World Building EasyRoads3D v3 - the upcoming new road system

Hi maurosso,

Are indeed all markers green (selected)? Which version do you use?

I just tested this on a 6 marker road with the Highlight surfaces that represent the terrain deformation area active. After selecting a marker and Shift + Z to select all markers and first switching on "No Terrain Deformation", the Highlight surfaces disappear and indeed "No Terrain Deformation" on all 6 markers is toggled on. Switching it off also works instantly for all markers and the same for a selection of markers.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hey,
It was indeed not working. Used the latest EasyRoads Pro from the Asset Store.
I Manually toggled all the markers, which was tedious, but worked I tried to recreate the problem, but can't seem to do it. At the moment the markers behave as they should and as you described.

If possible, I would love to ask for your assistance one more time...A terrain I have created seems to protrude through the drawed road quite a lot. The whole network needs to be lifted by as much as 0.13Y units to hide the terrain, which is a bit too much for our case.

Is there any way to force smooth the deformed terrain under the road?

EDIT: The bug with the no-deformation markers happened again. I believe it was when I modified the road width.

 

Hi Raoul,
I started making a custom connection for an off-ramp.
Is it possible to have the side objects continue through the custom connection prefab? See image (never-mind the UV issues). Notice the Center Concrete Barrier. If not I can always add them in after the fact but thought I would ask.

Second question, I notice that I seem to lose one or more of the green connections on the custom connection. I can sometimes get them to reappear by re-selecting, deleting, re-adding etc.
I have been able to extend all three connections however its quite touchy. I am wondering if its a problem with my custom connection? Is the off ramp connection to close to the main motorway connection? Or what it may be. I do see many index errors however they seem to be GUI related.

Thanks again,
Marc

 

Hi Maurosso,

Do you mean selecting all markers and toggling on / off "No terrain Deformation" does not update all selected markers or was the "No terrain Deformation" status of some markers changed after road width changes?

In any case, I checked both after width changes and I cannot see any unusual behaviour. Is the problem with Multiple Inspector windows fixed now, could that still be involved somehow?

I see you have a large terrain 8192x8192, have you tried smaller terrains and multiple terrain tiles?

What is the Raise level of the road in the image? Is that the HD Roads package? Does the material use an offset? That is more z-fighting related. If you want you can email us the scene so we can look at it.

Thanks,
Raoul

BTW the videos are not playing

 

Hi Marc,

Side Objects are currently not supported on crossings, that will be added in v3.2.x

You could indeed create them in a temporary scene as side objects then use the "Store mesh Assets in Project Folder" option and create a prefab. Then add these prefabs as childs to the final Custom Connection Prefab in the project folder. These "side objects" will be part of new instances.

I see the two connections on the far end of the off-ramp are parallel near to each other. That may cause problems with terrain deformation by itself certainly when the connected parallel roads are not at the same height, but also with the internal processes. In what way / when are the green handles lost? Since you also mention errors, it is hard to give feedback. If you want you can email us the model so we can test it. This can also include the final prefab so we have the same setup as on your end.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi Raoul,
Your approach for the side objects makes sense. As far as losing the green handles I will do some digging and if I can't figure out the issue I will send you an email with the prefab.

Thank you for the great work and amazing support.
Marc

 

Thanks, I figured it out. There is one more question. I have a huge number of objects in the scene and my scene weighs 30 mb, but as soon as I add poles and fences to the road scene, my scene starts to weigh from 340 mb and up, although if I do everything without "ER" the size of the scene is so significant does not grow. Why is using the ER so much the size of the scene?

 

Hi adndima,

You mention a huge number of objects. How large is your scene and what type of side objects are these?

For example, the poles you mentioned, I assume these are Mesh type of side objects. When the "Combine" option is active (near the bottom in the Side Object Manager), all instances will be combined in a single mesh which is stored in the scene file. The same for Shape and Procedural type of side objects and also the roads themselves, Unity stores this type of meshes by default in the scene file. Does that explain your situation, does the scene file indeed become smaller after decativating these side objects or when toggling off the "Combine" option?

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Now I checked, if I turn off the combine object, then everything comes back to normal, the scene size drops from 210mb to 31mb
thanks

 

Hi, on blender I created 3 custom intersections in order to have the roads of adequate size.



Everything works fine except an intersection



I redone it at least 20 times through custom connection prefab but it continues to change the terrain badly and I can't understand what problem it has.

The others work great.

 

Ok, in the end when I was about to give up and almost on the thirtieth attempt I did it!



But this problem often happens and I would like to know why it happens in order to avoid several unsuccessful attempts.


.

 

Hi ciorbyn,

What did you do different for the one that did work well?

Terrain deformation issues like visible in the first image you posted can happen when the connections are added in counterclockwise direction in the Custom Connection Editor window. They should always be added in clockwise direction. Could that be the reason?

You can alsways send your models that do not work well so we can look at them.

Looking good, the final result!

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Regarding the first issue (markers not updating terrain deformation when all selected):
The multiinspector problem was fixed and should not be involved.
The video showing the problem should be watchable right now.
(

)

I am sorry, but it's hard for me to pinpoint the exact moment when this happens. Also...it is annoying, but not work destroying.

Regarding the second issue:
We would prefer to use one big tile if possible.
The raise lvl in the image is 0.0. For the road to be fully above the terrain, it needs to be risen by 0.13, which is a bit too much for our case. It is the HD roads package. The material does not use an offset to my knowledge. I believe it is z-fighting but also the terrain roughness which is not being smoothed out by the Road Deformation.
It would be of great help if you could take a peek at the scene. I have prepared a package with the terrain and road network only. Could you PM me an email adres? Could not find one on you site.
Thank you,
maurosso

 

Hi maurosso,

The video still does not play. It says it is private, perhaps setting it to unlisted will help? But I will check this "No Terrain Deformation" setting in your scene.

A Raise level of 0 is very likely to result in the image you posted, it will cause z-fighting, so this image by itself does not explain why a Raise level of 0.13 is required.

Offset options to deal with z-fighting were added to HD Roads shaders in the last update.

The email is in the readme file in the EasyRoads3D root directory, but I will send a PM as well.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi Raoul.
Just FYI, I get this error when try to add side objects with more than one marker selected? Editor is totally blocked. Not sure what I'm doing wrong. Pushing the asset too much?
Unity 2019.3.1
ER3d v3.2
Render URP

 

I'm not sure but seams like the array turn crazy when you select only first and last marker. If I select all markets involved, it works fine.

 

Hi Joan,

Contrary to scene / performance, there are no tool related limitations when adding side objects.

Is the side object by default disabled and is it activated on a range of markers and is the error actually related to that or can the error be isolated to a specific marker?

Thanks,
Raoul

 

I just tested something similar, two markers selected with a range of markers in between and a range of markers selected. I see no difference. Does this happen for a specific road section, can you consistently reproduce this on different road sections? Do you see a pattern?

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Yes, now that you point it out, it is certainly for that reason because in the construction I went in order of material.

That there was a sense of rotation must have escaped me when I read the documentation.
In the end I did it for my obstinacy and the result is excellent.

Thank you.

 

The video with the error reproduced:

I don't know what Im doing wrong. Could be something related with Unity version? I can't do nothing.
Sorry for border you.
Thanks,
Joan

 

Hi Joan,

I missed in your initial post that this is v3.2 beta related. I see this in the video and I now also see that you mentioned this in your first post.

Is this the mountain wall from the v3.2 beta package or from the official v3.1 demo package?

What is the reason for using the v3.2 beta in this case? Is that the option "Dual Sided" so the same side object can be used at both sides of the road?

In my previous post I asked if you are able to isolate the problem to specific markers, did you try that? For example in the video at 2.33 activating the side object does not work. That is I think where the actual problem is visible. What are the exact side object settings? The v3.2 retaining wall will snap to the bottom. This will not work well for all selected markers in the video. The terrain near the higher selected marker is above the road. Perhaps the problem is related to that?

All together this appears to be v3.2 beta related. If you could let me know which side object this is and if you made changes to it, then I can test here if the problem can be recreated.

The main changes in v3.2 are auto generated side objects which is particularly useful in this type of situations. Have you tried the v3.2 retaining wall example on this road? That side object is to be auto generated. How does that work?

Also, at the start it shows an overview which what seems to be a long road, is that one road object? In that case you may want to consider breaking it in separate objects by inserting I Connectors available near the bottom in the marker settings. This is better for performance in general, but it will also work better with auto generated side objects.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi Raoul.
Thank you very much for your interest.
1 "Is this the mountain wall from the v3.2 beta package or from the official v3.1 demo package?"

- Sorry Raoul, I really don't know what version is. How can i find out? I have both installed.

2 "What is the reason for using the v3.2 beta in this case? Is that the option "Dual Sided" so the same side object can be used at both sides of the road?"

- Mostly the dual sided, rock tunnels and the posibility to autogenerate as much as possible because I have hundreds of kilometres.

3 "In my previous post I asked if you are able to isolate the problem to specific markers, did you try that? For example in the video at 2.33 activating the side object does not work. That is I think where the actual problem is visible. What are the exact side object settings? The v3.2 retaining wall will snap to the bottom. This will not work well for all selected markers in the video. The terrain near the higher selected marker is above the road. Perhaps the problem is related to that?"

- That's the point. Activating "side object" doesn't work and editor is blocked.
It is dificult isolate a specific marker because each time I have that error, have to reiniciate Unity. It seems to me that it happens when there is already another side object in the same section of road. Can there only be one side "side object" per section, or do they have to be instantiated in a certain order?

"higher selected marker is above the road".
- I'm going to test that.
pd.
- It seems like been the same object, it is instanciated correctly under the terrain with no error.

4 "All together this appears to be v3.2 beta related. If you could let me know which side object this is and if you made changes to it, then I can test here if the problem can be recreated".

- Side Object is Mountain wall, no changes. Same setting as https://www.easyroads3d.com/tutorials/road_walls_mesh_overlays.php but no "terrain surface object" option in my interface.

5 "The main changes in v3.2 are auto generated side objects which is particularly useful in this type of situations. Have you tried the v3.2 retaining wall example on this road? That side object is to be auto generated. How does that work?"

- I tried autogenerated but what is important to me to be autogenerated is "Terrain Rock Overlay". Been that not possible, I prefer no use autogenerated and do it manually. It seams safer and less errors that way.
I left all "scene setting" in blank with no "side object" selected and used only "side objects" in < tab.

6 "Also, at the start it shows an overview which what seems to be a long road, is that one road object? In that case you may want to consider breaking it in separate objects by inserting I Connectors available near the bottom in the marker settings. This is better for performance in general, but it will also work better with auto generated side objects."

- Yes, I'm doing that way.
If you willing to test it, I can send you that scene.
Anyway, now I'm using "Terrain Rock Overlay" manually, section by section, with no other side object and it seems to holg this way.
What I would like is to know how to add rock guard rail over "Terrain Rock Overlay" with no error even if is not autogenerated.
It is possible that "Terrain Rock Overlay" don't be compatible with other "side objects" in same section?

Thanks again,
Joan

 

Hi Joan,

Just to be sure, so the problem indeed disappears when this side object is activated for sections where the terrain is below the road? That is what this side object is intended for although obviously that should not result in errors when the terrain is above the road.

It would be very useful if you could email the scene. That way I can see if this is side object related or v3.2 beta related. I think it is v3.2 beta related, perhaps related to the new "Dual Sided" option because there is no history of issues with this specific side object in the v3.1 demo package.

In v3.2 it is possible to link side objects, if one side object is auto generated, the other will be build as well along the same section. But I don't think this feature is involved here.

In v3.1 side objects are generated independently from each other. In theory the number of side objects active on the same section is unlimited. That also applies to the "Terrain Rock Overlay" side object.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi @MoreGalaxies,

URP requires URP specific materials / shaders for which version specific packages are located in /Assets/NatureManufacture Assets/HD Roads/SRP Support/

It is covered in the short PDF documentation in the /HD Roads/ folder.

The Pipeline Material Upgrade Tool only works for Unity built-in shaders.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

v3.1.9.f5 is available on our website and on the Unity Asset Store

This is an update including recent small requests and fixes for reported issues.

There is one important change. In previous versions it was possible to select markers with the Hand Tool active, the Q key. Just like with ordinary game object selection, this is no longer possible because in some situations it could cause issues. Please make sure to have one of the other tool options active when selecting a marker, usually this is the Move tool, the W key.

The update also includes a new v3.2 beta update, beta 5, release notes https://www.easyroads3d.com/v3beta.php#v3.2.0b5

As always please backup your project first before importing the updates.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Another problem on which I do not understand what I'm doing wrong. I created a guard rail side object, but after configuring it it turns completely black.

I also searched the forum but I can't find any answers

Before:



After:

 

Hi ciorbyn,

Is it black on all cam angles? Is the same material used on the final object?

Could you send us the model so we can test on our end?

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Yes, the material is the same... I also tried with other shaders and changed various mesh settings.
In any case, I sent the model privately

Edited
I downloaded the latest version, and re-imported the asset. Now it works properly.
Maybe something had messed up

 

Thank you for sending the model.

I now see your edit, but I already tested it an indeed it appears to work fine.



Thanks,
Raoul

 

Yes, evidently some problems had arisen because I am creating several parts between intersections, roundabouts, lateral objects.
Now that I have reimported the tool has started again well.

 

Hi,
How can I get rid of too much shine on the road (no visible texture)... attached picture show the same day scene but on different sun elevation (directional light). I hope it's not too complicated. Best regards.

 

Hi PrimusThe3rd,

I cannot recreate this, what are the project rendering settings and the directional light settings?

This is more material related, it looks like the dirt road from the HD Roads package which uses the Unity standard shader, is that correct?

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi, thx for reply. It indeed is a dirt road from HD Roads (NM Dirty001). It looks good most of the time...but when a "sun" reach specific "elevation" (during auto day/night cycle) road begin to "shine" too much. See attached settings of the "sun". Does that mean I can not use this road if intensity is 2.9?
Best regards

 

Another question.

Is it possible that deformed terrain, when roads are built.. to be smoothened by default. I can manually smooth jagged terrain by the road, though.

Oh..and another one... is it possible that roads have some kind of thickness...so too high "Raised Road Network" (for Z fighting) won't look too silly (as they are floating above the terrain). I look something similar to a concept of stepped wall ... which btw looks great (even if "Raised Road Network"=0.2 or higher)
Best regards.

 

2.9 directional light intensity is pretty high, and the texture on the road is light which makes it appear as white.

This is probably not so much EasyRoads3D related more light intensity and material shader. The same probably happens when dropping a plane primitive in the scene with the same dirt texture and the Unity standard material?

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Smoothing requires larger surrounding values so more terrain points are covered. Then the Smooth option in the Build settings can make the terrain smoother. This will be automated further in v3.2

In v3.1 roads with thickness can be done through the Custom Prefab Connection system by importing a model having the desired road shape with thickness. The connection can be turned into a road type so roads will inherit the same shape.

In v3.3 custom road shapes will be a built-in feature, https://easyroads3d.com/v3alpha.php. It is available in alpha versions.

Ah, I see you are using the v3.2 beta with the stepped wall. Yes that would be another way to achieve this, by using side objects, but side objects are currently not yet supported on crossings.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

hi raoul on unity 2019.3 with gaia pro, i can't add new road, can you help me?

 

Hi Milvust,

Is this related to adding markers and Shift + Click not working?

In that case, this is probably covered in the Troubleshooting page in the manual, the second part:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shift + Click to add road markers does not work, instead the terrain is selected

The free version does not support multiple terrain tiles in a scene. If this is the case then adding markers will fail when adding them on the terrain that is currently not referenced by Terrain.activeTerrain.

Another known situation in recent Unity versions is a, usually customized, Unity editor layout that have become corrupted not capturing keyboard or mouse button events in OnSceneView(). Instead the clicked object is selected, the terrain in this case. One way to verify this is to duplicate the project and reset the Unity editor layout back to one of the presets through the main menu > Window > Layouts. Afterwards the editor can be customized again to the preferred layout, this usually works well. But if the problem returns and can be recreated, then please contact us. We have discussed this with the Unity QA Team, they have seen this situation and they will be very interested to hear how this issue can be recreated.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Otherwise, there are no known issues regarding Gaia, could you provide exact steps what happens?

Thanks,
Raoul

 

yes raoul my problem is

if I press shift + click, the marker adds a new road is missing

 

and that did not happen in unity 2019.2

 

Hi Milvust,

In my previous post I added notes from the Troubleshooting page covering this and also including how to resolve it, reset the Unity editor layout back to one of the presets through the main menu > Window > Layouts.

Have you tried that? It is Unity events related and indeed appears to be an issue that can happen in recent versions especially after project upgrades.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi Raoul.
Scene send.
It definitely works fine adding side objects manually, but adding them directly to road type gives me error. You will say if you see something strange.
Thanks,
Joan

 

Hi Joan,

I replied to your email earlier today. Did you receive the email?

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi Raoul,
I have encountered the following 2 problems when trying to work with Modern City ExtenderRoads asset pack and EasyRoadsPro:
I want to recreate some of the highways and connections from the asset pack, as a RoadTypes and custom connections in EasyRoads.

1. Most of the prefabs from the pack, use flipped Z scale, to mirror the objects. When I import it to EasyRoads as a custom connection, the Normals get screwed. The first 3 fotos showcase the problem. In the first pic, is the asset prefab. Notice, that the whole left side of the connection is just scaled -1 in Z. The following 2 pics show the problem when creating a custom connection in EasyRoads.

2. I want to add the side barriers to the road. In the first picture you can see the EasyRoads RoadType on the left, and the prefab I'm recreating on the right. When I try to use the Procedural Mesh Object on the prefab, it just copies it a bunch of times in the wrong axis. If I rotate the wall prefab 90deg, it works a lot better, but I can't get the textures to work. There are two materials on the prefab, a base and dirt material. Might that be the source of the problem? The side object created by EasyRoads has just one material by Default. If I add the Dirt material by hand, the situation does not get any better.

Any easy remedies?
====
1.
Connection asset: https://imgur.com/I5MnK6O

Custom connection in EasyRoads from the asset 1: https://imgur.com/ZheOGLp

Custom connection in EasyRoads from the asset 2: https://imgur.com/joEEauw

====
2.
Road prefab and easyroads copy by me: https://imgur.com/kcpSBhF
Wall prefab: https://imgur.com/luMT5rA
Side object made from Wallprefab: https://imgur.com/xm7AKcu
Side object made from 90deg rotated Wallprefab: https://imgur.com/lKM6A0d
Wall prefab details: https://imgur.com/iSjkljG
Side object with both materials added: https://imgur.com/WWgVSRk

 

Hi maurosso,

1. If one side is a flipped version of the other side, you could do something similar in a modelling app and import it back into Unity as a single mesh.

Also, looking at the model, you may want to strip it apart so only the road remains. The other elements, walls and barriers, can be added again to the final prefab afterwards when all connections are generated.

2. Does the model use submeshes / multiple materials? This is supported in v3.2, the v3.2 beta is part of the asset store download. v3.2 may also auto fix the rotation issue which is probably caused by how the model imports into Unity. Does Unity auto assign rotation values to the instance when dropping it into the scene?

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Unity 2019.3:
Searching here, I have the same problem.
In a newly created land everything works.
In preformed terrain in Gaia the mesh looks like this:


How was this resolved? (I use Road HD.)
Terrain 2048x2048 / high resolutions

PS: Okay, I put a 'curb' on the edge below the road line and went up 0.15.

 

Hi NorbertoSanders,

In the case of maurosso the problem was related to Gaia setting the Terrain Height in the Inspector to 8000+ while the height at the highest point was actually around 800.

Unity stores terrain height values within the 0..1 range. The final height is calculated by mutliplying this decimal with the Terrain Height value set in the Inspector. The higher the Terrain Height the less accurate the results will be. This can result in slight inaccuracies as visible in your image. To fix this either a higher Raise value is required for the road network or, preferably, optimization of the max Terrain Height.

This situation was added to the Troubleshooting page in the latest update.

Does this match your situation? What is the terrain height?

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Terrain with a height of 8192.

 

That sounds like the exact same situation as in the scene maurosso sent to us.

What is the height of the highest point on the terrain? Is this also close to 8192? Otherwise, can you set the Terrain Height closer to this highest point and resample the terrain height values relative to this new height? That way height calculation will be more accurate.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

The highest height is no more than 600m. But if I decrease the total height, the mountains shrink. Is there a way to decrease the height of the terrain without affecting the elevations?