EasyRoads3D v2 is out – Road, rivers, procedural geometry for Unity

Good to know about having to reboot to get the message, thanks for letting me know. Over here, restarting Unity works fine on both my desktop and Macbook.

About your office PC, did you check this after downloading the beta update on your home PC? If so, I made a note about this in the beta update post of yesterday. The message will only appear once as it is a beta update. So that could explain why you did not get the message on your other PC. I will change that so you can download on both machines.

 

Hi Raoul, Yes I did obtain the message first on my home pc (yesterday) and today no message on my business pc. I remember that in the preview beta version i did obtain a message in both PC.
But is not a problem... I'll transport the package file in local.
Tomorrow I will try to test the new features .

 

Hi Raoul,
Great improvements, i found only these issues:

- When the root road gameobjects is selected the global "Unity " performance goes slow down (lag rotation or orbit and other normal editor functions).No problem in performance when root road gameobject is unselected).
resolved: was a conflict between EasyRoad and BatchEdit Extension (asset store)

- Side object editor (SHIFT) click "Display Object toggle" has effect only in the first selected marker (other option ok).

- Side object editor marker dragging has no effect on sideobject, but has effect on the road segment (move the marker...disable road rendering... the road marker is moved and the road is changed)

- Object Manager "Update scene" function has no effect on "Distance Sideways" (other settings ok)

- Object Manager "Update scene" on automatic save object (it can be usefull that it only give a preview the change and pressing "save"the change become fixed)

Good job

Max

 

Did you have this problem with Unity lagging before the beta update? Is it also lagging when a marker is selected? Does this happen in "edit" mode or in "rendered" mode or both?

If you want to drag multiple points, use [shift] click to select all of them. Do all selected points turn red? If so, then do not release the mouse button after selecting the last point, this will deselect it! Instead keep it pressed when selecting it and start dragging. Does that work? or do you mean something else?

This is not the way to change side object positions, marker positions define the road shape, side objects are positioned relative to the road shape / markers. Each side object will then be positioned according its own spline. Use the "sideways distance" slider to change this spline shape. Keeping the sidways distance value at 0 means that the same spline will be used as the road shape. Another new way to position side objects is by selecting the side object in the hierarchy and use X Y positioning. This will change the side objects position relative to its spline shape. This is useful for side objects that are part of bridge constructions or something like a train rails system where you have the left and right rail positioned at -x and + x relative to the spline shape. This will make sure that the rails will stay perfectly aligned in bends as both rails use the same spline. Also use X Y positioning for side objects like road railings next to the road and keep Distance Sideways at 0. Again, this way the side object will use the same spline shape as the road and the ralings will be aligned exactly according the road shape.

This has been brought up more often. As explained above Sideways Distance defines the spline shape for this side object and is a marker setting which you can access in the Inspector by selecting a road marker. Let's say you have a road with 100 markers, You just finished tweaking the Sideways Distance for the markers so it looks exactly like you want. Then you go to road 2 and decide to change the Sideways Distance setting in the Side Object Manager. If that would update the exisiting roads in the scene then you just lost all the manually tweaked marker settings! That is why it is currently not updating exisiting road objects. But I agree this needs a better solution. In the next update you will see a combobox that will appear when road objects have this side object activated with manually adjusted values. You will be able to choose from 1. Do not apply to exiting roads in the scene, 2. Apply to all markers, 3. Apply to markers with the same value as the previous default value.

Yes, updating the scene means saving the new settings. I will schange it so when you close the Side Object Manager without saving the changes, it will fall back to the previous settings. The problem here is, what if you edited multiple side objects in the Side Object Manager. Should all be switched back to the previous settings? I will probably change the "Update" button into "Preview" and "Save Changes" where "Save Changes" refers to the currently selected side object only so it acts seperatly from the main "Save" button.

 

resolved: was a conflict between EasyRoad and BatchEdit Extension (asset store) I did try to contact the publisher , now EasyRoad goes very fast...wow.

I'm sorry for my bad english. I mean only that the when i select (with SHIFT+click ) more markers, i can edit "Distance sideways" of all selected, "Spline Node" toggle of all selected, but the "Display Object " don't affects all selected but only the first selected (example: click on marker001... shift click on marker002...both markers are selected ... marker script option give me the ability to disable the displaying of my sideobject but only the first selected are turned off)

I understand it ... but to avoid accidental dragging, you can do the the marker not dragable (obviously only when sideobject are activated).

ok... i reported it only because is the only option that not be affected by "update scene" button. The combobox can be a good alternative.

perfect ,it can be a new good feature!

only a new small report: the info panel still shows EasyRoads3D 2.0.1
thanks for all replies an the new intresting features.

Max

 

I like to do some tests regarding the slow down if that's ok with you, I will contact you by email about this.

I now understand, that is right, Inspector changes to side objects only affect those of the marker currently displayed in the Inspector. For the road settings itself there is a soft selection option, I may also implement that for side objects. Will also look at auto update for other selected markers.

Regarding accidental dragging. Actually it always was impossible to move the marker when the road is in render state. I removed that code because I thought it might be useful to fine tune the actual road shape itself which is not really visible in edit mode. Thats also why the road material switches to the white surface material after moving a marker. This way you can better see the shape. I can disable it when side objects are build but that might be confusing?

 

I updated my previous posts about Unity lagging when an EasyRoads3D object is selected, this is not an EasyRoads3D issue, the lagging was caused by a conflict between EasyRoads3d and BatchEdit Extension (asset store) I did try to contact the publisher , now EasyRoad goes very fast...wow.
sorry for the inconvenience

 

Can this be used to create procedural geometry dynamically at runtime as well as in the Unity editor?

 

EasyRoads3D is an editor solution so, it will not work at runtime at this stage. But you can always send me a PM to further discuss what you need as it is possible to make it work at runtime.

 

Version 2.1.0 is now out. Also uploaded to the Assetstore (pending approval...)

The demo project has been updated too according the new side object features which makes it simpler and easier to setup specific sideobjects like left / right railings of a road, left right rails of a train rail, bridge left / right rail elements etc...

The trial is not yet updated, will do that in the next couple of days.


final 2.1.0 Updates:

- revised Terrain data storage. You can now safely play and test your scenes in render mode without the warning "Terrain data lost..." message

- Side Objects, "align with terrain". An option is added and now also with "Terrain Normal" procedurally geometry and instantiated objects such as fences and fence poles are always aligned correctly.

- Side Object Editor: [shift] click, hold shift to select and drag or delete multiple points

- Side Object Editor: [Control] double click: Insert a point between the two closest points

- Side Objects: X Y position control per side object through the Inspector. You can now design your side object geometry points in the Geometry Editor around the center also when the side object is used together with other side objects or if you have to used the same spline as the road, for instance for railings. Create the geometry around the center and use X Y positioning to put the geometry at the right spot in the scene. The same for assets no need any more to create separate prefabs for the same asset only for the reason to use it for both on the left and right of the road. Simply center it in the prefab, create the side object, duplicate it and use -x and +x for X positioning in both side objects.

- Undo for Add Markers, Insert Markers, Terrain Smoothing

- Added "Update Scene" button in Side Object manager. Use this to update the specific side object in the scene after changes. Once aside object is build in the scene, it is recommended to edit its settings in the Inspector by selecting it in the hierarchy!

- Added "Update Scene" button in the Geometry Editor. Use this to update the specific side object in the scene after changes to the geometry layout.

- If you have only one terrain in your scene there is no need any more to first select it if you want to use the backup or restore options.

- shift move mouse vertically added for zooming, other options are scroll wheel, command key

- Always equal distances between vertices for the created road gameobject

- Rivers, when water3 is selected for the material / scripts you will be able to tweak the wave scale directly from the EasyRoads3D Inspector

- Rivers, various debug output messages informing about possible issues regarding the terrain setup and the chosen settings for the rivers. This will help in case there are issues like the water floor is below the terrain height 0 position or for example when the river bank height setting is too low

- Sideways Distance for side objects can now also be tweaked inside the side Object Manager for exisiting EasyRoads3D objects

NOTE that the new deform terrain by mesh input is not yet included. Performance on small / high resolution terrains works well but it needs more tweaking for larger / low resolution terrains. Obviously this does not affect the main terrain deformation feature for EasyRoads3D objects themselves, this functions like it always did!

 

great update.. i will give a look! thanks

 

Thanks Max, one of the added things compared to the beta is "the problem" you mentioned about the Sideways Distance setting not updating on existing road objects whe tweaking this in the Side Object Manager. This is now handled like I already wrote in previous posts. You can control how this should affect markers of existing road objects.

v2.1.0 is now also available in the Assetstore.

 

Yes Raoul ,I saw... it is a big improvement to easy adjust the side objects!

 

Hey man,
How good is your extension with terrain LOD? I mean, what if I change the level of detail? Is it gonna be under the terrain? Above the terrain? Or is it going to be dynamically changing the height of the road according the terrain height?

Thanks you

 

Hey Curious,

Do you mean the terrain pixelError?

You can raise the road above the terrain. You can export the road in chunks for a LOD system. You can also use higher indent values (the distance over which the terrain will be leveled o the same height as the road) so high pixelError values have less effect.

 

Finally prepared a package of all the side objects used in the demo projects. For those who asked about this, you can download the package here with your serial number: http://unityterraintools.com/sideobjects_download.php .

More side objects packages will follow... To avoid confusion, you can create your own side objects / custom objects using the side objects manager.

 

Thanks Raou! very useful!

 

Hi Raoul,

Thanks for the sideobjects download.

Is there any way you could provide a config file with the side objects download so that your demo sideobjects could be preconfigured in our projects.

Thanks

 

Hi Jeff,

A side objects configuration file is included in the package (_sideobjectslog file at the top of the newly created EasyRoads3D Models folder). Import this file through the side objects importer in the Side Objects Manager, select the side objects you want to use in your project and you have all these side objects pre configured and ready to use. One note, the default X Position value for side objects like walls etc. is set to 0 because this depends on your project. So, after building these side objects simply select them in the hierarchy and tweak the X positioning and / or Y positioning to your liking in the Inspector.

Let me know if you have more questions about this!

 

Hi, I purchased version 1 of EasyRoads3D - how or can I upgrade to version 2?

cheers

 

I've got a scene with a lot of roads. The problem is that they each have different textures (different number of lanes). When I have multiple roads, when I make a new one, and choose a new texture for the material (within the Road Object script), it changes the texture on other roads as well - not all of them - just some of them.

If I manually create a material and assign it to a road, it works fine, until I click the Level Terrain button, and then i lose the custom material.

What am I doing wrong. How do I maintain unique materials on different roads?

 

OK. Additional question. So I think I've got everything done, and I need to bake out the results so I can pass the scene to other members of my team without EasyRoads 3D. The "Build EasyRoads 3D Objects" works fine for roads without side objects (I can strip everything down to the geometry in scene), but anything with side objects remains reliant on the EasyRoads scripts.....

I can see where the objs are for the roads, but am unable to get the Position Roads collection of stuff to work quite right.

 

@KITT, you can upgrade to version 2 here, http://www.unityterraintools.com/store.php, select upgrade from version 1 and fill in your version 1 serial number. Send me a PM or contact me through www.unityterraintools.com if you want to upgrade to EasyRoads3D Pro!

@nm8shun, when switching between "edit mode" and "render mode", the default material will be assigned to the road. Changing the road material in the EasyRoads3D Inspector, changes the default road material. So yes, the material will change on other roads as well when rendering the road again. I will change that so each road keeps its own material. For now simply create your road materials in the project panel (duplicate Assets/EasyRoads3D/Resources/roadMaterial) and drag them to the material slot.

Yes, "Build EasyRoads 3D Objects" also means build side objects and side objects recquire all the EasyRoads3D scripts, so don't execute "Build EasyRoads 3D Objects" when you still have to work on side objects.

What exactly is the problem?

 

I need to be able to get all the finished roads independent of EasyRoads. When all is well, and I don't need to edit anymore, I just need the roads as geometry in the scene (because other members of my team will need to work on the project). How do I make the assets completely independent of EasyRoads scripts for use on other systems?

 

When all is done you can use "Build EasyRoads 3D Objects", this also works for side objects. All editor related assets will be destroyed and you will end up with only the road geometry named after the EasyRoads3D object and all side objects parented to a gameobject named after the EasyRoads3D object followed with the text "side objects". No scripts attached to any of the game objects.

Alternatively you can export all geometry (roads and side objects) individually using the geometry export buttons which become visible in the Inspector after building the roads / adjusting the terrain. The geometry will be saved in the folder [your project]/EasyRoads3D/[EasyRoads3D object name]. But this is more meant to support editing a modeling app.

Just a note, I would recommend to always keep a backup of the original scene including all the EasyRoads3D objects before executing "Build EasyRoads 3D Objects". This just in case you do want to make changes...

 

That's what I thought "Build EasyRoads 3D Objects" was supposed to do. Unforutnately, anything that had a side object does not do as described.....all those roads still have scripts attached, and continue to alter the terrain which then buries other roads in the scene.

 

I just double checked. Are you executing "Build EasyRoads 3D Objects" while the EasyRoads3D object is rendered? In this case yes, the scripts are still there. If you run it with the objects in "Edit" mode it will build the roads, level the terrain and remove the scripts and other editor related objects regardless whether the object has side objects attached or not. If it works differently for you would it be possible to contact me through my website and send me a sample project so I can reproduce the problem?

 

Can I use it to make junctions? Do you have options for Ts Ys Xs etc?

 

Junctions are not yet supported, this is being worked on. Posted a WIP video a week ago here, http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/22097-EasyRoads3D-v1.0-for-Unity-Plugin-version-Online/page25 , video is half way down the page.

 

I have road textures with normal maps that I want to use. How would I go about getting it to work with easyroads3d pro that I just purchased?

 

There are two ways to do this:

1. The standard way. Create new road materials with your textures, select the generated road object in the scene (or hierarchy) and in the Inspector assign your material to the mesh renderer so it replaces the current material.

2. Use the following naming convention: use the same name for texture types, end diffuse maps with "_d" and end normal maps with "_b". Drop your textures in the folder /Assets/EasyRoads3D/Textures/Road Textures/ . You can now select your textures using the Road Materials window available in the Inspector. If a normal map with the same name exists for a specific texture you will be able to select the Bumpmap Diffuse shader from the combobox.

Let me know if you have further questions.

 

hello, I have a question related to this product, are we able to 'Toon Shade' the roads/objects of this ?

thanks.

 

Hi Johnny54,

The end result for both the road as side objects are game objects with a meshfilter attached just like when you would make this a 3d modeling app and import it in Unity. You can assign any material to it you want.

 

ok thank you for the quick reply, then i'll be able do exactly what i want =)

 

Hey Raoul,

Making a river object has all of sudden stopped working for me. When I try to make a river object, the mesh that is created has all the properties of a road.

Here is the actual exception:

NullReferenceException
EasyRoads3D.OCQQDQQOOC.OQCDDDQDDQ () <IL 0x00047, 0x001a1>
RoadObjectScript.OQQCDDCCCD (UnityEngine.Transform,System.Collections.ArrayList,string[],string[]) (at Assets/EasyRoads3D/scripts/RoadObjectScript.cs:225)
RoadObjectScript.OOQCOQDOCC (System.Collections.ArrayList,string[],string[]) (at Assets/EasyRoads3D/scripts/RoadObjectScript.cs:126)
(wrapper dynamic-method) RoadObjectScript.RoadObjectScript$OOQCOQDOCC$System.Collections.ArrayList$System.String[]$System.String[] (object,object[]) <IL 0x0002a, 0x0011f>
Boo.Lang.Runtime.RuntimeServices.Dispatch


I think something got screwed up with the .dll files that you have in the resources directory or something. Maybe in the midst of me deleting the directory and reimporting it, I forgot to delete something I should have deleted that was being referenced by those .dll's? Let me know what you think or maybe a location of files that I forgot to delete. Cause it's clearly trying to access memory or something that isn't there anymore and spitting out memory allocation errors.

Thanks for all your help!!

 

Hi, did you also email me about this? If so, I just replied to that email, but you didn't mention in the email that you deleted EasyRoads3D related assets in the project panel. At the bottom of the release notes file you will find the recommended way to install updates. Can you try following this approach in your current project and reinstall the EasyRoads3D unityPackage? If things still do not work well, you may email me the project or download link so I can see if I can reproduce the problem.

 

Summer Sale Announcement:

I will do a 2 week summer sale starting Friday July 1st...

Furthermore there will be a new version release and, instead of an update of the trial, I have decided to release a FREE version of EasyRoads3D.

For the latest developments of this tool, check http://www.unityterraintools.com or this thread

 

Hey raoul,
What a nice tool you have there, just what i need it.
Though, have few questions:
We have terrain support comming in version 3.4 to all unity platforms (not just desktop/web).
Can i use your tool without any terrain at all? I mean with any arbitrary mesh ( not only with terrains)?
Like for example, i have a custom mesh ground for iOS, and i would like to add it fences and roads, etc to it, is that possible?
Speaking of iOS, is there any runtime update or overhead using it on mobile platforms? Or your tool is only a procedural mesh tool in editor mode (no runtime overhead)?
How customizable is your side object tool? I mean, can i supply any mesh i want and create endless tiled meshes over a path?
How much will your tool cost on the 2 week summer sale?

Cheers,

 

Thanks Tatoforever!

Yes, I immediately applied for an iOS developer ID but the whole Apple developer enrollment process is kinda confusing in my case. Paid for it, got a confirmation from Apple. Yet when logging in nothing is there... No info at all, and so far no response to my emails. So, I haven't been able to test this yet...

On the next page of the thread in the link in my previous post, you will see another movie using the procedural geometry tool on a mesh instead of the Unity Terrain object. This new system will not be in Fridays update. But I will do my best to also implement this "Mesh Support" in the current tool. The road system itself will not work well on a mesh as terrain deformation is not possible. However, nothing stops you from creating a custom road with the procedural object editor and use that on your mesh.

EDIT: Mesh surface support has been implemented and will be part of the upcoming release...

This is an editor tool.

Technically you can supply any mesh you want. I belief the current procedural objects tool is already very usable but especially the new procedural objects tool is very flexible as you can see in the demo movie. For Pro users a test version is already available.

Not sure yet but probably $39 for v2 and $75 for Pro.

 

Awesome raoul,
One last thing, what's the difference between v2 and Pro version?
Are they both available to purchase in your 2 week summer sale?

 

In terms of features they are the same. But Pro includes all future version updates for free and also includes beta access...

Yes, they are both on Sale for 2 weeks starting July 1st.

 

How does it look with intersection support? Will rivers support intersections too (some kind of fork....)?

 

Gorgeous.

 

@Demonstenes, trying to enjoy the sun in Southern Spain , but also working hard on Intersections etc... Eventually the idea is to also implement it in the river tool.

@SkylineGaming. thanks!

 

If I understood well, intersections would be in 3.0, so there is no point in buying 2.0 now. And pro version is quite expensive.

 

The Pro version is on sale at the moment. It will last for 4 more days until the 15th of July...

Promo code: summer2011 on http://www.unityterraintools.com/store.php or $75 on the Assetstore.

The roads created with the current version will work on the new system that supports intersections. This together with the new upcoming advanced procedural geometry system will make Pro in my opinion well worth the money if you compare it to the time it will save you building all these assets manually. About 75% of sales are Pro sales.

Meanwhile, if you are on a deadline, you can use v2 to create all your roads and side elements and stitch the roads together in a modeling app. It will still save you tons of time...

 

Summer Sale will end tomorrow July 15th! $75 on the Assetstore or use promocode summer2011 at http://www.unityterraintools.com...

Below a mountain coaster scene, build with the procedural objects tool that comes with EasyRoads3D. After the first build with support for intersections is out I will start on preparing tutorials and more demo projects. This will be one of them.

 

Looking good Raoul. I'm thinking about using Easyroads3D for a futuristic monorail system similar to the one in the t.v. series Firefly episode "The Train Job". Working out how I can take hi res cutscenes from Unity to use in video. I like how Easyroads3D makes roads... easy

 

Hi Colonel_klink, did a quick search on "Fire fly the train job" but didn't find good reference images for that mono rail. So I don't know the complexity of it but I am pretty sure you will be able to replicate it with the procedural geometry editor.

Regarding the mountain coaster, you can build this with the procedural editor in the current version, but this one was build with the new upcoming version. First the main framework was build, copied it to a new side object, added the side parts and removed the main framework. This way you can enable the second framework wherever you want along the track.

The editor window isn't stable yet and have to add some features but if you ignore that bit you will probably find it already quite useful for more complex geometry shapes. Let me know if you like to try it out for the mono rail...

 

Glad to hear you are still working on intersections - can't wait to try it out