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

Considering the time period that his mall is made, I fully expect tongue and cheek advertisements and billboards poking fun at the time.

Spoiler: Good Examples

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Y2K Survival Guide. What YOU need to know.

 

I promise not to disappoint so long as it's within my powers to do so. Even if this computer self-destructs and takes my house with it, this map will still go on... so long as it doesn't take me out too Even if I must go down to the library to upload this (and I just may have to anyways, when it gets far enough along/cohesive enough to travel in the city, to upload to the forum). Uploading to my private personal backup (that I link the Patreon member downloads to) is not an issue as it supports random disconnects.
My connection is kinda janky to begin with and then I'm on wireless about 60 feet from the router that connected with 3mbit down/512kbit up speed DSL... think late 90's DSL. We can't even get two-way cable out here, mainly because my backyard is a cow pasture! It sucks, really I mean it. Places to walk and good internet are the only things I miss about the city life. Otherwise, this country life is wonderful down here.

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That having been said, now time to see which scripted textures I missed, otherwise, I think I've got them all scripted. Hopefully! I am sure there's one or two I've missed somewhere. I'll find them soon enough - the "god of orange bright no-texture" will lead me to my merely mortal errors.

Shouldn't be too long now & y'all will hear back from me. EDIT: IT WORKS!
--- Post updated ---


It looks so much nicer in the game VS in the modeling program.
Looks like this will get uploaded when I turn in for some shut-eye tonight.
EDIT:
Added a few more rubble piles all over the place. The 2nd floor doesn't have them, they're all on the 1st floor. There's a few in the parking-lot too.

This is called 'testing' ...

 

Uploading tonight, I will hand out links tomorrow via Patreon & to those who contributed large building models and such.
The mall is definitely fun, that much I can assure, and works quite well. I didn't seem to get stuck in anything either.
*fixed:
Bugged upside-down highway piece by where the 3y interchange used to be, that's now a 2y... yeah, where the concrete portion started, there was a piece upside down, it's fixed now.
Fixed a floating arrow at the 'Chicken Munch' restaurant, right before you turn right to enter the drive-through.
Errata:
Besides the map itself not finished yet, there's a ton of "normal map" errors in console, I will have most of those fixed up by later releases, but I do know about them... so no need to report that. Will fix it when someone gives me some @#$% info on the normal map compression that's allowed in this game engine. So far no one's said a thing.

 

???
https://www.beamng.com/threads/normal-maps-how-do-they-work.27819/#post-947361

 

Yass, I can already see some maffia (or Crash Time ) stuff happening in that abandoned mall!

 

The mall looks pretty cool so far, should definitely be fun to drive around on. I noticed the piles of rubble stand out quite a alot compared to the floor so have you thought of dirtying the floor texture and maybe adding decals around them to blend them in a bit? I think that would make it look quite alot more detailed and realistic.

 

make an extremely confusing highway interchange somewhere between two or three highways and one or two surface streets all in one place

 

Thanks for showing me that, that response never showed up on my notifications, and when I had last checked, there wasn't an answer back. Either my web browser is seriously slacking, or something went wrong (it could be my connection, really).

They already are pretty confusing in some spots, heh, though that's not to say 'it won't get somehow more complicated/confusing as time goes on' ... rule-out nothing here!

Yes they don't blend rather well, for-sure needs some blending there, but yes, I will make a mask for the floor later on, it's definitely 'on the list'.

I will be sending out the private beta links in minutes. Check your emails for a Patreon notification if you're a member.

There's no new spawn at the mall, it was getting late, but you should be able to find it in short order as it is right next to the highway.
Basically, turn the car 180 degrees around from how you spawn, now there is a ramp at the 1 or 2 o-clock position, and take the ramp to get on the highway, and stay ON the highway until the pavement changes to older grey asphalt and go almost another mile. Take the first exit ramp OFF the highway just before a bridge. Make a left (you'd go downhill essentially) off of the ramp and onto the road (and go over that bridge I just mentioned), and the mall should be on your right as you leave the interchange area.

EDIT: Links are live!

 

That glass was invisible from the inside lol

 

It's possible, I thought I noticed it being double-sided, but I'll check it again. I noticed the light coming through the OSB (wood) kind of oddly though, I will have another look at it. It wasn't enough to stop the beta from getting out. It was already 4AM at that point and I didn't much care about it holding up another day.
Thanks for letting me know, I will have another check on it next time I am in game. It's merely a double-sided texture setting, if it isn't double-sided already - but keep in mind, you won't see it from inside because it's dark in there.
Does the grey window trim not show up on your end? IT should be there.

 

Is it possible to also have a Starbucks-like store with a parody name like "Shakebakes" or something funny like that?

 

if possible, throw the original WCA map in with all roads connected to the outside (may have to be rebuilt to get the barriers out)

 

That would add a lot of overhead and detract from what I could put into this map, plus it would not have any collision on it's terrain. If it was easy enough to do without detracting seriously from performance, it'd be fine, but the amount of draw-calls alone would make it near impossible. I already tried opening up the model on here and it's in some strange format, I'd have to mess about with it more to figure it out, but otherwise, no, it's not really possible, it would be kind of cool though in theory.
I like the idea of WC USA, and the design is pretty nice, but I end up hitting the edge of the map so soon, it's kind of a let down. I like to explore when I drive and drive for miles without running off the edge of the map, and when you drive in stock game maps and a lot of modded maps, you hit the walls after max 2~4 miles, and that's not fun. While it takes much much longer to make a huge map, the end result is awesomeness - awesomeness that I feel is worth all the time and effort.

 

then maybe you could use the WCA highway names/numbers in your map, and a sign saying "Belasco City- This Way" right over the road closed signs at the end of a highway leading off the edge of the map. I've played So-Cal Interstate before. I know there's at least one bridge leading to nothing at the edge of the map.

 

Beta errata/notes (things I know about already)...
*Sometimes door frames/window frames (grey narrow divisions in the mall glass) don't render for some folks. Trying to figure out why this is the case. Doesn't affect the play negatively unless you hit them when you don't expect to. To be fixed!
*Lots of 'normal map' errors due to wrong compression / lack of compression - this is fixed now, I spent about 3 hours fixing them, though there's still some 'failed to load normal map' stage 0 errors (I believe this is due to resolution size mismatch), but a bunch more normal textures are working now. Fixed remaining non-power-of-2 errors also, all of them hopefully. Thanks to the dev/support team for that.
*Missing store not far from the spawn point, about a half block up the hill from and on the same side as the 'Blood-bath and Beyond'. Ignore it for now. I have replaced the model and have to re-size the lot.
*Odd spike in draw calls near the parking garage looking back at the spawn point. Will try to figure this one out, don't know what's doing it yet but will continue optimization in due time.
*mall lot itself doesn't continue past the end of the mall, or around behind it very far, and there isn't much detail on the back of the mall itself, this will be addressed when I go ahead and finish up the road by the mall (on the side the lot piece is missing, and out front). Mall missing trim on skylight (to be finished).
*Minor rotation errors on mall object/lot itself leaving tiny gaps in the lot, that don't generally affect play... to be fixed!

Will do my best to make sure that the next beta is filled with even more awesome goodies.
That won't be the only abandoned mall/building, for sure. They're surely fun to bumble around in!
Other than that, it might get oddly quiet for a few days, but after that, progress should return.
--Cheers!

 

Just going to ask again, but can there be a Starbucks based store? Maybe something strangely funny, like "Shakebakes"?

 

I don't see why I can't fit something like that in, the city is huge after-all.
"Starsucks Coffee" maybe?

I actually have a better one, but I'll keep it hidden for now, you'll see it soon enough.
--- Post updated ---
The mall window trim isn't showing up for a number of people on the beta, I'm going to post a patch here, with instructions, so let me know if it works! The mall shouldn't have any more 'gaps' or trim-less windows, and doorways should be clearly visible! Welcome to beta land, I guess.

Add these two files (overwrite old materials.cs) into the following directory inside my map ZIP file.
\TSH\ART\ROADS\
That should be it. It's just a simple graphic that should be fine enough.
Let me know if it works!

DERP. Should be GOODER now. *feels stupid*
Never, ever, ever think something is going to be easy, because that's the last feeling you have immediately before realizing you've just goofed.
No, you didn't do anything wrong. I didn't set a few values in materials.cs correctly, because my mind was somewhere else at the time. In fact, it still hasn't come back home yet. That's OK, It's not missed much.

 

Did something wrong? It's now kinda black transparent thing, I think I need to flush cache or something?

 

you say window trim doesnt show up. that can be a lesser issue, since window trim isnt that big and my guess is no one will notice if its there or not unless its supposed to color contrast the building

 

That did fix the issue for me at least