Have a look at how laser scanned tracks are built!

No I do want that but I doubt Kuno's can afford that so I don't see it happening. What I mean is you can have well scanned track but it the surrounding is bland then I just can't enjoy the track.

 

But Kunos already laser scan the tracks? I don't get what you getting at mate.

 

I freely agree that a tenner is buttons in the grand scheme of things, and am also very much of the opinion that (for any business) there's absolutely no point in trying to please the kind of customer who doesn't want to pay for your product, but do think the iRacing revenue model is thoroughly messed up. New drivers are faced with serious costs once they get out of rookie, and whilst I think quibbling over a tenner a track for something of that quality (and they are superb, even the old ones, IMHO) is petty, balking at the best part of $200 for the first full D license season strikes me as perfectly reasonable, especially these days where there's enough track content to mean the DLC expense has only just begun at that point. I was pretty lucky when I started as there weren't all that many tracks, so once the first D license road season was in the books it was a matter of the odd purchase here and there - what new starts think of it these days I shudder to think.

 

Sorry I thought they don't scan, if they do then My bad. I'm say a lot of game have nice tracks but I don't like a track that's bland with now enviroment bling, Must look true to the real track and I'm sorry but a lot of developers don't do this.
Got it, get it, good!

 

Yeah they sure do scan matey. I get you now

 

If you watch the track production video they suggest that for the sort of detail gamers demand in 2014 scanning actually saves time and so money.

 

IMHO all that I need from the laser scan track are perfect dimensions, track surfance, corner's angle and height changes cause these are the things that are giving me a better driving experince. As a sim racer I don't really care too much about graphic and others goodies. I'm more than happy if everything is perfect but at the end of the day I already know that I will not note at least the 90% of the small details

 

Very good point, but I wonder if Kunos have built any automated tools yet, like the iRacing team has.

I think you will, though, you just don't know yet what you are missing.

Like for me, for example, it has been very difficult to go back to any other racing game other than iRacing, because every track in every other game now looks too clean, like they are brand new. Real tracks have a lot of wear and tear, scuff marks all over the place, bald patches in the grass where cars often go outside of the track, and so on, and the fact that iRacing includes all that takes it to a whole different level. And again, these small details on or outside of the track that some people think may be unnecessary are sometimes in fact not, because you can use them for braking markers.

Plus, as I mentioned in a lot of other threads, having the entire track including surrounding areas complete enables helicopter and blimp cameras which are great for multiplayer spectating!

But sure, here is some iRacing overkill for you:


Ticket booths at Brand's Hatch, with the track in the background.


Buildings inside of Zolder (track is at the left of picture). Note the dumpsters.


Helicopter and looking over pit area at Imola, with red boxes that I'm guessing contains firehoses (there are more at the rear of the large building, with pipes leading to them).

And then, and example of a byproduct of their laser scanning, which is walking the track and taking photos, resulting in accurate wear and tear (look at how dirty the curb is behind the car):



Finally, we know that Kunos is building Spa, so that will be a quite interesting comparison, even though the iRacing spa is a bit old now (note the sand on the left side of the track):



PS. I wonder if Kunos will have to tweak the way they render tracks in the distance, because right now, I doubt AC could handle that view (if you try using the dev apps, at that distance the track usually disappears and leaves a hole until you get closer).

 

I agree with others that mention you should treat it as a hobby. I blew $40 on go-carting last weekend and I could have gotten a few tracks on iRacing instead. I think its just overwhelming to think about all the content. For instance, building a house is much more stressful as you try to pick finishes that give you the best bang for your buck versus buying a house as-is... and then you are just renting it!

My problem is that iRacing is much harder to justify to my wife

On topic: I like that tracks are scanned, its really immersive...Love those detailed curbs! The technology is bound to get cheaper, especially with increased competition. It makes me curious to see if iRacing will get cheaper permanently (they have been sitting at 50% off for months now).

 

I'll say it once more... AC has ONE person making the tracks.

iRacings road tracks (apparently) take 1500 man hours to make. For one person to model to that detail that means working just over 4 hours a day, 7 days a week for a year! Even if he works 8 hours a day, 7 days a week it's still 6 months per track... and they will start costing iRacing prices.

I dont know about you guys but i'd rather like to see more than 2 new tracks a year coming from the devs. I think sacrificing ridiculous detail levels that you'll never see unless you have a blimp cam or use a free cam to explore parts of the track you'll never see from your car is a small price to pay to increase output and keep prices down.

 

Absolutely, and that's incredible. But two things:

1. Assetto Corsa was released on Steam and is in direct competition with games from Codemasters and Simbin, and with the laser scanning of course iRacing. They chose to compete in this market (and they are doing very well, imo).
2. Kunos have promised five years of updates for this game, so there is still time for a lot of things to happen.

I made this thread in the chit chat forums for a reason, I merely wanted it to be informative.

Again, Assetto Corsa's track surface detail is far more detailed than iRacing, and with the point cloud of Spa being more than five times as large as what iRacing got, Kunos' potential seems limitless!

 

I suspect that if AC is a success the team will expand, if not with permanent team members than with people employed to do specific tasks.

I'm thinking specifically about a couple of months work spent adding details to track surroundings for instance.

 

Think you have it backwards there, iracing gets a more detailed scan with the slow way they do it whereas Kunos is slightly less detailed but much faster; doesn't really matter either way though, as only a small percentage of the scan data is actually used irregardless of method.

It would seem that @Si3v is planning on limiting the height of the camera in a future update so we can get rid of thoughts of blimp or copter cam.....can probably get rid of thoughts of spectating races also, because as much as we want it to be, this isn't iracing.

 

Please see this tweet where Si3v says that the Spa import was 1.2 billion points (though it may include classic Spa too, I don't know).

Then please see this video, where the iRacing teams says that their second largest track (most likely Spa) was around 250 million points.

 

What track in iracing is longer than Spa?

How many points does either of them actually use, I can assure you it isn't 250 million and it damn sure isn't over a billion.

 

dunno,
I wouldn't mind paying for the content, but I do mind subscription .. and even more so I do mind when you have both at the same time

iracing do have really nice "editor" for the tracks , have to agree
they can afford it though , which kunos most likely cannot

laserscanned tracks help, but they are not necessary
I enjoy more of the racing features ingame, rather then the driving itself

 

That's a shame.

I quite enjoy unlocking F5 view in a replay and climbing a couple of hundred meters, the view already follows your car heli cam style. Although if its causing the dev's a big headache then its not essential.

 

iRacing laser scanning technique is accurate down to the millimeters, it captures things like painted lines, oil marks or even difference in reflective properties of the asphalt patches. Mobile scanning used by AC is less accurate from the definition although it isn't that important - they cannot transfer all the details to the track surface in a game because it would be overkill for every PC.
IMO tracks in iRacing do feel more detailed and more bumpy than Assetto Corsa ones although we do not have any tracks right now to directly compare them.

 

For iRacing, please refer to this article (page 31) clearly stating that the final game uses a bump map with a resolution of 30cm.

For Assetto Corsa, please refer to this image (by Si3v) which clearly shows the final game using a physical surface with a lot higher resolution than that.

And again, please refer to my previous post on how everything you said may be completely wrong (until more data is posted)... but granted, everyone thought it was the way you said...

Still, what is in the final game is what is important in this case, and that data is pretty damn solid, imo, and in Assetto Corsa's favour.

 

~3,000 man hours? that is insane! iRacing tracks FTW! maybe some modders can take on the trackside objects for AC tracks?