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

So I had a bit more time to play around with some things.

Decided to play at 1080p and compare to my Laptop.

MSI Stealth 15m
i9 13900H 6P Cores 8E Cores
32GB DDR5 5600 Ram (Running at DDR5 5200)
RTX 4060 Mobile 8GB
1TB WD SN850x

Now I was expecting much worse performance vs my desktop, when in fact at least at 1080p, it was slightly better

Laptop



Desktop





My Desktop
i7 12700K 8P Cores 4E Cores
32GB DDR5 4800 (Running at 4400) *No way to change this with the Acer Bios*
RTX 3090 24GB
1TB WD SN850x

The differences are subtle but the laptop appears to do a bit better.

My thoughts are that Ram speed makes a difference and could account for a bit better performance, but there also is another things.

Both CPU's are 20 thread cpus, but the i9 13900H actually has more physical cores. It has 14 cores where as the i7 12700k *only* has 12 cores. Not sure if that's the difference but it's interesting nonetheless.

I'll be getting a faster set of ram for my desktop to see if that changes anything.

 

Entirely, RAM speed is one thing, but latency is also another. Make sure to get a low latency kit for your desktop. You'll pay more but it's along the lines of 3200mhz CL-16 *VS* 3000mhz CL-15 *VS* 3600mhz CL-18 ... 3600 divide by 18, 3200 divide by 16, 3000 divide by 15 = all the same number (200 for those who aren't a human calculator, not everyone spent years manually aligning Doom wall textures after-all).
All three of those net the same speed as the CL (CAS Latency, like wait-time, so to speak) divides into that MHZ speed. It means, each of those kits I listed might have the same exact chips in it (usually it does!) but the only difference is how it's marketed (and the JEDEC speed programmed into the SPD chip on the memory stick). JEDEC is memory standard, the board reads it on first boot and saves the info into a section of the BIOS chip memory for later (faster) boots.
Basically, don't pay more for faster kits unless the latency is lower or the same as your existing kit, or still works out better (if slightly higher) due to faster MHZ speed. To make this a non-book-length post, CL-16 3600mhz will perform better than the CL-15 3000mhz memory / CL-16 3200mhz memory listed above, because the CL-16 3600mhz is quicker than would-be-equivalent CL-18 3600mhz memory which would be the same as the above-stuffs. Lower CAS latency is better, again, because this is the wait-time for processor to talk to or manage info stored on said stick.
Dual rank memory is better on AMD, vs single-rank memory (the 1xR or 2xR found on the stick, not how many sticks are in the pack). I run dual-rank memory here as it allows denser sticks and a slight speed boost (only a few % on this example). Intel doesn't benefit* nearly as much, but there's a little boost there. Keep in mind it's ever-so-slightly harder to get highest speeds on dual-rank memory, but it's not to the point usually that it should discourage you buying into it.
*As-per intel up to 12th generation; I don't know if newer intel chips benefit, but I don't think it's as much. This could change for chips with multiple 'tiles' of CPU cores in them that are made like AMD chips are. Keep in mind if you have an X3D (V-cache) AMD processor (for others reading this mostly), memory timings/performance/rank doesn't have as much of an impact, but there's still a small difference to be had in performance. Integrated GPU users will also notice an improvement directly tied to RAM speed due to most integrated GPU (iGPU) being memory-bandwidth starved.
So much for a short post! There could be other issues** like latency (look up LatencyMon software, it should be free and without spyware, look on one of the gaming sites for it), in the display driver on your desktop, or previous vulnerability-mitigation patches on the OS slowing it down. It could also be things like power use going too high on the desktop, or just a better match of components. I can't say for sure, but performance should be +/- 15% of one-another as (short of additional VRAM benefits) normally you're CPU limited. Try both in Vulkan also. Might be a difference there, if it doesn't just crash out on you. I had Vulkan hard-lock the system once in the editor, but in the game Vulkan seems fine (I did send in my crash report though!).
Make sure to check Vsync / Adaptive sync settings that they're the same also.
Keep an eye on CPU turbo boost to see that it's not bombing out to lower speed periodically, if it is, lower your wattage cap in BIOS for the CPU or get better processor cooling (clean it?).
**Latency over 400~500 should be noted, over 1000 is BAD and needs fixed / should never happen. Frequent latency spikes create micro-stutters and as-such can drop FPS by up to 50%. For users who think they need an upgrade with otherwise good hardware, try LatencyMon.
OK I better stop here and post what I was supposed to.

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PURDY COLORS! Nice colors with which to make new-styled apartment buildings. I saw some in Nashville when I was down there, so I figured it's time to make some for the map. Of-course I'll be making said buildings from a kit (which is not yet made but will be adapted from an existing one, hopefully). This way I can make a bunch of different buildings and it will be better-off (less work) in the long run and a more consistent output (darn those 12 foot tall doors).
All these colors are 45mb in total and will share non-color layers like normal-mapping, reflectivity, specular, roughness maps etc (things that make textures not a flat boring picture). There's roughly around 30 of them currently and they won't be all loaded at once, so even a few of them loaded together will keep things under 9~10mb. Buildings will only use up to around 5~10 at a time so even then it'd be 15mb max. That's not bad considering the alternatives were 4k textures and these are 1k. Building stucco doesn't need to be THAT high-res (though, it won't look out of place).
These colors are for MODERN and NEW inner-city buildings mid-rise to high-rise residential, not so much for old ones unless they've been rehabbed.
Forgot to mention, the road texture I made a previous post about (eventually) completely replaces another road texture, so the VRAM hit isn't that drastic.
There's still lots of OLD textures I'm weeding out slowly but surely, namely some of the old ones that don't all work quite right anymore (and are just a liability to break randomly on game engine updates anyways).

 

Some of the new color palettes in action!

Now I probably won't use all the colors I showed earlier, but there's many different ones to choose from (since I never got it quite right first-shot guessing the colors I'd need for a project, I made 30 or so of them). I have white windows/doors too, though not quite identical to these, which will work when brown windows look too ugly or don't match the color scheme.
Right now just kind-of 'winging it' with the colors and door/windows combinations.
Other pieces will get made as-needed. Right now not changing up too much until I get more buildings built from these to see what I need. Basement/foundation pieces already exist and/or can be made quickly with little fuss.

 

Whipped up a new building with the kit, which resulted in a few new pieces getting made (in not much time, thankfully).
Here is the completed building (roof objects which are part of another kit which get added in-game since we only want them in VRAM once despite being everywhere, obviously aren't shown). I might add a little trim to break up the bland expanses of terracotta colored wall, but other than that it is pretty much done. Store windows can be in-set to the blue and white arch-ways on the ground floor, otherwise they default to this. Also, store windows being used everywhere will generally be something also done in the editor. Things from road chunks (that make up the whole city) to lamp posts to bridge pieces to train track sections to trees and rocks, and even less obvious things like dumpsters, roof-objects, elevator houses (square on the roof central on taller buildings that houses elevator cabling/hoists/motors and often tanks of water for the stand-pipes serving fire-fighters and/or gravity-fed sprinkler-systems), flags, greebs (vents/plumbing on exterior of buildings) *ALL* end up in their own kit with few exceptions to keep redundant data from ending up filling the GPU VRAM needlessly, when I could have stuffed yet-another-road-texture (tm) into the map.
That is why many buildings have very bland roofs, although some do have elevator houses already (and that is because those are some of the ones I will use on other buildings, but not all of them are in-game already). This results in a more consistent use through less loading/unloading of assets, thus less juggling that the driver has to do or fetch from the drive and thus less chance for micro-stutters to cohabit Los Injurus with you. That'll mean a little better use of CPU time for physics and less spent on the game telling the driver what it needs and the driver trying to figure it out (video driver, not you).
Roofs CAN be bland though. Like for the super-duper low detail version that'll come out one day - hopefully while we're all still alive to enjoy it - near this project's end. I can just remove the assets from the map folder and the game will never load them in, thus leaving more precious GPU VRAM available for the things you really need to see - like road textures (and yes, that's why some don't load in for some people).
You shouldn't be driving up there anyway, but who am I to stop you or tell you how to enjoy the map?

Total building vertices are not represented by the left-top numbers in the 3rd shot, that's with a dozen or more buildings and tons of scrap/spare kit pieces laying about. This is my scratch-board file that I work from, and export buildings individually from. This saves me from having to re-define textures and otherwise waste time importing other bits doing double or triple (or more) work. Work smarter.
That and I don't need any excuse for this to take any longer than it already does, which is still way too long. I am plugging away at it, so just thought I'd post. This came out nice and I didn't really have to fix a lot of things on this one while working with the new kit - short of a number of UV's around the windows that needed proper direction (you can set a face's UV direction separate from the actual face direction, which helps do things like round corners or other trickery like such, which affects how light interacts with it in-game).
Draw call reduction is in full effect and ALL similar trim bits, facades, windows/doors etc share textured surfaces (UV's) where possible. This keeps your GPU busy and keeps this from hitting FPS. Window glass will have full reflectivity via reflectivity mapping later-on in the pipeline (along with many other windows and applicable door-glass), so them looking similar here is but a paltry inconvenience.
I've also picked up some LOD-creation* software that I'll be trying out later on... well trying to figure it out anyway. Getting something usable out of it that saves time will be another feat. We'll see how that works out. It still has some other usefulness that I don't currently have in my pipeline of software, so it'll be redeeming either way this goes.
*Remember, LOD's are 'levels of detail' and are progressively simpler versions of buildings that get rendered (faster!) in-place of the full detail version if you were to back away from it. Almost all games since the late 90's and definitely early 00's use this method for rendering, to drop not only triangle-count but also to lower draw calls (and sometimes VRAM usage depending on the game and frequency of model use), too. BAD LOD's can actually hinder performance and cause ugly things like pop-in as you approach the model, where the model being switched between detail levels is obvious to the player and can be annoying and immersion-breaking. We're far enough along in technology that model detail-level differences shouldn't be a player distraction nor something they should even have to think about.
I do listen to comments, suggestions, criticism, and the whole host of wants/desires of players and participants of this project thread. This is one of the things I've slowly been addressing over time, but it is getting better and I hope the newer buildings more recently added to the map do show this.
As I mentioned above briefly: IF YOU ARE MISSING ROAD TEXTURES in your map, or there otherwise are road and/or model textures NOT loading in, LOWER THE TEXTURE DETAIL LEVEL BY ONE NOTCH AND RESTART THE GAME. This map HOGS VIDEO MEMORY and missing textures (vs complete crash-out to desktop) is how the game handles this now, and this isn't limited to just this game either - many games now do this. Model detail can stay at medium/high with little effect short of making the map really ugly really fast if you should lower it from it's perch.
I will be working on fixing the pile of submitted map bugs next week. So it's better late then never if folks found any new map bugs or inconsistencies, as I'd like to put out an update sooner than later that actually fixes bugs and not just introduce new ones to bully the old ones (and you).
An extended thank-you to all those showing support and all those bug-reporters out there who loyally submitted bugs more than ever before. Or I'm just getting that bad at things. We'll pick the former for now, as that helps restore my faith in humanity somewhat, and as-such is well-needed.
If it indeedy is me that is getting worse, I am going to have to change my name to "Sir Arthur Pod" then.
--I better see myself out before I get hit with rotten fruit and rolled-up old newspapers.

 

I'm really glad I stumbled upon the issue of memory speed and how it relates to this map. I have to say I've never seen such an increase in performance simply by changing out ram and running it at a much faster speed.

My Acer Predator 7000 came with DDR5 4800 Ram, but only could run it at 4400 speed. I updated the bios and XMP support was added to the Bios but the ram was not XMP rated.

I then installed corsair DDR5 6400 Ram, and was able to run the ram at DDR5 6400 Speeds with XMP enabled. The results were shocking.

Here is the "stock" configuration



Here is the ram at DDR 6400 speeds with nothing else changed



I'm seeing anywhere from an 10-20fps increase depending on the part in the level, yes I know these are not long videos but I don't have a bunch of time to make longer ones at the moment.

Here is a screen shot of what the FPS was after the game was done fully loaded



Next up is testing out a different system I just put together for a HTPC

i3 13100
64GB DDR5 6400 Ram
RTX 3090

Since the map is so CPU heavy will be interesting to see how a 4P 0E Core CPU compares to the 12 Core 12700K I have in my main rig

 

Glad to enlighten you about RAM speeds. Since the first-gen i7, and a little less-so the Core 2 Duo, there's been a bit of a push to get faster RAM into any system that needs cutting-edge performance. In some cases there can be a TWENTY PERCENT difference - sometimes for just a rudimentary cost-increase.
On my Haswell system (i7 4790k), I ended up being able to run a good 60fps in Fallout 4 downtown where stock speed only got me 50~52fps. With multiple cores going in modern games, it makes that much more of a difference.
With AMD Ryzen, specifically the non-X3D (non-v-cache) chips, RAM speed is directly tied to the performance you'll get. This is due to the interconnect inside the CPU being governed by RAM speed. So faster RAM speed not only increases the speed of the system RAM, it'll also increase the speed that the processor can talk to other cores and get data to or from them / their cache memory. Intel's high-end workstation and server grade (all) chips use mostly a mesh system that's somewhat similar to AMD's implementation now, too. Desktop chips by intel use a ring-bus and dual ring-bus setup (at-least they did until e-cores, I haven't 100% kept up on the changes though), which can be more efficient for lightly threaded workloads but can start to bog down when you have 5~6 cores worth of work flow or more since workloads going between cores gets exponentially greater the more cores are active.
Memory speed is but half the battle, good latency is also a key (as, mentioned previously, the lower the better on latency). There's a bunch of numbers on memory, it can be really confusing (this I agree firmly), but to whom much is expected, much is given. In that end, you reap great rewards when you get it right. Though, even if you bought a fancy snazzy kit - the best one money can buy - you can't always get it to run on every chip or motherboard combination. However, you can usually get most of your money's worth out of it, and a performance increase is a performance increase, even if it's 5~10% in-stead of the whole 15~18%.
If some things were repeated, my apologies. I have a tendency to repeat a bit, sometimes like a broken record, sometimes to the point it can be bad. However that is due to PTSD, can't be fixed with meds, and thus please don't mind me if I do. I have a lot of knowledge in my head, and am happy to spend all day wearing out the keyboard sharing it, though.
All that out of the way, Enjoy your new-found performance. Sometimes a memory speed boost is worth more than a processor upgrade when it comes to FPS, but it's not always worth replacing ALL your RAM over. It's best done when you plan on upgrading your memory anyways mid-way through the life of the system (especially as memory prices drop), but only you can truly be the judge of your own needs and budget limitations.
Yes, enjoy the good FPS. I've been increasing my memory speed since bumping my 72-pin SIMM memory speed from 70 to 60 nanoseconds in the DOS days of the first Pentiums, and it's always worth it if it's a difference you can readily see.
Some things were repeated for continuity sake and the benefit of others reading this - so it's not all bad.
--Cheers!
--- Post updated ---
Finally settled on a proper palette for the building. I think this looks good!

Edit: one of these images can be clicked on. Don't know why it doesn't let you expand them normally.

 

Here are the videos with my i3 13100 System with

i3 13100 4P Cores @ 4.3ghz
32GB Corsair DDR5 6400
MSI Z790 Motherboard
RTX 3090
512GB Micron M2450 PCIe 4.0 SSD

1080p Ultra 1 vehicle



4K Ultra 1 vehicle



4K Ultra 10 Vehicles + Player vehicle



And just to Compare the 10 vehicle video to my 12700k system



Basically a 10 fps drop overall, which I think is quite amazing considering a 12 core cpu with 8 P cores at 5.2ghz vs 4 P Cores @ 4.3ghz

Very happy to see that despite this map being very resource heavy is scales quite well with different systems even at ultra settings (I refuse to turn settings down)

 

help, the game crashes loading this map if i launch the game with vulkan, any solution? (pc specs: ryzen 5 3600, rx 6700xt, 24GB ram) this is the only map that gives me that problem

 

Download the map again if you get this issue, as sometimes a corrupt download will bug out like this.
Otherwise, continue reading...
Use medium texture details (set it while booting into dx11 mode), restart the game in vulkan mode, THEN try to load it. See if that works for you. I don't know that it will fit into 12gb right now on this version (it should, but that doesn't mean it will fit, due to difference between game versions).
Otherwise, try different video drivers or stay in DX11 mode. You may want to consider filing a crash report in the forums under bugs. 'Vulkan + RX6700 + Los Injurus = crash' or something like that is a good title for the thread.
Include your beamng dot log from your user folder after managing to crash the game. While supporting mod crashes is usually out of the question for the staff here (devs), the engine should NOT crash when handling an issue.
DX11 = DirectX 11 (single-pipeline) rendering method. Slower but more stable.
Vulkan renderer is unstable and therefor may cause crashes, break the video driver (temporarily or may need to have driver re-installed) or lock up the computer forcing you to hit reset or power-cycle the computer to unstick it. It may also do all of the above, at once. It (Vulkan) does have a warning, and can be buggy, but is being implemented to attempt to mitigate the draw call bottleneck that is DX11 rendering and it's dependence on a single core for handling all render workflow. Vulkan distributes render calls to more threads vs one for DX11.
Being that VRAM amount and the DirectX 11 renderer performance are the two chief things holding this map back, it only figures it'd likely be one of those. Performance optimizations in the game engine and on my map's end of things are both continuously happening. So if you can't fix it, try back next time a version updates (and I'll try to private message a link to the next Patreon/supporter update to see if it helps, regardless if doing the above fixes your issue, to ensure the bug doesn't pop-up again).
"Crash Simulator has crashed, leaving an incredible path of destruction behind it!' --Army Armstrong voice...

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A stucco'ed box (two, actually, in similar style but some colors and the width/depth/height differs) since brick boxes were getting boring. Other variety of colors will be found in the map on these buildings.
Mid-rise/high-rise residential (high density) with ground-floor amenities and light commercial.

 

These two buildings have been completed. One or two of the UV's isn't 100% perfect for brickwork but it's unnoticeable on stucco / dry-bit texturing. It's not worth toying with the UV's as there's enough brick boxes anyways for now.
The last picture is in order from nearest to farthest: Colmesh (grey), Full detail, LOD1, LOD2, LOD3. There will NOT be a billboard sprite used for these as that looks bad on the map. So I'm moving away from billboard sprites (2d impostors) for buildings (especially TALL ones) as they look terrible from the air in a plane/heli or the world map (the last being the most notable).
Keep in mind there's TWO buildings here (well there's a newer mid-rise apartment building there too but I'm not done with that one yet, even though the full detail mesh is mostly done). I am just showing the taller two buildings completed for now. While they're rather similar, they should be different enough to make it immersive even if they're near each other.
These models are about as efficient as they can possibly be made, with everything that can be combined or batch-rendered (multiple identical surfaces on a model or it's LOD meshes = cost to render 1 surface only, batching doesn't work across different models or different LOD's of the same model - so more LOD's can sometimes make things more expensive to render at times). These buildings are large, so they need multiple LOD's to prevent pop-in / drastic changes which break immersion and get complained about (heh).
Also added some wall below ground, so that you don't need a perfectly flat lot or to add basement platform objects to block the player from seeing 'under' the building. Almost forgot to add that.
As always, keeping busy, as busy as health allows.
--That is all for right now
P.S. I am officially starting bug-fixing. If you are a bug, prepare to have your nibbler smacked out.

 

Finally made these textures into PBR materials (just this road texture and the ones that match it).
Not so thrilled, possibly might have to buy some software to make this work. Gotta speak to the devs how exactly they do this mess. I miss the simple 3-layer textures I normally used-to use (diffuse-normal-specular). Working with 6 different layers sometimes 7 is just more work than it needs to be and of-course this goes without saying THE BOB doesn't like that. So please no rush on asking me to PBR things... I'm not exactly looking forward to nor in a hurry to do so (but likely will, eventually). I'm trying to convert new textures to PBR right away in-stead of importing them in the old format and then having to convert them later.
Please keep in mind this is work-in-progress on an otherwise empty street; thus things here are and will be changed up a bit as I get on with things, fussing over this and that ETC.

The 2nd picture is using more layers, though I don't like the wet / shiny look of it, and I'm not entirely sure how to fix it.
Edit: Added 3rd picture above so can be seen from another angle.
The program I use to make materials gives me some layers but not all of them, it is FAR from being able to just put them in-game. I don't even have access to a transparency/translucency setting like I did many versions ago, thus having black edges - and setting them in text is to no effect. I don't know why it's doing this but I'll get to the bottom of it (the black edges aren't shown, I hid those under the curbing, heh heh).
I just wanted realistic street textures (which I did manage to get), but I'm none-too-thrilled about this PBR stuff. It seems like 2x ~ 2.5x more texture size for 'shiny look' and that's it. If that's all the case there is for it, I'm going to convert these back to the old style and keep texture 'weight' down considerably.
PBR looks okay when it works, but I'm not equipped to purchase the software to make it (100~200$ or more) happen right now, and won't be anytime soon. If project support goes up a bit, maybe that can happen; but right now I just don't have the means to make it work and the free options that I used don't cut it.
Recent costs were:
Well of course the holidays... 8600$ for a 5.3L engine because Chevrolet trucks are not like a rock and I'll never have another Chevrolet anything EVER, 600$ to fix the heater, 700$ for new tires on the truck (I spent 252$ by comparison for 4 tires on my Corolla in October), Brakes for my car which were like 200$ or so.
Not broke here; we have food, the bills are paid of-course, but seriously not trying to be broke either. But we've put out over 10 grand in expenses in the last 6 months and it's been a bit rough. So I've been stashing cash like a mad-man and living like I'm broke so I don't/won't have to be. Just had to spend 141$ on a SSD for this machine last month and I used up the last free NVME slot in it, in doing so - SSD prices have gone up considerably and will go up a little further until prices stabilize around May-July sometime. Manufacturers have cut back, so maybe get a spinner (hard drive) if you need a back-up disk for a reasonable price.
Just for starters, this project eats up SEVERAL TERABYTES OF SPACE.

Also, we now have a proper expansion-joint texture, because thus-far I'm not sure any mapper has made one. This isn't a commercial texture. I managed to get this 512x2048 texture from a CC-0 photo that was taken from nearly the angle my camera is point at. I worked hard to distort the picture angle so that I could properly display it in game as a properly tiling texture. Look forward to seeing our new friend here at the ends of various larger bridges, where it makes actual sense to have one. I'll add them in as I have time, but normally most bridges don't need ones this fancy. Just the longer/bigger bridge spans get these guys.
I have more textures than this, but I'm still fussing with them a bit, so you'll likely see them soon enough.
I would have got more done today, but it was mostly a wash. I ended up with a nasty nausiating migraine this morning before the sun came up and finally gave up trying to sleep after a few hours of not being able to. Was bed-ridden a large part of the day and thus can finally think straight now. Don't know what caused it but these often come from sinus-pressure and are often weather related (barometric pressure < 30.4 or so, and I have an issue).
For what it's worth, I spent likely around a dozen hours working on that 8k x 4k texture. It was worth it though, even if it's not perfect yet. It'll probably look better with some more variation and of-course some type of striping on it / parking spaces outlined.
--That's it for right now though.

 

Spent some more time finessing the textures. Got them a little better now. Slowly getting road textures up to - and maybe even surpassing eventually - GTA V road textures. I'm definitely trying, as these new PBR textures show.

Need to turn down the shiny stuff a bit. Will try to figure it out how to do that. Still, it otherwise looks real wet (moist?). Moist. MOIST!!!
Added another jump, because uhhhh... we don't have enough already - YEAH! The end of this small block-long alley IS a jump. 40~45mph MAX is all you need to clear the dry canal; added signs too.

Added some more detail to this lot, and the crack repair emulsion (also known as TAR seams) on the road are a new 1024x16384 (yes 16k long) texture.

Well, at-least it looks fairly real, if a bit shiny. and moist...

 

Any chance on getting some better level crossings? The ones used now are a bit on the violent side.

 

The level crossings are on the list to re-do and make a bit better. Right now they're a bit high from the rail and were done so that I didn't end up murdering the car every-time I crossed it during testing.
Don't know if they'll be done before the next beta update.

---

Worked on adding another lot (and some more in a day or two), came out pretty nice. Brown house hidden in the trees here. Will work on the mountain-side a bit more adding more detail there.
--That's all I have right at the moment.

 

Just thought I'd post that one of Bug-Bear's classics - FLAT OUT - is free for give-away for the next 50-some hours!
Yes, it's FREE, I gain nothing from posting this but hope this makes someone happy.
FLAT OUT ON GOG - CLICK HERE TO GO TO THIS NON-BEAMNG DRIVE SITE
Flatout 2 is only 1.49$ USD, too. It's just more of the same but still is good.
Don't get too far into the lead though, otherwise running over a microscopic arthropod can set you on 'tumble dry' (lots of flipping etc) you were warned!

 

I think anyone who puts in as much time, effort and skill as you do deserves anyone's kudos who comes across it, and here is my portion Kudos man! Great map! GREAT cruising map to get lost (, found and injured xD) on for hours!

 

Just don’t get Flatout 3 and you should be good

 

Thank-you Sir so kindly!
I do try. Sometimes I spend hours doing all those little things as I try to perfect the look of something, and in the end I can barely even tell I changed anything (but still usually is better for the time spent). Stuff too small to list like moving an AI route over just a few centimeters/inches in a few spots along a mile of road, fixing a layering or scrambling texture bug, blending things better, or even just fixing/finishing striping on things or moving temporary stuff out of the way / deleting temporary stuff (sometimes is hidden under the map or off to the side of it). Stuff to small to list, and too numerous to ever have a chance of remembering it all. Fixing a sloppy slope transition or finessing/finishing a building lot. I spent hours doing this very thing tonight, in-fact. Worry not, there's still many many dozens (hundreds?) of hours of doing this type of thing and there's still no garauntee I'll find / fix all the bugs or ugly spots. It does help immersion, though, even if it's only for me and the 2 others that notice(d).
It does mean a lot when people stop in just to say thanks!

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I think you're quite right on that one, if everything I've heard is to be believed. That one's supposed to be as much of a stinker as Mafia III (I think that's the one, was set in New Orleans or something) was.
I believe that Flatout 2 was the game that made me rage so bad 15~16 years ago that I kicked the tower bare-foot and broke my toe. It only put the smallest of 1cm ding/dent into the bottom side of the panel too. Was limping for 3 weeks and, how does one explain that to customers or co-workers? Never did that again!
For what it's worth, I thought the game was possessed. I loved it until I found out it would literally send you doing cartwheels if you dared take 1st place by more than 3 or 4 feet. That and rubber-banding just absolutely DESTROY the game for me. If I get ahead, I want it to be because I'm good, without the game pulling cheap shots at me like that - cheap shots that'd make the best player lose easily.

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You've seen much of this before; but now it's time to actually make it look just a tiny bit better and function quite a bit better.
Fixed major AI screw-up that's my fault totally. Forgot to remove the old temporary AI guidance road (is invisible, and is separate from the visible road layering many times). Water is disabled for clarity while using the wire frame (think translucent 3D graph paper for terrain) option when fine-tuning terrain. This is within the area that was just added before the last beta in December.


Fog (outer white) lines added to surface road at this interchange in 2nd pic.
Oh, and in 1st picture I added some double-chevrons to the outside of the corner at each end of the bridge that's on the bottom left of the shot, so that you absolutely positively CAN NOT have any excuse for missing that corner. The corner is also marked with a 90-degree-left 25mph advised speed yellow warning diamond sign, and on the bridge in each direction is the same thing for the right-turn 90 with 25mph advisory speed. 40mph speed limit signs added for both sides of the bridge approach. This might become 30mph or 35mph just for the bridge and hard corners, but not sure it needs it at this point currently with the rest of the signs. Tidied up road edges just a tiny bit here, too.
3rd picture: got some building lots further along, including some seawall and some edging. Needs some more work regardless but further along is always nice. Fixed nasty elevation difference next to warehouses with the dock in two different spots (where the concrete textures are). Forgot to smooth these before the last beta, oops.
4th picture: fixed rough terrain along the edges of the road in a few spots here. This is where one of the new spawn points was recently added (though someone reported one of the new spawn points didn't work, I will look into that next time I start the map up).
BELOW:
1st pic: This road now exists. Before it was just half a block of floating curbs and nothing else. If you follow either road in either direction, there are a few potential jumps if you get enough speed up, including driving along the narrower road at the intersection right at the bottom of the screen (due to the roadway's taper and it being so high in the center, but this isn't the only one obviously, as almost all the wider intersections launch the car to some degree when driving 40~50mph or more, out in these parts).
Remaining pics: Just more lots and details going in, in the area which can be seen in the background of the 1st below picture. Contains some new stuff and some old stuff.

It's really rough around the edges yet, but the last two days have seen a positive number of fixes and lots of little bits of TLC all over the place really, and a few new building lots leveled and some decorating/furnishing done. The most important part of all of it, is that YES I added more signs. This neighborhood did not exist at all (not a single residence) before the beta, only 1/10th of a mile of 1 road was in the last beta.
Do I wish I had gotten more done? Well yes, but yesterday my blood sugar went on a war-path with me for eating sugary cereal that I just so happened to be oh-so-craving, and that royally messed me up for HOURS. Still got some stuff done, but did have to go drop off church food donations to the needy folks over at the homeless shelter / food pantry / soup kitchen, pay my bills etc today.
Strangely, I can eat that sugary cereal (it isn't THAT overly sugary) sometimes and it does nothing to me, other times it really puts a hurting on my daily plans for hours and hours repeatedly sending my body into FAMINE mode of insatiable desire - you know - the one where you look at the picture of something (that doesn't even have to be food) and your brain replaces it with a picture of a ham or a steak, etc? That's the one. Yeah I hate that. It brings it's friends the diabetic shakes, weakness, dizziness, and feeling chilly along for the ride, too. Never feel lonely again! Right?
But for all those "I are stupid" moments, there's fast-acting glucose pills - you can get them over the counter at almost any grocery or drug store in the general-merchandise section usually near the pharmacy IF these things happen to you, too. This isn't health advice per se; but it is what I do when my blood sugar quickly nose-dives rapidly. Don't eat glucose pills if you have high sugar though, it'll possibly put you in the hospital as these are the opposite of what you want.
This site, it's associated corporate entities and anyone related to 'Beamng' by name or not, is not responsible for what happens to you heeding these words, and this isn't in any way a health or healthcare website. I am merely just sharing stuff they don't teach you in school (unless it's med-school) that I wish I knew long ago. It's only here because I hope it helps someone. I. AM. NOT. A. DOCTOR. So maybe talk to your doctor / pharmacist, because the TV told you so. And I blame Doom.
That small but oh-so-obligatory print aside; a BIG Thank-you to those folks out there who felt reason enough to write in with bug reports, suggest fixes / improvements, or just have written/expressed gratitude for the existence of this project (and sometimes me). It's means something, and of-course it's always nice to hear something nice for a change. We all can use this periodically at the very least.
--That is all!
Still trying to catch the house-mouse, who seems to be a bit more agile than me in my 40's. Surprise there. Well, surprise to it because I put out 10 different traps. Hopefully I catch the mouse with them and not the cat(s). I don't use poison, just peanut butter + baking soda mixed together - blows up rodents internally and doesn't phase the cats/dogs. Using poison can often injure or kill the predators of mice just as often as it kills the mice, and then you'll (deservedly) have rodent city on your hands, so please don't. Trap them, then discard or incinerate the deceased mouse to where it won't get munched upon and mess up the local ecosystem (cats/dogs/ferrets/skunks/possum/birds/large insects sometimes munch rodents). You - and the ecosystem/nature - will be better off for it.
Farm-Pro makes black plastic mouse traps that are safer for your fingers and almost harmless to cats, just in-case you have some lazy but curious cats or small dogs around who can't be bothered to be a mouser, but don't want to spend a ton of money (they're a few bucks for a pair of them). Not quite as cheap as the wooden ones (like Victor brand classic wood trap), but still cheap enough that buying a half-dozen won't put you in the poor-house - and hopefully not the dog-house OR mouse-house - either. It's far easier to not get (peanut) butter-fingered when using the plastic traps, too.

 

I didn't quote your wall of text (which I read btw!) in this reply for... reasons. Man your map-making has some RICH backstory hahaha, it's always great when strangers on the internet are not so much strangers. I hope you are doing well overall despite all the struggles... and I hope you catch that pesky mouse xD

 

the crack repair is too dark, unless it’s just been applyed