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

There's a train. It's great. When can I download it?

 

Currently the train is a beta by Chris_Lucas. You'd have to do a search and try and join the beta group for it. He's working on it here and there, it's pretty neat. I have had a little trouble getting train tracks working in this map due to the lack of precision (on this map), so I temporarily put those tracks on hold, as they don't load back in place perfectly. Smaller maps they work a little better. I submitted a bug about that and mentioned this and a few other things to the developers during the 2nd mod meeting chat. They were thankfully very receptive so hopefully (even if not right away) I can add train support that won't derail the poor thing!
So yes, entirely am with you on this - look up Chris_Lucas or search for TRAIN on here I am sure you will find it.

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This update is mostly important for those that've used my textures in their maps, or are going to use them. Please read the following book of text, if you have - and/or contact me, and i'll give the details.
On other notes I finally got around to fixing all the console errors, and my lush vegetation that was broken in my map and not in the actual game for some dumb reason, due to the way it was scripted in without a full path and just had the filename.dds and that's it. Sheesh, never know what to expect. That was a fun bit for 5 mins trying to find a file, that couldn't find a file, because I didn't know where the file looking for the file was filed. @#$^%... All the following console errors are fixed (see pic below). Please use your Notepad++ to find the errors in question and match them up with the filename or request me for an updated version of what's been fixed if you're using my ROADS textures, or the groundcover file structure in your map.
Got suburban sidewalks done, they'll match the city sidewalks (plus the grass that blends into the terrain, so they won't have a backside lip). While the curbs/grass in Garfield Heights are pretty, I don't want to take more of someone's work (even though permission is granted) that I can reproduce myself (I am not greedy). I can do textures decently, especially ones with the same concrete and grass that matches the rest of the map. I want this to be completely it's own map, as much as possible, to give it it's own character.
I have also noticed skid decal application lag (read: car skids on high res textures, like the main road near the starting point), let me know if this has been an issue for others. I am beginning to think it's time to give this PC a boost video-wise. The current total for road textures is precisely 600mb. The map-size total is about 1gb. This is close to where it'll stay. I retract my earlier mention that it'd be smaller. This is unzipped size, Zipped it'll be 500~600mb. It's large, but that's the way it has to be for now, until I can afford to slim it down some. There will be a more-low-detail version that'll come out later on if this is such an issue and people have a hard time running it. The RAM use footprint, however, really hasn't gone UP. It's gone down slightly if anything, and I haven't even thinned the trees yet - it'll go down more then. Most of the loading time is computing tree position and physics interaction potentials of them. Graphics card ram use is up slightly however. *In other words* *clears throat* It should be easier to run, slightly better FPS optimization, and a little bit bigger on disc, while still being slightly faster to load. It's running currently around 40 seconds or so on this system with an SSD, fast cpu, and fast system memory.
Remember, the HD version of this is going to be out sooner than the Low Detail version. Of most priority is going to be getting the RAM footprint down some. Sheesh.
Pic below is console errors that have been fixed. Just some issues w/ specular/normal maps I typo'ed. 'DOH!

 

Just an update of some more detail to the town, slowly but surely it's looking townly enough.
I think in 2~3 days I am going to release this again, with the trees thinned (I'll be doing that later or tomorrow), and THIS town mostly completed. I can then take time to finish the other towns as I have time.
Pics just demonstrate, the lawns are GREEN now and the townhomes & apartments have walkways (for all) and handicap ramps (most) now for the buildings. I need about another 2 days to finish up this town, and then will send this to my pre-beta-tester guy, then it will be OK'ed for public beta test.

 

can you put in a link on the beam website not to a 3rd party please?

 

Currently, the download is too big (525mb vs 488mb) to go on this forum -OP

 

I can if I can get the file-size low enough. If it gets on here, ROAD texture detail will be halved from what it is now. 7-zipped file is 436 megs, windows-zip (works with the game) is 598mb. So it'll either be High-texture-detail, extract it yourself from the 7zip, or medium-detail textures that'll reduce the 598mb size zipped by over 100mb to fit on this site, for those that just want a simple drop-the-zip-in-the-dir. Those that know more about computers, more likely have more knowledge about the pc and the ability to extract it to the right spot anyways so should work out fine.

 

Quality-of-workmanship/texture quality improvement a few of the terrain grass model textures, terrain grass surface texture, and my 'insert-turf-here' textures (for when the terrain doesn't cooperate). Will be thinning trees today, see if it drops ram requirement. Will try to use some blockers near the highway to cut-down visibility off the side of the highway where trees drop the FPS too much when you can't even see the ones sprawled all over the field beyond the nearby trees. Thinning trees *WILL* reduce load-time (especially on AMD FX machines) due to reduced amount of tree placement needed. I have to add trees elsewhere before I finish the map, however, there should still be lots less of them. Especially now that the grass looks waaaaaaay better.
"But wait? Didn't we see these?" Well, the buildings I am sure you've seen, but now the terrain graphics really represent the area! I absolutely, positively DESPISED the !#$%ing lime-green grass & terrain color... blech - I ripped out a chunk of grass in my yard for a comparo It was THAT now it's THIS!
EDIT: Got mountainside texture working properly. Looks like a sandstone cliff. +1 more pic...

 

Yeah, loading is long (i can confirm, FX 6300).

 

With my i5 4460 (it has pretty strong 4 cores) it takes me 1 minute and 24 seconds. Also I have 12 GB of ram, its from a generic dell computer so its probably not the best ram.

 

I'll download this and try to play it, my input will probably be somewhat useful as I'm familiar with some of these roads irl. I probably won't be able to run it though.
Oh, nevermind. I'm running 32bit.

 

The ram footprint will come down some, but it's a seriously LARGE map. 144sq/mi / 372.8sq/km. It's huge, like 12mi X 12mi.
It's about as big as you can make a Beam map, currently. I could do one that's like 18x18 miles, but I have to wait for technology to advance further :x

Yup, loading times suck, It's all the trees. There will be sub-versioning like was done with the snow map (mammoth valley) or just seperate downloads. It loads in about 40 seconds, maybe slightly longer, with another 3~5 seconds to load once you're spawned (but my machine doesn't really lag unplayably when it's still loading textures when spawned). So 45 seconds tops. This is why it takes 3 minutes on an AMD*** machine due to the longer process time. (My last machine was an FX-6300, in fact, it's still alive, just hasn't been used in like a year or something.) Intel is about 2x the speed of an AMD machine per ghz rating. I actually did a cpu-test or two and found that where my 4.2ghz 6300 got 19,500 points on a cpu score, this got 39,100 points @ 4.4ghz (so if you can afford it, upgrades are entirely worth it, or wait for ZEN to come out). The AMD machine had 8gb of 1600mhz ram(dual channel, 3 sticks), the Intel had 16gb of 2400mhz memory (dual channel 2 sticks), so it wasn't apples to apples. The AMD machine cost 25% of what this did to build, though.

***Entirely not bashing AMD, they are fine with most games, but they do show their age on this program! Especially with this map!

Everyone who has 12~16gb of RAM (or more) can load this. This means if I lower the ram footprint just slightly, I should be able to get it in for 8gb folks. It's taking 6.25~7.5gb during editing/driving around. Very rare single stutter when loading in 1~2 spots (<0.5 second hitch).
The map is only 1gb unzipped so it's got to be the physics model with all the trees. Hey if I have to cut off a corner of the map where there's nothing but trees anyways, that's what I'll do but whatever I do, I'll get the map down to running most-likely tonight if I don't get burned out of editing until tomorrow. The stutter I mentioned above is because Beamng.drive is pre-release, and this is a MONSTER of a map.
I highly appreciate you folks chiming in to let me know if it runs or not. This helps me determine the target demographic that's trying to run this. As I said in previous posts, I was almost gonna can it (or just keep it for self), but the devs improved the editor a bunch making it feasable to release something like this with just me for manpower (and kind folks donating things like sign textures, houses etc).
@Potato I will make sure to release a tree-free version* (just about, prob a few in towns yet), if that means you can run it. Please think about grabbing a 64-bit OS and making sure you have 8gb of ram! You can find 64-bit Windows 7 super-duper cheap on Amazon.com just make sure it comes with a COA/KEY, but some folks will sell you with or without the disk, all you need is the key and you're legit. W7 home is limited to 16gb of ram on 64-bit, pro is limited to like 64~128gb or something on 64bit. 32-bit is limited to like 4gb. It's hit or miss, some days it's as low as 20~40$ just don't buy from anyone in PA. Windows 8 has higher limitations on ram & initial cost. I have Windows 7 here, It's good enough, I despise Windows 10, causes too many problems. Who wants down time for maintenance when I could be mapping?
*The tree-free version might be another day or few days after the next beta goes up.
Got another crossing done & two miles of road in, in the hour or two since I last posted. Route 70 west of Westel (town) is done now to the map edge on the west-edge of the map. Tonight will be some optimization (or tomorrow) to help get this running better.
Hope to be posting something by Wednesday or Thursday morning. Thursday evening, at the latest.
--Cheers

 

Just an update, I thinned about 70% of the trees (by square mile, not thinning 70% of them everywhere), so most of the map is done, and I dropped the RAM footprint of Beamng.drive down to under 5gb. This means folks with 8gb of system ram should be able to comfortably run this map. This is *GOOD*. Finished off a few more things in the town, to make it a little more professional looking, odds and ends stuff. It's the physics model with all the trees/forest items - that's what's eating it up. Still looks good tho.
Added in a few bits of *scenic* railroad track, that's just for show, right now it's solely a placeholder until they get some bugs fixed in Beamng.drive in the next updates. I am hitting some *SERIOUS* bugs placing objects (not houses or trees though), just stuff like railroad tracks, bridges and stuff, luckily most of that stuff is done, it's able to be worked around (nothing that affects playability in any way), but it's surely annoying as can be. I will be sure to submit this bug, too, in two days time.

 

this map reminds me of american truck simulator.

 

There is now a RUNWAY* that's just north of one mile long. You should be able to fly anything here! A place to park your plane is provided, however, the airport hangars and airport aren't built yet, it's just a runway with a trail leading to it.

Only real bug is a bit of AI mishap in the town (Kingston, AI wacks the curbs sometimes), otherwise this is good to go for release.

I'll need to verify that it works later, once it's uploaded. The zip is 625mb, extracted it's 1gb in size. Ram usage is 5gb~6.125gb depending on where you go and how much you've driven around the map. This should be able to be loaded by folks with 8gb of ram, though some of you may have to close out your web browser first. The trees have been thinned out significantly, but there are still plenty of them. They're everywhere, just not as densely packed. Other than the very minor AI fault above, the AI works everywhere and drives all around the map just fine 99% of the time.
Kingston is built, Harriman is not built, Rockwood is not built, Westel is not built. Lots of intersections updated, and I have the reflector texture in for some of the custom road painting. New fresh asphalt texture to spruce up those rubbish-looking intersections. I'm slowly phasing out old textures here, so hopefully soon it'll be a smidge less in size. There's many textures that are 2k X 4k, and even one texture that's 4k x 4k, but this is the price you pay for creating all your own textures. There's a few jumps randomly stashed about near the map edges, and at the ends of unfinished roadways (ones at roadway ends are temporary). There's few lights poles & lights in now.

There will be a low-detail version out, hosted here on Beamng.drive's site within a few days, barring certain uncertainties...

*To get to the airport/runway, head north a little over a mile to a mile and a half from the starting point in Kingston, along Kentucky street. Get on the LAST entrance ramp (last left before the dead-end), so you'll be going west on the highway. You'll have to go somewhere around 9~10 miles on the highway, when you crest the mountain, take the 1st exit. Bear right onto Airport Road, and follow this for 2 miles or so. Eventually the road terminates into a dirt path (avoid the jump) follow this path to the runway.
Plenty of pictures representative of the OpenBeta 1, and a few night-shots too!

Check back within 12~24 hours to see if the MEGA link is posted yet. It will be posted either in this post, my next post, AND in the 1st post.
Once that's up, I have to slim down the textures and submit a LOW DETAIL TEXTURE version to this site as it's TOO BIG the way it is currently. The mega link will hold the high-detail version for those that don't mind using that service.

 

(old, outdated beta release redacted, go get beta 5 now officially hosted)

 

Its saying temporary error, retrying when i try to download it
--- Post updated ---
EDIT: Nevermind it is working

 

This level is definitely running a lot better on my machine now, frame rate only gets really low if I'm going really fast in a fast car.
Load time was about 2 minutes and 35 seconds.
Frame rate remained reasonably stable with the one car I've driven.

 

"really fast in a fast car" ... Beam can't keep up sometimes due to being early access release form... this huge level isn't quite helping hide that 'quality' of the game. This is entirely the point of beta release of this map, and your feedback matches the other stuff I'm getting.
Thankyou for your feedback on the map, every bit helps. Glad you enjoyed it.

 

I just happened to notice something off about the sky as soon as I started playing with the time of day.
The clouds seem to be a missing texture.

 

(old bug fix redacted, no longer needed, superceded by new version)