World Building EasyRoads3D v3 - the upcoming new road system

Hi fmarianacci,

Currently there are no known critical issues so to update is scheduled any time soon. A first v3.2 beta will probably be available within one or two weeks. The main package can be updated as well, it will for sure be part of the beta. And if you need it urgently I can always send a build. I will check preserving the layer settings of the source object as well.

Organizing connection prefabs in the project folder is on the to do list. So far it has had less priority, because it wasn't really brought up . I will put it a little bit higher. The idea is supporting manually created sub folders in the project folder, these sub folders will appear as tabs in the Inspector. Over the next updates the system will also be adapted to take advantage of some new Unity 2018.3 options, it will also allow drag drop directly in the scene. This is something that should currently not be done for adding scene instances.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi,

Can I use this asset to create stone pathways, something like these on the pictures:







There is one asset: Path Painter, but EasyRoads3d should be better I think?

 

as long as you have a tiling texture like that, I don't see why not. the tool can make any kind of pathway.

 

Hi cybersoft,

EasyRoads3D can paint on the terrain splatmap but it is primarily a tool that creates a road / path mesh on top of the terrain and matches the terrain with this shape. That also makes these hard edges in your images possible. Like Ceebee wrote, what is needed is tiling textures. This type of materials is also on the list to add.

So indeed this is possible.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Thank you for quick reply. Well, I can wait a little bit. Path Painter is really a great solution but I have to buy another asset. EasyRoads3D seemed to me the right tool for pathways too.

 

Hi cybersoft,

Are the pathways in your examples exactly what you are looking for, or only examples?

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Only examples but very similar or maybe sometimes like this:



or

 

Hi again, i try to make that signal be dynamic, but i can't. anyone can you help me?

 

This type of pathways can be done using side objects, the procedural side object type.

The idea is to add a park type of zone in the additional demo package with paths like this.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi CrIxX91,

What shaders are used on these objects? It looks like at least the road uses one of the EasyRoads3D shaders with an Offset value that is smaller (there for stronger) then the offset on the crosswalk. Even when the crosswalk is positioned slightly higher then the road, it will disappear when zooming the cam out. That is how the offset option works. So please check these values further below in the Inspector, the negative value on the crosswalk should be stronger then the one on the road.

Built-in crosswalk options will be available in late v3.2.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hello! Why does my sword made through the new prefab of the road make it dark? Near just a grid. Tell me how to fix it?

 

Hi Bogat,

I am not exactly sure what you mean. Should the right object look like the left one? I am not sure if this is related, but the shader used on the material is an older one, it is not an EasyRoads3D shader.

Or, is this a custom prefab created through the Custom Prefab Editor? In that case, how does it import? Did you have to change the rotation? And if so, were the recalculate normals and tangent checkboxes checked?

Thanks,
Raoul

 

The object should look like the left in color. I export it to 3d max in fbx format. I create new crossing object. But all models always become dark and I cannot understand why! The material does not matter in use, it will still be the same shade!

 

Did you try the Recalculate Normals option?

Can you drop the fbx in the scene and look at the rotation values in the Inspector does Unity automatically apply a rotation to the x or z axis? In that case the normals need to be recalculate in the Custom prefab editor window. Or try changing the 3d max fbx export settings. We always use .obj for both custom mesh crossing source models and side object source models, no rotations added on the x and z axis.

If you want you can send the fbx so we can look at it and test it.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Look at the files in the file!
https://cloud.mail.ru/public/4c6G/yKaHqjS9x

 

Hello!

I get these error when I try to build my scene:

Error building Player: Shader error in 'EasyRoads3D/Terrain/ER Terrain Mesh Tesselation': maximum ps_5_0 sampler register index (16) exceeded at line 149 (on d3d11)

Compiling Fragment program with UNITY_PASS_FORWARDADD SPOT SHADOWS_DEPTH SHADOWS_SOFT
Platform defines: UNITY_ENABLE_REFLECTION_BUFFERS UNITY_USE_DITHER_MASK_FOR_ALPHABLENDED_SHADOWS UNITY_PBS_USE_BRDF1 UNITY_SPECCUBE_BOX_PROJECTION UNITY_SPECCUBE_BLENDING UNITY_ENABLE_DETAIL_NORMALMAP SHADER_API_DESKTOP UNITY_LIGHTMAP_RGBM_ENCODING

Some info:
I tried to add a shader variant package
I use Vegatation System and Microsplat
It happens both when I added a road and when there are no roads in the scene.
Any idea?

 

Hello Bogat,

The rar includes two fbx file, after dropping them in the scene (the selected object on the left) Unity indeed applies rotations to both, -90 on the x axis. I had to select "Trace on Z axis" to get the correct orientation in the custom prefab editor. The crossing on the right with two roads attached is what it looks like after Recalculating normals and tangents. No materials were part of the rar so I just added the default road material in the package.



Did you try what I suggested? If you do not want to Recalculate Normals then please try a .obj export

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hello Lonely-World,

This shader is part of the additional demo scene package. It is a more advanced shader used on the terrain mesh overlay next to the mountain road with the retaining walls. Depending on your build settings this error can happen. Are you using this shader / material? if not, then you can remove it:

/Assets/EasyRoads3D/shaders/Misc/ER Terrain Mesh Tesselation

The demo package does include a lighter version of this type of shader.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

In 3d max I turned the axes to 90 degrees and this helped, I will still be testing. Another question arose how can I increase my individual intersection to the size of a road? Your standard road has a width of 5, but I need size 15. How to increase my intersection in size?

 

The main Pro and demo package use road types. The width can be changed in General Settings > Road Types. Pressing "Update Scene Instances" near the bottom will update both roads and dynamic built-in crossings in the scene matching this road type.

But your other posts are custom connection prefab related, prefabs based on imported meshes, not built-in crossings. So I am not entirely sure if this is involved in your question? You can create new road types based on your imported models in the Custom Prefab editor. the width will automatically match the connection with of your prefab. This new road type will be available in the list of road types and roads pulled out of your custom prefabs will automatically have this road type assigned.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Raoul was kind enough to make a script to import River Auto Material splines into EasyRoads.

I posted this on the RAM forum to, but i thoiught I should post here too if anyone is interested

• Export a RAM spline point list to csv from RAM
  
• drop the attached script in: /Assets/EasyRoads3D/Editor/
• It will add a new menu item in the top menu: EasyRoads3D > Import R.A.M. Spline
• This script will create a new object based on the road type set in the script. In this case I tested it on a side object “road type”, Tree line. Can you open the script and change this into your desired road type: line 29 (NOTE I didt do this and just used it as is, still worked great)
  
• Afterwards run this new menu item, select the csv file and that should be it.
• Your csv file resulted in a rather bumpy spline. But I assume the csv file columns match the Vector3 format: x, y, z
• Column 4, with the value is not used. I assume that is the width. This can be set for the used road type in EasyRoads

I use both RAM and EasyRoads a lot and this helps the interoperability between the two.

 

X.X help me pls, i can't see correctly decal

 

i have take some time and tryed to make the upper path, here is a example file how it can be done.
you can use it freely


simply add the prefab in the Path folder to your sideobjects and make a Sideobject Path.

 

Hi CrIxX91,

I see several packages combined. Which decal object is this? I tried several HD Roads decals, together with the parking side object. Some are indeed not visible, this is related to the Render Queue value in the material. This depends on the combination of side objects you want to use. For example, the "Dust" side objects will be visible on top of the "Road Border" side objects because of the render queue, 2452 vs 2451.

Is this what is making the decal invisible in your situation?

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Great, I will look into it.

 

Is there a way to place two points on a terrain, and proceduarlly generate a road between them - like the road "finds" its way through the terrain? I had an asset that did this, but it wasn't very flexible and its been deprecated.

 

I am trying to make parking at road level as shown in the hd add-on. but this package includes only parking on one side, I need it from both sides so double the prop doing it in mirror mode to get my result, to the center assign a road type so that there is no gap and take to make the parking lot . the prints have not worked for me in any way, they always disappear even if I modified the value to -10 as you indicated.

I have no idea how was the order to create the complete project but I did it in the following way, the first package that I met was the "easy roads", then "Demo project" to have more crosses, and finally I bought the add hd, to have the stamps and other roads, I'm sorry for the inconvenience but I'm not very clear about the operation.

I have one more question, how is it possible to make a crossing between the train lines? That type of road especially I need to put on -0.1 to be shown next to the rest of the roads.

 

Hi protopop,

At the moment the focus for v3.2 is on adding more crossing options, flexible road shapes and upgrading the sidewalk system. For v3.3 the procedural aspects of the tool is on the list, more side object related. So far there have not been many requests for procedural road creation following the terrain from point A to B. But this can be looked into further as well if there is interest.

Thanks,
Raouil;

 

Hi CrIxX91,

What exactly do you mean with stamps, what is the exact decal used in the image, the selected objected that is not visible?

In my previous post I mentioned the render queues with the dust and road border decals as examples.

The Render Queue of the selected invisible object is set to 2450. Can you try 2451 or 2452? And possibly switch "From Shader" to "Alphatest+". Or is this unrelated? In that case, what is the Y position of this side object in the side object settings for this road?

Can you give more details regarding this?

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi Raoul

I'm having an issue where some meshes aren't getting destroyed by EasyRoads when I change the scene at runtime. For instance, if I switch between my roads scene, an empty scene, and back again, and output the list of meshes in memory, some EasyRoad meshes are in twice.

I call this and diff the 2 files:

Code (CSharp):

1. using ( var writer = System.IO.File.CreateText( "./MeshDump.txt" ) )
2.                 {
3.                     var allMeshes = Resources.FindObjectsOfTypeAll<Mesh>();
4.                     foreach ( var mesh in allMeshes )
5.                     {
6.                         writer.WriteLine( mesh.name + " Verts:" + mesh.vertexCount );
7.                     }
8.                 }

It mainly seems to be ERCrossingPrefabs objects, but there is one ERModularRoad that appears in the diff too.

Thanks, Joe

 

Hi joe_ftg,

How are you using this? EasyRoads3D generates ordinary unity game objects, with a mesh filter and mesh renderer. The mesh asset is by default stored in the scene file, that is what Unity does. Alternatively you can use the option "Store Mesh Assets in project Folder". EasyRoads3D is no longer involved at runtime unless you use the scripting API or when you generate roads at runtime.

Which packages do you have imported?

Resources.FindObjectsOfTypeAll will also list assets in the Resource folders, and these are indeed crossing prefabs.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi Raoul

Our meshes are all in the scene file. We use the scripting API to access road positions, but don't generate roads at runtime. We're using Easyroads 3.2

These are definitely loaded meshes that we're seeing, that are getting reallocated every time we switch back and forth to the scene. Our best guess is a call to new Mesh() or mesh.instantiate at runtime that isn't getting explicitly Destroyed. Are there any circumstances at runtime under which this can happen (except generating new roads)?

Cheers, Joe

 

Hi Joe,

This is the first something like this is brought up. I will do some test.

In any case, in your setup EasyRoads3D is no longer involved at runtime apart from using the scripting API to access road positions.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi Raoul,

First: awesome asset, it's really really nice. Purchased the HD Roads pack too, since my art skills are 0.

A couple of quick questions:
1) How can I adjust side objects at runtime? I'd like to do a lot of random permutations of various road layouts, so using side objects for lane markers is perfect, but I don't see which interface I can access to toggle things on and off (and how do I get references to them in the first place )
2) I'm not interested in using terrain for anything other than a base, right now my road will be always completely flat. I see there is some z-fighting if I put everything at 0,0,0. Is there any checkbox to make sure the road sits on top of the terrain, or should I just add a small 0.2 offset to my Y co-ordinate?
3) If I wanted to add things randomly sampled to the side of the road (say a building, or a tree or a bush), what is the best interface to do that via scripts (again, everything at runtime for me)

Thanks!

 

Ah, OK it seems like when I change the Shader from "Standard" to "Unity 2018 Standard" in the material from the HD Pack (using "M_Ashphalt_Dotted" for now), the Z-fight goes away completely.

 

I am not the developer of this asset, however I have used the API enough that I may have the answer for you. The ROAD object has points in the center, left and right sides. You can get them like this:

Code (CSharp):

1.  
2. Vector3[] markersRight = road.GetSplinePointsRightSide();
3. Vector3[] markersLeft = road.GetSplinePointsLeftSide();
4. Vector3[] markersCenter = road.GetSplinePointsCenter();
5.  

I have some code for placing CScape buildings that you might want to look at for some info: https://github.com/Blissgig/Easy-Roads-3D-and-CScape-Building-Placement/blob/master/BldgPlacement.cs

 

Hi vostok4,

Glad to hear you like the tool!

All Unity editor marker specific side object options are currently not yet fully implemented in the runtime API. Among other new side object features, this is planned for v3.3 which will take a while.

What type of Side Objects are involved, is this indeed waypoints related? Like JamesWjRose mentioned, the scripting API can be used as well to place objects.

Lane specific data will be available through the scripting API in v3.2. A beta will follow soon including a simple example scene how this can be used.

You already mentioned the EasyRoads3D shaders in your other post. I am not sure if you want to use these shaders for the HD Roads road types. These shaders were made by the NatureManufacture Team. The difference with respect to Z-fighting is, that these shaders do not use an Offset. That will cause issues if, as you say, the roads sit exactly on the terrain like in Edit Mode.

To fix that for your situation you can for example open the "ER Road Transparency" shader and look for Offset x,x (two negative values). And copy this line over to the same place in the HD Roads shaders.

JamesWjRose answered this question.

For vegetation however, and if this is random, you may want to consider using the side objects system. The instances will be added to the terrain vegetation system when terrain tree prototypes are set as the source objects, like the palm trees in the demo package.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Let me describe my test: I've used the NM_Asphalt_No_Lines road type, which gives me some generic looking asphalt. If I go in the Side Objects for that road, and I enable "Line Left", "Line Right", "Line Double Middle", I'll get a pretty nice lane layout for my road. Then if I disable "Line Double Middle", I get a more residential looking road. This is what I'm using the side objects for (but only the "Props" submenu).

I'd like to toggle these via code, and ideally have on hand all the options for the middle line types. I will run some tests to see what I can extract from the API as it is in that case, I'm trying to get up and running in a quick way

Can you elaborate on this? These packages are a bit confusing, since all the materials (at least on my import) came configured to use the Standard shader out of the box. These are the materials available:

HD Roads:


EasyRoads:


So you're saying for HDRoads use theirs (so Metalic_Road_Shader)? For me it was easier to solve the terrain issue by just moving it down to y=-0.1 for now

Thanks!

 

Do you want to do this per marker or per road object? You could duplicate road types and auto activate these side objects for these specific road types. That way these side objects will be generated automatically at runtime for thesde specific roads.

Marker specific control at runtime will follow in v3.3

The HD Roads assets and road types use the shaders in the NatureManufacture folder, the first image in your post.

Yes, if you do not use the Terrain Build options of EasyRoads3D you could also lower the terrain to deal with Z-fighting. 0.01 or 0.02 should be enough on a flat terrain.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Ok, thank you for clarifying about the shaders. None of them were set out of the box (they were all on the standard Unity shader).

Is there an easy way to duplicate road types? Also, how are road types actually stored? Are they updating some asset in the project when I create a new one?

I think slowly I'm getting to the point where I'm able to iterate (I'll just pre-generate road types).

Last question, have you any idea why this sort of bug appears visually?



If I move the scene camera forward, the lines will work just fine. It's like they're getting culled for some reason, but I can't figure out why. Same things happens with the game camera, if it gets too far from the road the lines just simply disappear.

 

Oops, sorry I see that contrary to side objects, there is actually no "duplicate road type" option. That will be added. If you think this is useful for your situation I will make sure it is available in the next update.

Which shader is currently used on the road? The decals are optimized for the HD Roads road materials / shaders. You mentioned before that you swapped the shader to the EasyRoads3D Standard shader, is that the case for the road in the screenshot? In that case, the behaviour of the offset is that it will become stronger when the cam is further away. This is for example useful to deal with the terrain LOD system. However, if the offset on the road is stronger then the offset on the lane decals, these lane decals will disappear when moving the cam away. Is that what is happening?

Thanks,
Raoul

 

If possible, that would be amazing.

The shader used is "NatureManufacturer Shaders/Standard Metalic Road Material" on the road surface, and the decal is "EasyRoads3D/ER Road Transparency - HD Roads".

I tested raising the "Offset Factor" on the "EasyRoads3D/ER Road Transparency - HD Roads" shader, and when I lower it to -2 it seems that the lane lines show up properly. Nothing is different if I use the "EasyRoads3D/ER Road Decal" shader, which seems more appropriate but I'm not sure.

If I could make some second request, its to help clear up the name of some of these shaders. I don't understand why there is 2018, and "Road Transparency - HD Roads", yet the "HD Roads" asset doesn't have shaders that are called "HD Roads" at all, yet they have their own "ER Road Transparency" shader!

Look at the package contents across EasyRoads v3 Pro and the HD Roads addon:

HD Roads

HD Roads

EasyRoads v3 Pro


and EasyRoads v3 Pro has a "Unity 5 Shaders.unitypackage", which I'm assuming has the Unity 5 shader there.

So I have copies of shaders in each (are they the exact same?), I have ER Road Transparency shader in two different folders (wait, no I don't when I look at the package, so they shared a GUID?) This is the most confusing part of the whole system, just making sense of the materials and shaders

 

The ER Road Transparency shader is the only "shared" shader between the EasyRoads3D shaders and the HD Roads shaders made by NatureManufacture. They used the ER Road Transparency shader for their decal shader.

Indeed the HD Roads package also includes some of the default EasyRoads3D shaders (the first list of shaders in your post), but these are in the EasyRoads3D folder, not in the NatureManufacture folder. We uploaded the project as we received it. These shaders can be removed for the next update. However, after importing the EasyRoads3D Pro package, they will still be there so the end result is the same.

You are right. If you open the four NatureManufacture shaders and search for "Offset", you will see that both Standard_Metallic_Road_Shader and Standard_Metallic_Road_Shader_Parallax use an Offset of -2. That explains why changing the offset to -2 on the decal solves the issue.

Thank you for reporting that, I will double check the offset values of the various decal side objects.

Raoul

 

Hello,

I've imported a scene that has been built using EasyRoads3D. It looks fantastic, but is there a way to get EasyRoads3D to reload the road network and have all the spline points accessible through the API again?

The road network in the scene is displayed properly, but the ER scripts are not loaded in with the network.

 

Hi OFFICIAL_bryanw,

After importing a scene in another project the road splines should be functional provided that the road network was not finalized.

How are the ER scripts not loading? Does it display missing monoscript messages? In that case it seems that the script components are not available? Is the full EasyRoads3D package imported in this project?

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hello,

I am very intersted with your tool but I have to use unity 2018.3 and new prefab system for my project.
Is your tool already compatible with the beta or do you have a date when it will be possible to use it ?
Thank you

 

Hello Linkabout,

In what way do you want to use the new prefab system within the EasyRoads3D environment?

The next update, hopefully available later this week, will include first changes related to Unity 2018.3. Currently opening a crossing prefab will not work well. This is fixed in the next update. It will make it possible to add for example props to crossings in the prefab editor. Editing the crossing itself will not yet fully work, this can still be done like before, by dragging them in the scene. This will be further optimized.

Over the next updates various various windows will be moved to the new prefab editor starting with road type visualization in the upcoming v3.2 beta. It will make it easier to create custom road shapes and define lane info for AI.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Thanks for your answer.
In fact, I need it for my buildings across the road. I will add a lot of them but with variations (that's why new prefab system will be useful here).

And maybe it can be useful too with your tool just like you said by adding some modifications to a road type prefab or crossing.

So if I understand well, you will release first a version compatible with 2018.3 this week and then some other versions to handle correctly all the new systems in your tool (maybe in next weeks or months ?).

 

So this is more side object related, and then instantiating prefabs rather then procedural side objects like guard rails? Keeping the connection to the prefab for instantiated side objects was requested recently. This will be looked into in any case over the next weeks, but this will not be in the update of this week (or next week). Meanwhile there are also script examples for placing buildings / prefabs by JamesWjRose on this page / the previous page using the scripting API.

At the moment the focus is on v3.2 features, more crossing options, custom road shapes and an upgrade to the sidewalk system. Current Unity2018.3 changes are mainly to keep everything functional. But, like the road type visualization example, indeed the tool will take further advantage of new Unity 2018.3 features.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hmm. It sounds like the road network might have been finalized. I have EasyRoads3D FREE. I have some spline controllers I want to use, and I was hoping that I could automatically generate splines for each lane using the splines that were used to draw the roads.