World Building EasyRoads3D v3 - the upcoming new road system

My apologies, I got that wrong in every respect, even the name Gus is not the name of the person I sent the actual email to

I have been running around like crazy this week, in and out, responding to tons of emails in between. Things should settle down tomorrow afternoon...

In any case, I just sent the test build to virgiliu@xxxxx.ro

I did check the kml height implementation yesterday on a number of KML test files we have, it appears to be working fine. Please let me know if you are running into issues with this.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi,

i tried to built my first own track with easyroads3d. It worked but if i use different heights on the track my car is dip in the track, check screenshot:




Whats wrong??? Cant find the problem...
If the track is on the same height there is no problem.

greez

 

2nd Question: is it possible to build a pitlane with available tools?

 

Hi Elharter,

Is this v2 or v3 beta?

Especially because you mention that there is no issue when the track is on the same height, I am not entirely sure what the problem is? Do you mean the car sinks in the road depending on the height of the road at that point? Or does it always sink in the road? Do you get better results when using for example the Unity standard shader on the material?

Thanks,
Raoul

 

V3 supports two "crossing" types, dynamic and custom. Dynamic crossing types are built-in, like the the currently available X, T crossings and roundabouts. What you need is something that acts like highway exit roads. This is partially implemented but not available yet.

Meanwhile you can achieve this by using custom crossings, crossings based on your own models imported into the road system. They will act like dynamic crosings. You can attach roads and pull out new road sections from these prefabs just like with dynamic crossings. The main demo scene in the beta package includes several examples.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

...i dont know, i downloaded it yesterday from the asset store.
Where can i check it?

The Car sinks in the road if the road is going higher. No not always. Only on higher points then the rest of the track.

If i change the shader the car is visible now on the whole track, but the tracks looks terrible ^^ haha

 

Hi Elharter,

Yes, I only asked this to verify...

The generated roads lay on top of the terrain. What you see in the last screenshot are z-fighting issues. There are several ways to deal with this. One option is to use an Offset on the road shader, that is what is done in the EasyRoads3D shaders. The downside is that it can affect objects on top of the road, which also depends on your games cam angles and distance. You can tweak the Offset values in the shader. Values more towards 0 mean a smaller offset and less sinking. But for a terrain like in your screenshot you do not really need these offset shaders, raising the road a little bit should already solve that and is hardly noticable if you keep this below 0.05 or so. You should see an option for that in the Inspector. Something else you could do when objects are sinking in the road and you do want to use the EasyRoads3D offset shaders, is using a similar offset on the shader used on the car.

The asset store download is still v2 (v2 forum thread) , the v3 betas (discussed in this particular thread) include the crossing options I mentioned. The pitlane in your last screenshot is like a T-crossing that can be done with the current v3 beta. If you have a copy of EasyRoads3D Pro I can send you the v3 beta info. Please sent me a PM through the forum or contact me through the website in my signature in that case.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Road height from KML data works wonderfully. Thank you very much for implementing this on such short notice.


Edit: I noticed a weird thing when clicking road points. When clicking the road node the white area around it becomes bigger. I noticed it happens even when importing OSM, not only KML. Is this a known behaviour?
I attached a video that shows this happening.

 

I change the shader to default and height up the road a little bit and its fine now
Great thanks!

Furthermore thanks for the pitlane answer!

 

Hi Virgiliu,

Glad to hear the KML height option works well!

Regarding the white surfaces updating, I noticed that as well when testing the KML height option. It seems that when generating the roads automatically from the KML/OSM road data, the default Indent value (2) is used. When selecting a marker this value will auto adjust if the current value is lower than the Min Indent value set for the scene. I made a note to check this.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi Elharter,

Yes, for relatively flat terrains like the one in your screenshot that should work just fine.

Let me know if you have further questions.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi Raoul, sorry to bother you again I'm going forward with my project and I've hit another problem.
I added grass and trees to my terrain and they overlapped with the road. I've checked "remove trees" and "remove detail objects" in the build settings but the grass still overlaps with the road. Is there any way to automatically remove grass?




Also, is it possible to have side objects just for a portion of a road? I have a 10 km road and when adding side fences it tells me that I exceed the vertex count: EasyRoads3D: Fence 1 [duplicate] (road_0_primary) too many vertices, Unity does not allow more then 65000 vertices for a mesh, mesh combine aborted.

Thanks in advance!

 

Hi virgiliu,

I just double checked this in the demo scene, removing grass (detail objects) and trees both appear to be working fine. You mention you have activated "Remove Trees" and "Remove Detail Objects" which indeed is required. Other than that, "General Settings > Terrain Management" has additional options to set the distance for both. You could double check the values, although these value are relative to the left and right side of the road, so even when zero at least trees and grass should be removed for the area covered by the road. Other then that it is hard for me to comment on this without further info. If you want you can always send the project (stripped down to terrain and roads if you want) so I can look at it on my end.

Yes, you can activate/deactivate side objects per marker, select a marker and scroll downwards in the Inspector and look for "Marker Side Object Settings". You will see several controls active for the currently selected Side Object in the dropdown.

Additionally in the Side Object Manager you have the option "Default active state for each marker". You may want to switch that off for side object that will only be used on a small number of markers.

Also, the warning message starts with "EasyRoads3D: Fence 1", Fence 1 is of the type "Mesh Object", which means the source mesh is instantiated along the shape of the road. This side object type has the option "Combine Objects" at the bottom in the Inspector which is by default active. This causes the specific 65.000 warning message, after combining all generated fence objects, the final mesh is too big. Toggling "Combine Objects" off will fix this. If you still want to use the combine option instead of, for example, static batching you could divide the fence objects in groups and use Unity's combine scripts.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Is it possible to have different materials or physic materials for the road and pavement?

 

Hi Carpe Denius,

Sidewalks/pavements are dynamic for the built-in crossing types, they are not part of the actual road object. You can toggle them on and off and they use their own materials. When you drop your materials in /Assets/EasyRoads3D/Resources/Materials/sidewalks, you will be able to quickly select these materials from the dropdown when customizing sidewalks for crossings.

I will add a similar option for physics materials.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi Raoul. I managed to fix the side object mesh problem the way you said, by turning off combine meshes for side objects. Thank you very much!

One new problem I've come across is that side objects aren't visible in the Scene Control tab unless they're duplicated.
Clicking "Add Project Side Objects" only added the side object that was duplicated by me.

 

Hi virgiliu,

Although this has been reported before, it certainly is not standard behaviour. So far I have not been able to replicate this, the available side objects are always available for the selected road. For this person I created a little script that will refresh the side object list for a road so he could continue without having to redo that specific road. If you want I can send it to you and also add this to the package but it would be good if this issue could be resolved.

Does this happen on exisiting roads or also new roads?

Does this happen on every road?

Did you import the side objects when creating a new road network or in a later stage through the side object manager?

Thanks,
Raoul

 

It would be nice if you could send me the script

I imported side objects when creating a new road. It happens on new and existing roads.
But, it does NOT happen if roads markers are defined by manually clicking on the terrain. It only happens when the road is created by importing OSM and KML.

 

I actually implemented a check for this last night. It will refresh the side objects list automatically also showing a message asking to report this for the reason to track down what caused the side objects list to appear as empty.

OSM/KML data, that could make sense, I haven't actually checked that! This probably needs some work certainly when using OSM data and when assigning EasyRoads3D road types (with specific side objects activated) to OSM road types.

I will send you a new test build that will fix the empty side object list, this should at least get you going with your current roads...

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Sound great Raoul, thank you!

Is there an API method that gives the value of the "Raise Road Network"? I'm interested in this because I extract some spline point coordinates from the road with GetSplinePointsCenter(), but the coordinates don't have the vertical offset and need them to be right on the road mesh.

 

Hi virgiliu,

I just sent an email with the package update dealing with missing side objects on roads. This is meanwhile also updated for OSM/KML imports.

I also received your email with the grass example scene corresponding to your other post on this page about grass not being removed. In the example scene, this issue due to the fact that "Terrain Deformation" is switched off for that road. Currently indeed removal of grass and tree instances will be skipped as well when "Terrain Deformation" is switched off because this usually involves, for example, bridge type of segments which do not really affect the terrain in general. I could make this optional though if that is useful.

I will add methods to the API to get and set the "Raise Road Network" value.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Sorry if this was already mentioned but when can we expect version 3? Thank you!

 

Hi Hermie,

The situation at the moment is that at least one more beta will be released. From then on the package will also be part as a separate package of the asset store download (unless this is not allowed). Once the new demo project and other additonal resources are ready and meanwhile no critical issues are reported, it will replace the current v2 on the asset store.

I cannot really give an exact date for that, but to avoid misunderstandings, if you have an EasyRoads3D Pro license you do already have access to the betas and also to v3 once publicly released, no need to upgrade. Send me a PM or contact me through our website (see the link in my signature) for access.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Is it possible to have a "forward" offset for side objects? Same side object on left side and right side of the road but one side is offset by a certain amount on the forward (Z) direction, same as you can offset objects on X or Y.
Something like this


The side object is the same, distance between objects is constant on both sides.

Right now I solved this by having 2 separate FBX models, one which is centered and one which has a Z offset, but that means having to edit 2 different models every time something changes

 

Hi Virgiliu,

Do you mean a fixed offset for this in this in the Side Objects Manager?

Currently you have Start/End Offset options for side objects on the selected road. This is a marker setting, the active state of these controls depends on whether the side object starts or ends for that side object on the selected marker.

You will also see handles in Scene View so you can easily fine tune this by dragging these handles. If these handles are not visible not, hit the H key which toggles visibility for these handles on/off.

Thanks,
Raoul.

 

Ah, I hadn't seen the offset fields. Right now they are disabled, even if I have a road selected and the side objects are marked as active. Do I have to do anything to enable the offset inputs so I can change their values?

 

Do you mean the Start / End offsets in the Inspector are disabled or the handles in Scene View are unresponsive?

Previously the scene handles were unresponsive when the Start resp. End offsets were still 0, after applying any other value the handles should become responsive. But that should be resolved in the current beta.

Regarding Start / End offsets being disabled in the Inspector that is a matter of which marker is selected and what the active state of the side object is. For example, the Start Offset control will be disabled if the side object is active on the previous marker and End offsets will be disabled when the side object is active on the next marker.

Please let me know if you are experiencing something else, ideally with further details. Which marker is selected and what is the status for the selected side object on the previous and next marker.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Initially I was trying to set the offset from a marker that was in the middle. Selecting the first road marker allowed me to change the start offset.

Thank you!

 

Yes, if selected side object is also active for the surrounding markers of the selected marker, both the Start and End Offset option do not serve any purpose for that marker and are there for disabled.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Yes, thanks. I was asking because I am looking forward to the API for 3rd party integration (map-ity and terrain composer).

 

Hi hermie,

You can already create roads through the API in the current beta and use that with map-ity. The beta also has built-in support for OSM and KML data import, no need to use the API for that.

How were you looking to use the API together with Terrain Composer? If there is anything specific you like to see implemented, please let me know.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

I'm in the beta for V3.. Just wondering if there is anything new since I got the update 6 months or so ago that could use testing and is worth a new download? If so can I get it by chance please? Thanks.. Terrain Composer is great, not sure how well, this tool and TC work together during run time, I plan to mess around with that soon... Also a new terrain tool is doing well and just came out, Raoul not sure if you know about it Gaia.. Great tool as well ,i'm sure people will want that to work well with your tool as well.. I plan to mess around with Gaia and your tool later this week.

 

Hi Recon03,

I would recommend to update, I just sent resent the beta download link to your email.

In general EasyRoads3D and Terrain Composer should work well together but I belief TC does have features that lock the terrain, this can affect the terrain deformation by EasyRoads3D.

The other day Andreas12345 mentioned in the v2 thread that EasyRoads3D does work well with Gaia, http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/ea...geometry-for-unity.82331/page-16#post-2364059, but I am not familiar with the tool myself yet. Yes, please let me now how this works for you, much appreciated

Thank you,
Raoul

 

Thanks I will let you know.

 

Hi Raoul,

I noticed that the Bumped Diffuse shader that comes with Easy Roads does not receive shadows. Also the texture darkens considerably when using Easy Roads' Bumped Diffuse shader, even with the main color set to white. Is this intentional? Is there any way to use a normal map and still receive shadows on the road?

Another thing I noticed is that even if a normal map is added to Easy Roads' Bumped Diffuse shader it is ignored, the road is rendered flat.

Trying to use a standard shader renders the road black.

 

Hi Virgiliu,

Do you mean the Bumped Diffuse shader or the Transparent Bumped shader?

The Bumped Diffuse shader should receive shadows, the Transparent Bumped shader does not. These shaders are the default Unity 4 shaders with only an Offset applied.

The package in the link below includes amended versions of the Unity 5 Standard and Standard Specular Shaders.

http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/ea...g-new-road-system.229327/page-31#post-2322295

When an object is rendered black in Unity 5 after assigning a normal map texture, it means the mesh does not have tangent info. Please make sure to toggle on "Calculate Tangents" in the build settings.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

I meant the Bumped Diffuse shader.

Here is an example of how it looks, and the build settings I'm using.



Edit:
I found a fix, I changed the material from the road, made it EasyRoads/Diffuse then EasyRoads/Bumped Diffuse, added it to the road, built the road and it looked OK, not black anymore. When going back to edit mode it retained the good look, it didn't go back to a black tint.

 

I am not sure, the rendering in black after assigning a normal map is brought up regularly, so far switching on "Calculate Tangents" always resolved this.

Regarding the fix, I would think that when you created a new material ending looking exactly the same as the original material, the end result must be the same too. Do you still have the previous material, are they indeed similar?

Yes, when you go back to Edit mode the road meshes do not update so tangent info is still available, the road should render well. But it should turn black again after making changes. The next beta will have an option for this in Scene Settings "Calculate Tangents in Edit Mode".

Thanks,
Raoul

 

I may have expressed the process in a weird way. I did not create multiple materials, just a single one.
I created the material, it did not look as expected with EasyRoads/Bumped Diffuse. I removed it from the road, changed it to EasyRoads/Diffuse. On the road I applied a material that came with EasyRoads, then I replaced that one with my custom material. At this point it still looked wrong, but after building the road it was fixed.

For me this is not a problem anymore, but if you want to see the process I could create a video capture of the process.

 

Toggling on "Calculate Tangents" by itself doesn't instantly change the current roads as it is a build setting. So tangent info will be added to the meshes after switching to build mode, the road is no longer rendered black, just like what you wrote.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi,

I have a vast network of roads on my terrain using v2 and would like to update them to v3. Any progress in implementation of upgrading a project from v2 to v3 since v3 beta 6.8.1?

 

Hi pradeepnw,

Is this roads only? The next beta will include a script that will turn v2 roads into v3 roads by using the v3 API. If you want I can already send it to you. Please pass your email in that case (PM, or through our website).

Thank you,
Raoul

 

Raoul,

Thanks for the quick reply. Yeah, it's just the roads. Will get in touch with you by email.

Thanks again,
Pradeep

 

Hi Pradeep,

Script sent! Let me know if you have questions.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi,

I am having difficulty with the basics of editing road markers:

• Is there a reliable way to select the road markers? Most the time when I left-click or left click and drag over them, nothing is selected. I must try to select over and over before it works.
  
• Is it possible to select more than one road marker at a time?
• When I increase the height of a marker, it always puts the next marker in the red, requiring correction. Correcting that one by raising it then puts the next on in the red; and so on. Is there a way to prevent this?

thanks.

 

Hi Locky,

Drag over probably does not have any affect. Left click drag should work just fine. I have to double check if that has been fixed meanwhile, but at least in previous betas occasionally left click didn't work when a crossing prefab is currently selected. Clicking first on an empty place in the scene to deselect the prefab fixes that, it is mentioned in the troubleshooting page in the docs. Other than that, does this happen in a specific situation? Specific Scene View camera modes? Cam angles? Cam distances further away from markers?

Selecting more than one marker has been implemented and will be available in the next beta. Currently this is used to join two roads in a single road, but fore example changing positions etc. for multiple markers at once will also be added.

Do you mean red handles become visible after raising a marker? The nature of the spline function is that when the road goes upwards between two markers, the road will go slightly downwards between adjacent road segments if these markers are on about the same Y position. These red handles are displayed in areas where the road is critically close or below the terrains game object Y position. because it is impossible to assign negative height values to the Unity terrain object, the road may disappear below the terrain so it is recommended to carefully check these areas in Build Mode after flattening the terrain. Displaying these red handles is optional and can be controlled in General Settings > Scene Settings > Display Critical Areas. But it is recommended to keep this active.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi there, I am facing this issue with the easy road v2 (downloaded from asset store). Object is not colliding with the road. I have attached the screenshot, you can see tyres of vehicle goes right through the road.

 

Hi,

I just replied to an email including the exact same question and screenshots

The roads are ordinary unity game objects with a mesh filter and mesh collider attached. When you disable the mesh renderer in the Inspector, the mesh collider outlines will be displayed in green. You can try that to verify whether the mesh collider is generated correctly.

Can you tell me more about your collission system?

Also, can you double check if this is related to the offset on the road shader? Does this problem disappear after assigning for example the Unity standard shader to the road material?

Since you mention this is v2 related (not v3 disccused in this thread), here is the v2 thread:

http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/ea...d-rivers-procedural-geometry-for-unity.82331/

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi Raoul,

Will undo/redo functionality be implemented (http://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/Undo.html)? I sometimes experiment with values (indent, tilt, scene settings, etc) and marker positions and I didn't find any way to go back to previous values. Right now I duplicate the road network when I try different things but it's a very tedious process.


Is there any way to force the minimum indent to a certain value? Sometimes when I import OSM data it's set to 7, sometimes to 4, I would like to force it to 0.5 because for very tight turns on slopes the road and terrain gets messed up.

Would it be possible to send me the scene in this image so I can better understand how the mesh overlay is used?


When I try to insert a new marker between 2 existing markers by pressing P nothing happens, no matter if I have one marker selected, 2 markers selected or no markers selected. Are there any conditions that have to be met when inserting a new marker?

 

Hi virgiliu,

Undo/redo is only partially implemented. At the moment finishing the initial feature set has priority. Afterwards I will see to what extend Unity's Undo class can be used and what the other options are.

The thing is that the whole scene functionality is custom build, the main road network is always selected while other game objects are being updated, etc. There are many processes that affect the road network, I have to see if Unity's Undo class covers all that.

The minimum indent values are based on the terrains heightmapscale (heightmap resolution vs terrain size). These minimum values are required to ensure that the terrain is flattened nicely without the terrain ending up popping through the road or the road floating above the terrain. There is a way to unlock this minimum indent value, I can send some code to you if you want, but it is not recommend to use that unless you want to go into detail and make sure always terrain points are within the safe indent area. You can check that by using for example "Shaded Wireframe" for the scene Shading Mode, this will clearly display the terrain points when zoomed in.

I will check the irregular indent values when importing OSM data. Does that indeed happen in the same scene or at least with terrain objects that have the same heightmapscale?

Regarding the scene in the screenshot, it is done in the development project so I cannot easily send it. I am working on a new demo project which will include examples of everything you can do with v3 including roads like in the screenshot. I will post the steps to achieve what you see in the screenshot in a new post.

Inserting a marker by pressing P? That is not the correct way to insert markers. Did you read that in the manual? Inserting a marker is done by pressing the "I" key (Insert), http://www.unityterraintools.com/EasyRoads3D/v3/html/shortcuts.html

Thanks,
Raoul