Tracks LuccaRing - Circuito dei Baluardi Luccaring 1.0 - Legacy HD edition

[irSindaco]

Yay so just in time for the Easter weekend.

Hopefully...already spotted a couple of major things to fix. We're on it
[edit: on a positive side...the updated monumental walls are spectacular in VR!]

 

[irSindaco]

..so while i don't have screenshot to show today, let me just introduce the update, and explain why it required so much time and why we are so excited (me and my partners who helped lots, i mean)... first, this is (mostly) a "cosmetic" update. That means the road surface and racing features are exactly the same as before. Hopefully (tm) 1.0 will still run on low-end PC's as 0.9 did. Maybe not: main issue will probably be GPU ram, as there are not many new polygons, but there are quite some more textures. In case it doesn't run well (or at all) on such PC's, people will still be able to share multiplayer races by using 0.9.
That said, most of the work has gone into the following areas:
• A full photogrammetric scan of the monumental walls + some hidden monuments and artifacts (this required something like 6000+ images!..which meant hours of shooting and days waiting for the right light conditions + hours of processing + retopo etc...you get that)
• A nice casual scan of a modern small vehicle-crane taking care of them walls (wonder how it would feel to race one of those..)
• A complete new set of low poly "background vehicles", also modeled and textured after photogrammetry
• 5 new buildings (taking the place of placeholder copies of existing buildings), 3 of which were gently modeled by fellow supporters (will credit them but can't remember right now)
• Antennas, air conditioners and chimneys all around on top of the houses as in real Lucca
• 2 gigantic cranes: these were there when i started the project. They are still there and i don't exactly know why. I decided to include them as i suspect they will be there forever and become landmarks. That's how it goes in Italy sometimes, and that is also why you'll find them quite rusty (in case you get there as a result from an impossible crash or physics failure).
• A nice photo-scanned monument of a man on a horse, named "Statua alla Libertà Lucchese", which was hidden by previous restoration works and recently finished and set free by the Town council. It took something like 10 years to restore it*, and it required us a 8mt. pole to scan it, and yes, maneuvering that thing around trees was a nightmare (including lots of people looking at us, and 2 tries before we had the right set of images).
• We finished the low poly model of the complete "inner town". This will be the foundation for the next episode of LuccaRing (and some other top secret project). The model currently has low quality textures stolen from GE (no need for hi-res anyway since you can't see much from the current layout): i will sooner or later post a top view of the layout we want to do, it will basically be a sort of deadly "double ring", going up and down from the current layout and the walls (which are really narrow...and used to be run by cars 'till the late '60s..a few races were held there in the Golden Era as well!). It will just need 6000 shots more, some more work and everybody owning at least a GTX 1080 .
• Many small things were fixed and/or updated..and we most probably broke some.

...that's about it. Thanks for caring

* there's a long nice story behind it and why it took so long but it's beyond the scope of this article + i don't want problems with local mafia

 

[DutchDevil79]

Wow, the time and effort in this project is amazing. Kunos should look at this instead of bringing boring fictional tracks like Highlands.

Sounds very interesting racing in the inner town. I been there 2 times and well I can't imagine racing there. haha
I think Top Gear drove around the inner town once and couldn't get out.

 

[NightEye87]

These words fall short of what you deserve, but: awesome news!

 

[irSindaco]

Thanks for the kind words
So some more work has been done... not in game yet but we're close. I hope i can export a first test version tomorrow (still have to finish some textures...i messed up with UVs and alpha channels on a large portion of walls and seams are visible all around).If it works ,the test version will be shipped to donors in time for the Easter long weekend. Then after some more tweaks and when all things are properly tested and checked (1 week should be enough for feedback and fixes) it will go public. Later!

[edit]
sorry guys...seems like we won't be able to do release for Easter. Still going through some glitchy textures, and need to fix a couple of strange behaviors (some issues with Photoshop .dds plugins not exporting mipmaps or even crashing :\).

 

[irSindaco]

..well at the end of the day i was at least able to get some in editor screenshot
Most texture are now fixed. Lodding is done, and all materials have been dialed in. So here's some easter-editor tests in different light conditions (default PP):

 

[After_Midnight]

Awesome

 

[Uff]

I'm looking forward to return at Lucca!

 

[guidofoc]

You guys are out of your minds. The whole city. Siete fuori come uno zerbino.

 

[MarkLenders]

Omfg.. This is awesome.
This is another level of modding.

(complimenti per l'incredibile lavoro e la passione con cui state portando avanti questo progetto. Grazie)

 

[irSindaco]

Quick update: the Kraken is in-game
The package has gone quite up in size - new textures, and added mip maps to many that were missing - and there's an (i must say expected) little drop in performance.. hopefully should not be an issue: not much room for further optimization... well, next week beta tests will tell (contributors will probably receive a download link tomorrow).

Unluckily we also need to re-make the AI line: for some reason the old one is crashing AC when loading the track. Hopefully the camera sets will still work with the new one... otherwise it might take a while do redo them. That's it for today

 

[norbs]

Quick update: the Kraken is in-game
The package has gone quite up in size - new textures, and added mip maps to many that were missing - and there's an (i must say expected) little drop in performance.. hopefully should not be an issue: not much room for further optimization... well, next week beta tests will tell (contributors will probably receive a download link tomorrow).

Unluckily we also need to re-make the AI line: for some reason the old one is crashing AC when loading the track. Hopefully the camera sets will still work with the new one... otherwise it might take a while do redo them. That's it for today

Let me know if you need me to look at them again. if the new AI line isnt too much different, it "should" be fine.

 

[guidofoc]

Can't wait for a drivable version of the old town and city walls. I used to ride my bicycle from Viareggio cross the hills to Lucca and then wander in the alleys. With the Fiat 500 it could be fun!

 

[aphidgod]

Try the S800... open top gives a nice view of all the scenery.

 

[Guillaume Francois]

 

[irSindaco]

The Kraken pre-release is ready for contributors!

In case you made a donation and did not receive our newsletter containing download instructions and notes, please contact me here on the forum with a private message!

Hopefully no major issues will be found by our contributors: public release will then follow in a few days (tm). We still have to check cameras, and the new AI line might not be the best at all... i had just a few laps in the oculus and you guess it: so much stuff to look at is not ideal for a clean racing line

Cheers!

 

[Michael Hornbuckle]

Will there still be two versions, hi-res for donors and lower-res for public?

 

[irSindaco]

Will there still be two versions, hi-res for donors and lower-res for public?

Yes, that is the plan.

 

[Uff]

I'm waiting for my e-mail to arrive.

 

[norbs]

1.2gig. jeepers