Update Speculation thread

I already made some improvement on a map this summer's and I posted it on my ideas thread.
It was not really well done but I still think that it could be nice to repost it here

 

Thank you!
Tbh, I believe the existing assets can be ported into a larger map and the rest of the city can simply be designed around it. They have the initial map ready (plus the improvements they did on the 0.21 and 0.22 Updates, plus what we suggest for improving its functionality), they just gotta make the rest of it now. One thing is for sure though: the roads being interrupted by the edges of this initial map should not exist. There's no realism in those.

 

I really like the shopping mall idea. I loved the VC port partly because of that. However, this hypothetical one hopefully won't get taken down or have slightly nsfw ads in it

 

well, here it is.. wcusa v2 (v1). ran out of ideas about halfway through so that explains the big empty space. what the things are

• black is belasco city, which has undergone some changes, most notably being enlarged
• orange is the old dockyard district, with old brick buildings and a dockyard
• red is belasco city international airpiort
• brown is the current island, enlarged. hypothetically, it would have big ol fancy houses and some vineyards
• the darker green is christmas valley national park, which is a mix of sequoia and yosemite national parks. named for the redwood trees (and their green leaves), and the stunning valley
• the yellow is an extension ofcurrent redwood forest, just bigger
• the light green is vista al acantilado, meaning cliff view. it's like big sur
• both greys are beach towns. i'd imagine one has an amusement park on the dock, but not so sure about the other

this is not finished, any suggestions, please tell me

 

awsome!! maybe you should add another neighborhood in the hills like LA has with the cliff houses also maybe a observatory at the top! just suggestions

 

hmmm

 

I don't see the point in making a new WCA, it'd require so much work that you'd be better off just making a new map instead.

In terms of US maps, there are still a lot of options, including but not limited to:

1. Rocky Mountains
   
2. Southeast USA (just please not Florida it is literally just flat and overdone)
3. Midwest
4. Great Lakes
5. Pacific Northwest
6. Appalachia

An all new map based on one of these regions would be a much better use of dev time than making an all new West Coast USA as if you remake WCA from the ground up you just end up with a single map based on California, if that dev time was spent on a new, different map you'd end up with the current WCA (which is still pretty good) and an all new location to explore.

 

valid yes, but thinking about how the map is supposed to be the large west coast city, it seems rather small and cramped, which would be much more suited on a larger map, plus belasco city right now has alot of currently existing features for it (police skins, etc) meaning its very much intended to be used in game
the same goes for ECUSA (which i think will get a map size increase before WCUSA as a proof of concept) which has firwood skins and other assets unused
although i almost certainly agree we will get a new map before technical hurdles like this are undertaken

 

Italy has four times the area of WCA, but both rely on the same size of heightmap. Belasco's steeply inclined streets require more terrain precision than 1m/px, especially the ones that aren't cardinally aligned.

Expanding WCA without removing features would require changes to the engine that allow it to take bigger heightmaps (which I would enjoy, even if official content never uses it to its fullest potential).

 

Honestly, I wondered if those changes had been made when Italy first appeared. I thought 1m/px was the standard back in the 2x2 era?

 

Would it be possible to utilize meshes for the streets of Belasco City, rather than terrain, allowing for that section of the heightmap to be less detailed, so that detail could be utilized elsewhere?

I may not be fully understanding, what is the function of a heightmap, and, considering how mountainous Italy is, how is it that WCUSA is so much more detail heavy, in comparison?

 

Think of a heightmap as a description of how high/low a point is (kind of like a map, but that only tells you some thing's height, hence the weird name). Beamng uses it to describe the height of something the game-engine calls "terrain".
The heightmap of WCUSA is 2048x2048 (and that most likely won't change, for both performance and dev time-consumption reasons). In other words- terrain is limited to this exact size. Which means pretty much anything that is not a model and not water, is also limited to this size. A great way to see the difference is to head to a map's edge and see how detail drops. This is since anything outside of the terrain's area is a model, so you're looking at, or driving on, a low-res model ("the background" of the map).
Here's the heightmap's bounds in WCUSA:

They're pretty well recognisable, as roads usually don't continue past them, unless they are model-based. (such as the tunnels, the bridge, and actually also the Utah tunnels, most of grid_small_pure (which is just a flat model), and some mod maps such as the infinite road one which I forgot the name of).

In other words, any part of the map that is not very well contained (tunnels, bridges, etc.) should be inside the terrain, as model-based geometry is much much more resource intensive, and that's the only way you can build outside the terrain. You can't make an entire model-based island that has good-enough quality for people to drive on, while also keeping it well-optimised.

So, WCUSA has to be mostly inside these yellow lines, unless there would be more tunnels or a heightmap size increase.


EDIT:

Actually this might happen, since streets and buildings are rather square, so their models are less resource-intensive than organic shapes such as the island. However, I still doubt it would happen. Where would the city expand to?

 

I will once again reiterate that the biggest thing beamng is Missing right now is a properly big map, it's a sad result of the old engine and years worth of tech debt that we currently can't have maps bigger than 16m2 but if i were the devs id priorities Support for bigger maps over everything else. Even italy got kinda boring after 400 playing it for me.

 

Thank you so much! With that in mind, how does Italy have such a larger size whilst using the same sized heightmap? is it simply stretched to a larger size with the same resolution, leading to a larger but less detailed heightmap?

 

yes thats pretty much it, the only reason WCUSA cant use italys size is due to it needed a much more precise heightmap for some of the hills in the city, this post here explains it pretty good

agreed, although its one of those hurdles that i feel we are going to have to put up with for a long time coming

 

In terms of the southeast I actually think Florida would be a better choice if they make it a coastal map. (if not, then maybe something based off the Atlanta area if they go inland). But the coasts of Florida are very different from California, different layout, construction style etc.


This could also allow for a huge port (imagine industrial site port but not abandoned, with cruise ship terminals and about 10 times bigger) and some surrounding warehouses



I think another southeastern candidate city could be New Orleans, which is more swampy (but also more similar to what industrial site is now).


Plus, New Orleans is home to the abandoned Six Flags park, and something based off this could be fun to drive and crash around

 

Florida would actually be perfect for the next american map, since its terrain is incredibly flat, it would allow it to use 1m/px or even maybe larger since its mostly just flat marsh and low lying coastal, this would mean it could be rendered as a map even larger than italy

 

off-topic but New Orleans deserves representation in Beamng. I think it has a lot more potential, content wise.

 

snowmap

 

wcusa v2 (v2)

• black is belasco city, which has undergone some changes, most notably being enlarged
• orange is the old dockyard , with old brick buildings and a dockyard
• red is belasco city international airpiort, a big and modern airport
• brown is the current island, enlarged. hypothetically, it would have big ol fancy houses and some vineyards, as well as some nice driving roads
• the darker green is christmas valley national park, which is a mix of sequoia and yosemite national parks. named for the redwood trees (and their green leaves), and the stunning valley, with some big mountains
• the lighter yellow is an extension of the current redwood forest, just bigger
• the light green is vista al acantilado, meaning cliff view. it's like big sur, with great scenic driving roads on a cliff on the side of a sea
• dark grey is a small unnamed suburban beach town with an amusement park on a boardwalk
• the light grey is a very small unnamed town used mostly by fishers and surfers
• the dark blue is ocean cove, another small beach town with some notable feature I havent thought of
• the pink is suburbia. big suburb with medium sized houses and not much interesting stuff.
• the maroon is a small desert, with desert stuff. not a baja like desert, just more flat and sandy
• the purple is unnamed attraction area. it has a big fat mall , a baseball stadium, a football (both forms of football apply) stadium, and a big old parking lot. home to the Belasco City Football Club (BCFC) , Belasco Bulldogs (they play american football), and Belasco hill riders (baseball)
• Light blue is an unnamed mountain range. It is very big, with the highest mountain being only slightly shorter than portino peak. if mount whats-its-name in current WCUSA is drifters paradise, this is drifters dream world
• 
  EDIT: forgot to say what dark yellow is but I’m not sure so it’s up to some other person to decide