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

Get well soon, I've been sick enough times to know it's no fun at all.

 

@Jer @NGAP NSO Shotgun Chuck
The idea of a long straight country road might be used later on if I find a suitable spot for it. The highway that goes past the airport and stack interchange is straight for several miles before it turns, as is the highway that goes over the mountain making it's way to the island base.
Well, I think I'm slowly kicking the worst of the sickness, but it's going to be a good solid whole week before I truly feel better. I just wish my body could make up it's mind whether it wishes to be hot or cold and just stay that way for a while... not leave me covered in sweat while sitting still and then I get cold.
On the bright side, being unwell, and otherwise feeling like rubbish with no appetite has caused me weight loss to the tune of almost 10 pounds! Woohoo! Still not worth being sick for BUT at-least I can - with a straight face - say there's some silver lining somewhere. I don't want anyone to worry though as 95% chance it's not Covid due to the fact that from those who passed along the sickness before I ended up with it haven't reported anything more than flu or cold-like symptoms, no deaths, and it's been at-least over a year (forget!) since I got upper/lower respiratory symptoms + fever this severely. So let's just say I was due / over-due to catch something, and fighting this one off will keep my immune system strong (not immuno-compromised here, that's one of the few things that works yet, I just wished my spelling worked that well).
The following shot is not map progress, it is just to give an idea of where I'm busy working on things.

This section of the map was where progress was stopped last time I was re-carving roads and so-on and so-forth (road on the bottom goes along the shore-line towards the large civilian airport, the road on the left goes towards the island military base which is barely visible in the top left of the shot, and the top right has the city in it), and it will be where I am picking up again. It will sure be a lot more interesting to everyone when it's done.

 

Working on some more stuff and even this realistic cliff face.
I've got almost 2 miles of highway updated. Major changes to the terrain are still happening here, and another dirt track will be added in the area where I originally wanted one many years ago.

Sometimes something so simple as just designing a bit of scenery impromptu like this (I hit some tools - sometimes random ones - and see what comes out of it!), can actually make some pretty realistic stuff.
There's something better though, the highway will split elevation (one part is higher than the other) and the levels may even double-decker for a bit in short spots. Plenty of cliffs to fall off here and the highway might even be a bit longer when this is done. I will be improving the highway up to the point where meets up with the newly updated bridge by the island military base (about 4+ miles or so, estimated). When I say improving I mean completely tearing it out and making it on a close-to 2021 standard, or at-least not looking like something from the early 2000's anymore. I want this map to impress everyone who plays it for more than 5 minutes, and to make those who back the project or contribute in any way they are able to feel good about doing so.
As always, if there's features you're sorely missing, DO let me know if you wish to see them and what they are.
I have been up for roughly 30 hours, and still don't feel well; but I should have some good mapping time this week. I will go to the doctor this week if my condition fails to improve, but try not to worry about me - go enjoy a good crash off some mountain tops in Los Injurus... or just push a piano off one.
--Cheers!

 

Hope you get better soon, Bob ! Good health is always coming first !

 

Thanks for the well-wishes, appreciated!
Starting to *finally* get over it now. About darn time, they usually don't stick around this long / was beginning to worry here. Normally my immune system, while not grade A, is usually at-least a good grade B or there-abouts.

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Still have been mapping (albeit lost a bit of time at the worst of the sickness). So, I will slowly have more to show over the next few days as I re-do the highway and get more scenes closer to finished.

The highway will be much, much more interesting VS what it has replaced, that much I can promise. I should have a few miles of it re-done by the next release, possibly among some other things I'd like to get done also.
--That's all for right now.

 

Looks amazing, as always. And I'm glad to hear you're starting to feel better.

Los Injurus is one of those maps where it pays to stop and smell the roses once in a ahwhile. Or at least stop to eat the rats. I've been zooming around this map for some time now, mainly driving as fast as I can stay on the road (and often faster). But today, after a successful test of a new D-series towing config, I decided to stop in at the local Burger World.

I'm sure most players, like me, don't spend much time going slowly enough to read drive-thru menus. But I did this time. Bob, you are the master of minor details.

An idea (as if you don't have enough on your to-do list already): If you want to make your fast food places really cutting edge, add a drive-in section to the front of restaurants that have a wide front sidewalk like the one in the pic I've attached.

"Cutting edge?" you say, "But drive-ins disappeared in the early 1980's!"

True, but in the post-COVID era, I think a lot of people might continue to enjoy the convenience of not leaving their car. And you don't need the infrastructure that the old-school drive-ins had. All you'd need is numbered parking spots, spaced a little wider to accommodate the window tray, and a sign saying "DRIVE-IN PARKING ONLY". The old order terminals wouldn't be necessary because customers would use an app.

 

@geobeck Thanks! I try to put in tons of minor details, and include humor wherever possible. When I have the time to make the details, I often try to do so. It is little things like that, which give the map / game some personality. In this game, the maps need all the character and personality they can get, as the in-game maps are just recently (in the last 18 months) getting the polish they deserve, and some character too. It's only par for the course that I try to keep things 'a cut above' other users maps, so it's not outdated by the time it's finished (or at-least, I hope it isn't).

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In times when I'm not playing 'Bob the Builder' in real life, as much as my body lets me do so anyways, I have been working on the map. I will have more pictures later on in the next week sometime. There's so much that's partially done but not enough to show. Several miles of highway are done, and one-half of a new interchange that didn't exist before - they're functional and driveable but they are not decorated / signed etc.
So, the only picture I have right now is this one, just ignore the big cylinder in the background, that's my curve-making guide so that I can make consistent corners like real highways have (which I almost always try to do, as it makes the driving experience better / more realistic).

Lots of brand new sweeping corners with gradual elevation changes like routes near the west coast / Rocky Mountains have will grace the next update. The next update is roughly 11 days or so away, give or take a day or two.
I can only promise one thing: Like most other things I (try to) do in my map(s), it shall be fun to drive around here when it's done. I will make darn sure of it - as I wish to enjoy the map too!
I am feeling much healthier now though, thank goodness.
--That is all for right now.

 

It's already huge fun to drive around on your maps

 

You and Spencer Johnson are the best!

 

I guess you use a lot of temporary mesh primitives to guide your road sculpting. In my early attempts at terraforming, I'm having trouble getting the "align to mesh" tool to work properly. Is there a trick to it? I'm guessing you've figured out every trick in the book to aid your terraforming.

 

Yes, I use mesh road shapes to help carve and guide the terrain shape into what I need out of it. Sometimes it's very easy to carve a corner, sometimes I can spend an hour or two making a road and it's all well and good but just cannot get it perfect - the mesh roads save the day.
About 4.5~5 years ago I was in 0.4 and 0.5 version of this game, and wished like in Valve's Hammer Editor (previously World Craft by Ben Morris of DCK Doom Editor fame - and yes I used both of those) where you could go and easily align-to-mesh / carve-to-mesh. I shared this feature desire, and how great it would be / make it so accessible for others to make great maps quickly, Vs having an absolute purgatory of mesh-road-based-maps that was 2015~2016.
In the late summer / fall of 2016, I got my wish. There were now carve up or down to mesh, or carve around mesh tools in the editor. This made making slopes almost as easy as just drawing out the correct sized mesh road and orienting slopes / banking of the road, and then setting your break/width divisions values for it. Then carve away, and remove the road (or move it out of the way with f1 object editor) and test. It really is that easy, but I highly recommend using a carving road that is 3x the width of your desired end-product road.
By mid 2017, all mesh roads (which I used a few around various slopes in a few spots on each map) in my maps were history - with mesh road-based maps becoming less and less common. I don't miss maps being made of mesh roads - where you had a hard as heck time getting back on the road if you fell off, and spots such as road edges or places roads joined one another would eat tires - or whole vehicles!
If you cannot get things to align-to-mesh, make sure you're trying to align to a mesh road. I use the old game version 0.20 and the editor 1.0 for stability reasons to make my maps. I won't progress to using a newer version until the editing tools actually IMPROVE to where I can use them (not throwing flack, but I can't use either editor in 0.21 due to crashes and not saving terrain edits - both editors are out-for-the-count). So unless you have 0.20 backed up, or 0.19 or in desperation 0.18 - I wouldn't recommend even attempting to test your sanity on the current hot mess for map tools. I'd sooner grab 115v live* wires (which I just did the other day - oops!), then use 0.21 to edit the map. So if you or anyone you know has a backup of 0.20, get it, and use that, I can attest that the old editor in 0.20 (CTRL+SHIFT+F11) works quite well as I am using it now to create Los Injurus. I'll update the editor version whenever the new version is an improvement (though, that said, I still have 0.21 here to test with).

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The Bob's derp-of-all-derps, and a bit on power / current / resistance / insulators etc...
*I did grab some live wires, while re-finishing a wall in a trailer just a few days ago - receptacles are wall-board mounted in trailer / mobile homes, where I'm fixing the place a bit... was almost done putting the wall back together and trying to get the socket and box it's supposed to stay in (which it would not), back into the wall, I held it by the live side AND then grounded another part of my hand with the metal socket frame. "OUCH! It bit me! The socket just BIT ME!" Helps not to grab live wires/plugs. To be honest, I only said that after the 3rd or more time I felt my hand buzzing. Due to the extreme pain I am in all the time, and the amount of random numbness I get in my body, it wasn't painful, not even a start, I more yelled "ouch" out of reaction. A splinter hurt worse than that - a lot worse actually. Just one thing matters, don't be a good path to ground, otherwise, power can do bad things like stop your heart if it travels through your chest (and possibly start it again on subsequent zaps, which I have heard of, and is how some medical devices such as a tems unit and pace maker work if I am not mistaken). So yeah, don't play with live wires / sockets / etc kids, it can be a bit painful, and if you're a specifically good path to ground, it may be the last thing you do. If you must handle a live receptacle with the power ON, put a little electrical tape on the sides first - more than one layer, so you don't get a shocking experience / reVOLTing development like I did.
What's really sad is I've put a ton of receptacles into boxes, and (admittedly the stud-mounted boxes not drywall-mounted ones!) so this isn't new things to me. Oh well, first time in 10~12 years isn't bad I suppose. Oh, and before you say 'oh my gosh I hope you're okay!' worry not, it was probably so trivial which is why I laughed at it, it didn't even register on the pain scale, not even close. Actually I'd rather do it again 10x~100x than even drive to the store due to it being almost laughable to get zapped by pain comparison to general movement. As I said though, I wasn't a good path to ground, and it only went through my hand. While our bodies are 95~98% water or something close to that, and water CAN and does readily conduct current / electrify, it is not the best conductor compared to various dense metals out there. Just make sure never to allow power to enter your body through one hand and out through the other if you do work around energized (powered!) lines, because if it goes through your heart, even a single amp at very low volts can stop your heart. AC is easier to let go of than DC is, because alternating current alternates on to off sometimes allowing you to let go in between pulses. Should you encounter a person who's being zapped unintentionally with lots of power, using a non-metallic wooden object such as a broom handle to remove them from the source of power is a good idea - but never use a metal object as obviously that conducts and so do you.
That said, never enter finished basements to where the water is more than 6~8 inches or higher, or any basement in which water has flooded any energized appliances / is up to the fuse panel or light switch height UNLESS you know for-sure that the power company has turned off power at the pole first. Entering electrified water will over-ride your body's ability to control it's nerves, freezing you essentially, causing you to fall and if the electricity does not stop your heart and/or lung action first, you will not be able to breathe when you slip below the water level or even cry out for help after the first initial gasp. Water in finished basements will readily encounter electrical cables / power sooner than unfinished ones, but that does not mean that water flooding an unfinished basement will not find power while flooding the water heater / furnace or washer/dryer units even in an un-finished basements. This is such a preventable death, and many power companies can shut off power at the house meter remotely now with modern and even semi-modern systems with a simple phone call from you or emergency services.

Okay, so I didn't want to write a book and this got way out-of-hand again. Oops. I hope the tips help someone or enable someone to help someone else though, and I've got a lot of OSHA training, emergency services training, medic training, and real-world experience that could benefit others. When I can be helpful I try to be, the only exception is reading my posts might give you eyestrain, and my spelling or run-on sentences might give you a migraine...

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So entirely I worked on the map too, when I wasn't busy spending 20 minutes or more typing with semi-numb fingers - no, no worries, it's not numb from the electric... just semi-numb due to extreme pain and nerve issues with my body.

Gravity-defying bridges and giant random cylinders and random roads only means this area must not be done yet, or that the electrifying weekend The Bob had zapped his last brain cell away. Well, maybe both, but this area definitely isn't finished yet, and is around half-done minus any houses or businesses that get put in around these parts. What I can say is I will try and pack as much fun into every square mile of map that I can figure out how to do without breaking everything, within reason. Your mileage may vary, but only because measuring mileage with a car's trip computer, while airborne, isn't a reliable ideal. It will sort-of look like Cali around these parts, with some 'Rocky Mountain Pass' sections of highway thrown in for good measure.
Come back soon, to see what else The Bob 'took CHARGE of' creating.
*crowd boos and tosses forest veggies*
-- I will see myself to the door!

 

THANK YOU for letting me know exactly how I'm not somehow missing something and inexplicably losing my terrain every time I save. I'm using the latest version of the game with the old editor, and when I import a new heightmap, it creates a new .ter file outside the level folder, and there doesn't seem to be any way to move it in. I'm just creating throwaway levels for now. I'm not doing anything serious with my Aleutian island until I get a stable editing configuration. Next step: Finding 0.20.

 

Moving the .ter file into the folder doesn't bring the terrain with it. I re-map the path in the inspector pane, nothing happens in real time, and if I save, exit, and re-load, I go for another swim.

As for the new editor, it crashes to desktop so frequently, I can't re-save often enough.

 

Just curious Bob. Do you plan on having a forested dirt road that's about a mile along and leads to you to redneck looking houses with American flags on them?

 

PLEEEEASE DO IT (seriously, but not begging, I can technically live without it )

 

Yes, I can live without it and make it myself, but man. Would that be cool?

 

I might, the rural areas it'll be a while until those show up, I've got a lot of highways to do (and rural roads, and lots of city to build too) first.

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@geobeck
There's 2 things to the terrain plus the terrain itself:
The terrain name JSON file with the terrain itself that always wrongly ends up in the levels folder, there's a line in here that needs to reflect the new path you put in.
The levels/*LEVELNAME*/main/missiongroup/items.level.json (or in a sub-folder if it's an official map), search for a line that has the word THETERRAIN in it, and you'll find the path to the wrongly-saved terrain which is levels/terrain.ter or something quite similar.
If your map is named Fresh_Roasted_Guinea_Pig then you'll want to change that path to levels/Fresh_Roasted_Guinea_Pig/terrain.ter.
If your terrain is named something else .ter then just make sure it reflects that.
For example, the terrain for recently refurbished UTAH is in levels/utah/main/missiongroup/level_objects/terrain/items.levels.json (well, once you extract it to levels it is, anyways). You can find BeamNG Drive map content in the game's installation directory under content/levels, look for the corresponding ZIP files for the maps.
My maps are pretty boring and the ones that use the new system for maps (with using JSON and not C-script, some are old ones yet!), the terrain is in the map root folder and the corresponding line to change is in main/missiongroup/items.levels.json. The 'OLD' maps use a huuuuuuge mega file in the root folder of the map - don't try to edit these old style maps (or any other folks' maps you find in the 'old' .CS style), or it could cause duplicate / over-ride issues until you remove all the old .cs files.
I actually still have NOT converted all my roads into .json script vs C-script .cs files, as for some time I've objectively hated how difficult it was to read the new JSON files vs the old ones which I can fly through with ease. So the developers have listened - or just got sufficiently sick of me moaning about it constantly - and have considered some changes to the format. Hopefully that plays out well.
Just try to avoid having a materials.cs (texture entry / index) AND a main.materials.json in the same folder, or at-least if you do, not have any duplicate entries in there. Otherwise, editing the texture's properties inside the editor, COULD cause an issue with the changes not sticking due to being over-ridden by the old format file.
Needless to say, the CS files support will be deprecated one of these days in a game major version update. So when that happens, I'll have a lot of tedious work to do, but I'll do it when that day comes for all my maps (except deprecated So-Cal as that became THIS map). Try to use the newer JSON format if possible. You can convert a map with .cs files and the old way of saving (0.8 and previous, with no 'main' folder next to ART which is always there), by entering the editor and choosing RESAVE the map from the file menu. It will convert ALL the entries and you can remove the materials.cs file(s) from various folders, and the mission & forest file from the root-folder of the map (not the folders named that, just the files themselves which should be from a few hundred KB to possibly several megabytes).
Guys/Gals IF you have problems with EDITOR 2.0, remove ALL mods except the map you're working on / data you're working with (such as my map, as I do NOT mind if you use my stuff provided you don't use stuff from the /commercial folder in the map). Then go ahead and do what you need to do as you normally would, and when it crashes, go into your documents / beamng drive folder, and look for beamng dot log file. Post that file under support/crashes section of this forum / under an editor section if it HAS one (I don't even know!). Or conversely, instead of finding and sending the file manually, you can submit a report and send your customer ID number to the developers via a post in the forum under bugs/crashes/support section of this site.
I use VERY FEW mods. I don't even have Nevada Interstate or Tail of The Dragon installed here, and they're my own maps. Mods *surprise surprise* CAN cause odd-ball crashes, as can running out of system or video memory. So do know your own machine's limits, too.
DO report those editor 2.0 problems, please. The sooner you do that, the sooner I can stop reaming out the developers about crashing it in literal seconds I would love to use editor 2.0. When it is actually worthy of being used; I will be there on short order.

In the mean-time, I will ask the developers if it's possible they can make it available for folks on Steam via version choice in game properties.
I've backed up almost every version of the game (keeping 3~4 major versions at most, removing the oldest as I add a newer one), just in-case a map breaks in the new one or crashes on load, I can use an older version to fix it - or in this case keep working.

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I have been editing, now that it's mentioned...

Please ignore unfinished bits, random road lines / striping over the grass, bright orange 'no-textures' (carving guides!), and the such which is generally indicative of unfinished things. This is a development thread after-all.
In the very last picture, where the 5-lane road on the right (with the arched bridge) almost goes out of shot, the detailing on the roadway fades out. Where it fades out is a nice hill-crest that's pronounced enough that if you come into the shot heading towards the bridge (FROM the top), you'll catch good air there and a little just before that (in two spots), and can have quite fun SLAMMING into all the hills near here - including one at the opposite end of the arched bridge (first shot, there's a bit of rectangular road-wear overlay splashed erroneously on the hill's base).

I've also received word that KissMP works with this map. So go give it a shot if you have that and a good internet connection.
Supporter Beta Release is a week away or so, give or take a day, barring any serious issues here or otherwise with development.
--That's all for now.