Hi everyone. I've been part of the community for quite some time now, and I've always wanted to make a map based on the road I love most. It's in Spain, near my family's village. I've never done any map or 3D manipulation whatsoever so it has been pretty challenging even to import Google Earth data and topography into the game. I'm still struggling about some things and will struggle in the future for sure, so I hope to find some help from time to time too. About the map, it is a 11 km/18 min. ride IRL (if speed limits are respected, otherwise I managed a 11ish min. downhill). Spanish mountain road with loads of height variation (around 300m if i remember well, from top to bottom). It's a challenging but extremely fun road to drive around with a nice view once at the top, which I hope I'll be able to replicate. Here is a screenshot from Google Maps: https://www.google.com/maps/dir/42....2!1d-6.9169204!2d42.5208795!3e0!5i1?entry=ttu And here is a picture of the WIP: So yeah, now I'm focusing on the terrain but my depth map is extremely bad and I don't know how to make it work other than sculpt it by hand to match the .dae that you see in the screenshot. As I have basically no clue of what I'm doing, it's probably gonna take some month before having any kind of beta version, sorry for that. I hope that this project will make some people happy once it'll be finished!
So, some info for newcomers maybe (note that even tho I used Blender, it's my first time with this thing, so you can do it too): - Import the data with Blender GIS (you will get texture + elevation (roughly)). There are some tutorials on how to do this and export the .dae (3D model standard) into BeamNG so I won't elaborate much here. - I managed to get a depth map from Blender too (again, there are tutorials online) but the values of grey were very bad and I was left with almost flat mountains. I had to go into photoshop and use the exposure graph thing to get something perfect. Pro tip 1: Use Photoshop Beta to fill the empty space of your depth/height map (if your render isn't perfectly square, you'll end up with a flat ground on the borders of the map in BeamNG). Pro tip 2: Don't delete your terrain on BeamNG when doing this trial and error process. Just reupload the new height/depth map (I used the same namefile all the time) and Beam will set it in the same place as the older one; That way you don't have to adjust rotation, scale etc. - Get some real life footage from the place (street view if you have it, otherwise driving there while filming with your phone attached on the windscreen). That will help you A LOT with references like height (yes, even if you have a 3D model and a height map) and road elevation. The height of my mountains was too small so I had to scale up the Z axis (vertical axis) to make it more realistic (even tho it makes for more elevation too but I haven't felt like it was unrealistic). I wouldn't have noticed if I didn't have the GoPro footage from the car. - EDIT: Don't forget your scale... Make a road mesh. First point and second point on the same axis (X or Y doesn't matter). Then you'll have to subtract the X or Y values of both points to have a measurement. Then, open earth. google. com to make the same measurement (there is a tool for that which is the lowest one on the toolbar on the left of your screen). Then you'll have to calculate to get the right proportions for your map. AND IT'S NOT DONE YET. You'll have to measure the Z axis too. To do that, just use your pointer on Google Earth. The value is showed at the bottom right of your screen. In BeamNG, use the same technique with mesh road and only look for your Z axis. Subtraction and other maths later, you'll get your realistic proportion. Now I gotta do all my roads again :') I lost quite some time (4-5 hours) on this stoopid terrain issue so I hope that will spare you some time and a massive headache. Now it's time to make the real road. Real fun so far even with the terrain issue! (tag for google search etc: import blender gis beamng, scale terrain beamng, height map beamng, depth map beamng, height map blender beamng, depth map blender beamng)
Today's issues that have been resolved: - Terrain had no collision. Learned later that if you rotate or basically move the terrain, collisions get messed up. So, Import the terrain, then go into "SceneTree" window and find "tod" (in my case it was in the "sky_and_sun" folder). Then in the "Inspector" window change the "azimuthOverride" (mine was 1.5 so the sun sets at West and not South... but I don't know if it will be this for you too, just mess around and you'll find out). - Now, adapting the terrain to the mesh with the "Align with mesh (up)" works, which it did not when I rotated and move the original terrain. Issues that need solution: - Still can't import my Google Maps texture to put it on my terrain. My .dae with the original file for my terrain displays the texture, but I can't figure out how to get the same result on my terrain. PS: Little pic of the village of Arnadelo
