Any up to date mapmaking tutorials ?

Yeah, I know, I read the messages below the tutorial. I don't need collsions anyway, that was just a thought.
By the way all materials are in the .cs file, and it's even possible to change them in game using the map editor (that was way easier than I thought )

Oh and I tried putting some rocks on the terrain, but is there a thing I can set up like the groundcover to place them faster ?
I'm currently looking at the shapes/building from the official map to see if I can use some of them. So many choices !

 

The Torque documentation on their site shows how to associate trees and rocks with materials
and groundcovers. I read it several times but got all sidetracked with the billboard vegetation.
This is just me but I like control over every tree or bush I lay down and having those applied
with a groundcover or material is too generic. It takes a lot more time to do yes, but I come from
a family of artists so I enjoy it.

 

Yeah I think I'll do it like that, because bigger things like rocks need a bit more adjustments on the placement, and that will allow me to put them where I want.

Also I've been looking into the sunsky and tried to make the map look "brighter", but it still looks too dark for me, and it's an issue since the level is supposed to be in a desert-like location.
Any tips on that ?

 

I hear ya' on the darkness thing, every desert map I've played with required brightening things
up. I was born and raised in Arizona so....

Doing that is as simple as raising the sun brightness up to where it looks good. Beware though,
you'll reach a level where the brightness will overpower vehicle reflections. I hope the T3D environment
lighting gets some lovin' especially the atrocious sun up/sun down periods. It will also affect the normal map
on your distant terrain. I'm wondering if a normal map for the terrain macro material would help match the
brightness of the distant terrain better. So far no luck getting that idea to show any results.

 

I put 850 on sun brightness but I don't really notice a change on the terrain. I only see the reflections getting brighter on the car, but there's also the sky which is becoming white. So I also modified the colorize amount, but then again I don't notice a change on how bright the ground is when I look at it ... Weird.

--- Post updated ---
Edit : I think I got it. I found a "brightness" value, under "Lighting", so I raised it a bit and now it looks better I think.
But I can't put a too much higher value because the sand doesn't look good otherwise
1.15 is okay I guess :


Oh ! I forgot to ask you last time : If I want to edit my terrain for some reason, can I save the materials to put them on the newer one ?
Not that I need to do it now though, but it'd be nice to know ...

 

That actually looks pretty good. You can adjust the skybrightness for a lighter, brighter sky. After that about all that can be done (that I currently know of),
is to play with the rayleigh and mi values in the sunsky object. These values are very sensitive and very subtle but if understood correctly can have an
impact on ambient lighting in the map. Personally I wouldn't mess with those right now...the payback isn't worth getting lost in those values.

Your map looks quite stifling and warm....lol.

 

About the AI, I think I know why it's not working. From what I saw it seems like the AI path is traced from node to node, so maybe it's because I don't have enough nodes on my road... maybe

It drives slower than a snail anyway so I don't have much hope

Do you know how to do it ?

 

Not familiar with AI node placement at all, just making the decal road drivability -1 or whatever.

Not sure what you're referencing here. Saving materials to use on a new terrain, same map?

 

Well, I'm being dumb again
I should have read what Sam wrote ...
So I exported my heightmap and it created my texture masks for the different materials, cool !
But now I don't know how to import them back, it just says the file is missing and then the game crashes ._.

Edit : Just to be clear, I have the files in Documents\BeamNG.drive and in Documents\BeamNG.drive\Users\me\Documents\BeamNG.drive like when I first imported the heightmap.
The heightmap I exported works, but the texture layers/ texture masks make the game crash when I add them in the slots with the map
--- Post updated ---
EDIT 2 : Yeah so no matter what I do, no matter where I put these texture masks/maps, I still get this :

"Resource creation has failed (is the file missing ?)
Path"

Maybe I'm just doing it wrong, but I saw Ouerbacker do it (cf : http://www.beamng.com/threads/current-file-location-for-height-map-images-and-texture-maps.18419/)

 

"Documents\BeamNG.drive and in Documents\BeamNG.drive\Users\me\Documents\BeamNG.drive"

These locations worked a few beamng version ago. Now, they just cause problems.

Currently, the heightmap and texture masks need to be imported from a file such as the "content" folder that is located in the the Beamng.drive installation file. I've been importing from the file-path in the below screenshot.

 

Yeah the steam/steamapps/common/BeamNG.drive/contents folder is the only place I bring
textures and heightmaps into. I have never used the stock texture import utility associated with
the heightmap import process either, my input on that would equal zip, zero, and zilch.

 

Alright, it worked very smoothly, thanks !
I made a new layout, because some parts on the old one were just strange

And because there are more turns, it's a bit longer

Also, I kinda forgot to put a "." between some numbers and I got this :

Now I want to keep it
I'll see if I can find a texture that is big enough and if it looks cool, I'll place it where it fits.

EDIT : Probably not, the collision is messed up at that scale

EDIT 2 (this is getting intense ) : Actually I put this as a separate mesh and changed the collision type to "Visible Mesh", and it's good now


--- Post updated ---
It's been a while, and this is part is the most unfinished one
You can't see it there but the distant map has collisions now, I just set it to "Visible Mesh" like the rock, and I don't get any significant framerate drop, for now I'll leave it like that.



By the way, how can I get the AI to work on a circuit like this one ?
If it's with the waypoints, I don't know how to use them...