Correct custom road texturing?

[Feare 4]

Hey everyone!

I'm currently working on some re-textures of vanilla roads so I won't need Roads United to clog up my memory. It's supposed to be a US version of all vanilla + Network Extensions roads using some of the Roads United: US and North America textures. 

Finally I got into road modding after cgameworld released his awesome tutorial on YouTube (Link). Now I got a basic idea of texturing roads that have been exported with ModTools. So far so good.

Now, I managed to make the basic 2L road work in game with ground and elevated textures. I tried to apply textures to the nodes as well, but for some reason, when zooming out, the nodes will turn blue. Elevated nodes will become entirely invisible. What do I have to do to make the textures work on the node LOD? The segment textures do not glitch out, they work fine! I have used 1024² textures for both and only the vanilla models exported with ModTools.

My second question refers to both slope textures and the basic highway textures. In the screenshot below, you can see how the National Road acts all weird. I have used the textures in the other images. For those, I have looked at the APR map from inside the extracted .crp file. Slope textures behave similarly to this one. Does someone know what I've been doing wrong? Do the textures need to be 1024x1024, too? There are no other "base" textures for the highway, and for the slope there's also only the 2048x1024 one.

 

Sorry that this has become such a long post, but any help would be appreciated

Have a good one!

Feare

 

[boformer 3,169]

Are you sure that this will actually save memory? Road assets are quite heavy!

About the LODs: 1024 is too heavy for LOD textures and will break the LOD texture generation. Use 64 or 128.

I know that Badi_Dea is also working on US roads, with custom meshes. Maybe you could work together!

 

[Feare 4]

Hi Boformer,

thanks for your reply. I went back to the LOD textures and scaled them down to 128x128. I have even exported the node lod mesh again, but the intersections still turn blue when zooming out. If I scale down the _p and _r maps to 64x64, the nodes will still turn blue and now also black at the edges.

Do you have an idea what could be the problem here?

 

[boformer 3,169]

2 hours ago, Feare said:

Do you have an idea what could be the problem here?

Not really. I never made my own networks. What you see there is a "world hole". To me it looks like something is wrong with with the alpha texture of the LOD (maybe make it 100% white), maybe also the LOD mesh itself? Can you open the LOD mesh with a 3d program like blender?

Maybe also go through this: https://cslmodding.info/asset/network/

[Feare 4]

30 minutes ago, boformer said:

To me it looks like something is wrong with with the alpha texture of the LOD (maybe make it 100% white), maybe also the LOD mesh itself? Can you open the LOD mesh with a 3d program like blender?

Hmm I've added a plain white alpha texture to the LOD, but nothing happened.

So I opened the LOD mesh in Blender and it's just a flat surface. Dunno if this has too few triangles. I have almost no knowledge about modelling :/

[Dexter 40]

I have played about with creating networks and came across similar issues.  Elevated models in particular seem to lose their UV maps, and it seems mad that we are creating new networks and loading them into memory rather than just replacing textures of existing networks.  Roads United in theory is much more elegant when it comes to country-specific texture replacements, but unfortunately it seems to have many issues, such as some textures not being overridden (alphas in particular), textures not always applying on load and the inability to customise third-party networks.

[Darf 1,439]

On 19-3-2019 at 5:10 PM, Feare said:

Hi Boformer,

thanks for your reply. I went back to the LOD textures and scaled them down to 128x128. I have even exported the node lod mesh again, but the intersections still turn blue when zooming out. If I scale down the _p and _r maps to 64x64, the nodes will still turn blue and now also black at the edges.

Do you have an idea what could be the problem here?

 

Are you sure you got the filenames correct? You need a seperate lod for the node (if you use another model). I could give you my lod model for the standard 16m wide road, that should work fine.

[Feare 4]

8 hours ago, Darf said:

Are you sure you got the filenames correct? You need a seperate lod for the node (if you use another model). I could give you my lod model for the standard 16m wide road, that should work fine.

I suppose so, I have named them "fus_22_basenode.obj", "fus_22_basenode_lod.obj" and the textures accordingly. The textures are named like "fus_22_basenode_lod_r.png".

 

Regarding the highways: I have finally managed to get the textures at least almost right (see image). The diffuse is now placed correctly, but there is still that weird pavement texture on the edges. Even if I make the _p texture all black, it's still there. Anyone got an idea on that?

[Avanya 2,605]

Lod for the mesh has to be capital letter, so it should be "fus_22_basenode_LOD.obj" instead.

[Feare 4]

12 minutes ago, Avanya said:

Lod for the mesh has to be capital letter, so it should be "fus_22_basenode_LOD.obj" instead.

Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately, it didn't help much. I still get the error.

[Feare 4]

Alright, I used a different mesh for the LOD and it worked. I guess when exporting the vanilla node LOD mesh with ModTools, somehow the UV got corrupted or something.

[Feare 4]

Hey, quick update: I finally got the node LODs to work properly!

I have used another reference texture from the 6-lane road. Along with the APR map, I found out that the _p and _r maps need to sometimes be shifted a little. Not for the 2-lane road, but since it worked with a 2-lane one-way road, I really think that something about the UV map got corrupted. So I created a node for the one-way road and simply imported it for the two-way road and *bazinga* it worked!

Edit: I also renamed the node meshes and textures like this: fus_22_base_node.x / fus_22_base_node_LOD.x though I can‘t say whether that fixed anything, just wanted to share.

 

Now it's only the highway/slope textures I need to get working  

  Edited March 23, 2019 by Feare  
Another hint that might have lead to the solution

[boformer 3,169]

Thanks for posting your progress and the tips how to get it working!

[Feare 4]

I have found the fix for the highway textures!  

The problem was the pavement texture. It needs to be completely solid, otherwise it will project part of the diffuse onto the edges. If you make it solid white (full pavement), it will automatically replace the pavement with gravel -> no glitching. I have attached the textures below.

With the knowledge I now have, I guess I will be able to get the slope textures right, too.  I will post my progress on that one once I get there!

Thanks everyone for your help!

 

[Feare 4]

I have now released the roads I have done so far. If you'd like to check them out: https://steamcommunity.com/id/fearearmed/myworkshopfiles/?appid=255710

It would be awesome if you rated them as well!  

I will soon add the slope/tunnel textures, but for now, I just wanted to share my roads.

Note: Apart from the Basic Road I refrain from using Roads United textures, for the others I have used textures from American Truck Simulator and my own.

[boformer 3,169]

Those look solid, I gave them an upvote..

The curbs look a bit broken though, like grass that is stretched. I know the vanilla roads also have broken curbs. Maybe you could fix the uv maps?

[Feare 4]

On 26.3.2019 at 7:26 PM, boformer said:

Those look solid, I gave them an upvote..

The curbs look a bit broken though, like grass that is stretched. I know the vanilla roads also have broken curbs. Maybe you could fix the uv maps?

Thanks

I know, the curbs on roads with grass look really weird. I'm not very familiar with modeling and especially uv mapping is something I hate, but I'll try to dig into this.

What really bugs me is that I still can't figure out the slope textures. Even though the LODs look good, the hd texture won't apply as I would like it. Do I have to use an alpha map for these? I've tried a few different things with the pavement and road maps, but to no satisfying result. Either the pavement texture gets all over the place or parts of the diffuse texture get placed at strange locations. The black rectangle is supposed to go where the tunnel begins.

If that's another uv issue, I'm pretty much helpless. Maybe someone knows how to go about slopes?

[boformer 3,169]

11 hours ago, Feare said:

If that's another uv issue, I'm pretty much helpless. Maybe someone knows how to go about slopes?

The UV is fine, but when you export the mesh from the game, the vertex paint gets lost. Some parts of the mesh need to be painted with magenta vertex paint (everything except for the pavement):

https://cslmodding.info/asset/network/#uv-mapping

Without the vertex colour, the game will ignore the vertical UV coordinate and tile the texture automatically.

----

There is a way to copy the original mesh of the network with ModTools, so no need to apply vertex paint with a 3D program.

Import the model with the broken vertex paint.

Now, while still in the asset editor, open the ModTools scene explorer (CTRL + E). Expand the search panel at the top and enter "Road" in the upper search field.

On the left, open Road > NetCollection. On the right, open m_prefabs. You get a list of all vanilla road networks:

Find the slope version of the network you are working with (for example Highway Slope is on the second page, item 42 in my game).

Expand it, then scroll down a bit and expand m_segments > m_segments[1]. You can use the Preview button on the right to check if you found the right segment:

Now to copy the mesh to the ModTools clipboard, press the "Copy" button of the m_mesh or m_segmentMesh property.

Now to apply the copied mesh to your asset that is currently loaded in asset editor, search for "Tool Controller" in the ModTools search.

On the left, expand Tool Controller > ToolController. On the right, open m_editPrefabInfo > m_netAI > m_slopeInfo > m_segments > m_segments[1].

Now press the "Paste" button of the m_mesh and m_segmentMesh properties. You have now overridden the mesh you imported with the original mesh of the road (your custom textures are still there). You can instantly see the change in the asset editor:

You have to repeat these steps for the LOD mesh (m_lodMesh).

Save your asset and enjoy!

This might also be helpful for the bridge segment (m_bridgeInfo), as it also uses vertex paint.

One important thing: Do not reimport the segment model after you did the copy/paste thing. The asset editor will crash if you do.

 

[Feare 4]

Wow thank you so much for the detailed explanation! I’ll try this when I get home today. 

I assume that if I had to change the textures, I would need to reload the editor and paste the mesh in again? Just in case there was something wrong about the pavement/road maps. 

Also I’ve read that some nodes with medians also use vertex paint to fight texture scrolling. I don’t know if any of the vanilla roads have that, too, but I would try and go about those the same way as with the slope segments. 

But... first the highways

[boformer 3,169]

Not sure, worst case is that you need to restart the game. It might help to hit the "unset" button in ModTools on all meshes you've overriden before reimporting. Then there should be no problems.

 

[DaEgi 14]

check out https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1122189715

[Feare 4]

3 hours ago, boformer said:

Not sure, worst case is that you need to restart the game. It might help to hit the "unset" button in ModTools on all meshes you've overriden before reimporting. Then there should be no problems.

 

It worked! I followed your instructions 1:1 and even needed to do the diffuse map again (it was flipped during ModTools export   so I exported the vanilla MainTexture PNG file in the NetCollection) and using the "unset" option nothing crashed. I'm so glad it finally worked  

I can't thank you enough!

[Feare 4]

...So, I'm working on the bus segments right now since I didn't make them before uploading my roads and I still can't get the hang of it. Half of the times I put down a bus stop on the road it will put the stop on the correct side but the bay on the wrong side. How in the world can I tell it to create the bay on the side where the stop is?

I have copied the segments from the vanilla road with all the flags, but imported to my custom road it won't work properly. Do I have to make two separate segments for either side? Then I'd have to somehow flip the model.

Making custom roads is way more tedious and headscratching than you might expect at first. And I'm only doing vanilla re-textures currently x.x

[boformer 3,169]

I'm not sure if there are 2 different variations for left and right side. I suggest you to take a look at the m_segments in the scene explorer to see which segments are there, and which flags they have.

[Clus 24]

Hey. 

I've  just found this thread while looking arround and thought that it wouldn't hurt if I'll add the missing Informations.  btw ... the thread isn't that old ...

Did you solve the problem already? I had the same problem when I started to do roads...and solved it the way boformer suggested

You'll only need to create 2 segments for the stops: a single segment on the right side (that will be flipped in game when you're putting the stop at the opposite side) and a double segment for opposite/double stops. Maybe this Information is also useful to others.

[Feare 4]

Sorry for not replying for so long.

I was still trying to figure all the stuff out. 

@Clus Thanks, I will have a look into that again soon

@Avanya I literally flipped out after I stumbled across one of your posts on the paradox forums about road LODs. I mean, you replied to this very thread that the mesh has to be named _LOD  (uppercase) but I would not have dreamt that the textures need to be named _lod (lowercase) for the LOD to import correctly. FINALLY I can fix those ugly LODs on my roads!  

Thanks so much for your help! <3

[Sully Skylines 0]

Just came across this thread and wanted to say thank you so much to all who commented, it’s just fixed the verticals issue on networks for me! I’ve been using OBJs and texture wouldn’t show on verticals and just switched to FBX and changed vertex paint to magenta and textures now showing on my verticals. Thanks!