People seem to be getting a little carried away here, so I might as well throw my two cents in the ring. Gridmap is a lightweight (in terms of performance), simplistic vehicle testing and showcase map. Nothing more, nothing less. A Gridmap rework should ideally focus on the following: Improving textures and graphical fidelity while keeping the map's minimalist art style. Maybe bring back the caution stripe aesthetic from the early versions of the map? Gridmap is a vehicle test terrain, not a "traditional" BeamNG map. It does not need racetracks, cities, highways, etc. It should ideally focus on providing a number of test locations that showcase the different abilities of BeamNG's vehicles and physics engine. For those who want a wide variety of simplistic, virtual racetracks, don't forget that the track builder exists for that very purpose. Gridmap should be simplistic and focused. The included test terrains should be basic and well crafted. There should be some variety, but there should still be a strong focus on quality over quantity. The map should still be relatively wide open as opposed to jam packed with stuff. Gridmap is also used by many due to its very bare bones design allowing for people to get away with more in terms of PC performance than other, more graphically complex maps would allow, such as those with much lower end PCs or those trying to do complex stress testing. Some people with slower PCs have been slowly closed out of maps as the remasters have happened, and making Gridmap a complex map that is stressful on people's systems is the antithesis of its design.
I've always hated the placement of this ramp here: Just from the aerial view, you can see what the problem is. The three staggered ramps below it are in the way, so approaching from either direction either ends up with you crashing into the back of the other ramp or jumping from the start of one ramp to the start of the other and losing all momentum. Many of the objects in this area feel unnecessarily cramped and randomly arranged, but by far this is the worst offender. This tree is the only tree on the map not placed on a grass or dirt area, and as a result it feels out of place: It also lends to this area's cramped feeling I already mentioned. Many textures and meshes, particularly grass, dirt, rocks, trees, and concrete, are in dire need of replacement with ones from the recently remastered maps. Many of the cubes in the two tunnels stick out, which makes it feel somewhat sloppy in design: I suggest removing this big logo thing here, as it's based on the logo replaced in 2014 and doesn't serve any functional purpose: Lastly, the bottom left corner of the map is essentially devoid of anything except for a small cluster of cubes, a circle on the ground, and a small wedge against the wall. This doesn't need to be empty; Grid, Small, Pure is much better for just building up speed on flat ground and if you want a wall to crash into, you can just approach from the outside of the map. I disagree with the idea of putting in a city or other extensively detailed space. Gridmap is meant to be a non-resource-intensive testing map, similar to the debug maps used during the development of most AAA games. Something more physically useful (as opposed to visually pleasing), like a dirt track, larger offroad area, or skid pan (although ETK and ATT both have one already) would be nice.
I think that ice isn’t really used a lot. How about a car-sized hockey arena or ice rink for car sized ice stunts? Along with a new hockey puck prop for some fun games ?
As Gridmap is a great playground, and area to test vehicles, I'd like to see things like a proper crash testing area, drag strip, stunt arena, more vehicle testing areas, hills which gradually get steeper (as in automation track), various areas to just have fun with vehicles (could be pretty absurd as it's a "virtual reality" track in the game's lore). Edit: Definitely a bit more organizing and spacing out of the stuff already in there, it's cramped into one area when there's quite a bit of space to play with.
Thinking about it, all that I think is needed for gridmap is a mixed surface track that's able to be passed in a normal 2WD production car, however its got a lot of different corners including some.off camber ones to test ESC and TC, as well as some not too harsh of jumps, small and medium sized bump to test working of suspension as well as frame stiffness, enough to bottom out every production car. Another thing I'd like to see would be an area for articulation testing with flex waves increasing in size with distance. Lastly, one one of the map corners there could be some really long (like 10km or so ) slopes at different grades to make for both good high speed aero testing as well as thermal testing for under-load testing, ramps should also all have a strip of drag strip surface the width of 2 semi trucks, to allow for high load testing of suspension and chassis flex under engine torque... And well... For fun there could be some walls/bollards and stuff at the bottom of the runoff area from the ramps ( forgot to mention that radius from the ramp to the ground should be big enough to not damage vehicles) That's about all I could think off from things that I ever really needed in gridmap.
Hear me out, please don’t revamp the grid map so it isn’t grid map anymore. I’m thinking, keep the old layout of the main grid map area, but add new and more fun stuff to the unused areas, and maybe add a crash test area, that’s realistic, something like IIHS or Euro NCAP would use.
I would suggest revamping the map to be more realistic to a proving grounds with high speed loops, rough road sections, skid pads, handling courses and a few crash halls...
Personally I never understood the "Keep gridmap simple for low end PC users" argument. We already have infinite gridmap for that, and if your system is so extremely low end that gridmap is the absolute only map you can use, then I don't think your PC should be the benchmark for development. I'd love to see more automotive testing stuff inspired by real life facilities in game, but I feel that stuff is better suited for the two test tracks we already have in game. I feel that gridmap should just be a sandbox to mess around, test cars in a less reasonable way than ETK/Automation, and test gameplay mechanics. This way it's still unique compared to the realistic test track maps and thus has a reason to exist but still keeps the ability to test and mess around with vehicles in the way we all know and love. Expanding/reorganizing what is already there is a must. As already stated by others, some things like the big loop are placed too close to other things and it can feel really claustrophobic and hinder use of certain features. Futher adding to sandbox elements is important to keep the map feeling fresh and, well, a sand box. I don't have any specific suggestions, but adding miscelaneous stuff like split ramps, loops, and pipes to drive in should be considered. A drag strip is needed to try out that gameplay mechanic in a more controllable enviornment than the standard maps, as well as leaving room for future expansion when any other sort of in game events are added. As a sandbox/test map, having all the event types in one place and a reasonably controllable enviornment is important.
I loved that a mini-terrain with snow and ice was added to the map so that we could have new sensations with the vehicles present in the game. Having a more complete terrain to test the suspensions as well as different surfaces for testing tires. It would be really cool! Thank you to the team for engaging the community so much. --- Post updated --- Replace the white texture leaves the tar.
I actually quite like the BeamNG logo on the ground. I think a barrel roll ramp should be added to the map, since there aren't very many barrel roll ramps.
I think that adding an AWD testing section would be cool, and maybe some better suspension testing areas.
Ah, 0.19 added that. I was already wondering where it came from But yeah, it also adjusts to you cars wheelbase automatically, which is quite a nice feature to have.
A wind tunnel could be cool. maybe some fun lua trigger type stuff like planet gravity can suck you into a planet in the sky if you hit a ramp high enough.
