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EasyRoads3D v1.0 for Unity - Plugin version Online

Discussion in 'Assets and Asset Store' started by raoul, Apr 29, 2009.

  1. raoul

    raoul

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    Not before Unity 3 is officially launched. Hopefully in the weeks afterwards.
     
  2. Greymarch

    Greymarch

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    If we purchase v1.0 now, will we get an upgrade to v2.0 when you release it or have to purchase it again? Thanks.
     
  3. raoul

    raoul

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    The regular price is $39 for EasyRoads3D but it is still on offer for $29 and I will keep it at this price until version 2 is out. I have not decided yet what to do with the price for version 2 but if you buy now you will not have to purchase the full upgrade price, just the difference. This is for all purchases since the 1.7 release.

    You will not pay more if you purchase now.
     
  4. greensquidsolutions

    greensquidsolutions

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    Hi,

    First off, love the program, its really cool :)

    Secondly, what would be in version 2? Do you have a list as if its nothing I want then I'll get version 1.7 for $29 now.
    If you have any screenshots/video of the latest version that would help.


    Thanks

    Dan
     
  5. raoul

    raoul

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    Hi Dan,

    I do not have a guaranteed new feature list yet. The biggest new feature will probably be the one already mentioned in the last couple of posts, the option to automatically add custom side objects following the road shape including procedural geometry. The latest video is the one I put on online, http://unityterraintools.com/demovid.php, a couple of months ago. Everything I am doing during development is very experimental with simple placeholders and random geometry shapes. I will see if I can post some 'decent' screenshots next week.

    As I already wrote, you will not spend relatively more on version 2 if you purchase the current version now.

    Raoul
     
  6. raoul

    raoul

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    Some screenshots showing the capabilities of the new sideobject feature in the upcoming EasyRoads3D version 2.

















    Both scenes are based on the same road shape but with different side objects attached. The side objects are fully customizable and can be a custom mesh, a procedurally created mesh or a combination of both.
     
  7. bigkahuna

    bigkahuna

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    Hi Raol,

    Would I be able to use the side objects feature to run a pipe line (or several pipes) down the middle of a dirt path (not a road obviously)?
     
  8. Pulov

    Pulov

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    Really interesting shots.
     
  9. mikesgames

    mikesgames

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    wow. the train track look awesome :)
     
  10. minevr

    minevr

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    Cool...Where is new version..?

    Give a link.. :p
     
  11. Clamps

    Clamps

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    Raoul! You've been holding out on me. I might have to send the boys 'round to your place and teach you a little respect, Sicilian style.
    This addition looks fantastic. I'm pretty sure that once you get intersections done this might be the only road tool we would ever need for Unity.
     
  12. duke

    duke

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    Intersections is the holy baby jesus for procedural road generation, and that's definitely what i'm looking forward to :p
     
  13. raoul

    raoul

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    Thanks Guys!

    Hi bigkahuna, yes that is possible.



    This is the geometry reference for the rail track in the object manager. You just draw a circle an it will look like a pipeline.

    Your friends are more then welcome :wink:! I will get my army from the Netherlands, I am sure we will have good time!

    But serious, intersections are on the list, but still have to come up with a good universal way to deal with uv's.
     
  14. Pulov

    Pulov

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    Me particularly preffer to do road shapes using CAD apps cause I can have extreme control over the road I really do miss in my modellin process and I would not mind to do in unity and I think will fit incoming releases of this app are railed objets such as road border fences and so on.
    http://files.nireblog.com/blogs/almadormida/files/grd21.jpg

    Would be nice if we could define path line.
    Define starting shape, main shape and ending shape.
    And each shape with its post tipe, distance per post, fence cross section and so. Built with instance objets and with a Lod or a similar system that make them feasible for RT.

    So, if unity 3 accepts importinb splines, a tool that allows to generate a railed objets wold rock.
     
  15. bigkahuna

    bigkahuna

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    @Raoul - Looks interesting... Will it be possible to have changes in the mesh along the length of the "part"? For example, a joint in the pipe that occurs every 50 feet? Also, how do you control smoothing, I'm guessing the graphic you've posted is a profile editor for the repeating joints? Will I be able to make the sides of the pipe smooth without too many faces?
     
  16. raoul

    raoul

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    That is exactly how this side objects system works. The LOD system is not built yet but this is on the list.

    Right now you can set the face distance of procedural geometry and attach a mesh to it at the connection point. This is how the lead and posts are done in the rail track and the fence plus posts in the race track. Additonally I could add a seperate parameter "distance for mesh object" so you can still have a smooth pipe with joints at x distance, although I belief the current system will work well for you unless you like to have bended pipe segments?

    Smoothing is done through mesh.RecalculateNormals() and should be fine unless you want a pipeline with only 4 defined vectors.

    Below an additonal image to the other images I posted yesterday:


    I never started with a seperate "river" tool as I was planning this new system for EasyRoads3D. Obviously it will be very easy to use it as a river tool too.
     
  17. Pulov

    Pulov

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    @raoul

    That is exactly how this side objects system works. The LOD system is not built yet but this is on the list.

    This is great news. Hope lines are importable in following unity versions. Ammm so, we could build rail type objets even if we dont have a road?
    I understand that if we've an polilyne ( I understand rectilinear segments with no curves) imported there would not be any need for a Unity terrain-road type objet, is that right?.


    What I had in mind is a soft I tried a year ago or so:
    http://www.3am-solutions.com/products/dvsp4/railObjects.asp

    It had several interesting aplications appart from fences such as placing trees, or lamposts every X meters. Later you could manage wich objets where instanciated along the curves from a manager where each spline was shown with the aplied parameters. It was a powerfull app.

    No need to get so complex right now, but the way your app has taken is really interesting.

    And about the lod, no rush, having it in the todo list is quite encouraging.
     
  18. raoul

    raoul

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    Sorry, I should not have included that last line, "So, if unity 3 accepts importinb splines, a tool that allows to generate a railed objets wold rock." , in the quote.

    You cannot import splines from other apps although it is quite simple to built a wrapper for this if you have access to the spline points in the export. From what I saw, EasyRoads3D V2, will be able to do everything the app in your link does accept from adding trees. But it does remove trees which are located near the track.

    You can enable / disable road objects per marker and tweak the position per marker (in image 4 of the race track you can see the wall / fence moving slightly away from the road). And you can add an unlimited number of side objects...
     
  19. bigkahuna

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    Sounds good, thanks for the info. I'll be waiting (patiently) for your next release! ;)
     
  20. Timmey

    Timmey

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    I have a quick question. In the terrain navigation system I uses. I need to be able to find if a position in x / z space on the map is covered by a road or a river. I have not tried easy roads yet. However, does anyone know if this is easy or possible? I do not necessarily have to do this at run time because I serialize my data.

    Thanks :D

    PS:

    If not how about a method that returns an enum. For example none, river, road, path
     
  21. duke

    duke

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    It's important to keep in mind that having evenly placed objects along a spline is one thing, but doing sweeps is creating a whole lot of unique geometry, so anything detailed is going to add up to quite the mesh!
     
  22. raoul

    raoul

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    You can put the road / river on a seperate layer and do a raycast downwards on that layer going though the desired point. If there is a hit you know that the road goes through the x,z of that point.

    One object built out of a structure using 8 vectors and using the same spline as the road is 2 times bigger then 2 objects built out of 2 vectors (a simple fence for example) sweeping away from the road. Mesh size is not related to the number of splines used. In fact every single object uses its own spline based on the road shape. You can pack meshes afterwards using meshcombine.

    I received questions about when this is going to be available. Hopefully soon after Unity 3 is released I will built a beta version. I mentioned it before in this thread if you buy version 1 now you will only pay the price difference for the upgrade to version 2. Tracks created with version 1 will be compatible with version 2.
     
  23. bigkahuna

    bigkahuna

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    Do you have a ballpark price for version 2 yet?
     
  24. raoul

    raoul

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    Not yet bigkahuna, I have to think about what is a fair price. Fact is that EasyRoads has always been slightly underpriced definetely with regard to the very early stages of the tool when I suggested $20 (http://forum.unity3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=20576&highlight=road+tool). That version was nowhere near the current state of EasyRoads3D. I have received comments about the low price more then once. I have also had people purchasing multiple licences without the need for that just because they thought it was too cheap for what it does. The reason why I kept it on offer all the time is because of the past issues with the Mac and Unity originally being a Mac app (I am not sure what the current figures are regarding Windows / Mac users).

    That said I guarantee it will not be a "dramatic" price increase and absolutely good value for the money you pay. I may even keep it at the official price of $39 as I rather have a lot of people happy then only a few... But no promises there.
     
  25. rockysam888

    rockysam888

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    Hi raoul,

    So there will be Caves, overhanging Cliff, Tunnels, Lakes and River Systems for Unity.

    1. Will these systems be separate products, or they all be included in EasyRoad3D V2.x?

    2. The main difference between 1.x and 2.x is sideObject?
    (I would like to know the planned feature list of v1.x. )

    Thanks in advance
     
  26. raoul

    raoul

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    EasyRoads3D V2 will be a spline based shapes tool for roads, train tracks, rivers etc. Not for caves.

    Yes, the main difference between version 1 and 2 is side objects but there are a number of other new features like automatic export of the road in different segments for LOD systems (probably for side objects as well) and customizable segments over the width of the road with controls to make the shape less plain.

    There will not be a new feature list for version 1 apart from support for Unity 3.

    The cave system is a tool that has to be developed further. It works well, http://unityterraintools.com/caves.html, but the conrols are very experimental and not really intuitive so it needs more work.
     
  27. raoul

    raoul

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    A first beta release EasyRoards3D v1.8.0 with support for Unity 3 is available since yesterday. All current license holders should have received an email about this. Send me a PM if you own a license and did not receive this email! A demo of this update will follow shortly.

    Actually not sure if the new message board supports PM's, can't see the icon? Anyway, otherwise send me an email or contact me through http://www.unityterraintools.com.

    Raoul
     
    Last edited: Sep 30, 2010
  28. r2d2Proton

    r2d2Proton

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    I'm glad I found this post. I've done a ton of this already. . .multiple times. Nothing with Unity though. The $29 dollars saves me the work.

    Thank you Raoul.
     
  29. r2d2Proton

    r2d2Proton

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  30. artzfx

    artzfx

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    The new features look great, but the main feature I am hoping for is intersecting roads, T junctions etc.
     
  31. raoul

    raoul

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    Please reread my post, a first beta version 1.8.0 with support for Unity 3 is only available as a full version for current licence holders. A demo with support for Unity 3 will follow.

    Yes, there are other posts here on the forums mentioning CityScape, it looks quite cool, though the price is slightly higher then EasyRoads3D ;)

    I know, artzfx, and they will be there eventually. In the mean time you can export the roads and merge them inside your modeling app.
     
    Last edited: Oct 4, 2010
  32. Rman

    Rman

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    Does this tool generate high polygon road or is it a true curve? I was wondering about performance and also if there was any advantage over modelling a road using a curve?

    Does each developer have to buy a copy of the software?
     
  33. raoul

    raoul

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    The road geometry resolution can be controlled and you can export the road and break it up in pieces in a modelling app if you have a very long road. Version 2 will be able to export the road in segments which makes it easier to include it in a lod system. One license can be used on 2 machines.

    btw. Early next week the demo for Unity 3 will be ready. Full version for Unity 3 is already available.
     
    Last edited: Oct 8, 2010
  34. Ethan

    Ethan

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    Looking forward to building some nice rails :)
    Does the finished 2.0 follow the demo (or should i call it release candidate) if it does well?
     
  35. raoul

    raoul

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    Still some work to do on version 2. But yes, this version 1 update is also to see how it performs in Unity 3, version 2 as it is now will be adapted accordingly. So far so good, no serious issues have been reported.
     
  36. janpec

    janpec

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    So version for Unity 3 is already out for 29 dolars right?
     
  37. bigkahuna

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    @raoul - will 2.0 continue to support Unity 2.6.1? I ask because I won't be able to use U3 until some major issues are resolved and I'm interested in your scripts.
     
  38. Rush-Rage-Games

    Rush-Rage-Games

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    Man I wish I had money!
     
  39. raoul

    raoul

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    Yes, curent license holders already have access. When you purchase you will receive two links: v1.7.1 for Unity 2 and v1.8.0 for Unity 3. The downloadable demo will follow next week.

    Adapting to Unity 3 didn't involve a lot of changes so I may continue support for Unity 2.6.1. Let's see if there are more requests for this and maybe your issues with Unity 3 are resolved by then.

    Thanks HTH_mrsnake, I take that as a compliment. I will need lots of assets for another project including Unity 3 trees etc. I may open some competitions where you can get a free EasyRoads3D license if there is interest in this. Maybe you can join one of these competitions?
     
  40. mikesgames

    mikesgames

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    I certainly would be!

    And BTW - when is the caves and cliffs thing coming out?
     
  41. janpec

    janpec

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    I am purchasing this thing in Monday asap as i get money. One more thing does river tool has moveable UVs so that water movement can be achieved?
     
  42. raoul

    raoul

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    Hang on janpec, the last few posts were about version 1 for Unity 3. If you are referring to the screenshots on the previous 2 pages, these are version 2 screenshots. It will take a bit longer then next week before that will be available. Yes, bootcamp demo type of rivers can be achieved by using similar shaders and scripts.
     
  43. janpec

    janpec

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    Ok no problem. All i need for now are roads. So if i buy now v1 license is there later going to be additional upgrade cost for v2?
     
  44. raoul

    raoul

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    I will probably up the price for version 2 a bit as the current price is already quite cheap. But all license owners of version 1.7.0 and later will be able to upgrade to version 2 for the price difference instead of the upgrade price. So by purchasing version 1 now you will not pay relatively more for version 2 later on.
     
  45. SirLancelot

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    And what's with 1.6.5 owners? No upgrade prices for this users? :(
     
  46. raoul

    raoul

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    Yes, there will be a special upgrade price for version 1.6.5 and below license owners.

    And, janpec, v1 road objects are compatible with v2 so, indeed you can start building your roads in v1 in the mean time.

    Also, the v1.8.1 demo with support for Unity 3.0 is now online for everybody to try. Download here, http://unityterraintools.com/downloads.php

    .
     
    Last edited: Oct 11, 2010
  47. raoul

    raoul

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    In case you experienced server issues, these have been resolved, sorry about that!
     
  48. jeffmorris

    jeffmorris

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    Does EasyRoads require terrains? I thought that I could use images from Google Maps but I think that it didn't work. I put the images on square planes in 3D Studio MAX.
     
  49. raoul

    raoul

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    Yes, it does expect to find a terrain. Why not create your roads using a flat terrain with a single texture (your google maps texture with tile settings matching the terrain size)?, afterwards you can always replace the terrain for a plane.
     
  50. jeffmorris

    jeffmorris

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    I'm using the demo version of EasyRoads before deciding to buy it. It looks like the demo version doesn't let me add two or more roads to the scene. It doesn't let me set the width of either the temporary white/red mesh or the road mesh. My game project requires 2-lane, 4-lane, 6-lane, and 8-lane roads. My project requires 74 Google Map images on 74 terrain meshes. What about "sharp" corners? What about creating intersections? Any suggestions on different road-creating software (freeware or low-priced)?