Us Highway Shield Generator
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US Highway Shield Generator
A simple and lightweight way to generate US highway and business loop shields.
Example video
A short example video showing how to install and use the nodes is available on [YouTube](https://youtu.be/gxBO5pt-6xk).
Installation
You can either append one of the example shields (preferred method) and tweak that, or import just the node tree:
- Download the file US Highway Shield Generator - v1.blend
- From your .blend file select File > Append ...
- Locate the downloaded file and double click it
Then select either the Example Shields collection from the Collections folder, or just one shield from the Object folder.
Alternatively, append just the node tree:
- Double click on the NodeTree folder
- Select the node Highway Shield
- Click Append
Note: appending the nodes or the example objects will also add two template objects. Don't delete those, just hide them in the outliner or move them to a separate collection and disable the collection.
Usage
If you import one of the example objects you can change its appearance:
- Go to the Modifier properties,
- Change any of the properties.
Or you can apply the geometry nodes to any mesh object or empty*. For example:
- Add a cube
- Go to the Modifier properties, click Add modifier and select Geometry Nodes
- Select Highway Shield from the dropdown
You can then change the text or any of the other properties. The default sizes are rather large (24 inches high) and suitable for signs found on the verge of a highway,
but you can scale them any size you like.
*) In Blender 5.2 you can now add a geometry modifier to an empty but if you do you cannot apply it. So if you ever want edit the generated mesh, you should add it to a mesh (any mesh will do).
Available characters
The text on the signs can contain any of the characters that are part of the "Highway Gothic" font, including space.
There are also a number of characters that are mapped to often used symbols, like arrows and fractions:
% 1/2 (fraction half)
; 1/4 (fraction quarter)
_ 3/4 (fraction three quarters)
< left arrow
> right arrow
[ left up arrow
\ down arrow
] right up arrow
^ up arrow
{ left down arrow
} right down arrow
Caveats
You can change the size of the font but the default of 0.290 is the one that gives the most realistic look. A larger font may distort the generated mesh, a smaller one may look unnatural.
The shield will work with 1, 2 or 3 digit highway numbers, although to my knowledge 1 digit highway numbers do not exist. Numbers with more digits may work (if you choose a smaller font size),
but may look unnatural.
The top and second line (and indeed the number field) can hold any text you like, but may lead to undesirable effects when the text is too long.
Technical details
The signs are created with geometry nodes: one rectangular quad per character, with a suitable width.
Each of these quads has UV coordinates that map the character to a single image, a.k.a. an atlas.
This way we use just one texture no matter how many signs or how many characters are used.
Each sign therefore has two UV maps: UVmap and UVmap2 (you will only see the second one if you apply the modifier).
The first one maps the character quads to the font atlas, the second one is a simple projection of the whole sign used for background color, lines, and dirt.
Each sign also has 4 associated materials: One for the font mapping, one for the sign base, and separate ones for the side and back.
The last two are procedural and the first two come in plain, weather, and rusty variants.
With just one quad per character a sign object will have a lot less triangles than a comparable text object, which is convenient if you are on a tight polygon budget.
A typical sign with a two digit highway number would be 1436 triangles, a 3 digit one 1660.
Acknowledgements
The following assets were used and are part of the generated road signs:
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| Published | 3 months ago |
| Blender Version | 5.2 |
| Render Engine Used | Cycles, Eevee |
| License | Royalty Free |