WIP Beta released A new *CITY* map - LOS INJURUS 2023-12-20

"The buildings/ECA stuff missing was because it was unused"
If they were unused, why are they generating errors? If you'd have unused assets they would be ignored. No?

 

Even if people aren't posting here just know that many people enjoy this map.

 

Well I saw the map floating around in the early days, (before I had a good enough PC to run Beam), but never took the opportunity to take a proper look, and WOW. Regardless of some errors right now, this looks like a really solid, well intentioned project with a bunch of passion behind it! From both you and fans! I've been wanting to find an expansive cali-city-countryside themed map for a WHILE, and this is looking like it'll tick every box! I plan on taking a scenic drive around the map (if it loads for me) later, and would love to help provide feedback!

 

Interesting behavior in this map (and the game overall) from a performance perspective with the new 0.37 update.

This map has always used lots of VRAM, and was never an issue with the systems I've tested it on, but now it seems (at least with vulkan) the game engine now is using a lot more system ram and less VRAM. One positive is that frame rates have gone up with the new update with lots of traffic/props spawned, but in the case of this map even though there is a substantial increase in FPS it feels slower, meaning ever few seconds it almost feels like micro stuttering.

This screen shot sums it up nicely



In 0.36 at 4K ultra settings with 40 cars spawned, the map loaded 14.9GB into Vram along with 19.9GB of system ram

in 0.37 at 4K ultra settings with 40 cars spawned the map loaded 10.8GB into Vram along with 24.9GB of system ram.

I definitely won't complain about 21fps more, but I'm sure that has less to do with how data is being loaded.

I need to track down a lower end GPU now (something with 8GB) and see if the map turns into a slideshow in vulkan when the VRAM limit on a card is exceeded (which happened in previous versions using vulkan)

System used:

285K
32GB DDR5 7200
RTX 5090

 

RX 470/480/570/580/590 radeons, and GTX 1070/1080 cards are common with 8gb (radeons can have 4gb or 8gb, but nvidia gtx options listed only came with 8gb), and they're fairly cheap if you're looking for 8gb cards. They're SUPER plentiful and now that miners have dumped them a while back, they're available in spades. They're still competent if you know the limits of 8gb of VRAM when it comes to model and texture detail levels and what is loaded, but games are really starting to need 6gb~8gb as a minimum now. When you're done with it, you can always give it to a relative of-course, or keep it handy for more testing. Sure miss the days we could double - or go 4x the amount of VRAM through an add-on card or ram chips tacked right onto the video card (we had sockets on all but the cheapest of VGA cards, and special proprietary headers on Matrox cards for the Wram on the Millenium / Millenium II or the slower ram they used on the MGA / Mystique series to upgrade it). That was a long, long time ago, when you'd buy the actual chips and put them on the card yourself. How time flies, and 30 years goes by.
Expect to see both changes to Los Injurus and changes to the game engine as time goes on in regards to memory used and VRAM used and this level's / the game's requirements in regards to such.
Texture streaming is a thing now, so it's going to affect how much VRAM you're using/needing at any moment. Also, requested/allocated VRAM may be different from actually used amounts of VRAM (it may request it allocated but not use it all).
I DO appreciate the feedback. I'm getting a nice 30~35FPS on DX11. Ugh. It's PAINFUL. Vulkan is SO much better, it holds 60fps pretty well (I don't make note if it goes above 60fps, just that it reaches it regularly and/or stays there), not sure if the 'slow' spot is still near the default spawn where it was 50~53fps or so (draw call overload, Vulkan is better at that, but it's not impervious to it despite being multi-thread render aware/able). In-fact I'm not sure if the menu LUA is just bugging out on the FPS or not, but it's pretty much a slog on DX11. It used to be 52~60fps anywhere. I have a 60hz (fps) screen at 1080p. No money to spend on screens at the moment, maybe eventually. Would replace the 6 year old PC 1st.
FOLKS, PLEASE USE VULKAN *IF YOU CAN*! It can possibly hard-lock the system, but you don't know if you don't try.
Just make sure to run chkdsk /f from an administrator-level command prompt at some point after you're all done hard-locking the system. If it moans and says you need to restart (save your work NOW) just type in shutdown -r and it should warn you about a shutdown in a minute and it'll restart and make sure your SSD is fast again (if you hard lock windows or BSOD it or power is lost, you need to do this or your write speeds will be nice and SLOW!). Linux users needn't worry as this only applies to Windows.
I'm not entirely even SURE what you do on Linux if something like a Kernel Panic or similar happens, last time I knew about that stuff, ReiserFS was new (20 years!) and we just switched over to it from ext2 and 3, and it'd do all it needed to do for itself at boot since it was a journaling file-system. I've used it since then but I've not been that deep into the technical stuff since then - need to get back into it and WILL be getting back into it soon. Though I do know it's really hard to hard-lock a linux system unless you've got bad hardware or an overclock that isn't completely stable.
Thank-you for your info. This info helps everyone.

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I always look forward to performance data in the future, every bit helps!
Glad you have a computer that can run this now. If on an 8gb GPU, use medium textures unless it's really slow. If you have 16gb GPU, use high texture detail. Model details can be left at or near max for best results - or things get ugly fast.
I SHOULD have an update out soon enough.

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Thank-you. I am glad folks haven't forgotten about this.
I haven't either.

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I will look into it, but if it's reading the forest brush and there's entries pointing to models, it's going to get mad if they aren't there anymore. I will look into removing those tomorrow as I have the managed assets file open now for the forest brush.

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PROGRESS POST:
WE HAVE PROGRESS!
That's a nice change.
Big shout out to @Car_Killer for saving the bacon here and showing me what was broken in the level data that in combination with certain models, caused invisible building issues.
I will use a small bit of project funds to get him a reward. I'd have NEVER figured this out - not until I changed it by accident much later on and even later realized the buildings started working again. If anyone has objection to that I can use my personal funds to do so but it's not much in the grand scheme of things and he really should be rewarded, this was a real brain-bender. Besides, while this desk is made of Oak, I think me continuing to bash my head on it (figuratively) would have eventually damaged it... which is basically what I was doing trying to figure this out - because I was entirely out of ideas x2.
Water color is fixed. Hooray. It's not GREEN anymore. Well maybe now you can see if there's any alligators in it. Wouldn't want anyone getting munched, that gets messy, and then I have to fix the red water.

We have buildings! Being re-exported with the full-fat version of Maya, they're slightly moved but that's OK and an easy fix.

In the last shot, the tall narrow building now has the roof texture on top of the 5th floor fixed so it casts proper shadow.
The 3 and 5 floor apartment buildings work, and the warehouse buildings now work also.

This concrete texture is now the correct texture COLOR. This area was a recent addition on the last update.

The store works great now, but not sure why I can see the SUN through the building. I blame the game for that but I'll double-check my texture settings on the stucco.
I don't think there are too many other texture bugs. Hopefully I didn't break anything in the process. I haven't seen much of anything so far.
There's still some black chevron stuff near the default spawn on the raised highway - this is a model issue AFAIK, and I'll get that fixed prior to the next update. I just am going to remove the chevron'ing and use decals to apply them on, or make the chevron stuff a separate model.
There's still a pair of elevator doors bugged in the subway station interior, but I'm not terribly worried about that at the moment as that'll be getting another update in the near future with much more detail.
CAR_KILLER YOU SAVED THE BACON! THANK YOU x65535! I AM VERY GRATEFUL AND I AM SURE OTHERS ON HERE ARE ALSO.
--That is all!
-The Bob

 

I personally don't mind one bit if you send Car_Killer some project money for the help taking the invisibility cloak off those buildings(Supporter for just over a year now) Glad to see those building again that were missing. Looking forward to the next update whenever that may be. Would love more roads like what leads out to that small town with the missing tower and it's twin across the street and the elevated train tracks that run through the town.

 

When is the next public update planned? It's been 21 months since the last one. Patreon alpha is 9 months old.
Been seeing all these things being added, and a LOT of bugs squashed, and are getting eager to see all the new stuff moving on my monitor.

Keep up the good work, but make sure to stay as healthy as possible.

 

Many thanks!
You will see MANY more mountain roads like the ones added around one year to around 9 months ago. If you like that, you will enjoy what comes in the future. I enjoy those back mountain roads myself, so yes, definitely some more where that came from (read: a LOT more, in-fact all the OLD 2016~2018 roads that are left, plus what's already done from last year, double that at-least and that's what you'll get). I'm going to give a refresh to the mountain-top highway that lacks guide-rail (though not before the next update, I need a while to work on that, that's a solid 10-day project in itself), and do a whole ton of side routes in the coming year. This all the while the city and it's surrounding towns and rural areas get more fleshed out / filled in. If you live in a common version of the inner-city row or townhome built from the 1920's through the 80's there's a real good chance it's going to be in this over the course of the next year to 18 months.

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You won't have to wait long as I just fixed one of the last bugs, just now. I'm thinking a week or two, at most. No promises, but whenever I get some loose ends tied up over here and I notice that it's not acting broken anymore.

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Turns out the chevrons weren't broken on the highway, as I pulled the off one of the ramps and double-checked the it was the vertex shading that did-in the texture below it. It also started affecting all the barrier walls on that piece - turning them nearly black. So when I zoomed in close I could still slightly see the (now working!?) concrete_plain texture (shared with the game's Jersey-barrier pieces on West Coast and other places possibly) through the darkness, and said, "O boy, that's the same bug then!". It had to be, as I went through the 'set to face' and 'harden edges' on all poly surfaces and edges of all UV's (textured surfaces of a model) on all 3 varieties of raised ramp models with exits integrated into them. The three models are Standard pair of ramps on a two-lane, A pair of ramps that turn into an existing lane increasing or decreasing lanes-per-side by one each, and a pair of short ramps that are meant to go back to back (or to a wider road) for exits that are close - though this last piece would cause much weaving.

This shows the highway ramps working now. Two styles have chevrons on the gore points, one does not (I might add them back before release of the update, but if not it's a small concession admittedly to get an update out sooner).
So I have a little AI work to do in the areas where new stuff was added and improved. I've already gotten all the highway pieces put back to where they should be - hopefully this isn't the bug causing them to flip 180 degrees again as I had to spin them around again. If they do bug out when you get a beta copy to test, LET ME KNOW. It'll be pretty obvious if they do, as it'll reveal itself with a huge CRUNCH, as your car crashes into a surprise pit. Holding ALT while rotating a forest-brush asset (which is where all the MRK road kit pieces hide) will give you precise 15 degree (and thus, 90 and 180 degree) angles and it'll fit back perfectly to where it's supposed to be.
All things considered, if you'd have asked me a week ago if all this stuff was going to be fixed, I'd never have said it would but here it is working again. For how long, that is anyone's best guess. HOWEVER, one thing is for sure, there's no more goofy look to the ramp pieces where the texturing on the gore points (including lane dividers) was pretty messed up and ugly. Now it's much more proper and a lot closer to what it SHOULD be.
The ramp pieces also are sporting the old base-game concrete texture on the barriers - something I didn't even know decided to start working again. Well that's news to me (and it's much cleaner than the one on all the others). This might be left for now if it continues to work. If I have a moment and I'm thinking about it, I'll switch it back.
The private beta will still have a Los Injurus that's close to the size it was last time. I will begin down-sizing it and using the link system after I receive positive feedback that the beta has gone OK. I don't want to start messing with changing things when there's still bugs, otherwise it just magnifies the issue and it can systematically spread the issue / otherwise make it much harder to root-out the cause.
TO-DO:
A bit of AI work on one of the shore-side towns I was working on where I added side-streets better connecting a pair of exit ramps to surface streets and a bridge or two.
Connect the far end of the bridge by the island base (housing area) with something - anything - so there's even a reason for it being there & give it AI. The AI won't be aware of the humps in the bridge so it may launch cars!
Make sure the apartment buildings which had been missing are in the correct spot. They're likely rotated 180 degrees. Why does the game always rotate 180 degrees on the Z-axis??? It's done this for YEARS. Sometimes it goes away if you clear ALL the cache or run it from the .zip file OR sometimes it leaves things flipped wrongly 180 degrees but only for everyone else - GRRRR.
Might do:
Fix elevator door texture issue in subway station. Why is it even broken? I know it can find the texture, it hasn't moved, and it's working elsewhere! This needs more looking into. I hope it's just my blundering and not the game.
It's probably my blundering.
Put chevrons back on one of the exit ramp models. Someone will miss them otherwise and wonder why there sometimes are gore-point chevrons and why sometimes there are none. Consistency is key to immersion, to a point.
Double-check that the blocks of water (yes) that are used for ponds/next to dams are not like liquid concrete and do not float cars. Water modeling has changed in the last year or two and I haven't been swimming lately.
Make sure I got the water behind the big dam updated, too. Make sure it looks like water. Water should look like water, yes.
POST-BETA: Implement link system to reduce file-size and strip out now-deprecated (for the most part) game-included assets such as models and textures, we don't need to provide in-mod copies anymore & can pull from game data like we did back in the original DOOM days. This should remove 500~1200mb of size from the file. This is good and will be REQUIRED prior to going public. NOTE: This may cause issues migrating to the new assets, but they're fixable / tolerable.
Wait until my cat is 18 inches from the chair to suddenly turn and say loudly HIYA KITTY-KAT! nice and full of energy that only someone who's roughly 8 years old could do, and watch pandemonium unfold and things scatter everywhere as the sneaking cat is suddenly un-sneakied and now scrambling for traction. *CRASH BASH SCRAMBLE TUMBLE TUMBLE* DONE (and with double the XP reward because it's a hardwood floor). (yes, the cat is fine)
That having been said, I still have some work to do here obviously. HOWEVER, the major bugs are nicked, and this is much further along than I'd have thought I was going to be.
--All is going smoothly with the project, for once. We'll see just how long that lasts. Thank-you all for your support.
-The Bob

 

Sorry for asking this, but when is the next update coming out and when was the last update?

 

The last update was a LONG TIME AGO for the public facing side.
The last Patreon update was 9 months ago. I kindly released this update for the public via a link available for all folks who followed this forum for Christmas 2024.
The next Patreon update will be within a week or two. There MAY BE more than one update in rapid succession for Bob-stupidity / bug-reasons.
The last Public version was supposed to come out a year ago, but didn't due to server bandwidth issues on the BeamNG side. This mod can and has pretty much turned the BeamNG server into a 20kb dial-up mess upon version updates.
STAFF: "Bob, you literally killed the server access to the BeamNG mod server world-wide with the DEC 2023 update of Los Injurus, FOR DAYS!" Yes, that's why the server was nearly broken for the greater part of A WEEK.
The next PUBLIC update will be whenever the link system is fully implemented, tested, and any bugs left-over are fixed. This reduces file-size SUBSTANTIALLY but takes a week or two to implement by itself, more time to fully test. It might take even longer if there are hundreds of links that I need to add in, and there just might be. Keeping track of all of that will quickly overwhelm my brain but I'll chip away at it daily.
The link system is now to be used, so that like the original Doom and most any game put out since that 1993 gem (which the game and it's modding / level-making got me into computers), you don't have to include base-game content inside your mod to be able to use it. If you try to copy and use stock game content the old way, textures and materials will break, and things won't show up, thus the resultant orange textures affecting the public version.
The funny part is: My model repository - what I go back to when I open something up in the modeling software (and also why I've stuck with Maya) still reference concrete_plain for everything and not what I replaced it with - so when I accidentally imported the on/off ramp pieces for the raised highway in my quest to try and fix the black texture issues, I found out that things will sort-of work even without a link. This is by accident. I should have gotten a no_material error, but I didn't.
So I might as well be running blind, with my shorts full of angry late-season hornets, through a fine-china shop, screaming my head off. I'd definitely get further faster, but likely slowly pass-on from a million small cuts and obviously many, many stings (and there would still be an issue with 100+ very angry hornets in an enclosed space full of broken stuff).
In other words, it'll be out when it's out, I can offer merely guidance by what is listed at the top of this paragraph, but I can't set anything in stone. Some stuff is documented. SOME STUFF. Not even nearly half of it. Things that are supposed to work don't always work or get broken in strange ways from things that entirely (one would reason) have nothing to do with it. Things that aren't supposed to work - like referencing a texture with no link in place, are as-pictured above, working.
*extends arms with palms up and shrugs with a confused face*
This week will be my QC week, where I'm going to quality check things even up-to removing all the files/cache from the drive except for a .zip form of the level, to test that this thing isn't going to do anything even MOAR stupid when YOU eventually get a copy. The sky is the limit - when it comes to ways things can go wrong inside BeamNG Drive user levels - and nearly that for creating* things, too.
*NOTE: That should be listed as the renderer and your GPU VRAM is the limit, even if we kick the hugely limiting DirectX 11 draw-call limit to the curb there's still the VRAM limit.
--Doing my GOODEST over here. Not quite my best, but close!
-The Bob

For those questioning if they should support the project, it's not vapor-ware! Plus this computer is 6+ years old and who knows how long this thing is going to last. I drive a 22 year old (but paid for) Toyota. Still on a 1080p screen, a Ryzen 3000 series, and am also nearly out of drive space for backups. This is not a dire situation, but might not tread water for very much longer. Please support the project if you can, in-case the magic smoke comes out. Being on social security retirement in your 40's isn't all fun and games and thus, fixed-incomes don't pay for fancy 3D-modeling game-designing computers by themselves - and I just put out nearly 400$ for a year of Maya in September. What money I was saving up for a computer got mostly used up by my Chiropractor visits to the tune of several hundred dollars just in the past month - but they were very VERY needed! Not broke but not rich, so if you can afford a few bucks a month, great! If you can't afford to, just know I know how that feels as there was a point in my life I had a lot of money and also a point I had none, and that I didn't even have a home - I have been there. However, my bills ARE paid and will continue to be, I owe no one, what I own is paid for fully, but it's certainly a struggle sometimes. Project money goes towards software and hardware NEEDED (note: not 'wanted' but actually NEEDED) for this project, my doctor bills (some of which from sitting here long hours, I am physically disabled so sometimes it really rears it ugly head), any medication needed, and things of the like such as rewarding those who help the project when it really really needs it. Plus it helps give me some goals and feeling of purpose, and there's certainly no crime in that.
Thank-you for all who support the project, regardless if it's monetarily or if it's just to drop by and say you care. I am always man enough to stand up and say I appreciate it. Los Injurus development continues daily here.

 

Thank you for explaining it to me, I haven't been following this project really. Now I understand all the difficulties of it.

 

Yup, I've kicked things up a notch since my follies in the old Roane County level I made. Now I don't just break the game, I bust the whole world's BeamNG Drive mods server, too
Never tell yourself you can't leave your mark on the world, or that you're too insignificant. Just try to make it a good one, heh. Wouldn't be the first time I see the word [VILIFIED] on something.
Can never say I didn't try. I got an F for effort and only need just one more, then it's on to the rest of the letters. One down 5 to go, let's GET'ER DONE!

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Good news! I managed to fix up the textures for the barriers on the exit ramps, so they match the rest. The chevrons are back. The ramps are correct - almost ended up with a lane suddenly ending / starting again (oops).
Improved the UV's just a bit, some finessing never hurt anyone.
Also good news! GPU VRAM requirement shouldn't increase in this version. In fact it may be a few dozen MB (or at-least a few MB) less! This is partly due to the model and texture adjustments I've done. Whether this is outweighed by the weight of decal roads in VRAM VS the last version or not is yet to be discovered. But the good news is, that things shouldn't go up any for this version 'lest I add something last-minute.

I had missed two water blocks (water behind dams), so I set this to a more realistic color and thus spruced up the area in addition in regards to the upper dam (above the BIG dam). No more underwater plants either here!

Fixed bridge surface color. Again. Also, fixed DAM surface road color. Now it's not so rose-hued.

FIXED THE APARTMENT WINDOWS FOR THE SECOND TIME. The ones on the previously offending building. They decided to DISAPPEAR after one of the game restarts. WHAT!? GRRRRR! It DUPLICATED one of my texture entries and gave ONE of them vertex shading(!). This resulted, in me NOT being able to SHUT IT OFF. STUPID TECHNOLOGY!
So I renamed one of them (I'll be putting in a second one later on in development, and having a spare reference does absolutely no harm and takes no additional resources (maybe 1~2kb?), and disabled vertex shaders on both. I don't use that stuff anyway. It's just going to be much more work to use (on EVERY model) than to NOT use it and just disable it (this is a setting for tinting the texture via a model, it's one of the ways, when I can tint things manually per-texture just by adding in a 1kb texture entry in that references the same files but uses different color-map diffuse values (tinting). I already do a BUNCH of this on road textures, and it also can make white road striping orange - or any other color you want it to be.
SO THAT IS FIXED. YOU STUPID STUPID STUPID COMPUTER!
At-least there's a nice firm breeze on this fall evening to blow out all the heat this thing is throwing off, and it's sure throwing off a LOT of it (I had a room full of house cats the week the furnace went belly-up in one of the recent winters, kept it 75F in here, for folks using C for temps think: shirt-off weather).
My vision is full of spots and won't quit, like I looked at a bright light and looked away, and it's been this way for a good 10 minutes so far so I'm giving it a rest for the night. This has happened a few times over the last 6~12 months and I'm honestly at this point at the 'I don't even WANT to know what's wrong now' phase of the issue. I just don't drive when it does this.

Stupid apartment buildings, they better stay working. Or I can just board up all the windows like some of the other buildings... That's always a thought.
Well anyways, don't know how done up this area will be, but it will still be quite unfinished when the beta comes out. So never-the-less, getting further along day by day.
Hope the water color looks much better. Teal just wasn't doing it. Leave the green water in Fallout where it belongs.
--That is all, I hope.
-The Bob
EDIT: Fixed the double-post... STUPID TECHNOLOGY! This stuff used to work reliably in the 90's... what happened?

 

Free standing Windows is what happened, it was much better when Windows 3.1 was just a program running, not a standalone operating system.

 

So yeah, this is broken upon the next startup of the game. I just fixed this yesterday. And the other day, too.
Due to me fixing it twice already, I'm likely NOT fixing it prior to the beta, in-stead, I will add a note that THE GAME ENGINE IS BROKEN, and that is why it's like that. When they fix the issue with the material editor duplicating textures, it will be fixed. This disgusts me TO NO END.
I was going to edit some more stuff but I was just so disgusted I closed it out. I don't know what to do anymore, this game-engine is such a HOT MESS. I can't fix things if they just break on the next restart.
Below is not required reading, but I have some IRL issues, part of which was why I took some time away earlier this year.
I have a huge lawsuit getting started against the local city's police department, and the family (several individuals) of the police detective who worked in Bethlehem township PA over a decade ago who's adult children have followed me 750 miles to Tennessee - well the son - and spitting image of the detective up north - now works for the city's police department and keeps running my name on the police computers for no reason.
I am getting targeted, which is why I got RETIRED by the gov't in 2013, for no good reason, as is my family. This has been going on for YEARS and YEARS.
And the corrupt pigs drained my mother's engine oil in the parking lot of the bowling alley today, when she took my niece to her bowling match game between her school and another school. So much for engine number 3. There was a huge sheen.
I just looked her in the face and told her 'no that HUGE multi-quart oil sheen magically got there right before the engine started acting up, but it wasn't leaking a single drip in the driveway two days ago, it's MAGIC'.
Another call to the Institute for Justice, I've been in contact with them for two months. Wasn't the oinkers-O'-corruption trying to trash my Corolla's transmission by putting mud/impurities in it enough? That was when engine number 3 was getting installed in the Chevy, as I'd loaned out the car to her (I drained that out btw, but it likely did do something to the car, which is my means to get to the grocery store, doctor, etc). The only reason they didn't do my engine like that too is because the plugs (top and bottom) are on about as tight as humanly possible, NO ONE is getting those off without me. I'll weld them on if this ever proves insufficient.
If you don't live in United States, please, please, don't ever move here. The pigs are OUT OF CONTROL, you are NOT safe, the constitution is toilet paper to them. I just feel really bad for the few good cops, and especially those who served in the military only to come home and get abused by the police - the police who flagrantly violate the very rights the brave military members signed up to protect - protect with their life I might add.
Want to know the best part? When I mentioned contacting the institute for justice to my own mother, she gets a call within the next day or so, to HER cell phone with someone looking for me 'about my case' (not the phone I used to call them with, since I'd been talking with them over email only, I didn't give them my phone number or hers yet as I've been leaving this to email at the moment). Needless to say I didn't call THAT number back!!! Not gonna fool me that easy.
Basically, long story short, they're creeps. I'm doing the best I can to try and push this beta out, but hopefully we can get somewhere with the institute for justice sometime soon. More than anything I'd just LOVE to know what I did that's so bad, that warrants these creeps tailing me around and bothering my family, but can't ever be arrested for.
Look up THE CIVIL RIGHTS LAWYER, and SOUTHERN DRAWL LAW and LACKLUSTER for starters, you'll see what happens in the "Land of the Free" to innocent citizens left and right.
Back to Los Injurus related stuff.
Regardless of the issues with the game engine, I'm going to push the beta anyways in around a week, maybe a hair more, maybe a hair less. If it has some invisible textures, then that is what it is, and it'll be fixed when they fix the engine issues duplicating textures, it doesn't affect the roads or bridges so that's all that matters. I just have no more patience to fix the same thing every single day only for it to stay broken. Most of the building works. Good enough!
It might be boarded up if I have the time to switch the texture entries over.
--That is all.
-The Bob

 

Best of luck getting things worked out both in life & in the game.

 

Thanks! I'm doing my damnedest over here on both fronts. Doing the best I can. Managed to save my mother's truck engine, for now. It's got some bottom end bearing knock, on an engine that's merely 2 months old. not sure if those are the kind I can just pull the oil pan and knock out around the crank shaft or if it's an engine-out deal. The city is going to be buying her a new truck soon, though, this one just has to last long enough. I just can't believe the cowardice and desperation of those idiots that want to call themselves 'justice warriors'. More like damaged egos and cry babies. They don't act like that when they're in my face. Of course my dad DID do that (came up to my face, angry, swearing, drunk, with fists up - he was abusive) and well, it didn't work out very well for him. Didn't know what hit him. Maybe they're scared of me for that? They shouldn't be, I put up with a lot of years of his abuse. I had a roommate when I was 20 (had bought my first house, could off-load costs), and I had this guy shacking up in my house for a few months, tried to attack me one night and got thrown 8 feet into the air (ground distance to his feet), he rotated mid-air, and didn't land for a distance of 12~13 feet away from me coming down on his head/shoulder... and did 3.5 commando rolls in the snow after he landed. 8 years in the Army didn't prepare that guy for a concrete construction worker defending his home (and I give a LOT of slack to current/former service-members, so I'm not proud of that, but I had to defend myself and I am well-trained to do so). Maybe they're worried about that side of me? They shouldn't be! I'm about the hardest to anger of anyone that most anyone knows... just happy-go-lucky peaceful person (the nicer I generally act, the further my PTSD feels from my hands). I'm also extremely non-confrontational. I didn't even blast the burglars busting into our shed in 2019 and I could have - but I knew one of them (as a previously single woman) and I just didn't feel it was necessary. They stole Christmas decorations, custom Christmas stockings with names of our family sewn up by my mother in the 70's and 80's, among other things. I'd rather be out that, despite that it may hurt, than live with the alternative of harming (or worse) someone when I didn't absolutely have to. It's not like they charged at me or anything, or had a weapon other than a flash-light feature of a mobile phone.
Life is full of decisions. Have I always made the right ones? No, but I made whatever decision at the time with what I knew at the time that'd do the least harm. I have to face St. Peter and God one day. I want to have as clear of a conscience as possible. While not everyone believes in Our Lord And Savior and all that, and I'm not about to badger them into it nor chastise them for not doing so (nor guilt trip them with the 'you're going to you-know-where' type of speech) that helps no one - I feel it's best to hold some basic moral compass at most times regardless of your belief system. At the very least it helps me (and others) have a better chance of sleeping at night... even if I still have insomnia.

---

That said, I've been working via a text editor to undo years worth of both my screw-ups and the editor's screw-ups.
Yes! I fixed the windows - this time! And they were like that when I started up the game/level.

And it busted the foundation graphic this time. #$%@!!! And that's been broken since I started the game/level. WHY WHY WHY!???
So yea. Fun stuff. Now to bumble about the city and figure out what else is busted and spend the rest of my evening fixing it.
STUPID TECHNOLOGY!
The 11-foot-8 bridge is still working though. That's one good thing, dare I say such.
Most/all texture duplicates removed (along with console errors). There were some in the same file, there were some across files (some were me, many were due to the material editor).
When I had renamed the building mosaic with the window textures on it, to fix it being a duplicate, it in-stead left both duplicates and made a THIRD one.
This is something I had to do prior to implementing the link system within this level, so it's all par for the course. This thing is really robbing Peter to pay Paul with these errors though. Not even going near Christmas tree lights this year, oh no, I know better than that - not after how this beta preparation has been going.
ONE LIGHT GOES OUT THEY ALL GO OUT. Yes, that's called invisible building folks. Fix one another goes out.... that's the current showing.
I'd bang my head on the desk for some more hopes of progress but that might disappear, too.
--Wonder what'll break tomorrow? Place bets NOW! Winner gets an imaginary cookie, because I already absolutely demolished the box of real ones that I had LONG ago, and it's hard to send them through the interwebs.
-The Bob.
(Yes, this is why it takes SO LONG to get a beta out, it's ALWAYS something. That something should be easy. It never, ever is!)
If I was ever a character in a TV show, I'd feel I most line up to Oliver Douglass (Eddie Albert) in Green Acres. When he kicks the tractor and it completely dismantles/disassembles into component pieces. They have it on youtube now, free.
When you see the Hoyt Clagswell brand advertisement sign in Los Injurus, that's my homage to it, just as much as there was a Drucker's store sign on a building just outside Harriman in Roane County.

Maybe it'll stay fixed now for good. It's still fixed after a restart. Has a foundation too. Floating buildings are as bad as bushes in the road.

There was a bunch of wrongly-tinted and mis-colored stuff, I fixed that.

 

Just in-case I was having too much of a good time here, I drive past this mess!

That's about the only building that's busted. Oh well. Time to add it back in. Not just that, but the roof texture is also broken strangely enough, even if it uses the textures of the other one just tinted different. *shrugs*
--The work is never done.
-The Bob

 

I'll keep my statement on the matter brief because it's off-topic, but if the city feels the need to do damage control by replacing the sabotaged truck, it suggests that the rot isn't going as far up as you fear, and that they're not prepared to spend infinite amounts of money cleaning up after crooked cops. Document, document, document if the abuse continues and bring this to the press, as that sounds like your best option.

 

Just stopping in quick to show that I'm replacing the bridge that never ever looks right when you're driving under it.
But it's never that easy.

Except now I have to replace about a mile of road to the right of this, because it's all sloped down to the bridge at nearly max allowable grade.
So it'll be a little while as I have to pretty-much re-do most of that mountain it's on. That's alright though, as I had to do something with that anyway (it didn't have any barriers) as someone brought it up recently (thanks, seriously!).
Will update when I get that done.

---

I've been documenting and archiving surveillance video for a WHILE. Years and years. It is much deeper than just the city here. We got rid of the Chevy, as despite our best efforts, it was going to need ENGINE NUMBER FOUR at 130,000~140,000 miles on the vehicle. Needless to say when didn't get another domestic brand vehicle, we won't EVER get another domestic brand vehicle, ever again. Never, ever, ever, ever. They are LITERALLY designed TO FAIL (Regardless of getting targeted even though I follow the laws in what I do, as I'm not ignorant of them). Way to treat the customer, Chevrolet!
--That is all
-The Bob
For all you old-heads like me, who are in their 40's or close to it, TOP RACER SNES COLLECTION is available on Steam and you might just really enjoy it. It's got some new touches (which are optional) too.
This is known as TOP GEAR (series) in the USA back in the 90's as we didn't have TOP GEAR show to conflict with like the U.K. and some other parts of the world did. Look it up when you have time.