Hello again! Since things in my life have settled down, I am wishing to return to this project, however some things have changed firstly, the size of the map has changed. The original size was 1000kmx1000km (1000000km²), whereas now the new map is 125x125km (~15000km²) While it is smaller, it is still a very large map, and if/when completed, it should be the most detailed map of its size. For the areas accessible to the vehicle without freecam and teleporting, i aim for the level shown in the image provided: Thankyou all! (Should i make a new thread and start fresh?)
Ok so I've made some progress in the south of Italy. Im going to work my way up i think till I reach Milan, then ill look at what's been done, how long etc and decide on a few little things which im not quite decided on --- Post updated --- By the way for this next one, im really wanting to do more with everyone else
It is an interesting concept -may I ask: from a technical standpoint I'm trying something related but not the same (stringing small maps together as a mod) - I mean I couldn't do 100x100km in one map let alone 1000x1000km, what influenced your decision to make it smaller - unsolvable technical stuff or aesthetics (not enough objects possible to make it feel populated without killing performance etc.)?
By the way for this next one, im really wanting to do more with everyone else And I also want at least So in the 1000kmx1000km map, the terrain was not very manageable. For example, the terrain brush at size 1 was about 15 sunbursts wide and tall. Whereas now its only about 1. Still huge, but allows for better quality terrain Another thing was ram usage. When playing, ram was fine, but when loading it, it needed 66gb+ to load. Id quite like it to not need people to create large swap/virtual ram partitions, or have to remortgage a house just to load the map. I chose the new size because its similar to ETS2. Its not small, but not unmanageably big. Im also trying not to burn myself out by getting stuck doing one area for months at a time --- Post updated --- Also floating point errors are able to be majorly mitigated at this size
Haha I can totally imagine - once you take things to the extreme, little things and arbitrary design decisions become super influential... for me doing more mountain-focussed maps (european alps) it took a while to realize I was going to run into issues simply from the 16bit terrain heightmaps; it just seems to be perfectly fine for 99.9% of maps, I haven't found a single post complaining about that while looking for the solution... but it's absolutely impossible to do smooth roads on terrain with 3cm elevation steps on 1m:1px terrain - which you'll have, if your map covers 2000m+ in altitude change (2000m/65536~3cm). So yes, here I am doing Mesh Roads after having developed a terrain+decal road workflow which strangely just wouldn't quite turn out smooth roads on some maps... And yes, I truly believe that floating point errors can become nightmarish at 1000km scale, you can easily be meters off from something like a tool ignoring the 7th number after the decimal. Wish you all the best for your project!
Also floating point errors are able to be majorly mitigated Thankyou Good luck with any and all of your projects too --- Post updated --- I have made a logo for the project. Ill provide an SVG if someone wants to modify it or do anything with it. the forums dont allow me to upload it for some reason --- Post updated --- damn the file didnt export properly ill try that again --- Post updated --- beamng seems to be alergic to the PNG export, but the jpeg export is fine it seems:
I have began work in the southern area of italy again today. this sort of place: but should i make a new thread now? since all this new one shares with the old one is the fact that it is the world
thankyou i think ill make a new thread once i have a little more done, and and i have more screenshots to show the general idea
Ive got a system in mind now for how ill go about each country and its cities So in each country, ill feature 3 or 4 major cities, which will have their key landmarks and tourist attractions. The other cities, will be more like generic towns. I might try to keep things somewhat accurate to their real life version, but rhey will vary a bit more than the 3 or 4 major ones. Ill also add random towns in places that I see fit, usually in a similar place to a real town, but not following any road layouts --- Post updated --- For example, in Italy ill do: Venice Milan Rome Florence/naples Then for other cities: Lecce Genoa Turin Verona Palermo Catania/syracuse Catanzaro Bari (maybe) Anacona Ravenna Bologna Some cities might merge into one. For example Florence might appear to stretch into pisa, so that the leaning tower of pisa can be included. Unsure yet tho as I might be able to just have a town with the tower included. And a similarish layout --- Post updated --- for microstates (e.g. andorra, vatican, monaco, lichenstein, singapore, san marino) I will try to do them as accurately as possible. but even to do them at 1:1 would make them look oversized compared to their bordering countries. --- Post updated --- another thing i have to think about is some sort of ferry system, so that the UK or other countries are accessible without needing the map, which could be used for missions etc. i'll need to look into how to do that though, as my knowledge on lua (i think beam uses) is limited. --- Post updated --- and another long term goal (maybe for a years time or something) is to get a basic career mode setup. where some farms or garages are able to be purchased, dealers exist, missions can be done etc. just typical career stuff but in the whole world. that is a very far away goal though, and might not be done --- Post updated --- and finally i need to learn how to use blender, or probably find/buy models of landmarks like the colluseum, eiffel tower and others. most free ones won't have the proper license for it to be used like this sadly. --- Post updated --- later today ill make a new forum post. ill outline all these ideas properly, include some nice screenshots, and go from there. in the beamcord server, i'll ask a friend to post on my behalf because i was falsely banned lol. and on modland, WoM etc (ew bad websites) ill post a free release once a free release is public so that i can avoid the issues of piracy again, just like last time. But this new forum will be the place for releases, news from me directly, and any other stuff related to the project unless i idk make a discord server.
new road as highlighted here. its one of those spaghetti ones --- Post updated --- heres a photo of what it looks like im addicted to night photos btw --- Post updated --- Hello everyone!!! Im releasing a proof of concept sort of thing so that you can all see the idea behind it in more detail. You could consider this the first free release, but there will be another before i start any sort of Early Access setup. Anyway here is the google drive link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NdevpD9KkE10jtl4G7tiI9EtOQS289Rf/view?usp=sharing --- Post updated --- If i could get as much feedback as possible, that would be greatly appreciated! one thing to note is that the sections where motorway and single carageway roads meet is temporary. i will add proper junctions
Im exited for a good canadian city map if you make one! Also i love city maps so this is could be my favorite map mod when it comes out!
