Export terrain: --- Post updated --- Yeah, I'm just doing effectively an ECUSA copy on a Georgia lidar for now, and we'll see how that goes. I'm not too worried about accuracy for sure. --- Post updated --- That exports the above images. --- Post updated --- I've exported the heightmap from QGIS, along with the roads. I've made a black and white road map and set that and the heightmap to 8192x8192 (maximum HM size) --- Post updated --- And exported the google satellite at 4096x4096 (maximum overlay size) --- Post updated --- replaced the overlay texture with the google map, and just made all the other terrain textures middle values (I'll fix later if I have time...)
Oh no! Shame on me. I have to check out what went wrong tomorrow. Great thread idea. I Love your approach!
Now I open the map and delete all the objects I don't want --- Post updated --- --- Post updated --- I probably used it wrong! --- Post updated --- Reloaded the map, so it uses the new terrains (and because I deleted so much, it doesn't hurt to reload). But it screws everything up, because the numbers are now off. --- Post updated --- So I do a find and replace in the material.json for the terrain folder. --- Post updated --- But it is beamng... so I have run into some issues.. I will try to fix... --- Post updated --- Urhg, I remember what I didn't do. I needed to change all of the terrain textures to 4096. --- Post updated --- So now I have a level, with the texture in place. Its just a mesh slap of the satellite image for now, but it is enough to start with. --- Post updated --- Done (ish): 1. Get a heightmap - ideally from real world Lidar data 2. Create the basemaps for the terrain To do: 3. Work out where I want my roads (different types) and smooth the terrain there 4. Place the roads 5. Place the forest 6. Place objects and other stuff 7. work out what I missed. --- Post updated --- I will now smooth the whole map, because it is stepped (a regular issue with heightmaps from lidar). --- Post updated --- Ok, to smooth the map, you need to load the HM into GIMP, then change the mode to 16 bit (floating) grayscale Then run a gaussian blur (I do 2.5) Then export as a 16bit Gray with no compression. - this gets you the smooth terrain as above - without losing too much of the detail that makes it interesting. --- Post updated --- To smooth the road areas, the easiest way (in bulk) is to use the black and white road mask, select all the roads (I then grow the selection a bit if needed), then switch to the layer with the heightmap and copy the road areas from this. Paste these into another layer (but do not anchor that layer - important). Then run a linear blur (around 15-20) in four directions (up, down, left, right) and only then can you anchor. If you anchor first, GIMP will blur the surrounding areas, not just the road. Then, when this has been anchored, I like to try to blur the road boundaries, this is trickier. What I do is grow the selection again (say another 2 or 3 pixels) colour a new layer in with super thick roads Then select the original roads again on their layer, move to this new layer and delete that selection. This will give you this: Which you can select, and then use that selection to run another gaussian blur on the main HM. This will stop there being horrid jagged edges on the roads. --- Post updated --- Then use the same road layout map to apply a grey colour to the overlay, so you can see your roads --- Post updated --- I also applied some blur and spread to the overlay, just to make it look less satellite mesh-slappy --- Post updated --- Then I applied some posterisation to make the overlay more blocky, I used that to bulk select similar areas (woodland, etc.) and make the masks for the terrain painting. This allows the bulk painting of the different terrains: --- Post updated --- Done (ish): 1. Get a heightmap - ideally from real world Lidar data 2. Create the basemaps for the terrain 3. Work out where I want my roads (different types) and smooth the terrain there 4. Place the roads (I've not laid decals yet, but I'll see how it goes) To do: 5. Place the forest 6. Place objects and other stuff 7. work out what I missed. I need to feel like the map is progressing, so I'm going to lay some forest.
Wow, you're getting a lot done pretty fast! I don't understand half of the stuff you did there, but I'll still cheer you on like a supportive dad who doesn't understand the game his kid is playing!
Adding some trees, some decals, some rocks and a house, and all of a sudden things look a bit better --- Post updated --- --- Post updated --- Well... I'm not sure I can claim success or not, but I got something together at least. It was good fun too. It's been a while since I did a map, and I got lost in a few of the BeamNG idiosyncrasies (mainly file formats and material issues). I wouldn't say it is by any stretch a finished map, but you can have a little fun on it if interested (https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ar02gI0g-n5AgwgrnO0gho4OjPQ1kCtU?usp=sharing) - just sling that in your mod library, or unzip it and put the folder into the level folder. Either should work. --- Post updated --- Might take a few minutes for the HD processing - not sure why the sound is messed up. That's my lot. I'm of to bed.
Haha cheers! Not quite though, it is really just one corner of the map I actually made, and even then it is pretty shonky. Perhaps bit off more than I could chew. I think with some refinement of the process (and if I remember some of the essential elements of terrain texture generation - particularly sizes and resolutions) then I think I could do more in an evening, but we live and learn.
