World Building EasyRoads3D v3 - the upcoming new road system

sent the info in pm

 

Yes, I just sent the email with the download link.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

hey again i just wondering now i have v3 should i re place the v3 on v2 or do i delete v2 and import v3 ?

 

V3 is an entirely new system, it will not replace v2 but it will use the same folder "EasyRoads3D". I would recommend to complete v2 road objects first and remove v2 from the assets folder.

Also, the beta package comes with additional assets and a demo scene. You may want to check the package first in a an empty project to get familiar with it.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hey raoul. Just wondering about further explanation of sidewalks and curbs.

Is it possible to have not just sidewalks, but meshes for driveways and cross walks where needed? Like, if I need a driveway at one specific spot, can I do that? And different corner curbs/sidewalks (so for a simple corner, no crosswalk mesh, or for a street light corner, a mesh on that corner)?

Sorry if I didn't explain myself properly, I'm trying to think of a better way to explain it haha.

Edit: Oh and imported into U5 (I think to grab the beta?)... destroyed a bunch of my scripts it seems? Time Of Die's scripts all died on me. Weird.

Edit 2:
Well that's confusing. I've imported the Unity 5 beta in and created a road object, clicked the start button and shift clicking but nothing happens.

I own both this and Road Architect (pretty disappointed by RA tbh). Maybe that's why. I'll delete and try again.

Edit: 3 Nope. Maybe it's because I'm using multiple terrains?

 

Hi Raoul,
do you implement the river feature as it is in v2 to v3? Now we have it as a side object with river bed etc. , but it's not digging the terrain. Or miss something?

greetings,
Jochen

 

Hi ShinfoK,

Regarding driveways and crosswalks, driveways can be seen as T-crossings or possibly X-crossings (driveways at both sides of the road). But the current crossing layout implemented in the dynamic crossings type is not ideal for this. Next week a new beta will be released, after that I will work on adding more options to the dynamic crossings type. Meanwhile you can use the custom crossings type to achieve this, 3rd movie in the first post of this thread. In this movie you will also see custom crossings / connections being used to add cross walks. A built-in solution will also be added for cross walks.

I am not sure about the Unity 5 problems, did you import the Unity 5 beta package in the same zip you downloaded? This should work just fine. What exactly do you mean with "destroyed a bunch of my scripts"? The package only imports assets to three new folders with the name "EasyRoads3D" in it, the folder for the plugin isself, a folder with additional assets, and a demo scenes folder. It is not very likely that multiple terrains in your scene is causing an issue. Multiple terrain support works out of the box in v3.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi Jochen,

The river feature as it is in v2 (a separate object) will not be part of v3. However, in the next betas additonal options will be implemented that can also be used to add variation to the river (created as a side object). So essentially the river object in v2 can be simulated in v3.

Does the river example in the demo project work for you? I am aware of deformation bugs when using a more complex shape then the one in the demo project (which is similar to the v2 river object). Are you using a different shape or side object for the river bed?

Thanks,
Raoul

 

can it make roads as meshes? So I can bake navmesh with lower cost on roads, so ai will prefer to move by roads instead of terrain.

 

Regarding the broken scripts, ToD has been known to have it's script break at the drop of the hat when importing new assets, so read nothing into that. A reimport of it fixed it all up. Might have been a dll problem? Idk.

Anyway, crossing, so that would mean that I would need to have the "driveway" mesh on both sides, and couldn't have it on just one?

I'll give it another shot. From what I could tell, when I was shift clicking, it was selecting the terrain momentarily, then moving back to EasyRoads, but not actually placing any markers. I'll try it in a clean project and report back. I'll also snag the new Unity release.

The 5 beta of ER3D I used was just the one that is downloaded from the asset store in its subfolder. I dragged it out of EasyRoads folder, deleted everything inside that folder, then imported the beta package. I didn't have any sideobjects thing to keep, that I could see, since it was a fresh import.

Cheers for the help.

 

Hi Roni92,

Yes, the generated objects are ordinary game objects with a meshfilter attached.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi ShinfoK,

You can have the driveway at one side, I only mentioned X-crossing in the case you want driveways at both sides. But as said, at this moment the custom crossing system is probably what you need. It depends on what "look" you are after.

You used the beta 5 from the asset store download? That is v2, and indeed if you do have multiple terrains in the scene that would explain why you cannot add markers. In v2 you have to activate "Multiple Terrains" in General Settings (see the manual for more).

Please send me a PM or email if you want access to the v3 beta!

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Can you post the errors? Is this with the beta 5 package in the "Unity 5" sub folder or with the original asset store package? Last week I uploaded the Unity 5 package through Unity 5 which now is possible, I think it is still pending review. But that should automatically download the Unity 5 package when you are using Unity 5.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Ah, ok gotcha. Awesome Thanks

Alrighty, I shall do. I'll send you a PM with my purchase number (assuming you'll want that) now. Thanks again!

 

Hi Raoul,
the sample work and i'm playing around with it. The static width from the side object is not so nice. It would be nice to adjust it thru the markers.

Thank's
Jochen

 

Hi Raoul.

I Removed the old EasyRoads3D folder and imported the beta from the email, created a road object and get 42 errors that all like this.

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
EasyRoads3Dv3Editor.OQCCQCOCCD.OOCCOQDCCC ()
EasyRoads3Dv3Editor.OCOQCQCQQO.ODCQDDCDOQ ()
EasyRoads3Dv3Editor.OCCCCCCCQD.ODCQDDCDOQ (System.String ver)
EasyRoads3Dv3Editor.EasyRoads3Dv3Editor1.ToolBar (System.String version)
EasyRoads3Dv3Editor.OQQQQOCDDQ.OnInspectorGUI ()
UnityEditor.InspectorWindow.DrawEditor (UnityEditor.Editor editor, Int32 editorIndex, Boolean forceDirty, System.Boolean& showImportedObjectBarNext, UnityEngine.Rect& importedObjectBarRect, Boolean eyeDropperDirty) (at C:/buildslave/unity/build/Editor/Mono/Inspector/InspectorWindow.cs:1150)
UnityEditor.DockArea:OnGUI()

I'll try again in a clean project.

Edit: Brand new project with only EasyRoads3D Beta 5.1 (Unity 5) imported. Getting the same errors (28 this time).

 

Hi Shinfolk,

The error message mentions, EasyRoads3Dv3Editor1.ToolBar. There is one known issue related to Unity 5, but the error message looks slightly different although it is also related to EasyRoads3Dv3Editor1.ToolBar. Do you see the registration fields in the Inspector? If not, can you check the Troubleshooting page in the manual, the first issue at the top. It is related to what seems to be different security settings in Unity 5. Are you launching Windows as the administator? Check the Troubleshooting page how to solve this and please let me know if this doesn't help..

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi Jochen,

Ok, just check the side object settings required for this type of side object. "Deformation Object" should be active.

Yes, adjusting the shape per marker will be possible for both side objects and roads in a next beta. For now you can set the width at the widest with you need and manually adjust the terrain a little bit to add variation.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

wow. good work.

 

Hey Raoul,

I have the ER Modular Base in the inspector, but none of the buttons are able to be clicked. (They press down, but nothing happens).

 

Hi ShinfoK,

Yes, that behaviour is normal when the beta isn't registered yet. Did you check the Troubleshooting page? Did you launch Windows as the administrator? This is necessary on Unity 5 to register. Once you registered succesfully you can launch Windows as a user. So far this worked for everybody who reported similar issues.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

//Hey Raoul. Having trouble finding the troubleshooting page (There's no documentati and where to register the EasyRoads beta.

Edit: Found the manual in the zip

All working, thank you . Some times I forget to plug in my brain in the morning.

 

The only reason why I would want to buy this is because of the features that are in V3. When I do buy V2 how would I get my hands on V3? Also is V3 compatible with Unity 4 I would guess yes, correct?

 

Hi ShinfoK,

Yes, the manual is in the downloaded zip.Glad you got it working!

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi Amitheattack,

Yes, v3 is compatible with Unity 4. You can send me an email or PM, you will get the v3 beta download link.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi Raoul,
my be i doing something wrong. When i place a intersection, the placing of intersections is still active after i placed one. I must then create a dummy road to get a chance to pull out roads out of the intersection. Otherwise i place a lot off additional intersections.
Second, may be it is an unity thing... Very very often the editor screen navigation get broken when i try to modify the intersection placement. The last navigation tool (Zoom, rotation or transform view) is then freezed. After a restart everything is back. It's unity 4.6

greetings, Jochen

 

Hi Jochen,

Yes, after dropping an intersection in the scene adding more intersections of the same type is still active. This is to avoid that you have to select this same intersection each time in the Inspector when you want to add more than one instance. But clicking somewhere on the terrain should deselect the new intersection instance and also deactive shift+click for adding more intersections. The handles to pull out a road from a connection will become visible after deselecting the crossing.

There is one known issue with this, clicking somewhere on the terrain does not deselect the intersection. Is that what is happening? So far I have not yet been able to find out what causes this, it only rarely happens. I actually haven’t seen this issue for a couple of weeks, adding crossings all the time… Perhaps adding a dummy road indeed also fixes it, we always add another dummy crossing, click on an empty space to deselect it (which should work now) and delete the dummy afterwards.

Regarding the scene view toolbar freezing. One similar issue in beta 5 is fixed but it is related to roads, do you have roads connected to that crossing which are updating as well after changes to the intersection position? Do you get an error message (NullReferenceException) ? If so does the error message include a reference to soMarkerVecs? In that case there is a good chance this is fixed in the next beta (an alpha version is available for testing this).

Thanks,

Raoul

 

Hi I just bought your asset yesterday and I was wondering if the river system can be spanned over several terrains.. does this asset have multi-terrain support? I am using World Composer & Terrain composer..my terrains are many and are large. Rivers from satellite data need to be traced with this asset but they often trail from one terrain onto the next.

 

Hi Ascensi,

V2, the current asset store download, does support multiple terrains for both roads and rivers. The objects will smoothly cross terrain borders. But make sure to activate "Multiple Terrains" in General Settings and select the terrain you are working on from the dropdown further below in General Settings or by ctrl+alt+click on the specific terrain. See the manual for more info.

Multiple terrain support in V3 (available in betas) is further improved, no need to select the active terrain while you can still select a single terrain in Build Mode (to speed up the workflow during testing).

Let me know if you have further questions.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hey Raoul, just curious about the v3 beta.

What would be the course of action of creating a T-Section with the two main connections being one width, and the third connector being another width?

I have two roads at 12 to connect to the main parts, and one at 6 to connect to the other part.

http://i.imgur.com/sS4J2WJ.png

Thanks!

 

Is V3 being tested yet? I signed up awhile back, and bought this awhile back, and never got in, if it did.. I like to test this out of that's the case. Thanks! I gave you the info back then if so.

 

Hi ShinfoK,

You can change the width of crossing connections. You may want to check the last movie (5th) in my first post of this thread. It shows show you can customize crossings.

In that particular movie a new dynamic crossing is created through General Settings > Crossing & Connection Prefabs. This new crossing will become available in the crossings tab (3rd from the left). This way you can create your own project specific dynamic crossings and reuse this same crossing type.

But you can still customize crossings already instantiated in the scene like in your screenshot. Select the crossing and click the "Select Connection in Hierarchy" button in the Inspector. The same crossing options as in the movie will become availabe. You can change the width in Connection Settings.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi Recon03,

Yes, v3 is released in betas. Beta 6 will be available early next week. I can add you to the beta list if you want. Can you contact me through our website or send me a PM?

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Here are the NullReferenceException...

 

Hi Jochen,

I can't see the full message (select one of the errors). But it looks like it is related to the same issue which should be resolved in beta 6. Let me know if you want to try the alpha 6 build and double check this.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

I am seeing a tremendous slow down in viewport when working with Easy Roads. It happens when I have:
road network upper parent selected ( markers are showing on roads)
Any type of modification to the markers of the roads.
Any time I connect a road marker to a crossing.
The scene view slows down to an utter crawl, i'd have to say it feels like less than 1 frame per second.
However,
Crossing creation works fine
Moving a crossing around with roads connecting to it, no slowdown either.

This forces me to go and select the crossing or roadnetwork children group to be able to move around the viewport, at this point in time, i really think that I'm loosing my time by trying to connect those roads, or actually work with your product.
In a new clean scene, I'm able to work really fast with a single road, im seeing an occasional slowdown on a second road when Im making connections ( but only maybe..40 percent of the time, and its still fine compared to the complete crawl im used to), third road, likewise, and after that it's back to pure crawl.

Is there a limit of the number of roads I'm not aware of?

 

Sooo... crap.

I accidentally deleted the whole road network when trying to delete an intersection. Whatever, I do it all the time and an undo usually brings it back.

This time, however... I got this.

http://i.imgur.com/YyRKfXk.png

And the worst part? I accidentally CTRL + S saved instead of CTRL + Z undo....


So yeah.... damn.

 

Ok so... going back and simply selecting the crossings in the hierarchy is bringing back most of the roads. I had to select them all one by one a few times to get as many roads back as possibly (only 3-4 remain hidden).

 

Hi Autarkis,

So you already notice a slowdown after adding 4 roads?

Can you check the "Main" demo scene? Do you also notice the slowdown in this scene when moving markers etc...?

When do you notice the slowdown? When panning around as well or is this purely related to Road Network changes, adding markers, changing marker positions? In that case how long is that particular road?

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi ShinfoK, Undo should indeed bring back the road network. I am not sure about that screenshot, it looks like only the surfaces are visible. I just tested Delete Road Network > Undo in several scenes. So far it brought back the full Road Network in all scenes I tested but I will add a Road Network Refresh button in Scene Settings anyway.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Yeah I'm really not sure what happened there. Weird glitch.

Problem again..

This X-Intersection is connecting to a road, and that road is connecting to a T-Section.

http://i.imgur.com/ADNBnbq.png

All relevant fields on the X and T are the same (bevel, radius, segments, outer curb, sw width).

It struggles to separate from the connection node, thats when I get that error, when I try to pull it away.

http://i.imgur.com/6AA9LeO.png

I have a feeling the issue is connected to spline curve strength, because if I change that at all on some roads, it will "snap" into this broken stage or detach from the x-section despite thinking its still attached,

 

Hi ShinFoK,

Looking at the messed up geometry near the connection and the error messages, it does seem as if the road has a different shape structure. This generally results in those error messages and can indeed also result in marker disconnect issues (caused by the error messages). That is the only known situation that results in what I see in the screenshot.

You can double check this (also regarding the curve strength comment) by doing a simple test. Place a new X and T crossing in the scene and connect the two (no curve strength changes). Does the same issue happen? If not, and all looks good, can you remember / recreate after which action the geometry started to look wrong?

After beta 6 is released I will implement a check for matching geometry structures and only allow connections when the structures are the same.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

I don't have the problem when placing a new X and T (in the same road network, but only connected to each other by a single road).

I've gone through and checked all the values, and for this example on a pre-existing X and T, with a new road (deleted, dragged new one out from red dot), I still get the problem.\

The thing that started this problem was changing the settings on the intersections in an area (is there a way to mass change crossing settings? I've got about 50 intersections I need to modify to the same values lol).

I isolated this area complete from the rest of my network (deleted all outgoing connected roads for now) and still get the issue.

So I'm struggling to understand why, when the two intersections have the same settings (connection width, radius, sound seg, inner seg, sidewalk width, curb height/width and bevel w/h).

:/

 

Oh jeez, I just realised what it likely was.

Because I've got different widths on my T sections... I'm not using Uniform corners because I am using Uniform Opposite Connections... and so I've only set my sidewalk settings for one side.

I am an idiot some times.

 

Glad you figured that out! So indeed the geometry structure didn't match? You can quickly copy sidewalk settings from one crossing corner to another by creating sidewalk presets.

Anyway, once that that check for matching geometry is implemented you will quickly see this sort of situation.

Also, regarding sidewalks. This does not entirely work when you try to connect a road with a sidewalk to a crossing without sidewalks, it is mentioned on the Troubleshooting page. This is fixed in beta 6 available tomorrow or latest Tuesday.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Yeah, I didn't even think about the separate sections. So, doing them all that way is going to be incredibly time consuming. Any chance you'd be able to implement multi object editing? It would be nice to be able to select, for instance, all the T-Section objects that I need to have the same values and modify it all at once, as it stands I would need to select each intersection, change the preset for Geometry and Sidewalks for Bottom Corner, Top Corner and Straight side one by one, and I currently have close to 100 intersections (just counted... 92 O_O jesus - over 150 roads). And once that is done, have to move them all up then down to lock the roads back in place properly.

If not, I completely understand, I'm sure there's probably something behind the scenes that would cause my computer to explode if I were able to do that

Another thing I've noticed is, if I select, for instance Bottom Corner, then select a preset, then select Top Corner, I have to change the preset then change the preset back to the preset I want for it work.

 

In general (for those trying this out), the first sections of the manual explains the recommended workflow. Think about your project, what do you need, what type of intersections, sidewalks etc. This way you can start with creating unique crossings for your project and reuse them.

Crossings instantiated in the scene are unique to avoid that after updating one (turning an X-Crossing into a T-Crossing for example) all other similar crossings get updated to. So at the moment you cannot mass change other crossings accordingly. However, all instances of a specific crossing still share the same crossing ID. This will make it possible in the future to add code and implement options to update all crossings matching this ID. I can put it on the list for the next beta (after beta 6).

Yes, things like switching the selected item in the dropdown back to "Select Preset" after selecting another corner, thank you for mentioning this!

Raoul

 

Hi,

Yesterday I experimented a bit with new side object options. It will be possible to create roads near steep cliffs and simulate cut out rocks dealing with the grid based nature of the Unity terrain object.





Raoul

 

Ahh you're right. I've wiped and started from scratch and now that I've learned a little more about EasyRoads3D, everything is looking nice.

The cliff side looks great! How are you doing that, is it cutting the terrain or are you generating a mesh to place over that area? I wouldn't say painting the actual terrain since there's no stretching happening that I can see.

Excited to see the new update

Quick question, is it possible to modify the end of road textures where they meet intersections so I can add stop lines?

Like so

http://i.imgur.com/jZ7LlnW.png

I apologise if this is in the manual, I'm skipping between a dozen things atm

 

Hi ShinFoK,

Good to hear this is working now for you!

Both sides of the road are side objects, the Shape Object type, so indeed these are meshes (below are copies of the images on the previous page). For each point in the Shape Object Editor Window you now have the option to snap it to the terrain which will result in what you see in the images. You can also set the vertex color for each point. This info can be used in the shader. That is how the mesh simulating terrain is done. It uses two textures rock and rock/grass. But you could use this for example as well with a package like RTP and have the mesh seamlessly blend with the terrain although I have to double check how that works in RTP but I belief the blending is also done using vertex color info. Additional to the new side object options, new marker options are added to manipulate terrain deformation accordingly in these areas.

You can achieve those stop lines fairly easy with the current crossing option. Have a look at Crossing Options > Connection Settings. Road Material points to the material that will be attached to roads you connect to this crossing connection. Connection Material is the one you are looking for. Change the texture assigned to this material. After beta 6 I will add more crossing options.

Also, I see in the screenshot that the outer line markings on the road do not smoothly connect in the middle of the corner roundings. You can tweak that through Corner Sidewalk Settings > Corner Settings > Inner Segment Distance.

Copies of the new images on the previous page:




Thanks,
Raoul