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

I managed to fix most things and not ruin the AI.
The beta will be uploaded shortly. Some imperfections exist, nothing that should detract too much from your enjoyment of things however.
AI will follow lane better on MOST ramps, I didn't have time to fix ALL of them yet. Rest assured they will be better in the next beta following this one.

Beta links for supporters will either go out in an hour or two, or will go out later in the day when I wake up. The (satellite) internet hasn't been so good tonight due to the incoming weather.

 

If anyone's map loads in with misplaced walls or goofed up intersections (the two immediately adjacent to the spawn would be off center leaving gaps), please clear the map cache by going to your folder:
documents\beamng.drive\cache.0.18.4.1\levels and delete the TSH folder, that will clear cache.
Fact:
This map's project code-name was 'The Super Highway', as I needed a name and happened to be watching 'Huckleberry Hound' re-runs at the time (because modern TV stinks). So TSH it was. All 3 of my big maps have highway in the name somewhere as I was using them as concepts to test putting a highway into the game. Nevada Interstate which was my first map. This map and originally So-Cal which is outmoded/conflicts with this map as this is a complete overhaul of that map. Also Roane County which was my 'Southern Highway' / large-scale open-world test for this game to help refine real-time streaming of map assets in-game.
When maps change models, the game does not automatically see this, and this happens.
So now y'all know what to look for.

 

Davidinark via youtube demoed the newest Los Injurus for all to see. Enjoy, it's nice and long so get the popcorn.


Thanks a million @davidinark !
Much appreciated!

 

Hey bob.blunderton, just curious. Have you considered making a thread in off-topic ranting about modern TV or no?

OT:

This map and Roane County are amazing and unique and I'm glad for all of the effort that you put into them

 

Off Topic bit...
No, not likely - and it'd be a waste of a thread - especially when I can just heap it on the steamy off-topic pile that is ANY of my map threads. heh heh ...
I can sum up my thoughts of TV as just "It sucks. I don't know how anyone can sit through anything other than the news / weather report and watch a non-interactive device filled with ads that try to suck your wallet dry. And to think they pay for the ability to watch it?".
Modern TV is an antiquated form of entertainment that's eventually (aside of news, documentaries, and similar) going to go the way of dial-up internet, car phones, pagers, etc... and rightfully so. I don't have time - even being disabled / retired - to live my life around someone else's TV schedule. Not when I could be doing something else. Modern TV is an awful pile of hot garbage and filled with reality shows (that are anything but reality) and something equally as mind melting. I'd sooner watch Looney Tunes or Tom & Jerry - and I'm almost 40
On Topic bit (how lucky are we today!?)...
So entirely I am going to take a chance and purchase a few models off of various pro-level resource sites for game developers. I sure hope I don't have to spend all month doing UV's properly on purchased models anywho. That would really stink.
But it's come time I add some real content to this map, and I mean it. I wasn't kidding when I'd said I am going to build *US* (not just for me!) a GTA-sized map with the fun of most GOOD open-world games packed into it. Sure it won't be AAA quality in and out, but it'll sure be quite a lot of fun, and it will be much better by the end - especially as I learn more about the tools I now have at my disposal.
It would look way better if I put the terrain through World Machine - but I don't want to bother until I've got much of the city built, as I'll mask the city and road areas off and make the terrain nice around them. It'd be a waste of time if I did it now though, it's much too early, as I'd prefer not to commit before necessary to keeping certain areas certain ways. It might end up like the last two months where, more than once, I bull-dozed certain things and completely re-did them.

OKAY FOLKS! VOICE YOUR OPINIONS (also, I'm already including in survey what was listed on page 58 with the 3d models shown for donation).
I am going to be spending HUNDREDS of dollars over the next few months, purchasing models with Patreon funds as they come in.
The models include lots of rust-belt Detroit / Gary / NYC style inner city buildings, both residential / residential & commercial mixed zoning, and industrial / factory type buildings. Mostly much older stuff that's been around a while and has character. I have found nice stuff on CGTRADER, and you'll be able to really enjoy the diversity of the map as these buildings get put in. It's not cheap, however. I will make the most of the money and make variation models as I go, to 'stretch' the money.
I am also on the lookout for some nice California style modern homes, I haven't had time to search for those yet, will do so tonight. If they're reasonable I will pick them up.
For what it's worth, no, I'm not pulling in hundreds a month - we'd have a much bigger map if that was the case. However, I like to let the money pile up and then spend it in a lump, and then it feels like we're getting somewhere. There is a little profit at the end of the month though, so I've been setting this aside for a bit of time (I certainly didn't spend it on the video card!!!), with which to do these purchases for assets.
I will purchase one test asset from each author to test and see how well they are made, so that I can be sure it won't be more work buying them than it would be doing it myself. Also, textures that come from these models (unless they are of awful quality, though they don't look it), will be able to be used to spruce up both new and existing models that I make (that's half the work right there - and often you can buy pre-made models WITH the textures included, for roughly the same price as buying the textures would be!).
So I've been doing a lot of research, and I'd like to hit the ground running...just as soon as I vac my house - otherwise I'm going to be suffocated with dust bunnies to death.

 

Fair enough, I like making off-topic threads, but that's fine if you don't. Anyways, here's an on-topic question. Will you add any more towns to Los Injurus?

 

Here's what is planned for Los Injurus:
*The main area around the lake (which include the spawn point area, over to the abandoned mall, over to the 'middle finger' towers (heehee), and all the way over to the race track and some bits immediately beyond, and around to the Worst Buy/Commercial strip) will all be 'city' and well developed with some abandoned bits / rust-belt tributes by the mall. Basically this includes everything around the large central lake up to the mountains on all sides.
*The area containing the re-skinned ECA buildings and the white 60's 'ultra-modern' row homes / stunt park, will be re-worked substantially and improved, this is within city limits, but the ECA models will be phased out and replaced with more sufficient better optimized models. ECA models for buildings in general (from the OLD, not the new ECA) are high-poly (more than they need to be!) and aren't as optimized as I could make them (not insulting the 3D artist who made them).
*The waterfront / port area with the large civilian airport on the flat area with a few industrial buildings and the Texas-U-Turn interchanges / flyover stack is all industrial area, that will all be built up waterfront with shipping / warehousing / manufacturing in mind.
*The area to the opposite side of the city/lake from the industrial area is all going to be rural/farm/small towns (yes, small settlements intermixed with sparse rural population). Much rural assets except buildings/signs will be taken from italy and ECA as it has nice rural content. I may use the double-wide home from ECA to make additional homes and variations with. There would be much improvement to that model, however. So it won't be a blatant copy-paste (I try to avoid this!).
*There is a military air base on a lone island with the long bridge over shallow water / sand bars leading to it. I already picked out models for this I just have to hit the 'buy' button on them. This will include military housing, too, off the single exit under the bridge on the island.
*The topography around the outer-loop of highway (The one with the really poor AI right now), will mostly stay the same, I might add some interchanges for map flow purposes. No more 22 minute 'YBR looks for a way to that bridge' videos like when it was So-Cal Interstate. The highway loop however will be VASTLY improved in due time, even if it looks like rubbish for now.
*The area I've flattened out and roughly sculpted near the civilian airport will be the 'route 1 concept'. I don't know if this will be in the next beta or not, I'd like for it to make it in - but if I buy models obviously this takes precedence, because well - who doesn't want MOAR city content?
*The area that used to be flooded and has some jumps that are now missing, and is cut off largely from the entire map, I am not 100% sure what that will be, as it will be one of the last areas to be completed. This is over by one of the last parts of the inner loop highway that got done with the divided tunnels. Also near here is a road leading directly to the map edge. There will be room for future map expansion over here, and it's content is not 100% decided on yet but I have some ideas.
*There is a lone island (not the military airport one) in the map that will eventually contain mystery bonus content. I will not reveal this until near the end of the project. This island is not currently accessible by any roads, and may not be for a long time.
*Lastly, the large development I'm building on top of the hill above the spawn (between the industrial area and the city center / lake), is going to be the ritzy hollywood hills knock-off. Maybe I'll name it Thickwood hills, Gotwood hills, or something stupid like that, because who can resist humor. I sure can't.
If someone could suggest models needed for the map, what it's lacking (row homes, rubble piles, construction sites both buildings and infrastructure, misc city furniture / props, abandoned homes / derelict rust belt stuff, and even the polar opposite - beautiful hollywood hills homes to go in the new development, and so forth is all already planned and on the table for purchase), feel free to suggest other things.
Thanks for your patience, support, and participation with the Los Injurus city map project. The first *REAL* true (and hopefully decent quality or better!) city mod for BeamNG. I can't do it without your support, so thank-you again to everyone. Even if the only thing you can give is suggestions, that is still appreciated and can help. After all, I can't very effectively build a city for folks to enjoy, who don't say what they want in it!
That said I have a pretty good idea what should be in a city within a car crash simulator.
--That is all for now.

 

I’m really enjoying this map, and I can’t wait for more updates. One thing I think it desperately needs is more spawnpoints—with a map this large, it’s a bit frustrating to have to fly the camera around to where you want to go, and some may have trouble finding all of the points of interest.

 

Thanks!
As various scenes are completed, more spawn points will be added.
I will try and get some in for the next supporter beta on Feb 22~24 or so(importantly, that'll make sure it gets into the next public beta which might not for another two months, hopefully sooner).
When BeamNG receives it next large update, you will know within days (or a week to 10 days) I will pipe a public update to make sure the transition to the next game version is smooth, once the supports get it and test it. THAT release to supporters (when the game update comes in 1~3 months or so), may be with short announcement/warning.
I will not release a public update before the next major game update due to the current AI limitations (I've worked around these in beta, but it's not the shape I want the public version in). Please understand this is due to an unexpected game limitation that not even the staff was aware of in 0.18. This limit was increased for the next version of the game, so it's a waiting game on that. I have no clue when the next version comes out, other than past release schedules of 3~4.5 months between major versions of BeamNG.
I am continually optimizing the AI in my map so that it is as proper yet efficient (fewest nodes) as possible, to increase the amount of road mileage the AI can use.
This project is pushing all known and also unknown limits of the game, and the computing power of modern processors. So please bare with me if I do hit limits that cause delays on releases. I am in communication with the developers (the staff gets supporter betas, too, for reasons which should be very obvious) to make sure BeamNG is as awesome as anyone can dream it to be, with as few limits as possible. When there's bugs or problems, or I've hit an unknown limit; I pipe them a beta so they can figure out how to handle it best. This makes the game better for everyone in the end, and makes sure my beta release to supporters and the public releases work properly and as-intended.
I hope I've answered all questions best-as-possible, and thanks for taking the time to check out & enjoy this project! This is a labor of love for me and I pour my heart and soul in it, so the kind words mean much.

 

Thanks for answering my question bob.blunderton. You really put a lot of detail in your posts.

Anyways, I can barely wait to see what this map will be like once it's completed. By the way, I like what you said in the bold text =)

Anyways, I'm glad you are continuing to update this map. You've really put a lot of effort into it.

SuperAusten64, I think this map needs more spawn points as well. It would really hope improve the quality of the map in my opinion. Anyways, I'm glad you finally shared your thoughts on this map. By the way, I do not know how to use the spoilers that you use for stuff, so if you could show me how to use spoilers. I would be very happy.

Anyways, this map is wonderful and I'm glad that bob.blunderton made it =)

Cool, I can't wait for the spawn points to be added. They will really improve the quality of this map.

 

Among the formatting options above the box where you write your post is a little icon of a box with a plus sign in it. It's the fifth icon from the right. Click that, and among the four options you should see the "Spoiler" option. Clicking it will bring up a box where you write the title of your spoiler, then you can write your spoiler within the "SPOILER" markers.

 

Use brackets like this [ or this ] to contain the word 'spoiler'.
Put your text next that you want to hide here.
then again put spoiler in brackets, but precede it with a / mark immediately before the word spoiler but within the brackets yet (without a space in any of it).
That section of text will be translated into markup language and it will look like this.

Spoiler

A spoiler makes your car go faster. Not really, it's just for down-force but 98% of street vehicles which have them can't go fast enough to use it effectively.

This also works on the steam forums identically.
Never the less, I will try and get some new spawn points into the map; and they might even work, too.
The 'Dead' Mall gets one
All three airports get one
Dirt track gets one
Industrial area gets one (needs more completed scenes 1st)
there will be about 6 across the city area near the lake
there will be a few in the rural areas.
Route 1 concept will get one when it gets implemented enough
Likely one or two at a subway station, for those who would rather mangle a choo-choo train than a car - can't say I blame you.

 

Spoiler: To SuperAusten64

Thanks for answering my question =)

Thank you bob.blunderton and SuperAusten64 for teaching me how to use these spoiler things. You guys are the best =)

 

Hey Bob can you link the building pack? I tried page 38 with no luck

 

It's not 38 it's on 58 - one page prior to this, please re-read (I did double-check).

 

Yeah, my mistake. I apologize.

 

*Gee, I wonder what The Bob's been up to, it's been awfully quiet over there!*

First off, sorry for the withdrawal that might be incurring from posting no pictures lately.
The Bob has been carefully researching assets and picking only the cream of the crop (vs the cream of the cr@p), for the best improvements to Los Injurus.
Using sites like the Unity Store and CG Trader and even purchasing textures at textures dot com to give you the GOODEREST map I can give you.
It costs a pretty penny, but if I want to give an AAA quality map or even pro indie quality, this is required. You are not required/limited only to use Unity store purchased assets in a Unity-based game - I spoke with their customer service about it and saved the emails just in-case.
There's over a thousand dollars with of assets I plan on purchasing for this map on CGTRADER alone. All in due time, however.
Just this purchase alone last night is more than the free cash I have left over at the end of the month between Patreon funding and other misc donations toward it.
*downloads 55-brick-texture collection and doesn't know how big it is* ... *looks later* *bulging eyes* "1 GB!!!" Oops. I hope you guys don't have capped internet over there (like I do, ouch!).
The 55 brick texture collection is normally 110$, it was TWENTY dollars, woohoo 86% off! Let's make this money go the farthest it can (that's the idea anyways).
So yes, there's entirely going to be a ton of stuff in the next version, or at the very least, more texture upgrades and a few more buildings. The small list you see below might not even be 20~30% of it all (it was only half the order on screen).
The brick texture pack is here if anyone's interested in it (the one I just purchased) https://www.cgtrader.com/3d-model-c...crete-wall-seamless-pbr-texture-collection-01
The first order was almost 80 $. The second order will be about that much, also. I will do whatever I can to keep costs down, but seeing as there's only ONE of me, I must sometimes buy into the talents of others. That being said, this city will be AWESOME! As of the next major game version release (since the developers removed another limit to AI I found), I don't think anything will be standing in my way sans hitting another unknown limit (which will likely get removed, too, eventually anyways).
Part of the emphasis on textures and objects, is to purchased aged/weathered objects, as one's comment put it "not everything is nice, fresh and new" or something to that effect.

Thank all ye Patreon members/supporters for your support, it's about to come back to smother us all in some good high-quality assets soon. So if you haven't felt rewarded enough, there's a good chance it will be better the next time around. Next beta is in roughly two weeks plus possibly a day or two give or take.
The Bob listens to all comments, critique, advice, and requests no matter how big or small.

 

The Austen likes this post!

I frequently forget how exuberantly expensive stock photos, textures, basic 3D models, and the like are. It always astonishes me that someone can take a picture of a city skyline or a brick wall and sell it on the internet for triple digits.

 

If you're after textures, this site has heaps too (and they're free)

 

For transparency reasons, the models/textures/assets I've spent on this month are so far are 220$. See screen cap below.

@Inertia THANK YOU for that link, I will surely make use of it (and it'll save some cash!), and good to see you, too! Keep in touch! Oh, almost forgot, got a jet for the private airport props, too. It's UV's look decent, too. One of the few modelers who previews UV's.