World Building EasyRoads3D v3 - the upcoming new road system

I can wait for the fix. thanks a lot

 

The 8.3.1 update can be downloaded now.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Best asset and best support ...

 

Thank you

Better do it now before the 8.3 version is live on the asset store... otherwise it would take another 5-10 days.

Raoul

 

Very impressive asset! I will use it in my next games for sure! Keep up the good work!

 

Hi John3D,

Thank you! Hope you can make good use of it!

Raoul

 

hi raoul, sorry if asked before, is it possible to add multiple road networks, i am trying to add but nothing happens.
another question is that the connection objects does not seem to paint the terrain, is that possible?

 

Hi Tasadar,

At the moment indeed only one road network can exist in a scene. Is there a specific reason you want more road network objects? You can finalize a road network when it is ready and start a new one in the same scene.

Connection objects indeed do not paint the terrain because they can have any arbitrary shape. It is on the list to further improve. Usually, for standard crossings the attached roads already cover that for the major part.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

This asset looks great. You advertise about a bonus dedicated river tool. Do you have a video demonstrating how this works? Also, is it possible to create dirt paths\roads (I'd like to create dirt paths in a medieval game - paths that go through the woods and between towns.)

 

well i'm just exploring, having multiple roadnetworks may enable us to work on different roads without updating the whole roads in the scene which may result better terrain build times...

another thing i need to mention is that i am trying to explore the road network from code to build necessary information for an ai system. it seems that the scripting api is very limited for the time being. ERRoad object has a method to return connection objects(GetConnectionAtStart/GetConnectionAtEnd) which returns a GameObject. How can i actually get the ERConnection object from this? i may get all the ERConnection objects from the road network and compare with the returned gameobject but it wouldnt be optimal at all.

thank you.

 

Thanks Raoul,
I haven't install 5.5 yet as I wanted to first check that EasyRoads3D worked with 5.5 so my projects wouldn't suddenly all break. I'll install it now and report back if I have any problems.

cheers,
Richard.

 

Another question: It took me a while to realise that the tracks of the Rail Track "road" where actually the "road" mesh (correct?). What I was trying to do was create a monorail "road" (it's for an overhead tram network). Thus the same as the Rail Track road but with only one (roughly) circular rail. I tried using procedural mesh side objects (such as then Powerline Side ) but as far as I can tell the procedural mesh can't be made to follow the road spline - or am I missing something?

thanks,
Richard.

 

Hi StevenPicard,

Thank you!

The advertised Bonus river tool is v2 related. It is recommended to already start using the v3 betas which is not far from being released. In v3 the v2 river object can be simulated using side objects or custom connection prefabs.

On the previous page a similar question was asked that I think covers some of the questions you may have.

The provisional v3 demo project includes an example.

In v3 you can create your own road types, road widths, road materials, etc. So, yes, you can create dirt path roads. The provisional beta package includes an example. The final v3.0 will have more examples.

Let me know if you have further questions.

Raoul

 

Hi tasadar,

In the Build Settings you can choose to Build the selected roads only.

Previously it was possible to have multiple Road Network objects in a scene by duplicating. It resulted in confusion, you can see some posts related to this somewhere in the first 1 / 20 pages, people getting confused about weird behaviour and roads not connecting etc. it turned out they were trying to connect a road from network A with a connection prefab in network B. It is on the schedule but needs some logic to avoid this confusion.

It doesn't cover the full scene view and Inspector functionality yet, could you be more specific what you need so I can take that into account. V3.0 release has priority, meanwhile the API is build upon requests. All the main road creation tasks should be functional though.

I think you can currently do:

ERRoadNetwork.GetConnectionByName(gameObject.name)

where gameObject is the returned gameObject.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi Richard,

You can use side objects to achieve that, side objects will exactly follow the spline optionally on a specific X Y Offset (X Y Position), what exactly do you mean with "the procedural mesh can't be made to follow the road spline".

But it is recommended to use a custom connection prefab for this so you can actually snap the mono rail to connection pieces and quickly pull out new monorails from connections, just like the train rail example in the beta package.

Yes, you can upgrade to Unity 5.5. BUT as, always, please back up your project first, not even specifically ER related, it is generally good practise.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Raoul,

I'm creating game with skateboarder. And I have a problem with roads. My skateboarder is shaking when it's driving :< (it's reacting on any irregularity of road). I tried changing resolution and angle threshold. It's working properly just with resolution 0,01 but it's killing fps sometimes. It's working almost good with: resolution 5 and angle threshold 1 but it has shaking on some road corners. here is image:


As you can see on yellow line it's not flat :<


Do you have any idea how to improve this road?

 

Hi Mizaru,

Bends in the geometry and big height differences like in your screenshot does in general result in this effect alhough there is some irregularity, is this due to using a very low small angle threshold?

In any case, subdividion will improve this, that will result in more triangles as well but you won't need an Angle Threshold of 1.

Subdivision is not yet fully integrated because the dynamic crossing system cannot yet handle that. This is one of the first road geometry related things to add after the final 3.0 release.

Are you using crossings? Are you already familiar with the custom prefab system. You can use that to create a road type with subdivision. If you do not need crossings then you can fairly quickly achieve this by creating a new prefab from a plane primitive, scale it so the number of subdivisions you want matches your road width and create a new connection by selecting this area. You can now assign a road type to this which you can use for your road.

The below movie shows the process of turning a prefab in a connection prefab:

Let me know if you need further help with this. If you want I can prepare some examples, please pass your road width in that case.

Thanks,
Raoul

[Edit] In fact, adding a subdivision option to roads takes as much time as preparing custom prefab examples. Please send me a PM with your email if you like to test that.

 

I don't use crossings and didn't do any custom prefabs because I think I do sth wrong (it doesn't work). I send you my email on conversation

 

Thank you, I received your message. I will send a test package later today so you can compare the results.

Raoul

 

Hey Raoul,

No problems. I just felt it was time to thank you for this amazing product, your great personal service over the years (to me and all your customers), and for the constant development that keeps making Easy Roads better and better.

 

Hi Vontargo,

Thank you so much, that is very kind You mean no issues using the latest version? Not everything is done yet but it should be stable for production.

I have to thank all of you for being so patient, it has been a lengthy process but v3.0 is nearly there. Just taking time now to feature everything that can be done with it in the new demo project and taking care of final optimizations to some processes, the workflow, the overall user experience. And still lots to come in v3.x...

Thanks again,
Raoul

 

Thanks Raoul, I am making slow, but steady progress, however I have now been getting the console error message shown in the image below. I was getting it with my custom prefab, to check if it was a problem with my prefab I created a new project and using your rail crossing and I get the same message. Notice the Inspector GUI is not displaying the information associated with the selected road marker. Each time I click the marker the console generates the error message.

thanks,
Richard.

Unity 5.5f3, ER v3b8.3.1

 

Mmmm... OK seemed to have fixed it. It looks like it is a Unity error as resetting the windows Layout to the Factory Setting fixed it.

Richard.

 

Hi Richard,

I just tested the train rail crossing prefab in your scene. I can pull out new rail tracks and roads without issues on all 4 connections. Selecting markers afterwards also works as expected.

Please let me know when this happens again with the full error message, right now I can only see it is a repetetive error related to the EasyRoads3DV3Editor script.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi Raoul, hows things.

OK I am working with your latest V3 Beta on unity 5.4.1f1

I cant seem to get the terrain to deform to roads.

As a test I created a new project and just put in my terrains + ER3 - no deforms.
I removed my terrain and added a blank unity terrain -same results.

I removed ER3 and replaced with ER2 - ER2 deforms my terrain.

Could you check if there is a problem with latest ER3 release please.
If not not perhaps I can send you project so you can test.

Gus

 

Hi Gus,

I am very well, thank you! And you?

What was your previous version?

A while ago "Terrain Deformation" was added to both the Road Inspector options as in General Settings > Road Types. This was added because in some situations you do not want the terrain to deform according the road shape, like for the highway overpass examples in the current main demo scene.

Did you check that or is this related to something else?

Raoul

 

Hi Raoul, also getting similar problem to @Mizaru.

Roads seem to have a wave going thru them, this wave is not on the terrain just on the roads.

Gus

 

Yep I saw that thanks, but it has no effect, no deform either on or off.

Roads are also coming up wavy, I have tried changing the smooth settings but this just make it worse.

Removing the follow contours option straightens this up after you move a couple of points but ER was not working like this before.

Also seems very slow at times.


I just did a simple straight road.

G.

 

There are no know issues with Terrain Deformation. Does this happen for every road in every scene? Could you send a simple example scene so I can see the issue myself? Or are you using a terrain tool that might be locking the heightmap? Some of the terrain tools have this option which usually can be switched off.

First Image:

This seems a different situation then the screenshot Mizaru posted. So the wavy road shape is related to the “Follow Terrain Contours” option? This was optimized in beta 8.1. Can you see a pattern? Can this wavy shape be recreated with specific marker positions / marker controller types? Is it related to the new Smoothness option? Are the Min Max values 0 for Bumpiness Y offset and Random Tilting Angle?

Second Image:

This seems completely related to the results of the new smoothness options using reasonable high Min Max values for Bumpiness Y offset and Tilting Angle and relatively small Min Max values for the distance. Is that right? Those settings do not really match the specific road type but it could be useful for bumpy dirt tracks. The previous page shows images how this can be used for a more realistic effect on asphalt roads.

Which process is slow and at which times?

Thanks,
Raoul

 

What would be the settings for straight road - no wave/bump?

 

This uses Min Max values, per segment a random value will be selected between these two values.

The Min value for Random Tilting Angle is -1 in the second image. 0 Min and 0 Max for both "Bumpiness Y Offset" and "Random Tilting Angle" will create the road according the original spline data. The corresponding distance Min Max values will be ignored in that case.

It is possible to tweak these settings per marker. When you change these values for the road in general, only those markers will be update that match the previous value. The "Reset All Markers" button will update the settings on all markers.

You can preset this for road types in General Settings > Road Types.

Are the intial issues related to this?

Below is the example image I mentioned in my previous post

1. Perfect spline, 2. slight randomness, 3. larger Y offsets on a specific marker segment



Thanks,
Raoul

 

Great all sorted, the terrain deform was due to the surroundings being set to 1 so was not visible.
Thanks for your help.
G

 

Glad to hear that!

So that very first image was also related to the new smoothness option? I wonder which values caused that. I will keep an eye on this.

Thanks for letting me know all this is resolved

Raoul

 

Hi @raoul - any chance you could come up with a list of recommended high quality road textures that are already available, or maybe even commission some new ones as one or more official add-on content packs to EasyRoads? I realize that may not be worth it, but it'd be cool to have some truly high quality road textures. Like ideally there'd be dry asphalt, wet asphalt, dirt road, icy road, for highways and side roads, etc.

I've grabbed pretty much all of the road textures from GameTextures.com when I had a subscription, but a lot of them aren't really suitable for, say, a racing game. Though the nice thing about GameTextures.com is that they generally include PBR textures and nice normal maps, etc, and sometimes even Substance files.

I'm thinking of this sort of thing:
http://s20.postimg.org/lnm82gpdp/need_for_speed_hot_pursuit_pc_035.jpg

Or GTA V, Forza 6, etc.

 

Hi Steve,

Yes, you can search on texture sites like gametextures.com, there are more, like textures.com (previously cgtextures.com). But I think we cannot really include these textures in the package and I rather prefer to use unique textures. If people want to use these textures they can always download themselves.

This is one of the final things I am currently working on. Replace the provisional beta package side objects / textures for more and better quality assets like the examples above. This is for the new demo project so you can use them in your own projects as well. And more will follow after that, I have tons of photo material but all that is quite time consuming by itself to prepare.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

@raoul makes sense, just a random thought I had. Great news about including some higher quality assets.

 

Great idea. I would be interested in that also

 

Hi longroadhwy,

It is being worked on

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi raoul,
since I will upgrade to 8.3 a little later this year (around dec 20th) I have a question regarding 7.7.2:
Is there a known issue with start and end objects of procedural meshes where start and end meshes get destroyed when moving a road marker?
I have a procedural bridge sideobject consisting of a mid segment and two cap segments (one for each end of the bridge).
The mid segment is the procedural mesh that has the start and end segment markers at both top and bottom - but they don's spread their influence into the mesh. Whereas the start and end segments are separate prefabs that are not part of the mid mesh.
Now it happens every so often that end or start or both cap segments do not properly align with the flow of the road - they turn away a little resulting in poking through the road geometry. This can be fixed occasionally by giving the bridge a little more space - thus moving one or both markers around.
But in 99% of the cases the actual (original) meshes of the cap segments get destroyed in the process of "wiggling" the marker into place. The mesh asset Unity creates from the fbx files shows literally 0 vertices after that.
For the mid section bridge to correctly follow the road I spied on your medieval bridge settings. Yours works flawlessly.

 

Hi Marco,

So, no problems with the mid section which is entirely based on the procedurlal side object by defining Start / End segments in the Editor window. Or do you mean that the medieval bridge example in the package works flawlessly?

And the problem is related to the additional separate Start / End objects assigned in the main Side Object Manager window?

The only known thing that may occasionally happen is that somehow the source mesh is not available anymore. A reimport for that asset in the assets folder fixes that. Is this what is happening?

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Correct, the medieval works flawlessly, mine does not. My bad for inaccurate wording.

Yep, the start and end objects assigned in the main side object manager are the meshes that disappear. Almost every time I move the road marker that define either start or end of the bridge segment.

As a result my bridge mid section still stands correctly while the caps are gone.
They show up in Unity as having 0 verts, 0 tris when that happens. Deleting them from the project and reimporting them through SVN makes them reappear.

But this doesn't help due to the frequency this issue happens because I need to fix alot of bridge markers (many of them don't align the start and end objects correctly in the first place).

 

So this is indeed related to the Start / End / Connection objects assigned in the Side Object Manager itself and a reimport fixes it?

This is just to verify because you mention the Medieval Bridge as a fully working example. I am quite certain that the medieval bridge does not use these Start / Connection / End object options.

In that case, I am not sure what is causing this and if this is actually entirely related to EasyRoads3D. Also because I have seen it happen only occasionally. This is handled exactly the same as the mesh type of side objects, the created objects in the scene are simply instances of the prefab in the assets folder, there are no changes involved to the mesh asset itself.

So far I have left this as a "to do" because it didn't seem urgent. But this same situation was also brought up on the previous page. If this is causing serious issues I can check this with more priority. Are you able to reproduce this?

And are you able to reproduce this alignment issue? Can you show screenshots? If you want you can send them by email. Is it perhaps related to the Terrain Alignment settings taking the terrain into account? This can result in problems when that object is exactly on a terrain edge. Ths can be controlled though the side object Start / End offsets relatively to the marker position

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Correct.

Correct. This bridge of yours was my guide for the overall parameters to be used when creating bridges. Like for example Terrain Aligment: Path Normal or Bridge Object: True.
I did not mean to confuse you with the start and end prefabs on this one. They are indeed not used on the medieval bridge. Yet they are on mine.

I can reproduce the aligment issue in quite many places though I do not know what causes it. It either happens or doesn't.
If it does it brings me back to the initial issue: solving the issue results in "null meshes".

 

I tested this with a stretched box primitive as the start / end object. Moved the start marker many times, that all went well. Then I did the same on the end marker, indeed at some specific positions the rotation is wrong. That will be fixed.

In your first post you mentioned that for you this happens on both the Start and End Marker. Is that indeed the case? I have been clicking for 5 minutes, tested all sorts of road shapes but I couldn’t recreate this for the start marker.

I will go through the full process once again regarding the mesh issue.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

You are spot on, this only happens on end meshes. I must have confused the direction one or two times. But the mesh nulling happens on both.

 

Thank you!

I think the mesh nulling is resolved. I can send an update if you need it urgently although we are currently experimenting with new Inspector layouts...

I will look into the rotation issue this weekend.

Raoul

 

Your support is outstanding, Raoul.
We are currently preparing a milestone and already had a feature freeze. So the update to 8.3 will be rolled out after the milestone. This means we can wait for your fix. No need to mess up your weekend. Unless you want to

 

The rotation issue for End prefabs on procedural side objects at specific marker positions has been resolved as well and available in the next beta. If anyone else is struggling with this and need the fix urgently drop me a PM or email.

Please keep reporting any issues you may run into

Thanks,
Raoul

 

I find weird that my FREE version of EasyRoads3D says it has ER3D v3 beta package in both _Readme.txt and "Version and Purchase Info" tab. It really has one package, but it's the same version, but with few updated files.

 

Hi ArtyomlsFlash,

The free version was recently updated with a fix for raycast issues on Mac Restina display in recent Unity versions. I see indeed 2 Readme files in the package contents. Somehow the v2 Pro readme got copied over to the free version.

The v3 beta is not part of the free version. I will remove the additional Readme file. Thank you for letting me know.

Raoul