Another custom map question

[Willer.I.C]

My intention is simple, build a custom track based on google map that represent some open area near my home so I can get familiar with that area without crashing into people. I know there are track builder in the game but the feature is so limited. I needs trees/texture mapping or import from 3D/obj/stl file. Just imagine the opportunities that anyone can fly in public map that represent real life, like in Joshua Bardwell barn.

[Thelastreturn]

While we agree it would be a cool feature to have, it's currently not possible to allow players to create entire custom levels because of technical restrictions.

Creating environments for Liftoff is more than just throwing together some 3D assets on a terrain. We have a specific set of requirements, limitations, plugins and game systems to keep in mind. Creating a level for Liftoff is a constant challenge between making it look nice, keeping gameplay in mind but most of all taking into account performance. We have to work with HorizonOn, do specific colissionbox related work, have to deal with foliage art that looks good both on the ground as in the air, have to work with level borders, light baking, LOD systems and a whole lot of design rules. Furthermore taking into account that we use some third party plugins, we can't share with the community, it's just not possible.

Though with the current track editor it's not possible to make a 1-on-1 recreation of an existing location, you can make an approximation with some basic assets. I would recommend looking at some of the user created maps in the Drawingboard for some inspiration of awesome community created maps with the track editor.

[Retroficient]

Do all the assets in whatever you build it in not already have collision models? Because if there were snap point on walls and whatnot like there are for some current assets, it should work just fine. Or if there's a way to let the community create custom maps outside the software, since it's just Unity based and Unity is extremely easy. The lighting would be predetermined based on what map you'd be building in. Idk about the community building and adding assets in the game (since that'd be not only up for lots of copyright, but it'd be near impossible to put on the workshop unless you did it similar to Cities Skylines or beamNG), I'd rather just have that up to the Devs to allow us to use more, but the foliage and whatnot should be asset-bound.

Even just having more assets in the game would be better. Walls, holes, glass, etc. and at that point, the Devs wouldn't even need to create the levels anymore, the community could do it since it's such a fun way to play. It's kind of a shame that you can't use all assets on all maps. It doesn't need to look pretty if people enjoy flying it.

I want to create maps just as much as I want to fly, but flying the same old ones over and over again with the same limitations is a bore in all fairness.

Love the game, just wish I could create more cool things :/

[Thelastreturn]

Hey Burylown. We do indeed use Unity to create our levels, but unfortunately it isn't as simple as drag and dropping levels into the game.

Revamping the track creator has been on our backlog for quite some time, but we want to upgrade it to a meaningful and intuitive user experience and not just add more random objects to it.

A lot of the examples of objects you mention are exactly the reason why we don't want to add random objects to the player to place at will. Objects with transparency such as glass, and complex geometry like trees and foliage are performance killers. If we allow players to place these at will and without any restrictions this will very quickly lead to players complaining that maps are stuttering and performing badly on their pc.

Originally posted by Burylown:

It doesn't need to look pretty if people enjoy flying it.

That's exactly why we added basic shapes to the track editor. In theory you can recreate anything with blocks and simple primitives, and some of the community members did indeed created some amazing tracks with these.