EasyRoads3D v1.0 for Unity - Plugin version Online

Thank you, Raoul. I appreciate the suggestions and the river in the Bootcamp project is exactly what we want.

I thought I was posting in v.2!

 

Ok, no problem, the v1 and v2 threads do overlap. Let me know if you have futher questions regarding all this...

 

Hi Raoul.

Your plugin works great but it breaks at great heights:
http://gyazo.com/47121d2f6b2923d6c1297f5e153b12c0

In this example the top marker is at 800 meters. There is still 200 meters to spare on the terrain. (1000 total height).

I'm not sure if the following two error is related but this was in the console:
MissingMethodException: EasyRoads3D.OQOCDDCOQO.OODQDQQDQQ
Boo.Lang.Runtime.DynamicDispatching.MethodDispatcherFactory.ProduceExtensionDispatcher ()
Boo.Lang.Runtime.DynamicDispatching.MethodDispatcherFactory.Create ()
Boo.Lang.Runtime.RuntimeServices.DoCreateMethodDispatcher (System.Object target, System.Type targetType, System.String name, System.Object[] args)
Boo.Lang.Runtime.RuntimeServices.CreateMethodDispatcher (System.Object target, System.String name, System.Object[] args)
Boo.Lang.Runtime.RuntimeServices+<Invoke>c__AnonStorey15.<>m__9 ()
Boo.Lang.Runtime.DynamicDispatching.DispatcherCache.Get (Boo.Lang.Runtime.DynamicDispatching.DispatcherKey key, Boo.Lang.Runtime.DynamicDispatching.DispatcherFactory factory)
Boo.Lang.Runtime.RuntimeServices.GetDispatcher (System.Object target, System.String cacheKeyName, System.Type[] cacheKeyTypes, Boo.Lang.Runtime.DynamicDispatching.DispatcherFactory factory)
Boo.Lang.Runtime.RuntimeServices.GetDispatcher (System.Object target, System.Object[] args, System.String cacheKeyName, Boo.Lang.Runtime.DynamicDispatching.DispatcherFactory factory)
Boo.Lang.Runtime.RuntimeServices.Invoke (System.Object target, System.String name, System.Object[] args)
UnityScript.Lang.UnityRuntimeServices.Invoke (System.Object target, System.String name, System.Object[] args, System.Type scriptBaseType)
RoadObjectEditorScript.EasyRoadsGUIMenu (Boolean flag, Boolean senderIsMain, .RoadObjectScript nRoadScript) (at Assets/Editor/RoadObjectEditorScript.js:107)
RoadObjectEditorScript.OnInspectorGUI () (at Assets/Editor/RoadObjectEditorScript.js:66)
UnityEditor.InspectorWindow.DrawEditors (Boolean isRepaintEvent, UnityEditor.Editor[] editors, Boolean eyeDropperDirty)
UnityEditor.DockArea:OnGUI()



ArgumentException: Getting control 0's position in a group with only 0 controls when doing Repaint
Aborting
UnityEngine.GUILayoutGroup.GetNext ()
UnityEngine.GUILayoutUtility.DoGetRect (Single minWidth, Single maxWidth, Single minHeight, Single maxHeight, UnityEngine.GUIStyle style, UnityEngine.GUILayoutOption[] options)
UnityEngine.GUILayoutUtility.GetRect (Single width, Single height)
UnityEditor.EditorGUILayout.Space ()
RoadObjectEditorScript.EasyRoadsGUIMenu (Boolean flag, Boolean senderIsMain, .RoadObjectScript nRoadScript) (at Assets/Editor/RoadObjectEditorScript.js:152)
RoadObjectEditorScript.OnInspectorGUI () (at Assets/Editor/RoadObjectEditorScript.js:66)
UnityEditor.InspectorWindow.DrawEditors (Boolean isRepaintEvent, UnityEditor.Editor[] editors, Boolean eyeDropperDirty)
UnityEditor.DockArea:OnGUI()

 

Hi 3d_Game_Ready,

Looking at the screenshot I think this is not so much related to the actual height of the top of the road / terrain but more to the height differences between the road shape and the terrain at specific spots. It seems the markers are placed at a rather big distance above the terrain and you want to deform the terrain accordingly.

I just had a quick look at the code related to this. It uses a specific generally "safe" margin as it expects the road to be reasonably close to the terrain height at that position. It looks like you are doing things outside this used margin. See below a screenshot with increased margins, the top marker is 2000 meters above the terrain which is flat by origin.



It has never been raised as a problem in the past 4 yours, is this something you noticed during testing or is this (100+ meter height differences between the road and the terrain) actually something you want to be able to do? In that case, I can easily prepare a new build with increased margins.

But what about that error message (especially the first as the second problably is a result of the first ), when does that happen?

Raoul

 

Hi Raoul

You are right, the two errors had nothing to do with it. They didn't come back but if they do I will shout.

I actually do need a steep incline like that, but I got the problem to disappear by lifting the terrain till just before the problem appears, and then deleting the splatmaps that you save (so the new height your code considers is reset), so don't worry to upload a fix. I can work like this.

 

Ok, you can also enable Multiple Terrains in General Settings (which works just fine for single terrains as well) and switch "restore" off. You can now lift the marker up and deform the terrain in steps. But I would recommend to keep a backup of the original terrain, just in case...

Raoul

 

Cool, switching off restore helps a lot. It saves me the task of finding and deleting the backed up splatmaps. Tx!

 

I can't find a tutorial anywhere about how to make a bridge with this tool. Can somebody point me to one please?

 

Hi BigLouis1971,

Making a bridge involves two steps:

1. Enable "Bridge Segment" for the affected markers.
2. Use the side objects system to generate the actual bridge geometry

The demo project and the side objects package on our website includes an example of a bridge. Check the _readme file in the root directory of the imported package if you got your copy on the Asset Store!

So in v2, bridges can be created with the side objects system, in v3 (http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/easyroads3d-v3-the-upcoming-new-road-system.229327/) this will work the same but more presets will be available.

Raoul

 

Thanks for the reply. Congratulations for an excellent tool. I don't have the tool yet but I'll get it in two weeks. I'm new to Unity and I'm still studying which tools I should get for my project and give priority to the most important ones to get them first because I have a limited budget. This tool definitely is a priority so I'll get it in two weeks. When will version 3 be ready?

 

Ok, in that case, in v2 the side objects system was introduced. One of the options is that it allows you to define the shape of geometry which will then be generated across the spline shape. This way you can construct different elements of bridges exactly following the shape of the road. As mentioned the demo project and sideobjects example package on our website includes an example.

I already posted a link to the v3 "Work in Progress" / beta thread. V3 will include a similar side objects system with more options so you will still be able to construct your own bridge types. Apart from that, it will include more presets, useful for quick prototypes or if you don't necessarily require your own bridge types.

This is the official v2 thread, with v2 videos, http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/ea...d-rivers-procedural-geometry-for-unity.82331/ , the bridge you see in the screenshots on the first page, is the bridge also part of the side objects system and demo project.

Raoul

 

Can I use a building prefab as a side object to build a city easier?

 

Hi BigLouis1971, that is possible. The side objects system can instantiate any object perfectly aligned with the road at fixed distances or at random distances. You can also create a prefab with all your buildings as child objects. The system can each time instantiate a random building or instantiate buildings according the child object sequence. Like the bootcamp fence example in the side objects video, for each segment a random child object is selected to add variation.

Raoul

 

Wow man, this tool is awesome. You have no idea about how excited I'm right now about getting this tool and starting to learn Unity, modelling and programming. With this tool you can make a city in what time, maybe 1/10 of the time? This tool was the missing factor to find enough motivation to decide to spend time to learn Unity. Thanks to the community and specially you man for an awesome tool!

 

Yes, it can speed up many repetitive tedious tasks. In the case of creating a city, it is not a fully blown city generator (yet ), but indeed if you set up your building prefabs so the bounding box size of the different buildings nicely match then they should line up nicely with the current side objects system, if that is required.

Raoul

 

You said is not a city generator yet, do you have any plans to turn it into one? I know it will not fulfill every task when building a city but tasks like building a residential area with a few blocks full of houses of 9 or 10 different styles, arranged together in some kind of pattern, like a lot of areas I've seen here in Ohio. That kind of task I guess will do it perfectly, right?

Another question I have. Let's say that I'm using a few houses as side objects and I have a straight piece of road of about let's say 1,000 feet. I guess that the tool will align the houses in a straight line at both sides of the road, right? What happens if I add a curve to that straight piece of road, how will the tool align the houses in the curved part of the road?

 

Once v3 is out, a city generator would be the logical next step. Residetial areas are usually a little bit easier to do, but what you dscribe can already be done with v2 as mentioned in my previous post.

If you use the same side object on both sides, at either left or right of the road the house will point the wrong way. So you have to create two prefabs and two side objects (one for the left and one for the right side of the road) and align the houses correctly in the prefab. Or you could create a little script that will rotate the houses 180 degrees.

Also in curves the rotation of the houses will follow the direction of the road at that point assuming that is what you want! Because the tool includes several options for the rotation of side objects.

Raoul

 

Another question that arouse. How many rows of side objects can I place next to the other? Let's say that I have my road already built and I'm ready to build some sidewalks. Let's say that I want my sidewalks as detailed as possible. Let's say that the first row will have park meters at a fixed interval. The second one will have bushes also at a fixed interval. The third one will have some fire hydrants also at a fixed interval. Will that be possible? How many rows of than kind can I have in my road?

 

Hi BigLouis1971, Yes, that is a good example of how you can use the side objects system and in theory there is no limit. You can create as many side objects as you want through the side objects manager. They will all be listed (inactive) in the "General Settings" tab of the selected road object and you can activate as many as you want for that road.

Raoul

 

Hi Raoul, yes I have a EasyRoads Pro license, I am just excited about new version, nothing more, no special requests, waiting for release to be available in Asset Store, keep it up!

 

Ok, there are a couple of things I want in the first public release which are still being worked on, meanwhile it will be released in betas. I will be posting updates in the v3 WIP thread.

Raoul

 

mobile platform supported?

 

Hi wana7262,

Yes, all this does work for mobile. Additionally, it includes optimization options to deal with some general iOS UV issues on long tracks. EasyRoads3D does not limit you for the mobile platform. Some thing to pay attention too is that it does work with the Unity terrain object. You can use the unity terrain object for mobile too but you may want to use mesh terrains for performance reasons. In that case you can first build your terrain and roads using a terrain object. Once all that is done, you can convert the terrain to a mesh and optimize that mesh.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Can you post the errors? Is this with the beta 5 package in the "Unity 5" sub folder or with the original asset store package? Last week I uploaded the Unity 5 package through Unity 5 which now is possible, I think it is still pending review. But that should automatically download the Unity 5 package when you are using Unity 5.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Just wanted to ask a couple of things before I buy this asset.

1) Does this work with Terrain Composer, and if so are there any issues I should be aware of?
2) Can it intersect roads. I complete a road, then connect another road to that one, will it blend well or will it involve some tweaking?
3) Easy to add different road textures of my own to the system?

 

Hi Stranger Danger,

This is an old thread. The current public version is v2, intersections are not supported yet in the version. But v3 (available in betas and not far from being released and free if you have an EasyRoads3D Pro license. the asset store version) does support intersections in various ways:

http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/easyroads3d-v3-the-upcoming-new-road-system.229327/

Both v2 and v3 support Terrain Composer and you can use your own road textures. The generated road objects are ordinary game objects with a mesh filter and renderer attached. So you can assign any material you want. In v3 you can create road presets (among others, define a specific road width and assign a specific material). You can select this preset for newly create roads, the new road will automatically inherit all preset settings.

Let me know if you have further questions.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

From the image of the tool that allows you to make a shape of a railway cross-section, would this work then for dirt tracks that have been gouged out? Something like in this pic?



And if so I can see it does smooth curves etc, is there any function or plan to have a kind of 'add noise' to the 'track' so you can get a more realistic bumpy irregular surface? or a way to manually 'rough' it up a bit?

 

Hi ZenMicro,

Indeed you can do that as well in v3. Not with the default roads because these roads are based on two vertices per row.

But you can do this with custom road shapes just like the train rail example.

Furthermore, you can change the shape per marker to add variation. One thing to take into consideration is that you cannot really adjust the terrain to match this type of shape due to the grid based nature of the terrain object. So the road shape should be designed with the lowest part matching the terrain height.

The new demo project will include examples like the track in your image.

You may want to copy your post here, http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/easyroads3d-v3-the-upcoming-new-road-system.229327/, this thread is rather old

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Good day!
I've some troubles with shader setup. If I check Diffuse shader everything is ok, but if I check Bubped or Unity5 shaders - you can see it on screenshots)
What's happening?

Thank you in advance.

 

Hi Curunir,

I am not sure because the first screenshots look alright, but you are using normal map textures, this requires tangent info. Do you have "Calculate Tangents" in the Build Settings and also "Calculate Tangents in Edit Mode" (optionally) in General Settings > Scene Settings, activated?

Also, as mentioned above, please use http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/easyroads3d-v3-the-upcoming-new-road-system.229327/, this thread is v1, it is an old thread.

Thanks,
Raoul

[update] Continued here: http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/ea...g-new-road-system.229327/page-38#post-2494279

 

Hi Raoul:

I have a problem with the terrain beside the road. There are a lot of sawtooth, as you can see in the attached image. The terrain have the configuration you can see.

It´s posible to avoid them?.

Thank you.

 

... sorry... the image it is this.

 

Hi CHEFerrol,

That is what will happen with steep height differences between the road and the terrain. The grid based nature of the unity terrain object becomes apparant. To some extend you can use the Smooth button options in the Build settings to correct this but you will never get perfectly smooth edges with such abrupt height differences like in your screenshot.

You can increase the indent and surrounding values in critical areas which leaves you more space to smoothen the terrain.

But it is impossible get smooth edges with steep height differences because it is impossible to add detail points to the terrain object.

An alternative is to use terrain mesh overlays in critical areas. You can use the shape type of side object for this. See the below images taken from the v3 beta thread, http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/easyroads3d-v3-the-upcoming-new-road-system.229327/. This v1.0 thread is a bit outdated





Please let me know if you have more questions regarding this.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Thank you Raoul.

At this moment it is not a problem to me modify the route of the road, then I can try to get best results without problems, and i will increase the indent and surrounding values too, as you have commented me.

Thanks.

 

Just to clarify, increasing the indent and surrounding values doesn't remove the sawtooth shape shape of the terrain. But especially increasing the indent values for markers in that area will give you more space to smoothen the sawtooth edge without affecting the terrain area below the road.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Hi Raoul:

Only modifying the indent and surrounding values the result it's very nice for me.

Thanks again.

 

Hi Raoul:

A new need, i think more complex.

We are interested in obtain a set of waypoints for automatic movement of a car along the road. We thougth that the side pillars (please see attached image) would do the trick but we found that it is a unique object and we cannot read the "succesive" coordinates. ¿Does exist a way to obtain a sequence of objects ( visibles or invisibles) that follow (one of) the lane? We think that the spacing will be similar to the spacing found in the pillars because they already follow the shape of the road.

Until this moment we have created the wayponits one by one by hand ....we have tested over than 100 ....but we need to create more or less 500 units more to finish the road. This it is a enormous process and has not enough accuracy.

Thank´s in advance.

Che Ferrol.

 

Indeed when increasing the indent and surrounding values significantly those edges in your screenshot will be less steep which by itself already reduces that sawtooth shape in the terrain.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

I am not entirely sure what you want to do but it seems this is something where the v3 API can come in useful. It works both at runtime as in the Unity editor. It gives you access to the spline data with center info, left side and right side info.

Regarding having a car follow the road, the runtime scene in the beta package shows how to create a road at runtime. After that an object follows the road, you may want to have a look at that as a reference how this can be achieved.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Yes Raoul:

May by this is what we need.

We are testing an autonomous car which in some situations must drive automatically. For this automatic driving, previously, we must tell them which is the route. To tell them this information, we have taken the solution to create a row of waypoint along the road. But this waypoints must follow the correct route and for instance in the curves zones is not obvious the position of them.

If we can access to the spline information we suppose we will make a offset to fix the route in the middle of the right lane.

I,m sorry Raoul, how can we access to the information of the spline?. Is there available documentation about the API?.

Thanks.

CheFerro

 

Did you check the manual ?

http://www.unityterraintools.com/EasyRoads3D/v3/html/scriptingAPI.html

What you probably are looking for regarding waypoints is:

Class: ERRoad
public Vector3[] GetSplinePointsCenter()
public Vector3[] GetSplinePointsRightSide()
public Vector3[] GetSplinePointsLeftSide()

Also as mentioned, the v3 beta package includes a runtime scene with an object following the road.

Thanks,
Raoul

 

Thank you very much Raoul.

 

Easy road version 2.

Hello Raoul,

I have some troubles with the normal maps on the road material. I made a Substance Designer road material with normal map, based on the unity standard shader and because the normal map the road is too dark and looks weird. Dropping the Substance Designer road material on a plane looks as expected. My own shader with just a color map without any other maps, like normal map, looks good too.

Is there a possibility to add normal map to a created road mesh?

 

Hello mkgame,

If this happens after assigning a normalmap then this appears to be related to missing tangent info on the road mesh. Because in Unity 5 objects are rendered in black after assigning a normalmap while the mesh does not have tangent info.

Both v2 and v3 have the option "Calculate Tangents" in General Settings and in the Build Settings. Could you check this? For v2 especially in Build Mode.

Thanks,
Raoul

v3: http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/easyroads3d-v3-the-upcoming-new-road-system.229327/

 

Thanks, that worked fine.

 

Hi Raoul:

After some time developing another projects we need to finish the project in wich we are using your tool.

Now we are having a problem related to the lightning. As you know Unity does some calculations about lightning each time a object is modified. If you remember we have a large terrain (about 30Km) and the time to render the lightning is taking about 2 days. If we disabled the auto option in the lightning tab we can work with the project faster but the lightning is not correct.

Do you know how to exclude the terrain and road from the Unity calculations in order to reduce this time? Do you think it could be a problem related to the road?

Thanks in advance

 

Hi Raoul,

I don't know what I'm doing wrong but if I put this code in my scene it returns 0 roads...

using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;
using EasyRoads3Dv3;

public class Waypoints : MonoBehaviour {

private ERRoad[] roads;
private Vector3[] puntos;
private ERRoadNetwork redDeCarreteras;

// Use this for initialization
void Start () {

redDeCarreteras = new ERRoadNetwork ();
roads = redDeCarreteras.GetRoads ();

Debug.Log (roads.Length);

}

// Update is called once per frame
void Update () {

}
}

But the scene contains two roads as you can see in the attached image.

Also if I create a public variable of ERRoad type Unity doesn't show it in the inspector.

Thanks in advance

 

Hi CHEFerrol,

While working on the road network objects constantly get updated. It is indeed recommended to switch off "Auto" in the Lighting window during this process because it causes unnecessary delay.

But once you are finished with the road network you can switch it back on. Is that not working well for you? What are the problems?

Thanks,
Raoul

v3: http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/easyroads3d-v3-the-upcoming-new-road-system.229327/

 

Your code is v3 API code. Looking at the hierarchy structure ("Markers") and also the shader "Road Edit Mode"), the road objects in your scene are made with v2.

It seems you have both v2 and v3 imported, please check the following:

Top Menu > GameObject > 3D Objects > EasyRoads3Dv3 > New Road Network

And for additional v2 / v3 info:

/Assets/EasyRoads3D/_Readme

Thanks,
Raoul

v3: http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/easyroads3d-v3-the-upcoming-new-road-system.229327/

 

Yes Raoul, we are using this method, but we didn´t know if there was another one to get a more quickly results at the end of each modification. Two days seems to much...

Thanks you