give it another name, and make those red bricks (and/or the mortar layer) shaded another color of your choice, and do this as much as you need. Why? This can save A LOT of space in the end. I am doing this stuff while I map, though I don't currently have the layered textures implemented much except terrain textures. While this DOES raise draw calls (it can double them), keeping the building detail under control will leave the map easily in the 60fps (minimum!!!) and often 100~110fps or more* [see spoiler note at bottom for a system config].

    The upper dam still needs a concrete spillway, but it'll get one eventually. It's no-where near done around these parts, maybe half-done if you don't include any houses or buildings which will eventually be around here, when I get the time. The roads and infrastructure have to go in first, as they do also in real-life most of the time. Last 3 shots show the dirt access road to the spill-way area of the dam. The dams both will get their own proper models, in due time. The reason there are two of them is so that water released quickly will not gather so much silt / mud and the like, that it all ends up in the concrete canal floor further down past the 2nd dam. It lets the water pool up where the sediment (most of it) will fall to the bottom as it slows down at the 2nd dam. There will only be a small trickle of water between the two dams though. There may be more hidden underground water tunnels around the area of the largest flood control canal in the map at a later date, as I can fit them in and where FPS allows. Some will be in right away (as some already are) but others will be added in as scenes fill up with spare FPS budget left over. This way I don't over-do things or get hung-up with a real slop-job in the performance department.
    This will be a big BIG city, actually a whole county, but it will also perform properly. In it's alpha/beta forms it might not be perfect (it surely isn't!), but the end-product should be a nice refined product with a LOT of different models (I am talking THOUSANDS), and fairly good AI with possibly a campaign/story too. I am trying in every way possible to bring folks the BEST Beamng Drive map mod out there. It's sure taking it's time (though I wish I could do more), and even if it ends up only in the top 10 and not the best, I will still be happy when it's done provided most others are happy and have fun with it. Don't forget that I am not only making it for everyone else to enjoy, I very much enjoy crashing about in it just as much as anyone else, so I am making this for me too.
    *FPS measured on my machine, stock 3950x air-cooled on a Noctua NH-D15, with dual rank pair of 16gb 3000mhz CL-15 ram sticks, x570 motherboard, 2070 Super, medium or high texture detail, medium gives a bit of a boost when I'm editing and flying around the map with my not-enough 8gb of VRAM *BUT* the machine must produce 60fps everywhere on high texture detail at a minimum, with NO traffic, only my vehicle. I don't need the best machine in the world here, but, the 707$ of my took-a-year-to-save-up-for processor was worth every darn penny, as I put it to very good use working with the traffic in this game, rendering textures on the fly, and even the filters in Paint dot net will use so many cores my mp3 player or streamed video sometimes will skip. I cannot stress enough with this game, or with doing graphics work, physics stuff, spend as much on the processor and you'll be very happy. NOTHING is overclocked here; this thing has to survive through countless YEARS of BeamNG, it doesn't need another stab in the back with overclocking. Overclocking a processor like this on a 'modest' 200$ motherboard (or just running it stock on my old 100$ ASRock x570 board), is a good way to cook the VRM's when using a tower-style cooler. It only took 3 months and a power failure to cook the VRM's on the ASROCK board. This is in NO way a brag, btw, just so that's out there. It's listed so you know what I'm testing it on. By the time I buy another computer or upgrade this one, you will likely possess a more powerful cell phone or laptop for cheap.
    I can NOT stress enough again, to spend as much as you can on your CPU if you make the machine WORK. If you just game, a 6c 12t R5600x or i10600k chip will do 98% of needed stuff just fine, in this case you spend much more on the GPU than someone like me. It's very possible though if it wasn't for the sub-station self-destructing in 5/2018 around the time I started modeling, I would probably still have the old machine - and wouldn't be able to test my AI as well either. If you ever use the AI here heavily and notice how the AI works about as well as it can for this game even in heavy traffic, you'll be glad I was able to test it in real time with a decent CPU.
    That said if Patreon ever hits the next goal for 3 straight months (if folks can afford it, PLEASE, know eating is more important!!!), I'll raffle off my lightly-used 3700x in-retail-box with cooler perfectly cleaned, you'll just need some thermal paste of your choice. It was used approx 1 year in a dust-filtered case, and NEVER overclocked, PBO was kept off / never enabled. The winner can use it, sell it or whatever. Raffle will include all patrons donating at-least 10$ a month. Winner may also (alternatively) choose my XFX RX 480 8gb in-retail-box as an alternative, it is also very clean and works fine (the drivers hated my 3d software only in Win10!), comes with a spare brand-new hot-swap fan in-case one goes bad. LED fan color is white.
    Prizes are as-is but verified working, at-least they'll go to someone who can use or sell them. I don't generally ever sell my old hardware as a rule so giving it away might be rather nice for someone.
    Prizes come in retail boxes unless otherwise mentioned (both of these DO), I generally throw the box in a closet or under a desk and keep it out-of-the-way for safe keeping. Video card was not overclocked, as I need 110% stability here. Prizes will be sent standard shipping, shipping paid for with delivery confirmation and insured. I am not held responsible for lost shipments, but will try to remedy any issues that come up and make sure everyone is happy (I just can't honestly be liable for anything legally once the box is out of my hands, literally).
    Patreon money does not go to 'I wants' or otherwise elective spending on needless PC upgrades, though it can go toward REPLACING components (if the part is an upgrade, I usually foot the difference in cost), it can also go to doctor bills / meds (I do have insurance) when and if ever needed, as that stuff keeps me alive to make this map for y'all. Only trying to be as transparent as possible here. I am on a fixed income, for which I want no pity, but this Patreon fund helps keep this project alive and not breaking me by paying for software costs, asset costs, needed hardware costs etc so that it doesn't put me in the poor house. I also can't be responsible if Radeon GPU drivers make you nuts, that said Nvidia drivers aren't any better - so what's the worse of two evils is what it comes down to these days. I have lost count of how many times I crashed the Nvidia driver in the last almost-two-years since I bought this 2070 but it's honestly made me regret it a bit, though it is a little better these days. What is sad is I was using a beta Radeon driver when getting the crashes, and still get just as many in the Nvidia STUDIO READY stable driver. Grrrr... All I can say is I hope someone in the driver department sees this eventually. Save and save often. The lettering to the ctrl and S keys are worn off my keyboard already in 3~4 months...
    I appreciate highly all the help, contributions, assets, advice / feedback, and bug reports any and everyone gives me, so thanks.
    This project is made possible by & for people like you!
    --Cheers!
    Also, more progress shots should be coming in almost daily until the next beta release for supporters/contributors early next week.
     
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  2. bob.blunderton

    bob.blunderton
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    Do know that I'm doing my best to cram the map dev time while not murdering the map. I am fighting Covid currently. DO NOT worry about me, I'll be fine, once I stop sweating like crazy - as that and a little nausea are literally the only effects I am feeling (for days now). I will say that it really is more annoying than it is deadly for me, again, I will be just fine, it will just take a few days until I start to feel myself again. This could delay release by a few days (also, I've been extremely crammed with real-life duties this week, now that I can DO things again). So it might be more towards the middle to end of next week until the next supporter beta is up - otherwise you'll not see the new subway station - and you'll slam smack-dab into a wall like a certain cartoon coyote did too many times as I've not finished the tunnel model yet. Why a delay? I want it to be proper quality, and I want folks to be able to enjoy driving the highway in-stead of having a break in the middle of the highway loop. I try very, VERY hard *NOT* to disconnect highways if possible.
    While you can't see the concrete road textures in the first shot, I will definitely assure you it's been textured (NOT striped yet, NO AI yet past the bridge toward the mountain - toward the city it has full AI and improved AI on the full cloverleaf intersection right next to the re-done sections of highway from the last beta).

    Please excuse the slop-tastic view with floating jersey barriers (median wall is called that), as I tend to need a lot of them for even doing a mile, and it's very hard to get exactly the right piece until you've done a few curves with them. I HATE placing copious amounts of jersey barriers on hill-sides compared to actually being able to improve the terrain, finish building lots / road details etc, but the picture it takes inspiration from is here attached to the bottom of the post, and almost necessitated it. I think it's Wikipedia source BUT I FORGET, it's been a while. Extra barriers get removed before the beta goes out (unless I forget...).
    So entirely, it's going to be nice when it's done but it certainly isn't done yet... this is why I need a little more time. I didn't plan on making this in such a labor intensive and time intensive way, but this is what happened after looking at some source-pictures of the actual California scenes / roads / highways.
    Right before the road curves back left just above the middle of the 2nd shot, will be an overpass and likely a jug-handle or (if I can do proper 7% or less highway grade) a diamond interchange. Not 100% sure as the 'mountain' pass here has a 4~7% grade pretty much everywhere with few spots that level off to some degree.
    The uphill lanes have a 4th lane towards the right side that functions as a truck-climbing lane. Did not need this on the downhill side for reasons which should be obvious.
    I will be purchasing a 'rock cliff kit' this month for the map, I might be able to get them in before the beta but I HIGHLY doubt that. If not they'll surely be in the next one.
    Not sure if the concrete shoulders will stay or if they will be switched to asphalt in-stead like in the screenshot. Time will tell.

    So yeah, don't worry about my health, I've got that covered.
    --That is all for tonight. Will have tunnel pics up by Sunday and possibly the subway station upgrade in by Tuesday or so. As soon as these tasks are complete and the highway is re-connected, I will hit the upload-me button.
     

    Attached Files:

    • driving-freeway-east-san-francisco-bay-area-highway.jpg
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  3. fufsgfen

    fufsgfen
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    Let's hope you don't get that long Covid, that is total end of fun.

    Early 2000s got Sars-1, never got recovered fully, that is thing with long Covid, which is Sars-2, some days brain just refuses to work at all, pains, tiredness, healthcare won't believe you as it is not in the books, you see then years going past and see that was your life and are just a shadow what used to be.

    It's worse than death, so really wishing here that you don't get that hell, there is enough of that kind for you and for everyone already me thinks.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severe_acute_respiratory_syndrome_coronavirus

    Vitamin C, like in insane doses, it helps, you will be running in bathroom every 15 minutes though.
     
  4. geobeck

    geobeck
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    Hey @bob.blunderton, I'm sure you've talked about this already somewhere in the 99 pages of this thread, but I'm trying to put some new decal road materials into a sandbox map, and I noticed that in Los Injurus, you have two art/road folders (/road and /ROADS). One has a main.materials.json file defining the materials; the other has a materials.cs.

    I'm guessing that you don't want those two files in the same folder, but is there anything else needed to identify those materials to the game? Or will it find everything in both folders as long as it's defined with one or the other?

    My sandbox is a stripped, flattened re-save of Gridmap v2, which doesn't seem to have a lot of roads, so I'm grabbing some of yours.

    Also, you wouldn't happen to know where they defined the "skycurves," would you? I keep deleting them from the World Editor file tree, but they keep coming back. I asked in another thread some time ago, but didn't get a reply.
     
  5. bob.blunderton

    bob.blunderton
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    Well I have vitamin D boosters prescribed, and I take 2x daily vitamins every day to make sure I get a full supplement of what I need (as I am dieting also, or trying to).
    Thanks though for the write-in, I appreciate the thought of it. I am doing my best here. Honestly I am just sweating like a mad-man but I think I'm over the worst of it. I keep masked when around a lot of people (like when I go around and collect the offering* at church) or in enclosed spaces like a close group of people talking in-doors (except at my house).
    *A friend of ours, who's 84, served in the Navy (Sea-bee's), was a Police officer and worked with the Sheriff's office, and the Marshals, is pretty much on his death bed with Covid and lung cancer. He was the one who did the offering previously. Long story short, I had the inclination to memorize how he did the church offering and such, the last week he was there (without him saying anything regarding his health). I guess I have a nasty habit of predicting things like that (it happens A LOT, I am thankful for it though, even if it's not good news, as it's saved me more than once).
    So that rambling aside, I am doing my best here as I can to keep the map going. Thank-you for the kind words, though, and I hope you're well also.


    The sky curves are a bug and should be reported, you can also after reporting it, send a copy of your current map to me via private message and attachment so I can try to recreate and fix the bug. I've had this bug before where the game doesn't like to delete things, or it deletes it and it stays on screen and you can't move it anymore (you have to undo it, just don't undo deleting a decal road, it might crash). It's quite important you file this bug officially on the forums here with the steps required to re-create it.
    The two ROAD folders are because the one is stuff from West Coast and the other one is mine with some in-game stuff in there also. It's quite the mess right now, and I will be cleaning it up as I go (especially during the texture format change). Materials.cs file I believe gets over-ridden by the main.materials.json file. The old materials.cs file is a remnant of the way the old Torque 3D engine saved things. Main materials JSON files came about around 0.8 or 0.9 or so, and I had been editing maps since 0.4 in 1/2016 when we had only materials.cs. The older materials files are SO much easier to read and manage and much less likely for me to mess up - BUT - they won't be supported for much longer. I will be working on switching everything over to the new format likely in the coming weeks after the beta gets out.
    Copy the textures you need, and make sure to correct all the paths for files in the materials.cs or main materials json after you do, so they show up in-game. Some textures are better than others. If in the future I update some textures and you update your map by copying the new stuff over the old, be aware this can cause conflicts, no-texture issues, and general map-bloat (which my map has).
    If you use the material editor in the game, you can add in the textures you need via that way too, just make sure you copy them all into your map folders first.
    I am currently trying to bribe or otherwise coax the developers into making a dependency tree for this game. This way we don't have to copy map assets into each map if they're provided with the base-game already as it will read the assets from there. This will make maps much smaller, and much quicker to download. This can also make switching between maps much faster as everything's already loaded for maps which share many assets (a lot do). This is the way every other game works but NOT this one for some dumb reason, and there's a not-so-dumb reason why every other game is not like this, when it comes to map or environmental assets, textures, and so-forth. Copying assets over and correcting texture indexes to make a new map is very difficult for beginners to get into, and otherwise a major stumbling block to casual sandbox game users. This is a large part of why I wanted the devs to change the asset handling in this game as I am explaining. It would also help keep map assets/textures working over game version upgrades. Plus, as we know, SSD space is precious. I literally have a 500gb Crucial MX500 sata SSD devoted to this entire project. A whole drive (and a backup!!!). It also has some BeamNG mods on it, but it's mostly extracted ready-to-work-on project assets for future additions to this map. So being able to share assets between maps would be sweet (though, it sort-of works if you have another map extracted and call objects from that map by your map, it's not dependable and won't work if the source-map is zipped).
    Long story short, yeah, texture stuff is a pain. Try to use main materials json files if possible. You may be able to update my old textures into the new format if you can figure out the scripting in a text editor. Json files are much harder to work with, and I've stuck with .cs files because I find them MUCH easier to speed-read / parse and work with, and also a lot harder to bust.
    Again, materials CS files will be deprecated (no support) sometime soon. Please do not make your map with materials CS indexes if possible.



    Real life tasks are piling up like crazy so this release will be out sometime this week as I can manage.
    Fix the occluders being 500 meters below ground. Those are the black-outlines on some of the buildings near the default spawn. Hope it helps fps a little there, though admittedly they don't do too much (maybe a 10% help at most if you have a few of them). Let me know if any issues with missing vehicle shadows or buildings disappearing too soon/readily show up.
    Some new roadway is done for the new section of highway, again it just needs to be striped. The main body of the tunnel is done, I just have to size the mouths of the tunnel to the new tunnel model and import them (shouldn't take more than an hour to work on those, I try to do it nice). The angles on the tunnel ceiling are actually smoothed but it's rather hard to see. Tunnel model matches the bridges that have reflectors like the old rural highway sections have. I would put 3d reflectors on the road themselves, but if I do it any other way than textures it will choke the CPU from all the different models being cycled (like forested maps do sometimes). I would have to wait for 6ghz CPU's to do that, basically, but maybe we'll knock on wood that the developers kick the rendering engine up a notch with this new Vulkan renderer (which isn't done yet obviously!).
    When I am done hooking up the highway here so you can drive it both ways and not fall into a 200 meter or more deep ravine, I will upload this for supporters/contributors. I CANNOT upload it until I get the highway hooked back up for obvious reasons.
     

    Attached Files:

    • very_boring_tunnel.jpg
    • Fps_improvement_maybe.jpg
    • New_roadway.jpg
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  6. geobeck

    geobeck
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    YES. I've always wondered why that wasn't implemented from the start. The main obstacle would be updating resources and deprecating old ones (breaking mods in the process), but I'm sure there's a way to use alias paths to point old resource names to their replacements. As it is, I'm not making anything but sandbox maps until the materials 1.5 tools are done. I can't imgine the frustration of putting hundreds of hours into creating a map, then having to spend hundreds more re-creating what you've already created.

    I'm getting used to the json format for materials, parsing out what each parameter does (although not spending too much time on the fine detail for the reason above), so I think I'll try to migrate a few of your paved roads to that format. The dirt roads in the /road folder were a simple copy-paste, changing one part of the file path.

    Hmm... maybe I'll create a /resource folder under /levels (with a basic flat map) to reduce duplication in my own maps. I know it will be outmoded when the dev create a dependency tree, but
    a) I only have one 500 GB SSD, which can fill up quickly if I'm not careful,
    b) Godot knows when that tree will be implemented.

    I'll report the skycurves bug, then send you my map. It's not small (lots of resources in the new gridmap), so I'll use a Google Drive link if that works for you.
     
    #1966 geobeck, Sep 5, 2021
    Last edited: Sep 5, 2021
  7. bob.blunderton

    bob.blunderton
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    You don't need to spend hours re-creating your map, you just need to run the materials CS to JSON converter that car_killer made. It's out there but I don't have the link handy.
    Please use BC7 sRGB (DX11+) format for all your .dds graphic files for best results. This is the one the developers use. Older formats will either have limitations, such as ending up pink-looking (my townhouses over by the WORST BUY store do this, the compression leaves pink-looking hues which isn't always desirable though on Terracotta color it isn't so easily noticed), or having black-outlines around the edge of the graphics. Also, some formats don't support translucency and more-so some graphic formats lack certain channels which can cause blue or yellow tinted reflections. Nevada Interstate has issues with the black outlines on graphics, I never sought to fix them as it's just a pain in the butt to re-save ALL of those graphics - that said I could get a script in GIMP software that will do it all for me. Just thought I'd try to save you some pain there.
    The single-folder idea for graphics is great for a small map; however, it can sometimes be easy to lose things and difficult to manage. I will eventually be simplifying the folder structure for my map in due time (like merging the two road folders, simplifying greatly the buildings folder once the ECA stuff is axed, and otherwise reducing excessive or needless separation of files). I just haven't had time to mess with it yet, honestly. When I'm in the mood to break lots of things at once and try to slowly piece things back together, I'll do that, but today's not the day. It is good if you don't have a lot of resources though as it can greatly ease texture scripting (indexes) if you always know the location of your files, and highly reduces the chances for needless duplicates.
    One 500gb drive is a start; but as you said that will be extremely quick to fill up, especially if you have a good internet connection and good google skills to match (to find stuff like CC-0 / CC-SA resources for example). Avoid using editorial license things from the internet in your map though, as use in games is often prohibited if you come across any of these.
    Use whatever road textures you want, keep in mind a lot of my asphalt uses re-colors, so pay attention to the diffuse color and translucency as that matters. Some of my more recent road graphics use a combination of slightly translucency, plus color shading, to overlay onto a semi-random asphalt pattern on the terrain & create roads whose graphics do not tile obviously. Just try to stay away from the stuff in the /commercial folder as that's stuff that doesn't have a cleared license for re-use or re-uploading yet by people beyond me (those are some of the purchased assets, the rest of which aren't in yet).




    Tunnel is in now, I've started lining the rock walls so I can hopefully have the walls done by then. Don't know how much time I will have tomorrow to work on this.
    Alignment of the grey-asphalt surface road that is cut in half by the tunnel entrance and highway is not final, nor is it even a suggestion. That road will change a lot but I do not know if it will be fixed up be release. The highway should be driveable when the release comes out though, I don't like to leave a missing section anywhere breaking the loop. There IS a truck-climbing lane on your way out of the city (green grass area in 2nd shot), but likely will not need one on the other side as it'll likely drop from three to two lanes at the bottom of the hill anyways (it's more desolate out there).

    Once the highway (it needs a bridge and a quarter to one half mile of road installed yet) is physically completely in, I then need to do AI from the lake bridge to where I've met back up to the previous alignment (for now but that will change, too, at a later date, as I do more highway). The new highway is fast and fun but careless driving will see you careening off a cliff or down a long hill in no-time, but drifters will absolutely LOVE this road as it's absolutely perfect for it. NO other map will have more drift-worthy highway in it than this one!
    Tunnels are very basic and boring, however, they will do just fine for now as they aren't that long. I can add a higher detail model than what is shown at a later date and just drop the model in when it's ready. I have a lot of other things I need to get in the map or finish up before that. Tunnels DO have reflectors, just in-case I haven't mentioned it - shown in 3rd shot above. I need to make them reflect more somehow though, will try to do that when I switch the texture indices over.
    TO-DO:
    Finish and connect highway (max 1/2 mile, one bridge, add some median barrier too). Make sure highway isn't more than 7%* grade.
    Finish rock walls and get tunnel mouth model in or rig one up good enough for now.
    Add trees / bushes and required bare-minimum signage. Green interstate navigation signs won't be in yet here as I don't have them made for here yet.
    Doubt I will have the subway station replacement done in time for the beta. It needs another solid night of work and not worth delaying the beta any more for this cycle.
    AI pathing needs to be installed and so does breaking up repetition by adding variation / wearing textures to the concrete to make it more immersive and less monotonous.
    An overpass for the city-side of the tunnel (with the green grass) won't be in for this beta as installing it would add a night or two of work to this.
    I wanted to detail some of the tall building lots more, but what is there currently will have to suffice, as-above I don't wish to delay the beta any more.
    --That is all!
    *While interstate standards limit highways to 6% max grade, you can use up to 7% in and near urban areas as needs require. I limit this to 7% uphill or the very rare spot of 8% when going downhill which usually happens near S-cuves as the banking changes and affects the downward slope of the road. I try to stick to the US DOT manuals as best as I can, but this is still a game and otherwise might require a LOT more time and a LOT more tearing up of the terrain. 7% is good enough although I won't use over 6% grade up a hill if I don't have to, as I like to use the big rig once in a while.
    Sections steeper than 6% up to 8% have been grand-fathered in to the system if they were already built before the 6% grade requirements for new highways were required to be used.
     
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  8. geobeck

    geobeck
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    Oh, I'm not planning to re-create everything in the folder. I'm just picking a few textures I like. But that conversion script sounds like it will come in handy. I've already started getting creative with shading, etc. I thought my highway was going to have a flat, grassy median, so I made a new decal road that's just grass. (Not monkeying around with curb models just yet.) Haven't got the color quite right yet. My highway plan changed when I realized that the default size for a decal road is a little small for the CRS_highwaytwolane. Luskily, I moved my mesh road under the terrain after sculpting around it rather than deleting it; I'll just make another roadway beside it.

    Next thing I need to figure out is how to insert an object. Sounds like it should be simple, but I've tried creating a new object of various types, but the most I've gotten was a point with no apparent way to add dimensions. You build roads at specific grades, so I'm guessing you don't sculpt them using mesh roads.

    Can't wait for the next update! You know, I could see a crawler track going up to the right of the highway in the first pic.
     
  9. bob.blunderton

    bob.blunderton
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    Yes, there will be some type of trail going over there, mostly just an access route that isn't maintained that much (but still is), so a car will be able to get through part of it.
    You have to set some of the highway textures so that your default decal road size is 14~15 meters (up to 18 or 19 on the rural cracked highways) if you want two lanes and a standard 9~11 foot shoulder. This gives you two travel lanes and a full-width (about lane sized) concrete/paved shoulder. You can fiddle with the exact sizes if you need to. Just use an average sedan to measure width, as they're usually about 5.5~6 feet wide - so double that width. Eyeballing it is generally good enough. You'll know if it's too narrow when you get a commercial truck on it. Minimum width on side-roads is 8~9 foot per lane on the most rural back roads that DO get striping, any major through-routes should have 9.5 to 11 feet of width per lane depending on if it's a local route or state numbered route. Anything that's an interstate or otherwise paid for by Federal Highway money (gov't contributes 9$ for every 1$ by said state), must be no less than 11~12 feet wide per lane, have 3:1 grade or shallower on the sides of the highway in right-of-way zones or approved traffic barrier to prevent drop-offs, have an 10~11 foot paved shoulder, and generally have no cross traffic/level crossings (limited access only), and proper lane separation for lanes traveling opposite ways (barriers are required for less than 30 feet and recommended at 60 feet or less of median size). Max grade is 6% except can be 1% higher in urban areas as need be or where grandfathered in. Bridges must have no less than 16 vertical feet of clearance from any travel lane, but you'll need to look up cross slope metrics for straight and curved sections of roadways if you want to get that technical beyond what I've given. Do not forget the one to three feet of shoulder on the inside (median side) shoulder when doing measurements of lanes to ensure proper road size, and also the space covered by stones on the right side when using the old rural highway set (cracked concrete look, usually a bit uneven if using the meshes by design).
    Basically, a 10 meter wide road gives you enough space for two lanes of opposing traffic like you'd see on a rural state highway, and space to put double-yellow striping in the center (about .64 size on the center striping is fairly real) and gives about one meter for edging overlap and white striping (size .2) along the sides. You should be able to fit a 3.8~4.2m wide AI route going each way between the lines comfortably on each side for any rural public state numbered roadway or highway with the higher size going for highways. Hard turns might require widening the road a little bit as you have to account for the big-rig trailers / residential or commercial equipment trailers "walking in" a bit on corners. Slopes for turns DO have official guide numbers but I usually eye-ball it for sake of time constraint, keep in mind these numbers aren't concrete and are calculated on a per-corner basis. Don't forget not to make your highway grade too steep when banking corners as this adds to the slope on one side or another - especially in s-curves between curves.
    Set default decal road size before starting your road, or set start and end node manually and then (only then) add the nodes you need in between with the + tool and move them into place as-needed. Keep nodes evenly spaced to prevent corners from looking bad though on the straight sections you can slowly feather-out the node length, and keep in mind that AI routes NOT using subdivisions (it defaults to on) will see the AI drive directly* from node to node. I generally will for best result use separate, invisible AI paths (I pioneered this in 2016 on Nevada Interstate because for multi-lane roads the AI travel lanes won't always line up well or give best results), and also unless you UNCHECK use subdivisions, the AI will often not go over bridges or through tunnels that differ from terrain grade on your AI route. So leave use subdivisions on if using an AI route on terrain / ground level, but if using bridges or tunnels and then using my method of getting them through these obstacles, don't forget to turn it off. The AI will not drive on roads set to driveability = -1 or 0. Setting driveability to 0.1 to 1 will set the 'quality' of the road and say it's okay for AI to use it unabated unless private road is checked. A setting of 1 is for highways, 0.5 for narrow driveways and dirt paths, 0.1 for a road you don't want to see it on often as it'll almost never spawn there. Lower = slower driving, generally. You can also use lane width to slow vehicles down, narrower = slower. Below 5m road size it will generally consider it one lane, avoid having AI face off as that's not always pretty.
    Do NOT let lanes going in the same direction 'touch' when doing AI ROUTES, otherwise it will auto-make a junction. When merging cars from one lane to another, don't do that over a node - only use nodes at beginning and end of the merge area or it will make an auto-junction. OVER OBJECTS is useful for making flyover ramps or curved bridges/tunnels, but make sure to get the nodes in the right place THE FIRST TIME as you can't always grab them again when they're airborne (this may have been fixed/rectified in the newer versions).
    *No, really, it genuinely will drive node to node regardless of what's in-between. Keep in mind the AI will use this method to generate the grade it expects, stopping if it gets most of a meter from it's intended vertical position - though vertical tolerance may have changed. Use more nodes on hills or around corners, or leave subdivisions on to further divide the route on map-load for the AI grid.

    Exit the editor after saving, and when you're at your vehicle and have already stopped any AI and despawned it, then hit CTRL+L to re-load all map lua and give you a new AI grid. This won't update your automap but it will update the AI's ability to use roads or not. There's a debug on the traffic tool and the AI control tool that may help you in your quest for perfect AI. If not sure how something is done... drive around my maps and try to find a functional junction like the one you want to make, chances are it still will work OK even if it's 'old' as I helped out testing the traffic tool and already had many built before it came into existence. The only thing I never 100% got right was having a conjoined one-lane-per-direction two lane roadway turn into a divided roadway with multiple lanes per side. I still end up with half the vehicles turn around or go over the middle of the road. This never works reliably in any of my maps - and for that I'm sorry - but for some reason I just can never get this to work correctly without them either turning around or ending up on the wrong side of the road. You can still enjoy the crashes though.
    I hope this is helpful, it took 40+ minutes to get this all out of my head in legible form and then type this all.


    On a much more somber note...
    A best friend to our whole family, a proud Sea-Bee (High ranking US Navy), Marshall, Sheriff and Police Officer, one of the 'good ones', has just passed away at 84 years of age. While he did have Covid, he also had advanced lung cancer so it would have happened very soon anyway. He was a great, proud man, he didn't want radio-therapy for the cancer and such, didn't want to live a shadow of his former life, it was all or nothing. He went everywhere with us, he was almost like a dad in a way to me as he's twice my age. I only wish I could have learned more from him before he passed as he was so wise (but there were still things I could teach him when we did things together). He lived a good life though, and I couldn't thank him enough while he lived for his service to our country.
    So, I must admit, yes this has been bothering me. He'd been in the hospital for over a week and it worried me, as in my heart I know that when folks his age get taken to the hospital, they often don't come back. We will sure miss him at church, as every Sunday he always did the offering round and helped pass the little drinks at Communion. I took his place to do these things as it was only fitting and what he'd have wanted. The last Sunday he was there at church I memorized his movements, how to do the offering rounds and such, as if someone had told me to do so. I don't know what compelled me to do it but I think I know who... though it's far from the first time I've seen things coming like that, including things which have more than once saved me from great harm or even death.

    But, that said, after I get done what I have to do today**, I can get back to mapping and get this beta shipped out by the middle or end of the weekend. I don't have a lot to do yet but it'll sure keep me busy for two nights. I did get that interchange built that I SAID wasn't going to be in the beta, I just felt like doing it as I had to grade part of that area anyway along the highway. Why do it twice?
    **My mower deck decided to basically disassemble itself while using it last weekend, so this had to get done ASAP. With it being much more rusty on the bottom than I previously knew, I have to wire-wheel it down underneath real good and bathe it in rust-dissolving primer so that it lasts decently and put on some new blades (they were duller than butter knives) before my lawn becomes a forest.
    That said, I'll have some pictures up tomorrow showing the map progress once I get some loose ends tied (in the map not just IRL), and the beta should follow a day or two later, after I test out a few new miles of AI routes and make sure everything's working alright and up to standard.
    No condolences needed, though I won't stop you from giving them; but do know I am doing the best I can do here. Maybe condolences for my fingers after spending OVER AN HOUR typing this at this point.
    --Thank-you for understanding/patience/not reaming me out for messing up deadlines etc. If only the majority of this was by choice. We do what we can.
     
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  10. Slugfest

    Slugfest
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    I assume you mean wire-brush?
     
  11. bob.blunderton

    bob.blunderton
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    Wire wheel. I already took a chisel and removed all the yard-work build-up and the rust build-up, flaking paint and so-forth etc. I have to take a wire wheel (which attaches to any grinder, or even drills, but a grinder is best). It's like a rotating wire brush that goes high speed and cleans the metal down. I ended up working on the map after-all as I am not feeling that well today. Will work on the mower deck tomorrow in-stead. You can use a chisel (or needle-scaler, or in my case a 2 inch somewhat dull spatula), to remove excess build-up before you hit it with a wire wheel. Wheel lasts longer this way.
    The wire wheel works best for removing semi-loose build-up on metal such as the things above I listed, and when it's done you'll have nice shiny (or much less rusty) metal. It's also pretty good for polishing off freshly ground edges if you can't hold what you're polishing up to a bench grinder.
    I used-to do it this way 15~30 years ago even when I was under age, cleaning concrete form panels before fixing them up. Spent 100's of hours a year for some 15 years, some more than others, doing this stuff. From getting the dirty concrete construction steel framed, plywood-faced forms, taking the old plywood off after punching out rivets, knocking the built-up concrete chunks off the ribs, needle scaling and using a wire wheel to get in the corners/edges/bevels good. The you sandblast them, fix them up if they need welded or re-squared, primer & paint them, put fresh plywood on with rivets, and stack them up ready to go back out on the job to make you money. They were Symon's steel-ply concrete foundation forms, weighed somewhere around 80~100 pounds a piece for a full-size 2 foot by 8 foot, with some being smaller as fillers to make up all the smaller spaces.
    When working with wood or metal I'm pretty decent at it, not a master craftsman; but when I CAN do things (physical disabilities come into play here) I do, and I enjoy what I do when I can do it.
    You can wire brush VS a wheel, but it takes a whole lot longer - exponentially longer - and requires a lot more manual effort. Let the machines/tools do the work for you - especially important in my case.



    Never-the-less I did get some intersections interchanges straightened up enough to show. Ignore random chunks of road laying about, those are temporary and won't be in the beta usually.
    All of the stuff here needs AI routes, needs striped/detailed, and I need to build a bridge to connect to the old highway section that I haven't updated in this beta.
    The map needs heavy AI testing for an hour or two minimum, likely will be longer than that. Have to finish some rock walls by the tunnels before I ship the beta, also.

    One full jug-handle interchange, one half. I don't know if the other half of the interchange will be installed or not, it depends how well I can link that side up.
    Dirt path installed as-per request, not much of it is there but the terrain is prepped for it. Don't go fast on it or you'll be at the bottom of the mountain in a hurry.
    The surface road (two lane) bridge in the last shot is a 9% or 10% grade, but that is fine on a mountainous side-road. Trucks will be prohibited here except local deliveries.
    This area will emulate how the highways from the major cities in California enter the Rocky Mountain areas, lots of tight curves (with plenty of space to recover most times) and other things to keep the experience fresh. This way you're not constantly going past the same scenery like an old Hanna-Barbera cartoon would have.
    Suggestions welcome. I have about two full nights of work left - whether I get the next two nights to do it or not (with the other things I must do, and my health of course) is yet to be seen, but I'll do as much as I'm able.
    --More pictures later or tomorrow as things get tidied up & finished.
     
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  12. Slugfest

    Slugfest
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    Ah, thank you :)
     
  13. bob.blunderton

    bob.blunderton
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    Fixed the port walls not being where they should be, along with the sea-floor primitives (they are concept pieces, the seafloor will get re-made and better detailed like an AA or AAA game should be at some other time). Moved the airport runway mesh over about 1 to 2 feet, so that there's no gap between that and the terrain. Moved the large derelict industrial building to the other side of the highway.

    Keep in mind most roads do not show up this far out. Not much else has been done here as I have a huge pile of industrial buildings waiting to get through the modeling chain before they get put in. The close up shot shows where the industrial building used to be, which is now further in on the other side of the main highway there. Otherwise it was conflicting with the airport runway mesh.
    I know these things weren't on the list but when I went to look at something, it was bothering me / didn't realize how bad it was - so it's better now just a little bit.
    The joints in the sloping sand under water show through, I will have to fix this in the future but right now that's just the inaccuracy of the far away rendering of this physics engine. When pieces are more detailed later (they're proof-of-concept and nothing more), it won't show up as much, and fixing up the texture will help A LOT too (it's a layering bug causing brightness if overlapped + inaccuracy causing overlap).
    Just a little more polish where it sorely needed it.
     
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  14. 95Crash

    95Crash
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    You have been doing so much work on this map. It's amazing, the work you're doing to the seawalls, interchanges, etc. The editor to this map is amazing too. I do have 2 questions, though.

    1. Do you plan to have more gravel roads in this map?
    2. Do you plan to update your other map Roane County by September 2022? Again, you can update it whenever you want?
     
  15. geobeck

    geobeck
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    Wow, yes. That will absolutely help! I'm going to start snipping your posts together into a world-building textbook!

    My sincere condolences for your loss. It's tough to lose someone who was a great inspiration. And (on a lighter note, perhaps) my condolences for your fingers.

    Bob, your deadlines are your deadlines. I highly respect your commitment to them, but I'm sure I speak for everyone in saying that we will not complain about life's delays.

    simpsonscutcorners.gif
     
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  16. bob.blunderton

    bob.blunderton
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    More unpaved roads will be featured in this map, but I don't have the slightest idea when and where they will be. They will be in it, though. It will be more 'dirt' roads than gravel roads.
    Roane County will be updated as soon as I work out some of the texture bugs. I might just put up a work-around for the time being that will negate the texture error notifications (making it like it was before it broke). I have been pouring my heart and soul into this map and Roane County kind of got a back seat in the mean-time. I am sort-of behind where I wanted to be by now but catching up surely, so I should find time to fix it before the end of the year or so.
    I am glad you enjoy the map and the effort I put into detailing it and making a completely modular city. Not only does it make city building spontaneous and fun, it also allows everyone else to have all these pieces (over 1000!) to build whatever they want wherever they want to.


    @geobeck Yea I try to stick to my deadlines, I only had an hour to work on this today and none yesterday due to working all day (and I REALLY hurt now, but I did manage to get my back straightened here. Got lucky this time, often I can't get it back into place just by myself. Might have some time tomorrow evening to edit and if I do, I will likely be able to get most of the things done. I really try to keep to deadlines but sometimes things in real life tie me up for a while and I can't help that. I am the kind of guy everyone comes to when they need something fixed, or advice on stuff. When you know how to do a lot of things, you'll never ever be bored.


    Got one of the tunnel entrances done, doesn't look too bad. Needs some random plants on the side and some detailing textures but it's close to what it will be when it's completely done.

    I did my best to get this looking nice and avoiding repeating textures / objects too much as that would look cheap if obvious. There's only a few different rock types here so draw calls generally won't be an issue for DX11 folks.
    The tunnels need signs, lighting, 'zones' (which are for background lighting and interior light color if there is any light at all), and some other details (including entrance areas). This could take a few hours including a model.
    The tunnel entrance on the other end is not done. This will take two hours or less to fix up nicely.
    Need to build a bridge, connect the old highway section up as there's almost a half mile of it missing or less. I thought I could get it all in but I guess not, not sure where I will put the next phase of new highway that replaces the old one so I didn't build it yet / didn't have the time to mess with it much anyway. Bridge and highway might take an hour, or a few hours, I never know going in.
    Also still need to do AI. I will try to have it use ALL lanes if / where possible for more challenge and immersion. AI will take an hour or two, maybe three depending how picky the game engine is.
    Detailing on the highway sections I just put in still needs to be done, this will take a number of hours.
    I will get done what I can and get this out ASAP, but right now I'm beat tired and still have more work to do.
     
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  17. 95Crash

    95Crash
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    Thank you for answering my questions, Bob. :)
    I can't for this and Roane County to be updated.
     
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  18. bob.blunderton

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    OK, so I have been very very busy in the real world, but I had two hours or so to work on the map. I am really beat and have to sleep soon, but I will have some more time to work on the map tomorrow. Another night or two should get this done.
    I was able to physically connect the new highway to the old, so that it can be driven both ways without damage or falling into a giant hole like the road-runner / coyote cartoon.

    It does not look pretty yet, it does not have striping (the lines!), it does not have AI travel on it yet, this all still needs to be added and tested. I still need to do the other side of the tunnel entrance, too, which is much much less complicated and much smaller than the one that's already done. I need to add a few decorations by the road side and clean up the stream areas a bit (terrain stuff too).
    The bridge above will get a similar support treatment to some of the Utah bridges. I might use a modified Utah bridge (keeping the same decking I use in my maps) and use only the underside supports as an addition to the models here. I don't want to just take the whole (Utah) bridge and slap it into my map lazily, as I want some consistent design to prevail through most of the map.
    I might spend 4~5 hours doing road striping, but will try to get it done faster. Detailing will take a good 2~3 hours but I might cut that short. Edging needs to be done on the part I did tonight but is done on most all other parts unless I missed something. AI will take several hours to perfect and another good hour or two to test heavily enough to verify it's working.
    The next two days should get me several hours each day to work on this. The work I have been doing in real life (which no one else can do so I must do it, and it's time sensitive), has worn my body out and my body is ready to fall apart for someone else to fix, again. I am only doing it so that others do not experience hardship and to be nice, but you do almost anything for retirement-aged family members because it's the right thing to do.
    That's all I have for tonight, will post more when the striping and detailing is done. Then the beta can go out after it's tested. I refuse to put out good work ruined by a half mile of 'junk' road after it.
     
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  19. bob.blunderton

    bob.blunderton
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    I have had a little time to edit the map (mostly yesterday, as I could barely walk due to my feet hurting so badly from trying to fix things for DAYS in the shop). I still have to fix more stuff, days worth of it. However, I managed to get some stuff done here.

    I could have only dreamed of making something this nice in 2016. However, if you want to do something bad enough, you'll eventually figure it out.
    Road surface detailing as you see (not even striping/lane lines on here yet), takes HOURS per mile, but I really wanted to get this completed before release as it really gives a realistic/immersive effect and really cuts down on repetition of the textures. This look mimics when concrete roads are made (or a little while after) they come by and grind down the high spots usually at the slab edges (center of slabs like to shrink especially if poured wet/ high slump in the summer due to excess water content - I was a concrete construction worker growing up from a small child until about age 26).
    This area of highway is wonderful for drifting, but careful as there are sometimes some sharp corners and the like - so take a practice run first if you plan on it. This is a good representation of what the highway is going to look like throughout the next few miles of map, except it will be a bit more winding as it goes through mountainous terrain. It won't have the exact same path as the old highway, but it will be pretty close and the roughed-up terrain from the old highway alignments will mostly be removed aside of a section or two of abandoned roadway (have textures already for this).
    TO-DO:
    *Build tunnel entrance in the 2nd shot above. This might take an hour to do decently, or a little longer if I want to add some more detailing to blend it into the mountain-side correctly.
    *Road striping (about 2 miles for 6 to 7 lanes) -- this could take a half day or 4~8 hours depending how much I do around on/off ramps and such. This includes some detailing.
    *AI work. There's no AI past the new bridge over the new lake ½ mile from where I started improving the highway (at the overpass where the concrete road turned to dark asphalt in the last beta, is where I started re-doing it in this beta). So I'd say about a mile and a half of highway needs AI along with about a mile of surface route. This will take 2~3 hours to do correctly, with some time for corrections during testing being included in the testing phase.
    *Needs a few signs, like stop and yield signs, and the stop sign bug needs to be verified by me to see if it's fixed. Currently for users of the private beta, clearing cache or running on a new game version busts the stop signs and a few other ones too. It will fix fine when I replace the model and your cache files get updated (on a new game version or when you clear cache, keep in mind loading this map after clearing cache can EASILY TAKE FIVE MINUTES, because it's an entire AAA game sized environment).
    *All laying of highway and creation of lanes is already completed. Most of the detailing on the concrete highway is done except lane lines/striping as stated above, one tunnel entrance is already detailed and blended mostly into the surrounding terrain.

    My most sincere apologies for missing deadlines, I wanted this thing out over a week ago. However, when it rains it pours they say, and that rain was everyone breaking everything and our lawnmower committing suicide - so I must get these things done and it's severely eating into map time. This is only temporary however, and will sort itself out in the next week or two as I catch up. I will still be working on the map a few hours a day. Just think of it this way - if your helpless retired elders asked for (reasonable) help - you'd do it no questions asked if it was at all within your power to do so. That's where I'm at right now, and of-course I help anyone and everyone if it's possible to do so. Like I said, it sorts itself out eventually. As long as no more of our interior doors fall down like in The Money Pit, we'll be in good shape (it's been a whole two years since that happened, and when it did happen, I was in tears of laughter for about 45 minutes and just could not stop laughing).
    For folks who've private messaged me, I am very sorry to leave you hanging, but I will get to everyone just before or after I post the new supporter beta.
    I'd like the next beta that comes out in around 3~4 weeks after this current supporter beta goes live, to possibly update the public version sometime in (mid?) October. However, I have to get materials updated for the new game version and how it handles PBR materials. This is a LOT of work - some of which I've already done behind the scenes here (the new files aren't in the map yet, you can still run it on 0.20 as I haven't had time to learn the new editor yet and customize it's setup and controls to my needs).

    I want this map to be quality, about professional game quality, when it's done. It's going to take a long time, but I don't like to leave things unfinished, so I am going to keep at this until it's done and awesome. This city is my dream, and finally after over two dozen years of trying to edit in computer games, we finally have both the technology and I have the knowledge now to make it all possible, and now I can share it with the rest of you! So, welcome to Los Injurus City, in Nalgones county (parody of 'Nogales County') in the south-west USA. There will always be new things to see, and some place you never found before, and even things hidden underground (one of the first maps to do so, too! Well there was Utah and another map with some mines, so maybe the third map to do so, but definitely the first subway and large flood control structures underground in BeamNG Drive). This map is for everyone, and somewhat 'by everyone', as it's built off suggestions built into a very loose master plan (ripe for adjustment by the minute as needed), with not just a little but a lot of something for everyone. When we get better internet (sometime between 60 days from now and mid summer next year) I will start doing live-stream (likely no-voice) map editing sessions showing how I make the map from all the tools included in the editor and the various stuff packaged with the map - you can add your own music if you choose to do so.
    Speaking of music, we need a random radio that you can flick on and off when you're in a car so that I can include CC-0 / CC-SA music with the map so you have SOMETHING besides the beautiful exhaust note and turbo sounds to listen to. It can pull music from a folder the script is in, that would be all it needs to do besides be able to turn on and off, have a click-able volume control and play random songs from a folder (and maybe a 'next' button to skip tracks). If anyone has a script that can work like this, DO give me a shout, as I'm rather air-headed when it comes to UI apps, missions and the like.
    So, trying not to turn this into another Duke Nukem Forever... but yes, progress has been still going, if slowly. Doing the best I can juggling everything. For once maybe it's good I am disabled and my body breaks quickly when attempting working... that means more time to work on the map. Always a bright side or silver lining in everything you know.

    I will be spending 17$ (US currency) on a pack of 6 subway stations. This would bring the total to 8, not including the current underground station that is being replaced with a new one recently featured, but also include the sunken station I made a year or two ago featured in two spots in the map. I feel this is quite worth it for the price! That said, it'll take some hours or possibly days to get each one in the game as I have to do a lot of UV connecting and texture optimizations, and then create LOD's manually and then a collision mesh.
    I might spend 14$ (make an offer, if accepted by the artist) on a set of sandstone cliff rocks that tile beautiful, and in my opinion look better than the ones I am currently using from Utah map data files.
    I'd like to weed-out a lot of the stock Beamng game assets over time (and I will), to make this more free-standing and free of other's copyrights aside of what's purchased, so that it can eventually be ported to another game in the future without running afoul of copyright / DMCA stuff. There's so much reasonably priced things out there if you know where to look - and over a dozen good sites with massive inventories of paid and free/ CC-0 / CC-SA models to go through if you have the time, that there's little reason besides time or laziness to rely on stock game assets - it's not like we don't see them enough already.
    The dog is howling and the cat is smothering me, so must cut this one short before I sneeze and someone (likely me) gets clawed by a very startled saucer-eyed cat.
    --That is all!
    --- Post updated ---
    Tunnel end is done. Good enough. This one is a little more symmetrical than the other end, but this works for here. I have to toy with the detail levels on the triangle objects above the tunnel entrances (they're the pillar base from the flood control canal kit, and actually they make up some of the dams as well, but they were intended to be multi-use as several of the base-shape objects are - this saves on VRAM and download size believe it or not).

    I tried to break up the repetition on it a bit as the rocks repeat really obviously if you don't have a knack for doing this, or haven't done dozens of hours just doing things like this.
    Not 100% sure about the trapezoid tunnel facade, but we'll see how it goes over with others and see what they think. I still should be making a special tunnel mouth for these new tunnel pieces I made, but I don't have them done yet so this will have to do for the current beta.
    Other stuff that's already in that didn't get pictured - because most of it isn't 50~100% done yet:

    Not all roads are visible from this distance (such as ramps at interchanges) as I haven't got all the terrain colors in place that need to be done so that a road looks like a road when the texture fades out (for optimization texture disappears a half mile to mile away, and terrain colors show in-stead of it).
    There's also A LOT of stuff laying around near the far end of where I was building the highway and in general in a few spots along this corridor. That'll all get cleaned up, or conversely hidden out of sight for now.

    The stuff above was completed the other week, sometime shortly after the last beta if I remember correctly. I never had time to come back and finish all the detailing, curbing, and striping yet (gets less done as you go further out). It won't get done before the beta, nor will some of the not-shown-before roads above which also may be slightly imperfect (they haven't had a final smoothing pass or two that I do when the textures are on, but you can explore them at regular expected road speeds and not expect to end up upside-down).
    I think only highway lane striping, interchange ramp striping, and AI routing is left to do (and verify the stop signs are fixed).
    Maybe I can get that done in one / two nights if I get enough time? I sure hope so. I have exhausted my time tonight, but know this will be a fun stretch of highway for you to fly around on, and lots of new stuff to explore in this and the up-coming betas. This real-world task stuff is REALLY killing my mapping time - but as explained several times, is only temporary.
    EDIT:

    The road heading straight away from the camera is actually nothing more than a glorified run up the hill over a bridge to a giant ramp disguised as a mountain. Gotta love it. Definitely going to refine this a bit to make it even more fun. I got up it with my modified old Pessima config and still had all four wheels working and the vehicle still driving mostly straight.
    ...because we love doing jumps in a driving simulator... for whatever reason. Hey I don't complain, they're quite fun and I am totally with that thought.
     
    #1979 bob.blunderton, Sep 15, 2021
    Last edited: Sep 15, 2021
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  20. bob.blunderton

    bob.blunderton
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    Joined:
    Apr 3, 2015
    Messages:
    3,289
    The result of play-testing the map (not with AI yet), resulted in a lot of fun and several jumps I would never have thought of existing at all, being on the list to improve or otherwise make more fun & obvious. That's one of the perks of this map - there's jumps absolutely positively everywhere. Few maps will have more jump opportunities especially with high speed than this one. There's a certain balance between realism and down-right FUN, and I hope I will be able to walk that line well enough for you.


    While I was going to wait another 2~3 weeks before I grabbed some of these 3D models, I got an offer accepted on one, and nailed the sale on the other - saving 25$ off the original price! So I couldn't really pass this up now could I? These are ALL things the map needs more of.
    Decorations / props for the airport.
    6 Subway stations already game-optimized (I was surprised to see that and did not remember seeing that optimization being there before)
    A block or two of city buildings, in detail comparable to what I already have in the map, so it shouldn't be super out of place or anything. I will not use the roads in there and will stay with my stuff that I have but the buildings will certainly be a welcome addition to the map.
    This is all stuff that will be worked into the next one or two betas after this one comes out.
    Your participation in the map Patreon page is highly appreciated, and enables purchases like this. Thank-you to those who support Los Injurus!
     

    Attached Files:

    • purchase_models_city_9_15_21.png
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