WIP Beta released The Tennessee USA Roane County 0.71 Beta Discussion/Suggestion/feedback Thread 19.3.1

Incase you've missed (or anyone else for the matter) about previously mentioned:
Just a for-your-info here, if you have not tried the REDUCED FOREST FILE, try it out, it will run and stay within limits (unless there's something I don't know about) for even machines with 8gb of system ram, and will let you cruise around a lot solo or with one other car with 6gb. Using lots of AI (8~10 cars, 16gb is STILL recommended). I have to buy more ram for my system here because editing takes twice as much and I am almost unable to work with the landscape right now. This won't stop progress though, as it takes a good 2 hours of editing to get like that (and Beam has slight memory leaks, which I will report as I always do).
The updates to the map have been built off the REDUCED forest file, not the full one, because the full one could only be run by SOME folks, and the reduced forest only effects things away from the roadways (for 90% of the time). It also runs better because there are LESS trees for the video card to have to handle.
So if the old version ran with the reduced forest file, it should run within this - it's not using much more than 4~6gb while running.
IT WILL USE MORE RAM IF YOU USE LOTS OF AI. THE MORE AI YOU RUN THE MORE RAM IT EATS. OMNOMNOM

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I've managed to get some more of main street in Harriman done (mostly done up to Tennessee AVE - going from the bridge over Emory river, which is to the south. That's atleast 50~60% of the main road in downtown Harriman.
I've also finished up most of the trail, aside of some small plants here and there, it's mostly done. It's got it's rocks and a cheap immatation (sic?) water fall too, because I haven't loaded ECA lately to see how the devs made one It doesn't make any noise yet though.
Still have to get a bit more downtown done and a bit of rail track done. I can't garuntee the rail track will be 100% perfect but it should be pretty close if you stay to the speed with which the train is designed (it's a steam train, coal fired, far from a nascar).

Just a few pics - showing off more of what the completed map will be looking like - still under 5gb of ram usage on normal runs, though it really depends on what you're doing. Basically, if you have an 8gb system, you'll be fine just close your web browser and itunes or whatever (unless it doesn't use much). Hitting CTRL SHIFT ESCAPE combination on your keyboard will bring up task manager in windows (any recent version XP to Win10), and you can see what eats the most memory on your PC and how much BEAM is taking.
Hint: Your web browser can eat over 1~2gb of ram, especially if you look at *cough cough* well... let's just say close the web browser!
For shame for shame. Even looking at angry screaming cats like "Fractious Reactious" on youtube can use up a bit of memory.
<--- fractious reactious / SAFE for work viewing, the very angry kitty, good for some comic relief (not my map obviously or anything to do with Beam).

Anyways, a few G-rated pics of the map, speaking of pics.

 

Got the main street of Harriman (N Roane St) done enough to be passable for this next update. Not feeling too great these last few days so might put up and upload tonight. It's got a bunch of new stuff on the north & NW side of the map, not too much elsewhere, aside of bug fixes etc. There's now a road that goes from the dead-end by the fossil power plant, to harriman, and a road from harriman to the airport. The road mileage in this new version coming out will most likely be about 136 linear miles of 'smoothed' finished roadway (two miles of this is dirt trail).
This is as done as it's going to be over the next few days so I will upload this tonight. If everything goes as planned, I will have a link posted sometime tomorrow morning/early afternoon (USA time).
I did NOT get traffic lights, signs, or more custom buildings in yet. There's some placeholders in the forest-file source data so you shouldn't go using this version to build a custom map off of as it'll cause errors using the placeholders (but not if it's just running on your PC). I won't get mad if you DO but it's not recommended.
Pics of the imagery along N Roane St now that it's done up decent. It's still not perfect, but for now, it's fine.
There's also a canopener bridge or two on the side streets for the railroad crossing in two spots in Harriman if you use the ETK camper mod.

EDIT: Just checked, on loading, this map uses 4.5gb of memory, so it shouldn't go over 5.5gb just driving around by yourself, changing to a different car, etc. Now if you use LOTS of AI I would recommend 12~16gb of memory, but otherwise you should be fine with 8gb system memory for this version.
This release - for ease of use - will be one-size-fits-all.
--- Post updated ---
Edit: Updated the gas station name! You DO need to click to see the difference as it's subtle.
Hope this doesn't make the map rated like R or something.

 

Removed link to version 3. Why? Version 5 is out now, officially hosted.

 

D'oh BAD NEWS, DOES NOT RUN ON SOME 8GB SYSTEMS, or does and crashes shortly there-after.

FIXED, SEE PATCHES IN MY NEXT POST (2 posts below this one, or use the opening post - 1st, page 1)

Sorry about that. 4.5~5.75gb ram usage you think would be low enough. @#$%^!

Rassin-frassin' Sassa-frassin-raggin-fraggin *muttley muttering*

Use the patches in my next post to fix ram usage issues on outmoded or low-end machines.
Users with 4gb of ram still might be screwed. I can't get it much lower any than it is now!
Seriously, you could run it if you had 6gb, go buy 2x1gb sticks for <20 bucks shipped. Seriously!!!

 

Works fine on my PC with 8 gigs so far Bob. Love the update by the way!

 

You asked, I LISTENED! ULTRA LO-FI and LO-FI patches are here, depending on how good your system is.
This will remove much of the loading time on slower CPU's, help with slower video cards & lower ram requirements, at cost of barren terrain and visual fidelity. This does not drop the texture quality, or change your video settings, it just reduces the number of trees & hence physics model size is then reduced (collision model for 144 sq/mi is HUGE). Now 85~90% of you should be able to run this.
Ultra Lo-Fi removes all but essential trees and forest items (leaves only stuff immediately roadside, removing anything distant from the road).

ULTRA-LO-FI-Patch for systems with 6~8gb of system RAM (uses 3.0gb on load) ESSENTIAL TREES ONLY
It may be much easier to fall out of the edge of the map if you're driving on the grass near the edge in this version, use caution!
This gets extracted into the zip file for the map in the \levels\SouthernHighway directory, overwriting 2 files.
(link now gone, no longer needed!)

Lo-Fi doesn't quite remove as many trees as Ultra-Lo-Fi does, but it will run on systems that ALMOST could run the map before.
It doesn't have the bare mountains/ridges that ultra does, and still keeps some of the trees so that it doesn't seem bland in distant spots.
LO-FI Patch for systems with 8~12gb of system RAM (uses 3.55gb on load but looks better than ultra-lo-fi)
This gets extracted into the zip file for the map in the \levels\SouthernHighway directory, overwriting 2 files.
(dont need this link!)

No buildings were harmed (or removed to my knowledge) in the making of these patches. All the roads are still there, too.

If the map was running fine for you before, or you have 12~16gb of ram or more, you most likely won't be needing the patches.

Again, if you missed it, open up the Tennessee USA zip (597mb) that you downloaded a few day ago or today, and click on LEVELS, then on SOUTHERNHIGHWAY, until you see the .mis and .forest files and info.json, and plop the ultra lo fi or lo fi patch in there overwriting the current files. The preview pic should be different next time you start the game. Placing these files into the /mods/levels directory without manually patching the zip will only break things. The difference on lo-fi and ultra-lo-fi is the name for is V3ULO instead of V3LO for lo-fi ,just so you know what you're looking for.

These files are mirrored in the OP for newcomers.
FILES ARE NO LONGER AVAILABLE, USE THE NEW 0.5 BETA FOR EVERYONE!

 

The amount of work you out into these maps and level of detail you should be considered for a content developer man.

 

I am really trying with this. If you know any locals with this game, hook 'em up. If they can't run it let me know. Poor JD can't run this, even with the ultra-low on 8gb of ram - I think it's his 4gb video board shadowing system memory (does BIOS still DO that???) that's eating it. I am trying to get to the bottom of this, and see just how little RAM I can get this to use.
*thinks*
*let's make the biggest map in Beam and see what happens to the game*
*oh hey it works*
*oh hey you're making it on a decently recent computer and running out of memory making it let's release it and see what happens*
*d'oh - that's not working!*
*releases 10 tons of termites into the forest eating half the trees*
*still doesn't work for some people*
*releases 100,000 beavers with the munchies into the forest to eat another half of the trees*
*mocks everyone with RAD RACER preview picture (heh) who's PC is borderline potato* (okay not really but at the time it seemed pretty funny)

If this does NOT run on your PC, and you think it should, feel free to list PC specs (video, ram, processor, etc)
You can always delete the .forest file in a no-holds-barred effort to try and get it to run but there's not going to be a single tree, and 99% of the buildings will be gone except for the church and sawmill, which for whatever reason never made it into the forest brush.
It will run great but unfortunately it will be ugly/barren and you could easily fall off the map - not just on Swan Pond Circle (OOPS!).

 

Turn this: meshCulling = "0";

To: meshCulling = "1";

On all of the TSStatic for more FPS.

 

Done and done. 280 instances replaced, though difference is somewhat negligible here FPS-wise but it might matter more on lower-tier video boards.

I will keep this in mind for the future, though I don't rely so heavily on static objects due to collision issues that Beam creates with them.
Attachment .mis removed so that I can tell you it's no longer needed with the new version.

 

It works.

< Here I used to get ~25FPS, Now I get 32FPS

 

Okay so In terms of ram it hits about 9-9.5GBs on my system [16GB Installed]

This is with :
Skype
Origin
Steam
Dxotry

And Drivers for MISC Peripherals running.


--------------------------------------------------------------
I have a High-End System and I run around 75FPS [Dxtory Locked] 90% of the time until more then 2-3 cars are running and it begins to drop a little lower on the Average map.

Test Car: Miramar GTz [Unchanged, no skins]



This map runs around

Max 90 [During extended play some places diliever a consistent 115]
Average 67
Min 55

Object Stream Stutter Min - 30 [This is when an object loading in causes the whole game to hang]


If people ask I'll give my specs out.




Note:
After running a little while with small chrome instance it hits 9.8gb, still not much a threat. However this much ram on the game does produce some odd behavior. Running 5gb, either the map or something, this seems to slow down the rest of my processes more then other maps, even utah which I guess uses alot too but never seems to affect the performance of other processes on the system.












My Settings:

2560x1440 60Hz

Vsync = Falce


AA = True

SSAO = False [Turned this off due to inefficiency and AO artifacts]

HDR = True

DOF = False


AntiAliasing = SMAA

Mesh Quality = Low [I have it like this because it improves 5-6 Car Performance dramatically]

Texture Quality = High

Lighting Quality = High

Shader Quality = High

Anisotropic Filtering/ HQ Texture Filtering = X16

Grass Density = 50%


Dynamic Reflections = True

DR Tex Size = 1/3

DR Faces Per Update = 2/5

DR Detail = 50%

DR Distance = 540M

 

So, what video board are you running there - furthermore, anyone with a decent video board should chime in and let me know if they're getting 60fps most all the time on HIGH texture resolution in Beam on MY maps.
I am eventually going to give the graphics a boost in this machine, as my Radeon 2gb 7850 (Asus DirectCUII model) is over three years old now at this point, and it's seen it's share. I good overclock on it helped some, but I am still only doing 40~45fps or there-about most of the time unless I am heading to a map edge (without trees it's usually 60fps).
So yeah looking to update to an Rx480/470 or a Fury (non-X, no watercooling in a box of electricity for me)... wanted to know who's getting what. A 390/390x would run absolutely-too-hot which is why I like the idea of the AIB 470s like MSI's GamingX model, as it runs 57~62C most of the time. Any Idea?

What's max VRAM usage like on this map with high textures?

 

All settings high on a GTX 970:



Solid 60FPS most of the time with a few stutters here and there.

 

Since you asked.

Here are my specs.

EVGA GTX 1080 SC 8GB
I7 5820K 6-Core @ 3.8Ghz
16GB DDR4 Ram [forget the clock because it's custom]

 

@SkepticalYeroc , @Eastham Thankyou both - appreciated highly.
I wanted to know so that when I get around to purchasing an upgraded video board for this in the future, that I get something that'll run this game smooth under most all normal (modded map) circumstances. Who wants to spend money to just tread water and still have the game not run right.
Thanks again for your time and effort. Work on this map will resume in a few days when I am feeling better, and have caught up on my home maintenance after being sick with sinusitis/flu for a week. I really feel like rubbish and wouldn't be able to do decent work on it anywho feeling like this.
*begin rant*
Thanks to America's stupid drug-war and my state's stop-MDMA act here, I can't even by cold pills over the counter anymore without a hassle and being questioned as if I was a murder suspect. When did Hitler become president? I mean seriously, cold pills too?
Thank your gov't next time a very sick person crashes into you in traffic going to buy pills to get rid of said sickness or atleast alleviate the symptoms. I swear, if it wasn't for idiots, there wouldn't be anyone to run this country. The gov't wonders why confidence in gov't is so low, confidence in police is so low, and no one thinks the drug war is working. I sure hope to god someone comes along and fixes this country fast before all heck breaks loose.
*end rant*

So yeah, just wanted to let you guys know I haven't walked away from this. Stay tuned for the next exciting episode!!!

--Cheers

 

Mirror: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzJ-WWaQYXttY1E1RWxZb215cmc

 

Awesome Awesome, I'll get that posted shortly to the OP. TY as always @Username . This is one place a 'hall of mirrors' is okay!

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I did get a bridge done, it wasn't a quick-easy one. It took a good 2 hours, maybe a bit more just to do THIS bridge (and re-grade the highway here, banked the turns between the bridge over S Roane St/rail track and where the highway splits apart a bit as it's about to go up the mountain. This is the Scenic Dr. bridge that's about the only bridge over/under the highway that wasn't in yet. I think that's all the bridges (are built now) aside of some small creek/watershed/runoff type box-culverts or cut-and-cover pipe type mini-bridges (the kind that always leave a 6~12 foot deep and 20 foot wide gash in the road when they wash out).

Most of the road infrastructure is/was already placed, there's maybe another 15~25% to build at MOST, not sure if that's counting the town roads and whatnot. Lots of buildings & rock/cliffs to come in the future, finally going to get to populate the map! Yay.
There's most likely not going to be another version out of this map until I get a significant bit of more work done on it (1~2 weeks).
There's also going to be some TO-DO things like a derby arena, a race loop, and most surely a few more trails because they're fun.
So with a little magic setting the environment (sun-angle) to match the photo - here is the comparison shot.
(click to see the full size, it's a 4k x 1080 shot I think) *Credit to google obviously for the street-view.

 

Well considering with my settings I can play 6 Miramars at Hirochi Raceway averaging above 40fps with fps never really going below mid 30s and above 70fps maximum.