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

The building I was making a while back out of modular bits is finally 'done' enough to ship it into the map. I will make the LOD very basic but it'll do well enough. Collision-meshes will be done as-needed / when-needed, as like LOD's, they're not part of the prefab stuff at all - only the main model in full detail has modularity (before it's shipped out it gets merged into one piece to avoid murdering your PC with draw calls; Fallout 4 also had the same issue with too many draw calls when you went crazy base-building).
This building is a bit of a strange one, but it's really an apartment building that looks like a red-brick version of some classic brown-stones from the front with individual entrances and all, and a single exit in the back. These hybrid-style buildings are much more common than one thinks.
There will be different colors and variations of this building, but I also will try to avoid exact duplicates with varied textures to keep the variety up and hence things immersive/interesting.
Pictures taken from within the modeling program.

 

Whipped up a 7 and (two very slightly different) 10 floor variants of the brick walk-up type building (read: big brick box).
So yes, we need more excitement like these brick boxes to help slurp up all the empty space in the map; empty space which there is still way too much of for as long as this project has gone on.
Again, there will be other surfaces buildings are made of, I'm just not there right yet.

 

On today's episode of THIS OLD BRICK BOX we've got the collision meshes and LOD model (just one LOD) done.
Took a while on the LOD, sure, did spend a good few hours on it (maybe 2+ hours), but it's only SIX* draw calls, and that's pretty awesome.
*Six draw calls on the color/diffuse (what you see is diffuse/color map), but is usually a few more with normal/specular (though the 2d windows on the LOD are single-layer thus a single draw-call).
While having a specific LOD texture in a world where mip-maps were a common thing 20 years ago (mip-maps keep distant textures from shimmering or fences/grates getting moire patterns) might seem pointless, and wasteful, it's actually not. I don't need to add normal/specular maps here (they're usually viewed only far away, unless you are me) and they're low res for a whopping 42kb of space required (in VRAM this may be less when cached / compressed), so it's only one draw call whenever I draw this LOD windows texture (and all the windows are drawn at once here, just like on the brick housing project buildings). Basically, the way I do the LOD's is the brick box and the roof are one model, and the windows are 'wrapped' around it while staying connected to keep rendering quick.
Basically; there's no better way in regards to keeping FPS up, to make a building while having it still look OK. I'm not wanting this to turn into the draw-call purgatory that is Cities: Skylines II. THE quickest way to kill your map performance / FPS, is to overload the draw call queue with poorly made or otherwise slapped-together models.
Please look up draw calls, mip-maps, or moire patterning as it pertains to 3D computer rendered graphics if you are unsure of any of the above. If I spend the entire night typing out all the info on this stuff, the BeamNG team is going to up-charge me the increase in their server bill (due to all the text / length of my posts).
Been sick a week now but starting to feel better tonight; it's going to be another 4~5 days before I'm in the clear.
BUG FIX: Fixed the bug in the map with the stupid beach texture (underwater spots), but I'm not 100% sure it's not going to bug out again. Guess this one will wait until release to verify. It's probably fine now and fixed properly, but my memory is so bad I forget what I did, and thus, don't wish to make any promises I cannot 100% for-sure verify.
In the next few days I'll be finishing up LOD's and collision meshes on the buildings I've made this past month, so that they can be put into the game/map. Also, I have to work on the subway track connection between the two sides of the map, do some AI work for new roads, and polish off a few rough spots. There are other things, but thankfully I'm still getting somewhere despite feeling terrible.
Also, poly-surface count is a ratio of 1:154 when comparing the main building to the LOD. It goes from 56,285 at full detail to 365 for low detail. That's 128216 triangles versus 736 triangles on high/full detail versus low detail (everything on any object is made of one or more triangles, which make up poly-surfaces).
This allows me to reduce pop-in and not resort to flat-sprite 'billboards' when far away, which looks bad in the far zoom-out of 'map' function (yeah I hate the way it looks right now, it's on the 'to-do list' however).

--That is all for right now.
PICS: Grey textured model is collision mesh, middle model is full detail, and the remaining model is the LOD (level of detail / low detail in this case) model.

 

Please don't stop this epic accomplishment, this is one of my favorite maps, epic chases to be had. 10/10 if i wasn't on limited income i'd sub to your patreon

 

Worry not my friend; this map won't cease development so long as my heart is beating - and I've restarted it myself the last time that happened (just over 10 years ago woke up with no heartbeat, broke a rib or two but got it going again with a few good whacks to the chest - being that moving my fore-arms was the only thing I could do and couldn't even scream).
So needless trivial details out of the way; this project is NOT going away. It will stay being worked on, if only that I (among others) have invested FAR too much into this, to just goof off and throw it all to the wayside. It gives me purpose, too, and that itself is quite important when you're rather drastically physically disabled more often than not (some days I'm pretty good and can walk around for a bit, other days it's a struggle to get to the latrine or the shower).
So thank-you. Do not feel bad about limited income, for this is the way most of the world lives. Chances are more than likely that most of the people you meet in the day - some 9 out of 10 - or even 19 out of 20 - are in the very same position as you. Just keep working hard towards your goals, and like this project, things will get better one day. My father said 'it might seem terrible, but if you're down at the bottom of the hill looking up at possibility and a better financial future, you really have no way to go but UP'. 75% of people making 6-figure salaries are living at (or just-about at) paycheck-to-paycheck, as things are no-longer like they were 20~25 years ago. Just don't forget to enjoy life along the way.
I'm glad you find fun in the chases in this map, they can be a hoot. I am continually refining the AI here and there as I chase it into various corners of the map (or it does such to me!), so there will be plenty of fun to be had in the future here.

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Entirely on the modeling end, I've made some more brick boxes. Oh boy MOAR BRICK BOXES! Wow!
Oh, and again, I can't say this enough (evidently), appearances will be more varied when it comes to exterior finishes in the map (read: more than just red bricks with beige trim). This is just what's being used in the modeler.
Making the 10 floor version of the collision mesh and low-detail LOD model was quick and painless, as I've imported them over from the 7-floor model and was able to quickly update the size/texture as-needed.
Also, the other three buildings are relatively similar, and are made to fill the void of medium-sized brick boxes we need for areas of the map with moderate to low land value, where the rest of us can afford to shack up.
All buildings feature 'burglar bars' on the lowest floor windows and fairly accurate collision meshes including roofs where you won't get stuck (edges are ramped), though fire escapes do NOT currently have collision meshes. The only time fire-escapes will have collision meshes, is if you would have a reason to walk them (like a 'player home' type area at the end of one) or if they're close enough to the ground that player interaction is likely. I will make 'assist' collision meshes if there are jumps/ramps nearby so you don't pass through it readily and break immersion, but only when needed for jumps, to keep CPU free for other physics and draw call duties.

 

Would street running trains be something you would consider adding. I like the juxtaposition of cars and trains running on the same level

 

“Cars and trains, living together! Mass hysteria!”
(At least I think that’s how the quote went, I haven’t watched Ghostbusters in a while)

 

I think, somehow, I could make that work, provided it was in-line with the terrain (orthagonal). Will try and get that to work. Can be tough to get the terrain and the road to line-up sometimes.

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"Hey look he did something!"
"That means he's not dead!"
"Not yet..."
and until that shall happen, here I map...

A little more highway has been built (not sure if I showed off the big bridge last time around, but there's more highway past it now).
Some of the small town that will flank both sides of the bay has been built.
LOTS of unfinished stuff (random chunks of road laying around, orphaned floating barriers, etc) that won't be there in the next release, so please ignore.
Last shot, yes you can totally ramp off that rock outcropping on the right. Of-course you can, unless you love your car, but thankfully there is a refresh button to get it back to like-new again, unlike real-life.
I really can't wait to get some real time to slide some cars sideways on these re-done miles of 6-lane highway. What I have been able to try has been quite enjoyable, but do be warned that there are very slight undulations (alike to a real worn/aged highway) that can upset the perfect slide, though less-so in turns. The new-looking concrete highways are (not these!) smoother but again, I was going for realism here. So if you want a realistic experience, this will definitely fit the bill - even if this little town here isn't finished yet.
There will likely be a little bit of a bump on the highway where the old highway that hasn't been refurbished and improved meets the new one that has been improved. When I say improved, I mean completely erased and totally re-done by engineering / laying-out the new alignment, carving in the turns and grading out the highway, adjusting the neighboring terrain for both realism/immersion, then laying out the median barriers / edge barriers, adding in bridges and adjusting ground around/under them, then putting the actual road graphics in. Lastly they get heavily tested, then AI will be done and then more testing of that nature. I haven't done AI yet or final testing, but what I can say is that thus-far what I have driven IS quite enjoyable - and in addition the new alignments can be handled slightly faster due to most turns being more realistic radii angles and also the wider highway.
I hope everyone had a good/safe Thanksgiving
--Cheers!

 

A bridge that IS NOT flat!

2nd shot included only for bearing, so you can see where it's at in relation to the town (to-be) that I took pictures of yesterday.
Another half-mile of (almost) done highway. It's driveable but has no AI and the bridge transition needs a little touching up on either side.

The above-pictured highway improvement ends here for the next release (yes, I FINALLY reached that point to where I wanted to upgrade the highway before next release).
Did a little more work on the one street on the hill in the new town area. Just a little. Also striped the road that goes left-to-right here, though that took less.
Not featured: some road detail by the tall tower here, some retaining wall and lengthening another road (same one actually, wall's right next to it too). Lots of bathymetric* work nearby.
*Bathymetric: that's all the stuff underwater that you don't see, think of it as 'to-do with terrain under the water', bathymetric is the underwater version of topographic.
You'll be able to be playing this by next weekend (DEC 2~3) if you're part of the Patreon for the map. If it turns out to be buggy, I'll promptly update the beta often as needed until I can later push this through for (hopefully bug-free by-then) a pre-Christmas public release. Seriously, this week is CRAM time. Hopefully my body doesn't fall to pieces in the mean-time.
--That is it for tonight, though.
EDIT: It's 1.2 mile of highway that's been put in place in the last two days, somewhere around 5 miles total has been refurb'ed since the last update, + or - 1/10th of a mile.
The arched bridge deck is a blast to drive across, though you won't catch air until you go over 120mph, and you will completely leave the road surface at 140mph. Tested with the Hirochi Sunburst 'tuned'.
There will be other arched-deck bridges that crest in the center more strongly than this one does, so do not worry about having to go so fast to get some good air-time on this one. There's still the clover-stack top-deck if you're wanting to do that, over by the highway access to the big civilian airport. There will be more like this.
Having the mileage / odometer in the dash/instrument cluster is a nice to have feature, in-stead of relying on an overlay app to do it's bidding as before.

 

RELEASE TO PATRON MEMBERS AND CONTRIBUTORS IS SATURDAY NIGHT / EARLY SUNDAY MORNING!
There may be bugs or AI imperfections, new roads that might be unfinished (suddenly end) but I'll try to stick dead-end signs on that (or no outlet), unfinished properties (building lots lacking detail or just with a building and not much else), floating random objects (though I'm trying to nuke them all, there's so many), and other fahl-dee-rahl related to being W.I.P. ...

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PUBLIC release will be whenever I get a few loose ends tied up and any major can't-wait-until-later / fix-it-NOW-Bob! bugs fixed.
I understand I have not made enough releases, please bare (bear?) with me here, I'm trying to get back on-track.

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We get arrows! Sign arrows. Chevrons. Things that tell you the road is turning. There needs to be MILES of these things placed. Dozens of miles. A few miles done is a start, though.
Chevron boards are usually a little oversized versus their real-life counter-parts, due to the fact I want you to be able to see and process them before you munch on some walls or fly off cliffs. Basically, this helps playability and keeps you having a better chance of recognizing the turn coming up.

Those huge 'tanks' won't be there in the release, they're just so I can make consistent exit ramp curves in a nominal amount of time. It's very hard to make consistent curves - but - I've altered my method of engineering the highways by bringing in the median barriers BEFORE carving (once I know where the road is roughly going to be). These median barriers are rather long (30m and 180m), so they end up helping me guide the highway into being consistently graded and also (and more importantly) consistently curved (where possible, sometimes curves do change sharpness mid-curve). This also leaves the median barrier looking a whole lot better in the finished product - a ton better - in relation to not being submerged into the road too much / floating a bit.
That having been said, the outer loop of highway only has 3.3 miles remaining to be upgraded, out of 27 miles total (for the outer loop, the inner loop and straight shot over the mountain is done obviously as-is the new section that runs past the civilian airport). So, TL-DR, 23.7 of 27 total miles is re-engineered - once the final 3.3 miles is done, then ALL the highway is upgraded in the map.
But, in my manner of not resting on my laurels for long, I haven't signed nearly enough on the highway yet. It needs hundreds more signs - a large percentage of which is chevron boards.
Onto another note, in the 2nd picture, the bridge now connects to something, for once! Another road also has another bit added to it, which will eventually connect to this one.

I do not know if the road in the shots above (the one with the bridge near the huge "tanks", and the one with the turns going up the mountain will connect eventually) will get connected by beta release time. Don't want to make promises I can't keep. In the second-to-last shot of the 5 directly preceding this, you can even see the same apartment building visible in the 1st shot below.
Another area has one pair of slip-ramps (which are rather unique, actually), and a little access route to a beach parking area. I don't have chevrons on the highway here yet except the off-ramp.

I driven all the new and refurbished / re-engineered roads, and they are quite enjoyable to cruise and yet challenging to master at high speed. Even without all the detail, I'm sure you'll find plenty of miles of NEW road that fits your driving (or crashing) style. More detail will come in time, of-course. Around FIVE miles of outer-loop highway is improved in this current beta, and much more than that on the topic of side roads. Plus, as roads get finished and the map is connected better, it'll greatly help get more players out this far and interact with the semi-rural areas more.

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I DO want player feedback on the final shot below, where I show a small section of the UNimproved highway, part of the last 3.3 miles that exists. I want to know if I should make it really twisty in a spot or two, or make more high-speed areas?

The surface road will stay, but it's the highway I am questioning. Do we need more tight twisting / challenging corners, or should I build out more high-speed highway with easier, wider turns? Let me know in the next week or so, I need your feedback!
--That's all for right now.
Oh, and don't forget to check out weekly free game offers from Ubisoft Uplay, Amazon Prime gaming, Epic, Itch IO, indiegala, GOG, Steam, and likely more places. Yes, even if you totally hate those launchers like Epic/Uplay/EA-Play and so-forth. They're not usually crazy-awesome, but free IS free, and can likely chase boredom away for a few nights. I don't make money on saying this; but I do wish to share it, as it can't hurt to get some freebies now and then.

 

I have a problem. After the 0.30 update, some of the highway textures disappeared. I tried re-installing los injurus and even clean installed beamng, but nothing worked. Can someone help?

 

did you try clearing cache

 

Thank you for your development efforts.

I assume you already know this,
The log of data loading is
in beamng.log

|I|GELua.levelLoading| *** loading level: /levels/losinjurus/info.json

The log of data loading can be found in the following line.

At Var 2023-04-14, AI paths do not exist on bridges and some tunnels.

Several building generators exist as free add-ons for Blender.


https://kypcaht.gumroad.com/l/PmCLJ

https://paveloliva.gumroad.com/

Search
Blender Building

 

Please more challenging corners.

 

I'd love to see a bit of both challenging corners and more high-speed easy corners on that last 3.3 mile stretch.

 

i tried

still not working

 

oh well then i am out of ideas

 

I'd like to get some screenshots of these areas where you mention the highway texture is gone. This way I can see what's being a problem.
ALSO, I'd like to know what brand graphics card you have (Intel, AMD, or Nvidia). This includes if you DO NOT have a dedicated graphics 'card' and the graphics are part of the CPU / motherboard.
IF you do not know what kind of GPU you have, an even better answer is START game, hit STATS, hit PERFORMANCE in BeamNG Drive's interface. It'll tell you. Take a screenshot of that and link it here.
beamngstatssysproperties.png[/IMG] (if this doesn't work click the attached BOTTOM image because either I'm stupid or this forum is - or both - but let's continue)
Let me know so that I can tell if it's something on my end or yours, or file a bug report if needed. These things happen, plus this map pushes a lot of boundaries in this game.
So basically, if something DOES break with an update, it's probably this map doing something undocumented or finding a bug no one else found.

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I'm with you on this! 110%. There will be plenty of these on surface roads besides the few I'll throw into the highway area.

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Well we've got plenty of medium and high speed corners here interspersed with the occasional corner that'll definitely wake you up if you're not giving it your all.
Will currently be looking at some tight corners in the area of the screenshot, possibly some more spread-out high-speed corners as the highway is further out toward the military base island.

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Didn't get as far as I wanted to, but still going to ship this out tonight.
Hopefully I get the AI stuff done tonight for the highway, not sure if the new side roads will have it or not.
Interchange AI is done. I think the bridges on the highway for AI are done. I have to fuss with the 3D AI routes (over curved or arched bridges) as the editor feature is broken, but I think I've worked around it. No promises there with that arched bridge for THIS beta, but I'll figure it out.
There's definitely some unfinished roads and some imperfect stuff *BUT* the highway should be good to go for some high-speed adventure.
Will keep refreshing the beta every 5~7 days until it's where I want it, with enough loose-ends tied for a public release.
New buildings are not in yet, trying to finish up what's here.
Beware a hole in the ground near where the subway turns into raised/elevated rail. That part isn't done yet. Might have time to fix this before I turn in for the night and upload this.
If it takes too long to finish uploading I will post it 1st thing in the morning (central time) by 9am or so.
I said I'd upload something tonight and DO plan on doing so, regardless how unfinished things may currently be. There's still plenty of finished-enough-to-enjoy parts of the map and new stuff.

 

So very excited to test tomorrow on the sim

 

The map is uploading to my backup account, and I will post the map details and link in the morning for supporters. It's rough and the AI is untested, though I tried to remove any temporary obstacles and floating stuffs. However, you might find odd things out of the way here or there. There's a pile of spare decal roads and random bits of texture in a few empty blocks of the city and similar stuff, but that shouldn't hurt anything.
I am beat and need to get some shut-eye, but you'll be able to download the map in a few hours.