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

I have a question. Do you have a planned/specific release date for the repo version or no? I won't be surprised if you don't. I know people will say when it's ready. On another note. Concrete is/looks great on bridges, especially arched ones like the ones you're making.

 

Oops. Texture editing boo-boo caused all arrows for on-pavement lane markings 'left + through' movements, to show 'right + through' graphics. Derp. Don't know when that happened but it did so sometime over the last 3 weeks. If this affected the last Supporter Beta, know it IS fixed. That was my mistake with the material editor.

Well thanks, glad you like it, though I'll likely be using my own concrete texture down the line (though it takes merely an auto-replace command in a text editor to switch the model's texture reference), so the seams don't show between the pieces.
Repo version will be updated somewhere around Week 3 or Week 4 of July, sometime around there, depends on how much I get done, how fast things go, how many bugs I hit, how many times I break the map with the new world editor (don't have much of a choice but to use it as the old one is getting worse/buggier), and of course how my health is during all that time.
Sometimes I can't even have a clear enough head to think about stuff like that and end-up playing some mind-numbing video game* for a few hours or sleeping it off. I end up like that because I don't sleep naturally, even if I managed to somehow get hours and hours of physical labor under my belt in one day, I still would not sleep naturally without eating some allergy medication. It's due to my PTSD, as soon as I start to go into deep sleep my brain kicks me out of it. A rat could fart in the next room and it would wake me up - well almost. Sometimes no matter what I just cannot sleep when I should.
*Video games, yeah, those wonderful time wasters. When I can't physically get around enough, and am not at my best with a clear head enough to edit, I occasionally will just play a video game. That said, as I've gotten closer to 40 years old, I don't get nearly the same enjoyment out of playing a game as I do making them. I like to make games, bring other people some good times, and feel like I have accomplished something. I almost feel guilty playing a game when I could be making one.
It's sure going to take quite a while to finish Los Injurus, but I'm okay with that, and have lots of time to do it when I am stuck here at the PC. Might as well do something constructive with my time. Can't even go outside today due to a giant dust cloud and SERIOUS allergies (I am supposed to wear a mask outside at all times, Covid or not, due to my allergies, and I don't), it's that giant Saharan dust blob that's moved over the southern USA as of late. The sky is all weird... good time for some BeamNG!
--That is all. More pictures tomorrow or later in the day today.

 

Very informative, thank you.

 

Some pictures of the area I'm building up now.

Last shot is the highest point in the map, 800 meters elevation at the peak, above sea-level. There will be a dirt road from about the bridge up to the summit, where you can park (or going flying off, crashing into the strip-mine quarry below).
The interchange (2nd last shot) is done, finally), just needs some minor detailing and chevron signs.
Starting to add a few nice houses in, slowly. I will be adding more as I go, so you will get developed area along with new roads on the next supporter beta in sometime around a week from now.
Terrain is now recolored, and it should look better now, but it's not necessarily final. It's closer, though. The map looks less like patchwork now, though.
Fixed a number of texture issues like the cobblestone looking too bleached out, and some random no-texture stuff that only I'd see.
First two shots of the old roadway are one of the new overlay graphics for the roads, to make it older, show wear.
Lots of new cliffs to fall off here - no shortage of those in this map, that's for sure.
So the next supporter beta will definitely have a lot more changes than some of the other betas. I hope you all like what you see.
--That is all!

 

Got some more homes in, another dozen or more, into the area I am building up. Once this gets it's trees, it should look much more complete - but I figured I'd send screenshots out BEFORE I block the shots with trees, for reasons which should remain obvious.

Still lots of foliage to add into the scene, but this is as far as I've gotten today. I've put no-less than an average of 6 hours a day on this over this past 4~5 days, minimum.
The orange/black chevron signs on the outside of the turns are double-sided, I made a variation of the single-sided in-game ones, and these like the in-game ones also do not have collision. This way, I can use them to guide both directions through the turn, on two-way roads. This will make signing the turns much easier.
I will make sure to put a traffic light in where the two last shots are before the beta as it needs one (badly). I will likely add a few in when I do that intersection.

In these last few shots, I've added more barrier in between the lanes and at the edges where the cliff is in the first of the last 3 shots here. I've also taken the time to finish up the road striping and do the lane merge area as it exits the tunnel and goes from 3 to 2 lanes (as this is the highest point here of the highway, and it no longer needs a truck climbing lane). I will make sure these s-curves get some turn chevrons before the beta.

The area in the two shots above has also been graded and prepared for building on it, and for the route 1 project to start. I also did the grass detailing and cliffs decent enough for now. There will be at-least one interchange here on-top of the hill where the highway is (not the lower highway). The long straight over-the-mountain highway in the last shot on the right shall remain untouched (for now anyways), but will eventually have the grass look to it vs the dirt and wild plants it has now.
The city itself hasn't been much changed, but once you travel outside the city and toward the corner with the civilian airport, things get changed up a bit. So yes I've been quite busy on things, but for now, that is all. I'd like to get a supporter beta out by Monday or Tuesday at the latest. I won't have the route 1 project built by then but hopefully have enough new roads for folks to explore...or just fall off of. This however IS all in preparation for the route 1 phase to start.

 

Don't know if I posted this one change/fix, it was by request. The lane markings for valid movements used to be rather 'flat' looking and had a solid grey line around them which didn't look right on some pavements (especially considering I have a choice of no less than 2 dozen different shades of road pavement - and that's only counting the roads that are applied direction on the terrain, there's even more for mesh objects like town roads / sidewalks / bridges).
This is now fixed and the pavement texture shows through nicely as it should, while no longer have the unsatisfactory grey outlines.

Yes, I made a whole post about a single turn arrow - but it's actually for 5 different (directional) variations of them. That was long overdue.
"It's all in the details." All these little details matter when bringing an entire city to life in BeamNG Drive.

This was changed roughly 10 days ago. Oops. I wouldn't have made a post for just this if it wasn't a request.

 

Finished up the area near the ramp (still needs LOTS of signs!), updated / added to nearby AI, and added more details:

While if I forest the entire map, memory requirement increases would prevent 90% of people from running the map; some parts will have decent tree coverage - but far from a lot certainly. Most of it will be grassland / semi-arid / desert / mountainous, with the occasional trees here and there. I really thought this needed some trees to complete the look / immersion of the map. For most folks, it won't cost more than 1~2fps for all these Redwood trees to be rendered, if any fps hit at all.
Just don't get TOO nostalgic for "ALPINE" tracks, there's already Tail of The Dragon for that - but who says we can't have a little taste of that here or there?
Over-all I am very pleased with how this little section of the map is coming along. I hope y'all are just as happy with it also - I can't wait for the time when much more of the map looks as finished as this area does.

So for all those folks who enjoyed driving around in various GTA / NFS or any other open-world driving games, this map will make you feel right at home. Road mileage will likely eclipse Roane County before the year is out - and Roane County has 193+ miles of roadway.
Supporter Beta is still on schedule for Tuesday morning (USA time) release. Rain date or in-case of last-minute catastrophic bug-date may push the release date back to Wednesday/Thursday morning (not likely to happen, but the weather here can be all but unpredictable here at times).

--That is all!

 

so your reworking the highway right ?, will it be roane county like with long smooth sweeping corners and just a generally long relaxed drive in which you can cruise with one hand all the way in a bluebuck, because as soon as one starts the ascent/descent on the larger mountains it very easy to go flying into the retaining wall because all of a sudden 60mph is way to fast for the corner. It wont be like that in the finally product right ? or should I just get used to using the brakes on the highway and/or not drive a bluebuck on highway

 

The corners on the highway will not be nearly as flat or bumpy/uneven as they were originally, but there will be warnings ahead about the curves coming up that are still somewhat sharp. You will always be able to handle the curves at 55~60mph without too much of an issue unless you have a truck with a top-heavy load. There will always be those one or two spots where it's hairy, but it should provide some challenge and not be too boring. After-all this map will somewhat simulate driving through the Rocky Mountains area, too. Otherwise, too much of one thing will render it quite boring!
That said, I can drive a customized 88 Pessima AWS with a #2 or #3 turbo on it at max speed all the way from the island military base to the city, by using the highway that goes over the mountain directly from the base towards the city. You should have zero issue with the exception of some obvious tighter curves. Use of a vehicle that corners well will be much more advantageous than a drag-strip style vehicle that's made for pure straight line speed.
Your input does not fall on deaf ears here, not at all actually. I welcome all input, comments, compliments as well as (constructive!) criticism. The main reason I am re-doing a lot of the highway is to lessen those crazy hairpin corners, but I am also doing it to make it more interesting and professional looking.
There will always be a wide variety of roadways and paths to choose from, so this way everyone should be happy.
--Thanks for writing in!

 

The amount of detail you are putting into this map is impressive, it is looking really good.

 

aaah brilliant good sir, yes a Bluebuck with softer suspension and crossplies will not be anywhere near as good as a Pessima (by the way its a very base model with a 291, certainly not made for even the strip haha). It can get very hairy without careful use of the throttle around the mountain passes, especially around the richer areas right up top, maybe as two cents from me how about making the road slightly darker so its not that hard to see the lanes as I often find myself squinting at the screen like a 70 year old. Something that's really not helped by my poor eyesight that makes seeing the lines even more difficult, sometimes going all over the road because I couldn't see the lines. It doesn't make for relaxed cruising, I suppose that's just my issue, that every thing is the same grey and it gets very hard to make out the road from the retaining wall


This thing does not like corners, or mountains, or corners and mountains.... especially corners and mountains

 

I will be adding in the black striping along-side the lines later on - but bear with me for one more beta to pass before *that* gets implemented. I am up against a deadline.

---

Got some more work done today. Don't know where 10 hours of my day went doing this, but it did go...

Added a bunch more 'turn chevron' signs and a whole lot more signs to the area.
Added more pavement milling effect graphics to the highway (still A LOT more of that to do after the next beta).
Touched up the mountain-top lookout (tourist trap), and added more grass to the mountains so that they blend in better / terrain is more cohesive here.
Added some more roads, and a large flat rectangular area where a hotel will be, when I find or make a suitable 4-star-class modern hotel building.
Lots of little tweaking on nearby corners, for smoothness / banking fixes.
Started adding more AI lanes in for the area.
Still on schedule for Tuesday morning (USA time) supporter beta release, unless the rain hams up my satellite internet which could delay the release by a day or so (we've cleaned house with the rain records this year, 9 months of consecutive above-average rainfall - which has never happened here in Tennessee, which is also why I've mentioned it a few times this calendar year so far).

Did not get to do the following yet:
Add a new townhouse development with the new models I have made for them.
Add a lot more signs that really need to be placed badly, over half of which are 'double-sided turn chevron signs' (these deliberately do not have collision!).
Replace missing rivers that got eaten by a game-update two whole game versions ago, this is low-priority.
Color-match cliff rocks as they used-to match the terrain but now do not. Will try to get this done prior to beta or it'll look awful (cache clearing is required to see it).
Add spawn points in the area, it will get 3 or more as time goes on, but I can't promise that will be in by the next beta.
Update older So-Cal Interstate 'legacy' road graphics with new ones... this will be time consuming and not be done before the beta. But I do have a nasty no-texture to fix in the mean-time.

 

I am currently uploading the beta, in the rain, big shocker it's raining here. It seems that I have chosen to have satellite internet in what amounts to the rain forest capital of the USA... Tennessee (!?) ...and it's monsoon season (sigh). It's always monsoon season here. So it's going to take a bit.

When it's all done, the next supporter beta will be going out.
Sometime between Week 3 of July and Week 2 of August, I would like to try and get the repository updated*. I must clean out some of the older assets first however, as the map zip file is now 2.05gb compressed (ultra zip compression). The map is just north of 5000mb uncompressed. There's a few hundred megs of data I could stand to lose, but I must make some replacement stuff first which will hopefully not be as big.
*The time at which I attempt to update the repository, and the time at which the file becomes available to you outside of the supporter betas, is not something I am in direct control of. So there is some delay in posting to the repository which usually amounts to a few days.

--- Post updated ---
So it wasn't even supposed to rain, right? I saved last night's weather forecast. It wasn't supposed to rain at all. It ALWAYS is raining, and of-course it rained for half the night last night... Grrrr... (I left the map uploading, it should be done later / this afternoon sometime).
Link to screenshot (safe for work) of my weather forecast from yesterday evening which I had saved below...
https://prnt.sc/tdblub

 

That forest looks amazing. I love the map so far, btw!

 

Looks a bit like the forest from west coast us. Like that a lot! . .

 

"What's The Bob doing? It got awfully quiet. Maybe a piano fell of him again..."
I've been up to come cool stuff. I bought a really awesome model for this map, which I will show a preview of below (some elements might be removed and replaced like the Ivy vines, with some much-more optimized stuff, we don't need several different 800,000 triangle, 2 million+ vertex ivy vines here, can render 8 whole city blocks with a quarter of that, without a second thought).
Will have some of my Route 1 concept pictures going up by mid-week next week, as I'm putting that in now.

 

Exellent!

 

Wonderful job. The forest looks excellent. You gonna do any more work to it before you release it?

 

i dont know if you are asking about the update or whole map but im certain the map is out for like... a year

 

This map will likely take a long time to finish and is only about 35~40% complete, if that. I will continue to work on this in the future months/year/years, however long it takes to make it awesome as I lack much else I can do.