After downloading these files I can use CloudCompare to open them, and to split the surface data from the treetops using the method in this tutorial. I use the map at to locate the area of my map (red area) and find the three Lidar tiles, each one square kilometre. Today I will be extracting surface data from point clouds and setting up a scene to render as terrain in Blender. More on that later - today I'm just thinking about how to make this map, not starting it yet. Point clouds for the eastern half aren't available, but there are contour maps so reasonable accuracy should still be possible, albeit with more manual labor involved. Finally, there is only one road and the rest is covered in forest, so I don't have to worry about detailing dozens of hectares of map since most of it won't be accessible.īrowsing the Queensland government website, I find that there is LiDAR data available for the western half of the area, which conveniently happens to be the steepest part and the area where terrain is most complex. It's also quite steep and mountainous, which makes it a decent location for a short hillclimb stage. Measuring it out in Google Earth, it's only 4km long and very twisty, so it should fit in a 2kmx2km map. Now I can recall recently driving a fun stretch of mountain road not far from where I live. It also needs to be fun to drive on, otherwise what's the point? I want to use 0.5m terrain resolution so the roads are very smooth and detailed, which (practically speaking) probably limits me to a 2kmx2km map. I'd like to make a map of a real place so I can get more practice making roads that are as realistic as possible. What kind of map do I want to make? It can't be too large or complex, since I only have one month (and one hour per day at that). Today I'm not even going to do any technical work at all - this is about planning the area I want to create and thinking about how to make it. This post will be updated on a daily basis, and on Christmas day the map will be released.

Feel free to ask questions below if you find any of the steps confusing, and I'll do my best to answer them.

Everything you need to know to make a map similar in quality to the official maps will be discussed. Ever wanted to make a map mod, but don't know where to begin? I'm going to be spending roughly an hour each day for the next month going through the process, step by step.

Beamng drive how to place map objects