World Building EasyRoads3D v3 - the upcoming new road system

Hi Raoul,

Yes that was it. I feel so stupid. Thank you again for your help and patience.

 

Hello, thank you for Great asset!

A few questions:
1. Is it known problem with too slow SceneView when road selected (is gizmo mesh rendering is slow?)
2. Are there any plans to implement smooth transition between road textures? I.e. broken road -> fresh road -> dirty road etc
3. Is it any way to create Y-crossings, i.e. right lane turn lead from highway to secondary road?

BTW, added scrpts to create vertex paths from ERModuleRoads: https://github.com/madc0der/EasyRoadsVertexPath. Let me know if it contradict with some existing solution to ER path following.

 

Hello oleg_v,

Glad to hear you like the tool

How long are your roads? Usually roads get broken apart in separated objects by inserting crossings. For longer roads it is recommended to insert "I Connectors". This option is available further below in the marker section. This will cut the road in two objects at the selected marker or it will add the I Connector at the end and a new road object can be started at the other end. This is also better for runtime performance.

This can be done in several ways.

1) On a single road it could be done by assigning vertex colors to marker sections, a custom material / shader can then be used to visualize the transition based on the vertex color.

2) The same I Connector. Two different road types can be connected. The transition can be done in two ways. By using Start / End decals. The demo package includes some examples, the HD Roads package includes these type of decals for all road types in this package. The second option is by using additional I Connector options and a material that can handle the transition. Examples of this are also in demo package. https://easyroads3d.com/tutorials/connecting_roads.php

Flexible Y Crossings will come in v3.3 which is available in alpha builds on our website. https://easyroads3d.com/v3alpha.php . More typical highway ramps will also be part built-in flexible in v3.3. Meanwhile this can be done through the Custom Prefab based on an imported model.

A new demo scene is being made for v3.2, an example of an highway ramp based on a model might be included.

That looks interested! I will try that out.

I do see you are using ERModularRoad. I would recommend to do this through the scripting API. The ERRoadNetwork and ERRoad class. This can be used to access road data, certainly in v3.3 which also includes access to lane data on both roads and crossings. The v3.3 alpha build includes an example AI script.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

has the new 3.3alpha build been pushed up yet?

Also i wanted to know how was the 3.2 build coming along?

 

Hi Eagle1Xray,

A new v3.3 alpha will be build later this week. This is upon request, it will include the latest v3.2 updates and v3.3 as it is. However the situation is that sidewalks, an upgrade, is being implemented currently supporting the Flex Connector. This is a complex process given the new sidewalk features and the nature of the Flex Connector.

Possibly it is still too experimental to release on our website. But it can be send to anyone wo like the to try it. I will post a message here when it is ready. Were you waiting for something specific?

Regarding v3.2, last week a new v3.2 beta was released. Or do you mean the final 3.2 release? Small bits and pieces are still being improved and a new demo scene is being made. When that is done it will be released.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi raoul.
I have a weird error when build the game related to ER_Terrain_Mesh_Tessalation:
"
Error building Player: Shader error in 'EasyRoads3D/Terrain/ER Terrain Mesh Tesselation': maximum ps_5_0 sampler register index (16) exceeded at line 149 (on d3d11)

Compiling Fragment program with UNITY_PASS_FORWARDADD POINT_COOKIE SHADOWS_CUBE
Platform defines: UNITY_ENABLE_REFLECTION_BUFFERS UNITY_USE_DITHER_MASK_FOR_ALPHABLENDED_SHADOWS UNITY_PBS_USE_BRDF1 UNITY_SPECCUBE_BOX_PROJECTION UNITY_SPECCUBE_BLENDING UNITY_ENABLE_DETAIL_NORMALMAP SHADER_API_DESKTOP UNITY_LIGHT_PROBE_PROXY_VOLUME UNITY_LIGHTMAP_FULL_HDR
"
I found almost nothing info related to this. I tried to overpass the: sampler2D _NormalMap, _greenNormalMap; but I really have no shaders skill at all.

Could you give any clue about what this is? Try to explain it like if I have no idea of what a shader is or how it works.
Thanks in advance.
Regards,
Joan

 

Hi joanpescador,

This shader, ER Terrain Mesh Tesselation, is part of the additional demo project. This demo project is primarily intended for learning purposes, it does include some more complex assets like this particular shader. Depending on your project settings and build settings it can raise that specific error.

This shader is used in the demo scene for the terrain mesh next to the mountain road near the coast, the road with also the retaining walls. It uses the terrain textures and splatmap, a tesselation texture and additional textures for the rock and dirt next to the road.

Are you using this shader in your project? If not, then you can safely remove it:

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

Otherwise, the package includes a shader without tessellation. Hope this helps.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

It's a shame since I bought the asset precisely because of the content of that demo. (90% of my game is rocky mountain roads, wall terrain, tunnels and bridges). I have changed the shader for the one that does not have tesselation and the truth is that it deteriorates the appearance a bit. Are you planning to include that tesselated shadder in production in the future?
Thanks Raoul.

 

Yes, it will look more flat without the tesselation. What does the terrain splatmap look like in the areas where this side object is used? Another option would be to use a modified version of this shader with less terrain textures. I can send that if that is an option. First starting with 3 terrain textures, I think that will already work.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

One significant detail about my road config - it must be always closed tracks.

Current road is about 10km.
I'm habitually thought it's autosplitted or i'll use occlusion tree later. But current config (10km of single road with good quality) uses collision detection with about 20k tris and my current FPS was down to 40. Thanks for advise, FPS is back to 100 with a bit of tuning of main road (resolution + subsegments + change sideobject prefabs).

BTW, previous road solution i used had "auto-split" function, but it was not "road network", only single roads with laggy connections.
Is it hard to implement auto-split in ER?
I still playing with vertex path wrapper and implemented single wrapper around multiple connected roads, ofcourse with limitations (only IConnectors + implicitly closed roads).

Thank you for this link and description! Played with "I Connectors" and "Road split" function for several hours and now it's ok, but not abvious at first time.
Do you have plans to upload video tutorials to youtube? I.e. splitting closed track to small connected roads.

What will be the price for update to v3.3?

Yes, i used ERModularRoad to build path only for given road, but currently moved it from ERModularRoad to just GameObject. My latest solution (not yet extracted from main project) is to use "road name mask" to find all track parts from ERRoadNetwork.

I like this asset more and more Not all features obvious, but it can't be in such complex solution. But it reliable and undoable - cool!

Raoul, a few more questions/suggestions:
1. I tried IConnector with distance and texture blending, sometimes it fires NPE or "Missing property _Metallic". Most problems were with asphalt + dirt (from ER materials). Dirt has alpha cut-off and asphalt is not.
2. If roads connected with IConnector are have curvature, IConnector "distance" mesh has distortion at connection point (connector mesh is shifted from road mesh to the curvature center)
3. It will be great if we can change order of roads connected at IConnector props (we can recreate it, but change of order can be more usable). And it'll be more convenient if we'll be able to D&D one of road to IConnector endpoint (can't catch IConnector endpoints in scene view)
4. Seems road remesh is working in single-threaded mode (changed Resolution from 50 to 3...30) and i7/16gb hangs for several minutes (10km road), CPU load was about 30%
5. It'll be more convenient if we can select road just by clicking it in Hierarchy with showing gizmos + select road property page in Inspector (w/o need to click "<")
6. Bridge ("Bridge Simple") flickers with road, just shifted it by -0.1 for Y axis and horizontal plane is ok. But left side object (barrier) continue to flick (in vertical plane). Seems it has no overlapped geometry, probably you have an idea where can look else?

And again, i'm playing with ER for 2nd day and still not break my test scene all changes are undoable and it's easy to achieve needed results (bridges, terrain re-creation, road texture transition etc). Perfect!

 

Hi oleg_v,

10km is indeed long for a single road. For v3.3 an auto split option is planned.

New video tutorials will follow after v3.2 is released. V3.2 beta is in the final stage.

It will be a free upgrade just like v3.2

Glad to hear that

That sounds more material / shader related. The provided shaders are examples, they can be customized.

What does this look like? How long is the distance? This is not optimized for longer transitions. In that case it is better to use the vertex color option on road markers.

I will make a note of that

10km is long so there could be some delay, but on our end change resolutions is almost done instantly. Is more involved here? Does this happen with any road?

I will make a note of that

This is unknown, or does this happen at the road height and is this related to the Shader Offset option on the road? This only happens at very specific horizontal cam angles and stronger Offset values.

That is good to hear but if you are running into issues, please let us know. The tool is getting more and more comprehensive, different way to do things, how to use it, unexpected ways of using it...

Thanks,
Raoul

 

The splatmap looks a little weird but ok. I was looking for another more suitable splatmap and couldn't find anything better. Maybe something fractal.
I would love to try a modified shader.
Please , could do you send it?
I sent you a blank email from QuarryTroopers.
Thanks a lot.
Joan

 

Hi Joan,

Is this related to your own scene or the demo scene?

What I meant was keep the splatmap the same, but if for example in the areas with this side object 3 or less terrain textures are used, then the shader will require less textures which will deal with the problem you have.

Yes, I saw your email but without a new message, I was going to reply. I can modify the shader but I need this specific info, which texture is not required?

Thanks,
Raoul

 

My own scene.
To me, the most prescindible is green.

 

I mean green color in splatmap. I think is a kind of sand texture.

 

Ok, I will look into this tomorrow and send you the shader.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Still looking to see what i can leverage with your on-off ramp stuff despite having a comfortable workaround with my static ramp and the awesome Snap Connectors

 

Hi, Raoul

Splitted to several connected road each about 1km. Without any problems, rebuild terrain several times and used "Reapply critical road heights" - all fine

Will wait for it

What do you think about migration? Will it be hard to migrate from 3.1?

"I Connector" distance was 20 units for each road. Connection angle ~60 degrees. Found workaround - use distance of 20 units only for one road and shift texture transition to this 20 units distance.

Sorry, no delays, just too much experiments on single scene (seems to be GC issues).

Problem was with one of the Camera - too close near clipping plane caused z-fighting on terrain and side objects.

Thank you!

 

Raoul, else one question - bridges.
Default "Simple bridge" is too heavy (20 or 30k tris) for object mostly beyond the road. But i'll need it for water reflections.
Are there any tutorial or video how to create less poly side-object or bridges?

My road before/after bridge have large resolution (50-100) and small angle (2 degrees) and it's really low poly in wireframe view, but bridge triangulation is too high. Seems it's possible to rebuild bridge to match road vertex, but can't find how to do it.

 

Hi Eagle1Xray,

Built-in on-off ramps is v3.3, the focus at the moment is on getting v3.2 out.

The only thing that could be done at the moment is send a pre alpha build with the on-off ramp system active as it is. It will not be stable and limited in a way that I belief a road can only have one attached and only one way.

The new v3.2 demo will include some static examples.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

That should not cause problems. The v3.2 beta is included in the asset store download. You could duplicate your project and give it a try. Any feedback on issues is always very much appreciated, but it should be fine.

Creating backups is recommended anyway, also for official version updates.

But v3.3, for example, will be an update with changes deeper in the system especially road type related. In case you try the alpha, backing up first is very much recommended.

20 units is on the long end. I Connectors do preserve the road shape, also when it is used for a transition, but over a longer distance I belief this is not the ideal solution.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

The "Simple bridge" side object is a "Procedural" side object type. This side object type is based on a model input. The model will be repeated along the road shape. https://easyroads3d.com/tutorials/bridges.php

So the trick here is to use a less poly model or, perhaps, make the current one longer. In the v3.2 beta it is possible to scale it on the z axis, but that will stretch the texture. The best way would be to use a model that fits your requirements.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Joan,

I am not the developer of this asset, or of the one I am going to recommend. I just started using Universal Render Pipeline and the lack of a heightmap was odd to me (I'm a business software dev, so there is a HUGE amount of knowledge I lack in this area) So I purchased this asset: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/vfx/shaders/lwrp-urp-tessellation-displacement-157851 last week and it's worked well for me.

I know this may suck having to purchase another asset to resolve this, however it's only $7.50, and I can give my recommendation for ER3D VERY highly, it has tons of features and the support is TOP! (as someone who has been a software dev for 20+ years, and in tech for 30... good support is hard to come by) So if the rest of the features work for you, then maybe an additional $7.50 is nbd... and WTF did Unity remove the heightmap from it's shader?!

 

Hi James,

I belief this is not URP related. The involved shader is a shader that combines the terrain splatmap with additional options for usually rock type of textures next to the road and also supporting tesselation. Is that something the shader in your link can do too? I sent Joan a customized shader last Friday.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Ah, nevermind.

 

Thanks James anyway

 

Is there a way to change the position of an unfinalized road network? I accidentally build all my road network on a terrain that was set to 1000, 0, 1000. It should have been on 0, 0, 0.

 

Hi studentvz,

The position of the road network is locked by default to avoid unwanted and saved road network position changes. The reason for that is that it will be hard to match it with the terrain when this position was not 0,0,0.

But the road network can be moved. To do that move the two child objects "Connection Objects" and "Road Objects" to the new position. A notification will appear in the Inspector including a button to confirm the position changes. The road network will be updated accordingly after confirming. You may want to backup the project or scene first, just in case.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Thank you, it works. "Connection Objects" and "Road Objects" need to be moved together, otherwise everything gets messed up.

 

Yes, sorry, the two objects need to be moved together otherwise they will reset back to 0,0,0

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Get the following error in Unity 2019.4 with Gaia Pro v2.2.0:

Shader error in 'EasyRoads3D/Terrain/ER Terrain Mesh Tesselation': maximum ps_5_0 sampler register index (16) exceeded at line 149 (on d3d11)
Compiling Fragment program with UNITY_PASS_FORWARDADD SPOT SHADOWS_DEPTH
Platform defines: UNITY_ENABLE_REFLECTION_BUFFERS UNITY_USE_DITHER_MASK_FOR_ALPHABLENDED_SHADOWS UNITY_PBS_USE_BRDF1 UNITY_SPECCUBE_BOX_PROJECTION UNITY_SPECCUBE_BLENDING UNITY_ENABLE_DETAIL_NORMALMAP SHADER_API_DESKTOP UNITY_LIGHT_PROBE_PROXY_VOLUME UNITY_LIGHTMAP_FULL_HDR

Any hint?

 

By the way, Raoul, did you manage the reproduce and/or fix this splatmap issue in 3.2?

I would really like to upgrade to 3.2 for good but that issue is the main one that is holding me back as it makes almost everything look worse than in 3.1. If you need any more information or help figuring it out (or any ideas what to try to find a workaround), let me know!

Best regards,
Antti

 

Hi mobilEKG,

This same question was recently asked here on the forum, below is a copy of the reply:

This shader, ER Terrain Mesh Tesselation, is part of the additional demo project. This demo project is primarily intended for learning purposes, it does include some more complex assets like this particular shader. Depending on your project settings and build settings it can raise that specific error.

This shader is used in the demo scene for the terrain mesh next to the mountain road near the coast, the road with also the retaining walls. It uses the terrain textures and splatmap, a tesselation texture and additional textures for the rock and dirt next to the road.

Are you using this shader in your project? If not, then you can safely remove it:

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

Otherwise, the package includes a shader without tessellation. Hope this helps.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi Antti,

Was this related to updating the splatmap through the API and when more than 4 textures are involved. I tested that in the current development project and wasn't able to reproduce the problem. I will create a new v3.2 beta build on Monday to double check. If indeed all good I can already send it to you if you want.

Thanks,
Raoul.

 

I am using URP in 2019.4r10 and having two sets of problems.
1. When I try to create a new road network on one of my scenes it just selects the terrain (holding control and clicking terrain)
2. After upgrading project materials, I am still seeing the shader not compatible pink shades. I can rebuild most of them I guess, but not finding a good substite for the decal shader. Is their a URP shader replacement package that I am missing?

 

Make sure you have gizmos enabled (I had this problem, see above). When they are disabled it behaves as you described.

 

Hi alexrau,

1. Do you mean Control + Click or Shift + Click? Shift + Click adds markers. If you have problems with that, this can happen in recent Unity versions. It is covered on the Troubleshooting page in the manual. Please try resetting the Unity editor layout in Window > Layouts

2. The default Lit shader can be used as the decal shader. Some more complex shaders in the demo package are being converted to URP and HDRP, these can be sent to you if you are using one of these. The additional HD Roads package does include URP and HDRP packages.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi SaharaBob,

That is an interesting one, is that actually what causes it? We discussed this with the Unity devs, they confirmed the issue but they need more info, what situation actually brings the editor in that state.

I just tested it and indeed this does have the same effect. I will add this to the Troubleshooting page.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

That was the fix. thanks.

 

Nice to hear if that issue is fixed! But the bug I meant now is probably a different one as it is not happening on 3.1 but did happen in 3.2 when I tested it. Also restoring splatmap seemed to work. If you check the second image in my previous message you can see the issue: The smoothing area of the splatmap is not correctly smoothed but causes a visible zigzagging seam where smoothing end (and also a less visible one where it starts). It looks like the alpha of the texture is 1 for the whole area instead of going from the original non-1 alpha towards 0 as in 3.1 (the first image).

 

I did a quick test, using the latest v3.2 beta 6 I do not see any issues with splatmap smoothing when done through the Editor. This second image, is that the result after witching to Build Mode or after switching back to Edit Mode. I cannot see how this can look that way when switching to Build Mode, the more whitish/sand texture starting outside the road area. Can you easily reproduce this in a small scene? Perhaps you can send this to us so we can look at it.

Smoothing in a 3.2 has changed a little bit though, I see the more random effect gets sized upl when using larger smoothing values like the 4 you mentioned in your post. I will see if that can be improved.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi Raoul.
Finnally I have been capable to build an exec with no errors at all using the shader you provide. The lost texture is notable but quite a good overall result. Much better than non tesellation shader.
I hope it could be helpful to you.
Thanks again.
Joan

 

Hi Raoul,

I'm not sure I can really add much more except to say that it seems to be related to only the gizmos for ERModularRoad. If that one is toggled off then shift-click selects the terrain and with it toggled on shift-click places road markers. The other ER* gizmos don't, on the face of it, appear to affect the issue - even if all the ER* gizmos are disabled, as long as ERModularRoad is enabled shift-click will place road markers.

Does that help at all? Sorry I can't give more info.

 

Hi SaharaBob,

So far we have never experienced the Shift + Click situation ourselves. Months ago a user send us a project in which this happened. We tracked it down to unity events not being triggered in OnSceneGUI(). We found that resetting the editor solved the problem, the notes on the Troubleshooting page. We send this info to Unity and they confirmed the issue but couldn't tell what causes it. They asked for more info, how the editor got into that state.

Perhaps all this is related to the Gizmos button being disabled, and resetting the editor also activating the Gizmos button again. Tomowrrow I will have a look at the original project that was send to us and see if the Gizmos button indeed is disabled.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

The second image with a bug was the result of the scene after I called roadNetwork.BuildRoadNetwork(splatmaps: true, trees: true, detail: true). Splatmap settings had previously been set with road.SetSplatmap. RestoreRoadNetwork restored the old state correctly.

Unfortunately, I only tested it via scripting, not by using a normal scene. I don't now have 3.2 installed right now but I can retry and debug it more once the next version is out. If there have been other changes and fixes, maybe this has already been fixed, too.

Thanks,
Antti

 

This is awesome, I might get EasyRoads3D Pro next month.
Another question. Is this procedural mesh generator works with Unity version 2019.1.5f1 or do I have to have a newer version?
Thank you!

 

Hi SawyerK,

It will work fine in 2019.1.5f1, this feature works for Unity versions starting at 5.6 and up

Thanks,
Raoul

 

The Youtube tutorial shows the pro version contains about six terrains, but when I
purchased the pro version, it contains no terrains and no drop down menu
showing terrains. What gives?

 

Hi crownracing,

There is one demo scene at the moment, https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/terrain/easyroads3d-demo-project-105045. This package is free if you have the Pro versions. A new v3.2 demo scene is being worked on.

There is a video showing multi terrain support, a scene with 6 basic terrain objects / tiles, but that is only intended to show that multi terrain tiles in a scene is supported.

So, updating multi terrain tiles is supported out of the box, the system will detect all terrains and by default update all terrains to the road network. Do you have any specific questions regarding this?

Thanks,
Raoul