The map is called River Highway and is available on the repository here: https://www.beamng.com/resources/river-highway.18662/ I decided to take on a huge project - a 8x8km map consisting of many roads and highways to get lost in. I wanted to make a very detailed but also very large map where highway driving was possible. I am taking inspiration from the many maps available, and combining those ideas with many custom assets to hopefully make a very realistic experience. The map is currently called river highway. Maybe it will get a better name, I am not sure. It's likely staying that way in the files, though. I posted the below at the start of the project. Keep in mind it is way out of date. See my most recent post in this thread to see what it's now like. I have made sure to include many things. Many dirt tracks to explore, a race track, multiple towns and villages, a railway and two runways. I have added both runways already but they are not complete (terminal needs to be built and runway markings are not there yet). I have also tested the main paved runway to ensure the largest airplane currently avaiable (AN-12B) is capable of taking off and landing there (and yes I can safely land the plane). Take a look at the screenshots below. This is some of the mostly finished parts of the map. I will soon release the map as a WIP as it will take so much longer to complete it fully. I estimate to be only 15% done. There is a lot of hours which go into the detailing of this map. Hopefully it doesn't get any serious performance issues. At the moment, it loads in a decent amount of time (less time than most other maps for me). I tried to optimise my models using as few tris as possible. I will also give permission for anyone to go and use my 3d models in this map for their own maps. Model making can be difficult and time-consuming so something like this could be helpful to others.
Number of Tris is not huge issue usually, LOD models usually take care of that side of optimization well enough, so you can have pretty much detail in terms of Tris Bigger thing is drawcall optimization, so that your UV maps are made so that engine can batch things up and draw more with single drawcall. Also putting million materials is going to get expensive, make texture atlases so that many buildings uses single material/texture, like put all doors in one file etc, check West Coast usa textures for ideas. Drawcalls eat limited CPU computing time, while Tris use GPU computing time, which there is more. Recent versions of game have got much better in using CPU with better batching, but still it is worth trying to minimize work CPU does so that GPU gets utilized fully. Drawcall optimization has been issue with many games for at least 10 years and still is, with fast GPUs it becomes very clear, with slower GPUs good LOD setup is savior of course as with slower GPUs Tri count still matters, but using normal geometry detail instead of high helps a lot if LODs are well done, however you can't do anything with graphics settings to reduce drawcall CPU usage, except killing shadows or something to give more computing time for drawcalls. For example Cities Skylines runs really poor because insane amount of drawcalls it makes, well, among other things, optimization was not priority with that game I guess --- Post updated --- This does not apply directly, but still gives some idea about things: https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/DrawCallBatching.html Polycount has ton of good stuff http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Framerate_Optimization_Tips http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Texturing http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Texture_atlas https://polycount.com/discussion/50...-optimisation-do-polygon-counts-really-matter https://polycount.com/discussion/174622/uv-mapping-and-performance These are quite informative, even old: http://www.ericchadwick.com/examples/provost/byf1.html http://www.ericchadwick.com/examples/provost/byf2.html Then state changes are one aspect of performance http://www.gamedevpensieve.com/graphics/3d/architecture/state-changes I made long time ago some pics to make it easier to understand why texture atlas helps with drawcalls: These are from this topic, which I made while trying to understand why performance was so poor, developers have worked miracles for performance since then, so some stuff is not valid anymore, but for a reference: https://beamng.com/threads/optimiza...nd-others-differences-has-lots-of-info.57689/ Maybe that is helpful, with such big map you can run out of CPU power if not careful and all that optimizing applies really to any game content with any game I guess.
Thanks for that, it will be really useful. I am not planning on going too crazy on the materials. It is mostly using the default East Coast USA materials and textures with a couple imported from other vanilla maps. I do have a few roads and props that do use custom materials, though. Anyway, here is another update. I have created a new arch bridge, expanded on a few roads and added more forests. There is also a new lake/dam that will supply the main river with water. I will add a dam wall to it later. The lake (WIP): This is what the map looks like from a distance: It is pretty large now! This is only the centre of the map that has been worked on. The runways are a bit further out.
There certainly is! I am trying to make it AI friendly, because having traffic is so fun to drive in on a map like this. There are a few places where AI does not work exactly as its supposed to at the moment (bridges come to mind), but I will eventually get that mostly fixed. Anyway, more updates! Finally added signage! (from the new East Coast USA) A radio mast - a landmark visible from afar. Also has a red light on top. A dam! This was a fun thing to add. Another shot of the dam. The house in the picture is on an island, accessible only by floatplane or boat.
I have been trying to fix up things because of the new update. The lighting is a bit different than to what I wanted in my map. I will have to figure out how to darken everything a little. View of the map without fog: According to the new loading screen, there is currently 157 km of roads!
I don't know. If it is not too difficult, then yes, but I have already planted a lot of trees into the map.
I had a look at adding the new trees and have decided to go somewhere in between. I will not completely remove the old trees (at least, not all of it), but I will mix the new ones into the already placed trees. I may also edit the old trees so that they fit better in. I have already darkened the branches of the old fir trees to match the new (more realistic) ones. Here you can see the changes to the map which I am very happy with how it turned out, mixing old and new.
Today, I have detailed some more parts: Here is a highway exit/entrance I have fixed up: A couple of buildings have been added to create this really small village nearby: Finally, here is a picture of some of the farmland:
Hey I like your work. If you want/need I can make a video for your map when it's ready to be released
Sounds good. Update: I have added a custom made cable-stayed bridge: About 500m long, the bridge connects the highway over the mouth of the river.
Update: The railway loop is finally finished so that trains can go all the way around (not sure how long it is, but I would guess 10km). I have added a couple of stations along the line, rail side signs with speed limits and whistle indicators (have to see if there are others I need - I don't have too much railway knowledge). This image is of the industrial train station: A small settlement further out has been added. It's only got a couple of buildings beside the railway. The track bends here which means you could potentially derail and crash. (My testing shows you need to travel over 100kph/60mph to derail on this curve with the WLD FS30-2) Minor change: The sky is more realistic coloured. Compare the two images, top is old, bottom is new. There are many other things being added at the same time. I will post more images soon.
Another update! The small settlement I mentioned in the previous post is now completed. Here is a nice view nearby, looking over a lot of previous work on this map. You can see a water tower, radio mast, and very faintly, the cable-stayed bridge.
Now more expansion to the map! I have added much more forest towards the dam and connected up a bypass that takes you between the west and east sides, going past the dam and tunnelling through a mountain (2nd picture). I have also gone and replaced the grass with the updated versions seen in Hirochi Raceway. I have also added some yellow flowers to places, which you can see how they look in the two pictures below. Houses on a hilltop. Bypass tunnel
I have begun fixing up the issues in road materials. - I have finally fixed a wrong coloured road (the lighter road was slightly too light compared to the highway road) - And here is the major change... A better runway! There are still a lot of details to add, but at the moment, I have been fixing up what I have. I have also ensured that it is correct to real specifications (for a runway that is ~40m wide and 2100m long). I hope this becomes the most realistic and accurate runway available for the game. I can pilot the An-12 mod in the game pretty well and can comfortably land the airplane here. I can confirm this runway has the capacity for it to land on and the other modded airplanes can land here as well. It is also about time to give a proper aerial shot of the entire map. Remember, it is 8x8 km for reference. Fog removed.
