Roane County, Tennessee, USA 19.3.1

6 months later, it did FINALLY get that update.
So come back and try this map again, I promise you'll love it better than the leading brand or...
Well, just try it and see for yourself, now new and improved, with less than half the fat, calories, half the nutrients, and almost none of the stinking graphics glitches that plagued the old version.
Add Traffic Tool to your order and get extra good times absolutely FREE!
--Heh

Wow, thanks!
This is by far one of the most detailed reviews given on this map (and there are dozens and dozens). I am so glad you enjoyed it evidently as much as I did making it. It'll even get a face lift one day, too, in the somewhat distant future.
Currently working on my all-custom city map, so thanks for the inspiration and encouragement, it's highly appreciated (and often very needed).
It's the go-to map when you want to just 'drive and drive' and not be so confined. Sometimes I wish to do just that - and often many others do, too.
2500+ hours went into this map, possibly up to 2800~3000 hours.
Hopefully my city map (though one-quarter the square mileage in size) will top this one by leaps and bounds. I am aiming for that number 1 spot on mod rankings - and with a mod everyone will be able to run!
I really appreciate the review buddy. Thanks again!

Sorry for the late reply, been busy on another map project lately.
It will run fine without reflections, you should be just fine. It may take up to 4~5 minutes to load initially on a 5400rpm HDD (<1min~1.5min on SSD), so busy yourself on some websites for a few minutes, or read one or two of my very long replies. You have plenty of RAM but if you add in some AI be careful as this AI in the game hogs RAM *FAST* on a large map, so try 3~4 cars max for a little bit, keeping an eye on RAM use. If you go over it will start to lag hard or crash to desktop with a 0xFFFFFFFF error. The CPU should be fine. Downtown Harriman hits draw-call limits very hard though, just be wary. Shutting Shadows (and reflections) off limits how hard DRAW CALLS hits the game performance. In the future I will ratify this a little bit, but not anytime in the very immediate future.

It takes a little longer to load the 1st time due to model caching, which with a modest CPU but a slow drive could take a while. Leave the game go for 5 minutes or possibly a little longer and go make tea, and cake.

Hopefully I don't offend you with my knowledge-filled posts. When you start getting middle-aged or older, you may have a lot of knowledge you wish to share with others in long posts like mine!
--Cheers and hope you enjoyed the map, it was a lot of work.

Glad you like it & am glad to hear that buddy. Sometimes it's just fun to cruise around... with no where to be but just cruise. Sometimes it's more fun to haul pianos around town in a truck with 16~20 of them jammed in (or a bus full of them). Sometimes I just haul them off the nearest cliff. That'll learn those pesky pianos.
This map is not abandoned nor finished, it will be updated again one day but is currently on the back burner while I work on my city map. In due time I'll be porting some models over to this map from the city map, where it matters (bridges, fast food places, road puzzle pieces, a sign or two, etc).
Do keep an eye out for the up-and-coming city map in the coming weeks/months/whenever!
--Enjoy!

With over 2500 hours logged, and possibly several hundred more hours not logged, it's had a lot of time sunk into it. I stuck it on the back burner for now as I picked up 3d Modeling - however - all is not lost. Far from it actually. I am working on a large city map right now, which while it does not have the square miles of space like this map has, it's 10.6km x 10.6km, and it's going to be a city that will dwarf all cities in this game (as if there were more than just a handful). It's also going to run well, so do not worry - I have a tester with an i7 9xx CPU, 12GB RAM, Radeon 6750 1GB DDR3 computer configuration that can get 55~60fps on Lowest settings on it's fully detailed parts. So it won't be nearly as big of a deal to run as this map's 'Down-town Harriman' portion - which really runs rather slow, if you don't turn off reflections.
The new map can be previewed here:
https://www.beamng.com/threads/a-new-city-map-unnamed.57055/
It's going to be an awesome GTA-SA inspired city that 'almost anyone can run decently' provided you meet the requirements for the base-game and have 8gb of RAM (it currently requires under 4gb free). It's also the spiritual successor to Generic City, with a complete modular road kit that will come out along-side the map. This will enable ANYONE to build a city, provided they can work the map editor and have a heap of buildings - and of course a LOT of time.

So thanks for the great review!

Thanks, I spent over 2500 hours on this. Whenever I get the chance to update the bridges and introduce some new buildings (and mobile homes!) I am sure you'll be pleased with that. Until then please keep tabs on the new unnamed city map here - it's not out yet though:
https://www.beamng.com/threads/a-new-city-map-unnamed.57055/
--Cheers & thanks for the review!

Thanks for the awesome review.
The draw distance would surely be a let-down for airplane users.
Open up your level editor with F11 when NOT in full screen.
Press F1 to make sure you're in the 'OBJECT EDITOR' mode (1st button on the menu panel above, too).
Mosey over to the right-side pane. Type LEVEL into the search box above the list box displaying map contents. It should come up with THELEVELINFO - now click that blue icon that popped up.
If you click this, Raise the VISIBLEDISTANCE box up from it's 800 meter (or similar) setting to something like 2000~4000 meters (that's two to four KM), this is how far the map will draw from the player.
But wait, one more thing, you still can't entirely SEE this far due to fog.
Change the FOGDENSITY setting by adding another 0 just after the decimal spot (to the right of the decimal), to make the fog 10 times LESS dense. You can also just set fog density to 0 and achieve almost the same.
Now you're done with that and can see! But it's CLOUDY/OVERCAST!
Lets brighten things back up! (this part is totally optional, you can hit save and just be done with it and hit f11 to exit the editor and play if you want)
Type SUNSKY into the search box just like you did LEVEL before.
Click SUNSKY when it comes up in the box below.
Find the BRIGHTNESS setting (scroll down a tad) and set it to 1, it will have been like 0.6~0.8 something if I remember correctly. This will brighten up the map nicely so it's like a clear day.
You may now hit SAVE from the FILE MENU BAR, and press F11 to exit the editor.
CAUTION: If you clear cache you will have to do this again, but this review response will remain here, it's pretty easy to do. You can also fish your stuff out of beamng.drive/backups folder if needed. This level's directory/project name is 'southernhighway', for future reference. If you see this folder in your /beamng.drive/levels/ folder, those are the changes you made.

Thanks for the good review again - this response is not only a way to say 'you're welcome' back but also to help others who may feel the same. This works on any map, by the way. Happy flying.
--Cheers!

Well awesome, the new computer benchmark with 'Roane County Tennessee USA' map lives on :) Yes it's rather good for that, isn't it? Sorry, I didn't intend for it to be, but to realistically visualize Tennessee - there's lots of trees here - it's not New York City after all. Trees take up to and over 1000 triangles (this is half a surface) to render when close. Far away (say quarter-mile or two/three large city blocks) they still might take a few dozen triangles to render - a fraction as much - but a fancy building takes as much to render as a fancy tree! So there's the performance hit, but provided you have the system RAM required to load the map, graphics options can be adjusted to suite your machine as needed, new or old.
RAM (especially USED, check out the 'Bay) is getting cheaper now, I upgraded this machine to 32GB for the new map project (and updated to Windows 7 Pro from Windows 7 Home due to RAM limits), and threw in another MX500 500gb SSD (solely because it was 'on sale' & I would need it sooner than later), and all that I can say is when creating content - a WORLD of difference. In other words, with what I can do here now, you folks will absolutely LOVE the new map, if you loved this one. It's NOT QUITE AS BIG but it *IS* very detailed and chock full of brand-new custom content - as I've learned to model - correctly model on that note.
When the new map is out:
There will be well over a hundred new buildings, four hundred new street/highway/rail/subway modular 'puzzle pieces' which I directly intend to release to the community so that *EVERYONE* can build a city even if they have no clue how to model - complete with LOD's, Sprite Billboards (low level far away detail level), and null render commands when it can't be seen and of course built-in collision so these can be used in the forest brush. Various Bridges of all shapes/sizes, compatible raised highway, and subway stations will be included too - yes, underground SUBWAY stations.
What's that have to do with this map? Lots of models (but not likely the entire modular road/rail kit) will get back-ported to this map for use beautifying/enhancing this map, when they are ready and I have the time/use for them here.
So basically, enjoy your new machine, and my book of text, and extensive map projects too. If my (almost) four year old (custom built) tower has no issue running this (unless reflections are maxed out, then it'll slow down to 20~35fps in spots!), almost any new computer with enough RAM and video horse-power will cut right through this no issue.
GTX 1070, 16GB RAM, intel 4xxx cpu and up recommended for best playable performance with MAXED details & reflections!
--Cheers and sorry for the book, and glad you can now join us here in TN USA!

Thanks for the review!
The mini-map glitch with the HUD is due to having the mini-map app open, at-least that's what did in in 0.9.x ~ 0.12.x game versions. If this is still the same bug, just shut the mini-map off while using this map and the rest of the apps on the HUD should be fine. There's just too many roads for it to process, and it gets backlogged (but in the countryside it's fine, because there are much less roads to 'see' on it).
That being said, the in-dash or on-dash GPS should be as fine to use as it's always been.
Glad you liked the map, as it's thousands of hours of work! I am working on a city map now that might take that long also, so keep an eye for it in the coming months.
--Cheers!

Do you meet the system requirements?
All these other reviewers ran the map just fine. The discussion thread has hundreds of replies. Maybe you should have posted this there.
I will let this review stay here so people can see what you're about, when given other people's works with thousands of hours put into them (yes, thousands of hours) for free, and how thankful you are.
--Thanks!

For some reason there's an issue with skidding on some maps, when tire skid decals would be generated. It's not necessarily the map that means it will happen. Sometimes it does it on another one of my maps for me when a second car is falling towards the center of The Earth, but not always, and never this one (on this game version). It's something odd in the game engine, I haven't been able to source, or pin it down to a certain condition. I can't really explain it much other than that, nor can I do much about it.

This map will make short work of cellular data plans, let that be known. Thank-you for trying out the map and look up the forum thread 'development screenshots' to see what is in-store for the future. This map is not dead, just on the back-burner for this very moment while I have LOTS of modeling work to do.

--Cheers and welcome to TN USA!

If it's not too much of a bummer, turn off Reflections or at-least lower them somewhat from the maximum. This is a large map made from a real county here in Tennessee. It's not a city made into a game from fiction. So it doesn't always perform as consistently as if it was made 'for the game'.
I just recently increased base-line performance by 25~50% in the most recent update.

Thank-you for the kind words though. Maybe in the future I will be able to squeeze out a little more performance (maybe 1~5fps on average, tops), but as-of-current, it's not looking like I can do much better than what I currently have done already.
Do buy more RAM when possible, it will help avoid lag from things swapping in and out of system memory or the installation drive (hard drive or ssd), when you start getting close to 80% of total RAM usage. I know it is expensive (wait if you must, I sure am), as during content-creation days here I get the 'low ram warning' on BeamNG.Drive even with 16gb of system memory.

--Cheers!

Glad you like it. For another good map try Nevada Interstate too, it has more of this, just not quite as big or as GPU/CPU/RAM intensive.
Just search for "Nevada Interstate". There's also a lesser-known not-as-smooth-running "So-Cal Interstate" which is somewhat poorly optimized and is going to go 'unsupported/de-listed' soon, so grab that one while you can.
There's also Tail of The Dragon, a 12~13 mile stretch of single road that winds through the mountains of Eastern Tennessee & a small bit of Western North Carolina, so give that one a shot too.

Glad you liked all the effort I put in to this. Surely I'll have better bridge models to show in the future.

--Cheers!

Thanks!
You can explore for hours. This took *YEARS* to build.
It's a real place right here in Tennessee USA, too, on 94% IRL scale (just a hair smaller for RAM limitations so 8gb folks can run it okay).
I will likely keep this project going for a long time. There's a lot of fans of it. Trying to start a city map, game is fighting me tooth and nail - not a lot of 3d software out there, if you can't learn Blender3D to save your hide, will work with BeamNG.
There's almost 200 miles of roads (not counting parking-lots, and not counting divided roadways separately, if you did, it'd be closer to 250 miles), so there's *HOURS* of exploration.
Simulate being a delivery driver, or haul some pianos.
Have a derby in the Sprawl-Mart parking lot - you know you've always wanted to.
Haul pianos around until they crumble (could be a while, roads are pretty smooth in this map).
Chase the AI or be chased by it, until it gets confused and derps up, police chases can be fun too! Anywhere there's a road, the AI can go - most all of the major parking-lots also have paths for AI.
Stores of all shapes and sizes, HUNDREDS upon HUNDREDS of homes in 3 towns (2 at-least half complete, 1 about 25% complete), and many other places like industries or other misc industrial zones.
It really is a very large chunk of Roane County (with a small sliver of Cumberland County to the west), right here in the USA.
Don't forget to enjoy the improvised jumps that are quite often hidden around towns to enjoy. There's dozens of them.

--Cheers!

You won't be able to play the map on an old computer.
You need an Nvidia 1070 or 1080 or 1080ti to use reflections in this map.
Turn off the reflections for your setup. If you have an AMD FX processor or APU, turn off shadows. If you have a 486, you likely will have slow game-play and I can't do much about that. Make sure to try this map on medium or low if you only have 2gb or 1gb of video RAM (respectively).

I spent 2500+ hours on this map; if it doesn't run on your OLD computer, or on a pre-built (Dell, HP, Packard Bell, IBM PS/2, AMIGA, COMMADORE) computer, build a newer computer. My 3.5 year old computer runs this wonderfully, now that it's optimized a bit more.

Make sure you read up on how to increase performance, as this game is enjoyed by folks with even integrated video on Skylake series CPUs (yes, even this map).

Besides, if you set the settings right, and have a half-decent modern computer, you won't have to play games in black and white anymore! :)

--Be Well!

Thanks! That is exactly why this map was made and exactly what I like to do with it for the most part.
With over 175 square miles, and almost 200 miles of road here, there's plenty to offer. For example, the road (Roane Street for it's majority, also Gateway Drive when it runs through Rockwood) that runs through both Harriman and Rockwood is 18.5 miles or so long. That's still almost 10 minutes of driving at 100mph - if you can maintain that speed through the sweeping curves of some portions of the road interspersed by many long, slowly sloping straights. There's also about 5~6 miles of fairly straight and flat Decatur Road which is immediately south of Kingston (~1 mile south of the U-Pump-It in Kingston, go over the bridge after a mile and you're on Decatur all the way to the southern map edge). Only right after you cross the bridge, for about 2 miles is hilly, then it goes down and flattens out. River road out (splits off Decatur at the top of the hill) here also has quite a bunch of snake-like turns if you want some contrast. This south-eastern portion of the map (where these roads are) is pretty cut-off from the rest of the map but still has many fun miles of road to drive, so don't miss out. It's super-easy to get lost if you're not from the area, so don't forget to read the signs, they actually do point you the right way. They'll tell you how to get to the nearest town, and occasionally how to get to the US 40 highway also, from which you can easily traverse/access the rest of the map.
From dense towns/small cities, to rural winding country roads less traveled to crazy hidden/improvised stunt-jumps, this map has a little something for everyone while not forgetting the main goal of the game, superior car accident simulation and driving experience.
I got sponsored for Maya LT recently, so I am learning this with much success, so look for more custom models in the future in this and other projects. Woohoo!
--Do enjoy!

Well glad you enjoyed the faster, better optimized version that doesn't do much to trash the detail. The new 25~50% faster version actually exceeded my set goal of up to 30~40% increase. I took 17~24FPS and turned it into 28~36FPS or something around that amount. I didn't think I'd be nearly this able to make such an improvement but the results of testing made this an endeavor worth doing twice over.

--Happy Beam-iNG!

Clear cache and download the new 0.9 version if you haven't, it just came out a few days ago (Wednesday or so?).
Make sure mini-map is off, and don't use reflections unless you have a 1070 or better video board or an AMD VEGA dedicated GPU.

Try the 0.9 version if you haven't, it's much better optimized.
The newer version has up to 50% better FPS.
It's not as sunny or having as long of a view distance as in some of the screenshots, a few versions ago I added more depth fog and then set the sun to 'overcast' a version or two later. I haven't taken the time to update the screenshots. You won't see more than half a mile to a mile ahead due to the cut-off in the view distance, which is hidden by somewhat realistic fog (unless you change it). Don't change the fog etc or it won't look good, this map has been around on the repository for almost 2 years now and in development since February or March of 2016. This is long before being able to change many of these settings except maybe the weather.
Remember this is a work in progress map, that is *FREE*. I have spent thousands of hours on this, yet you rate it with 3/5 stars. Sure, you have GTX 1080 SLI, but SLI means nothing to this game (isn't used) and isn't supported widely or very useful in many games of today (I know, I had SLI back about 12 years ago up until about 7 years ago, support was batting pinatas in the dark at best). Your best bet is to use one single card unless you're living in a very cold climate and live down the road from the town's Nuclear reactor. You only need a 1 1080ti with 4gb of RAM or more, to run the max details decently and maintain full motion. My RX 480 only drops below 30fps in one spot on the new 0.9 version, in downtown Harriman (but it's barely half as bad as it was previous to 0.9 map version).
I've spent north of 2500 hours on this map alone, and hundreds upon hundreds of hours making other maps. I've also spent a good 100~200 hours making textures and re-skinning existing models. I spent 20+ hours optimizing models for this map for this version update alone. I hope you'll appreciate the work that went into it.

The laggy UI is because since version 0.9 or 0.10 (likely 0.10) the mini-map HUD doesn't handle the large amount (3000 or so) of roads here, and can't draw them all so well, gets overwhelmed, and lags out the entire HUD. DO NOT USE THE MINIMAP. Use the GPS on dash if you must. I wanted to replace the mini-map with a graphic that says LAGMASTER 9000 or something to the effect, but haven't gotten around to it yet. I can't fix the hud issues currently as it's a bug or general inefficiency within the game engine that developed after the map was initially released.

Try to appreciate what's here and that it works well enough as-is, for free; and next time, read the release notes, if it's still possible to find them in the mess that is the description.
I made this to show what the game can do. Technology isn't quite there yet to render a 175 square mile map perfectly, but it's close. It was a proof of concept that grew into THE largest map on Earth for Beamng. Enjoy it for what it is, take the good with the bad, and everyone gets along just fine.
Most importantly, I made it because I enjoy doing this and have a lot of spare time being physically disabled and stuck in the house a lot, especially during the cold months, when I do nothing but writhe in sheer agony, from having nothing left of my joints and a really bad back. There's days I can't even sit in this chair anymore, and long-gone are the days I can lift the 85lbs computer tower I built myself 3.5 years ago.

If my 3.5 year old i7 4790k with fast DDR3 memory and Rx 480 8gb card can run this, so can your more powerful (at-least GPU-wise) computer.

It's been given a boost as of 0.9 map version which was just made available around Wednesday or such. So do try it out. My apologies if I sound like I am roasting you, I'm not, just keep in mind this is my hobby, I give my work away for free, there's nothing quite like this in Beamng. If you show up late to the show and roast my 2000~2500 hours + map project, I might fluff up my fur, arch my back, put my ears back and growl a bit, this is only to be expected. This map is here because people love it, moderators/developers included, it wouldn't be here (being almost double the file-size limit) without their expressed blessing, either.

Enough ranting, re-download the map, clear your cache (so that you have the benefit of the new models), and in a few moments you'll be enjoying a now-playable map.

--Cheers!

P.S. Not trying to sound hostile, just keep in mind, this is my main project, and I'm in my late 30s and have sunk considerable effort into this.