Path Painter - Paths, Ramps, Roads & River Beds for Unity Terrain

Finally got a chance to upload the video.

Have you ever created such a long trail that was instantly travelable by players/NPCs?
Let me know in the comments.

 

Version v2.1.0b4 has been in the queue for some time and should be out any moment.
(Only realised now that it should no longer be beta, but will make the next version non-beta)

Enhancements:

• Removed the need to reference .Net libraries.

Fixes:

• [Fix] Removed dev leftover hard coded min resolution that could brake things on very low res terrains.
• [Fix] Path Painter sometimes didn't detect right away if some terrain parameters changed between two brush strokes.
• [Fix] Over optimisation could cause spotty painting in some circumstances.
• [Fix] Terrain Trees are detected as terrain in runtime by Unity. Now Path Painter accounts for that.

 

Is there spline based road creation available?

 

You can use splines with the API. Example included in demo. No built-in spline system though.

 

+1 from me for more documentation, examples and support for scripting.

 

Do you have anything in particular on mind?
Three API usage examples were added to the demo a few days after that post. They intended to give you a very good idea how you can use the API for scripting in different ways.

 

I would like the user to be able to draw paths at runtime in VR to sculpt terrains.

 

Check out the examples in the demo. They pretty much show how to draw paths in runtime (both hand paint and with splines or straight between waypoints).

 

Hey guys,

Please be advised that I'll be on annual leave for 3 weeks with no or very limited access to email and internet.
If you bump into any trouble while I'm away, check out the Knowledge base and/or you can search for answers and ask others on Discord.
I hope you'll have fun and won't get stuck with anything. We will chat when I'm back.
All the best!

 

I had a look at the API examples, specifically PPAPIExampleSpline.cs and PPAPIExamplePainter2.cs. While I understand roughly what they're trying to do, there is quite a lot in there, including some painting mode switches, undo/redo functionality which IMO add too much complexity when starting with the API. For instance, it isn't obvious to me how to associate a terrain with a painter so that it can paint on it.

It'd be great to have a very simple standalone (amply commented) example which shows how to do very basic painting with a single terrain that (initially) just has one layer via script, i.e. the HelloWorld equivalent for your API.

 

Does anybody know how to specify which terrain to paint on in a script? There's no property or method in the Painter object for that so I don't know how it knows where to paint. Adding a script which creates a Painter directly to a Terrain object doesn't work either.

 

You are right. The API examples ended up to be scripts that users can just plug into their real life projects after small customisations. The documentation goes through how to do very basic painting step by step, but I'll look into adding a very basic example as well. Thanks for the feedback.

A HelloWorld example would look something like this:

Code (CSharp):

1. using System.Collections.Generic;
2. using UnityEngine;
3. using Haven.API.PathPainter2;
4.  
5. public class PPAPIExample : MonoBehaviour
6. {
7.     private Painter m_painter;
8.  
9.     /// <summary>
10.     /// Start is called before the first frame update
11.     /// </summary>
12.     private void Start()
13.     {
14.         m_painter = new Painter();
15.     }
16.  
17.     /// <summary>
18.     /// This will paint with the default settings, since
19.     /// the settings are not changed anywhere.
20.     /// </summary>
21.     public void Paint(List<Vector3> points)
22.     {
23.         m_painter.Paint(points);
24.     }
25. }

You don't need to. Path Painter paints on the terrain/terrains where you point to.

 

What do you mean "where you point to"? How do I "point to" a specific terrain in a script?

 

I used the wrong word. "where you paint".
You provide the location where you want to paint. If there's a terrain below or above the paint location you will paint on it.

A scenario where you want to target terrains before painting is Bulk Painting. I recommend checking out the documentation where you will find explanation about terrain targeting (page 65) and you can find other info as well, like the HelloWorld example:

Essentially it's just telling Path Painter "Paint there". It feels like you expect the system to be difficult/complex to use, but it's the mechanism that you build around it that may need some work as shown in the examples. The usage itself should be very simple.

 

Patch v2.1.1 released with fixes:

• [Fix] Fixed bug related to brush visualisation that in some circumstances threw null ref errors, but had no known effect on functionality.
• [Fix] Fixed bug in tree clearing that in some circumstances threw null ref errors when vegetation clearing was off, but had no known effect on functionality.
• [Fix] Fixed alphamap bounds bug that appeared in some circumstances when texturing was off, but had no known effect on functionality.
• [Fix] Fixed bug that in some cases threw null ref errors when turning on texturing on a non-texture painted path.
• [Fix] Shaping artefacts were appearing if some fairly specific conditions were met due to a conservative limit value. PP "thought" it didn't need to do some calculations for those areas and this produced artefacts.

 

v2.1.2 release landed recently

Enhancements:

• Completely reworked one of the painting mechanisms. The new solution could be more optimal for most scenarios and may only become disadvantageous in extreme circumstances+usage. The old mechanism could also possibly trigger some odd GC behaviour causing a build up of graphics memory usage by Unity as reported by two users. Could not yet conclude what part the old mechanism may have been playing in this but initial studies suggest that the new mechanism largely avoids the buildup. Also the pooling of the old mechanism could have caused some delays of paint readiness on some tiles in environments with hundreds of terrain tiles.
• Unity 2018.3 & 2018.4 still supports deprecated .NET 3.5 Equivalent runtime scripting. Support for this was dropped earlier but Path Painter II now supports it once again in those Unity versions.
• Path Painter will now use a lean, build optimised structure. This means that by default no part of Path Painter will be included in your builds.
• Resources are now in the Editor folder as part of the lean, build optimised structure.
• Removed the Runtime Demos from the package as part of the lean, build optimised structure. These are now downloadable separately. Use the option in the menu.
• [New] Build settings available in the menu. Use it to include/exclude Path Painter from your builds. You will want to include only if you use the API in runtime.
• Now you have options to go directly to the Documentation from the main Help, the more tab and from the menu.

Fixes:

• [Fix] Terrain square check had a bug for 4 years.
• [Fix] Painting with Texturing off painted textures in some circumstances if textures were otherwise selected.
• [Fix] Fixed a GUI styling bug that may have caused minor problems that were not detected by users.
• [Fix] Path Painter now expects that detail resolution can be zero.

So Path Painter returned to its roots and completely stays out of your builds unless you explicitly include it. You can do that in Build Settings:






Due to this the Runtime API Demo and examples would freak out and throw errors looking for Path Painter in the runtime environment. The demos and examples have been removed from the package for this reason. You can download them using the menu:



DO make sure to include Path Painter in build (as described above) before importing them to avoid the above mentioned errors.

Another thing I planned for a long time is you can now have Unity point you to the Documentation from

• the menu
• the main help, and
• the more tab

This way the documentation still stays out of your builds but you have easy access.

 

Someone recently reported an issue where their Android builds fail with

"Found plugins with same names"

errors. At the moment it's unclear if this is an intended behaviour of Unity, so I got in contact with them to clarify and move this towards resolution. Details of the issue as described in my communication:

...

I'm not sure if this was just not reported for a long time, or just not many people bumped into it due to either not building for Android or this happening only on some Unity versions, but if you have this problem as well, please let me know here, or via the support system, or in the discord channel just opened for known issues. The information may help us get closer to a good solution.

Thanks!

 

Unity bug confirmed and Unity says they know about it since it affects many other things.
They pointed me to an issue where they are tracking this.

All users (and others) are potentially affected (if building for Android).
Could you please vote for the issue here: https://issuetracker.unity3d.com/product/unity/issues/guid/1373388
Many thanks

 

Ignore "Microsoft Extensions Logging package" in that issue.

Not sure why Unity QA doesn't update the description of the issue, or just close that in favour of more accurate bug reports they got about this. Currently the issue seems to be specific to "Microsoft Extensions Logging package" and it gets no traction when it just happens to affect that package too.

That "Microsoft Extensions Logging" report hides a much wider and generic issue that affects all assembly conditioning and some exclusion rules from Android builds on all Unity versions.

 

Hi, does this asset save the changes? I use map magic 1 and every time I build my map every change I made to my terrain with unity brushes will revert back.

 

Hi @Crossway,
It does not currently save changes. Undo is handed over to native Unity undo.

 

Hi @Hawk0077,
I just came across this. Sorry to hear about your experience. Don't buy PP2 please. There was an upgrade path to get the new versions free of charge.

I contacted the Asset Store a few days ago when I learned that the PP2 upgrade path seems to be broken for those who still only have the PW version. I will let you know when I have new info about this.

 

We have an active know issue posted on our Discord server:

 

I see I missed to post about some of the earlier updates. See below:

[Version 2.1.3]
Fixes:
· [Fix] A bug was causing null reference exceptions with some terrain neighbour setups that have missing tiles.

[Version 2.1.4]
· Inlcuded a temp solution for Unity bug #1373388 that can affect users who build for Android.

[Version 2.1.5]
Enhancements:
· Unity fixed bug #1373388, so removed the workaround for it.
· Minimum Unity version is now 2019.4 as per Unity requirements.
· Layer names show up as tooltips for easy identification on the texture painting GUI.
· Updated the demo scene to include the Free Fantasy Terrain Textures environment.

 

The known issue found yesterday has been fixed in v2.1.6.

v2.1.6 changelog:
Enhancements:
· Path Painter now considers terrains Grouping IDs when looking at terrain groups.
· Warning messages will now advise regarding terrain tiles that deviate from the selected group too much.

Fixes:
· [Fix] Texture painting had an incorrect offset in some large environments in which terrains had mismatched Heightmap and Control Texture Resolutions.
· [Fix] Autoramp saved setting was only reset in the GUI at startup but PP used the default setting if not applied.
· [Fix] Switched off autoramp was occasionally not correctly handled and could cause terrain shaping anomalies.
· [Fix] Scene switching/loading could occasionally result in brush visualisation related Missing Reference Exception due to no longer existing terrains.
· [Fix] Autoramp did not ignore non-compatible tiles and painted incorrect ramps from them.
· [Fix] Missing terrain at scene loading could cause a validation related Missing Reference Exception.
· [Fix] Undoing some terrain settings changes was not expected by Path Painter and this could cause some temporary errors.
· [Fix] Depending on terrain settings some could deviate too much from the terrain group and was still considered part of the group.

 

Tracking no known issues.

 

A support article was also created for this.

 

Unity said they can't help with the upgrade, but don't give up hope just yet. Please get in touch on Discord or by creating a ticket. I've been able to help all the users that contacted me about this so far.

 

Path Painter v2.1.7 went live 4 days ago.

It replaces a performance optimisation technique that caused some suboptimal shaping for larger scale painting. It was replaced by an automatic adaptive optimisation that has two levels. Level 1 activates when performance drops to a level where it affects smooth painting. Level 2 activates when the workload gets so high (due to scale) that even slow, careful painting is impaired.

Path Painter stops shaping output on the first level and the end result is quick once painting is done. On the second level a lot more things get queued, so you can paint perfectly smoothly, however there will be more calculations (with a progress bar) at the end.

Please check out the update and let me know if it works well or if you have any comment.

 

Some more info about large scale painting after the latest update:

Adjusting large scale painting is generally quick, unless the path has to be regenerated.
Things that regenerate the path:

• Adjusting the brush
• Using the Apply Changes button
• Batch adjustment (i.e. changing settings without SHIFT and then changing something with SHIFT will apply all the changes all at once)

 

Path Painter II v2.1.8 is live. The update includes a fix for a minor bug that caused some unnecessary warnings.


We hope this update will improve your experience with Path Painter. Thank you for your continued support.

 

Unity 2020 3.25f 1 LTS. New project. Only using Path Painter II latest version!
No other assets etc loaded.
Getting this error message
Microsoft visual C# Compiler version 3.5.0-dev-20359-01 (8da8ba0c)
..and Path Painter no go!!
Any fixes or hints?

 

Most of the time that's just the compiler getting hung up in some stale state, e.g. something changed (like PP setup itself for the environment), but the compiler's still trying to work on the old situation. This can sometimes happen with Unity with or without Path Painter and an Editor restart generally all it takes for it to catch up. That is if you see no actual error message just that message with the error sign.

I recommend updating to the current patch version for that LTS.
2020.3 is currently at patch 44


I hope this helps you be up and running in no time. Let me know if still stuck or have any questions, comment.

 

OK. Shall try once I pluck up enough courage to "update" !! Once bitten etc etc
Your version one PP (with upgrade works perfectly..on Unity 2019 LTS.
I can actually drag the older and installed version from a 2019LTS project assets folder to my 2020LTS project assets folder and I have Path Painter older version working ok.!!! Is that strange?
But I'd rather the PP version2. Just worried about "updating" when no other assets or any projects have ever given this error message.
Thanks.

 

I don't think you need to update to fix this, so it's best to decide about that later and not mess with it before. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think patching should be safe


Wasn't a version update that bit you in the behind?

because that's quite possible and I would not recommend.

No. There was a lot of effort put into it so it would upgrade correctly and things like that. Same for version 2 though.

So the Editor restart didn't work?
Did you by any chance try deleting PP, restarting the Editor and importing it again from Package Manager?

I don't think it's still possible in 2020.3, but is it at all possible that the project is using the obsolete .Net framework? Path Painter support for that was removed recently, because I think it's not possible, but that could explain this.

Can you check what you have in Player Settings?


If you don't use any other Asset or SDK like you mention, it should be safe to change the framework. Worst case scenario, you would get some errors on your own code that you can easily fix. With that sad, I would try this while having a backup. For example, I would copy the whole project folder somewhere and try this in this copied version to see what happens.

Nah, as I see the option is no longer even there. I wonder if it's possible for the project to still be in that state somehow though. It may be worth ruling out. This isn't a brand new project, right?
Can you create a new blank project and try importing PP2 into that?
Maybe we can narrow what's going on that way.

Can you also confirm what version of Path Painter this is?
(You can check in Package Manager.) I myself was still pulling in an older version.

 

This bit of the compiler message you're getting have me suspecting that the project somehow complies on the obsolete .Net framework

but I could be wrong.

 

Is there a roadmap for this asset?

 

Many thanks indeed for such a great prognosis !
Pity though as still no joy with Editor hint and Package Manager.BUT your main hint of updating is probably correct.
Not yet ready to update..probably because of doubtfulness. But will certainly let you know if no other procedure works.
EDIT. This always was new project in 2020. Nothing else was there. Just a new blank 3d project in Unity 2020lts and then the attempt to install PP2.
Of interest.
PP older version will not install with 2020 but...
Dragging a previously installed older version of PP from a Unity 2019 project (assets) to the 2020 project (assets)
works flawlessly for me. I love your Path Painter to bits and the version before PP2 does what I want and with beauty and precision!
Not sure what to do about that old Compiler Version 3.5.0? Any hints on how to update that?
I've updated all the public things in the Package manager. Not sure how otherwise to update a Visual Compiler version!!! I would like to try that before going to the next LTS version.
Oh yes...I'm using the latest HUB and on Windows10.

 

Just to add this.

EDIT Another message I failed to immediately see...

Microsoft (R) Visual C# Compiler version 3.5.0-dev-20359-01 (8da8ba0c)
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

error CS2001: Source file 'H:\UnityProj2020\xxxxxwarning\Haven/Path' could not be found.
error CS2001: Source file 'H:\UnityProj2020\xxxxxwarning\Painter' could not be found.
error CS2001: Source file 'H:\UnityProj2020\xxxxxwarning\II/Editor/010/PathPainterEditor.dll' could not be found.
error CS2001: Source file 'H:\UnityProj2020\xxxxxwarning\II/Editor/Engine/010/PathPainter.dll' could not be found.
error CS2001: Source file 'H:\UnityProj2020\xxxxxwarning\II/Editor/Engine/000/PathPainter.dll' could not be found.
error CS2001: Source file 'H:\UnityProj2020\xxxxxwarning\II/Editor/000/PathPainterEditor.dll' could not be found.



PP version I tried to install in Unity2020 is Path Painter 2 version 2.1.8. December 18 2022.

Your older version I have is Path Painter 1.2.0. September 24 2019.

And once more for curiosity. The older PP will also NOT install to Unity2020. Gives same errors of Compiler.
It does however Install and work perfectly with Unity 2019 LTS.
And funnily enough if I drag this older version of PP that has installed ok in a 2019.project..drag it FROM 2019 assets folder, copy it to the 2020 assets folder then all is ok. But older version of course.

 

Yes, some of it has been discussed on the Discord server. Not sure though if the latest have been laid out there, but no timeline in the current situation, so probably no point discussing it. It's also been maturing over time. I'm looking forward to secure some dev time for it. I avoid laying out roadmaps to avoid people getting it for what it may become. I always recommend getting things for what they are. You can always get them later when they really become what you liked on the roadmap. I could be wrong about this. With no hype, there are little sales, so I have to do other stuff to actually fund the development and doing it this way obviously slows things down considerably.

 

I'm pretty sure you don't need to update. It was probably also tested with that patch version back in the day, so don't worry about that now. It's highly unlikely that you bumped into a Unity bug.

 

Those paths looks really, really weird and out of whack. Different parts of the paths are missing for each folder and file. No wonder you are getting errors.

I wonder if this is another case of "you need to regenerate your project files":


It's probably worth a try. Sometimes projects get into states when MonoBehaviors don't exist errors show up and things like that and you need to do this. Not sure if this is just another one of that. I've never seen it happen this way.

You can also compare those paths to what's actually on disk (for example in file explorer) and how it looks in your project. Pretty curious.

 

You can try doing the very same thing with the new version as well, but obviously I wouldn't want you just keep doing that as a workaround instead of us properly looking into a possible issue.

 

SOLVED.
For some reason I believed that Path Painter2 was a stand alone asset. Looked that way. Still does.
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/terrain/path-painter-ii-184623#releases

But it requires this as well..
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/terrain/pp2-upgrade-path-only-163352
to make it work!!

Installing the Path Painter II and then installing the upgrade file pp2 stops all errors and all working perfectly.
Is that correct/ normal procedure?
Does everyone have to do this?
Is there a chance that you might combine these two files together?
Do you mention this somewhere..? Is it clearly stated?

 

No that's not a procedure. Due to circumstances out of my control, people who didn't update Path Painter for 3 years and are still on a version from 2019 can no longer update/upgrade. That "update path only" package is there for them as a workaround, so they can upgrade to Path Painter II for free. It's what I could figure out, so old customers are not blocked by a broken upgrade path. The issue was brought to my attention 2-3 months ago by a person who got Path Painter 4 years ago and now saw Path Painter II as a new purchase (no upgrade).

That has an older version of Path Painter II, but was not meant to and does not need to be installed. It fixing your problem may hold a clue. For example, that version (v2.1.6) still had support for the deprecated.Net framework. If that's the issue, we would need to figure out if my assumptions are wrong about it, or why your Unity 2020.3 project would use that ,even though it doesn't even have the option to choose it. We cannot yet be sure that's issue though just yet. Without the option in Unity I don't know how we can check, but I'll look into projects on a lower level to see if I can find out. The only thing I can think of if you upgraded the project from an old Unity version and that left it on the deprecated .Net framework setting, because the option to use it was no longer available already in the Unity 2019 LTS as far as I recall.

Did you by any chance check the folder structure or tried to regenerate the project files?

 

@vertexx, could you please open

"<YourProjectFolder>\ProjectSettings\ProjectSettings.asset"

in a text editor and search for

scriptingRuntimeVersion

. What's the number next to that?

 

Hi, frankslater
Thanks for your efforts on this but, it's ok now after installing the pp2 upgrade.
The Path PainterII was newly installed to my brand new computer I just bought!!!
EDIT New computer just purchased!! New Year present. Windows10 etc etc.
It was downloaded from the Asset Store via package manager into a new install of the Unity version as listed before.
It had no other installs of PP on it. None at all, new or old versions.
It would not work untill the pp2 "update" was installed.
All other assets I have all work flawlessly with my new computer and with the LTS version of Unity 2020.
So with both computers, Path Painter II would not work until pp2 was installed.


Have you tried installing your latest PPII package to the Unity version I'm using?
Love to know how you got on without that pp2 upgrade?
I won't update to the next LTS version at the moment. probably go upwards to 2022/3.
PPII is wonderful to be using at last and one always wonders where the time went!
PS..
If I get the time I'll try and get that number for you.

 

Hi @vertexx,

No worries, that's what I'm here for. You don't need to install any of them on top of the other. They are both the complete package. This way you are using a slightly older version (since the upgrade package is only there so the Asset Store allows old timers to upgrade to PPII and it's still has Path Painter v2.1.6, while the current version is v2.1.8. This latest version was released without support for the deprecated runtime version, while v2.1.6 still has it.).

Thanks for the info. Using the older version might be okay for you for now, but I need to figure out what's going on there. If this affects you, it could affects others. I wasn't able to break it yet, although I have 2020.3.44 which had 19 patches since your version. Unlikely, but not impossible that one of those patches applied a fix due to which I can no longer get Unity in a state to use the deprecated runtime scripting but patch 25 still used it in some odd circumstances, so I'll have to consider that possibility too.

We could be chasing our tales with the runtime scripting, but your error message points to that, because that runtime version was already deprecated in Unity 2018:


and is no longer available since 2019, so not sure how it's compiling Path Painter for you years later. A possible test we may do is to release a patch that supports the deprecated runtime version once again and see if that fixes your problem. It wouldn't be the first time that happened.

Yeah, that's what I was planning to do next. I'll dig up that lower patch version (2020.3.25 right?) in the archive and see what happens. It may not reproduce right away, but I may be able to get it to use the deprecated runtime version and see if that gets me where you are.

Glad you can use it in the meantime.

 

Great news @vertexx!

I installed 2020.3.25, created a new project, imported PPII and et voila, this thing showed it's ugly head. So now we know that it doesn't happen in 2020.3.44, but happens in 2020.3.25 out of the box. This had a very low chance to be honest. It indicates this could be a Unity bug that was fixed since that patch version (The bug possibly being that 2020.3.25 was using a deprecated runtime version by default when it was not supposed to).

Anyway, let's not jump into conclusions. I'll let you know what I find out.

 

Even have the messed up paths in the error messages: