Have a look at how laser scanned tracks are built!

iRacing has been around for about six years now, and they're still steadily releasing updates. It is, however, also one of the most expensive PC games you can play, with a monthly fee plus cost for each car and each track ($12 per car and $15 per track and you must buy both cars and several tracks to advance in the game).

They were the first guys to use laser scanning to build all of their tracks, using an older technique than Kunos, which doesn't capture accurate colors and leaves holes at intervals. Their physical simulation of the track surface also has a resolution of roughly 30cm per bump, which is a lot less detailed than Assetto Corsa.

While their graphics are rather basic and showing their age, they have insane texture work to compensate, with accurate wear and tear, smudges, scratches and dirt patches uniquely placed around the track without repeating or reusing many images, creating a great sense of authenticity. Adding to the sense of realism is also the fact that not only do they model the tracks, but they model several square kilometers around the tracks as well. In the track area they also include parked trucks and cars, ticket booths, things like dumpsters behind buildings, posters on the back of walls and all sorts of stuff, enabling a consistent level of detail regardless of the camera angle (which includes helicopter and blimp views which are great for multiplayer spectating).

This takes their entire team 1.5 years of man hours for a single track. I think Kunos has one guy doing the same...

Anyway, here are two really amazing videos showing how its made:




I hope that Kunos will some day release something similar...

 

Thats really amazing technology and just got me pumped for a laser scanned Nordschleife ! Wonder what the scan time and how high is the data point ammount gonna be for it.

 

Interesting but I thought Kunos used a simpler but lower resolution mobile scanning technique?

I do wonder if the iRacing method is just too time consuming for longer tracks? Whatever I'm happy with what Kunos have delivered so far.

 

Well, according to this tweet here, the Spa point cloud was 1.2 billion points... and according to the second video posted above, iRacing's second largest track (which should be Spa) was only 250 million points... so...

 

I'm just repeating stuff I've read on the internet, which is always a dangerous thing to do....

I was under the impression iRacing used a system of guys on foot mapping with theodolite type instruments while Kunos had something more akin to a Google streetview vehicle driving round???? Watching the Bathurst vid I am impressed with how much attention the iRacing guys have paid to the track side environment, I hope Kunos watch this.

 

Bare in mind those tracks in iRacing costs 15 dollars EACH, which is very expensive. You have to get money in order to do such things in detail, or the scanning guys won't be paid enough, therefore would not work.
Assetto Corsa asks for 39.99 (and currently 26.65USD on Steam) for all its tracks in version 1.0 (about 9 of them? If counted only the scanned locations stated on its page). For such a game honestly I would not ask for too much in track-side details. What it delivers is good enough, as long as it has the top-class physics.

 

I agree AC is a bargain.

Is $15 per track really that expensive? There's this weird dichotomy where people are happy to pay £400 for a gfx board or £250 for a wheel but complain when asked to stump up £10 for software.

 

Don't get me wrong, it's not a complain, although one of the reasons I don't play iRacing is because of that.
15 is expensive relative to other games, but certainly is not expensive for the content it gives. For the current business model of AC, it is not likely to get tracks in that sort of detail and that's probably all of my opinion

 

Well, you get some cars and tracks with your subscription ($5 per month if you catch a 50% promotion), but only enough to participate in the rookie series. When you wish to advance, you have to buy one new car, and up to twelve new tracks, which is quite a mouthful. Now you can advance by racing very clean and fast and get your SR up to 4+ but that's essentially leaves you "grinding" in a series you may not want to run, and you have to participate in eight races minimum (last time I checked) to advance normally, so that's a cool $120. And like with all monthly fee MMOs, you lose access to everything you bought once you stop paying. I've seen the purchase histories of some hardcore iRacing fans who's been with the service for all of the years. They've paid thousands (and they're happy about it).

My own order history shows that I've paid $187 so far, and the last update moved one of the cars I had bought to a higher ranking series than what I was, so I actually lost the ability to drive it, which pissed me off somewhat...

I'm very happy that Assetto Corsa was released (and so good) so I could ditch iRacing, but I have to admit... I'm going to miss the incredible amount of detail of the iRacing tracks...

 

I agree that being "forced" to buy blocks of content is too much.

 

It's rather odd that iracing takes a double-dip with both subscription and purchasing plan. It's a bit like pay-tv, with both subscription and on-screen advertising. (should be one or the other imo). I'd plonk down $120 on a game (xbox are approaching that), but i avoid subscriptions (i've cancelled all my subs i'd had, games, magazines, tv, everything)

 

The detail levels are pretty amazing, yet they go into details that nobody will ever see. That, quite frankly, is going over the top imo.

Remember, the amount people working on the tracks in AC is tiny compared to the team at iRacing. That kind of detail is going to push the prices up a lot, and tracks will take far, far longer to develop. Personally i'd rather have a lot more tracks in less time at a cheaper price. Only the obsessive detail hunters moan about the quality of AC's tracks. The other 99.9% are too busy driving.

If the track surface and track dimensions are correct, and the main trackside objects are there, that's more than good enough for the overwhelming majority. I'd bet that there would be far more complaints if each track took an age to develop and cost as much as iRacing's.

 

Well Kunos included short description about Asetto Corsa track building process in this presentation http://youtu.be/ijvih-97-IA?t=8m46s (there are english captions).

 

Very interesting thanks. I like the stuff about saving time, increased detail level in games tends to add time, at least laser scanning is a way to automate the process.

 

$15 a track isn't super expensive until you need 10 or 12 of them for a season......or realize that there are close to a hundred of them that you want. The fact that no matter how many you buy or how much you spend as soon as you quit paying the montly subscription you no longer have access to any of them is completely ridiculous.

 

People really need to stop thinking of sim racing as a "game", its not a game its a "hobby". Many of my friends play golf or go shooting. Now these hobbies cost them thousands a year for green fees or a weeks dear stalking. Paying £10 for a track is literally nothing in the grand scheme of things and how much enjoyment and time you will get from that £10.

 

Yeah, you should at least be able to get into singleplayer test mode on your own at any time...




I've tried making a track... $15 is a very reasonable substitute for hundreds or thousands of hours of work.

 

The huge problem with iRacing is the lack of AI and SP then the fact that you're denied access to the stuff you've bought if you don't contine to subscribe...

 

I don't really mind how Kuno's does the lay out of the track, for me it's all about the details. Details which have no effect on the racing but more the immersion of the track, things like trees and shadows and objects around the track.

 

Are you saying you'd rather not have laserscanned?