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

Well I should have a replacement cooler for it sometime this month; they're back ordered. According to XFX techs, which I saved the info on it: "In North America, if you replace the cooler, breaking one of the warranty stickers, and you can return the card in original condition if it dies, your warranty will STILL be honored."
So hopefully I don't have this issue for too much longer, otherwise the 7850 is going back in!

Actually, AMD has been getting much better the last 3 years. It's not like it was 5~10 years ago. I never had any issues on the 7850 and the only issue I have with my Rx 480 besides hardware issues, is the Fallout 4 texture-shader corruption. This is mostly (98%) mitigated by changing shader settings in the driver, though it still happens from time to time after hours of play.
Please mind the language (you should edit your post @Dr. Death , the mods get angry, I don't care so much personally - but they DO as this is a family-friendly site). Again, it's not me, but they follow my posts on my maps & usually I find a ton of bugs but (try to) do great things as far as pushing limits with still-playable (mostly!) maps. I am not offended, however.

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Rockwood, slowly coming along. Slowly and almost surely.
I've been busy - 2nd Burger World in Beamng.drive! Because I already built the 1st one.

Gateway Drive in ROCKWOOD is starting to take form!

and, for you car-crash guys, a new spot to fall into for your videos, a basement entrance below-grade left-of-center

Big smoke can get his fill in Rockwood now too. We can't be bothered to get out of the car, to go inside and order, because not only do the doors on the buildings in my map NOT open, but there's not even an interior, and you can't even leave the car at all!

Another shot just looking down Gateway Drive in Rockwood.


Doing my best to make blocker-tree walls where I can fit them, to cut down on rendering if I can have enough 'item slots' left over to include enough 'occluders' to block unnecessary rendering that's behind solid objects.

So, as per progress, most of you know that I had a high object count in this map (is also why it's quite slower than some other maps). All this progress, etc, where do I stand with the items now? Well, for starters I replaced an old bridge, which was 10 objects, with a single-object bridge that makes not only a better frame-rate, but lets me put more detail in other places where it needs detail more.
Said bridge just north of Rockwood: Notice soon-to-be-remedied annoyingly square grass - I will speak more on this below.
So, I am actually, even with all the work on Gateway Drive in Rockwood, only two objects heavier than last night at this time - because I simplified ONE bridge. So in-stead of say, 3138 objects, it would only be 3140 objects. If I keep that up I can easily finish this map with lots of space left for missions, AI path variations, more road wear variation textures (cracks, dirt, tar), etc.

Building the detail into the map is quite fun! Lots of it, I love doing this part especially VS monotony of building road-grids as painstakingly close to real-life as I can figure out how to do.
I will need a good two weeks to make significant progress on this town, but I promise it will be worth it!
I considered criticism against the map, and the areas I've been working on this week won't have the SQUARE GRASS edges. It takes a lot of time so don't expect the whole map to be like this but I've been able to put mesh-grass (more expensive to render) in where the squared edges were. It was distracting without doing that / breaking immersion.
Example of the grass not being at right angles:


It's a little early on for an update but figured I'd let folks in on what I have been up to with the mapper.

--Cheers!

P.S. If it gets quiet for a few days, it's me working on my car IRL, it needs much prescribed maintenance.

 

Well, for hours, tried to get a forest object with the menu on it.
This took forever. HOURS.
But I eventually got it. After failing with Sketchup, failing with Blender (even though I did in-fact figure how to texture something with NO tutorial when I couldn't figure it out months ago WITH tutorials)... I eventually stuck it on a convex object and that was the end of it.

Click picture to expand...
Sure hope I don't have to censor this!

 

Looking nice. I also like your updates.

Yes i know the AMD GPUs have been getting better and the Rysen CPUs are making intel panic, but so many small programs have a MUCH improved compatibility with nvidia and that incluides the GPU drivers that i think i should get an nvidia next time.

 

So, doing signs, thought of a real good gas station sign.

Priceless, it stays (also posted this pic to the dev thread).


Here's another store I'm working on putting in. Maybe I'll have more progress to put in, but must have plopped half a mile's worth of curbing (it felt that way!)


It's the unnamed non-descript brick box that was near the south side of the Pine Ridge Rd (midtown) exit.

 

How long until someone recreates the infamous "I'll have 2 Number Nine's, a Number Nine Large..." scene?

 

it's been brought up a few times, this week. I am sure you wont have to wait long. SA was the best GTA by long and far. RPG character advancement (skills like running, shooting, driving), lots of non-linearity, no much hand-holding but 'enough' to get you by and not be lost, and a very very well thought-out and designed map. You'll be happy to know (if I haven't already said so) that I take a LOT of inspiration from GTA-series in map design (jumps, good crash opportunities, and much varied terrain).
I won't blatantly copy stuff but I surely can be inspired by such a good game. Let's just be glad flying is easier this time around.

MORE IN STORE!


Hope all the mesh-grass doesn't plummet FPS. It's not denting it here, and this area is also pretty sparsely developed.

It's still not done and I've spent hours on it, besides the asphalt itself and the brick box with doors seemingly just slapped on the front It's being made with a little extra effort for the crash-compilation guys.
This won't be the only one though, there will be a few big-brick-box type stores in the coming days.

 

Its a shame no computer will be able to witsthand enough cars to fill the entire parking lot.

 

Looks like a really nice map but I will never ever be able to use it sadly because my computer sucks really bad

 

Who wants pancakes?
I present, the pride and joy of today's work, with a celebration, catering by:



I finished the shopping center up today, it needs but a few signs yet for the businesses in the strip mall.







The AWFFLE HOUSE (and the shopping center it's linked to) is just on the south side of the PINE RIDGE RD / MIDTOWN exit from 40.
You have to drive through the SPEND A Lot shopping center to get to it. There's a bank there IRL but I wanted something more interesting there. I think the SPEND A LOT is actually a LOWES, if I remember correctly.
Also, last shot, notice lack of SQUARE GRASS, I've been fixing that up as I go. Don't expect the whole map done up nice by the update but I do as I am able.

I will eventually be creating some places like ADVERSE AUTO PARTS, and AUTO CLONE
This is a car sim/game after-all.
Oh, something more to note, I definitely left the hill (center, this picture) so you can fly like that car WAY up there... Just go between the traffic signal and the AWFFLE HOUSE sign and you'll nail it and possibly land on the roof of the shopping center... Remember, it's got to be FUN.

 

You will eventually get a better one. An i3 with 8gb of ram and a half-decent video card slapped in (provided you have an adequate power supply), will run this map. 10~12gb recommended so you don't crash trying different cars etc.
No law against participating here, though.

What's your computer specifications? Does it run on electricity, steam, or coal power?
I only have what I have because I was ready to throw my AMD FX computer out the side of the 2nd floor of my house when I lived in PA, so I went to the hardware place 3 weeks after buying my FX 6300 processor (which I HATED), and had the guy ordered parts I hand-picked. No, not kidding, I was fine with the 25$ athlon II x4 2.9ghz, it was 'okay', the FX was just awful, atrocious slug of a cpu.
I still have the same computer (my i7 4790k), and probably will for years and years - I'm cheap about that stuff. It runs what it has to run. If yours is 'good enough' for what you do (short of Beamng.drive) then when you do upgrade or get a new one you know what kind of machine to get.

In my younger years I used to build a new PC every year, sometimes more. Not anymore. Don't get the upgrade itch these days. I like everything set the way it is, 'just so' and don't want to change things unless it explodes.
--- Post updated ---
And here we have the store with everything that everyone didn't want to pay more than a buck for.


Dollar Miserable is born! It may be called Dollar Demerit in future versions of the map. Let me know what is better (who knows, I could do both, it's a 144 sq/mile map after-all)
This is at Gateway Drive & Wheeler in Rockwood.
https://www.google.com/maps/@35.8682479,-84.6837989,278a,35y,134.55h/data=!3m1!1e3
Should be right in the center of the screen, between the tracks and Gateway Dr.
There will be a proper concrete texture for the lot later, it's using a place-holder texture for now (until I start up Beam next time), I can't put parking space lines over a "for-mesh-only" (non-transparent) texture or it'll be a flicker-fest.

 

(OT) thats kinda creepy cuz i have an FX 6300 and live in pa...

 

Yeah I got sick of the corruption up there, the informants are more law-breaking and awful than AWFFLE HOUSE is.
The FX 6300 proved to be an extremely popular solution and there's still quite a bunch of them around as they're still capable, just not necessarily as fast as the brand-new stuff out there. I still have mine, I haven't thrown it through a wall yet - but I haven't turned it on or plugged it in, in a few years. I just use it to DOD-5502-M old hard drives when I need to (when I get rid of a drive, I either take it apart for the circut board, or wipe it with the DOD method - DOD = department of defense standard). Thinking about turning it into a linux file-server or something to the effect. Heck, my retired-age mother STILL uses an athlon II x2 2.9ghz cpu from like 2008 in her email box with Windows 10 that boots in FOUR SECONDS (hence why we haven't replaced it). Only thing I did to that was add an SSD and 2gb of ram to it's original 2gb and put Win 10 on it about 2 or so years ago. When it blows up I have boxes of parts, so yeah, those AMD chips, while not always up-to-snuff for the latest hi-resolution gaming, still hold their own for general computer usage quite well.
I tend to hang on to any old machines, I have a few core2 machines with brand new motherboards in them that only have 2 hour mem-test time on them, otherwise, have never been used other than to test. So in other words, I 100% don't blame you for using something that's not cutting edge. Not everyone has money for food, car repair/insurance/gas/etc, consoles and or computer gaming, so don't feel bad, most people are in that boat. When you do get a new machine I am sure you will have one better than me - for a while.
Every dog has it's day.

 

suggestion a repair shop like pay n spay

 

Two pages of new signs are in, 15 of them are scripted in today, in addition to the 5 or 6 I did the other night.
Makes the new strip-mall a little less bland.




Businesses like Auto Clone, Dollar Demerit, Deplorapet, Country Clobbered Buffet, Pretendo (video game store), and the Stevie Wonder School of Driving, are all present.
This is on the main route in Rockwood about a block from the Rockwood starting point.
Starting putting in telephone poles & wires thus far, is working pretty well but very time-consuming.
Another day another block done... normally I get about 2 blocks done when not doing signs for a few hours.

Also touched up the townhouses (they were in the last update, but not detailed)

And did a little work on the long warehouse by the tracks (also was in last version, but not detailed).

At-least half the main street is done in Rockwood now.
Also touched up some terrain in the park by the creek, but it isn't worth showing yet.

 

do used car dealership

 

I'm really loving the progress that's going on here, definitely one of the best maps around my dude!

 

Yes to the used car lots, there will be a few.
I already have signs for one but there will be at-least 3~4 of them so y'all can set up shop, crash, role play etc.

@Snowstorm yes thanks I am doing my best to pack this with detail while trying to keep everything 30~60fps or better. Most of everything has LOD's and I am not really adding much in the way of mesh-roads (which get uses such as railings, bridges, retaining walls, because they're SO flexible, but they're expensive to draw) so it shouldn't plummet fps worse than having lots of grass/forest objects (can't be worse than ECA or JRI with that). The dense housing developments, are most definitely tough to draw, but compared to last year, lots more of you folks can run this map better. It's definitely going to be one of the harder maps to draw for a GPU, but not any worse than Harriman was with the last update (OUCH!). I am putting a LOT more custom detail into what I am doing now in ROCKWOOD, vs mass-spamming of goodness that is Harriman. I guess I have to update the thumbnail for Rockwood before I send out private tests so folks can find bugs before it hits re-release at the end of the month/beginning of next.

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Map progress

Finished up the Dollar Miserable and gave it it's intended parking-lot (new!) texture as it's supposed to have:


Added a view variations to the nearby road-surface to show it's been recently revamped and opened. The road patches are 3d so you'll feel them, not just a 2d flat decal on there. The actual dark 3d asphalt patches (which can be resized for things like driveways and such), have been in since the last version, but they never worked (they referenced the lighter asphalt texture). I think it's working now after i made some text-based changes to the material reference inside the .dae files.

I have the main route roughly somewhere around half-done, I am doing the harder stuff first. Spamming houses into a housing development isn't that incredibly tough but I want the main-route to look awesome, and so it shall.

The parking-lot texture is what the bridge textures will resemble, for the two-lanes/four lanes (both non-highway) bridges. None of the bridges should look like tan carpet anymore.


We now have a bank, well, "Loan and Debt Center"...
Introducing:




Wachalovaya...pronounced "WACH-AL-OVA-YA" It's a Wachovia mockery.
So yeah, it's across the road diagonally from the Dollar Miserable.
Slowly but surely I am getting things done. Once the main route is done most of the other stuff (the residential area) is fast-fill.

 

yay new bridge texture made!






I always hated that old concrete bridge graphic...

 

"Dollar Miserable" Hahaha cool name

 

@GamerTag76 yes, thanks, trying my best here!

And so the next big thing. Probably won't get it done tonight enough to show...

It's coming to a town near you, to take over, and run out all the small business by undercutting them, then jacking the price up as soon as they all close up!
This is getting a big parking-lot and a side-strip-mall like the Spend A Lot complex got. Expect this to take a WHILE, thankfully it doesn't have as many of those stupid dinky little medians with grass (traffic calming islands).

Eventually you'll see where this guy is going.

Tee hee. That place where they charge way too much to install a car stereo for you.


More goes into designing a large big-box or chain-store parking-lot than you think.
You can read up on this. I read stuff like this all the time, not just when designing highways.
http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/niat...concepts/ParkingStallLayoutConsiderations.htm
So yes, that's how you build realism into your maps, folks.