Can we get a Road Tool?

[Chicken+Ribs Combo]

- Automatic road mesh creation that includes tessellation resolution and auto UV mapping.

This is perhaps the most important feature and I am so glad it is being worked on! Will it handle mesh welding and UV generation for intersections?

[DGUnreal]

This is perhaps the most important feature and I am so glad it is being worked on! Will it handle mesh welding and UV generation for intersections?

The current spec outline for the tool has half-a-dozen per-spline global properties and more than 3 dozen per-segment/control-point properties including split mesh (at this spline control-point), no mesh (for this segment), and many detailed road mesh shape properties, etc.

Attaching or combining multiple splines at their control-points into one spline will be possible, plus copying/cloning splines, etc.

I have not decided how I am going to handle intersection properties yet, since that involves multiple scenarios including road-to-road intersections at many arbitrary angles, or with differing numbers of lanes, and for where the artist wants intersections for train tracks etc., as these will affect the road mesh shape creation.
I am considering adding control-point properties for "intersection" (this control-point and its segment are an intersection) and "cap end" (this control-point segment butts against an intersection or train track or user mesh), but I will have to get into the coding before I can see what will work best. It will be a few months before I get object picking and some of the other 3D engine features completed, and get into these other 3D tools.

[UnWheelModeller]

Your work on Terrasculptor looks really good DGUnreal!

[DGUnreal]

Hey Steven!
I hope all is going well.

Thanks! It has been a few years of full-time work with many more years to go to get all of the features I want.
The project really requires a second programmer.

The good stuff is still under development.

[UDKKutigi77]

Hey David, Terrasculptor is the best add-on terrain tools UDK users can ever dream of...we all hope to see the package completed soon enough. Best wishes Man.

[DGUnreal]

Thanks. Lots of updates, fixes, and new features coming soon.

[online|offworld]

Sorry guys, only just saw this thread... I got collision working on splineLofts, have a look here and see if this is any help:
http://forums.epicgames.com/threads/...)-roads-in-UDK

[DGUnreal]

Your link/method is a totally different thing.

The road tool planned for TerreSculptor performs deformation of the heightmap to match the 3D spline-based road world location and design layout parameters.
Layout is highly configurable including shoulders, drainage, multi-lane, etc., and exporting of UV-mapped road meshes.

[tegleg]

LT3D has a bulldozer ive been playing with recently, its ok for rough track and the like.
you can export the terrain as a heightmap, so you can import it to a udk landscape, or as a model to import to a 3d modeling app.

@DGUnreal
im liking the sound of those road meshes, how far off do you think they are, you need any beta testers?

[DGUnreal]

@DGUnreal
im liking the sound of those road meshes, how far off do you think they are, you need any beta testers?

Expected date for when the 3D components will start showing up in the software is late this year.
I'm currently working on getting all of the partially-finished features fully completed, which will take me a few more months.
Then around late summer I'm on to reworking the viewport renderer code so that I have 3D object picking and manipulation, 32k x 32k terrain, interactive layering, etc.
I typically work 200-300 hours per month on the software development, it's ~1/2-million lines of code so far, and I badly need another highly experienced 3D programmer to get things completed quicker but can't afford one.

The software can be downloaded free
As the new features are completed they are released with the next following build to be beta-tested by anyone who downloads it.
Forums are available for feedback.

[udk_slarti]

Hi,

yes, a road tool would be a great addition to UDK. There seems to be no easy way to get roads into UDKs landscape
For some tasks I am using Road Maker from Shape Magic. It eats 8 bit bmp and spits out the raod of your choice. Example workflow:

- create a heightmap either in a terrain generator or in a photo editing prog like Photoshop (which I do use)
- export as 8 bit greyscale bmp
- open it in Road Maker
- choose the settings you like (almost every tool to the left side of the program has options - just click on the tool). Example settings: Road Level: Follow Terrain, Road Width: 12, Shoulder Width: 0, Cut Fill Width: 0, Road Height: -2, Curb Height: 0, Road Smoothness: 10, Road Lines: No Centerlines or Sidelines
- click into the image with the label "Draw Road" to draw, uhm, a road. Road Maker does insert points that get connected automatically. To change the shape of the road, just move the dots around
- when you have finished click on the second tool (the one that says "Update"). Road Maker paints a road over a copy of the imported heightmap.

If you are satisfied with the result, go either to File - save all Maps or to File - save all Maps as. Save the road map only - you don't need the texture, it looks horrible. If you save the alpha map as well, you can edit the road later on in Photoshop. Road Maker does save both maps with the name of the original heightmap plus extensions (_road and _alpha). It does never overwrite the heightmap.

- to get a nice clean road run a Gaussian blur with a very small amount (0.5 to 1 px)
- convert the map into 16 bit grayscale raw to import it into UDK. Now you have a nice road base to work with.

Of course, there are several limitations: since you can only use 8 bit heightmaps the resulting map is not really detailed. And if you need to model a road around some objects inside your level, you can only guess the right position of it inside of Road Maker. But at least in some cases this nice little tool may be helpful

This tool is very easy to use. However, I could do a short tut on my home page if someone is interested.