World Building EasyRoads3D v3 - the upcoming new road system

Hi Raoul, I'm on beta v3.3 b2. Sometimes the gameobject name of the road changes.



In this instance, the gameObject name should be Road Ob (22) 0013, and the type Road Ob (22), but it has somehow changed the gameobject name to match another road Freeway (40) 0017_1 and I'm not sure why.

I reference the gameobject name at runtime, so this does cause problems. It's easily fixed by manually renaming the gameobject, but does add to the iteration time. Thanks

 

Another issue I encountered on the beta v3.3 b2. If you have a terrain with detail resolution of 0, Easyroads undo can cause issues with it. I was modifying a road, pressed CTRL-Z, and my terrain was disfigured with the error "Terrain has zero detail resolution"

 

Hi joe_ftg,

With this sort of thing, steps to reproduce are very useful Can you keep an eye on this?

The image shows that no road type is selected. What is the history of this road? Did the road type change at some point and did that also change the road name?

Especially for betas, please always upgrade to the latest available beta

Thanks,
Raoul

 

I will check a terrain with detail resolution 0, but in what situation do you want to use a resolution of 0?

The error messages says that the terrain has zero detail resolution, it seems this is what it was set to. In what way were terrain settings changed after undo?

Regarding undo, EasyRoads3D uses the Unity Undo class which always references objects. From an EasyRoads3D point of view, the terrain is only involved here when switching to Build mode which affects the terrain. So I am not sure how undo after road changes can result in these terrain related messages unless it was intended more as a warning. What is the exact error message?

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Yes, the terrain has zero detail resolution because we don't use the detail feature. I can fix it by changing it to non-zero, but I thought I would let you know as we have hundreds of terrain tiles. The error message is exactly as I quoted. Yesterday I had it show the "Restoring terrain" dialogue forever after Undo, along with an exception, but I didn't make a note of the exception.

We do not use the Build mode, which is why I was surprised that Undo was trying to do something with the terrain. We do have terrain deformation turned on (for roads and junctions) but only because it generates smoother road heights, we don't actually use the Build mode.

This undo issue doesn't change the terrain settings, but flattens the terrain height.

 

As mentioned in my previous post, when recording road changes for Undo, the terrain object is not included in the Undo operation. That wouldn't make sense, https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/Undo.html

We can check this, but I am not sure if there is anything that can be done here. Does this happen after every Undo, for example after changing a road marker position followed by CTRL+Z?

Have you tried this with a value for terrain detail other than 0? It should be fairly easy to run an editor script that will set the terrain detail resolution back to 0 for all terrain tiles before a project build.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

When I click on a marker, the first time it (sometimes) shows a road type, but after that it doesn't. If I use the debug inspector, I can see the road type ID matches the correct one in the road types list.




I'll rename it, and look out for it happening again. Thanks

 

What do your road types and connections look like?

Does deselect > reselect the road object bring the road type back?

Matching road shapes when connections are involved is crucial. The actually available road types in the dropdown will be limited when the road is connected to an intersection. Only those road types that match the involved intersection connection(s) will be displayed although I belief this is already skipped for v3.3 Flex Connectors which does support different road types / shapes.

The list of available matching road types can be out of synch in the v3.3 beta, this is known. When the specific road type is not included it will indeed show as blank.

Perhaps this is involved. In that case deselect > reselect the road object can bring the road type back. Disconnection the road from the intersection(s), just as a test, should bring back the road type.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

HI. I think I fixed the pink material problem for those materials not automatically fixed for HDRP. I just set them to Standard and then used the HDRP Wizard tool.

In regards to selecting the road type, when I create a new road the only option I have is this:

 

Hi Enigma229,

That will also work. The EasyRoads3D shaders do have some additional options like fade options for dirt tracks and offset options to deal with z-fighting.

The main EasyRoads3D package includes only one road type.

From your previous post it appeared you also have the demo package imported. Did you see at any time a popup with the message that new road types and side objects were detected?

In any case, one way to quickly import all the road types and side objects is by opening the two demo scenes and selecting the road network object in the hierarchy. This will populate the project file with all road types and side objects in the scene that do not yet exist in this file.

These road types and side objects will be available in other scenes afterwards. For new road networks you will be asked if you want to import all these presets. For existing road network objects these presets can be imported in the scene through "General Settings > Road Types > Add Project Road Types". All presets will be listed, you can chose which to import.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

I opened the demo scene but was still greeted by the default road so I opened up my project scene, setup and new Road Network and now it's giving me the options.

 

v3.3 beta 4 is now available on our website

• Fixed: Sidewalk triangulation issues when the corner radius is smaller then the sidewalk width
  
  
• Fixed: Sidewalk issues when roads between two connections are manually set as the main road
  
  
• Fixed: Triangulation issues secondary roads and a smaller corner radius
  
  
• New: Planar UVs option for sidewalks in the direction of the main road
  
  
• New: Default lane turn direction options per lane in General Settings > Road types > Road Shape Profile > Lane Info

So the update is mainly sidewalk related with fixes for issues on v3.3 Flex Connectors with main road and secondary road sections. And new sidewalk options have been added. There are still some improvements to add in some situations but this should be fairly stable now.

The next update will include the final new v3.3 sidewalk feature, crosswalk options. At that point there will also be a video showing all the different v3.3 sidewalk options.

As always, please backup your project first before importing the update.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi @roaul

thanks for the awesome asset, i am having a little issue mainly when using the HD roads crossing
so for whatever reason a hidden surface game object is created and remains in scene. it seemed related to hiding white surfaces but regardless if it's on or off this game object exist and it has a mesh collider on it .. that doesn't match the HD crossing, it matches the roads correctly
and it exists even in gameplay i can collider against although it's hidden
it appears pink here that's because i am on URP

also it happens regardless of crossing scale , some is set at 1,1,1 some I changed in the original prefab but it the issue would still happen

 

Hi MOhi,

Glad to hear you like the tool.

Which EasyRoads3D Pro version do you have imported? v3.2 includes packages with materials for HDRP and URP, also for these surfaces that appear in pink in your image. The URP package should auto import but you could try to import it manually. The packages are located in /Assets/EasyRoads3D/SRP Support packages/

"Hide White Surfaces" should indeed control the visibility in Edit Mode. In Build Mode (after pressing "Build Terrains" in the middle mountain tab) these surfaces should not be visible at all. Have you tried that, are these surfaces still visible in Build Mode on your end?

Is the problem only related to the crossings in the HD Roads Add On package? In what way does it not match the crossing? I cannot clearly see this in the image. I do see that these surfaces are larger on the crossings compared to these surfaces on the roads.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Thanks for a prompt response

currently i am using v 3.3b4 I was using 3.3b2 before and same thing happened

the problem only happen with HD roads yes .. i guess it has to do with the fact that I increased the scale of some crossing so it fit with wider roads

so for example here's a shot where everything is great



that's a crossing from HD roads it looks great and its scale was always 1

as I start adding more and these new 2 crossings are scaled up, now even if I tried to scale them back to one they still have the issue .. but to be honest I still need to scale them cause I need a wider road

mainly added the roundabout crossing, then added roads then on the last marker of the road added this new crossing .. then tried to build terrain.
so I can't really finalize because I also do need it to affect the terrain correctly .



and if I tried to refresh road network they increase in size xD

 

Ok, so the problem is with scaled HD Roads Add On connection prefabs. The surfaces are generated too big affecting too much terrain which is clearly visible in the second image.

How do you scale these connections?

I just did a quick test doubling the scale of one of the prefabs. I did this in the folder where these custom prefabs are stored. That way new instances in the scene will automatically inherit the adjusted scale. So I simply changed the default scale of 1.325 on all three axis to 2.325

This the result:



The left is the original size. No roads are attached but the white surfaces cover the Indent area which is the same for both instances.

In Build Mode this looks as expected:



The terrain is adjusted over the same Indent distance.

Are your steps similar?

Additionally, when adjusting the scale of an instance in the scene, the white surface will also scale up which is not ideal. That is also why you want to scale the actual prefab in the project folder, in the "custom prefabs" folder. The system will generate the surfaces relative to the scaled prefab based on the Indent values in the Scene Settings.

But even if the crossing in your images were scaled in the scene, the white surfaces are scaled up a lot more. So I wonder how that can be recreated?

[Edit] I can actually recreate the Refresh bit! That will be fixed.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

hi , really appreciate your efforts thanks

which unity version you are using , I am using 2020.3.9

but I tried again in new empty project and in the same demo scene same steps as yours .. and scaled from prefab
as soon as I added it this happen but I noticed it happened with prefabs that have sidewalks_v2 in their name
any other ones work prefect .. i just add them turn the hide white surfaces on/off and it happens as the image below

for the example the one I use Asphalt_Lines_Damaged_ER_OX_Sidewalks_v2


I understand it's a weird issue and appreciate your efforts to help

 

Also if i try to refresh road network it would affect the size of the white thing .. even if i didn't add roads

 

Asphalt_Lines_Damaged_ER_OX_Sidewalks_v2

I had a look, this prefab has the "surface" object already added as a child in the project folder. So this object will scale up as well when scaling the prefab itself. Please remove this "surface" object from the prefab. When instantating the prefab in the scene it will recreate the surface object correctly based on the new scale and the Indent value.

I already edited my previous post, the "Refresh" situation can be recreated. It is related to this type of connection prefab based on a mesh and scaled up. This will be fixed.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

okay great, do you have a rough estimate of when the fix may land?

and thanks a lot

 

The Refresh issue is fixed and will be available in the next version update. I can always send an update if it is urgent but from what we have discussed, the main issue with these surfaces and scaled prefabs is not related to this. Or am I still missing something?

Thanks,
Raoul

 

well i was just hoping if the next update will be around next month that can be great

as for the issue if I deleted the surface game object from the prefab, then the issue I think happens when i try to refresh only

for example here


the correct one, I removed the surface game object so even when I build it remains correct. only if I tried to refresh it gets messed up

as for the issue, i uploaded a small package it has this scene, terrain, and the prefabs only no dlls or textures or anything else so it will need to be a project with all the assets for this test project i am using 2019.3.9 with build v3.3b2

https://we.tl/t-HJc6Y8ackK

hope it helps and thanks again

 

I think we have covered everything and for sure a new update will be available next month

In the meantime just do not use the Refresh option if you have these scaled custom prefabs in the scene. Refreshing the road network is not something that is regularly done. This option can be useful when a new version is released and to update an existing scene if necessary.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi,
I have a strange problem with baked lightmaps: in the picture enclosed, that I made right now after the last lightmap bake, you can see that on the crossroad there are some strange artifacts (I highlighted them with yellow marks) due to previous bakings: the circular dark spots are due to poles that before were placed in that position, while the dark spots near the pedestrians crossings are due to the fact that before the white stips were placed (by mistake) a little above the road, but in the picture now they are placed almost in contact with the road.
Is there some option that I have to set to make sure that the lightmaps of the roads will be baked correctly? (I'm using latest version of URP 10 with Unity 2020.3.19f)
Thanks!!

 

Hi tomobiki,

What is involved here from an EasyRoads3D point of view is generating the UV coordinates for lightmapping. This is done through the Unity API, Unwrapping.GenerateSecondaryUVSet()

This appears to be more related to baking the lightmap. I see 4 yellow circles. From what you wrote the situation in all 4 spots was the logical result of the positioning of other elements in the scene so indeed baking the lightmaps seems to work. The situation with these other objects has now changed, there is only one reference image, are you saying that the scene looks the same after baking again or does it change in an incorrect way?

These pedestrians crossings objects should probably not cast shadows at all.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi, thank you for your reply.
Yes, I meant that the scene looks the same after baking again, even if before I moved the objects and unchecked the shadow casting from the pedestrian crossings. It's like if the last baking didn't clean the previous baking.

And more, I noticed that this problem affects only the crossroads and not the roads between them.

Thanks!

 

What is the type of crossroad? Built-in dynamic or are they based on your own models?

Just as a test, have you tried to clear the baked data first?

Thanks,
Raoul

 

@tomobiki

In any case, I checked this in the latest version. Both for built-in dynamic crossroads as for custom connection objects based on imported meshes, baking lightmaps works well also after changing object positions on top of these crossroads.

If you are still having issues with this, perhaps you can send a simple project to us so we can look at it.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Thanks, I did the test you told me: I manually cleared the baked lightmaps (from the Lighting menu) before baking again, but the result is always the same: and this happens only for crossroads and not for normal roads, however when I clear the baked lightmaps the road becomes clean with no shadows.

I'm using customized roads that I made by myself (it's the first time I use ER so probably I made some mistake) that are very simple as you can see in the screenshot I enclose: the sidewalk is not a real sidewalk, but it's part of the texture of the road.

In the enclosed picture I show also the lightmaps and lighting parameters of the crossroads, if this can help to undestand the problem.
As last chance I could delete the connections and make a new ones.

Thanks for your support!

 

And as you can see the lightmaps problem happens on all the crossroads, while the lightmaps of the streets are correctly baked:

 

Hi tomobiki,

As mentioned, baking the lightmaps is not EasyRoads3D related. Creating Lightmap UV coordinates is partially EasyRoads3D related, partially because the Unity API is used for this. And, since you mention you use your own models, for custom connection prefabs based imported models I belief this data is copied from the source prefab / model. Does your model has lightmap UVs?

In the test I mentioned I cannot see any issues with baking lightmaps.

Can you email us a small scene with these crossroads and also including the original source prerfab / model, so we can test your situation on our end?

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hello, first I must say this tool is great! Thanks for this
Second, I can't find a tutorial or manual about importing our own road texture and parameters in order to create a new road type. Do you have something like that?
Thanks!

 

Hello Slavyk,

Glad to hear you like the tool

Road Types can be created in General Settings > Road Types. Here you can also assign the road material. When road materials are stored in the EasyRoads3D roads material folder they can be selected from the dropdown, otherwise the material can be dropped from the project folder in the material slot.

See the below video starting at 37.34

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Great! I will check this, thank you

 

@raoul

Is there a way to achieve 0 (black) specularity for the road using Easy Roads materials (cause they have anti z fighting improvements).

If there is no way. Can you created Unity 2018+ Standard Specular Setup for Easy Roads?

 

Hi Gua,

The provided shaders currently do not have specular options. If you look at the adapted Standard shader, the only thing added is the Offset line (anti z fighting) below the Tags blocks. Something similar can be done for the specular version.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi Raoul,

EasyRoads3D tool is great and we have been using it in our company for years now.

The problem is that we have very big project now and road networks in all scenes are finalized (there are no ER scripts left on objects).
Is it safe to remove folder EasyRoads3Dv3 that is on same level as Assets folder (not inside it)?
It contains folders with files such as detailData.backup, heightdata.backup, splatmap.backup, splatMap0.png...
In the past time we had some problems removing folders, or changing its path in Unity, so I don't want it to happen again now that we are finished with creating road network.

Thanks,
Andjelka

 

Hi Andjelka,

Thank you for using the tool and glad to hear you like it.

Yes, this folder located outside the Assets folder is only used for backup purposes. When road networks are finalized and these backup files are no longer required it is safe to remove them.

If at some point you decide to create a new road network object in these scenes or in scenes using the same terrain objects, this data will be regenerated based on the current terrain state.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

We are currently debating using this Tool in our next project, however, after importing the package (v3.3b2), I noticed a couple of problems with some of the Assets:

• in EasyRoads3D Assets/3rd Party Assets/Art/Environment/_ExternalContent/Quixel there are multiple scriptable objects with missing scripts. They are all called "xxx_baked_single". I assume these are 3rd party scripts, that can't be included, but I am not sure. If they are not needed, it would be nice if they were removed
• in EasyRoads3D Assets/3rd Party Assets/Art/Environment/Roots, both Roots_System_01 and Root_System_02 have a missing script on LOD1
• in EasyRoads3D Assets/3rd Party Assets/Art/Environment/Vegetation/Trees/Generic_Stump Stump_04 is missing its 2nd Material (all LODs)
• in EasyRoads3D Assets/Misc/buildings the tower mesh has some 2 invalid triangles, caused by the hole not being connected properly to the rest of the mesh
• EasyRoads3D Assets/Misc/Materials/road_decalMat, EasyRoads3D Assets/RailRoad/Materials/Main_Road_0075_single_laneMat, EasyRoads3D/Material/decal and EasyRoads3D/Resources/Materials/roads/road material all are missing their shader. According to the files, these are 4 different shaders.
  
• EasyRoads3D/Resources/custom prefabs/Motorway_2x2_Roundabout_ER is missing a sub-prefab called "roundaboutinner". There is a mesh with the same name, but the missing prefab consist of at least 3 gameObjects

It is possible that there are other issues that I haven't found.

Unity Version 2019.4.31

 

Hi Piflik,

It seems all your questions are related to the additional free Demo Project.

All these assets are additional assets not required by the road network object that is why for example script components for the Quixel assets are not included. These assets have been cleaned up for the next update.

I will check the materials you menyioned, but are you perhaps looking at this in an URP or HDRP project? This additional demo package is only URP / HDRP optimized for the v3.2 demo scene, not the v3.1 demo scene. The additional SRP Readme file in the EasyRoads3D root directory includes info when this is indeed an URP or HDRP project.

For example, EasyRoads3D Assets/Misc/Materials/road_decalMat, this material uses the older version of the "ER Road Decal" shader, it is a v3.1 asset. I can see in the project that is used to upload the package, that the shader and the textures are assigned. But this may not work well in an URP or HDRP project.

This is an asset in the v3.2 demo scene. I see what you mean. This will be fixed. But the missing mesh and material assets are in the package, search for "roundaboutInner" and "ER_Roundabout_Inner".

This asset is used in the demo scene.




Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi - is it expected that several materials in the demos don't work with URP? I installed both the URP support packages in "SRP Support Packages".

 

Hi supericon,

Please check my reply above to Piflik,

Your screenshot shows the previous v3.1 demo scene.

URP and HDRP support was implemented in v3.2. The v3.2 scene in the same package is optimized for URP and HDRP.

For v3.1 assets / materials it is a matter of assigning the v3.2 EasyRoads3D shaders.

URP and HDRP notes are included in the "SRP Demo Package Notes" in the EasyRoads3D root directory.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Thanks for the tip. If you do accept feature requests I would love to see specularity option for road shaders in future versions of Easy Roads.

 

Hi Gua,

Feedback and feature requests are always welcome.

More shaders will follow, working on multi lane motorway shaders at the moment. I will make a note to also include versions with specularity.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi Raoul

Thanks for the reply. I am adding Easyroads to my current terrain, but some of the material shaders are not working - as you can see below for the Rock Wall coast material.

I purchased Easy Roads yesterday and have not used an older version, so everything is from the current asset store version, and the current Demo project package. I installed both of the URP support packages, and also converted the project materials to URP.

Richard

 

Hi supericon,

This question is very similar to the one of yesterday.

The Rock Wall coast material is used in the v3.1 demo scene. In the Inspector it shows that the shader is missing. I mentioned that v3.1 assets are not optimized for URP and HDRP because this was only added in v3.2. It is shader related.

The shader in this case is a custom shader, so Unity will not convert it to URP. But this preset is very similar to the v3.2 retaining wall example which does work in an URP and HDRP project. Have you tried this side object preset?

If you look at the v3.2 demo scene you will see which assets will instantly work in URP. But I belief this specifc wall side objects is one of the few side object materials in the v3.1 scene that uses a custom shader. Most of them use the Unity Standard shader which will convert to URP.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Ah - I see. I was under the impression that the URP update included the demo scene shaders, so with the coastal rock wall I wanted to use that as my road is a coastal road.

Also Easy Roads offers to import the demo items when you add it to a scene, which it does automatically. It is quite frustrating and unintuitive for this process to import lots of incompatible material shaders.

This is most certainly not an ideal situation for anyone attempting to use EasyRoads with URP.

Will you be converting those shaders? Or if not, is there a list of the demo assets that Easy Roads offers to import that I should decline from importing?

Failing that, I believe the URP installs should remove incompatible files, otherwise it makes the system rather confusing, or at the very least not import those assets that are incompatible when you add Easy Roads to a scene, as right now it has imported lots of trackside stuff I actually can't use, as well as certain tracks, like the Racetrack.

 

Here is another shot, this time of the Connectors - as you can see, it appears most are unusable:

 

Hello again,

Your project is an URP project. Just like in the previous posts, these are all older v3.1 assets with shaders assigned that will not work in an URP project.

These materials require v3.2 shaders, for example the new "ER Road" shader or, for decals, the new "ER Road Decal" shader.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

So it is just a case of swapping the shaders in the material to fix?

As an example, which shader would I use to replace "EasyRoads3D - Unity Standard 2018+"?