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

I have an idea, a sort of Charity Hospital remake. Since this map has lots of abandoned buildings, it would be cool.

i know ur swamped with stuff and the map, so its an idea and best to ignore this

 

I already have considered Charity Hospital from New Orleans. After almost a century of service, the Art-Deco building built in the 1930's was finally retired after Hurricane Katrina knocked out the generators in the basement. While the building's structure is 100% solid yet, it's just not cost-effective to revamp it for hospital use, so a new campus was built to replace it, which opened around 2010~2012 IIRC. I just saw a youtube special on it the other day. I believe the hospital itself (not the building) dates back to the 1830's or somewhere around there. So TLDR the answer is YES, There will be something quite like it in eventually, though I'm slating to push more industrial and residential units out before that (I have a bit of a pipeline going here). Swamped is the only way to be, I work best like that.
As was covered a week or two ago, the Palace Theater from Gary Indiana is also going to be in the map - just a reminder.

In other news I carried in a Crossbow weight machine from the garage and completely DEMOLISHED my lower back. Ouch, who would'a thought I'm disabled for a reason. I can still map though, pain or not. Might have to go to the Chiropractor if I can't twist it out myself, or fix it by having my 10 year old niece stomp on me while I lay flat. I can just hear my late Grandmother say "Stupid is as Stupid does" or "Well that was stupid now, wasn't it?"...
..."Yes but if it wasn't for stupid things, nothing would get accomplished around here."

Trying to have something finished up by the end of tomorrow night. Will ship to beta testers within a day of when it is zipped up and uploaded. Think Thursday at best Friday/Saturday at worst.

--That is all for now.

 

I found out about the Charity Hispitak through a youtube channel called BSF, i think you would like it. I thought Charity would be a good fit along the abandoned buildings, like the Rolling Acres look-alike, and the palace theatre. Im also a fan of abandoned buildings. My favorite would probably Cooley High School in Detroit. Well, I cant wait for all of that stuff to be featured in the map.
And get well soon!

 

Addendum:
Currently replacing all the AI way-point based overpasses / elevated roadways with 3D decal road navigation (I feature I asked for a long time ago).

It looks like the 'line' is on the ground, but it's the little square red or green nodes that matter. The AI doesn't use the left-most (inside-most) lane here on 3-lane routes. It will when odd-lane one-ways are supported, eventually. If I use two routes to do it, it will end up causing lots and lots of weaving as the nodes automatically group across the 3 lanes (as the two routes per side would overlap 50%). Will do more tests and see how that works. This interchange will be done before the next beta, so expect no more wrong-way drivers on the highway, (if I can help it, it will be fixed).
Will attempt to fix the area by the mall where the cars drive on the curb when heading back towards the city (next to the old Packard plant). Wide side-routes intersecting with a 'narrow' set of two lanes = AI drives on curb.
You can do as I do here by enabling 'over objects' with a 100% invisible decal road. Just be aware there's a stupid bug where you can't click on roads that have 'default decal road materal' left on them the next time you open the editor. So, to that end, I've kept my 2016-made "ZZ_transparent_AI_route" texture in (as I was the one who pioneered invisible routes for AI since my decal road intersections were so ramshackle / messy and used a lot of extra processing for AI if left as-is without this). I also pioneered using this method to get them over straight / flat bridges, too.
So expect better AI, and this area will get some green grass stuff too (I have to add this grass layer in manually, it's not as easy as just changing a texture!).
--That is all for right now.

 

Hey bob.blunderton, I have a question for you.

Have you considered adding a forest to Los Injurus?

 

Thanks! I am sure you will be very pleased with the finished product. I will try to get better. I took a few muscle relaxers so we'll see how that goes. Hopefully I don't turn into a big heap of gelatin, like a jelly fish.
I have a rolling acres logo on here (I have to see if it's still active intellectual property, will change it if so) & have the fluted cinder-block texture used on many malls from the time period, too. I just have to get the texture layers finished for it. The mall won't have the repeating brick texture on it too much longer, though I won't mess with the mall until after the next beta.
I almost bought some rundown buildings off the Unity store but most were trash. There's a really, really good set that looks better than the stuff in Fallout 4, which is 80$, but if it goes on sale sometime, I will snag it. Unfortunately map support via Patreon has fallen a bit, so I'm trying to kick things up a notch here without running the project into the red, to try and keep the funding coming in.
--- Post updated ---

There will be some trees, but I am waiting until the map is much further along to add a lot of trees, due to the spike in memory requirements (this is why Roane County as barren as it is, take a lot of memory. You'd need 32gb of system RAM to run Roane County if it had all it's forests!) Forest will mostly be sparse and far in between. I wish I could add more, but until the majority of our users use 16GB, I can't go buck-wild with the trees.

 

Thank you for the informative post

 

I finally got the AI routes for the flyover done. I will remove the way-points tomorrow so it doesn't mess anything up. A new private airport is in, with a challenging sloped runway and two hangars. This runway is not unlike the one in Sandy Mountain, so if you enjoyed that one, you should enjoy this one too. The runway markings are not yet completed. However, I did take time to beautify / complete the terrain better (well, short of adding trees anyway; those will be later).

Cliff rocks could blend a bit better, but I'll dress the terrain up there with richer colors as-needed another time. For now it will be fine. Brown swaths of the terrain I haven't touched yet.

--Tune in next time, for the next exciting episode of... *expletives* Editor Follies!

 

Hey bob.blunderton, I have a question for you.

Will you be able to get the texture issue fixed and be able to get it on the repo or will I have to apply the patch?

 

Figured your subway needed some subway signs. If you want me to whip up a few more for you, give me a shout!

 

Clear cache 1st (you already did this, then skip this and proceed below)
Then make sure you don't have a duplicate copy of Bob_City_Map_Alpha_Patreon_Preview.zip in (check following folders on your computer)
documents/beamng.drive/mods
documents/beamng.drive/mods/repo (I think that is the folder, I don't use the in-game repository browser with my slow connection)
If you have a duplicate somewhere, it can really mess things up and cancel out various things.
Someone correct me if I am wrong here with the folder for the repository mods, please.
Now make sure you don't have the following ZIP file SO_CAL_INTERSTATE.zip, if you do have so_cal, DELETE that one as this out-modes it completely. There is no reason to want So_Cal_Interstate map when you have this, as this city map is better in all ways, possibly even performance.
Nevada Interstate will NOT conflict with this map, for what it's worth, neither will Roane County.
If you do not find any luck with the above fixes, remove other map mods or all other mods and test then.
If you attempt to run this on 0.17.x you may have issues as the terrain is different format (maybe why you can't see it), consider updating your game.
Sorry for your issues with this map project, please let me know if you still have issues with them and I will run it by the developers and see what they think.
Please post your documents\beamng.drive\beamng.log file, after opening the game, attempting to load the map, and having the error. I can help you then if it still does not run (and show the log to the developers here).
Best of luck with it all, if you get stuck on some steps, no matter how simple, please get in touch again.

---

The airport runways have been enhanced to look a little better (still more work to do!), and some grass planted so it's not so barren.
I re-did the AI on the huge fly-over interchange (not pictured, it's the one right by the airport), so now there's NO MORE WRONG WAY vehicles on there now (it was a game-engine limitation up until 0.18.x version). I also fixed the AI on the double-decker portion pictured above, so no more wrong way vehicles there, either. It took hours to do all of this, so it's not as simple as spending a few minutes laying a mile of AI path on the ground. It takes hours as you must move the nodes in 3D to place them each one at a time. A bit monotonous but this map all-together is still a labor of love and I hope it shows.
I only have to do the ramp near the school, not far from the spawn point and I think that is all the AI that has to be re-done, the rest is done already.

I am not sure if I will be able to finish up by the time I am done this evening, so in the next 48 hours I will upload sometime. Expect to see this out for supporters in the next 2 days sometime (it's Thursday morning here!), so no later than Saturday evening. It will be on the repo sometime between Monday and Wednesday of next week (that part just waits until the staff is in, as they have to be physically present at the servers). I just want to make sure this release is more polished than before, and fix the remaining bugs and glitches, to make presentation better. Thank-you for your patience.
Please share the word about this to friends, and PLEASE support the map Patreon page if possible, as I have had a lot of costs lately and membership is down a bit. I am in the process of purchasing assets and wish to get some really nice stuff to get the more derelict side of town done. So if you have even a spare dollar or two, it would really help!
Thank-you for your consideration, support, time, and even suggestions - and putting up with stupid bugs you shouldn't have had to! Gotta love early access...
--- Post updated ---

The texture issues with the terrain are taken care of. Repository update comes 1st half of next week, depends how busy the staff is. No patches needed. I've been adding and adjusting my terrain manually in the text editor, as the map editor wasn't writing them to the map files, which is a bug. The way I am doing it now works around the bug. If it doesn't for some stupid reason, or it is bugged in some other way, I will quickly issue a fix and replace the file on the Repo in short order.

Those are just ducky! Thanks, big thanks for those. They won't make the next beta but I will add these in just after. What font is that on the signs?
They are very nice, again, big thanks there!

---

Spent a little more time improving the map...

Going to try to finish up the road that uses that overpass (that's been missing for a long time with 'WIP' written on the terrain) before uploading the beta. I need a few more hours of work on this and LOTS of testing to ensure I haven't buggered it up any. Finally nice though to have some parts that are beginning to look much more like 'finished product' than 'barren Mars terrain'.
--That is all for tonight.

Testing the flyover AI:

 

The font is Helvetica bold.

 

Thanks! For your help you will get a complimentary beta link in a day or so. However long it takes the map to upload with the incoming weather, is anybody's guess. Let's just say the bad weather throws my internet a FOWL ball... heh heh... *ducks a tossed tomato* I'll show myself out... *hangs head low*

---

Going to clear cache and test. If all looks good at first glance, I will zip and upload now, as it'll take a number of hours with the cloud cover.
Oh and the exit ramps sometimes looking like they're two lanes in the sun VS one lane, should be fixed as I did the normal/specular maps for it now.

 

Patreon release is out for supporters of the map. Please check your email if you're a project supporter.
Please report any nasty bugs to me so that I can fix them, thanks!
The repository version will be out early next week, as time I need for bug reports to come in, don't want a repeat of last time. Derp!

 

Hey bob.blunderton, I have 3 questions for you.

1. Have you made anymore progress on the map?
2. Have you started on the Route 1 concept yet?
3. Have you worked on adding more run down and abandoned buildings to the map?

By the way, thanks for replying to my last question =)

 

These responses aren't in order, and they are also 'for everyone', in my effort to be informative about map progress.
The route 1 project is going to be underway shortly. I will be working on that & the port (I've found some italy port assets that could really be a time saver and a funding-saver for the project, things like large dock cranes and so-forth are super-duper handy and not cheap to buy even on the Unity store) at the same time.
I am currently making modular dock assets / sea wall assets for the industrial area. Making them modular will be super handy as this way, if I decide to plop another building on the water-front, I can just move a few pieces around in minutes, adding or deleting as needed, vs spending an hour or two in the modeling program moving things around and endless wasted time trying to line everything up.
Next month I will try to purchase an 80$ asset of beautiful (if you can call it that) run-down post-apocalyptic assets, complete with vines growing and the like (HELP! LOS INJURUS COULD USE MORE $ SUPPORT, especially now as income is down about 40~45% over the last month or two). I had a few hundred of my own money spent on a video board (which is very helpful, especially in rendering things for live previews, and texturing live ray-traced previews in Substance), and then more on Substance Designer while it was on sale for 34% off (plus a 5$ steam coupon during the holiday!), so I'm somewhat tapped and have to set money aside for these models over the next few months.
There's also a 50$ texture kit BUT it comes with 117 materials plus about a dozen more, and many I can plug right into (I believe I can anyways) Substance Designer to customize them as needed.
In addition, there's a 20~30$ variety of construction site assets. I want the real deal, AAA quality stuff going in here, even if it's not always GTA V quality, I want to try my darnedest to make a nice, immersive, expansive map for this game. This way we can get the truly varied open world we deserve.
Italy has a ton of assets from farm areas to docks and such, this should save a ton of funding, but the textures aren't quite what I am after. I won't let this map look like it's part of Italy, though, just some of the universal (non-themed) assets will be used. I try not to free-ride off other's work, but I won't re-invent the wheel at the same time if I don't have to. There's only one of me here!

Map progress:
In making my sea-walls (starting to, anyways), I have neatened up the continuous bridge abutment (for raised roadways, sometimes used around culverts like by the airport parking) from 10 or so draw calls down to ONE or possibly two if I switch the top texture to look better. This eases work on the CPU telling the GPU how to be rendering things, as they're used often and will batch, every saved 'draw call' is free FPS for everyone who's not GPU-limited. I am going back over my older earlier models and neatening them up / optimizing them also. I've even optimized the collision mesh on said abutment so that cars won't get stuck if they fly up into the small lip at the top (rare, but could happen). I will be replacing the texture on them, too, so it doesn't look stretched oddly.

I will be also adding the illuminated subway signs that @Glorious_duck so-kindly contributed without even asking. Thanks buddy! I've sent a complimentary beta link out to you for that, and for telling me the font so I can make them here (that doesn't make too much time, now that I know the font). The subways will continue to be improved in due time. Have to give it time though, it's not always as easy as it may seem especially when the tunnels get eventually updated (with professional models, GTA V quality stuff, it will cost a bit though). Re-doing the tunnels will of course take time but honestly it will be 100% worth it, as I want this map to be a cut above the rest, both for my own pride and even more-so for the enjoyment of the wonderful deserving community. This game is awesome, it deserves a REAL city map like other AAA games have. Who hasn't just driven around in games like GTA V enjoying doing nothing but driving and/or causing mayhem?

Signs, signs, SIGNS already, I have to put them in, for road signs I have a few sources made already, so not a big deal. I will make sure they're aged and what-not so they're not all identical with just various words stuck on them. I might make the text separate/surface applied, not sure, depends how it works out. Making the text separate lowers V-RAM requirements but ups the draw calls just ever so slightly (0.1%)... you wouldn't be able to see the difference until there's 100 signs in view and I would not make them display over a mile away anyways. So I believe surface applied is the way to go on a plain (weathered) green background. Fact, those big green signs often weren't always metal, they were 5/8th plywood quite often. A little more maintenance but cheaper to make.

The map itself has sat without progress last night as I took the evening off aside of handling bug reports (there are none, so far, woohoo). I will be working on adding models into the map (both ones I make here, and ones imported from Italy - though I may simplify the dock cranes, etc) over the next few days.
Note* I will be making artificial sea-floor for around sections of the map that are at the very edge, like the airport and where the route 1 concept will be put in, this way if you fall in the sea, you don't fall infinitely.

*Gets out his hallway voice and screams into the narrow end of a street cone, like a megaphone*
PLEASE SEND IN BUG REPORTS ON THE SUPPORTER BETA THAT JUST WENT OUT, IF YOU FIND ANY SERIOUS ISSUES ASIDE OF UNFINISHED THINGS, THIS WAY WE DON'T GET A BUGGY REPOSITORY VERSION *AGAIN* ... Thank-you.
Let me know if the AI is janky or broken on any of the fly-overs / 'the stack' interchange, and other spots where it's raised off the ground on over-passes etc. It likes to munch walls sometimes on the right-side of the outer-most lane on the long straight sections of the industrial area. I'll try to have that nicked on the next beta and have it use more lanes, too. I am continually working on 'what's best' for the AI to get it to behave well.

Feel like finding a picture of California route 1 and sending it in here? Please post it if there's scenes you like or would enjoy in the map, I have roughly two miles (or possibly 3 miles) of coast-line to infest with my Route 1 concept / project. I could use ideas if you guys have some neat things to send in. This is of-course non-obligatory, but feel free please. The route 1 concept will also have a small town on the hill in one spot where there's an outline of a road snaking down. When the route 1 concept is put in, that road will be too.
So feel free to send in suggestions and pictures. I am always open to cool concepts. Please if-possible support the Patreon page, anyone who signs up gains immediate access to the current beta, which is updated every 3rd week or so on average. You also gain access to my other map updates early, in the event they break or otherwise need updates. I can even build your house in the game if desired and you take enough pics (just wipe off any address numbers etc) of it. That being said I still have a few supporter houses that will be added in (even if they're not still supporting the map!), do know I am aware I have a bit of a backlog and they WILL be added sooner or later. Definitely will have them in by spring, though.
--Cheers & that is all for today. Expect to see docks installed and some runway stuff added soon.

 

Oops! Consider this bug is one I am now aware of.
Traffic spawns inside the left barriers near the large factory in the lower industrial area, down the road from the large civilian airport. It only does it on one or two of the ramps (that I know of). Will fix!

 

Thank you for the informative posts and thank you for answering my questions =)

 

Just so folks know, I am adding portions to the higher part of the hill just above the city. Almost like Vinewood/Hollywood Hills in various games like GTA SA, that's what I am theming this area like. Of course it's NO WHERE NEAR DONE, it's barely even drivible right now. So just know it's very WiP.

That being said it's been hours just carving this section of terrain up nice and decorating it. I don't have many houses in this style made yet, but I'll get them made soon enough, after I work on the sea-wall stuff (the models are done, some of them, I have to make a nice dark concrete texture for them yet). I will be doing map supporter homes also for this area up here on the hill, nice section of town of course. Don't worry, no one will live in the derelict section if they don't want to, but you can if you want Sure would beat living next to a puppy mill like we do (chasing the all-mighty dollar).
Route 1 project will be worked on as I alternate between here and there. This area was too hideous to leave it go any more, and was bugging me.
So expect to see more of this as I put buildings in / finish off the roads. Luckily those box-shaped homes are somewhat easier to make. I am buying that 50$ pack of textures tonight or tomorrow night so expect some nice looking stuff. They're 3~4 GB though so expect a small size increase (I will be replacing older lesser-quality textures with these). I fully expect that map to be 3+ GB when it's done though, it could be as much as 4~6GB in the end, but it's entirely worth it, as it's a whole AAA-game size environment that this game deserves. WE deserve it, as a community. So let me know if I'm doing a good job or not as you see things you like, want more of, or even things you don't like. Constructive criticism is always welcome, I won't spaz out here.
I will be adding streams back as soon as I know it won't eat them on save (there was an issue going to 0.18 that's why streams/bridges disappeared, it didn't re-save the nodes, but the objects are there in-game).
So if you know of a cool house in GTAV or GTA SA or somewhere from real life in that area, and you want it put into the map here, feel free to send in pictures.
--That is all for right now.

 

Good job on the map bob.blunderton =)

Keep up the good work on the map. I'm also looking forward to the area (that you took a screenshot of that's in this post I quoted) being finished. I'm sorry you live next to a puppy mill =(