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

sorry to ask but where ill it upload to ?

 

Ok

Idk if you agree with this but

Placeholders buildings.

Like the Weird GM-esk building son the other side of the map, just tall squares everywhere

Just as a temporary update or would that be too much

 

I don't like to use too many place-holder buildings. I have a few here and there but they don't look like place-holders as they're finished structures, they might just get changed up and randomized a bit more later.
Placeholder buildings kill the immersion if you have just a big grey box of nothing sitting there. The real reason is putting place-holders in the map, including modeling them in the 1st place, takes time, and will sap REAL actual progress from the map. So, yeah, I totally feel for you on that.
However, for those adventurous souls out there, open up the editor with F11 and go to forest objects. From there go into the list of objects and start placing things (do it in forest mode as it works well, and there's only one broken residential-multi-family building which is 'grey newer' something something).
Then save your progress. It's actually really easy as the map is super-duper modular, and now you can shift-drag to copy things you see in the map in the forest brush (a feature I begged for). This enables you to install traffic lights, furnish the map with buildings & forest things too, to your content.
However, keep in mind, this could make using future versions of the map difficult as your changes will override my future changes. So you'd have to remove your changes later on if the map updates, so that you actually get the updates and your object/texture bases in the map keep functioning properly.

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Remember, the MRK (modular road kit) is free for all to use as they see fit, but beware using too much can and will bloat your map. So only take the sets you need (though I impose no limit, your system ram / video ram may).

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I have a private hosting service I upload to that'll be available for supporters on Patreon and those who've contributed to the map, and lastly any member of staff here at BeamNG.
The map will be bug-checked more and so will receive a future update shortly to address any bugs and feature somewhat reduced VRAM use, as it needs a bit of optimization and unification in the texture department.

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The map is still uploading over my craptastic internet connection, 11 hours later. Another 3~5 more hours until it finishes as it gets slower in the afternoon/evening hours.
Traffic lights SHOULD be working now. I reported the game bug this morning.
I was getting 75~120fps on medium with 7~8gb of VRAM use panning the camera wildly and free-cam flying around the city at great speed.
On low gfx setting, FPS was marginally higher with 3~5gb of VRAM use. This VRAM use needs to be lowered a bit, as such, medium will lower a bit too; as some textures are 4k x 8k or 8k x 16k when they don't need to be that high (2k x 4k is fine for high detail). I just don't want them turning to MUD like original Quake.
I wouldn't dare try high detail on an 8gb card until we have proper full streaming support post 1.0 game version (as per the devs). We'll get it eventually though, and until then I'll just try to manage textures here manually with optimization passes as the VRAM use gets too large. I want to try to preserve the texture detail I can until I need to lower it because I want this looking the best it can, like a modern city in a game should be expected to look.
In order for graphic detail to take full effect, you need to reload the map. Please remember this, as otherwise models won't pick up the now-desired larger/smaller texture resolution changes until you reload the map.

Bugs in the release:
*AI may be strange or incomplete, especially in areas with barely even a road carved in. I might have missed spots, messed up intersections, incomplete paths (I tried to keep this to a minimum).
*There's a texture broken on the roof of one of the new buildings. I have to take time to figure out which one it is but it's likely broken due to a bad reference or the same game bug that caused several textures to bug out / not show up. I don't know yet. Using another mapto texture reference usually fixes it.
*The new 11-foot-8 bridge may not be 100% perfect height, same with it's twin a block away. I can adjust these as time goes on in subsequent betas of the map.
*The 11-foot-8 bridge spawn puts you about 1 foot (30cm) on the curb. Oops. I know of this.
*Bugs reported with the AI about two pages back on the forum here did not get applied in time to make the beta, but they'll be fixed in the next one provided I don't forget. I just ran out of time and was slapping down new AI like a mad man, faster than ever before. I couldn't hold up this beta anymore.
*Lots of unfinished stuff of-course, but I'm getting to that. It will be awesome when it's done!
*The map definitely needs another 20 intersections worth of traffic lights placed!

So yes, lots of bugs / errata. Still enjoyable though.

 

bob said:
I have a private hosting service I upload to that'll be available for supporters on Patreon and those who've contributed to the map, and lastly any member of staff here at BeamNG.
The map will be bug-checked more and so will receive a future update shortly to address any bugs and feature somewhat reduced VRAM use, as it needs a bit of optimization and unification in the texture department.


Ok good that im already a patreon then

 

Patreon update is live as-of right now (just posted). Old versions of the map use a different internal layout so technically you CAN keep your old version, but you'd have to rename it 1st.
Once I get the AI worked over decent and the VRAM use curtailed a bit better, I will think about a public update. This will include bug-fixes (if any).

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Happy Can-opener-ing (?) !

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Thank-you for your support, it's appreciated. I have to double the system RAM on this thing and update the GPU before the year is out and that's not going to be fun financially*. Can't believe it's been 3 years since I built this tower, but I digress, time flies when you're having fun I suppose.
*Why the time-crunch? Tariffs come back as-of Jan-2023 or possibly slightly sooner, for those in the USA. There was a reprieve granted almost a year ago so tech prices wouldn't kill the economy. If it wasn't for always running out of VRAM while editing (10~12fps is not fun) and the system getting sluggish when running out of system RAM in some editing sessions, I would probably never upgrade this thing.
32gb was needed when I started 3D-modeling in 5/2018, so logically no surprise 4 years later that 32gb is no longer sufficient. I don't even like to open the case to mess with stuff but I will definitely have to this time, no getting out of that here.

 

Do you know when the update will be available on repo?

 

am i the only one who gets the error massege "invalid zip file (insert map file name here)" and the map never shows up in the mod manager ? and yes i already tried deleting and putting it back in the folder


Fixed it
i went the classic way of extracting it and then copying it directly into the levels folder

 

hey might i recommend using something like google drive or dropbox for the upload? mega imposes a 5GB limit to free users downloading so you cant even download the whole file unless you wait 6 hours for it to reset the quota. im at 5GB out of 6.12GB rn

 

Yeah Bob, this paying for mega is BS. I gave them one month for 5 bucks. But there has to be better solutions.

 

I am aware of this NOW. My apologies. I tried to buy something last night but the bank stopped me from using my own payment options. I will have to sort this out in the short-term. I will be getting rid of MEGA as the solution, and hiring a file hosting website (and possibly more). Provided it's not too entirely expensive (it doesn't look too much), I will have something much better available within a few weeks.
Don't give Mega money, just leave it sit for 6 hours. Sorry about that. Yes, that is BS to give them money. I am looking into commercial solutions, but I need some time on that as I'm not one to just jump (nor is my bank! I have everything financial locked down like Fort Knox, to put it lightly).
What can go wrong will, the one thing that is certain is that.

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Extracting the map may be your only option if it does not show up or the file is too large for the game. I am working on dealing with this and hence already am working on down-scaling things so the file size is smaller. However, there's only so small you can make an entire city.

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1.) I think the game has issues with file sizes over 4gb. I faintly remember there being an issue with this one time around a year or two ago with this map. Extract* the map to fix this issue.
2.) I will be keeping any file available via MEGA nz less than 5gb.
3.) I will finance a replacement for MEGA, so in the future you will get high-speed downloads that you deserve. I know people aren't happy, and that means I'm not happy either. Rest-assured I will fix this!

Code:

*The file-paths for a map should be C:\Users\ ??? \AppData\Local\BeamNG.drive\0.25 where the ??? is your Windows log-in name.  Open the zip this map is packed in, and grab the levels folder and drop it right into Beamng.drive\0.25 so that it is now C:\Users\???\AppData\Local\BeamNG.drive\0.25\levels\LosInjurus. 

I DO NOT KNOW IF THE IN-GAME EXPANDER/UNPACKER FUNCTIONS WORK, you will inevitably have to volunteer to be the guinea pig here as I have not tested this.
I hope this helps. Sorry about the craptastic experience. Hope I don't get a demerit for that word either.

Spoiler

You would be right to think I should be better at this by now. That said, it's far from the first time I've broken something because of the scope of modding or designing something for a video game, even if it's not the game itself! Things I've broken in the process BEFORE darkening Beam's doorstep:
Doom original no more visplanes
Doom original 2fps on a 486dx/2 66 because of all the McMonsters
Doom whole map closed like a door
Doom construction kit exploded something in the monitor and resulted in me running out the room with a smoking monitor
Half-life too many dynamic (interactive / breakable) brushes and/or movers
Half-life 2 / garry's mod - too many brushes / too much map for a BSP engine (driving multiplayer game I was trying to make 12 years ago)
Can't forget **LEAK LEAK LEAK**, can we?
Too much computering eventually made the UPS system gave up the ghost, exploded into black smoke, resulting in me quickly yanking out plugs from under my desk and running out the house with a burning UPS which I threw in my driveway. Lithium batteries + fire = kaboom = no more house...
This wasn't much more difficult than throwing a pan on an oven fire though - just stay calm.
Whole lot more stuff than this, just off the top of my head...
Now for the BeamNG stuff:
Exceeded max objects 4096 max objects
Exceeded max file size on forum
Exceeded draw calls so bad the sim wouldn't run full speed (<20fps, down-town Harriman Roane County)
Exceeded the AI node engine X3 or X4 on two different maps
Exceeded max VRAM left and right with latest release of the map
Exceeded mega max file size for free downloads (can I blame them for pay-walling it? probably not).
Finding likely over 100~150 bugs in BeamNG Drive since 1/2016.

But my presence isn't always bad...
I've had influence in helping, and changing this game!
Maps were firsts for using invisible decal roads for AI included over gaps such as bridges or through tunnels UNDER the terrain even though decal roads are almost always on the terrain. Mesh roads as barriers either did not exist or was extremely uncommon before Nevada showed up.
Asked for the following features: Copy-paste forest objects, manual location forest objects via coordinates, micro-adjustments for forest object by holding control (curbs!!!), fixed-increment rotations, 3D placement for decal roads, carve tools by using meshes / mesh roads as a guide for terrain shaping for hills or banked roads among other uses, walking mode (car-free travel, in a driving sim, because 'Bob'), desire for vehicles to follow lane and more options for decal roads, speed limits for areas and roads independently, traffic (thanks Gull!), automated texture conversion (Car killer, thanks!), map-to-map travel via way-points or script triggers in the map, higher than 4096 square terrain support (purportedly 8192 works uncompressed but pigs file size), map points of interest. Many more I forget.
Asked for these following features but did not get them:
Dynamic object streaming into AND OUT OF VRAM, we do not have the latter half yet.
Multiple terrains per map. You can have them now but only 1st terrain has collision.
Inverted far-plane clipping option so you can display only the low-detailed map past a fixed point on the horizon, this helps draw calls and would help make the streaming engine work return in dividends / make it viable. If user adjustable like 'draw distance', more machines could easily play this game.
Dynamic objects (not compatible with physics engine at the current time, but I'm pretty sure I know how to make this work in a Jerry-rigged way that doesn't kill the immersion at all).
Out-of data-set object use, such as using things from the stock game in your own map without duplicating resources (and potentially breaking copyright in the process) such as models or textures. This sort-of works, but unreliably / inconsistently.
Features above that we DID get may have been implemented regardless of me asking for them just by coincidence, or were implemented for reasons such as the developer needing them whether I asked or not.

So long story short, never give up on your dreams, as only you can help make them a reality.
So while I may screw up *A LOT*, my presence here isn't always terrible.
Hopefully, it'll get better as time goes on (it has been, to a point).

Again my apologies on the rough late release, but this is still better than things were a week ago!
I will make good on my word, I just need time over here as always. Rome wasn't built in a day.

...Stupid Technology!

@Titi78510 I am unsure of when the public version will be updated.
I need to fix a ton of AI bugs (it really is a wreck in a couple of spots) including some reported ones.
I need to get the file size down a bit. 4GB+ maps need to be extracted to work, 5gb+ makes downloaders wait 6 hours on Mega. I can get it under 5gb, not sure about 4gb, but I will submit a bug report / request.
Supporters / Patreons will get the update to the update (?!) before public-facing side gets it.
It usually takes 3 days to post to public servers, minimum, not including weekends that may happen to be where they are during the submission process, not including holidays nor devs being busy near release times (don't know when the next game version release is here).

 

I have purchased a year of hosting for a domain/website and file repository for my maps.
I will be setting this up over the next 10 days, though I SHOULD have things figured out before too long.
I wasn't jiving with the 6 hour wait, that was NOT cool - but please oh please put up with it for just the remainder of this week. I have to do a lot of reading, and figure things out some more - as it's been 25 years since I made an internet site - but html is still html. So hopefully I can get this set up right quick.
OK, well, while I say 10 days I do hope it doesn't take even half that time - but you know how I am with deadlines and the of-course oft-mentioned 'stupid technology'. Trying to leave a bit of extra time for all the things that can and usually do go wrong, and my "random" physical health.
There's no limit on bandwidth and simultaneous connections (within reason), and you shouldn't need an account (it depends on how I secure it anyway, if you do need one it will be given via Patreon or via me on here for contributors).
I didn't get the cheapest one; I purchased a year of a reasonably priced mid-tier package that should be a good solid solution for now and the foreseeable future. There are times to be super cheap and there are times not to be, this was definitely the latter of the two, plus it has a nice money-back promise and all-that.
Figured I'd post that update on this, just so y'all know that I AM rectifying things as best I know how to.

--That is all for this moment.

 

sounds like a really cool idea...take your time, its going to be awesome!!!

 

Just so you know, sorry for the quiet spell. First the obligatory stuff:
EXTRACT THE MAP, THE FILE IS OVER 4GB AND THAT MAKES THE GAME *MAD*...
DON'T PAY MEGA, JUST START IT BEFORE YOU GO TO BED AND WHEN YOU GET UP YOU CAN RESTART IT. IF YOU PAID FOR MEGA PLEASE CONTACT ME VIA PATREON BEFORE THE END OF THE WORK-WEEK IF POSSIBLE. I WILL TRY TO GET YOU THE 5$ BACK IN SOME WAY EVEN IF IT'S A STEAM GAME CODE OR A REFUND OF 5$ IF IT LETS ME.
At the end of the week I will check in on Patreon and see what I can do for folks who paid mega...
If not, I'll throw something your way on Steam. This is only for Patreon folks, who at the date-and-time have already paid for Mega and otherwise wouldn't have.
I don't want anyone getting rubbed the wrong way here, that ain't cool. I will make good on it in some way shape/form as-possible.
Limitations: If you pay for mega AFTER this post goes up, you'll be on your own there, so DON'T DO IT. It may take up to 30 days +/- a week to get the money back, because obviously I don't own the banks, and I tend to move my money around a lot during the month so I can't always throw down some plastic and make things on another corner of the internet instantly better at the drop of a hat.

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Okay, now that that's out there in big blocky eye-ball-scream-out-y-ness it should catch the attention if anyone's missed it or otherwise possibly fallen asleep reading my novel-length posts.
I wish I could find a newspaper where the articles were longer than my average post...

Yeah, this isn't going anywhere fast.
To be honest, I am not working on the map at this very moment, I took a break to EAT.
Most of my time is spent working on my house before it gets cold, for at-least the next 10 days or so.
However, I will have a little time during any several-day period to work on the map.
1.) Trying to get the file below 4gb, so that IT WORKS IN GAME without saying invalid file. Why is there a 4096mb limit (32-bit) on this x64 bit program? Who knows! I did forget about said limit, though.
2.) Reducing textures will help the above, but that'll also make it easier to run, too.
3.) Not allowing 5+ gb files on Mega, but I've bought proper hosting for that.
4.) DO get the website up and running, it'll have links to here, Patreon, and a portal for supporters-only to download the map, and may even eventually let you post comments (but that'll probably get abused by spammers).
5.) There will be a discord, one day, some day, some-how. Are we there yet? Nope. Poor Bob needs to be able to do other things so the house does not garnish his head out of pure neglect, not working on these things 24/7 and then going bonkers talking about him self in the oh-so-creepy third-person...
I better get outta here this is getting too deep.

TO BE CONTINUED
DOT DOT DOT

 

how did it erase 3 whole gigabytes on my hard disk??

 

It doesn't erase anything on your drive, it's incapable of doing such a thing as it's merely data.
However, if you mean free space...
THIS MAP IS HUGE, AND IS BY FAR THE BIGGEST MAP. IT WILL BE A HIGH-QUALITY MAP NOT DISSIMILAR TO GTA-V or GTA-IV / GTA-SA WHEN IT IS DONE.
Some of the data in the map isn't used quite yet but will be soon, and many things are subject to change, textures will be down-sampled a bit to help with this, and there's of-course optimization and such that it needs to keep FPS up in two spots.
If you think 3.6gb is bad, the new one is almost DOUBLE that at just a hair over 6gb, but that is for Patreon supporters only (and currently has a 6 hour wait for the non-paid version of MEGA nz that it's hosted on, please don't pay for MEGA as I'll have my own servers up soon enough when I get time, servers that are not speed-throttled nor will they punish you for not paying MEGA).
When I get the servers online, the website up, and some textures down-scaled, I will consider publishing the public version. BeamNG servers are pretty slow anyways so this will be good. I got a good hosting package to make sure things keep moving along.
High-quality textures will be available as an optional upgrade for map supporters as I get time to make it available when it's necessary. I would like to wait for resource packs to become officially supported before doing so (they are on the to-do list!).

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I am still working on my house for at-least the next week or two, turns out the deck has a serious issue with wood rot. Just glad I didn't end up in the spider zone under the deck in an rather gravity-enhanced unplanned manner. I have to fix it before it gets cold out. I don't WANT to do it, but if I don't do it, it's going to be magnitudes worse by next year.
When this is done with, and I get any kind of break, I'll get on the map again and fix some of the bugs, the its_too_big issue, a few AI fixes that didn't make it in, and get the website/server up and linked.
If someone notices the sky still broken at certain times of evening/morning, let me know. I am not sure if that was done or not before I restored a backup when the map broke during a failed version update. I can't reproduce odd orange haze or color / no-texture in the sky over here.
That is all for the moment right now. I just hope I can get everything done that I need to do in some reasonable semblance of time this month.
Again, please excuse longer-than-usual response times to bugs, questions, suggestions or comments. This is temporary and should be resolved by around the end of the month (I hope).

 

Cool.

 

New bug to report. Maybe connected to the beam update.

 

Hey this map is awesome ive been using to drive around alot and i love it. I just have a question. If you decide to update the free version will there be bridges on these roads?

 

I can add them in, it's only a little bit of work to do it. Those used to use the old 'mesh road as a bridge' objects basically, and at one game-upgrade point they didn't transfer. Realized a wee bit too late they didn't save into the new version. I will add them back in for you before I update the public version.

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Nope, that's my screw-up, unless the other end is closed and a bunch of others are, too.
https://prnt.sc/HvMfqraso5US (SFW screenshot link verifying)
It's like that on mine. How I missed THAT one of all things and not one of the stupid culverts, I'll never be the wiser. However if I knew that well what I missed, I doubt I would have done so.
This will be fixed! This happened when I updated to 0.25.
MAKE HOLE terrain tool within the F11 map editor works to fix, but keep CTRL+Z undo handy if you miss, as it's a bit off-centered to the north/north-east with how it makes a hole. If you can't do or undo a piece of the hole use a bigger brush if you go that route to catch mistakes that way.
Thank you! That would have been quite the boo-boo to leave in an official release.

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This private release is verified working 99% or better in v0.26 for the most part, as far as I can tell.
Traffic performance is SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVED on this map in v0.26. Up to 30 vehicles with 35~45fps on a bone-stock air-cooled 3950x with paltry 3000mhz CL-15 dual-rank dual-channel memory on here. Memory timing/speed included for practicality because of Ryzen's performance closely tied to RAM speed.
I have not tested more vehicles than 30, but it's likely you could get quite a bit more; 16~20 vehicles was keeping at 60~50fps or there-about respectively.
RAM use was only < 3gb, while running and milling about the city. Surely opening / loading it used a lot more.

Keep an eye out for stupidly broken things, bad textures, general sloppiness and other things if you have the private beta. I need to know these things so the public release soon will be better for everyone. It's SUPPOSED to be an upgrade, right? right???!

self-note BUG: Two way traffic on the black section of (older) 6-lane highway in the less developed side of the map about two miles out from the air-base/island cloverleaf. OOPS.

 

If I can figure it out (shouldn't be too hard), I'll try to throw in PARKED CAR support for the map.
This is a *NEW* feature of 0.26, and one I've suggested for a few years, so I'm super-glad they put it in. That doesn't mean I'll get it right and it will be working, it just means I'm going to try and put it in the map. Who knows what that will bring... I could edit the map for 5 minutes and the v0.26 could suddenly cause my monitor to explode, removing my head in the process. I don't know as I can't predict the future, but I can try... with or without wearing a football / motorcycle helmet... shaking in fear of the inevitable.
No, not really! So forget all that falhdeerahl, just know I'm trying to map as I get a little time while working on my deck is the priority... as much of a priority as it can be with my physical disabilities hanging over my head.
If there's other new game features you'd like to see in THIS map, let me know by saying so!
If there's any other stupid bugs, DO let me know. Bugs reported previously with AI should be fixed in this corrective next release, as should any others if they're brought to light again sometimes soon (if I forgot about them! oops, my memory is really bad folks). I will fix the tunnel bug reported this week, too.

If YOU have personally fixed a bug or edited the map between now and next release, do know your changes can and will override my release unless you unzip the map into the same folder.
I DO NOT know if the 4gb+ file invalid bug was fixed, which is the one that causes my map (when larger than 4gb) to not show up and be declared invalid by the 32-bit file reading code. I reported it, it will get fixed sometime, or it's already fixed and I haven't had time to check.

EDIT:
Great news! They've removed many restrictions to the Maya LT program and are now branding the new update as Maya Creative. This is a great thing as it removes rendering limitations and most importantly, model export poly-limit limitations (I hit these with the old tunnel near the airport and a few other things). So that's a good thing of-course, and this will help reduce limitations on this project on the modeling side of things quite well.
EDIT: BAD NEWS! Maya Creative is MORE EXPENSIVE by significant amounts.
Gooder news! There's lots of other software out there, and they gave me a complimentary subscription for 3 years to Maya LT. So I will have 3 years to learn new software, and I can already 'get around' in Blender just fine.
I have a sneaking suspicion / gut feeling that they'll remove the flex program requirement (expensive!) and enable standard subscriptions (30$ / monthly) after another year or so - if it even takes that long.
Otherwise I won't be their customer any longer. That said, expect map progress to continue as normal (once I get the deck done, sitting here isn't going to get it done).
Alternatives include HOUDINI (free, for indie users and home-users, education stuff and the like), get Houdini via the website and not Steam though. There's also Blender which is free but good luck getting any support unless you pay for a support package. When working on a large project like this (and some other hidden side surprises that should extend gameplay while doing it) is something where you need to lean on support, for when your creations or intentions cause the software to go nuclear and you need it fixed STAT.
--Thank-you for your support!