I wasn’t sure where to post this, so I figured maybe we can have an open discussion (and maybe after that besiege Epic HQ until they implement this code).
I spent the day looking for a solution for building roads (actually I need rails) and the BP spline solution that we have is grossly inadequate.
Turns out using splines for roads is a dead-end, even though some major game titles do use it, there’s a whole science behind it, but game devs just cut corners and users don’t know any better, go figure.
Enter James McCrae, PhD from up here at UofT. Back in 2009 he and a colleague wrote a paper on Sketch-Based Path Design in which they outline their Drive system for conceptual layout of 3D path networks.
Link to the paper: http://www.dgp.toronto.edu/~mccrae/projects/gi09/pathdesign_gi2009.pdf
Link to the video: http://www.dgp.toronto.edu/~mccrae/projects/gi09/gi09mccrae.avi (make sure your jaw doesn’t hit the floor too hard)
Link to the code (Qt based): http://www.dgp.toronto.edu/~mccrae/projects/gi09/RoadDesignerQt.zip
Attached are a few images from the paper, but if you watch the video (DivX5 codec) you will see why this is jaw dropping (from 2009 even).
Did I mention that full code to the project is included for testing?
Features: automatic intersections, viaducts, bridges over water, tunnels, road signs, etc.
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