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

This has made me think just how weak my GTX 960 2GB is *sigh* but when I am 17 I think i'll give up BeamNG or play it way less when I drive a REAL car

 

FINE I HAVE A SETUP WITH GTX 550 AND ITS OK NOTHING MATCHES MY CURRENT SETUP THOUGH SORRY CAPS LOCK IS STUCK ON
--- Post updated ---

how do you add pc specs to signature

 

mabe you could make a small fps friently version

you cant because signatures are limited to very small now unless you do it weirdly

 

Do it horizontally.
EG.
CPU:xxx GPU:xxxx
instead of
CPU:xxx
GPU:xxx

 

Shadows and Reflections off and you can run the map like a boss (or at least enjoyably so - high texture detail!).
FX 8350 - while this processor is 'old' in performance per-core, it has LOTS of cores, you should be able to run this map with no issue with SHADOWS OFF (helps CPU), and 3~4 cars (if more cars, fpu performance cuts by half, as this cpu includes 8 integer cores (ALU's), and only 4 256-bit FPU's, which split to 8x 128-bit FPU's, which halves your physics performance per-vehicle, keep it <4 vehicles for best result!).
GTX 1060 6gb, you should have equal performance to my RX 480 here give/take 10~15% either way, keep reflections off if you don't like 20~30fps very much. It shouldn't drop below 20fps with reflections on the up-and-coming version, I'll try to get you in to the closed beta.

Yes, that's what I am doing. 35% avg better FPS in towns where-needed, won't affect un-settled areas (rural places) but will have it's effects felt in town. Now that I've made enough of the map, I am testing out ways to make it perform better for the folks that enjoy it, and so that I can flesh out and add more detail without making it perform worse than it does currently. There's just TOO MUCH for most mainstream computers to run at full-on max detail, with a 200~250$ GFX card, and still retail full speed (min 20fps) simulation rate.
17FPS at the default spawn point in Harriman downtown really hit home for me, on max detail.
Even some guys with 1080 TI video cards and X99-based computers were having to record at half-speed to double their 35~45fps in spots up to 60+ fps for Youtube. So yeah, it's just 'too much too soon', so I will have to sacrifice a touch of fly-over-it-with-freecam view quality to make it run for the masses, now that there's enough to test properly.

---

So yeah, on that note, I've finally got things to stop blinking on and off as I drive past, oops. Don't set your nulldetail level to 64 when your lowest mesh-detail level is 20 kids. Ooops. Only took 3~4 days for that to come to me ... but that's why my name is Blunderton! Hey I am honest, what can I say, but that?
Thanks again to the developers for helping me figure some of this stuff out.
Here's a shot reel over rubbish-FPS-performance Down-town Harriman:

Flying back out slowly, taking a shot about every block further back. Notice 2D bill-boarding and low-detail as you back out.
Notice how the FPS goes up as I back away, in-stead of remaining about the same, or dropping sharply (different spots do different things, it was inconsistent at best, at worst, all-over-the-place, now not so much). So long story short, I've managed to do this without murdering quality. Sure, flying over the map WILL NOT be as pretty, but it's Beamng.drive *NOT* Beamng.Pilotwings...
So yeah, stay on the ground, please.

Street-level view here, as this is what you'll see almost all of the time...

Hey, backing up, making MORE things visible should make FPS go down, not up, but not NOW, NOW IT'S WORKING! Also, to note, when in the first shot, I'm technically looking over the crest of the hill in the road, where there is a render-blocker hidden, which helps hide things obscured by the hill, when I back up. The game renderer will otherwise render things hidden by the hill, the render-blockers were added 2 versions ago.

More to come. I should have the performance issues ironed out by the end of the week, provided I don't have too much compilations doing other things that need to be done. So yes, entirely, you can see in the second shot, that the houses 1 block away, on the far side of the intersection, are lower detail, but that's about the only discernable detail change. For 35% more FPS, I'd say that's a winner for-sure. I will be adding more bill-boarding detail levels in the near future as the donated Garfield Heights models lack them currently.
@Occam's Razer if you're interested in these FPS-enhanced models of yours, they function perfect (or will when this is out), feel free to patch them into your map if you ever need better FPS.

If I can figure out how, also, I'd like to also give those pesky sign poles (the new ones with the green metal U-channel attaching them to the ground), SOFT-collision like the bushes got in 0.8 game-version, or something like that. Soft-collision stops the vehicle if it's going less than 5~10mph, but fails to stop vehicles (apart from minor damage) that are going any decent road-speed. I do not believe I will be giving this to the stop-light poles (traffic lights use these, as do old original 2-piece signs I had before the green and yellow ones, there's still some of these around).

One day I'll even get the yield signs working properly too (they're in, they just aren't behaving or used in the map for that reason). Right now they do not, I think that could be my fault though. Might not make next release, it's not super-high priority, but performance IS.

View distance was 300 meters too high (it should be 700 meters, not 1024 meters), this was set wrong on the last release. It makes a subtle difference. You can't see that far with the fog anyways. Pop-in of distance scenery is barely noticeable, but it's there if you 'look for it'.

I have to spend many many hours (spread out over days) fixing up the remainder of the models, then maybe I'll be able to hold around 30fps at the spawn point at MAXED OUT EVERYTHING detail. Currently it is 26~30fps (as I was editing while doing this squeezing out every little drop of FPS juice, it's hitting 30+ fps at one angle now).
Added in two occluders and dropped reflectivity/reflection detail of the water. It doesn't need to be as finely detailed, from a realism standpoint.

That is all!

Oh, and for what it's worth, YES, the car was in the background (hidden by a house row) in the shots, so it's worst-case FPS, not best-case cherry-picked). Without the car in the shot, or looking away from it, the FPS is 50~60fps around Harriman. Hey, it wasn't even that without reflections when I started! This is awesome.

This was so much of a better plan than an 'April Fools' mockery/joke/time-waster. I will not get your hopes up only to smash them down like a vindictive evil woman, I will deliver as-promised.


30 fps

 

thanks and that was just about the longest reply to anything ever

 

Stock clocked RX 480 8gb, XFX RS model. FPS counter is in top-left. 30.2FPS!
--- Post updated ---

"...longest reply to anything ever..." You must be new here.
*hollers and makes best 'hallway voice' impression he can* Someone get the new guy a name tag!

--Welcome to getting old - Cheers!

 

Man, I just got a 1070 windforce, and I feel so humbled seeing all of this work you do, if I could I'd give you a 1080, you deserve it! Looking forward to this FPS boost! been a long time fan of this map and haven't really posted.. Just curious, will there we some sort of tunnels, or are there none in the real area? Is there anything in the real area, aside objects, such as buildings, signs, etc., you haven't put in yet?

 

"...longest reply to anything ever..." You must be new here.
*hollers and makes best 'hallway voice' impression he can* Someone get the new guy a name tag.

Thanks! I wish I could get my hands on a 1080, but that's not ever going to happen until they're like 200~250$ or something equal to that in performance is that price. I won't pay over 265$ or so for a gfx card, period. I paid 262 or something like that for this 8gb RX 480, with hot-swappable fans on it. Sure I could plunk my money down on one, but I'd rather fix/maintain the house here or put brakes on my car (and tires, eventually), it needs back brakes, if you ham on the brakes in the rain the back end gets light because it's so worn down the trans doesn't always like to shift out of park :x That's bad, but I hardly drive my Corolla more than 75 miles/month, so no biggie.
There's no tunnels that I know of in Roane County, it's pretty much a river snaking through a rather flat area and a plateau on the west side of the map. Now, that's not to say I won't stick a secret one in somewhere (somewhat hidden), but it might be more a rock-crawling cave for 4x4's than a tunnel for cars).
So if you see a sign in the somewhat later updates (not this one!) that says your vehicle must = 16 you'll know to go hunting for it with a 4x4...
I will eventually be putting up a Patreon or something similar for this project, to help me buy software for the project (Which is pricey, and I have a very strong stance about not pirating software of any kind for any reason), and keep the computer running/capable. Not for buying 1080 ti's, just for fixing things as they blow up, after-all, the machine IS 3.5 years old this month, it's not getting any younger, and eventually, it'll need replacement parts (which I can install). I mean, on the other side, the email machine I built my mother, with an Athlon II x2 cpu, in 2008 is STILL GOING, it refuses to die. It boots in 4 seconds to Windows 10, with the SSD it was given 4~5 years ago, so we haven't seen fit to replace it. That being said (and the reason for it), is hey, maybe this machine will last that long (and I do take care of it, regular cleaning, maintenance, regular backups, yearly virus scanner subscription, no adult website usage or dirty/nude picture on it or web sites to make it sick, and so-forth).
I will likely be using this i7 4790k, de-lidded, 4.4ghz PC for years and years to come. I am physically disabled, so my money has to stretch, so that I may put some in savings for my future, if I live that long enough to see it.

I would just like to say, that, the most awful, hideous task, in the world, worse than working under a hot car on a summer day without shade, is installing a @#$%ing hanging [BLEEP] light in a [CENSORED] gazebo on a [expletive deleted] ladder, which I just had to do. I HATE THAT. It hurts the heck outta my joints just moving about the house, let's just say it was an exercise in patience doing it. I made up lots of new spicy sentence enhancers I cannot print on the forum though, while doing it.
My mother, who's roughly 70, who has no one, my father always did that stuff, and he died almost 7 years ago after losing the battle to cancer over the last 10~12 years of his life. I, in my mid to late 30s, with no family of my own, chose to fill the void, for her. I guess it beats sitting at the computer, though. That being said, I will be thankful to work on my map today or tomorrow when I am here as it sure beats installing light fixtures from ladders. I shake so bad trying to climb down it the tools almost jarred out of the paint tray on the ladder.

So, on to the map, enough rambling, on and on...

I have to fix the blinking grass, it's not Chris-Mess time after-all. After that's fixed and I do a few more tests with doing frame-rate comparison, I can see about uploading this and getting a beta out.

REMEMBER FOLKS, there's not a mind-blowing amount of new features/things in the map update, it just runs better, and there's a bit more added to Roane Street, which is the road from Harriman to Rockwood, just south of the Route 40 highway.
After that is out of the way I can look into seeing about adding bus routes (does anyone even want those, would that not be very mundane and monotonous?), and adding other features/texture updates to the lighter asphalt etc. Also, adding in other things which elude me right now, as I'm rather in lots and lots of pain.

Even after the closed beta, I will still be updating models periodically, to billboard (go 2d / flat), when you're far enough away that it doesn't matter/doesn't detract from the game-play/immersion.

So yeah once the grass is fixed, and the floating stupid trees near Rockwood (oops) are touched up I'll have that out. Look for it in roughly 2~3 days.

FEATURED MAP!
Yes, we're a featured map here now, hooray. Thanks to the moderators.

Also, I would like to thank techmaster2133 on youtube for the great videos of crashing, there's some pretty good ones, but the AI chases etc help me debug issues with the map and such.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClk4-2QKgvxfh_V_dPITs9g
The more videos I watch of this map, the more I can get to improve areas people like, and forgo putting in the boring stuff :x
Looks like there's new AI features coming up for the update AFTER the closed beta, I have to figure out how to work it though.

--Cheers!

 

A little progress to put the DOT property in. Still has the logo on the building, 'Tennessee Department of Highways' on it, a harkening from back in a bygone (Eisenhower) era. You can bet your dollar I put that logo on it too. It'll also get the 'non-descript government building sign' too later.
It's not done yet, but it's here, includes a bit of a drainage swail for your crashing mispleasures.

I'm sure I could have made the building a little more detailed, but I am trying to build things a little more 'efficiently' so that it doesn't tank the FPS too hard on this corridor, as it's a much-loved speed-way.
NO object were harmed (or used) in the making of this entire lot. It needs a little curbing and some grass bits, but I am quickly trying to fill in the area up to the bridge I installed nearby. This IS actually THE next lot after the Ichibun Japanese restaurant. I would surmise you can go and get your driving papers here, licensing, plates, and such. I haven't been in this one, though, as we have one closer. Looks like the back is a maintenance facility for the County's vehicles/cruisers.
When this lot is finished, that marks roughly the Half-way point from developing all the areas from Harriman downtown all the way out to Rockwood. This is about 3.5~4 miles north of the Sprawl Mart on the same road.

Also fixed the STEELDOOR forest entry that the editor erroniously deleted weeks ago. Stupid editor :x Bug reported! Didn't lose any progress, just careful if you edit maps, deleting accidental dupes in the forest brush.
--Cheers!

 

oh and i'm not new here i joined in 2016

 

'Tis all good bud, I was just joking. FWIW it was supposed to say:
"Someone get the new guy a name tag!" but it got cut off in the original post for whatever reason.
Proof-read posts for-the-win. Yeah... D'oh!

Yes, I tend to write a book. I should have been an author of many books, but alas I am here making maps. Oops.

So do stick around, this weekend should be a good one! Then we can see if my updates do the trick with performance, or if I end up getting put up in the town square with folks chanting 'Off with his head!!!' ... oh noes!
--Cheers!

 

OK so, I re-aligned route 70, and replaced the old out-dated mesh-road bridge that was over the disconnected railroad track, south of Rockwood. Yes, this is where the floating railroad track chunk was :x Oops.
Don't worry, I'll have that out of the way in a jiffy.
This re-alignment adds around half a mile of roadway (possibly a little less, 3~4 tenths of a mile), but almost a mile of it is completely smoothed re-graded and re-banked. It's much nicer now, as it was one of the last, old, hand-leveled portions, and as a result, wasn't that smooth. As I have time I will finish it off and make it nice & finished looking. Likely when I get Westel done up nice (the small village to the west of this point).
This took hours, but doesn't look like much (without the forest, the screenshot-blocking forests, hint-hint), it sure drives nice though.

Don't worry, I'll make sure the stupid flying railroad track won't be back to bite you, fly in your face, and bother you...
The map now uses 7 less objects, too! I used dark, new pavement to denote the 'newer' or improved sections (even though about 2/10ths of a mile of the grey portion leading away from the camera was also re-graded to give it a more consistent feel). The AI will be able to cross this bridge no issue. The approaches of the bridge deliberately look newer.
This area won't look very pretty in the closed beta, but the next public upload should have some more furnishings (trees, grass, rocks etc) to make it look nice.

FIXED LOTS OF FLOATING TREES (dozens!) in the general vicinity of ROCKWOOD and north of there, on one of the roads with LOTS of hills you can fly off of. I forget the name of it. There were a few on this road near the mountain-top too, that were fixed. If you know of floating trees that bug you, let me know in the beta update that comes out, and I'll fix them!

--That is all for now, going to go try it out now.

 

Man, you could write a book full of epic stories! You paint a picture well with what you say. Very good points though you make, looking forward to the next release!!!
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I'm noticing something strange happening to my MHZ on my 1070 gpu when I enable shadows on your map. I use Afterburner and I reach full overclock on west coast with shadows, but on your map, if I enable shadows, It doesn't see above 1552 mhz (overclock does not happen). I've even seen it droped and capped to 1000 mhz.

When I disable all shadows, it does overclock to the max that I set it on, but it doesn't reach max OC as easy (I think this is normal for map differences?). Could it be that this map is huge and my cpu can't keep up with shadows?. I do have a 2600k and ddr3 16gb vengeance, could that be it? Could it also be the driver as well? I've heard nvidia's recent drivers aren't so great. I tried finding the most stable one that supports shadowplay (388.71). I did notice with this drive, that it doesn't crash above 2025 (that's what my last driver did, I THINK, because I was assuming the card just couldn't overclock above that, but it does with this new driver!!)

if there is a better driver out there, lemme know.

 

Thanks, I am glad you like my writing. I could write a novel with what I go through for someone who's not supposed to be doing anything but stay in the house, due to his skeleton calling it quits (no really, I'm 36 and my x-ray looks worse than my mother's 81 year old friend's!). Anything to escape my arch fiend - boredom, if for any reason, due to the PTSD.

--

Yes, unfortunately, the shadows are done on the CPU. This is not the only game to do that. However, I can entirely see that with the 2600k, you don't wish to upgrade yet. Don't upgrade yet - you can squeeze another year of usefulness out of your processor/motherboard/memory yet, buddy. I am on my 4790k yet, and while the upgrades look pretty, and I surely do want them deep down inside (okay, who doesn't?), I know in my heart and mind that I don't *NEED* them.
So yes, yes, your 2600k and max supported 1600mhz dual channel DDR3 is to blame here. The 2xxx series CPU (compared to 4xxx series), has a 128-bit FPU (floating point unit, for Beam's physics, and anything else mathematical, very possibly including shadows), the 4xxx + series of cpu's (anything HASWELL or newer), changed these to 256-bit FPU's (and accompanying FMA extensions, which helps multimedia, possibly file (de)compression, and so forth go through the fast FPU), so you get a much better Physics (frame) rate per second and hence more time for other CPU duties (like feeding the graphics card).

Basically, what I am saying is, yes, "Yes, you will benefit from a CPU upgrade". This is exactly why lots of folks on AMD FX chips (and APU series previous to Ryzen/Vega combos that just came out in December), shut off the shadows, because it frees up the cpu, and hence, removes the bottleneck there a bit (well, it lessens it).

However, all hope is not lost - try out my performance upgrade later for this map, please. I should be uploading it tonight so check private messages tomorrow, everyone who's sent in private messages in the last 10~14 days will get a link to mega dot NZ and the 900~950mb (whatever size it is now) file. It should help reduce the amount of polygons that need shadowing, in addition to reducing the amount of poly's the graphics card needs to draw. I'd keep your machine another year yet at-least, buddy, unless you're quite well to do and bored of it. Then for that there's overclockable Ryzen 2xxx coming out the 19th of this month (Thursday!), and also the intel 8350k/8600k/8700k line of overclockable cpus if you don't fear or mind paying the 'Intel tax'

---

Beamng.drive performance and your computer:
CPU = Beamng.drive physics, SHADOWS, map loading and model generation, AI routines and UI interface actions.
RAM = Beamng.drive physics, min FPS, AI Routines, the more cores doing this, the more bandwidth you need (many cars in play etc). Also holds all the level collision data of all objects in forest brush, in this map, it's about 4 of the 6gb required. Yes, faster RAM can be worth buying, only when building the PC though!
40~50% Faster RAM can mean the difference between of 10~20% better minimum FPS on multi-core games/sims. The more cores you use the more it will matter.
GPU = Drawing everything you see, and REFLECTING it via reflections (BIG HIT TO FPS), holding all the models and textures in VRAM (video memory). Reference cards are likely to introduce coil whine into the system, so be careful.
SSD = Loading times, will hitch less while driving about than a hard drive, NVME is even better than sata in this regard but not enough (compared to a newer 3d-TLC NAND SSD) to make it worth the difference unless you're building a new machine from scratch and have lots of cash on hand, money better spent on GPU anyways.
MOTHERBOARD/Chipset = Connect and supply all various components with the data they need when they need it. While PCI-E 2.0 isn't going to slow you down much compared to PCI-E 3.0, newer chipsets use less power & generate less heat to produce the SAME speed as your current chipset.
Power Supply = Providing steady, clean, ripple/noise free power, to your system, and keeping nasty outside surges from getting into the PC where they wreck things (if it's a good one like a SeaSonic - swear by that brand for life).
Sound card = While sound hardware-acceleration was done away with for anti-piracy reasons post-Windows-XP era, you get a much clearer, fuller bodied, sustained sound signal from a dedicated sound board. Some people can't hear the difference.

OK, that was much longer and thorough than I had planned it to be - but it's very functional and to-the-point. I hope that helps. I'd definitely take a gander at Ryzen 2600x/2700x or Intel 8600k/8700k, for your next upgrade, but you don't have to. If it's just this map, just know, performance will get better even after this update beta test, as I optimize it as I go, before I go ahead and fill in the missing stuff in the three towns, and everything in between, causing the FPS to go lower again.

This closed beta, and the one coming in there-after following, will be performance-oriented aiming to improve minimum FPS areas. Please know that I am not going to fill up the map until I get performance taken care of, this way, when I do fill it up, those later versions will be optional, and you aren't missing as much.

Sorry for the rambling - I hope some of it's useful. But just know 'THE BOB' listens! I will be back in the evening, if you all have any questions concerning the closed beta or any last-minute stuff that needs fixing!

--Cheers!

 

Think I fixed the grass problem, it's drawing as it's supposed to right when the terrain auto-generated grass does, and not a quarter mile away of FPS murdering distance (by itself, grass isn't too bad on fps, but that's a few frames we need)!

77, 71, 62 FPS, without reflections - with reflections - 22~45 or higher FPS with car in view on main street.
The spawn point in Harriman is currently about: 28~31 FPS (bounces a bit). Pausing with J jumps it up a little bit (5~8%).

On another note, I cracked 110FPS on this thing with no reflections in a rural area just north of Harriman (NOT in the town!), and got 50~75 FPS around Harriman downtown just now - with no reflections (RX 480 8gb 1288mhz core clock - factory, i7 4790k, 16gb ddr3 2400mhz dual channel, SSD RAID array).
So I'd really think this is good - keep in mind the first 3 pictures are without reflections!!! Car pictured on the 4th has reflections. I believe I am ready to ship this beta to my online drive, and y'all can check it out and enjoy it.

So, speed with reflections on has gotten an average of about 10~25% better. Speed without reflections has gone up closer to 35% (or higher!) in towns, and rural areas with or without reflections are actually about 10~15% better.

I still have more models to edit, so I'll change the map menu thumbnail and go ahead and upload this.
Thankfully it's still the map you've come to love (and I thank everyone highly who enjoys it as much as I do), and it still looks 90~95% as high-tech. Now more people can run it, especially with the current price of video cards.

Expect private messages with the beta link on Mega, in the next 24~48 hours or less depending on my internet connectivity / stability. Lets hope everyone else's SSD's are less full than mine usually is.
--Cheers!

 

A new jump added as an extra thanks to folks beta testing the closed beta. Thanks! (hint, it's at the far end of this intersection).
FPS increase from Repository version to Closed beta was 10~30% MINIMUM increase (some folks got more or less).
FPS increase from Closed beta to my version - up to an ADDITIONAL 10.8% or possibly more!
So, all things considered, expect a 25~50% FPS increase in the next version depending on your system specifications.
For those who are CPU bottle-necked and NOT video bottle-necked, you won't see *as much* of an increase, though there will still be a fairly decent increase as the CPU does not have to process nearly as much!

*FIXED - Floating trees that popped up on the closed beta where I re-did a road south of Rockwood that heads to Westel.
*FIXED - Floating trees around Rockwood and north of there for a few miles, think I got most of them, buggers! (this is included in the closed beta).
*FIXED - Roane State Parkway by where the lake lines both sides of the road, there were some bumps, and the turns were not perfect, and there was a few glitched in the road texture. This is all fixed. Fixed a texture glitch on the divided side-street just south of the Harriman spawn.
*FIXED - lots of floating grass (200+ pieces!!!) under the terrain in Harriman where it was hiding but still impacting FPS is gone now. Pesky stuff. It was right under where the jump is added, I happened to notice this. Sure there's more around here... 1~2 extra fps though (or more on slower mainstream cards on medium or high detail). Not included in % FPS gain numbers above - this was where it was slow, by the bank & big bridge in Harriman downtown. Bob's Blundering at it's finest.
*Improvement - Bank and two gas stations in Harriman got 3d concrete pads vs just a 2d concrete texture - less objects now than before (there's a hard limit of 4096 objects in play at once, anything in the forest brush is non-withstanding).
FIXED - Lots of stupid pointless texture-alignments no one will likely ever notice - but I did, like the intersection north of Rockwood where the broken line guides the double-left-turn lane.
This will get uploaded tonight sometime to my backup drive. Hope nothing's broken & Hope it doesn't come back... :x
It's a whole lot more efficient, though, I will say that. The tree pop-in is more notable (as in the closed beta), but it's a small price to pay (as there's trees EVERYWHERE, a veritable infestation!), for up to 30~50% more FPS on select systems.

So yes, entirely. Doing some more tests. For those that already have the closed beta, do download this when it hits the repository for an additional roughly 10% FPS gain in addition to the 20% gain on the closed beta.

--Cheers!

 

Upload failed due to unreliable power last night, will try again tonight.
Didn't seem to be any bugs in the newest iteration of it. Self-tested, should be okay. Hopefully I didn't mess anything up (well I checked all the obvious stuffs).

Wonderful 'Murican' infrastructure strikes again. Not kidding. Japan can have a 9.0 earthquake and not lose power, but we don't even need a 'reason' like that to lose power.

Maybe one day the president will wake up to what it's like to live in this country without running it, and what living without gold-covered walls and toilets is like.

 

Upload SUCCESS to my backup drive, I will try and get this transferred over for public consumption in the next few days to a week.
Edited/added the links into the private closed beta, just to be sure it runs. New version in closed beta includes a 10% performance bump over the old version, NO blinking grass or trees, and fixes a small glitch with one pair of the houses disappearing too soon.
Look for the new 4-20-18 (or 4/21/18) version up on the servers soon. Don't worry, there's NOTHING unsafe for work in it!
Those days of 4/20 are long-gone here my friend. Sad but true, THIS MAN is *NOT* funding any private correctional institution's bank account anytime soon.
--Cheers!

 

Just an update (5 days later). The map is uploaded, I am waiting for approval (pending). It will be updated in the repository here within hopefully a few days. There's a bit of maintenance going on so maybe sometime before, during, or after the weekend you'll see it. It'll surely run lots better, and if you have a version of the CLOSED beta (the first one I sent out from the 14th~15th of April), and not the 4/20~4/21 version, you'll definitely want to grab this as there's still a marginal improvement over the 1st closed beta.

To recap:
FPS increase from repository to closed beta 1 = 15~30%
FPS increase from repository to closed beta 2/final = 25~50%. (additional 10% minimum improvement).
Additional redundant/hidden objects near the rough spot in Harriman by the bank were removed for a few extra FPS, not included in improvement totals.
FPS improvement totals are map-wide, but more-so in city (developed) areas than rural (undeveloped) areas.
Regardless, everything's seen some sort of notable improvement.

On my i7 4790k 4.4ghz delidded chip, with 2400mhz ddr3 RAM (16gb), and RX 480 8gb w/1288mhz core clock, I saw 55~65fps at the default spawn with NO reflections (high detail, 4gb VRAM req'd), and 28~36fps with reflections on, and the car in view (yes that matters, that doubles the draw count for what it's worth).

I tried to avoid too much model pop-in, but you might notice it a bit on the oak trees, and while YES it's just a bit notable, it's still a good trade-off for the FPS you will gain. Let me know if anyone has bad issues on low detail. Also, if anyone manages to notice houses or trees looking bad from too far away, especially low/medium details, give me a shout (with a screenshot of where it is, an additional sky-cam shot helps too so i can see exactly where it is as this map is HUGE!), and let me know what you think the issue is (describe it), and I will see about addressing it. In the future I will optimize a few more things, so there might be an additional 5~8 % to gain somewhere down the road, but I don't think it will be too much. I will also add-in more billboard models for the 3d objects where I can (maybe even for the diamond yellow signs and such), as while not taking much, you don't need a 3d sign at over 50 meters away. If you cannot tell without squinting to look at it (and I have a 40" screen here, pawn shop shopping ftw, only 1080p though), then it does NOT need to be 3d!

Also in the future, more bridges will be converted to the newer 1 piece model format as I get time to, which will be an improvement, not a detraction from quality.

Again, I know I've mentioned it before, but the reason for this improvement is that I am porting the models (with some texture changes of course) to my future up-and-coming city project. This way I don't have to do the same work - which is super easy to screw up - twice! Work smarter, not harder. And yes, I believe I am able to get it off the ground now. Work will still continue on Roane County in parallel with the future city map. Maybe instead of Generic City I'll call it Millville - like the ALDI house brand :x We don't have an ALDI nearby, but I sure shopped the heck out of that place, even people with Lincolns and Cadillacs shopped there - because they were SMART.

--Cheers!