World Building EasyRoads3D v3 - the upcoming new road system

My I ask what you use for rain and water splashes? Looks awesome.

 

replied to a PM, because of conversation about another topic

 

I think there is a bug in the latest version. I'm using 2019.2.9f1 and the 3.1.9.f4 update turned all my side objects black. They were fine with the previous version. The shaders seem to be broken, if I use the transparent>vertexlit-2sided shader, road dust works, but if I use the ER Road Transparency shader, they're black.

 

Hi BrokenVector,

That is correct, the normals are not calculated for procedural side objects in the latest v3.1.9f4 released earlier this week.

It has not been announced yet here on the forum for this reason. A fix is pending approval by the asset store team.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Is there a proper way to delete custom crossings? I deleted it from the custom prefab folder but now this error will spam the console. It also spams on newly created road networks. I don't know if it's directly related but the error only started happening after I deleted the custom prefab from the resources folder and removed the accompanying Road Type.

Code (CSharp):

1. IndexOutOfRangeException: Index was outside the bounds of the array.
2. EasyRoads3Dv3Editor.QDOSQDQQOQDDD.OQCCOCOQCO (System.Collections.Generic.List`1[T] favList, System.String[]& names, EasyRoads3Dv3.ERCrossingPrefabs[]& prefabs, System.Boolean updateFavList) (at <2cc2333d7e054483bb07be68805a26db>:0)
3. EasyRoads3Dv3Editor.OQCQQCODOO.OnEnable () (at <2cc2333d7e054483bb07be68805a26db>:0)

 

Hi Freznosis,

Removing both dynamic and custom crossings can be done directly in the project folder.

The error happens when sorting prefabs afterwards according the favorites settings when the road network object is selected.

It is fixed and if you want I can send an update, but the error doesn't appear to be critical. And it disappears for example after a script change or after switching to play mode.

Thank you for reporting this!

Raoul

 

@BrokenVector, and those who downloaded the new v3.1.9f4 earlier this week, please download v3.1.9f4 again.

Although we have not received a confirmation from the asset store yet (maybe because the version has not changed), I just tested the current v3.1.9f4 on the asset store. Normals are now generated again for procedural side objects. Could you please test this and let me know when this still does not work for you like before.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

That's good to hear. I don't mind the error if it's not messing anything up internally. I can wait until it's included in a future release.

 

Hi, we upgraded from 3.0 to 3.1 and when our roads are upgraded, all existing connectors have their associations broken and their rotations become misaligned. We have lots of roads, so it's going to be a pain to re-align every connection by hand. Is this is known issue?

 

Hi Raoul,
since the latest update I have terrible lags with the terrain, after "building the terrain". Here's what I'm doing:
1. Build the terrain
2. Select the Terrain in the scene hierarchy
3. Try to do anything with the terrain selected, it lags terribly
4. Select anything else, editor runs smoothly as always
5. Go "back to edit mode" and everything is smooth again

We're running ER 3.1.9f4 with Unity 2019.2.16 and HDRP, also using Unity Terrain Tools package, but the problem persists even after removing the package.

 

Hi KokkuHub,

3.1 is out for quite a long time, the current version is v3.1.9f4. What is the exact version you upgraded from and is this indeed to v3.1.9f4?

What is your road network setup? The recommended way is to use crossings with road types assigned. That way both roads and crossings can auto update after road type changes. Are you using road types?

Did you backup the project before doing the upgrade? Would it be possible to email us a download link so we can see the status?

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi Wolpertinger-Games,

The latest update does not include terrain related changes.

Since you mention that this happens when the terrain object is selected and to get a better idea of the situation, does the same happen in the available demo scenes? What are the terrain specs, especially heightmap resolution? Does the bounds of the road network cover a large portion of the terrain? Does it have dense Unity terrain specific vegetation?

Could you backup the project and in the backup (important!) remove the ERTerrain component from the terrain. Does that resolve the problem?

Thanks,
Raoul

 

hello @raoul ! how do we retrieve road's "waypoints" in order to make an "object with a script" follow a simple road ? with the API? and how ? I've spent 2 hours trying to figure out !

 

Hello SLASH24,

The runtime scene demo shows how a road can be created at runtime, afterwards an object follows the road:

/Assets/EasyRoads3D/Scripts/runtimeScript

If you only need access to the road shape data to create waypoints, please have a look at:

ERRoad.GetSplinePointsCenter()
ERRoad.GetSplinePointsRightSide()
ERRoad.GetSplinePointsLeftSide()

All three return an array of Vector3

Thanks,
Raoul

 

As soon as I remove the ERTerrain Component, it runs smoothly again. The behavior only happens, if the ERTerrain Inspector window shows, e.g. if I select the terrain plus any other object in the Hierarchy, it's smooth. Select the Terrain itself, inspector opens and it lags.

The terrain is a 2000x2000 terrain, 256 height, 64 detail resolution/patch at 1024 detail resolution.
Base text resolution is 2048, control tex 1024 / 1025.
We're using 5 different tree types and 1 grass type, but the terrain is not super-densely populated, just some stuff here and there. We use 7 texture layers.

The terrain and road network are separated into two scenes which are loaded at the same time. Behavior doesn't change if I merge both scenes together, tho. The road network spans across the whole terrain (a little city), it has about 100 crossings and 200 roads at a resolution of roughly 5-8 units.

Hope that helps!

 

The heightmap resolution is not clearly mentioned, is it 1025? That is not too high and should work just fine. Especially larger heightmap resolutions (4097+) can result in what you describe. The original terrain data is stored in the ERTerrain component in Build Mode. It is used to restore the terrain when switching back to edit Mode.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Yes, the heightmap resolution is 1025. I was profiling the editor when the terrain is selected, this is what happens. Maybe it gives you another clue:

 

Hi Wolpertinger-Games,

The terrain in the additional demo package also uses a 1025 heightmap resolution. Is this package imported? Could you otherwise import it in a new project just to see if the same happens in the demo scene?

Thanks,
Raoul

 

We received an email from and account ending with yandex.ru with a question about roads turning out wavy.

Our reply is bounced back with a "550 5.7.1 No such user!" error.

All we can do is post here, hopefully you see this.

Wavy roads, this is probably related to road Smoothness settings (random bumpiness and tilting), the "Road Smoothness" foldout in the main Road settings. This can be set per road type.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

@raoul hi ! I'm still having issues with the API, because the component ERModularRoad returns null, when I try to get the "road" field.
I'm not creating my road at runtime.
I want to design in edit mode first.

see attached files, I try to access the gameObject "default Road" and its script ERmodularRoad.
then, I check & print the field "road" : it returns null


I don't see another way to get road's data. but how can I do , as the road is always null at runtime ?
thanks in advance

 

Hi SLASH24,

Can you try doing this through the scripting API?

Code (csharp):

1. // Create a reference to the road network in the scene
2. ERRoadNetwork roadNetwork = new ERRoadNetwork();
3.  
4. ERRoad road = roadNetwork.GetRoadByName("Road name");
5.  
6. or
7.  
8. ERRoad road = roadNetwork.GetRoadByGameObject(GameObject);

Thanks,
Raoul

 

thank YOU !!!
I get it now. it's easier now. question, does EasyRoads3D supports HDRP ? I've tried quickly, and the first thing I've noticed is that the road appears pink, material issue... I'm new to HDRP, so I've tried a shader: HDRP/LayeredLit so that the road shows it's original texture, but then I'm getting bad Z-Fighting, the road blinks off/on and looks cutted out everywhere... any help please?

 

Well it looks that v3 have some bugs. One of such bugs is it with crossing Just simple placing roundabout a trying to add street by draq and drop one connector give such error

I can connect existed road to roudabout

But It won't allow me to change road width which is extremely frutrating. Any idea how to solve this ?
When I try to change road width I get and road width do back to 2.

 

We managed to work around the upgrade bugs, but now there's another issue we are having. We are working to eliminate all Resources folders from our project and use asset bundles (required by Nintendo), and EasyRoads is pulling a lot of assets into the resources file, causing them to be duplicated into our build.

The main offender seems to be the ERSideObjectsLog prefab, which is generated automatically and apparently stores references to all prefabs used by the scenes' road networks. Is there a way to disable the generation of this prefab? Is it used during run-time at all or can we safely have our build scripts delete it before building?

 

Hello DaReign,

What do you mean with "add street by draq and drop one connector "?

After adding a roundabout to the scene, dragging out new roads from the green connection handles works well. There are no errors. and existing roads connect well.

It is recommended to work with road types. The roundabout, and the other X and T Crossing examples, are based on the Default road type.

After changing the width of the road type in General Settings > Road Types and pressing the "Update Scene Instances" button at the bottom in this section, both roads and crossings in the scene will adjust.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hello KokkuHub,

This asset is required to store road types and side objects and make them available across different scenes.

These assets in the resources folder are required if you are using the runtime scripting API. Otherwise you could for example temporarily rename the resources folder in the EasyRoads3D folder before doing final builds. just make sure to rename them back after the build.

Which packages do you have imported? The EasyRoads3D Pro package includes minimal additional assets.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi SLASH24,

The EasyRoads3D package itself only use a couple of shaders. Indeed HDRP versions are required for HDRP.

The main EasyRoads3D Standard shader uses an offset to deal with Z-fighting. That is the only difference compared with the Unity Standard Shader. Depending on the nature of your terrains, reasonably flat or hilly, raising the road network will deal with that as well, the "Raise" option in the Build settings.

The HD Roads package does include matching shaders for HDRP and URP.

Also, v3.3 will include new road type features for which new shaders are being made. These shaders will support both HDRP and URP.

It is not requested often but we can add HDRP and URP versions of the shaders used in the current version. For example, we have an HDRP and URP version of the ER Road Transparency shader ready.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Thanks! We don't use the runtime APIs, so renaming during build works for us, thanks!

 

Hi.

I am building roads for stages of rally competition. The stages has between 10 and 30 km.

I am dividing these roads into sections that do not exceed 1.5 km.

I notice certain strange behaviors. I have checked if they are from the physical of the car, but in other places (a circuit purchased in the asset store) everything is fine.

Are there any recommendations or suggestions to make the mesh softer? Or, conversely, is there nothing to suggest that the problem is with the mesh of the road?

Anything I can watch?

Thank you very much.

 

Hi Barritico,

To make the Mesh softer, in which way? Is this happening in specific areas, for example bends with significant height differences? In these situations road sections with subdivision can be used to make the road softer.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hello, I'm having two issues with sidewalks:
1. How do I add sidewalks to regular, non-intersection roads? When I select an intersection through its yellow dot there's an option to enable sidewalks, which also adds sidewalks to the closest roads connected to that intersection. Works great. However, I can't find an option to add sidewalks to regular roads that are not connected to an intersection, neither when selecting them or through the Road Types settings.

2. The sidewalk settings are greyed out for some T crossings (but not all), meaning I can't edit things like curb height etc. How do I enable them?

Many thanks.

 

Hello embeee,

1. Indeed sidewalks on roads are controlled through the intersection they are connected to. Do you want to add sidewalks to roads that are not connected to intersections? In that case you could temporarily connect them to an intersection, add the sidewalk and disconnect the road from the intersection.

In v3.3 it will be possible to add sidewalks directlt to a road, or road section.

2. Do you mean the controls in the Sidewalk Settings are greyed out? Is "Include Sidewalks" in the "General Settings" for that crossing toggled on?

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Thanks for clearing that up, I'll try that technique. Do you know approximately when v3.3 will be out?

Ooooh, that was the issue. Those intersections already had sidewalks, so I never checked to see if they were enabled, but I guess they just "inherited" them from nearby intersections.

 

Hi embeee,

There is no release date schudeled for v3.3 There are still various other new features to add and v3.2 also still has to be released. A new v3.2 beta will be available near the end of the coming week. New v3.3 alpha will also be available. The road related sidewalk feature I mentioned is already implemented:



There will be a new Sidewalk section for roads where the default sidewalk type and active state can be selected for both the left and right side of the road.

Currently the new sidewalk system is added for crossings. Once that is done it will be part of the next alpha.

2. "Include Sidewalks" serves two purposes in v3.1, as mentioned, it activates the Sidewalk controls in the Inspector. And it activates the default sidewalk state. If you have a crossing type where sidewalks should alsways be active, then you could create a new dynamic crossing or edit the existing crossing in /Assets/EasyRoads3D/Resources/dynamic crossings/. When "Include Sidewalks" for this prefab is toggled on, new instances in the scene will have the sidewalks automatically added.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi Raoul,

Hope you are doing fine.

How can we reduce the white boundary around the road?

 

Hi Himanshuchahar,

We are fine thank you, I hope you are well too.

These surfaces are based on two minimum values that can be set globally in General Settings > Scene Settings

1) Indent values, the distance sideways over which the terrain will be leveled at the same height as the road at that position

2) Surrounding value, the distance from the Indent position over which the terrain will be leveled gradually with the original terrain height

These values can be set per road type and for each individual road per marker in the Marker Settings.

Although 0 should generally be avoided because it will not have good results, there is no limitation for the Surrounding value.

The minimum Indent value is limited to the specs of the terrain object in the scene, especially the terrain size and heightmap resolution. It is impossible to add detail points to the terrain so there must be enough terrain points available to adjust the terrain to the road shape. This minimum reguired Indent value guarantees the best possible terrain deformation. When a value is entered that is too low, it will be adjusted automatically to this minimum required value.

So depending on the terrain setup there can be limitations especially in hilly areas like in your screenshot. Another way to deal with that is by using side objects, and either use terrain detail overlays or retaining walls. In v3.1 this can be done by manually activating these side objects for marker sections where this is required. In v3.2, available in betas on our website, these detail meshes and retaining walls can be generated automatically based on rules that can be set in the Side Object Manager for each side object type.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi, I have a problem, after I created the Road type, I can not select it from the list. This is repeated on an empty project, as well as on a demo project. UVs are also constantly breaking when setting up the road, using the latest version of the package. Unity Version 2019.3.7f1

 

Hi Raoul,

I have couple of questions regarding side objects.
1. I tried to implement the bridge, everything works fine except for the number of pillars. How can I reduce the number of pillars?




2. I tried to implement sidewall on terrain, but it looks a little different. Before and after building terrain.



Another thing is, I have downloaded the latest version of easyroads3d from unity asset store but the options which are mentioned in the tutorial are different from the options I get in the editor. Like I am not getting below options (for Retaining Walls and Terrain Mesh Overlays tutorial)



Below is what I get in editor:

 

Hi @alerbuffon22,

Did yopu create the road type in General Settings > Road Types? In that case, that will create a standard two node road type.

The screenshot shows the Custom Prefab Editor window with your T Crossing model. The selected connection on the right with the green nodes show that more then two nodes are selected.

The connection / road shape is stored in the road type settings. This is used to connect matching roads and crossing connections.

So only a road type that matches the shape of the selected connection will be in the list.

Below the dropdown (not visible in your screenshot because tit is covered by the list), there is a button "New Road Type". Please use that to create a matchging road types based on the currently selected connection. These steps are also shown in the second video about customized road networks using this Custom Prefab Editor window.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi @Himanshuchahar,

1. Previously the pillars were generated using a separate side object. In recent versions this can be part of the bridge side object itself by assigning the pillar object to the Connection Object slot. By default the pillar will be instantiated for each bridge section. It seems that is what happens in your screenshot.

Below the Connection Object Slot there is a Ratio field. Please try a number higher then 1, the corresponding distance between the pillars will be shown next to the field as a reference.

2. Is this the wall from the demo package? The difference between Edit and Build Mode in your situation is that the terrain below the wall is actually changed. It seems that "Terrain Snap Weight" for the bottom node of the wall is set to 1 so it snaps to the terrain and apparantly "Clamp UVs" is toggled on. Because that would explain the stretching.

Side Object Manager > Select the Wall Side Object > Shape Editor Window > "Terrain Snap Weight" and "Clamp UVs"

I see you noticed my post further above about the v3.2 beta. Is this the v3.2 beta with auto generated retaining walls? The setup of the Retaing Wall example should be correct.

3. The screenshot from the manual shows the Side Object Manager controls in the Inspector, the second tab from the right in the EasyRoads3D toolbar. Here new side objects can be created and edited.

Your screenshot shows the side object settings for the selected road / marker. The foldout next to the side object active checkbox in the top of your screenshot will show options for the road in general. And there are options for the individual markers as visible in your screenshot. For example the side object can be activated / deactivated per marker and it can be rotated per marker for example to add damage to fences or guardrails.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Thank you for the quick reply Raoul.

I am not able to find the "connection object" option. Could you please tell me where to get it.
The screenshot for wall is not from the demo scene, I myself tried to create it and I am using v3.1.9

Regards,
Himanshu

 

Hi Himanshuchahar,

Are you looking in the Side Object Manager? It is visible in the 4th image in your previous post, the Mountain Wall side object is selected but near the bottom there are slots for Start, Connection and End Objects. The same fields are available for the brdige side object.



Regarding the wall, were you able to change the UVs with the "Terrain Snap Weight" and "Clamp UVs" options? Otherwise you could also look at the setup of the examples in the demo package or in the v3.2 beta.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi- I was wondering:

Is it possible to take a road network that was created in one scene...

And then copy that road network over to another scene?

Just wondering.

 

Hello eblumrich,

Unity stores dynamically generated meshes by default in the scene file.

With this in mind the easiest way to move a road network across scenes in a way that it is still editable using this default behaviour, is by loading both scenes in the hierarchy and simply drag the road network from one scene to the other scene in the hierarchy. When the source scene is not saved the road network will still exist in the original scene.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Raoul hi,

There's a bit of frustration with this procedural side object thing, in the image below by the left you can see the original mesh with the original imported normals and at the right the procedural side object of the same mesh with quite annoying normals. Raoul please tell me there is a way to make the side object have the same normals of the original mesh....this is really game breaking Raoul.

 

Hi KKmainK,

Which version do you use? This is visible in the most right tab.

Previously Unity's Mesh.RecalculateNormals() was used. This can result in different normals then the original mesh depending on the mesh setup, smoothing groups etc. In the latest v3.1.9f4 the normals are recaluclated based on the original normals. So far no issues have been reported with this.

Could you send the original mesh if you are using the latest version (please double check, especially when the additional demo package is imported as well)?

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Sup Raoul,

 

Hi KKmainK,

Thank you!

Actually, while preparing a new v3.2 beta update and looking into this, this new way of calculating the normals is not part of v3.1.x. It is available in the v3.2 betas which can be downloaded from our website, https://easyroads3d.com/v3beta.php



Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi, thanks for creating this system. I bought the asset yesterday and so far it looks good but I've got a few questions:
1. How can I add lowered curb in a middle of the road?

2. Is there any way I can replicate this behavior of lanes using this system?


3. How can I create a bay only on one side of a road (i.e. left side of the road is going straight and right side needs extra lane for turning right) with sidewalks included?


Thanks in advance

[EDIT]
Also.. what can I do here with the sidewalks to be the same? :/

 

Hi PROE_,

1. That sort of curbs will be available in v3.3 , also for crosswalks. In the current version it can be done by modelling this section and import it into the system like a connection object.

2. There are quite a few lane markings and other markings visible in the two images. That is complex to integrate directly in a road system in a way that is all customizable so that screenshots can be exactly replicated and also all sorts of other situations involving lane markings.

This too will be covered to some extend in v3.3, providing built-in options to create every single real world situation is complex

In v3.1 lines can be added as decals through the side object system

3. This is covered by 1) and 2)

This too is on the list for 3.3. In v3.1 short connection models can be created with the lane transition, the area where the road changes for example from 4 to 5 lanes. Then it is a matter of having 4 lane and 5 lane road types connection to the matching side.

4. I see you are using an I Connector. Stretch Width for Road 2 is set to 1.24, this is what causes the stretching

I Connectors are useful to connect non matching roads. So by itself it cannot be used to match the width of sidewalks.

What is the setup of these roads. Are these roads with addiutional sidewalks added? Or roads with the sidewalk part of the texture? To match the sidewalks either the textures should match, or the sidewalk setup should match. So the road widthts and sidewalk widths must matches. Or am I missing something here?

Thanks,
Raoul



.