WIP Tail of the Dragon / Deal's Gap 1.0.1

The map runs fine when I play, it's the replay function that jitters. When I'm doing my runs, I get 60fps no problem

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! Wonderful work! You can almost feel the car pitching with all the crazy camber changes in the road.

I have one problem, which is that I can't collide with anything, no objects, or trees... and bridges don't hold me up. First time this has happened on a map, so I'm a little stumped. I've got full physics on...

Then again, I am getting halfway decent framerates on my clapped out system. I wonder if this is problem is what is allowing me to have good framerates.

EDIT: Restarting the game solved my problem, and the framerate stayed the same!

There is only one thing I am lacking for 100 percent realism... enough CPU and graphics to be able to run an AI convoy of 3 RV upfits in front of me throughout the whole length of the Dragon

 

Looks nice but I have a crappy AMD Radeon HD 5700

 

fun/10

 

I have an experimental FPS increase patch, you'll have to put this inside the zip, in the /levels/dealsgap directory inside the zip file itself, but if you do so (after backing up the original of course!), it should help on more fps limited systems.
This file is specific to this map, and will help reduce the draw-distance (but you can't really notice while on the road in 98% of the area), it increase the fog a bit and changes the background color (what is drawn between the sky and the terrain that is now out of view range), so that it looks somewhat normal. It's a quick patch, some folks heard about the map and couldn't run it. It will help lower-end video cards a bit and maybe some folks with much slower CPU's in their system.
It won't help people with high-end systems. Try it out but back up your original file first in-case it makes it worse. The fps in this map is 60~120fps on my Rx 480 8gb video card with i7 4790k without physics frozen, at 1080p with mostly maxed details (I don't think reflection is maxed, it's low-to-middle). FPS taken before the patch, it helped 5% on my end but will help DRASTICALLY on borderline systems.
Turning down reflections helps GPU constraints go away a bit as it's a lot of additional scene to render behind you.
If you are turning off shadows to help in the CPU department, it is drastic, and will really affect the immersion of the map, but it may help, just make it a bit darker outside if that helps, but still light enough to see.

--Let me know how this works out.

P.S. Don't apply this patch to any map except this one or it'll completely murder it!

 

What's considered high end? :lol:

 

I would say something that can run this map 50~60fps at any time, or better. A cutting-edge top of the line PC will do this map easily at 100~150fps.

 

Can you link the mod to the dodge viper. The map is great, but the dodge viper is my dream car and I'd love to see it in beamng drive!

 

I have an i5 4690k, 8GB ram, and a GTX 1070 for graphics, and I have to turn off Dynamic Reflections to get a stable framerate on this map.

Regardless its still a fun map to cruise. I am sure I could max this in 720p but I prefer 1080p

 

This map is a masterpiece, so I've even sacrificed shadows to get it to perform at better framerates. It goes a long way if you change the weather to cloudy in the settings, once you turn off shadows.

It also helps with realism if you mess with the time of day until it looks like a natural overcast day.

Honestly, If I were to actually run Deals Gap for real, I think I would prefer to do it on a cloudy day. The harsh shadows that a sunny day gives on such a forested road just makes driving/riding annoying to me.

 

Okay, I will consider making the next revision "overcast / mostly cloud" to save some time for folks (as I did increase the cloud-cover from the ECA defaults, as it's ALWAYS raining in Tennessee!).
I do have to work some visibility blockers into the mountains so the render engine has a clue of what to reject (e.g. it tells the render engine HEY THIS AND THAT IS BEHIND A MOUNTAIN, DON'T DRAW IT). This results in better fps on the gpu-end and a little less work for the cpu deciding which LOD to display of the 2000+ trees in radius of your vehicle (this will cause random slower spots if you drive pretty fast on a lower-end system). This isn't an issue on Sandy Bridge (2xxx) i5/i7 or newer systems normally. Even an i3 4xxx will easily run this map with a good video card installed.

CHEAP CPU UPGRADES!
For those with an older, aging X58 system, I wish you to go onto Amazon, where a 5650 2.66ghz 6-core 12-thread XEON can be had for 20$, and a 5670 3ghz 6-core 12-thread XEON can be had for 35$! These can (with a simple bios update to most recent bios for your board) go right on the motherboard, as they're 90w chips, instead of the 130 watt 9xx series cpu's, they'll easily overclock to 3.6~4.5ghz depending on the cpu, luck of the draw (silicon lottery), at 1.2~1.25v... and still barely run any hotter than a 9xx series. It's like turning your x58 1st-generation i7 CPU machine into a Sandy Bridge 2xxx series i7 but with triple channel memory (and more cores/threads!).
Prices quoted are from Amazon.com when this was published, and are quoted in American Dollar prices, and may not include shipping or things like import duties (VAT, etc). So if you don't have a lot of money but can replace a CPU, go for it!
Always pay attention for used workstation and server processors that might fit your motherboard, and are within it's TDP rating.
These are often super-duper cheap and plentiful, run cool, and offer a great upgrade path at the cost of overclocking ability, though on x58 systems you can easily knock the base-clock up to overclock them. They're normally equal to a better-binned i7 cpu. Just make sure your chipset, motherboard model, and bios revision support the processor.

--Cheers!

 

Odd. I've driven through Tennessee hundreds of times IRL, and it hasn't rained a single time. Odd.

 

Any and all wizardry you can summon on this map would just be icing on the cake!!!. Even though I am enjoying it as-is (with your patch and shadows off), i will not complain one bit as you eek out any improvements

I highly recommended folks try this map using the new "look ahead" mod. This map and mod combined do an extremely good job at demonstrating the importance of looking through the curve, and to avoid target fixation on those sturdy trees or drop- offs into oblivion.

This map shows how brutal this road really is...its amazing how often i get caught out by the switch backs. Everytime you feel like youve got a rhythm going....bam!

 

Thanks, I will have to check the mod out sometime, I haven't tried it yet.
I will continue to pursue performance improvements in this map, as I put out future revisions, so that FPS increases, vs decreases. (example: Roane County in it's latest form runs 2x better than one of the first releases did and has way more stuff)...
Yes, this road will definitely throw you some curve-balls. It does take lives now and then, in it's real-world form. Many a vehicle has died here, also. Even being the person who made it, I could not get a tractor-trailer full of 20 pianos through this route. I got about 4~5 miles from the north-end and it kept bottoming out, rolling/tipping, getting hung up on a tree (tearing the door off leaving a trail of abandoned & injured pianos), or falling off a nearby cliff, or even ramming into a tree I knew was there and completely could see.
So, while I am sure a commercial truck would clear most/all of the overhanging branches, the road isn't made for them - but that is just so, because they're banned from the real route if they're over 30 feet long. It's just too curvy and has too many taper or "cant" changes - resulting in high spots that catch the truck landing gear. If they ever make folding landing gear (I used to sell these), I am sure it would be a bit less difficult, but until they do, NO TRUCKS.

Glad you found the patch useful. It doesn't help cutting-edge machines, but it will certainly help those who have a more conservative spec computer, or just haven't felt the upgrade itch in a while. Though if you do buy new parts, you can scare away any bit of buyer's remorse you may ever get by running my maps on the new machine!
If you can get 60~100fps on my maps, your computer = awesome and can run ANY game My maps are far from the most optimized - but I admittedly have gotten a BIT better than I used to be, I *AM* trying!
*Things are mesh-culled where possible to add this to static mesh objects.
*Distance is reduced and distance-fog is added as if it was a throw-back to *anything* on a Nintendo-64, it helps with the FPS big-time. This stuff is stored in THELEVELINFO in the F1 object editor of the F11 in-game map editor, for those wanting to change it.
*Released a patch the further cuts down the distance to 25% what it was, thickens the distance fog, and draws a clear background color so it can't be seen (when the landscape is missing).
*Mesh-road use is cut down to a bare minimum (one chunk of guide rail, 3 pieces at a bridge over Tabcat Creek, 4 at the dam), as they're very 'expensive' to draw, believe it or not. A few hundred will make FPS crawl!!! None are used as roads, only decal roads there (aside of the bridge surface itself).
*Reduced textures for roads on this map to just what's needed as it already hits the VRAM hard enough. Lowering resolution to 720p instead of 1080p or higher helps lots if you're fully utilizing your VRAM amount already and FPS is spotty.
*No view-blocking occluders are used but they will be in for future versions. High-detail versions always come first. Some parts may be a bit slow even after they are added, like looking down long valleys, or looking down a 'fire line' where there's a clearing and a long view distance, or even sighting down the river-valleys or off the lookout point near mid-map area. I can't help that much.
*Yes, I digress, I do own stock in a GPU manufacturer, but that's not why my maps are that slow. They're detailed, and huge, and generally have lots of content and lots of fun. I will not sacrifice fun for FPS, I will upgrade my PC first. Just part of being a PC Gamer.

 

I was just watching some youtube videos with trucks on the Deals Gap. Yup, it looks like a bad day for the tractor-trailer driver who decides on that route. So far, my favorite vehicle to use on this map is the race config of the old Pessima.

I have a question for you related to driving in your state... I grew up in Puerto Rico, up in the central mountains. The back roads there, and the terrain in general, is very similar to Appalachia. In fact, I get very nostalgic whenever I'm driving through your beautiful corner of the county. Anyway on the mountain roads in Puerto Rico, there can be a fair amount of heavy truck traffic at times (not tractor trailers necessarily, but dump trucks, cement trucks, short trucks, etc). And they let you know they were coming around the corner by blasting their air horns...fair warning that death awaited for the fool that didn't tuck up against the side. As a matter of fact, everyone in cars taps their horn a couple of times around blind corners too. It seemed like the only way to drive if you didn't want to fear a collision at every curve. Do people do that on the curvy back roads where you live? I've driven through some mountainous areas of Tennessee and surrounding states, and I'll admit...I did tap my horn around some of the tighter, narrower curves, but felt a bit awkward because I didn't run into enough traffic to see if others did the same...

Regarding all the optimizations you talked about...
I'm not a coder, mod, or anything remotely close, so I soak up all these awesome mods for BeamNG like a kid given the keys to a candy store. I believe anyone that says it takes endless hours for someone to end up with a map like this one. And I totally respect your philosophy of first priority to details over FPS. When my computer was more cutting edge, I would have been ticked if everything was FPS friendly at the expense of detail. Eventually, I'll upgrade though. In the meantime, I'm grateful to "preview" this map just how you made it

And yes, definitely try the look ahead mod...it might take a bit of tweaking to get it how you like, but it goes perfect with a map like this! The newer update lets you tweak the linearity of the head movement so it feels more natural.

 

I don't generally beep unless I'm coming out of a blind alley in downtown areas where parked cars obscure view.
We don't beep here in the states except in blind-corner situations, and most roads allow plenty of space. The speed limits are much restrictive here on very tight or very narrow roads so you wouldn't really need to beep. Trucks tend to stay on the major routes here, and are prohibited (over 30 feet long) on the Dragon.
Besides, I think beeping would aggravate a lot of sleeping folks here (and they'd possibly shoot at you), where not so many live on a mountain dirt path with heavy truck traffic. I am far enough (over 100 feet) from the road, and the garage blocks the sound mostly, so I wouldn't hear it if people did, but you don't really have to do it on the majority of roads out here in TN USA, or many other roads.
A tap of the horn if you can't see well (at night you can often see the lights or the reflection of them), is usually a better-safe-than-sorry affair that, well "Every little bit helps" applies here, and is up to the driver. I generally avoid putting myself in those situations by taking a different or better-made route. Whoever built our town here was a 'pretty good mapper' ... heh ... not so much for whoever designed the real Tail of The Dragon (as a reviewer mentioned!) - that road is dangerous - but that translates into much fun in a sports car or Moto. About 6 years ago I put a 4-door car into a power-slide and was facing 70~90 degrees ahead of my turn @ 65mph, broke a sway bar link, knocked off a tracking device, but did it with movie-quality-perfection (no one was in my path of conflict, no one crashed). So yes, I do enjoy the curvy routes very much in this game, as my days of doing that are long over, I just drive like average Joe now. Was a right-hand turn off a diamond-interchange exit-ramp off the highway. The sway-bar link only cost me 20 bucks and 30 bucks to have put in... was quick. I do know how to handle my car in an emergency, should one arise, though.
As popular as this seems to be, and as well as it's gone over, I will definitely plan on doing some more snake-like routes in the future for Beamng.drive. There will definitely be a sequel as I have time and a route or two like this one in the future.
For now, I must continue working on my city map (The Leading-Brand City, unreleased, won't be out till fall at the earliest) and Roane County (update with more furnishings/detail may come at the end of September).

I did that power-slide in a Sable GS. I loved that car. I want another. I hate my Toymotor Crammy.

 

Is that WIP?

 

Yep, something I've been working on. Will be released soonish. That's all I'm going to say here, if you have any other questions PM me

 

Amazing map to have street races and police chases, or just simply cruise! Hoping the rest of the roads (Dirt Roads and Side Roads) Will be finished and AI will be added. Thanks for this amazing map!

 

You will get your wish in due time. The map is finished enough for the main attraction - the Dragon, to be enjoyed fully. I have a pretty full plate with map mods at the moment. I will definitely add the other stuff in the future though, just not right away.
Thanks for the good words, yes this is definitely made with the AI and chases in-mind.