WIP Beta released Barbent's Homerange (Alpha) 0.1a

Yes makes sense, it was just something that came to my mind when I saw it and I was wondering if there maybe was a way to do it.

 

Outstanding work Barbent, your truely inovating with new concepts...I'm really looking forward to trying out this in some screenshot artwork at some stage.

 

Bonus Video

The shallow lake turns into a raging sea and calms again as if nothing happened. BeamNG water surfaces are affected by the Homerange Weather Simulation as well. See how wind gusts and a thunder storm are changing the landscape while clouds are covering the sun.

 

Wow this looks awsome, great work Barbent.

 

Matching all the colors to different times of day, depending on the weather, is proving much more difficult than I thought. Of course, this is also due to the fact that the BeamNG graphics engine doesn't support something like HDRR. So the impact on materials is quite rough. Especially their normal maps tend to get a bit flat when exposure is reduced. Well, I'm slowly getting closer to a good result, three steps forward and two back, with compromises – LOL . Today I was able to continue working on the map normally in the World Editor without any problems, while the weather system was running.

Some more bad weather impressions:

 

Waters? Roger.



I have to honestly admit that I've been trying to get the ocean water just right ever since I started working on the map, so for maybe three years now. But without any real convincing success. Either you could see repetitions in the surface pattern from a distance or it didn't look right up close or I wasn't satisfied with the waves or it lacked depth or the color and light reflection weren't right or it didn't fit with the sky at the horizont or or or... . Simply copying the ocean form a vanilla map also didn't help cause Homerange is special with too many special cases.

But now I've finally taken the time to experiment for almost a whole day to find the right settings and combination :



Among other things, I've now figured out how to use the depth gradient files correctly, and I've calculated and used harmonious and disharmonious relationships for the scaling, direction and intensity of different wave textures. All of this significantly improves the overall impression of the surrounding ocean and thus the whole map. Different times of day and weather conditions also work very well with these settings. Some of them are even dynamically adjusted using LUA .

 

Wow! That looks truly realistic. I always struggle with the bunch of water parameters.

 

That is awsome, the map is getting better and better, it could be great if we could drive in it ;>)

 

Ow maaaaan cant wait to whip my Enix around the corners

 

Hey, i like your map quite a lot but i don't know if you've noticed or if its intentional, but there is something REALLY HEAVY somewhere near that mountain in the top center segment of the map, i playing on a handheld sporting z2 extreme apu, but when i look in the direction of that segment of the map, my fps take a HIT, like 2-3 times lower, any chance you could fix that? This thing makes map barely playable...Thanks

 

Hi, nice that you like the map . The FPS impact could maybe be caused by the snow objects on top of the high mountain. They are actually optimized but not that much as it could. But that will be in the upcoming version. The other thing is the intense of your FPS drop (you say 2-3 times) is way too high to charge the snow objects to be the only reason (I'd estimate only ~1.2 times). Maybe you also have a RAM bottleneck, idk. If you like, you can try to delete the snow objects (don't save) and just see if it becomes better, so you can at least play on the map without that disadvantage. It is also important to use the latest BeamNG version because many things have been optimized over time. For example BeamNG handles objects that are hidden by distance (LOD) way more faster than previous versions. Hope that helps a bit .

 

yeah last time i checked i was behind that mountain in the snow, and there was some sort of gray box, im not sure what that was because being at the base of the mountain overloaded my handheld and the game has shut off
i dint thik i habe slow or not enough ram, my handheld has 24GB LPDDR5X-8000, 8 gigs of which is reserved for gpu and im running bazzite, not bimbows so there is a little to no trash amongst the running processes i also have set the game to 1024x640 so...yeah

 

Is there an appromaximate release date for the Update? Would love to see what the Map has changed, improved and what has been added!

 

A really great map. Are you planning to add hitboxes to trees? I mean, there are many cool roads where you can drive, but you just fly through the trees as if they weren't there, you can't hit them - and let's be honest, trees are one of the best and most common causes of accidents when you're driving fast and veer off the road. Or maybe you have a way I could add/fix these tree hitboxes myself?

 

All the trees do have collision geometry - that's even more than a "hitbox". I really don't know why the trees do not crash your car . Several foliage types have been updated for the upcoming version but most of the collision meshes stay the same (except 2 tree types). Can you crash into houses or other objects or are they also "made out of air" on your side? You could try to clear cache, that will force BeamNG to recreate all the objects and trees. Maybe that helps.
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Thanks for your interest! Unfortunately I really cannot make any estimation for a release date. Sorry for that . The map is developing in big steps, but there are still many things I absolutely have to finish. Otherwise, entire regions would be unusable, for example, because a road connection isn't finished or a LUA code isn't fully functional. I mean some of those key issues, you know. There are simply too many of them at the moment and there's still a lot to do. If you like to read more about how I think about a release date and managing the work: see here

 

I have been loving seeing the progress of this map and I am excited to continue seeing updates! - Keep up the good work!
- Do you have a discord by chance?

 

Nope, I have no discord. All news can be found right here .

 

'Pink Floyd' reference maybe...outstanding work as always

 

Hello Barbent! Progrez?

 

Refueling as a pleasant experience

I've completely revamped the refueling logic, making it more of an experience, not necessity, because — honestly — I've never actually run my vehicle out of gas. It works entirely without a menu and the gameplay is not interrupted. There's now a new trigger class that controls and manages the entire refueling process all across the map. Since we only ever refuel the local player's vehicle, I decided to create a virtual gas station attendant for Homerange. So, when you drive into a gas station, your vehicle is registered, and if all the conditions are right, a process begins, which varies from station to station and is accompanied by various sounds. At rural gas stations, for example, you have to summon the attendant by honking your horn, which can take a while.



There are also gas stations for airplanes, ships, and race cars, each with its own unique process regarding stoppage, engine and ignition, waiting time, and fuel flow. All the gas stations also have different opening hours, and you can generally get out of your vehicle during refueling to stretch your legs or buy a drink, depending on how long it takes. The refueling progress is displayed through the UI. You can also interrupt refueling at any time: simply get in and drive away. Particularly important for me: I now can place any number of gas stations on the map, place a single trigger and the ~160 lines of LUA code can take everything everywhere into account and manage it accordingly in an object-oriented way.



Furthermore, I have continued working on the design and layout of the map, added more alternative rally sections, refined motorway junctions, added new bridge constructions, given the light of the lighthouses a special effect, making it visible from a great distance even in bad weather, and much more.

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A personal note: I have some difficult personal challenges to overcome in the next 3-4 weeks, so I might have less time to work on the map. Nevertheless, I will continue to moderate this forum thread and keep you updated on the progress .