EasyRoads3D v1.0 for Unity - Plugin version Online

Thank you Johnny, glad you like it and will keep you informed about new tools!

A first build of the new procedural mesh system is available but not through the auto updater. So contact me by email if you like to try it out!

 

hi,i've now uptadet to 2.2.1 but i don't find file specified in readme:
2. Remove all the folders and scripts in the folder /Assets/EasyRoads3D/ except sideobjectsLog.er3dObjects . sideobjectsLog.er3dObjects contains all side objects data, do not delete it!

i havent that file!and don't have sideobject in the editor
where i found?thanks.

And why? in the info i get "free version"?i've correctly buy and have updated why automatic download.

is possible to have a full package of this version?

 

Hi devilkkw, sideobjectsLog.er3dObjects is the file that stores all side object element data. If it is not there, that means you probably do not have side elements in your scene, is that correct? It will be created after you made and saved your first side object in a project.

It says "Free version"? Have to check that, any way it is just a text note, for sure you have downloaded the full version as the free version has not yet been updated to 2.2.1!

 

Hi, raoul.
I've been playing around with the free version,(Thanks for that, BTW, no more 6 marker limit. ) and I noticed something. Not sure if it's an EasyRoadsFree "bug" or another problem. I added the Charger from the Unity Car Tutorial to a test road, and it seems to sink into the road a bit, as if there is no collider attached to the road mesh itself. The wheels ride on the terrain just fine, though. I have the road mesh set to default height (1) and default resolution.
I can post pictures if you like.
If this is just a minor issue in the free version, no problem, as I'm just testing it before (hopefully) purchasing the full version.

 

Hi Ayce,

The end result of roads created with EasyRoads3D is an ordinary gameobject with meshfilter attached. Regarding physics it will not act differently then any other mesh.

I have been contacted before with the this same question regarding the Unity Car Tutorial and the car sinking slightly into the road and looked into it.

Have you tried running the car tutorial car / scripts on a simple plane or even a box? You will see the same thing will happen, the wheels sink a couple of cm in the mesh

Easiest solution without having to tweak the car tutorial scripts / car setup:

1. duplicate the road mesh and use this gameobject for physics. So raise it a couple of cm and disable the mesh renderer.
2. remove the mesh collider component on the original road

 

Thank's for the quick reply. I didn't think about trying that solution, I'll try it later today after work.

As soon as I have some spare $$ I'm definately getting the full version. Maybe Pro, if I can swing that w/o the wife strangling me with the the purse strings. LOL

 

Can you use this with heightmaps, is it possible, don't just say yes unless you have tested that it can.

 

@Ayce, ok, let me know if you have further questions.

@CrazySi, Please explain further what you are trying to do.

.... and since when do I have an history of saying yes to a question before testing it...?

 

Sorry I'm just getting very stressed trying to get this working properly. I shift + click on the heightmap and it puts the markers in completely the wrong place, sometimes they all go on top of each other, tried this on 3 machines, on one it works and the other it goes haywire.

 

Ok, so with heightmap you actualy mean the terrain. If the marker positions are off it means the raycasting doesn't work properly. Check the camera mode of the cam in scene view (the gizmo at the top right of the scene view) and make sure it is Persp. mode and not in ISO, Left, Right, Top or Bottom mode. Just click on the center white cube of the Gizmo and it will be in Perp. mode . Markers will now be positioned in the correct position.

Let me know if you still have problems with this...

 

Ok so I can place roads and I brought a copy but now....I have a really hard time getting roads to join together like crossroads. I can't seem to be able to make a road that it placed down go back into edit mode so I can make subtle changes to get it to line up. How do I drag roads that I have already placed down, like you do in the video?

 

Is there a way to "bake" the roads onto the map it keeps reverting to its previous state when I lay down a new road object. - I looked on the website for tutorials but all I found were videos playing electro music taunting me as roads are effortlessly laid down.

 

Intersections and all that procedural geometry stuff looks amazing. When does this new version with all that great extra stuff comes out? Will it be free for all current v2 owners? Or only for pro users? I don't have pro - only update to v2.. Latest version seems 2.2.1 so far, right? Thanks!

 

@CrazySi, just replied to your post in the Assetstore section. Crossroads is not yet supported!

Not completely sure about your first question. Is this with regard to crossroads or can you indeed not switch back to edit mode and make changes to roads individually? This really should be a matter of clicking the middle tab again so the white surfaces appear then select a marker and drag it to a new position.

It is good practise to keep roads in "Edit Mode" if you are working on multiple roads. The reason for this is to keep the terrain in its original state. Imagine switching back and forth between "Edit Mode" and "Render mode" for multiple roads in different order. It will eventually mess up the terrain data. You can always recover it with the terrain restore functions but it works much more efficiently when keeping the roads in "Edit mode" while working on other roads. When you want to test the results of all roads, you render all roads...

If you are finished with a road you can "bake" it through "Build EasyRoads3D Objects" in the main menu. But this will destroy the editor object, you will not be able to make further changes after executing this!

@SirLancelot, the first beta release will be in a couple of weeks. Crossroads will eventually include many features but a while back after posting the first Intersection WIP video I got many requests to already prepare a first beta with the features demonstrated in the video. So that is what I am working on right now. All of this are version 3 features and will be in beta for a while until all features are implemented.

Yes, 2.2.1 is the latest version.

 

OK but the problem is lining roads up you have to keep switching to render mode to see how its going to look. Can you see why this is so difficult?

 

In the next version the roads will be visible in "Edit Mode"

 

Thanks I hope this approach works, we have also had problems with terrain and heightmaps using multiple roads

We have another problem you may be able to help us with.

- We just finished a scene (Scene 01) with five roads - everything works fine.
- Then we deleted all roads and the terrain from the scene and saved it as scene 02
- After this we made a new terrain and inserted new roads (with unique names from the ones in scene 01).
- We completed scene 02 - everything looks good.

But then, when we went back into scene 01, we could see that it now is using the road-height-maps from scene 02.
The roads in scene 01 are still the same, it's only the heightmap that is changed. - it actually looks like it has added the road-heightmaps on top of all the existing road-heightmaps in scene 01.

Do you know how we can get around this?

My idea is that I go back into scene 02 - Bake all the roads and then delete the editable ones.
After this I can go into scene01 - fix the 'errors' and then also bake these roads.

Can you tell if this is a valid solution?

image may clarify the problem

 

Hi Kondrop, what do you mean with road-height-maps? There is not such a thing as road-height-maps. All changes to the terrain are done through SetHeights() so they are permanenent unless you go back to Edit mode which restores the terrain.

How did you create the terrain in scene 2? Did you drag the same terrain from the project panel into scene view? If, so, then it means you are using the same terrain on both scenes. Changes to the terrain in scene 2 will result in changes in the terrain in scene 1. This behaviour is completely unrelated to EasyRoads3D.

If you want to use the same terrain in a different scene, make sure you keep a fresh copy of the original terrain, duplicate it in the project panel and drag it in the scene... Terrain height changes by EasyRoads3D will now only affect the duplicated terrain. So use duplicates of the terrain for every new scene if this scene involves new roads...

Does this help?

 

Hi Raoul

This clarified a lot - thanks

I think I may have created the terrain in the wrong way then - I will try your approach.

 

Yes, saving a scene with a different name and using the same terrain is not recommended if you intend to make changes to the terrain which only should affect the new scene. Delete some trees, or make changes to the splatmap, then open your first scene. You will see that the terrain in that scene has changed too. As already mentioned, I always duplicate the terrain in the project view and drag it in the new scene so the original terrain will stay as it is.

 

I really do love this product and own the pro version. I do have questions about the upcoming update, and the road intersections.

Will you be able to also do a T-intersection as well as the 4 way?
Is it possible to stitch together roads from multiple terrains?
Or is it working to have a road span multi terrains?

.

 

The first beta will include the features shown in the WIP movie, no T-intersections yet. This will be part of the next beta. Meanwhile it will be fairly easy to change a 4 way intersection into a 3 way intersection in a modeling app.

At the moment I am on vacation until next week. Shortly afterwards the first beta will be released. Then I will add support for multiple terrains as other people are waiting for that too. Roads will be able to span multiple terrains...

 

This work on the iPhone terrain version?

 

EasyRoads3D is an Editor tool. It will deform the terrain to the shape of the road and create a road mesh on top of it. So technically it should work just fine and you are only limited to how the Unity terrain object itself runs on the iPhone. That said, although I did finally get my iOS developers license, haven't had the time yet to test things thoroughly on the iPhone itself. Have to figure out how to configure things in order to be able to actually create the iOS builds...

 

Any idea on the ETA of the intersection feature?

 

Nearly there, all is implemented in the main EasyRoads3D project. But decided to change almost the complete EasyRoads3D workflow and hierarchy structure to make dealing with intersections as user friendly as possible. Have to update the manaul, do some more testing for serious issues and then prepare everything for the Unity package. The first beta won't be 100% stable but very usable for those who need intersections urgently. If all goes well it will be available in about 1 week...

 

Excellent... can't wait!

Would love to be on the beta team, please send me a PM if you need another tester.

 

Apologies that this takes a bit longer then expected. Implementing everything in the EasyRoads3D project and rearranging the workflow was actually more work then creating the intersection code itself.

I will send out emails to everybody who currently owns a v2 or Pro license once the beta is available...

 

Raoul - a little help here please. I'm trying to buy the EasyRoads tool but the Paypal site is all in Spanish which I can't read. Any thoughts or English Paypal page?

 

It's in English on the Unity Asset Store.

 

Hi mainstgrfx, I get it in spanish but I always assumed that is because I am in Spain. I will see if this is a setting in the configuration. Sorry for the inconvenience! Has anyone else had problems with this?

Actually I just had a look at it. What happens when you login in? is it still in english? When I log in I get a message that logging in is not possible because it is the same account, but the page is in english.

EDIT: it should appear in English now

 

got it! there's a dropdown that allows you to select a language. As a WTF moment tho, the instructions to use the dropdown are in the language you don't know. Go figure!

 

Hello,
I added a function, a GPS marker placement can Google?
thank you

 

Hi Thierry81, are you familiar with this? I mean, this is on the list to look into but if you can send over some example files, I will be happy to create a script that will automatically position the markers for the road shape...

 

Example of email sent folder
thank you

 

Got it, the data are longitude, latitude coordinates. The third in each set of 3 probably represents the height at that point. Do you have longitude, latitude boundaries of the downloaded DEM? With this info we can create the script and start experimenting.

If anyone else is interested in this, let me know and I will build it in EasyRoads3D...

 

Not had time to work with ER at all but this does sound pretty cool.
Would probably be a nice selling point for some.

 

Almost sure this is a no since this seams to be mainly editor based but is there any script interface [or one planned] to allow generation of new roads at runtime ? [thinking something along the lines of referencing a terrain object, supplying settings and a list of vector3's becoming a road]

Asking as I'm working on a project that should eventually generate terrain at runtime and it would be nice to add quality roads/fences/rivers easily.

 

Hi, this is currently not supported byt the package itself. EasyRoads3D started in 2009 as a standalone tool. So technically it is definitely possible. In fact companies have used EasyRoads3D to generate roads at runtime. You can always contact me by email or through PM to discuss this. If there is more demand for this I may include this in the package itself.

 

Any chance you'll be releasing for a fix for the warnings that show up in the 3.4 console? I know it's trivial, but I am neurotic about not having warnings in the console.

 

Do you mean the warnings regarding EditorGUILayout.ObjectField since Unity 3.4? This was fixed in v2.3. Or do you get other warnings?

 

Hi Raoul, I'm the creator of the Pro Racing AI package and I would love to see some kind of integration between our products. My AI package sees the track as a list of nodes with the following information:

• Node Position: we can use the center of the track as the node position.
• Left Border Distance: the distance from the node position to the left border of the track.
• Right Border Distance: the distance from the node position to the right border of the track.
• Left Wall Distance: the distance from the node position to the wall on the left side of the track. It doesn't have to be a real wall, it can be an imaginary wall that can't be crossed by the AI because it would be forced to respawn in the nearest node position.
• Right Wall Distance: the distance from the node position to the wall on the right side of the track.
• Track Banking: the angle between the track and the horizon at that point of the track.

My AI reads all the racing line information from a JSON file, so if you were capable of generating a compatible JSON file from EasyRoads3D, we would have a perfect integration... do you think it would be possible? If you are interested, I can provide the required documentation and some code examples.

 

Hi David, all that should definitely be possible, sounds like a good idea! So please, send me more info...

 

I am on 2.2.1, didn't know there was an update, will grab it, thanks.

Edit: I don't know if this is within your control or not, but when I hit "Update" on the unity store, it tells me that I am up to date, when I still have 2.2.1.

After downloading 2.3.0, I have more warnings than before:

Assets/EasyRoads3D/Editor/ERTextureWindow.js(5,5): Warning BCW0003: WARNING: Unused local variable 'window'. (BCW0003) (Assembly-UnityScript-Editor)

Assets/EasyRoads3D/Editor/ERTextureWindow.js(5,5): Warning BCW0003: WARNING: Unused local variable 'w'. (BCW0003) (Assembly-UnityScript-Editor)

Assets/EasyRoads3D/Editor/MarkerEditorScript.js(1,1): Warning BCW0003: WARNING: Unused local variable 'origAnchor'. (BCW0003) (Assembly-UnityScript-Editor)

Assets/EasyRoads3D/Editor/RoadObjectEditorScript.js(5,5): Warning BCW0003: WARNING: Unused local variable 'oldApplyAnim'. (BCW0003) (Assembly-UnityScript-Editor)

Assets/EasyRoads3D/Editor/RoadObjectEditorScript.js(5,5): Warning BCW0003: WARNING: Unused local variable 'parentObject'. (BCW0003) (Assembly-UnityScript-Editor)

The following are warnings I got before upgrading too:

Assets/EasyRoads3D/Editor/SurfaceEditorScript.js(1,1): Warning BCW0016: WARNING: Namespace ''System.Collections'' is never used. (BCW0016) (Assembly-UnityScript-Editor)

Assets/EasyRoads3D/Editor/TerrainEditorScript.js(1,1): Warning BCW0016: WARNING: Namespace ''System.Collections'' is never used. (BCW0016) (Assembly-UnityScript-Editor)

 

Hi Amazingruss, here you can see the latest version, http://www.unityterraintools.com/downloads.php

I always open an empty scene, remove all folders inside the EasyRoads3D folder Don't remove the sideobjectslog file if you have side objects!!!!!! And then import the new package to make sure all is fresh. Could you backup your project and try this? Please let me know if that solved the issues...

Version 2.4.0 was actually released yesterday. I am waiting for the assetstore confirmation

 

Ok, thanks Raoul. I will give it a try.

 

I couldn't get it from that link because I didn't get a serial number from the Unity store, but it is up on the store now, so I downloaded it from there. I still get all the same warnings.

 

Hi raoul, I was very busy these months and finally i used your fantastic tool on a project of mine massively! (minimum 600 markers). I used, especially, Custom objects feature on mesh terrain gameobjects (no unity terrain) and all goes nicely and the result was perfect.

I would give to you only a few considerations (EasyRoads3Dv2.3.1):

- when using a mesh instead a unity terrain could be usefull change the error message "No terrain object found..." in a warning (with ignore button); now i must necessarily create a terrain to procede.
- I notice that removing the Unity terrain (not used)cause that the custom objects disapear. (all can be fixed by creating a new terrain)
- Last little issue regards the "snap to terrain" setting. It works only if the mesh terrain stay on user layer 30 and "Mesh Surface" settings seems do not having effect.

Best regards

Max

p.s. have you interrupted the implementation of the new "Geometry editor"?. It was so promising!.

 

Hi guys,

@Amazingruss, Yes, I just saw that v 2.4.0 has been accepted on the Assetstore, including the discount price of $70... I will go through the list you posted and see if those variables are indeed no longer used. If they aren't then for some reason they do not raise warnings over here!?

@Max, That warning is intended for road objects as these require a unity terrain object. Indeed this is not necessary when you create a new procedural object as these objects do not deform the terrain. I will fix that. At the moment indeed layer 30 is used to snap markers to mesh surfaces. This to avoid raycast hits with any object in the scene. Would you prefer hits with any object in the scene?

The new procedural geometry system is part of the current beta which also support intersections for roads. The editor window itself is still unstable but this will be improved in the next beta. It is definitely not interrupted and it will have more new features.

 

raoul... setting "layer 30" manually is not a problem... i did put this in evidence only becouse this settings is not clear and is not present in the documentation (i remember this in the first beta with mesh terrain support).

I'm happy to this... i like very much the new editor windows and Its powerfull features...good job!