World Building EasyRoads3D v3 - the upcoming new road system

Hi Pheck,

I looked further into this. Is this related to road tilting?

The secondary road type in the demo scene uses random tilting angles in Road Settings > Road Smoothness. It seems this interferes with terrain deformation and sidewalks with "Outer Curb" toggled off. I will look into that in any case.

Thank you for reporting this!

Raoul

 

Hi,

I am using 3dRoads Pro with HD plugin, in the windridge city scene from the asset store. It all works fine, except the decals are popping up/getting streamed a couple meters in front of the camera. They dont have LODs and the street texture looks just fine. Any idea? Thanks,

Hannes

 

Hello Hannes,

Do you mean you use the windridge city as it is or with the full HD Roads plugin imported?

We did not make the windridge city demo, it doesn't include the full HD Roads package contents.

Is the problem perhaps related to Offset values on these decal materials in the Inspector? Is it set to -1, can you try -2 in that case. -2 is the offset used on some road materials. The offset on decals should be at least the same or stronger then the offset used on roads.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

I am using the windridge city with your pro version and HD roads imported from the asset store. Settings are attached. Thnaks for the fast reply!

 

The material is a road material. These shaders were made by the NatureManufacture Team, I belief this offset I menitoned is hardcoded in the shader itself and set to -2. What needs to change is the offset on the decals which can be updated directly in the Inspector



The way this offset works is that its effect gets stronger when moving the cam away from the object. This is useful to deal with the terrain breaking through the roads when the terrains LOD system gets activated.

So, when the cam is zoomed in on the road the line decals and other decals are visible, the offset is not really doing anything. But this offset will kick in when the cam zooms out and when the line decals disappear it means that the offset on these decals are less strong. They should be at least -2 as well.

I have to double check the status in the HD Roads package, for sure this was updated but perhaps the asset store package is not updated yet. We are looking into HD SRP support which is causing some issues because of the many texture maps being used on especially the crossing materials, HD SRP doesn't like that at the moment.

I will check this, but meanwhile, if you see a decal disappear when zooming out, then please check this offset value on the specific material and make sure it is at least -2.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

it looks like removing all random roughness from the road removed the last problem spot. thanks still not sure why the i connector instigated/removed some of the problem when it was hooked up/removed. oh well. thanks

 

That is related and should be resolved as well. If you want you can email or pm your email address and I will send you a build to test once this is updated.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Thanks a lot, this worked.

 

When I added a new road to the scene, and after building the terrain I switched to the terrain editor to edit the terrain height,however it became slow down ? What `s that issue?

 

Hello zhangfan,

Which exact situation causes the slowdown? Selecting the terrain? What are your terrain specs, especially the heightmap resolution and vegetation settings?

Thanks,
Raoul

 

I am using Unity 2018.2.20 and latest version of Easy Road

I have read the big and well done manual, but I am very sorry that I could not be able to understand how to edit and modify existing roads created previously and add additional objects

Also have seen the video tutorials but when I try to do the same as in the video in my own scene, it does not work in the same way and I can not do the same thing, because it does not work in the same way, is weird.

I have a problem when using Easy Road that I can not understand HOW do you select a road from all the ones already createrd to be edited and modified and apply additional side objects.

I mean when I create a new road and then when finished it, I select another object, and then I want to return to the previously created road and modify and edit it modifying the size and add additional parts of the road and also add additional side objects

The problem is that when I try to select a road, it takes me to the root of the Road Network and so I can not select the road I want, all the roads are selected, but I select the road I want and the icons are modified and can not select the < icon.

Also when I select a marker there is no way to move it to customize the road, before it was possible but not now.

Surely is my fault that I am still learning how to use the great and awesome Easy Road Asset. Or something happened to the asset in my proyect.

Thanks very much for any possible help

 

Hello SpaceRay,

Indeed roads can be edited by selecting one of the blue markers first. This will show the selected road in the Inspector. Does that not work for you?

Roads are edited with the main Road network object selected.

How are icons modified? Do you mean the toolbar icons are modified? In that case, could you please test all this in the main demo scene. Does that workw ell for you?

What has changed in your project? Have you tried reimporting the package?

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Does anyone know why or what setting (easyroads3d's or unity's) causes certain types of road to appear blurry in near / far distance ?
Both pictures taken from same scene :



Increasing UV Tiling (from 1 -> 10) seems to clear that effect, but also smudges / stretches the sidewalk border, so I wound't use that :



Thanks

 

What ever i intent to edit the terrain with the editMode,like paint terrain texture , or modifing the terrain height。：）

 

Hello Jbs_GameZone,

It looks like the "Aniso Level" of the texture is set to the default value of 1 in the texture import settings in the Inspector. Can you select the road texture in the project folder and check this value. For road type of textures you want to use a little bit higher value then the default value of 1.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hello zhangfan,

Could you please give feedback on the questions I asked regarding the terrain?

Can you try this as a test in demo scene part of the Pro package (simple demo) and in the full additional demo package?

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi there,

I'm on Unity 2018.3 & EasyRoads v3.1.4.
I've created a quite big road network with a lot of custom intersections prefabs all linked by custom road types.

The problem : if i can edit the roadtype road by road by selecting them, the update scene instances function in the road type manager is totally uneffective.

The only workaround for now is to modify the road type, delete the roads one by one and recreate them all, which will be a time consuming task just for a road type update seeing the road network complexity at this time.

Thanks in advance.

 

Hello Izanamya,

When using custom intersections based on imported meshes there are some restrictions for road type changes depending on the custom intersection shape and the road type changes.

In order to test this, which road type changes are involved in your situation?

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hello Raoul,

Changes are adding and offsetting side objects in the road types. Changes made directly in the side objects on the other hand are updated without any issues.

Thanks

 

Many thanks Raoul for the quick reply, it was the anisotropic setting indeed. All good now.

 

Updating newly activated side objects for a road type on scene Instances should work.

Deactivated side objects however will not be removed when pressing the "Update Scene Instances" button. This is upon request as you may not want this behaviour. Instead there is a "Remove From Instances" button next to each side object.

Could you please let me know if newly activated side objects indeed are not added to scene instances in your road network.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

It works, I was wondering what was the remove from instances button for...

Now just to solve the side object X position offset update. It works when I change it in the side object panel, but as I use the same side object with different offsets in other roadType, can't get it to update, it keeps the value stored in the manager and doesn't care about the one I enter in the roadType.

Thanks

 

Hi Raoul,

I was trying to set marker properties via Scripting API using ERMarker class ... with no success then I read your post in the forum saying that ERMarker is obsolete. I want to set left / right indent alignment of the marker, is it possible to do that via API without ERMarker class? I also tried to set "indent" and "surrounding" variables of ERModularRoad (I assumed that these are for left and right indent values) but these values have not been changed. Left / Right indent values set to 2.97 smth. even though my min indent value is 0.9. I can change these values on editor mode but what I need is to manipulate them via scripting. Is this possible or am I missing something?

Best,
swnc

 

Hi Izanamya,

I just tested this, I see what you mean. I will make sure changes to specific side object settings on road types are copied over to scene instances.

Thank you for reporting that

Raoul

 

Hi swnc,

I belief this indeed cannot be done through the scripting API. I will make a note to add this.

ERMarker is indeed obsolete, you can try ERMarkerExt leftIndent and rightIndent, but this is at your own risk

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hello, I have made a new empty clean project with Easy Road and it works correctly and better
but have still to check everything

HOW TO POSITION CORRECTLY THE ROADS IN 3D SPACE STRAIGHT

You have done an excellent, awesome and amazing perfect demo scene and all is very well done with straight roads and the same height level when needed

I have a possible problem that is
how to know where to position the markers to keep creating a new road to keep it straight and with same height ?

I mean that as there is no reference and is just empty space, I do not know sure how to select the right point to create the road straight and same height, as I get slight curves and different heights

Please do you have any possible tips and recommendations for how to select the right position for creating the markers to make the roads?

Thanks very much for your possible help

Best wishes

 

Hello SpaceRay,

One way to add markers at a specific height matching the current direction of the road is by selecting the last / first marker, the marker where you want to continue the road. The position handle points in the direction of the road. Press and hold down the Z axis of the position handle, hold down the Shift key and drag the position handle. A new marker will be added and moved in the direction of the road. This is useful for longer bridge sections where new markers should not snap to the ground. If the previous amrkers are at the same height, the new markers will be on this height too. When using the horizontal square in the middle afterwards to reposition the marker, it will stay on the same plane.

Another way to do this is by adding markers the standard way, by snapping them to the terrain. When done make sure the Y position of the start and end markers are the same. Select both markers by holding the Shift key. This will show various alignment buttons in the Inspector, among which "Distribute Y Evenly", all markers will have the same Y position. This feature was used on the mountain road in the demo scene to shape the road gradually following the terrain.

It depends on what you want to achieve. Please let me know if you have further, more specific, questions related to this.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hello,

I have a couple of questions. First is regarding the vegetation studio support. I want my grass (and others as well) to grow closer to the roads, but no matter what value I enter the vegetation stays equal distance away from the roads. I even refreshed the road network, but to no avail. I'm also wondering if it's possible to set the perimeters per road.



My second question is regarding finishing roads. I'm working on this little sub urban area and I want to give it the finishing touch by adding props etc., so the terrain needs to be at a state where it will be when the scene is finished. Though It's likely I will be expanding this sub urban area and so I will have to connect the roads that I now have to finish to get the right terrain height.

So my question is, how would you recommend revisiting a road network that you already finished in a scene that has already progressed (so backing up is pointless, because I will miss all the props and other work I added in the meantime) ?

 

Hi Leniaal,

The images are from General Settings > Terrain Management. Where are you changing the perimeter values, only there?

Once the global values are set up in General Settings > Terrain Management, these values can be adjusted per road type in General Settings > Road Types. The "Update Scene Instances" button will update matching roads in the scene.

Does that work for you? And is this what you need, or would you prefer further control per individual road? That can be added too.

Regarding the second question, do you mean side object props? Depending on the setup of the side objects they will adjust to terrain height changes. So I would need to know a little bit more what type of props these are to give exact feedback.

Otherwise, making changes to the road network afterwards will possibly affect these side objects anyway.

Or is this related to the "Finalize" option, removing all script components etc.? In this case, it is recommended to always backup the scene before doing that especially for that reason, so you can still make changes later. In that situation you can either fall back to that scene, or open both scenes in the hierarchy, remove the finalized road network object and drag / drop the fully operational road network from the backup scene into the other scene.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hello Raoul,

Ah yes I was only changing it in Terrain Management, I will try to adjust these per road type and see how that works. Individual control per road would be even better, how can this be added?

About the second question: I'm talking about props not related to related to EasyRoads3D, basically just other game objects to decorate my scene, sorry for the confusion. So yeah I am indeed talking about the finalizing of a road so that I will know the terrain will be at the correct height so I can decorate my scene.

I will try your solution and it does sound like the way to go when I want to adjust the actual road, but I don't think I want to touch the road itself, I only want to connect new roads to it. It can be quite a hassle to do the "Build Terrain" task
every time I want to expand my road network (since I'm working on a large map that I am slowly expanding). This would mean I also have to check all my roads again and see if they maybe need to be raised or that the indent area needs to be smoothed again.

Do you maybe think in the future it will be possible to add new roads to finalized roads? For this purpose that'd be an amazing feature. Or are there maybe reasons that that could not work?

Thanks for your help.

Regards,

Lenne

 

Hi Lenne,

Ok, I will add that to the list, VS perimeter options per road.

When props are added manually, it means that ideally the road shape must stay the same. This will be the case when switching back and forth between edit mode and build mode.

Alternatively you could lock the road ((the little lock icon in the Inspector next to the road name)) if you want to be sure that the road does not change. This is currently not entirely working regarding scene view operations but that is optimized in the next update.

Connecting new roads to a "finished" road will result in changes to this road. It has to be split in two road objects with a new crossing prefab in between. This also possibly affects terrain deformation at that spot because another road is involved.

The only thing that indeed will require attention again is indent areas with manual smoothing. One way around that is too preserve terrain changes done for that road when switching back to Edit Mode. This option is available after switching on "Enable Back to Edit Mode without Terrain Restore" in General Settings > Scene Settings. This option is not available by default as it is not recommended to use this, it has been added upon request. Road shape changes in a later stage will result in the old road shape being visible in the terrain. But if you do decide to use this, then "Terrain Deformation" can be switched off for that road afterwards. The terrain will no longer be updated for this road.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

@Izanamya, This is done for the next update. The settings of active side objects on scene Instances will now update according road type specific changes in General Settings > Road Types for that side object, including the X Position offset relative to the road.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi Raoul,
thank you, ERMarkerExt works fine. I also have been trying to rotate the T-Crossing which is attached to the end of the road via Scripting API however I could not find the "SwapTurn" or "RotateConnections" parameters. Previously, the connection index could be defined but it is not in the API anymore "ERRoad.AttachToEnd(ERConnection connectionObject, int connectionIndex)". Is there a way to manipulate the attached index via scripting?

EDIT: I think ERRoad.AttachToEnd(ERConnection connectionObject, int connectionIndex) have been not exposed to the API at all.
Best,
swnc

 

Hi Raoul,
I forgot to add that I am using the latest version of the asset v3.1.4 and in the API i can not find the AttachToEnd(ERConnection connectionObject, int connectionIndex) method. It is stated as AttachToEnd(ERConnection connectionObject);

Best,
swnc

 

Hi swnc,

That is correct, it currently does not exist.

It seems this was written after your previous post EDIT,

AttachToEnd(ERConnection connectionObject, int connectionIndex) does not exist. Attaching a new connection prefab directly to a road will use connectionIndex 0. I would have to look into this to see if there is a specific reason for not including the option to pass the connectionIndex, otherwsie it can be added.

I assume you want the correct auto rotation here? Otherwise you can instantiate the prefab first in the scene and use
ConnectToEnd(ERConnection connectionObject, int connectionIndex)

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi Raoul,

exactly! I want to be able to rotate the connection which is been attached to the road, like "SwapTurn" functionality which is in the editor. Is this parameter exposed? I have been checking the API quite some time and couldnt find it. I thought maybe it has different naming? If I want to rotate the connection, do i have to delete the connection, instantiate at the same place and use the ConnectToEnd(ERConnection connectionObject, int connectionIndex) method every time? Please tell me that there is a better way to do it

EDIT: ok instead of deleting and instantiated again, unconnect the connection then connect with the next connectionIndex could also work.
Best
swnc

 

Ah I thought it was already a feature that I had to enable. But thanks for adding it, would be really helpful!

Hmm preserving terrain changes sounds exactly like something I want, I understand the risks involved though or what could go wrong. I will try this workflow and see if it behaves like I want it to.

Thanks for the great answer once again Raoul.

Regards,

Lenne

 

ERConnection.SetRotation(Vector3 euler)

This can be used for an already instantiated crossing and when using ConnectToEnd(ERConnection connectionObject, int connectionIndex). This also works with roads connected. Obviously it requires some logic based on the angles of the attached roads.

The "Rotate Connections" option available in the Inspector is relatively new, it is not available yet in the Scripting API. I will make a note to add it. The same for "Swap Turn".

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Thank you Raoul!. It would be really great to have these functionalities in the API.

Best,
swnc

 

Hello，how could I create a road like the Dirty Path swamp in the EasyRoad Demo project which is with multi node positions to adjust the road shape ?
Thank you !

 

Hello zhangfan,

The swamp dirt path in the demo package is based on a custom road shape. For that occasion a model was imported of a flat road section with that specific number of nodes. In the Custom Prefab editor a new road type was created for this. Afterwards the prefab was removed because it was no longer required.

The shape is flat by default because in that state it will automatically connect well to other roads using the I Connector.

To adjust the shape please have a look here, http://unityterraintools.com/tutorials/adjusting_road_shapes.php

Regarding the road type and node setup, in v3.2 it will be possible to create shapes like this and roads with thickness for built-in road types. A first beta is available on our website, https://www.unityterraintools.com/download.php , please send an email or pm with your invoice if you want to give it a try and when you do not have access yet. This specific new feature should be stable. But using these more complex road shapes with crossings is not yet stable so I Connectors are still required here. Next week a new beta will be available.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi swnc,

Both "Swap Turn" and "Rotate Connections" have been added to the scripting API and will be available in the next update.

An overloaded version of AttachConnection() including the connection index has also been added. I noticed that this is actually what is in the docs. That is perhaps what you saw, apologies for the confusion in that case! The current version does not include the connection index and will attach and align the new crossing on the first matching connection with the involved road type.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi Raoul,

That is awesome! May I ask when would be the next update?

Best,
swnc

 

Hi swnc,

Some other API improvements have to be added related to the indent / surrounding values, also requested by you and others. An updated is scheduled for later this week if all goes well .

Thanks,
Raoul

 

I have easyroads. Has anyone created a motocross style track that has small jumps and things like whoops and berms? If you have do you have any pointers or suggestions? If you have tried and failed I would like to hear those as well. From my efforts it seems to be very difficult if not impossible to get small smoothed jumps and such without having so many control points that unity pretty much comes to a stop trying to work within it.

 

Hello martman100,

What are your terrain specs? especially terrain size and heightmap resolution. This is the first thing to take into consideration. The heightmapscale of the terrain (size vs heightmap resolution) must be fairly small if your intentions are to bake the track with small smooth jumps whoops in the terrain object.

Indeed it will require dense control points to define the same if you want full control over the shape.

Alternatively the random bumpiness options can be used for this. This is controlable per marker. http://unityterraintools.com/tutorials/road_tools.php , near the bottom of the page. These examples are all part of the free demo package. The bike track is actually a side object with the sides of the track snapped to the terrain, the terrain itself is flat. This gives more control over the smoothness of the track.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

I have not set it up yet. I have started building a couple mesh based tracks in blender but I am always looking for easier ways to do things. I honestly don't think I can get some of the contours I need if the Unity terrain is involved. However, I am going to give this a test and see what I can come up with.

Thanks

 

If you need smooth smaller jumps like in the example then indeed the Unity terrain object is not ideal unless a very small heightmapscale is used smaller then 0.5 or so. Let me know if you have further questions.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi Raoul,

I am trying to change road type for all the roads in my scenes. I've found the solution on the forum, however it seems like road.SetRoadType() does not exist in the latest version.

Is there a workaround for this?

 

Hello CFrosty,

Yes, this is an 3.1.4 issue. 3.1.5 with a fix will be available later this week. If you need it urgently I can send an update.

Thanks,
Raoul