Road Architect: Roads, intersections and bridges for Unity [RELEASED]

I've noticed that your Road Architect application can't build roads on terrains where I have built the terrain using information from Google Maps. I have a very large terrain surface and when I place the road it does 2 things.
1. It places those marker above the ground rather than on the ground.2. The road isn't attached to the surface of the terrain but moreso above it and also over a distance whether its 10 feet or 1000 feet the road also goes through the ground, rather than trying to make a tunnel, very annoying.
Any ideas please?

Okay I dont know what I have done but it seems to be working, the only issue I have is the road doesn't seem to place itself actually on the terrain but through it, I have attached an image, the top image is the terrain so you can see its pretty in-depth, the bottom is the issue, can this be fixed or am i missing a setting that fixes this? Cheers

Also the road isn't attached to the surface of the terrain??


Basically the tool you provide doesn't want to go over the terrain, it goes through the terrain and can't seem to detect the surface.

Thanks

 

Hi jf3000, what is your terrain resolution, heightmap resolution and are you using multi-terrains?

Sometimes issues like this can be caused by using extremely large terrain resolutions (terrain width and height) like 40k by 40k. Instead of using large terrain widths and heights I recommend using multi-terrains instead with a tool like TerrainComposer.

 

Its funny you say that, Terrain Composer was the tool I used to create the terrain along with World Composer.

Terrain resolution is 4096
Image Size is 8192x8192
Heightmap resolution is 2049
Heightmap is 4096x4096

This gives me that 26.76 klm map size.

 

There is definitely a minor flaw in the application that doesn't allow the road to sit on this type of terrain, I tested this on standard terrain and it works like a charm, but as soon as I use something like this everything goes weird.

 

Looks like your height information does not match to the terrain. I know some ways how to screw this up with Terrain Composer...

Carefully with Terrain Composer, you can make easily mistakes. I use it myself, because we have no other choice under Unity. The problems began with creating terrains by duplicating them under Unity or just creating another terrains under Terrain Composer. The problems were, that the duplicated terrain referenced to the same height information (Unity problem) and the in Terrain Composer created terrain referenced to the same terrain data (gave me the same name terrain1 and override the terrain data of the one before). If you use RTP, i guess you do, then you also have trouble with terrain rendering when you switch between the scenes. Be sure, that each terrain has its own unique terrain data and terrain height information. After that restart Unity and everything works fine again.

 

Hi jf3000,

I emailed you with information. I'm unable to reproduce this issue after a few hours of trying. Try resetting the terrain history on the affected road systems, then update all of the affected road systems and see if that resolves your issue. If not we can process a refund no problem.

 

Camber? Any news on that? We have already purchased so many packets that aren't even close to what i can get from BTB. Spline + cross-section with enough detail, at least 5 panel to road width, with proper camber. But Unity - BTB aren't the easiest to work with but the quality of road mesh is more important to my needs than ease of use. My meshes need to be PERFECT to work properly, road to terrain transition need to be precise, edges welded. If i need 2.22 degrees of camber and 2cm gradual change to road shape over 2km, i have only one option. This is a critical matter that is stopping all progress, we got modellers working and i'm still researching road mesh tools.. So it's kind a important to me.. I do have a solution but i'm not happy with it.

 

There is no solution. I honestly believe Road Architect can't fix itself and adjust the road layout whilst its being placed which I have found is a major drawback in the actual system with the only one to go forward is too take the entire Road Architect system and have someone rip apart the scripts and get them to rebuild the system with that option in place so when I am, placing over the terrain it lays the road actually on the terrain no matter what the surface.

I am taking this asset I paid for and getting someone to extend upon Road Architect on freelancer.com

Refunding me is not a solution. Maybe just need a second set of eyes to build/add different options.

 

Hi SquidCap,

This is still in development. We have a limited amount of time to develop and a lot of features to implement so it's just taking time to develop everything properly. Road Architect took 7 months to develop keep in mind.

Hi jf3000,

I agree that there is no perfect solution for roads on the market now and UE4 seems to be fracturing the markets more. RA does provide quite a bit of functionality and quality if you are using it for simulations and similar.

 

Hello MicroGSD,

When is the next update coming out?

 

I have a question, will this all break when Unity 5.0 comes out?

 

Quick question. How difficult would it be to add custom prefabs so I could use Road Architect to lay out Railroad tracks? I have a project that will have extensive need of this capability.

Thoughts/Comments are greatly welcome. Thanks,

~V~

 

I have two questions:
1. Does this work with Terrain Composer (and RTP)?
2. Can we generate roads, bridges, objects in code? Either at runtime or design time.

 

Hey Vern, check out - https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/7214

 

What about lightmapping?

I always get the error:

"Primary UV set on is incorrect and the secondary UV set is missing. Lightmapper needs UVs inside the [0,1]x[0,1] range. Skipping this mesh..."

Someone already tried?

 

Hi jf3000, I saw this and I am on the fence, pun intended, about getting it. I have concerns though. For one it appears to be abandon-ware since it has not been updated in over a year although it would appear that the author is still active looking at his other products such as Voxeland. Second, the asset is written in Unity Script and not C#. Voxeland is written in C# so it would appear that the author has moved on to better coding. I will email the author and see what is up.

Thank you for your reply.

~V~

 

Yeah I noticed that too, but hey better than nothing and you made be able to modify it for something later.

 

jf3000 & Vern: I was on the fence with this one too, but then I decided that these are two equally great products. While it would be great to bend my own meshes like that, Road Architect handles intersections, and comes with way too many assets to ignore. In my opinion, it's worth getting both! I would certainly use R.A. toy do my roads, but I can see using the other for fences, pipes, train tracks, hoses, and anything else. In fact, when I first jumped into Unity, I thought it should have the ability to bend things the same way you can rotate, position, and scale. This is definitely a good asset, but I don't think it can replace everything that R.A. does.

 

The only issue I am facing with RA is it does not seem to place well on the type of terrain i am using and goes through the terrain, author has offered refund, but I am determined to get it fixed even if it is through someone else on freelancer.

 

What type of terrain is that? I use Terrain Composer, and asked if it was compatible, but never heard back. Basically, I'd either be using this on Unity Terrain, Mesh, or Terrain Composer.

 

The next update is coming out in late September or early October. It's taking longer than expected.

I don't know the answer to the question because I can't predict the future but if it does have issues they will be resolved shortly thereafter.

I don't think Road Architect would work out well for this purpose. I would recommend a tool like EasyRoads3D for railroad tracks.

 

Hi Tanoshimi2000,

This works well with Terrain Composer and RTP. We use both.

You can generate roads, bridges and intersections with code during editor time but not runtime. Check out GSDAutomation.cs

Hi AiryKai,

Please email us at support@microgsd.com and I'll get you the latest version which contains lightmapping.

Thanks

 

Hi jf3000. The road tools are complicated to write and take quite a bit of development time. Road Architect is over 3000 hours of development time. As you can imagine it's not very profitable to work on. I hope you can find someone who get what you need.

I've been on vacation but I answered it just a bit ago: works great with Terrain Composer, multi-terrains and RTP. We use all of those assets. It will not work well on mesh terrains though.

 

All good thats why I have faith in not only you but also someone else whom I am yet to find lol that can help, unless someone else finds my issue. The terrain above is generated using World Composer and imported into the scene using Terrain Composer.

 

jf3000 & vern,

It seems like Mega Shapes looks fairly interesting in this regard and looks well supported of race tracks. It appears it could be used for railroad tracks too. I have been looking into something for railroads too.
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/3640

 

Thanks MicroGSD

 

Hii MicroGSD, i want to make effect of potholes in some segments of road. As You said in previous posting (i forgot, perhaps 3 months ago), I can use different material. But when I applied material with potholes texture, all of road segments were changed. Any suggestion how achieve my need? Thanks

 

What about new version with sidewalks?

 

I got an error right on start with this asset.
User named Gecko had the same problem here:
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/ro...for-unity-released.232335/page-5#post-1665495

I get the same error and bunch of other warnings(probably related to the error).
Assets/RoadArchitect/GSDRoadUtility.cs(3928,43): error CS0103: The name `tData' does not exist in the current context

Could you send me the fix?

 

You can apply the textures on a per segment basis by applying it directly to the segment meshes. This will be saved upon further road generations. Sidewalks should be in the next big update.

Hi DeanSledgeHammer,

Please email me at support@microgsd.com and I'll get you the fix.

 

Hi MicroGSD.
Can you tell me please, is there any way to decrease snapping distance between nodes of the spline?
Maybe somewere in scripts?
Thank You.

 

Hi MicroGSD.

Im planning on buying your tool, looks great by the way!
Just one question, which i dont know if it has been already answered before....
Is it possible to create race tracks with RA?
Including curbs and other racing dedicated objects?

Thanks a lot

 

I have also asked same thing long ago, told me it will be included in next update, I am asking for a solution again. I just need to know in which script that float or int value is stored.

 

When is the next update?

 

Based on MicroGSD's comments in msg #271 (in this thread) the next update is October 2014.

 

Hi, it's been a while i haven't check this thread.
From what i've read camber is still not included ?
Will this be included in next (soon ? ) update ?

 

I started receiving this error on my already built road that has some edge objects available, it happens when I try to modify, or add a new edge object. Right now I can't add or modify anything.

Edit: It happens most when creating new edge object, some existing edge objects still work fine.

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
GSDSplineNEditor.DoEdgeObjects () (at Assets/RoadArchitect/Editor/GSDSplineNEditor.cs:1169)
GSDSplineNEditor.DoExtAndEdgeOverview () (at Assets/RoadArchitect/Editor/GSDSplineNEditor.cs:550)
GSDSplineNEditor.OnInspectorGUI () (at Assets/RoadArchitect/Editor/GSDSplineNEditor.cs:368)
UnityEditor.InspectorWindow.DrawEditor (UnityEditor.Editor editor, Int32 editorIndex, Boolean forceDirty, System.Boolean& showImportedObjectBarNext, UnityEngine.Rect& importedObjectBarRect, Boolean eyeDropperDirty) (at C:/BuildAgent/work/d63dfc6385190b60/Editor/Mono/Inspector/InspectorWindow.cs:1124)
UnityEditor.DockArea:OnGUI()

 

please help. i have 2 road systems. first system is exported normal, but second i cant export, this is error
NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
GSDObjExporter.MeshToString (UnityEngine.MeshFilter mf, System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2 materialList) (at Assets/RoadArchitect/Editor/GSDObjExporter.cs:46)
GSDObjExporter.MeshesToFile (UnityEngine.MeshFilter[] mf, System.String folder, System.String filename) (at Assets/RoadArchitect/Editor/GSDObjExporter.cs:199)
GSDObjExporter.ExportWholeSelectionToSingle () (at Assets/RoadArchitect/Editor/GSDObjExporter.cs:300)

 

We don't hear anything from them for a long time...

 

very amazing
awsome custoum
take my money

 

Please MicroGSD, can you give us some information about the current status of RA development ? Thanks.

 

My main issue with this solution is the enormous amount of draw calls generated. Any comments on this?

What is generating the calls and how would you go about reducing them?

 

I have a 4 mile road. This gives 20 draw calls.

 

I think we will soon have to choose a new asset, such as EasyRoads3D, because Road Architect long time no updates and no support

 

How did you get so little drawcalls? I generated the most basic road with 7 sprite points already gave like 36 drawcalls

(not counting the 100+ drawcall terrain)

 

I don't know. It's always been. And 100 draw calls for terrain, that's a lot, I think.

 

I am also getting this error when targeting WebPlayer and I'd rather not need to switch my Build Settings back and forth since my project folder is enormous .. would you please link this fix to me?

 

Hi MicroGSD, This Asset is awesome.I want to create highyway road with on ramp, off ramp, road exit. But I can't do it.When you release an update please give some information.Thank you.

 

Has anyone e-mailed MicroGSD for support recently? Just wondering if support e-mails are being answered

 

Well!
Sorry to say that I've e-mailed them 10 days ago and haven't received any reply yet.
Still hoping they'll reply somehow.