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

So I've been slowly getting one of the roads in my map in order, and it's almost done enough to reveal. However, I've got one better.

How about, A FREE copy of Arma Cold War Assault from GOG! That's a DRM free game site! https://www.gog.com/game/arma_cold_war_assault
It's only good for the next TEN hours.
Link provided should be safe for work, though I'm not too sure on the violence depicted within the game.
--Map updates will follow over the next few days. I will respond to other comments tomorrow as I just wanted to post this quick.
--- Post updated ---
...EDIT
...another jump NAILED perfectly! 145~150mph in an older Pessima with the throttle matted to keep the nose up, jumps this new bridge absolutely perfectly.

You will be able to have many blocks of a fairly straight run to get most of a mile of room on either side of the bridge over this flood control canal (viaduct system). The bridge was just slightly longer but then the jump didn't work, but this length is absolutely perfect for a good sports coupe/sedan to take it easily. Adds a whole lot of fun.
Incidentally, the surface road joins a far lane on either side of one end of this bridge, the bridge currently does not have any supports yet but will get the cylindrical single-pole (per side) supports like the off-ramp kit usually has. These are technically off-ramps I just put them wall-to-wall to make a sloping bidirectional bridge out of since the highway pieces were too far off scale for here.
So no worries, there will be a whole lot of fun to be had whenever the next version comes out!
My motto is, if it can be a jump, it should be, if it can't be, fix it and make it a jump anyway if at all possible. Jumps are fun, and this is a car crash and driving simulator, why the heck would you NOT want to have jumps EVERYWHERE. That's why we have Los Injurus, and it earns it's name dutifully.

It took about a good hour to get this jump perfected, but I'm sure many people will find not only this jump, but will find that the time is well spent. Also shown is access to the viaduct/flood control canal for maintenance... and you, in the event that you fail a jump and land in it. So entirely making sure I throw my all into making every version better than the last for a community that more than deserves it!
Another EDIT: Jump needs precisely 138mph at a minimum and at most 146mph, and you'll do it perfectly.
--That is all for right now, more pics when I have more props and finish treatments on this area.

 

Just a shot or two of the area I was talking about working on over the last THREE DAYS. Yes it took a WHILE but it's getting there and really turning out NICE.

The reason there's so much open space yet is because the models aren't done yet. So if it gets quiet for a bit, don't worry I haven't deserted - just know I'm touching up UV's on models (I have a ton stuck at that stage for lack of me spending more time in the modeling software, which I am going to be doing).
I hope y'all like what's coming to the next version of Los Injurus. Thanks for all the encouragement and participation here, it really motivates me to make cool stuff for us all to enjoy in an awesome next-gen physics engine. I try to continually raise the bar, even if it makes the stuff from a year or two ago look a bit bad as I can always go back and touch things up.
Yes, if you're wondering, you'll be able to slam this intersection at high speed (going to or from the level bridge) and get launched like the ones over by the abandoned mall.
Check back for more interesting fahldeerahl in a day or two.

 

Here I sit realizing I have to drive to find said bridges because of how wonderfully big the world is

 

I just had a thought. @bob.blunderton, you've contributed a lot to this game's functionality in terms of how maps function while the game is running. Have you ever thought about improvements to the update process?

Waiting for a long time for Los Injurus to download from BeamNG's slow servers made me think: If there were some way for the repository system to use Windows' zip handling capabilities to replace files within the archive, performing a differential update rather than replacing the entire mod, that would reduce download sizes and server load, both of which would reduce download time. Along with the planned structural improvements, BeamNG could become much leaner overall.

 

Well, I have already asked about two things:
Difference files, so that you only have to download what's changed (max 500mb per update, or as little as 150mb).
Changes to the way dependencies are handled such as not having to make copies of all the files available in the base game (which reduces the file size by preventing duplicates, lowers bandwidth considerably as the above also does). Almost every mod-friendly game has systems where you don't need to duplicate game files, partially due to copyright, and also to make things easier.

So yes, I've already been around the block with the developers on that. Most folks don't know about difference files and how to apply them, so I don't use them. It sure would be nice, but for the two or three people who follow this thread that know about them, it would mean more work on my end or their end when they could just have clicked download and come back in an hour or two (or minutes) to a new file and over-write the old one.

It would be nice though! I will keep abreast of changes and change tactics when & where needed. My maps are fairly cutting-edge as far as this game engine is concerned, so sometimes a new way must be made in order to move forward, in one or maybe another thing.

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Yes, it's rather expansive. There's still so much undeveloped space. To say this is half-done would be overstating my progress a bit, but it's not too far off either. It's fun having to actually drive for 10 minutes to get somewhere, it makes it feel REAL.

 

Found a nice little dirt road away from everything and had a blast driving on it. Just knowing you spent the time to craft this little road in the middle of nowhere made me happy. Thanks!

 

Oh yeah. Sorry about this, but the new update prevents me from accessing F11 in this map.

 

Please check your console for errors (red text), also, CTRL+SHIFT+~ may give you the old console yet - not sure - but sometimes is easier to read. Then you can see if a script crashed (only due to the sheer SIZE of the map). Keep in mind it may also just take a long time to load the editor, you can try CTRL+SHIFT+F11 to enter the old one too. Currently you're the first person I've heard of with this.
Also, if you have one of those HP or Logitech keyboards with an FN LOCK button, hit it once and it should enable function keys to work again (I had one, it's in the closet for a reason! I have some cheapo LED backlit keyboard now I paid THREE bucks for). I'd get a nice one but they go through some certain hell in the time they live, so it is a waste to spend a ton on them.

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OK, so bless the survivors of the Surfside Champlain towers collapse, it's been a bit short of a week, and I hope the lost loved ones are in a better place... but if you want to know what I think of it here goes.
DEFERRED MAINTENANCE. Concrete has great compressive strength, we use it for our roads for this reason. It does NOT have good strength when it needs to FLEX, and is brittle. Concrete columns are very strong for compressive strength, BUT if they move at all from perfectly plumb (straight up and down), they cause the structure to fail VERY* quickly usually in a pancake manner. REBAR helps tie this building's many pours (one or more per floor) and various structural elements together. Rebar MUST be placed a little below the middle of the slab (1/3rd from the bottom for sake of argument) otherwise the bottom of the slab could crack and or sheer-off from the columns. *Generally referred to as a tilt failure.
SHEER failure is when the concrete slab snaps off at the columns, and falls down around the columns in one or more pieces, like putting a drink straw into a fast-food cup lid. Since the concrete decking (slabs) also holds the vertical support members / columns directly upright, and the pours differ for each floor, you end up having cold joints on all floors, and nothing left to prevent the column from moving sideways. Hold a paper towel tube core and put the palm of your hand on each end, now push as hard as you can. Eventually it will fold and fly out of your hands. Columns can do this exact thing when sheer failure occurs even if they're still upright, and often even the natural dead load of a structure will make that column fail - regardless of live load.
Dead load = weight of structure itself; Live load = whatever the weight the structure is intended to carry. Cold Joint = where two different concrete pours meet.
SALT WATER is the enemy of concrete and steel and we've known this since Alcatraz (and why we don't use that anymore except a tourist trap), this also is the cause of your brake lines on your vehicles going out like mad since Saline (a salt / brine mix) was implemented to de-ice down to a whopping 26.5F in the late 80's early 90's time-frame. The salt water (salt is also present in the air, you can smell the ocean this way many many dozens of miles inland) attacks concrete breaking down the lime, eventually getting to the rebar of the building which is it's bones. Salt exacerbates the rust, and the whole process of which this rust takes place EXPANDS the metal rebar inside the concrete and causes the concrete to quickly spall and even crack straight through.
There were many issues of deferred maintenance causing exposed rebar and chunks of columns falling out.
Moments before the full collapse, the pool deck level (immediately above the lower parking garage level, was another parking level + lobby + common areas and pool) had collapsed and sheer failure can still be seen under the still-intact portion of the tower which did not collapse. When floors sheer off I will remind you they do not always go straight down, they might put longitudinal force upon one or more uprights in a fault-critical structure (opposite of fault tolerant) and cause collapsed through failure of upright structural column or wall elements.
This sheer failure preceded the collapse of the building. The full collapse occurred about seven minutes after this. An elderly woman who escaped with the security guard helping her, had 3 seconds to spare after evacuating shoeless upon seeing cracks forming in the building. These said cracks were forming due to the loss of one or more upright members, and as the unsupported lower levels of the building drooped, cracks formed in the entire vertical area of this lost upright / column. Once those cracks cracked through the slabs entirely, down she went.
Whether this is due to a sinkhole under one of the columns, a vehicle accident within the garage, or just due to sheer failure due to loss of structural steel reinforcing bar incl. loss of slab thickness from spalling, that is yet to be determined.
The reason for deferred maintenance is due to the HOA / Condo Association not wanting to spend the 9.x million dollars to structurally fix the building and remediate (not PATCH) the issues. Condo Association fees were avg 900$ a month for this building and there were about 120~135 units total. Yes that's somewhere around 10 years of Condo fees on the entire building over 25% of the buildings entire life. Don't live in an HOA people, please just don't.
My heart goes out to the victims of this needless and entirely avoidable (but inevitable given lack of maintenance) accident. I believe we're going to hear a lot more about deferred maintenance in the future in similar style buildings.
Clarification: CEMENT is an ingredient of concrete, along with rocks, water, sand and so-forth. Cement is usually lime-based and is what 'glues' the concrete together. Calling a concrete truck a 'cement mixer', or calling your patio, driveway, or basement walls cement will make you look silly in-front of others who have been raised or are otherwise know the ins-and-outs of construction.
I was raised in a concrete foundation business, we did many commercial pours including a sewage treatment plant expansion, and occasionally flat-work too as needs-be. I can read blueprints since I was about 10~12 years old or so. So while I seem like an armchair engineer from my viewpoint, there is a lot of hands-on experience with said trade and a lot of theory work too.
The first accident that comes to mind with sheer failure is Korea's SAMPOONG department store collapse that happened somewhere around 20 years ago or so (give or take 5~8 years, forget exactly), where weight of A/C or HVAC units installed on the roof, of a building designed originally with one less floor, exceeded the ability of the slabs to hold in place around the columns. The resulting floor failure cascaded down the building as the force of collapsed far exceeded the ability of the building to keep itself upright. The vibrations of said AC units (which weren't the cause of the failure in Champlain towers south which had started from the bottom up), caused the cracking of the concrete around the columns at Sampoong.

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Work on the map continues, even if it's not always obvious and shown with pictures, as I've been busy modeling stuff lately. When those are done and in the map I will be showing them off surely.
--Stay safe people!

Fine print: My OPINION of what happened is not proven fact until a qualified engineer says such, or says differently. My findings and opinion above do not reflect the opinion or stance of the BeamNG staff or developers. I haven't gone personally there, however, I was able to take in a lot of data and hear from many witnesses near or within the tragedy itself when it occurred. Most folks in the industry (construction, engineering alike) can deduce very quickly what happened here from what is shown.

 

Thank you for this information.

 

Now is the time to suggest features and buildings that should go in the map next!

Think about what your favorite thing is in another similar-type game like a Need for Speed, Dirt series, GTA V or IV or even San Andreas (last of which this map's flow is somewhat similar to, in my opinion GTA SA was one of the best open-world 3D games ever made, something even more fun than GTA V unless you count hitting bunnies with tanks...)
So entirely, LET ME KNOW, as there's plenty of time in the month to get new cool stuff.

Suggestions, some from others, rest is things I am doing anyway in the near or immediate future:
*Fix up more of the outside large loop of highway as you've been doing (I tend to get a few miles done each release, over 60~70 % of highway is updated, the outside loop is around 26~27 miles total).
*11-foot-8 and 11-foot-8-plus-8 replicas as best as my ability (and scene location) can do. They will be in the ruined/blighted part of town. These will be as close to proper look/feel/dimensions as possible.
*Huge skyscrapers both commercial and residential and one way roads around them
*more hidden infrastructure under the map like culverts and large water pipes you can even enter (possibly even entering pipes with a vehicle, if possible, they will be large storm sewer infrastructure).
*connect the two sides of the train lines so they make a loop around the map (and a section of rail leaving the map area for freight purposes). This must wait until more of the blighted section of town is in.
*Add in more supporter features such as named things and buildings requested (this summer yet this stuff will become more common, as it's dutifully owed to the backers of this project)
*Proper asphalt race track. This will be out in the rural areas of obvious reasons.
*Soundscape needs to exist, I have about 1/3rd of the soundscape I need, I have to check if the game has underground ambience (the rumble you hear underground like in GTA and real life).
*Zones must be implemented, so that tunnels darken properly and are properly lighted.
*Script and lights for street lamps to come on only at night when it's dark, courtesy of a design in a Nadeox map.
*Textures are being upgraded and fleshed out, VRAM requirements might rise a tiny bit and then drop back a little when the ECA assets are pulled as they don't match the rest of the buildings I made and are very draw-call (cpu render time) intensive VS the rest of the map. I can render 10 blocks of my buildings VS one block of ECA buildings, that's why my buildings are somewhat simple but the FPS is still decent in a huge city yet. FPS is important, as when FPS drops, your ability to control the vehicle does to. Please adjust graphics settings so you get AT LEAST 45 fps and keep Vsync off to keep the frame time delay per frame down to a minimum.
*Adding in new CC-0 / CC-SA (x) and purchased commercial models, as they do no good taking up over 100gb of my drive if I am NOT going to use them (yes, my asset pool is close to the size of GTA V but a lot of that stuff there, especially free stuff, won't be used or will only be used to make derivative works as-allowed by each object's license). No plagiarism or copyright nonsense issues here, PERIOD. We don't need or have time for a DMCA take down like other maps get from time to time, that won't happen here.

That is all for right now, I just wanted to let everyone know what's going down and what to expect in the next couple of months as the currently-monthly versions roll out.
Version release frequency (supporter and public) will increase when Starlink becomes available sometime before 2022, that's the closet date they'll give but it's much better internet - mine sucks royally.
If you can contribute things you've made or know sites with good free models of decent quality, do give a shout or send a contribution over via private message.
Also, please support this project financially if you have the means to do so. I am looking at spending 150$ for various building generators and city layout generators that are available now. I will obviously try these for a few days (as allowed) before purchase. Scripts, assets such as textures or buildings / models cost big bucks sometimes, other times I can get them for a bargain, so your money goes for a good cause and definitely helps speed things up.

Have a happy 4th of July Independence day for those who live in USA, and don't blow your fingers off with fireworks or you won't be able to play BeamNG and Los Injurus.

(edited to remove boo-boo's, derp)

 

Um, edited to remove boo-boos... but today is 2nd of July...

 

Actually, I tried. It looks the editor is outdated. That's actually a problem with the whole game sadly.

 

Went to the church to fix something on Saturday, got that all fixed up and in ship-shape, picked up the last tool off the floor to leave, and it happened. My back went out. Lovely. I hope this is not mean it's getting more frequent, because if it is, I'm up the crick.
Managed to fix it in the pew at church on Sunday... but that's like throwing a band-aid on a stab wound really - one wrong move and it's out again. So I've had pain shooting down my legs since Saturday with little break. Still got the lawn mowed though (bad idea, but it was already too long since I mowed it and who knows what the tropical storm remnants will bring). This pain from my lumbar-region of my back being out is like no other. Tooth infections were bad but they're in one spot, my pain is akin to doing that in the entire lower-half of my body.

I hope the update (which I haven't even had a chance to run yet) went well, but I try to follow design documents so that my map gets designed in a way that won't break every time the game has a version update.
PBR textures will slowly start appearing in the map once I have saved the documentation for it locally - this is a good thing - as most assets I purchase that aren't directly for Torque 3D come with PBR type assets. I've made sure to keep a majority of the original works that I did so I can spit out PBR assets on derivative things I've made custom right here a lot easier, and also for those which I've purchased (or obtained for free) for the project.

I've got two warehouses done (one all-new and one variation), and a whole LOT of textures scripted in for the next run of models to enter the map. That combined with a ton of other behind the scenes work (and lots of 'well why doesn't this work, it's supposed to' splashed in for good measure to make sure I'm not too sane), and real-life stuffs that had to get done took up over half my time since the last release. However, this map NEEDS new models to spruce things up, as I can't put any more of the same stuff in the more built-up section of the map or everything will just became like-for-like and very boring. I have lots of models to put in, dozens upon dozens of them, but doing them up nice takes a LOT of time (they are NEVER able to be purchased and then put right in the map, it just doesn't work like that, and I'm very pick and do my UV's on recent models better than most - of-course I also 'cheat' UV's and connect the faces behind other things inside the building if there's no interiors to keep performance up and often cut draw-call load in-half). Basically, even the models you buy for 10~100$ a pop, most people are doing quantity over quality, unlike what I am making for my map (which while simple and barring a few of my early ranch-house designs which need UV sewing done, my models can't really have draw calls lowered more than they are without losing detail or raising VRAM* requirements even more).

For those who've messaged me, please tolerate my tardiness for now. I'm trying my best but there's still around 50 to go (sorry!).
...and now back to my regularly scheduled constant pain/agony.

*Also, video card prices are coming down as mining goes bust in China due to being BANNED. HOORAY. So wait it out until the school season starts, and then buy - DO NOT buy now. Prices are STILL going to drop more, so what gets a used over-worked mining card now with no warranty will buy you a new & possibly even better card in a few months.

 

Sadly the update broke all the traffic lights. Wrong colors or just gray lights. Hopefully it isn't too hard to fix.

 

I had also noticed this issue when the new update came out as well, unfortunately. Since I just moved to a different machine I'll run it again and see if that wasn't cache related.

 

I will have a look at it, it could be related to texture detail as I didn't see it broken on here. I wonder what broke... that said they're mostly West Coast traffic lights and should be a drop-in replacement.
I checked and the traffic lights seem to be working okay:

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"Caught slackin' again!" The devs beat me to it, but good on them for knowing how to make this a lot more fun than a bunch of boring blocks.

I posted this shot of grid-map to show what I intend to build into the map where applicable (there's hints of it in my map but not enough of it outright). It's fun, even if it makes the car go to pieces, to jump around and do all that stuff you can't or just shouldn't do in real life.
So glad they finally switched to Vulkan, I am thrilled they took my advice on that as DX11 is close to a decade old and not worth spending a penny of man-hours on when modern render methods exist already that are much superior and made for our many-core CPUs.
This also allows me to pack a little more detail (at the current performance) before dropping below 60fps - however, I am still hard-core limited on VRAM so for the current time don't expect any 'radical' differences in the map or it's flow.
Let me know what is your favorite part of Grid Map, so I know what players like and what parts to mimic in my map to keep broad appeal and keep players enjoying the map longer. I've already got a mecha-sized skate-park for vehicles planned somewhere.

--to be continued!

 

Getting some brown-stones ready now that the two warehouse models are finished and done (I found some more stuff to optimize and spent another afternoon on them as I had already forked two models apart from one base model as I often do, this is common in the 3d artist practice).
The grey texture in the one shot is showing where reflections (shiny stuff) will be (brighter spots = shiny like glass or polished chrome/metal, dark = stone, brick or concrete that doesn't really reflect). The colored texture on the right (a portion of it) is what you'll see primarily.
This model is simple, and was available royalty free unlike the warehouse. I always look around for royalty-free or CC-0 / CC-SA models in the creative commons to help the bottom line on this project. That means more money for good models that I hopefully don't have to spend a ton of time working on.
I have a few more buildings to get ready, we need some new stuff in the map after-all.

I do not have any time-frame or Idea when I will get to switch over to PBR texturing, but I'd like to do it before the summer is out. It will take at-least a week to do. Maybe I can do it after the next supporter update.

Edit: If anyone has any problems with me making a 'Champlain Tower' replica, with a memorial in it, for the victims of such a senseless and preventable disaster, please please do speak up if you'd find issue with it. I'd like to make a memorial to them in honor of what should not have happened. While it's both a recent thing combined with myself being raised in the concrete construction industry, and originally being from Florida before my generation, I really feel for these people. It's not about me, I just figured at some point it'd be a nice thing to do. It wouldn't be in the map for about two more months at the earliest.
recap:
Thus far with my information I have about it's collapse, I needn't go back and edit my theory on what I figured had happened.
Not enough rebar connecting slab to upright (column) or not to code
Columns too narrow to withstand compressive force combined with lack of maintenance after the floor containing the pool deck / main entry level dropped away. A column 2x as high is only 1/4th as strong.
A cold joint between levels (different pour times) is a weak point and can kick out as I mentioned before if not braced.
LACK OF MAINTENANCE is a biggy. It wouldn't have fallen otherwise. Rebar + concrete + moist salt air / salt water is a recipe for disaster, and an avoidable one at that.
I hope this topic is not offensive to anyone, but if it is please do make me aware of this.

 

It won't let me download it

 

It works for me, try again?

 

i hope you plan on expanding the rail network. i know that there's a functional railway switch mod, so perhaps you could make some kind of rail yard so people can mess with rail transport (when those train mods eventually get fixed)