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World Building EasyRoads3D v3 - the upcoming new road system

Discussion in 'Tools In Progress' started by raoul, Feb 19, 2014.

  1. akareactor

    akareactor

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    Hi Raoul,

    I found a new button "Add Project Road Types", how it works? I see the list containing my old and deleted road types, where from it fishes out? Believe it very useful feature but dont understand it relationship with Unity standard workflow.
     
  2. raoul

    raoul

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    Hi akastargazer,

    Scene specific road types are stored in the scene data. When creating a new Road Network it will ask you to import available Road Types. If you select "No" you will still be able to do this through that button you mentioned "Add Project Road Types". Those Road Types not already available in the scene, will be selectable and can be added to the scene. Project road types are stored in the assets folder. New road types you create will be added to the project road types as well. This way you can reuse road types across scenes and still manage the available road types in a scene.

    One thing to do here is, add an option to manage project road types and permanantly remove road types fom a project like you can do for scene specific road types.

    The same option/functionality is available for Side objects.

    It is implemented this way because I thought it would be useful to be able to reuse road types / side objects in other scenes without having to recreate them. So I am not sure if you can compare this workflow to standard Unity workflow? Although, the Unity terrain object does actually work in a similar way to a certain extend. The terrain asset is stored in the assets folder you can add the same terrain object to multiple scenes, when you make changes to a terrain in one scene the same terrain changes will be visible in the other scene.

    Thanks,
    Raoul
     
  3. akareactor

    akareactor

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    Hi Raoul,

    By standard Unity workflow I mean the instances are stored inside a scene, but it's classes (or types, say wider) are stored in prefabs. The road is a specific instance of a road type. Maybe road types should stored in prefabs, not as hidden scene objects?

    Cheers,
    Ivan
     
    Meceka likes this.
  4. Besus

    Besus

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    Hey Raoul,

    It's been a while since I checked this thread and found that you had a new update out as well (I was still on 6.5.1) but I found a strange bug occurring recently. When I go to edit a road (or even create an entirely new scene and road object), I am unable to move the nodes or edit the roads in any way. See the following to better demonstrate what I mean: https://gfycat.com/GloriousCreativeCalf

    I had encountered this in 6.5.1 which prompted me to update to 7.1; this did nothing to resolve the issue. I also went so far as to delete the entire Library folder from my project and rebuild it - again with no luck. Strangely, importing just this package in to a brand new project exhibits the same behavior. Is this perhaps an issue with the license or authentication (even though I have no issues toggling edit mode itself or viewing the various tabs of the road object)?

    As always, thanks for the fantastic support!
     
  5. Meceka

    Meceka

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    +1 on road types being stored on prefabs. Hidden objects makes editting very complicated.

    We are using road types universally. For every scene, we are using same (universal) road types. I think most people would wish to use it this way.
     
  6. raoul

    raoul

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    Hi Ivan,

    The scene road types and side objects are stored in ERModularbase attached to the main Road Network object. The project road types and side objects are stored in /Assets/EasyRoads3D/Resources/ERSideObjectsLog

    How would you like to see this work differently? What sort of functionality is currently missing?

    [EDIT] Or do you mean, physically store each road type as a new prefab in the assets folder? This can be done but I am not sure what the advantage will be? In that case you can of course drop a new road it in the scene but our experience is that creating a new road through the New Road tab is faster. Also, each road will be different, so when using an instance you do not want to do "Apply Changes to prefab", it can potentially cause confusion.

    Thanks,
    Raoul
     
    Last edited: Dec 29, 2015
  7. raoul

    raoul

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    Hey Brandon,

    Hope you are well! Yes, it is always recommended to update to the latest builds and indeed your issue seems related to the authentication. Did you perhaps upgrade to Win 10 or so?

    I will email you a script that should solve this.

    Thanks,
    Raoul
     
  8. raoul

    raoul

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    Hi Meceka,

    The reason for the current implementation is that the list of road types in a project can be huge, which is the case in our situation. For a particular scene we only import the needed road types.

    Just to avoid misunderstandings, scene road types and project road types should be in synch. Changes to a road type in a particular scene should update the matching project road type.

    Am I still missing something? Will a "General Settings > Scene Settings > Synch Road Types with Project Road Types" option make things easier? Whenever you create a new road type in scene A, the new road type will be available automatically in scene B, no need to update using "Add Project Road Types".

    Thanks,
    Raoul
     
  9. Besus

    Besus

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    I did not upgrade to Windows 10 and to clarify, this happens on both Windows 7 as well as Windows 8.1.
    Thanks Raoul!
     
  10. raoul

    raoul

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    I just sent the script I mentioned, please let me know if that doesn't help.

    Thanks,
    Raoul
     
  11. Meceka

    Meceka

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    Hello Raoul, I misunderstood and thought you were going to keep all scenes have seperate road types.

    I remember having a problem (months ago) with road types before. I will explain it so you will see an example;

    Created a new *test* scene (to not mess up original scene), tested roads, made some prefabs, side objects, road types.
    I remember having a problem, I probably couldn't get them to work in original scene as they weren't in sync.

    But, I just tested the "Add Project Road Types" Button, and I believe it was what I was looking for back than.

    We needed a way to share road types between scenes, and with help of that button we already have it. After you also add a way to remove them, it's useful enough.
     
  12. Besus

    Besus

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    That did the trick and will certainly come in handy in the future. Thanks again, Raoul!
     
    raoul likes this.
  13. raoul

    raoul

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    Yes, that is indeed how it currently works.

    1. When creating the Road Network in a new scene you can choose to import all road types or afterwards as selection of project road types thorugh General Settings > Road Types > Add Project Road Types

    2. When creating new road types in a scene, these road types are added to the project road types. You can import these new road types in another scene with an exisiting scene the same way: General Settings > Road Types > Add Project Road Types

    3. When changing a road type in scene A, the matching project road type will be updated and when opening scene B, after selecting the road network, the same side object will be updated as well.

    Removing project road types will be added, but it is a little bit lower on the list since it is more an improvement then a requirement.

    Thanks,
    Raoul
     
  14. warren-miller-maltd

    warren-miller-maltd

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  15. raoul

    raoul

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    First of all a Happy new Year!

    Beta 7.2 is now ready for download

    This update includes fixes/improvements for most issues/requests recently discussed in this thread.

    I have to double check the functionality of the asset store build. If all works well, this build and otherwise the next update, will also be available for download through the asset store.

    Thanks,
    Raoul
     
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  16. LaverZZY

    LaverZZY

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    hi raoul, i have some questions:
    can v3 work with lightmaps?
    is there a way to split road to multiple for culling?
    can v3 scale road size?
     
  17. raoul

    raoul

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    Hi LaverZZY,

    In the build settings you will see the option "Calculate Lightmap UVs". I haven't checked that for a while but it should be working fine, otherwise let me know.

    This is an option in v2. It has not been implemented for v3 yet but it will be. The reason why it is less important in v3 is because most likely you will add intersections which will automatically split the road in individual game objects / meshes. But you will have more control over this in a later build.

    I am not entirely sure what you mean with "scale road size"? You do have full control over the width of the road, you can create new road types, change the width, material, etc. so you can quickly reuse them. Is that what you meant?

    Thanks,
    Raoul
     
  18. linhvm

    linhvm

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    I bought a version 2 from assetstore.unity3d.com
    How can I update into version 3 ?
    I will pay fee for new version, right ?
     
  19. raoul

    raoul

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    Hi linhvm,

    I also got your PM and already replied asking for your email address and the order number. I will send you the download link.

    And, there is no need to upgrade for v3 if you have an EasyRoads3D Pro copy, v3 is included!

    I am currently looking into v2 (and also v3) because Unity 5.4 will have some significant changes that can potentially make the package unusable. Fixing that has priority, but the v3 asset store package appears to be all working well, just have to finish it. It will soon be available on the asset store so you can import it with your current EasyRaods3D Pro copy as well.

    Thanks,
    Raoul
     
  20. sathya

    sathya

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    Hi @raoul
    Can i build the final scene without finalizing the road network ? If i just build the road network and not finalize will i face any performance issues ?
     
  21. raoul

    raoul

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    Hi sathya,

    Non of the scripts use Update() etc. So in that regard there will not be any performance issues. Also, all functionality is triggered through editor scripts so that will not interfere either.

    That said, I would certainly recommend to clean up the road network for the final, final build after testing if you do not use the runtime API. You could backup the project and create the final build through the backup with the road network finalized.

    Thanks,
    Raoul
     
  22. Recon03

    Recon03

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    Hi Raoul I have Unity 5.2.4 not using 5.3 due the bugs from Unity..Anyways how can I get an update from VS3?

    I have it from before, but not sure if there is any updates... You have my email. Thanks!
     
  23. raoul

    raoul

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    Hi Recon03,

    The download link has remained the same as for the previous betas since beta 5. I just resent it to your email.

    Thanks,
    Raoul
     
  24. Recon03

    Recon03

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    K, thanks just making sure.
     
  25. Kane C Hart

    Kane C Hart

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    This looks really sweet. I'm making small game and love to show this off with my community. Can anyone get into the beta? I assume that one would have to have a license.
     
  26. hopeful

    hopeful

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    You need to have purchased EasyRoads3D Pro v2 in order to get access to the beta of EasyRoads3D Pro v3.
     
  27. Kane C Hart

    Kane C Hart

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    Okay thanks for the info. Don't really have the dough right now. Looks like a lot of fun though. I might try getting later even to show off on my youtube channel. Looks like it be a lot of fun.
     
  28. Stone-Legion

    Stone-Legion

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    Went ahead and bought this. Looks great can't wait to play with the beta and do intersections. I'm hoping the beta is stable enough to do basic intersections and that is pretty much it I might try making a bridge but really just wanting to make a small city/town.

    Any chance be newer videos like your old videos showing a bit of a how to from scratch?

    Thanks :)
     
  29. chrisabranch

    chrisabranch

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    i upgraded my unity and and reinstalled windows 10 and now i cant use V3..... i get a message that says
    "there was a problem with your registration,
    Only 2 machines supported per license!"

    i'm using the same machine , just did some upgrades , i understand piracy is your concern but, pirates always find workarounds and will make it work if they want, i'm a paying user.
    All its doing is stopping the honest (paying) users from accessing what we paid for.
    i love the product but time is money, this slow down is costing me, how do i get this working, thank you.


    edit :
    33 minutes i got a fix in email..... good service, thank you
     
    Last edited: Jan 16, 2016
    raoul likes this.
  30. raoul

    raoul

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    Hi Kane, like hopeful mentioned, you have access to the v3 beta with a Pro license. Just contact me and I will send it to you. The first public beta is about to be submitted to the asset store so you will be able to import straight from the asset store.

    Thanks,
    Raoul
     
  31. raoul

    raoul

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    Hi Stone Legion,

    The current videos are all provisional. New videos will be prepared once v3.0 is ready and the Inspector options/layout is final.

    Meanwhile just let me know if you need something to be explained better. Also, the manual includes a Quick Getting started section in the beginning which will get you going. Another useful section is the Shortcuts and Scene Operations page.

    Thanks,
    Raoul
     
  32. raoul

    raoul

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    Hi Chris,

    As mentioned in the email reply I sent yesterday evening, this is only required after an OS upgrade and this is only during closed beta. And taking time zones into consideration you can indeed rely on a quick reply if there are any issues :)

    Thanks,
    Raoul
     
  33. virgiliu

    virgiliu

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    Hi Raoul, I've started looking into adding pathfinding on a road created with EasyRoads. One thing that seemed odd is that the NavMesh becomes visible only when getting really close to the road. Do you know if there is a way to work around this, or maybe what the cause is? I've tried doing "Frame Selected" (F key) with the road and surface selected but that didn't do much.

    Clipboard01.png

    The NavMesh in this screenshot cuts off, but if I move the scene view further along the road, the NavMesh appears correctly, but only if I'm really close.

    If I use a regular plane as the NavMesh baking "target" it's visible even from far away.

    Clipboard01.png
     
  34. raoul

    raoul

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    Hi virgiliu,

    We do not use navmeshes so I am not too familiar with it, but since the navmesh is partially visible I do not think this is a mesh bounds issue (if that can be an issue at all with navmeshes) and the mesh bounds is always recalculated anyway.

    Are you using the EasyRoads3D shaders? In that case, since it looks like the navmesh geometry is entirely inside the road mesh, could this be caused by the offset on these shaders? Could you try the Unity standard shader in that case o disable the mesh renderer temporarily? It seems like this is just a visual render issue which should not affect the navmesh behaviour.

    Thanks,
    Raoul
     
  35. virgiliu

    virgiliu

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    Hi Raoul,

    Indeed that was the case. Changing the shader to standard shader fixed the problem and I can use it like that to set up the NavMesh and then switch back to EasyRoads' shader. Thank you!
     
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  36. AlbertoMastretta

    AlbertoMastretta

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    Hello Raoul,

    Just wanted to ask a few of quick questions before buying EasyRoads Pro.
    1 - Does EasyRoads Pro support banking? I couldn't tell by the videos.
    2 - Does EasyRoads support all or most kind of shaders?
    3 - Does EasyRoads support blending between materials along the path?

    Cheers!
    Alberto.
     
  37. raoul

    raoul

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    Hi Alberto,

    Yes, banking is supported. There are some updates on this for beta 7.3 (which will be announced very soon :))

    The road objects are ordinary Unity game objects with a mesh renderer attached so you can assign any material / shader you like. One thing to take into account is z-fighting with the terrain. The shaders that come with the package use an offset to deal with this. But this is fairly easy to add to your own shaders and if you do not want to change your shaders, depending on the nature of your terrain and your roads, there are other ways to deal with the z-fighting.

    Blending between materials is not supported. Do you literally mean blending or changing materials along the path? Changing materials will be added. For real blending I guess something similar could be added based on vertex colours. Since you can fade in/out roads, another way to achieve this would be to use different road objects overlapping each other.

    Let me know if you have further questions.

    Thanks,
    Raoul
     
  38. raoul

    raoul

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    EasyRoads3D v3 Beta 7.3 is now available

    As always you can use the same download link as before and please backup your project first befre importing the update.

    This beta includes optimizations to the road shape when connected to a crossing. The shape near the connection will be smooth regardless the height difference between the road and the crossing.

    Terrain deformation has been improved when using one of the other deformation options per marker. This has affected the deformation code/data. Please refresh existing road networks:

    General Settings > Scene Settings > "Refresh Road Network" button

    API support for connection/Intersection objects has been added. This will be further expanded with more options and optimizations but all that is required to instantiate crossings and connect/disconnect crossings with roads is available.

    The Max 30 degree lock for Tilting/banking has been removed for road objects that do not deform the terrain. These objects can now be rotated over the full 360 degrees per marker which can be useful for FX type of tracks.

    Finally, this update will also be submitted to the asset store togther with a v2 update that fixes issues with the Unity 5.4 beta.

    Please report bugs, I will now complete the v3.0 package with more assets (textures, side object examples, etc.) and the new demo project with examples of all the new features. When that is done the v3 package will replace v2 on the asset store.

    Thanks,
    Raoul
     
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  39. derkoi

    derkoi

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    Hi Raoul, in the v3 beta is it possible to add extra resolution to the road mesh like the lines I've draw in the image below?


    Thanks
     
  40. AlbertoMastretta

    AlbertoMastretta

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    Raoul, thank you for your reply. The Z-Figiting is a good point, thanks for giving me the heads up. And that blending between different road objects sounds perfect to me in order to achieve different surfaces along a path.

    Thanks for your fast reply, best,

    Alberto.
     
  41. raoul

    raoul

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    Hi derkoi,

    As this currently will not work well with the dynamic built-in crossings, adding extra resolution like in your screenshot is not yet part of the section where you can create/edit road types.

    However, roads inherit the shape of the connection they are attached to. So what you can do is create a model with this particular geometry layout, create a custom connection from it through the Custom Editor window and roads attached to it will look like in your screenshot. You can even create a new matching road type through Custom Editor window this way so you can instantly create this type of roads in a scene through the New Road tab (second tab from the left) in the Inspector.

    Let me know if you have more questions about this.

    Thanks,
    Raoul
     
  42. Stone-Legion

    Stone-Legion

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    No matter how high I raise the prefab when I build it the terrain keeps clipping through it.


    It seems to be causes by the connection of the road on the right causing it:


    If I remove the connection it looks good:



    If I make a new connection and push the old one on the right futher back. The new connection pretty much causes the exact issue with the terrain.

    Not sure if I'm missing a button to solve all my issues or if I'm going to have to putter around with the terrain for a while.
     
  43. raoul

    raoul

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    Hi Stone Legion,

    You can ignore the second screenshot with the white surfaces clipping through the road, that will not give a clear view of the final build.

    The bit where the road connects to the T crossing does not look right, it is not a smooth connection. Do you always get that or only for this specific connection?

    What do you mean with "If I make a new connection"? Do you mean dicsonnect / reconnect the same road to the same connection or remove the connection and instantiate a new one?

    I think I have seen this before but have not been able to recreate it. In that case, it is related to Activate Bending for T crossings. Could you select the crossing in the hierarchy (select the yellow handle in the center and in the Inspector click "Select Connection in Hierarchy") and in the Inspector toggle off "Activate Bending" in General Settings. Does this fix the problem?

    Thanks,
    Raoul
     
  44. Stone-Legion

    Stone-Legion

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    Thanks Raoul! Disabling the Activate Bending worked like a charm. Though I will have to fix my road up a bit now it does not line up 100% so slight amount of gaping.

    With the new connection I mean remove the connection from the T and then drag out a new one or from the other direction had caused it too. No matter what I did even with the terrain it caused it.

    The only difference to mine vs vanilla one was that I made it 10 wide.


    I'm also having this little issue will see if it's fixed once I do an update. The problem is I can Shift + R connections and I also can't drag connections. Not sure if there is a Oh crap something broke click this button to repair haha.




    Also the site is unavailable. So we can't download the latest version sadly.
     
    Last edited: Jan 19, 2016
  45. raoul

    raoul

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    Hi Stone Legion,

    I see error messages appear in the debug log. Although it is not fully visible, it is a strange error though, I have not seen error like that before "Broken text PPtr in file(...". It looks like something is wrong with that prefab.

    I am pretty sure all the scene related issues in the video are related to that. The green handle click at 0.17 is a weird one, that particular handle toggles on/off sidewalks on that side of the crossing. Instead it removed the crossing!

    What I would do is select the last marker and see in the Inspector (further dowbwards) if there is still a crossing connected.

    I would also add a new "City Cross" prefab in the scene (from the crossings tab in the Inspector) and pull out some roads just to check whether the source prefab works fine.

    Can you recreate this? Could you post a full video in that case including adding the crossing to the scene and creating the roads?

    Thanks,
    Raoul
     
  46. Stone-Legion

    Stone-Legion

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    Thanks Raoul. I don't think I could repeat it but it might been an issue of some sort of half crash but part save not sure. Unity likes crashing a lot these days.

    I will start 100% fresh and delete the current version and install 3.7. Even removing the prefab etc the entire road network for me is now broken and acting up.

    I might of just had something corrupted with the original install anyways.

    My road types had said numbers rather then letters:
     
  47. raoul

    raoul

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    What you see in the screenshot is explained in the Troubleshooting page. It is related to your Unity editor probably being set to Force Text for Asset Serialization instead of the default Mixed (Top Menu > Edit > Project Settings > Editor). The troubleshooting sections explains what you can do to deal with that.

    Also, I forgot to mention how to deal with the roads becoming unresponsive. You could try to split the road at the second last marker. Or try to reconnect hat marker to another temporary crossing. I would also always be very interested in having a look at this sort of issues. Saving the scene as it is and sending the project to me (stripped to terrain and roads only if you want) is always very much appreciated.

    Thanks,
    Raoul
     
  48. Stone-Legion

    Stone-Legion

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    Thanks Raoul. I sadly went mad and deleted the entire scene and project anyways because I decided after learning a lot to start fresh anyways. For example before I was always closing my road system and reopening it doing changes and such. But then I had overtime learned you can join close it via 2 roads etc.

    Once your website is back online I will start working on it again making more frequent commits to backup my work in case it happens again and I can repeat it for you.
     
  49. raoul

    raoul

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    Ok, no problem, yes you can join roads if they are of the same type. Doing a ctrl+s regularly after doing some work and when all looks good is also recommended. After loosing a lot of work, I have been doing that consistently for the past 10 years or so regardless the software I use . When something goes wrong you can reload the scene.

    Indeed the website is down, a huge amount of resources being consumed by the same IP address. I have taken the necessary steps and support of our host have confirmed to put the website back online hopefully that will be soon. This is the second time this happens, I hope the asset store package will be approved soon so this is less of a problem...

    Thank you,
    Raoul
     
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  50. virgiliu

    virgiliu

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    Hi Raoul,

    How does EREditor.GetRoads() order the roads?
    I have the Road Objects in hierarchy ordered and named "Road - part 01" to "Road - part 13" and the order when iterating is seemingly random (part 11, 13, 01, 04, 03, 06, 02, 05, 07, 10, 12, 09, 08).

    As a workaround I manually sorted the output of the GetRoads() function before processing them but I was curious how it works internally.