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

one cuestion, it will runn at 60 fps with an hp omen gtx 1060 laptop?

 

Most of the map will, it is surprisingly light map to run most of the time, only cities are hard to run, which Bob wants to improve at some point.

If you keep shadows off there probably is not much of any lag even at cities, CPU has hard time with shadows at cities so you might drop to 40-50fps there with shadows on.

 

thanks for the info!

 

Yes, a GTX 1060 6gb will power through it, the 3gb version should be plenty good enough (though not quite the full 6gb version's cores/memory bandwidth). Just shut off the reflections 1st if it gets slow, then consider dropping SSAO if needed, then consider removing shadows. At this point, you should have little issue with playability on the map. Textures you can set when you're in town, you can try medium to see if it's any faster, if it's not any faster than high detail, set it back to high. Really don't need medium unless it's only a 2gb~3gb graphics card. 4GB cards should have no issue on high detail.

 

Very minor bump, but I can confirm the Traffic Tool Mod does work with Roane County pretty well.

 

I've been doing some testing with Traffic Tool (this has been holding up updates a bit, but worth it), can do some exciting things with AI these days! :
The good - cars don't crash into barriers or obstacles (other than stop signs!!!) very often, they mostly stay in lane.
The bad - highways need some adjustment in regards to cars driving up the shoulder, in-fact, one of the only places they DON'T do it is going up or down the mountain on US 40 (as that has specific AI routes manually laid down so they keep to the right lane, to help simulate the user filling it with trucks or slower vehicles prior to traffic tool existence).
So entirely, will re-work the highways with AI-specific adjustments & double check that all are set to 'one way' (they should all be! but if you see anything odd on a highway portion, or cars obviously regularly going opposite the desired or intended flow of traffic, take a pic and put it up).
Any bug reports besides the following must be in within a week or so to be amended to the next upload of this map. It will only be a minor revision, just meant to fix bugs and update the bridges with better-quality models.
--Following bugs are already noted:
*Transparency issue on main route in Kingston outside of Worst Buy store (flickering from Worst-Buy past the 'Post Orifice' building. Concrete underneath main route is non-transparent texture flickering through main route.
*Fences have an issue with transparency, the texture translucent space is being flood-filled with white where there's no texture data. Railings do this on the motel, too, and will be fixed.
*Vehicles hit stop signs at intersections, I will likely remove or modify the collision on the stop signs. There's hundreds and hundreds of them and I'll surely miss some if I just move them within the editor.

Most likely update route will follow this order:
Tail of the Dragon, Nevada Interstate, Roane County TN.
I will then return to progress on my City map, Los Injurus, until these other maps break again.

 

The entire length of US 40 (16 miles?) has been done with NEW AI ROUTES. All of it, just finishing up the exit/entrance ramps now.

As you can see (if you can see), it will now only use the lanes for travel, and not go onto the emergency lane. Using the traffic tool by @Gamergull will be much better this time around, and is a large part of why these changes are put into effect.

NOTEXTURE problems and transparency issues will be fixed (main street in Kingston, where concrete flickers through, and fences/railings acting weird due to shader glitches or mip-map issues).

Bridges will be replaced and updated to the new ones from Los Injurus. When this map is released (two weeks?) on the servers here, the new updated bridges will be free for other mappers to use. I likely will also update the highway graphics with better quality ones, too, as these are a bit too 1990s for my taste.

Largely the layout of the map will remain the same, as intended. Everything you've come to know and love (except for the bugs, why would you love those?) will still be here.
I will not be working on this longer than a week to 10 days MAX (give or take a few days) and then must get back to Los Injurus City map. Look up the thread if you're interested - it's big!
This is only a maintenance and quality-of-work update, it will not pack a lot of new content, it will just be updating it closer to current 3d game standards & the AI will work a whole lot better.
--That is all!

EDIT: Much better on highways now!

Still a little more work to fine-tune the on/off ramps though.

Traffic in this map is great! My driving not so much, however...

 

Well, I sat down and decided to finally improve that boring (very boring) highway texture that I never really did much with...

I'd reckon, that it's one of the best textures I've ever made, period (if I could say such in a way without sounding conceited).
Please excuse the 'old' bridge, that'll be updated (it's one from when I was doing modeling tests yet).

Thought you folks should see this, that's all for right now though.

 

Got the ramps fixed up nice now too (there's much more ramps to do, I have to re-do them all a bit if I am to make them perfect - or as close to perfect as reasonable...)

Those new textures were FOUR LAYERS (it's only one layer in-game, otherwise that'd throw hundreds more draw-calls in a busy scene) but it looks darn beautiful compared to what was there before.
Again, still lots of touching up to do, all over the map, but it will be done before the coming week's out hopefully.
I still have to fix the million-or-so (give or take a few) NO_TEXTURE messages on the lots, it's a 'texture normal' issue since the graphic formats were changed (the fixed graphics are in, just have to change some paths so it sees the new ones). The flickering in-front of Worst Buy is gone as well, as there was a wrong-setting on a texture (oops), that the game no-longer made up for.
So, long story short, I am doing my absolute best to give you folks the best I can, and make the best stuff I have ever made.
A big THANK-YOU to all the kind folks for the frequent-but-appreciated likes, support, and the many Patreon folks out there supporting Los Injurus City map project.
Patreon subscribers will get a link to this early, as soon as I have a back-up online about 10 hours after it's done, as will the developers (you know who you are). Again, I'd like to wrap things up here on this map within a week. I don't want to deviate more than I must from my Los Injurus City map project and keep everyone waiting. That being said, this is such a huge map, with 2500+ hours of work put into it, another several-dozen more hours fixing all the boo-boo's won't hurt.
--Cheers!
--- Post updated ---
For [expletive] sake! Would someone with any editor knowledge PLEASE UNBIND THE (number THREE) key from camera controls while inside the DECAL ROAD Editor.
I just tore the (THREE) key off the keyboard because of it after not being able to unbind it in the game menu, and not finding it in the ini anywhere. Who knows where THAT bounced too.
HELP.

More new texture goodness, it looks better up close than it does from up here, though. Ignore the little splotch of road to the right of the intersection, that's a spare piece as I can then copy it quickly for other nearby intersections. Eventually there will be a strip-mall area on the right-side of the roadway, which currently doesn't go anywhere. It likely won't make this next beta though.

 

So yes, one key less and twice as much work with only 5% the swearing gets done! This intersection came out pretty nice with some work.

A traffic light will be placed at the intersection above.
Never one to shy away from re-working what's already working while fixing a bunch of broken stuff... Re-doing the textures meant re-doing a lot of things, but the end-result is of much better quality.

While this intersection isn't as nice as the last one, it's still good enough for now.
Improving the AI and the fit-and-finish is the goal of this next release.

--That is all.
--- Post updated ---
This game is so realistic, the artificial intelligence (traffic) doesn't read signs any more than people do in real-life...

Testing testing testing testing and MOAR testing... as long as I don't have to type the number THREE in anywhere in numerical form, it's all good.
EDIT:
AI is redone on Roane St (Route 27, goes from Rockwood to Harriman) from Harriman to the south map edge. I still have about 2~4 miles north of Harriman to do yet. This road is the longest single road in the map (that doesn't include route 70 which uses several roads and makes a few hard turns), at 18.x miles.
Route 70 that goes from Kingston and winds past the Spend-a-Lot spawn through to Rockwood and then hangs a right and goes up the mountain through Westel (and to the west map edge past it a mile), might be even longer at about 20 miles. For informational purposes, Route 40 I believe is featured with 16 miles in this map (if I remember correctly). I will be doing the north end of Harriman and Route 70 past Spend-a-Lot (not the spend-a-lot on route 27 Roane St!) tomorrow. Sorry I know this is confusing to read - changed font a bit there to ease it a bit, it's getting late. Once AI is working well, I will then re-do bridges, that'll take a few days but there's actually NOT THAT MANY considering the size of the map. Say goodbye to mesh-road bridges and hello to nice modeled ones.
No pictures tonight - not much to show.

 

New bridges are going in. Full native collision and LOD's on these. Got 3 small ones and this big one (south of Kingston) in tonight thus-far. Will have more done later - still working on it.
Got all the specular and normal textures for the new highway kit done tonight. Should be done now.
Fixed the remaining texture-bugs with the NO_TEXTURE embossing showing (parking lots), and got the rest of the texture dependencies for the bridges in.
There's still a texture-bug with the fences and the railings on the hotel yet but I'll get those handled as it's likely just a formatting or shader issue.

Much more work to do tonight before I decide to sleep.

Back has been atrocious the last few days, I am getting completely denied being able to see the doctor. Going to have to sue the pain clinics and the government (for policies hurting disabled folks suffering in pain because of a few addicts wrecking it for everyone - cruel and unusual punishment). Still being harassed by fired informants (fired in 2011!!!) - luckily went with a family member who saw it 1st-hand.
So yes, entirely, the you-know-what is about to hit the fan on THAT.
Never-the-less, still mapping away here regardless of idiots being idiots.
--Cheers! More later or in the coming days.
EDIT: MOAR bridges

The Columbus may be a lie - or not - likely not - but the new bridges aren't.

 

Thanks bud. I stay up to all hours of the night & that's when I get the best work done, as I'm not pestered by anyone.
Yeah Synsol says you can unbind it in the options menu somewhere. If you're unable to find it, send me a private message and I'll link the screen shot.

 

Improved most all the ramps now on the highway. Will make sure most/all of them have improved AI lanes too. Looks 100% seamless on the ground, as it should.


Also, replaced a few more bridges today/yesterday.

So yes, lots of quality-of-work improvements in improving the fit-and-finish of the map (which isn't that great to begin with, considering the sheer thousands of hours put into it).

Things still to do:
AI lanes north of Harriman on route 27 (Route 27 is the road going under the highway in the last pic above), and AI lanes in downtown Harriman's side-streets to be re-done so the AI doesn't snack on so many stop signs.
AI lanes on Decatur road south of Kingston at-least in the passing area, as it's pretty bad there and they drive the wrong way. Bridges down here are already done (three small & one large one)
Bridges by Airport road right at the top of the plateau hill-climb where the US 40 highway goes over on one side and under on the other side, and bridge at Pine Crest rd and Route 40.
AI lanes on *many* of the on/off ramps
AI lanes on Broadway of America (route that is next to the spend-a-lot spawn) near Pine-Ridge Road where it's four lanes using the highway textures.
Make road chunks (visible in last shot) match the new highway textures, because they don't. These pieces make up what the terrain can't always do.
Possibly touch-up some of the lane wear-markings so they blend more reliably when they cross over one another. Not mandatory but would help fit-and-finish (visible in last shot).
*Edit: Fix sunken road-node north of Harriman by the two bridges where cars appear stuck in the road.

Looking like I will be busy until Monday-Tuesday at the latest working on this. Not too much else other than what's listed, but it sure will be a whole-lot-nicer to look at / drive through.

--That's all for now.
EDIT: Got two more bridges done, and fixed up Pine Ridge Road interchange's terrain just a bit by adding some rock-outcroppings.

I tried not to make that turn (past right side of shot on highway) any tighter, it's bad enough*.
Also got a bridge just east of here done, too.

That bridge above will be very similar to what's going in east of here, that goes over the river (just longer).
*Considering this map has been in the works for THREE years now and just in the last 8 months or so I've managed to stop crashing there at-least half of the time now. Might have to address that in a future update sometime.

Migraine is really whooping me today (since last night) so might take my eyes off the computer screen for a few hours. Update is still on track to come out publicly this weekend or just past this weekend.
Los Injurus City Map's Patreon members will get this Roane County's update early, as in 1st half of this-coming week.

 

The AI can now go to the bank, and use both lanes of the drive-thru.

Also, Decatur Road AI disaster is fixed.

Also, this disaster of an intersection now has better AI. They can still cut through the strip mall and the gas station, though. Just two of the dozen paths or so are shown highlighted.


Also, GREAT NEWS! The entire area within 1 or so miles of the SPEND A LOT spawn (give or take a half mile), including Pine Ridge Rd interchange, all left-turns etc, is all done with NEW AI, should work beautiful, though I will do some preliminary testing tonight. All the entire four-lane section from where it goes down to just 2 lanes (towards Rockwood where the pavement darkens/is newer), all the way in the OTHER direction to Kingston (and the intersection above, you'd come out on the top-left), is ALL done up nice. That's a lot of work but it's worth it last-but-not-least because I LIKE PLAYING THIS MAP TOO! Not just building it.

Tomorrow I will re-do stuff by Harriman and see if I can quench the AI's hunger for more iron in it's diet (eating stop-signs is NOT a good source of daily vitamins and minerals, it is a good source of Tetnis though).
--See you's then!

Don't forget DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME! It should be some time right about 2~3 hours ago. Don't forget to move clocks ahead (I am in central USA time here).

 

I CHEATED!

Yes, this is how you make traffic go over bridges without scripting AI way-points into the map.json file.

The two big bridges separating Kingston from the rest of the map are done now, this took a few hours, but it's top-notch quality (except for low-fi giant rocks) and everything seems to work as-intended. I will eventually address the rocks in a future version, but it does give the map it's own character, and in prior game versions it cut down on the amount of (FPS eating) trees needed.
Will make sure the AI works well tonight. Will do the AI 'stuff' I need done in Harriman, and the rest of the bridges tomorrow and into Tuesday if I need to. Might get a bit more done tonight, not 100%.
At-least I got my garage swept up tonight and yard equipment fired up and ready - it was in the 60's today - WOOHOO - I almost feel at-least 50% alive again.
It's look like the beta will be out around Mid-Week for private beta testing, then hit public servers on or after the weekend.
--That is all for right now.

 

sometimes I got this

 

Turn the mini-map off in the HUD, use the one inside the vehicle (the on-dash GPS unit), if I use my mini-map, things get wacky or slow/laggy with the UI.
This map is so large & complex with lots of very long or very wide roads, the mini-map script lags out.
It will sometimes work better toward the edges of the map where most of the smaller roads are.

EDIT: As per the water block in Roane County *LAUNCHING* cars depending on how you hit it, YES I will fix that. Oops. Guess the devs changed the water defaults twice now.
OK, settled on a good value for the water, it's now 83% it's former viscosity and 60% or so of it's former density.
This is in-tune with my observations from real-life.

 

Slowly but surely - Harriman's AI is 90% done. Every last road in that town is getting done (not the ones outside the town, they'll still have regular grand-fathered-in AI, which mostly always is fine outside of town).

Just finished getting this intersection above done, this is the first light NORTH of Harriman. All the AI on this road is done now all the way up to the northern-most intersection in the map. The AI won't proceed past that intersection, as that's not req'd due to the 'edge of the earth' situation. Maybe we'll get tiled terrain one day... *sigh*

The two bridges above have been replaced. I have to put pillars under the left one. These are also bridges that have 'trickled-down' from the Patreon-funded 'Los Injurus City Map' project. Don't hit the ends of these bridge rails. I will see to getting something in to put on the ends so they don't stick cars. I think I have a Jersey-barrier end piece with a slope on it from WC USA's City.

*ALL OF THE SIDE STREETS IN HARRIMAN (except for one or two I'm about to do) HAVE UPDATED AI* So now the AI should no longer act like it has an iron deficiency and chow down on every stop sign or other sign-post it finds. It was literally hitting every last sign. Even the speed limit sign next to the spawn. I started traffic and hit *home* key to go back to the spawn, and it all you heard was *crash* *smash* *crunch* *whack* as they found any sign they could find and slammed into every... last... one. So yeah that got fixed now, I will have testing to show this later.

I have to re-do the AI south of Rockwood (it's bad it drives completely off the road there), and do one of the side-roads on the other side of the tracks from the main route through Rockwood (runs parallel to the main road there. Can't promise it won't eat signs out in Rockwood or Kingston but those towns are much less complete than Harriman.

Haven't toyed with the draw distance yet. Don't want to kill the FPS for those people using 8 vehicles. I will post a tutorial later-on after it's released OR provide a patch file for folks to apply to the zip themselves, for those with monster systems and 1080Ti's (not me!).

Will be re-doing a few routes where the nodes are too far apart. Don't want to change the actual roads themselves, as we're not 4k-object-limit subject anymore (it's been removed!), if you move nodes around, they jump around a bit & end up in the grass and that just looks bad. There's probably enough of THAT to go around already. (I have grass DISABLED on my end because I run a Radeon card here, and they're glitchy with grass, this won't affect you folks that download this though, the grass will be there like always).

The bridge shot above was where cars were getting stuck on the north (right-side) ends of the bridges in the north-bound lanes. That should be all fixed-up now.
EDIT:
The AI on the main route of Kingston is all done now. That should be a lot better. Added AI for a bunch of lots there, and another bank. Fixed a bunch of the flickering in the Worst Buy lot and some of the strip malls there, there should be NO more flicker there. It was due to an issue with layering non-transparent textures. It used to work. Kingston Interchange with US 40 (Kentucky St, right by the east-edge of the map / East end US40 spawn point) is all done now too. Using the US40 east end or west end spawns you can fire the AI tool right up with a dozen or so cars before you run out of spawn room since it's fairly level.
AI going north on Kentucky Street under the US40 overpass (Kentucky Street, as you'd go to get on west-bound US40) will no longer SLAM into the construction barricades, or use the section of road past where the ramps meet the road on the north side of the interchange/overpass - they will enter the west-bound ramp by default. This should help map-flow and was a bit of priority change with the traffic tool. They will no longer use the road past the intersection with barricades/ramps as there's nothing past there but a map-edge.

So all the AI that was driving all over the place south of Rockwood, yeah... that...
The AI south of Rockwood on the 4-lane is fixed up, as is Delozier road (north of Rockwood half way to US 40). Also, another mile to two miles of roadway at the east end of Delozier was done with new AI as it's node were too far apart. Added 4 insignificant stop signs near the church in Rockwood ('Grace Place' as the locals call it).

Still have to fix the road chunks so they match the highway textures.
Still have to fix AI on on/off ramps on 2 of the (west-most) interchanges where I haven't updated it yet.
These next things are non-obligatory goals that aren't worth keeping everyone waiting over.
Still have a few random rural bridges to replace, don't know if I'll get to those or not, as they're not heavily traveled. At most there's four of them.
There's about half a dozen rail bridges (max), Don't know if I'll get those either. Not worth holding up the update over it. *thinks* Did I even port the textures over for them? Oops...
There's a broken traffic light in-front of Sprawl-Mart, not sure if that will get fixed in time, will do my best.

Edit: Harriman is completely updated with new AI, and the two last bridges in the town are replaced, also dressed-up a LOT of intersections around the north end and downtown.


Not too many things left to do. Tomorrow is testing day if I don't have enough time tonight. I might be able to get everything wrapped up tonight, who knows.
At this point, looks like Wednesday is looking like the day the folks on Patreon will all get a message via that system of the Roane County update.

Lastly, added a shot of some of the AI routing in downtown Harriman. It'll use both lanes now with the traffic tool.

It should go the correct way, most all the time, wherever that means, in-town.

Still working on this. I've got maybe another hour left in me. Enough time for a new bridge or two..or three.