1. About

The UnrealDrive is a plugin for UnrealEngine that turns UnrealEngine into a powerful road network editor.

The main purpose of the UnrealDrive is to provide a tool for creating a High Definition road networks:

  • To create digital twins of cities

  • For simulations to validate ADAS (advanced driver-assistance systems) and AD (autonomous driving) features.

  • For games and cinematic

The UnrealDrive allows to interactively create:

  • Any types of road junctions, roundabouts, exits and entrances, etc.

  • Sidewalks and any types of special roads lanes: bicycle, bus, parking, tram, etc.

  • Generate road additional objects: street lights, vegetation(trees, bushes, grass), bridges etc.

  • Adjustable road markings for any road lane

  • Road metadata (attributes) - can be used for game mechanics, for examples: speed limits, vehicle movement priorities, triggers etc.

  • Decal generation - allows to apply the effects of rutting and asphalt wear, rutting from snow and dirt, etc.

Conceptually, the plugin solves two problems:

  • Creation of logical road networks (graphs). The road graphs can be used to create elements of game mechanics - traffic generation, laying out paths for game characters, etc. Also, in future releases it is planned to move the road graph functionality into a separate free or OpenSource plugin.

  • Procedural generation of 3D models based on the constructed road graphs.

The plugin provides flexible APIs (C++ and BluePrint), allowing to:

  • Customize the road network (for example, adding a new type of traffic lanes - tram),

  • Develop external algorithms for procedural generation (for example, generating bushes along the road).

  • Develop importers/exporters of road networks to/from any custom formats

  • Use the road graph to develop any gameplay logic.

Generated content can be used without the plugin itself, as these are simple StaticMesh assets. But if there is a need to use graphs in a game project (for example, to generate traffic), then the presence of the UnrealDrive plugin will be necessary in the project.