World Building EasyRoads3D v3 - the upcoming new road system

Does anyone know how to set the Indent and Surrounding parameters for the entire road, instead of just a single point?

Ben

 

Hi Ben,

The S key (S*** + S in next updates) will select all markers. Changing the Indent/Surrounding values will affect all selected markers. Alternatively Shift + select marker can be used to select multiple markers and change the values on this selection.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hello Raoul.
I tried the first option with no success. Please see image attached - Short story, the "road type" dropdown had "none" as only option
I tried the second option. place the connection prefab instance, same problem occurred as before

 

Hi Raoul,

So there's no way to select all markers at once?

Ben

 

Yes, the S key, does that. Select the road by selecting one marker in the scene, then press the S key.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Thanks, Raoul,

I'm sorry, I'm phrasing my question poorly. When I create a road network, every time I add an intersection (T's up until now), ER3D adds a new road object. Therefore, selecting a marker and pressing S only selects that road object. What I'm looking for is how to select the entire road network. Is this possible?

Ben

 

Ah sorry,

That is not possible at the moment. What exactly do you want to use this for?

The global default Indent / Surrounding values for new roads and intersections can be set in General Settings > Scene Settings.

Adding a refresh option for existing scene instances is on the list. This can be added for the next update if you are looking for that.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi ecquack,

I just sent a PM asking to send us the specific prefab in the project folder with further details, so we can look at it. Could you please send it to the provided email.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Thanks, Raoul,

I'm in a situation where I *don't* want the roads to deform the terrain. As you can imagine, if a road gets too close to a hill, part of it can disappear and often all that is needed is to raise the road by 0.1. I'm hoping that reducing the area of interaction between the roads and hills will help.

It seems that the minimum value for Indent/Surrounding is 2. I'm guessing there's no override for this. Thanks for your help.

Ben

 

Roads and mountain areas, cliffs etc. are tricky. Surrounding values can be any value but the Indent values are limited to a value based on the terrains heightmapscale (size vs heightmapscale). This is to make sure that there are enough terrain points available to flatten the terrain according the road shape in the best possible way.

There is a way to override this, but it is not recommended. Unless this is used in a careful way, the road will end up floating above the terrain or the terrain will break through the road.

The demo includes a mountain road example showing other ways to deal with this, retaining walls and terrain mesh overlays with adjusted deformation settings.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Thank you so much!

Ben

 

Hello, how do I get my serial number for website download after a purchase on asset store?

 

Hello SilverSho0t,

http://unityterraintools.com/download.php

Just below the Website Downloads header there is a register option. Your serial number will be generated instantly.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi,

Thinking about buying EasyRoads, but havea few questions.

How is the 2018.1+ support? Looks like the last compiles version is for 5.6.

Also, looking at the scripting documentation. It looks like it would be possible to build roads in small segments Is this possible or do I have to complete the whole road before actually "spawning" it into the terrain.

Hope you understand what I mean. What I'm after is basically to be able to place shorter segments one at a time and connecting them.

 

I am currently working on better integration of the Road & Traffic AI, https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/systems/road-traffic-system-21626, (which the code will be shared) but when I added the TrafficNode (their component) as a new Side Object the my existing roads they do not show up until I adjust the road's position. This seems true for all Side Objects that are added after the road has been place... or I could be wrong. So... how do I cause a refresh of the road without changing the road's position and changing it back?

Thanks

 

Hi Gildar76,

V3 is indeed still backwards compatible with Unity 5, that is why Unity 5.6 is still used to upload to the asset store. During the import you be will be asked to have Unity auto upgrade the package. The code itself is tested in 2017 and does also work well in 2018. With Unity 2018 available now we will probably move forward as well. Unless people still are using Unity 5.

In the editor roads are created by adding markers as control points, insert markers, move markers, etc. The shape can change at any time. This is done with the Road Network in Edit Mode, the terrain will be adjusted in Build mode. You can switch back and forth between Edit Mode and Build Mode. The terrain can also be adjusted for a single road only for quick testing during development.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi James,

A full road refresh can be done in General Settings > Scene Settings > "Refresh Road Network" button .

But, after activating a side object on a road it should be build automatically as long "Default active state for each marker" is checked in the Side Object Manager. Activating side objects for a road type and updating scene instances also works fine, I just double checked that.

For individual side objects active on a road there is also a Refresh button in the foldout options for the specific side object.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi raoul

We had the problem with the "EasyRoads3D Alert: [ref: SO01] Missing Side Object info" and saw in the manual that the problem is the Asset Serialization setting.

In the manual you state that the default setting for Assets Serialization is "Mixed", but when I set up a new project (2018.1) the default setting is "Force Text", so it seems that every new import of the asset (for every new customer) will have this error.
On our side we'd rather keep using Force Text because it works better with our versioning system. I saw that there is a workaround (which we will use) but it doesn't seem to be an optimal solution.

Are you thinking about updating this or will we keep to have to use the workaround?


btw. there are also two errors because the Substance contained (I think) in the demo asset do not work in 2018 (Substance integration not yet here afaik), maybe you should replace those until the Substance devs fix this on their side.

Other than that it seems to be a nice tool, especially with the Open Street Maps integration!


Frédéric

 

Hi Frédéric,

This serialization issue has actually not been looked into for 2018. I will double check the possible situations. So far no issues have been reported though.

Is this the only warning or do you see other glitches? One of the side affects of using Text Mode for asset serialization is for example unreadable road type names. Is that the case in your scene?

Whene exactly was this warning raised? After an upgrade? You could try General Settings > Scene Settings > "Refresh Road Network".

Yes, procedural materials cause issues in 2018 and result in warnings in the current publi version. This is fixed in the v3.1 beta package. I am not sure it is fixed in the v3.1 b2 package available in the EasyRoads3D root directory. It is certainly fixed in b4 available on our website.

The OSM integration is also optimized in b4. Large maps extract a lot faster now.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Yeah I got a lot of errors when not using the workaround. The road names were readable, but sometimes when I selected a node I got 999+ errors, and all were of that type. Now that I used the workaround I haven't yet seen these errors.

The warning was raised after trying it out in a project with not much in it, created fresh in 2018.1 - no upgrade.

Thanks for the tip about b4, I'll check it out!

 

Raoul,

I checked and "Default active state for each marker" is selected for the Side Objects. I also pressed the "Refresh Road Network" multiple times, closed and reopened Unity, rebooted the machine.... but still no luck with the refresh.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

 

Hi James,

How did you activate the side object for the existing roads? Manually for each selected road or by activating this side object for the involved road type in General settings > Road Types?

If this was done manually, just as a test, can you deactivate the side object on a couple of markers and afterwards reactivate them. Does that behave normal?

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hello gang,

I really like the roads and abilities for Easy Roads, but there is a need for traffic AI. So I purchased the "Road & Traffic System: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/systems/road-traffic-system-21626

R&T has its own streets, however they are the straight lines and don't have the curves and other great abilities that are so great in ER3D.

So I have made a little code to connect these two assets as easily as possible. You make a Traffic Node prefab, then create right and left Side Objects and then press one button to add additional lanes, connect the traffic nodes to each other.

Available here: https://github.com/Blissgig/Easy-Roads-3D-with-Road-and-Traffic-AI

Hope this is helpful and let me know if you have any issues or ideas to add. For example intersections and connecting the roads is not working atm. I have to give that some thought.

 

I activated it by the "Road Types" method, under the "Active Side Objects". I just unselected the two side objects, pressed "Update Scene Instances", but the side objects, currently on two road segments, stayed on those roads. Reselecting the Side Objects and pressing the button again, but only those two segments are the only ones with the Side Objects.

I do not know how to set side objects for only specific SEGMENT of a Road Type, I just looked around for this ability but I am missing how to do so.

 

The "Update Scene Instances" option in Road types currently only activates newly activated side objects for the road type. It does not remove deactivated side objects. This needs to be worked out further. Imagine you have several roads in the scene and carefully set side objects, only active on specific markers with start / end offsets etc. Then you decide to deactivate this side object for that road type because it is no longer needed for other roads of that type. Later you make another change to the road type and you press "Update Scene Instances", this would then remove that specific side object from the roads where you still need them because the side object is no longer active for that road type.

How exactly would you like to be able to control this for a specific segment of a road type from within General Settings > Road Types?

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Having the Update only affect the new additions is understandable, and a great idea. However I FEEL that there needs to be the option to Update All vs Update New or Update Selected. Especially since the button says "Update Scene Instances" implying that it updates everything.

So, is there currently a way for me to add / update all roads of a given Road Type? For example I have updated the process of Traffic AI nodes (see my post above) by using Side Objects as a base (SO RULE!! Thank you for those!) However, I need to update all the roads. Same with some trees that are side objects, I need to add more trees to the prefab-group and then update all the roads.

 

Yes, something like that or show a dialog box when side objects are active on a road instance but not for the specific road type and asking to confirm whether it shoudl be removed.

Is this actually side object data changes related? I don't know the exact setup for the trees side object, but if you use the "Prefab Childs" option for spawning for example random instances, then you can for example reassign the source prefab and press the same option for side objects at the bottom in the Side Object Manager "Update Scene Instances".

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi MoreGalaxies,

Which link is that?

http://unityterraintools.com/EasyRoads3D/v3/html/general_settings.html#importData

Please let me know if you have more questions related to this.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

I tested fresh Pro and the Demo package imports in Unity 2018.1.0f2. Indeed Force Text is now the default for asset serialization. But all appears to be fine, none of the Unity 2017 issues related to this occur.

Did you get this to work? Did you try the road network refresh?

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Sorry, I guess I was tired when I asked my questions. I basically forgot part of my second questions.
What I was wondering is, is it possible to build roads at runtime through the scripting API? Especially in smaller segments. Would it, for example be possible to place road segments at runtime?

 

Hi Gildar76,

Yes, that can be done.The Pro package itself includes a simple runtime scene example. A road is created and afterwards and object follows the road.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi, this would work with UBER Shaders on it?

My current road generator doesn't so i'm trying to find one that works with the wetness and snow feature from UBER.

 

Hi Weendie-Games,

I think the question here is, what mesh data do the Uber shaders require? Do you need subdivision on the roads if this is indeed vertex colors related? This is possible but the built-in crossings system does not yet support this, v3.2 will. Meanwhile the custom prefabs system, crossings based on mesh models, can be used. The attached roads will inherit the same shape as the shape of the crossing connection.

[edit] Uber seems to use the green channel for snow. Vertex colors in general is supported.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi Raoul,

I have removed Vegetation Studio from my project but Easy Roads still has a boolean somewhere set to true (i.e. that it's still in the project) so in ERVegetationStudio.cs it complains that the namespace ERVSData is not found. Can you tell me how to tell ER that VS is no longer present? Thanks.

Ben

 

Hi Ben,

ERVSData is a class in Easy Roads. Which version of Easy Roads are you using at the moment?

In any case, it sounds like ERVegetationStudio.cs, which is part of the current v3.1 betas, is not required anymore. It can be removed.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi Raoul,

I'm using v3.02. The asset store says that 3.1 beta 2 is included, but I'm not using it (I think)

Ben

 

Hi, how i can move the Easy Roads to another folder inside my project? I like to put all third party assets under a folde, how i can do that?

Seems like if do that the "side object manager" breaks

 

No Vegetation Studio scripts are part of the main v3.02 import. Did you perhaps reimport the asset store Pro version after looking at the v3.1 beta?

In any case v3.02 and ERVegetationStudio.cs is what is causing the error. Could you please remove

/Assets/EasyRoads3D/scripts/ERVegetationStudio.cs

That will solve the problem.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi DenisFernandes,

How does it break the Side Objects Manager for you?

I just double checked this in Unity 2018.1.0f2 in a project with the demo package by creating a new 3rd Party folder and dropping all Easy Roads folders in this new folder. The road network is functional and I cannot see any issues in the Side Object Manager.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

That fixed it! Thanks!

As an aside, do you know if there is a cheat sheet that lists all of ER's keyboard commands?

Ben

 

Hi,Just purchased ER 3 pro but only see default road in road choices.When I import the Demo version I see a lot of choices.Is this the correct way to get all assets into the project or is there another way.Thanx!

 

@stvster Did you download the demo project? It has the assets you're looking for.

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/terrain/easyroads3d-demo-project-105045

 

Yes, Thanx for reply.Alls well! Thanx again.

 

Hi stvster,

Many users create their road types, side objects and also their own crossing meshes. That is why the Pro version itself only includes one basic road type and two crossings. It will keep your project clean and importing asset store version updates will be fast.

Like Ben_Iyan mentioned, all additional assets are part of the demo package which is also a resource to get familiar with the tool. It is recommended to import it in a new project. Assets you like to use can be exported and imported http://unityterraintools.com/tutorials/so_import_export.php. Or, if you actually like to use all assets, you could then also import the demo package in your own projects.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hello, is it possible to add multiple textures to one road, so i can simulate different surfaces, potholes and similar?

 

Hello Nemanja_Ristic,

The roads are ordinary unity gameobjects with a mesh renderer / material assigned.

What exactly do you want to do?

Roads can be cut in sections by inserting an I Connector. This option is available further below in the marker section in the Inspector after selecting a marker. This will result in separate road objects and each road object can have its own material / texture.

Or shaders can be used that support multiple textures. The demo package includes examples of more complex shaders with different textures, for example the mountain road.

Potholes can also be added as decals through side objects.

This upcoming package uses all this too. https://forum.unity.com/threads/eas...g-new-road-system.229327/page-96#post-3469426

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi Raoul,

Sorry for asking this twice; the first time was an edit to an earlier post, so it probably got missed.

Is there is a cheat sheet that lists all of ER's keyboard commands?

Ben

 

Hi Ben,

Yes, here it is:

http://unityterraintools.com/EasyRoads3D/v3/html/shortcuts.html

The online docs can be accessed quickly through the most right tab: Table of Contents > Hotkeys & Scene Operations

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Thanks, Raoul, that's exactly what I was looking for (my memory is crap).

What do you mean by "most right tab"?

Ben

 

I meant the most right tab of the toolbar in the Inspector, the tab with the I (Info) icon. The "Help" button links to the online manual.

Thanks,
Raoul