World Building EasyRoads3D v3 - the upcoming new road system

Hi Zhang,

In my example on the previous page I gave exact steps what I did including the code. Have you tried these exact same steps?

The reason why I asked to do that is because that is working code in a given situation. If that would fail on your end, then that must be related somehow to the setup of the crossing prefab in your scene.

It is hard to give feedback on a situation that cannot be fully tested. If you want you can email the project with your simple script examples so we can test it here.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

I am not use:

Code (CSharp):

1. road = EREditor.GetSelectedRoad();

Because I use runtime api, I didn’t use it.
The above is all my code, nothing else, I want to email the project to you.
But I did't find your email address.

Thanks,
Zhang

 

Hi Zhang,

The email is in the readme in the root directory of the package.

I assume the download is a link? You can also paste the link in the Private Conversation we had last week when I sent the update, or start a new private conversation.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

v3.2 beta 6 is now available on our website and on the Unity Asset Store

For release notes please visit our website

This update includes many improvements to new v3.2 side object features, especially tunnels.

A demo scene with a range of auto generated side objects based on the terrain profile is included.

Although there will be one more beta update, as it looks now v3.2 is close to ready for release unless critical issues are reported.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

I have installed beta v3.2.6 version. How to start a tunnel so I can contribute some bug report (if any)
Best regards,
Primus

 

Hi Primus,

Tunnels can be generated as side objects based on a tunnel model. One of the main new features in v3.2 is side objects generated based on rules and the terrain profile. This works for barriers, walls, bridges and tunnels.

For tunnels this works by setting "Terrain Threshold Height". When the height difference between the road and the terrain at that position is higher the this value the tunnel will be auto generated.

This is instantly visible when the Highlight surfaces are active, the surfaces that show how the terrain will be adjusted. For the tunnel sections the terrain will not be adjusted so no surfaces will be visible, like in the center of the below image.



Apart from this "Terrain Threshold Height" there are couple of other controls for Auto Generated tunnels.



"Flatten Terrain Sideways" can be used to stretch the Indent values sideways so more terrain will be flattened at the road height at the start and end of the tunnel.

"Tunnel Start / End Terrain Offset" represents the distance from the start/end of the tunnel to where terrain holes will be created. This distance depends on the shape of the tunnel sta the start / end.

"Tunnel Start / End Offset" represents the distance relative to the position that matched the Terrain Thrshold Height. So this can be used to puch the tunnel more forwards and backwards.

Then for tunnel instances it is possible to select them in the Scene View window.



The tunnel Side Object type can be selected when more tunnels are active for this road type. And both "Flatten terrain Sideways" and "Tunnel Start / End Offset" can be adjusted quickly per instance to match the terrain profile. On less steep hills perhaps a larger offset will look better.

The terrain holes will be created in Build Mode



This should be fairly accurate for default Unity terrain settings, size 500x500 or 1000x1000 and heightmap resolution 513 in the latestr build.

beta 6 comes with a demo scene and two tunnel examples, so the above steps can be quickly reviewed.

Hope this gets you started.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

So i downloaded the 3.1.9 version from asset store. How do i get the newer beta versions?

I am looking to test/use the following:

Tunnels

On-Ramps

Off Ramps

I cannot seem to be able to pull up or see any of these even after buying the add-on pack and the Demo Scene?

Do you have a discord or reddit for support?

 

Hi joshalicea,

I think I just replied to an email from you regarding acces to our website downloads.

In any case, alpha builds will only be available on our website. Beta builds will also be part of the Asset Store import as a seperate package once it reaches a fairly stable status. That is currently the case for v3.2, the package is available in the folder /Assets/EasyRoads3D/Beta Release/

Built-in On and Off ramps is not part of v3.2, that will available in v3.3 but it is not yet part of the v3.3 alpha package. It can currently be done by importing on off ramp models into the system.

Currently there is no discord or reddit support, https://easyroads3d.com/survey.php (last topic), given that we are located in Europe, we do provide fast support by email and here on the forum.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Thank you very much!

Whats the current take on Highway off ramps and On ramps?

 

Do you do modelling?

One of the first features added was the option to import your own models into the system. That way you do not depend on what is provided built-in. These prefabs will act the same as built-in crossing prefabs, the terrain will be adjusted and roads can connect. The demo package includes examples, the workflow is covered here: https://easyroads3d.com/tutorials/custom_crossings.php

This is how Highway Off ramps and On ramps can be done in the current version.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

I do model, Thank you very much for these leads ill add these tasks to my development roadmap

SO now

Ive run into a problem using TerraWorld and EasyRoads and another fellow has the same issue

Easy roads Rivers are deforming and working okay.

When i make a road the INDENT and INDENT/SURROUNDING the will NOT go lower than 750. Prior to generating the map it appears it has normal default values. the individual road settings seem to be overridden and a MASSIVE amount of terrain is getting warped because of this.

Rivers are operating just fine.

can i edit a file/script somewhere to override this?

 

UPDATE i noticed despite having a 16x16 terrain

I went ahead and excluded the "background" terrain and its brought it down to 11.71875.....as the "default" indent.
Additionally i set the Heightmap Resolution to 4096

which brought the limit down FURTHER to 5.8

BUT my question is how and why do side objects like this river work DIRECTLY under it cleanly and roads some how find a fixed limit...yet side objects are deforming the same terrain?

 

Hello raoul,
I want to report a bug,
When using road.InsertConnector(), the inserted connection is incorrect in the position of the marker.

Specific steps:
Road1 and road2 intersect.
I inserted a marker at the intersection of road1 and then inserted the connection. The position of this connection is incorrect.

Code (CSharp):

1. 1.int markerIndex = intersectionRoad.InsertMarker(position);
2. 2.ERConnection erConnection = _roadNetwork.GetSourceConnectionByName(TcrossName);
3. 3.ERConnection xConnection = intersectionRoad.InsertConnector(erConnection, markerIndex, 0, 1, out ERRoad road2);

Please check figure.

Thanks,
Zhang

 

Hi joshalicea,

It is impossible to add detail points to the Unity terrain object. So the system works in a way that at least one terrain points just outside the road will be leveled at the same height as the road near that point.

The Indent values are customizable up to the extent that it cannot go below a certain minimum value which is based on the size and heightmap resolution of the terrain in the scene. With this approach the situation described above will happen. That is why you initially got these high Indent values.

Regarding the river example, please see this tutorial, https://easyroads3d.com/tutorials/rivers.php

So for rivers, terrain deformation works differently, a riverbed side object is used with a fixed shape where the outer points snap to the terrain. Adjusting the terrain to the riverbed shape does not have to be as accurate as adjusting the terrain to road shapes, that is why this approach generally works well as long as the terrains heighmapscale (size vs resolution) is not too high.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi Zhang,

When Instantiating a new crossing in the scene and attaching it directly to a road marker, the road marker will remain at the same position. The crossing will attach at that position and will be aligned in the direction of the road at that point. That is what happens with your code. I will see if this can be optimized.

But afterwards you can do:

xConnection.SetPosition(position);

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Thanks raol

I understand what you mean. I have a river working great,

ill continue to work through the problem. Its certainly a heightmap res issue....But with a heightmap of 4096... i cannot go any higher res.

thank you for your support.

 

Thanks!

Zhang

 

So you currently have a 16x16 terrain setup with heightmap resolution 4096 for each terrain tile and still a minimum Indent value of 5.8? That sounds like a huge world.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Yes, Terraworld generates huge worlds. That's why I'm too interested to some kind of approach when roads would "act as a river" with minimal indent value as possible... Best regards, Primus

 

Hi Primus,

Like mentioned here riverbeds require less accurate terrain deformation.

What is on the list to add is optionally a minimum Indent value half of the current minimal indent value. But when using that the results are comprimised, the road will partially float above the terrain or the terrain will break through the road. The idea is to prevent the last part from happening.

Perhaps another way to deal with this is by using side objects as detail terrain meshes on the left and right of the road, the Shape type of side object works well for this, the outer vertices can snap to the terrain and uv coordinates matching the terrain can be assigned for a seamless blend.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

I'm using EasyRoads3D and I'm frequently running into issues with connection prefabs.

1. Whenever I select a connection prefab in the scene heirarchy, it bumps itself down to the "Temp Crossing Prefabs" and the only way to get connection functionality back is to click and drag it back up to "Connection Objects"; sometimes it'll immediately shift back down to Temp Crossing Prefabs and so I have to drag it back up multiple times.
2. When I've connected roads to a crossing prefab and they snap together, there seems to be a drawing problem where the end of the road snaps to the connection point, but there's a gap in the mesh. If I click on another marker on the road and wiggle it around the mesh will update.
3. If I move a connection prefab, the connected ends of roads don't move with it. I have to manually disconnect the ends of the roads and reconnect them each and every time.
4. If the "slope" of a road changes, like if I move a marker in the middle of the roadway is moved up or down, the ends of the mesh don't stay connected to the connection prefab and I have to manually disconnect/reconnect it.

The common thread is maintaining connections with connection prefabs. I'm able to work around these issues but it does make things take a lot longer to put together. Is there a global setting I'm missing somewhere?

EDIT: Now I'm noticing that as I Build the road network, any roads connected to a Connection Object will not deform the terrain; the Connection Objects themselves will sculpt terrains, but the only way to get roads to affect the terrain is to completely disconnect them from the connection object.

 

Hi gfbeach,

1. Which version do you have imported? Before Unity 2018.3 when there was no prefab editor window, the workflow was that connection prefabs in the project folder were edited in the Scene View window. To avoid these prefabs from being used directly within the road network they were added as a child to this "Temp Crossing Prefabs".

In newer versions of Unity this should not longer happen. In fact it is possible to drop a connection prefab in the road network directly from the project folder it should be added automatically as a child to the "Connection Objects" GameObject just like when adding new connection in the scene from the Connection toolbar tab in the Inspector.

2. What does this gap look like? Does that always happen? If not, how can this be recreated?

3. and 4. Do you get error messages? Because these are all standard situations, all together it appears that maybe something is wrong with the connection prefabs in your project. Perhaps something went wrong with the package import. Are you using connection prefabs part of the package or did you make new connection prefabs? Which packages do you have imported? Does this happen with all connection prefabs?

Does the same happen in the provided demo scene?

Just as a test, could you create a new project and import the EasyRoads3D Pro package. Does the same happen?

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. I forgot to include an important detail in my earlier post: I'm using custom mesh objects for the connection prefabs. After some more tinkering, I think the root problem is that I didn't set up the connections properly in the Custom Prefab Editor Window; upon rebuilding the prefab from scratch and creating the Connections in the right order (clockwise, starting from the bottom), all of the above issues seem to be working better. ...Go figure I'd work this out after I built my road network and thus have to basically redo all the connections, but better late than never, right?

 

Yes, connections for your own crossing models have to be added in clockwise direction in the Custom Prefab Editor window. Doing this in CCW direction would at least explain terrain deformation issues.

Glad to hear you already figured out what was causing these issues

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Yes i currently have about 30km+ of Roads on the map via Easy Roads.

Discovering a few things currently:

Questions:

• Firstly

I have followed the tutorials but how on earth can one just make ONE section of road with a side object then snap it to another road and the side object not propagate across the entire section of other road? ​

example:​

i have a 200m section of road then i have another 200m section of road with side object ​

As soon as i snap the roads together...i have 400m of road with side object....​

Also been using the auto generator in beta6 and so far it somewhat alleviates my above issue. ​

• Secondly

Is a tunnel like this doable into the side of a mountain? I can whip up a low poly model of a tunnel section like this but....not 100% on the rigging methods to get it to be flexible for easy roads?

Idea would be that the side barrier, curb and then the beams would be a side object that you can space out to your liking, I have some ideas though in how to implement this but input on this would be amazing thanks!​

Feedback:

Falling into a few interesting situations after making multiple 9km road sections.
I have a 3950X and 2080Ti FTW3 all overclocked and a 9km road when selected....CRUSHES my computer....BUT its completely manageable when floating around.

Closing:
I like where this is going. Easy Roads is a part of my games core functions. I'm looking forward to the development and will be gladly giving you feedback as i have been pulling 12-16hr days lately IN easy roads and unity....

 

Hi joshalicea,

Perhaps this is related to how the roads are snapped, is the start or end marker snapping to the start or end marker of the other road and which of these two roads have the side object active. I did a quick test and on one occasion I saw something similar as what you describe. In all other situations the section with no side object assigned still had no side object assigned, the result you would expect. I will have to do some more tests to see if this can indeed be isolated to a specific situation.

Do you mean a tunnel with one side open (on the left in the image)? And if this is already possible as a built-in solution? In that case, that is currently not possible.

But technically one way or another it can be done. V3.2 supports tunnels, but it doesn't support an open side yet. That will be available in v3.2.x. In the meantime the terrain holes at the left side can be added manually. The tunnel itself can be done with a side object setup similar as the tunnel examples in the v3.2 beta package.

In the latest v3.2 it is possible to add side objects as a child to other side objects in the Side Object Manager with a start / end offset relative to the main side object section. This can be used to generate additional tunnel elements. Last Friday a callback option for side objects was added. This can be used to run your own scripts after a side object is created / updated. The tool itself will also use this for more complex tunnel and bridge creation.

Usually roads are already shorter because of crossings between road sections, but for longer roads it is recommended to insert I Connectors, both for runtime performance and for performance inside the editor. The I Connector option is available further below in the Marker section in the Inspector.

Glad to hear that Feedback, suggestions and possible bug reports are always very much appreciated

Thanks,
Raoul

 

What would you saw is an optimal Distance of road that i should be inserting Iconnectors? I am biulding sections of roads that will stretch beyond 10km it seems...so i want to be sure i build them in a way that they are efficient.

thank you for the excellent feedback ill be using I connectors from here on out!

Additionally i split my motorway, connected it and the auto functions are broken. i can force them but the auto feature seems to be borked once i split ith the i connector

 

The optimal distance depends on various settings, like road resolution but also the UV coordinates / tiling which is another reason for using I Connectors at least in v3.1, possible floating point inaccuracies for uv coordinates on longer roads depending on the Unity compression settings. In general distances between 1000 and 2000 should work well.

Regarding the auto feature issue, do you mean v3.2 auto generated side objects based on rules? I just Inserted an I Connector on a roadwith with activated auto generated guard rails in bends. This worked well, the guard rails appear on both road sections. But you want to be selective where to insert the I Connector, this should ideally be done on a straight section. Doing this in a bend will result in guard rails ending and restarting in the bend. So I am not sure how to recreate the problem.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi, is it possible to append a junction to a road with the API? - If yes could you please post a small example script which does it?

Thanks in Advance!

 

Hi econt,

Yes, that is possible,

Here is an overview of the steps:

ERRoadNetwork class

// load available junction prefabs from the project folder
public ERConnection[] LoadConnections ()
public ERConnection GetConnectionPrefabByName (string name)

Then you can either attach an instance of this connection directly to the road

ERRoad class

public ERConnection AttachToEnd(ERConnection sourceConnection, int connectionIndex)
public ERConnection AttachToStart(ERConnection sourceConnection, int connectionIndex)

Or the sourceConnection crossing can be instantiated in the scene followed by connecting the roads

ERRoadNetwork class

public ERConnection InstantiateConnection(ERConnection sourceConnection, string name, Vector3 position, Vector3 eulerRotation)

Connect roads to already existing crossing objects

ERRoad class

public bool ConnectToStart(ERConnection connectionObject, int connectionIndex)
public bool ConnectToEnd(ERConnection connectionObject, int connectionIndex)

The ERConnection class has the following method:

public int FindNearestConnectionIndex(Vector3 position)

which can be useful to find the nearest crossing connection to a road marker.

Hope this helps,

Raoul

 

Hi joshalicea,

Prefabs do not work well for the road network as it is because Unity prefabs require the mesh assets to be physically present in the project folder while Unity does store dynamically created meshes, the roads in this case, in the scene file.

There are workarounds for this, but for your purpose there is an easier and better solution. Load both scenes in the hierarchy and drag the road network object from scene A to scene B, only save scene B. The road network will be fully functionally with the same setup as in the original scene.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Excellent,

Thank you, ill get right on this.

 

If I upgraded to the 3.2 beta( weeks ago ) , what's the safest upgrade path when 3.2 is out of Beta ?

 

Hello raoul,

I have a question about slope:
I want to use Circular to turn, but when the y-coordinates of the previous and next markers are very low, the turning part will be raised. Did I forget something?

Thank you,
Zhang

 

Hi keithsoulasa,

For upgrades it is always recommended to backup the project first. Regarding v3.2 changes, this is mainly side object related. But there should not be any different behaviour regarding the current v3.1 side object features. The v3.2 changes, for example auto generated side objects based on rules and one side object that can be used for both the left and right side of the road, are all new feature related and can be activated in the Side Object Manager.

Are you having issues with the current 3.2 beta in an existing v3.1 project?

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi Zhang,

I cannot recreate the shape in your image:





The section between the two markers is Circular. The slope angle at both sides is quite extreme, around 20 degree.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Can the height of the two markers transition instead of a convex slope, as shown by the red line in the figure.

Thanks,
Zhang

 

If you look at the center of the road, the circular section by itself has a smooth transition.



The same road with tiliting applied.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

My mean is:
When there are only 2 points, the middle part will be higher than the maximum value of two makers.(Figure)
I want them to be on the same plane(Figure2).Can I use 2 markers to achieve the effect of Figure 2, or am I correct to do so?

Thanks,
Zhang

 

That is curently not possible. It would require a new control type / behaviour to have the circular section exactly on an horizontal plane with only the two marker setup at the top.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Good morning raoul,

How can i get a marker type at runtime?
I did not find in the api documentation.

Thanks,
Zhang

 

Hi Zhang,

Getting a marker control type at runtime is not possible at the moment, I will add it.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

So I'm not sure if this possible, but considering both your asset and Gaia are very popular is there any way to make sure Gaia are automatically removed from road paths .

Right now it's kind of funny, I'll make a very cool road, and then I'll randomly running to a rock placed by Gaya

 

Hi keithsoulasa,

How are these rocks placed?

The general workflow would be, make Gaia terrain heightmap terrain changes with the road network in Edit mode. After the Gaia changes switch the road network back to Build mode so the terrain is updated to the road network shape.

In Build Mode there is also a button "Reapply Critical Road Heights" that may work well in these situations.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Random but:


[Announcement] Google Maps Unity SDK For Gaming

https://forum.unity.com/threads/announcement-google-maps-unity-sdk-for-gaming.534265/

Any plans with this!!?

 

Is there a way to pull up an excel sheet of every road section and road type and push this to a table with total road etc.?

 

It looks like these objects are literal game objects which aren't linked to the terrain system at all. So Easy Roads can't delete them.

Actually, would it be possible to add a " Destroy all blocking objects " option in the build menu , that would fix this .


Don't get me wrong, Easy Roads + Gaia Pro is very much a killer combo. It's at the point where I don't want to hire a level designer since I can't imagine them doing a better job !

 

Hi Eagle1Xray,

We can definetely Google Maps SDK, akthough that would probably not be before v3.3, or v3.3 alpha / beta.

Regarding the excel sheet question. What exact type of data are you interested in? The road shape data itself is available through the script API, the ERRoad class, GetSplinePointsCenter(), GetSplinePointsRightSide(), GetSplinePointsLeftSide(). The data is returned in an array of Vector3.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi keithsoulasa,

Ok, this is more GameObject related. At the moment only the terrain is adjusted. An option to remove other objects can be added although that may need some thought. For example larger rock objects as part of the terrain should probably not be removed.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

I suspect you will run into the same issues as I had with MapBox and that exists with the KML import, that is, intersections, or, creating them automatically. Even creating them by hand for an imported road network is non-trivial. When you do get to that, feel free to reach out to me for some edge cases (you've got my email and may remember some of the insane intersection problems I ran into).

That said, I'm excited they've finally opened this up since Google has far better 3d building models than MapBox does. Although MapBox has far better tools for annotating maps.