Update Speculation thread

I don't know. I couldn't play the map very well on my then-current PC and would not have noticed if it had changed after release. I would figure it was designed with 0.5m/px in mind, though, as terrain spikes and artifacts would have come through rather early in development and changing the terrain in such a major way post-release would have been fairly intensive, labor-wise.

A heightmap is one of the oldest smoke-and-mirrors techniques for getting good looking terrain cheaply.

A 'traditional' 3d model consists of a series of points, called vertices, that each store a vector for position. Each is connected with edges (which store the vertices they connect) and filled in with triangles (which store the edges they fill, plus normal and other info), to create a model. It's a tried-and-true format, but it gets expensive fast.

A heightmap removes virtually all of that data. By using a black-and-white 2d image representing height values, you can imbue a flat, subdivided, runtime-generated plane with terrain features. Now you only need to store the height value for each vertex, and don't need to store edge or triangle information at all. Provided you accept not being able to create terrain that's vertical or past vertical, or having more detail in some spots than in others, it's probably the best option for large landscapes.

Italy is the more vertical of the two maps, in terms of overall terrain height. However, fairly few roads in Italy are as steeply inclined as Belasco's streets, and even those that are, aren't broken up by intersections that are necessarily flat. I suppose it's more fair to say that Belasco's streets aren't too steep for 1m/px resolution to work, but that the grade changes are too abrupt.

It would be possible to use static meshes for the streets, though it would come with a few caveats. Performance, firstly: static meshes are more expensive, as stated above. It's also a little harder to work with decal roads on static meshes, and they're used extensively for AI paths, road markings, and details like road wear. Lastly, while visual spikes can still occur on terrains, there's a type of collision smoothing applied to them. Static meshes with roughly the same visual fidelity as the terrain we have now would still have rough edged collision.

That said, there are some times the developers have used static meshes for surface-level roads. WCA's and Automation's racetracks use static meshes for the tarmac, and Hirochi does now too, iirc. I think it has something to do with artifacts in the heightmap, which cause extremely subtle, but detrimental, bumps to appear.

 

that poor Asko though, lol. RIP Aussie50

@topic: unironically can't wait for the Group N Covet, even though i've been having lots of fun with that Defender mod lately.

 

wcusa,my version!!.. okay i know its a lot but here it is:
black:main citys two now!
green:mountain range.
red:cliffs.
white: new island with mansions a winerys.
dark gray: new major roads!
light gray: not as major citys but still citys including the hood at bottom right.
dark blue: suburbs with neighborhoods and malls.
orange: forest.
yellow: major airport!
dark yellow little houses by the city.
dark green: golf coarse!!
brown: cliff houses like in LA.
purple: lodge with campsites in the forest.
pink: abandon factory!!
hot pink: football stadium and other stadium for multi purpose.
light green: observatory on the highest mountain!
light blue: open car factory with test track!!
gray: dock with a ferris wheel.
hope you like it!!

 

Id just like to take a moment and remind some of us who have joined this coversation a little late that WCUSA is not getting remastered anytime soon, if at all ever
This is all just purely fun on theoretical revamps it could see YEARS from now
The game currently lacks the technology to do this, so dont expect this anytime soon
And last but not least: dont be sad when the devs dont release a remaster for WCUSA, its big, dense, and likely going to be the most difficult map to remaster, give them patience and time
Thanks

 

Wait: he died? Shame.
I'll search for the Defender mod, hope it's the old one and it has the 3.9 V8 included in the parts selector. I've been making NAS Hoppers with the Gavril 4.5, 5.5 and 6.9 V8s lately and I'm wondering how the Defender will be!
Plus, the Group B Covet is awaited in great enthusiasm! A Group N version would be nice too! A stripped-out and lightly tuned Covet (race suspension/brakes/wheels/tires and Stage-1 engine tuning) with short gearing, suitable for European hillclimbs and also suitable for beginners getting to know racing driving!

Your speculation is really nice! Actually, the airport in my speculation is at the far end of the expressway, even further away from the Redwood Forest. I believe it would be best for the zone you mentioned to be an extension of the Belasco City, with the characteristic staircase streets! But great speculation nonetheless!
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Of course, quality needs time and, above all, patience. We're just theoretically looking for ways to improve this map in terms of content because it's commonly known that this map misses a lot of it.

 

i agree its just for fun!! but we can hope haha!!

 

honestly, if WCUSA ever got a remaster any time soon, i think the devs would have to fundamentally change the entire map. everything is designed to fit in the space given, so if the map got bigger, everything would have to change

 

What is going on with these WCUSA V2 posts? Is this somehow confirmed or it's just another wants/hopes posts like always?

 

No idea, it's just completely random speculation with no basis in any fact or evidence.

 

More of a suggestion than speculation,yes

 

It is. May 17 is the third anniversary of his suicide. I really loved his washing machine videos, they are the stuff of legend.
Also, even though WCUSA is needing a remaster, it most likely will never happen. It was such an ambitious project at the time. The "remaster" was mainly just adding tunnels, adding stuff for career mode, and fixing the issue of all of the downtown buildings being the same mesh. WCUSA is also really dense. Remastering it would be like remastering all of the parts of Italy that are not cities.

 

We were talking about general map remasters when I asked for clarification as to why WCUSA (currently) cannot really grow in size, in comparison to maps like Italy. It turned out to be due to heightmap limitations. Spawned from that is a lovely discussion set in the theoretical situation of a future WCUSA remaster; what features might it have, how would it be laid out, etc.

 

i have a feeling a 'remaster' would be more of a 'remake' since we know based on all of the belasco city police dept skins and other things that it will definitely be used in the campaign, given all the additional content made for it, and the map would need enough PBR improvements work that it almost justifies starting anew based on the old layout, since there are other things which would need to be revamped/remade since the current cramped versions provide issues of their own
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it also definitely didnt help that someone also commented that all of the tunnel exit signs had place names, and closed exit ramps that could theoretically be opened, which just grew into a spiral of theories

 

Realistically, while it would certainly be more time consuming, in the long run the only real way to complete WCUSA would be to remake it entirely, at a larger size. (ideally twice as large) There is simply too much content for the existing space provided, leading it to feel cramped and unfinished. It could also be possible to separate WCUSA into multiple maps, with some form of gateway between them in the tunnel systems, but that would require a huge decrease in loading times and would present a whole host of problems for Career Mode, AI, and any (albiet unofficial) multiplayer play, as well as some scenarios, with players traveling from map to map in the midst of them.

 

this exactly, if Belasco is going to be used in the official campaign (which im 100% certain it will be) then WCUSA needs a serious overhaul to justify the free roam aspect of the campaign, what i really want to see get pulled off is them linking all of the maps together for the official campaign, as i feel like its going to almost be like San Andreas where you go from city to city each sort of chapter of the campaign

 

Everybody's talking about massive expansions to WCUSA.

Meanwhile, I'm just sitting here hoping that the dev team will add street signs to the intersections. (Navigating to a particular point in the city without them can be frustrating at times. I keep turning onto the wrong road in the grid.)

 

Oh my! Such a shame! May he R.I.P.!
True that, WCUSA was the first (or, rather, the second, if we count in the DRI which got replaced by the JRI) ambitious project of seeing how the edges of the map could be expanded and how the heightmap could be exploited, so I think I have to agree with the others saying that it has to go through a complete makeover sometime and grow in size in order to better serve its purpose as an urban environment. I just think that 90% of the existing map could be included in that larger map and have roads connecting it to the rest of the road network of the map. I say "90%" because the remaining 10% are the oil refinery reservoirs which must not be together with the fish market and some other office buildings at the Dockyards but rather be on a separate site, specifically designed for this purpose, away from the downtown and the promenade.

 

who died

 

Yeah, just doing it for fun. Nothing to speculate. However, I will say it’s better than “uPdAtE tOmOrrOW”

 

especially the infamous *oh my god its a 1/2gb pathc fix file it must be the update*