Assetto Corsa Competizione | Interesting Read: Laserscan Technology in ACC

Paul Jeffrey

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An interesting read from Assetto Corsa Competizione developers Kunos Simulazioni and 505 Games popped into the world recently, explaining a little more about laser scan techniques employed in Assetto Corsa Competizione.

What is laserscanning? I'm sure the vast majority of you know all about it, however just in case you don't it is basically the now industry standard way of capturing exactly how a track looks and feels before transferring it into a simulation - giving players the advantage of enjoying incredibly close to real life and detailed racing surfaces on which to drive our virtual cars.

That's my idiot description of it anyway. Better hand over to Marco Massarutto of Kunos and his interviewer Antonela Pounder (hi Ant!) of 505 Games to explain a little more, and how it improves the experience in ACC:

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What exactly is Laserscan technology? Can you give us a brief explanation for those who know little about it?
MARCO – Laser scanning combines controlled steering of laser beams with a laser rangefinder. By taking a distance measurement in every direction, the scanner rapidly captures the surface shape of objects, buildings, and landscapes. In short, the result is a massive amount of data that consists in a very dense 3D point cloud, allowing the artists to understand with max precision exactly where all details are placed in the space. This includes circuit kerbs, the grass, poles and the little bumps that affect the way car suspensions behave on them.

Can you talk a little bit about how the laserscanning technique works in Assetto Corsa Competizione?
MARCO – When laserscanned data for a specific circuit is already available, we can decide whether we want to purchase it or capture the data ourselves. If we go for the second option, we then request access to the track with our supplier via the circuit themselves. Once the data has been grabbed and processed, (more on that later) we deliver this to our 3D environment department, led by Simone Trevisiol. From here they can import the data and start to model the 3D mesh copying the 3D surface shown by the point cloud. We began using this technology ten years ago, during the development of Ferrari Virtual Academy. Since then, we’ve improved in several areas, from the capture itself, to the way we use the data in the game. Once we get all the data we need to start, a single circuit can require up to four months of development time.

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How long does it take on average to Laserscan a circuit?
MARCO – Since renting out a circuit can be far more expensive, compared to laserscan survey costs, we’ve gone for a mobile solution, that allows us to reduce the time we need to spend on track. The LS device is installed on the roof of a van, that completes X number of laps on the circuit at very low speed, while the infrared cameras capture the scene. The amount of time depends on the complexity of the track, the buildings surrounding it, track layout and details, etc. On average, it usually takes half a day to complete. While this is ongoing, photographers shoot all the pictures we need to recreate the 2D textures that “dress” the 3D mesh.

How many circuits take advantage of Laserscan technology in Assetto Corsa Competizione?
MARCO – All of the circuits featured in game take advantage of Laserscan technology. The only exception is Zandvoort, as this was recreated by an external company for the previous Assetto Corsa title. As it was well received by our community for its appearance and precision, we didn’t feel the need to re-do it from scratch.

ACC 2.jpg



How will the player be able to tell they’re racing on a laserscanned circuit?
MARCO – Nice question! The player will tell you “wow, this feels the same as the real circuit” once they take a car to the real track and compare. Because they will feel the same bumps, over time they will find themselves taking the same driving lines of the simulation, finding the same kerbs (shape, height) in places, as well as the same reference points they use for braking. Of course, jump online and you’ll see a bunch of comparison videos that show how accurate a laserscanned track really is, but nothing is more effective as driving the real thing to recognise it.

Huge thank you to Marco for taking the time to answer some of our questions today. The attention to detail gone into Assetto Corsa Competizione is astonishing and hopefully today’s deep dive into the Laserscan technology highlights that! There is a lot to get excited about with this Official GT World Challenge title. Experience it for yourself now on Steam, PlayStation 4 and Xbox.



Original Source; 505 Games

Assetto Corsa Competizione is available now on PC and console.

Got questions about the sim? Want to know how to make the most from your instal? No worries, fire up a new thread in the Assetto Corsa Competizione sub forum here at RaceDepartment, and let the community be your guide!

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I wish we could get an official Targa Florio version for at least one sim.
Unfortunately, I don't think it is possible to get a laserscan of that track because just as Rob81 pointed out, the track conditions are very bad, but who knows what the future holds...

If they could use a scan + study as many old race videos they could find to see where was or wasn't bumpy, that would be better than nothing I'd imagine.
 
Using this type of technology is very commendable for any sim racing title. What I find interesting is how sim racers get all huffy about whether a track is "laser scanned" as if they have actually driven the track to know whether a bump or a crack is in a certain place. Of course, the more accurate the reproduction is, gives more diversity in the feel of the track, but laser scanning won't make or break a drive around an unknown, in real life circuit.

Oh, and if a tree is missing near a sign at Bathhurst, I don't think that is going to cause you to drive the circuit any slower.

That's the very reason I prefer laser scanned tracks, as I will never get there in real life its a bonus if the level of authenticity is enhanced through real world data.

Wether it affects my speed or not is not of any relevance.
 
The only outstanding about ACC is their marketing-blabla and the motion-dynamics in this game are IMO subpar with a severe lack of what I call 'Newton law's a physics'-simulation. These cars just have no proper weight in ACC and it's all about doing strange setups to pivot the cars faster around the corners. Certainly no sim is anywhere perfect, but ACC is just totally off for me and overrated af.

Setups to pivot cars faster around the corners? You mean like in real racing? :roflmao::roflmao::roflmao:
 
Also with all these laserscanned tracks, I think what would be an interesting addition to any sim is the ability to virtually "walk the track": to put something down on the track surface maybe no wider than a small go-kart or even something narrower like a bicycle...something designed to provide very detailed FFB at very slow speeds so that, if you want (key point! nobody is forcing you to do this), you could explore all the different little imperfections in detail as drivers tend to do IRL, as I find some sims (or maybe some cars in some sims) seem to feel a little wonky when driven at walking speed vs. at pit limited speeds or higher.
 
All a bit pedantic for me in the overall scheme of things
Most will never get to drive the circuits let alone overseas ones

Historic versions you can never compare
ISI's Belgium '66 bumps could be nothing like real but does that really matter ? ;)
 
If you've been around on the scene before rfactor and you've seen a few track meshes that we used to race around on back in the day, and known how those meshes were contructed. You'd soon come to realise what a huge step forward laser scanning has become. The accuracy of the circuits were way off, and the data they can collect these days far surpasses what we had back in the day. I would've thought most people could appreciate that.
Guess what, the conventional process of making tracks without Lidar data has also improved over the last 15 years...
 
You're making straw man arguments. No one thinks a tree out of place will have a negative effect on lap times, nor is that the reason why there's been a push towards laser scanning.

You're on a racing simulation website complaining about people wanting more accurate racing simulation? There's a percentage of us that are striving towards more and more realism, and laser scanning is one tool towards that goal. For the people who don't care, well, a laser scanned track isn't exactly going to detract from their experience, will it?
I did see an interesting point from another thread about laser scanned tracks making it easier going between sims.

In that you're getting a more reliable level of elevation and placement of bumps and kerbs rather than a modders interpretation. Not to disrespect the very talented modders in the community they do fantastic work though I think there is an advantage to starting with scan data
 
What I'd like to know is why it's a separate game, and not an expansion of AC. Is it using a different engine? If it's the same, why can't they merge the games? I'd buy it as an expansion if it was possible. I don't get it.
Do you mean why is ACC a separate game to AC?

AC uses Kunos own engine, where ACC uses the Unreal engine, so VERY different and certainly NOT mergeable (i say like i know what i am talking about).
the funny thing is, Kunos went with Unreal due to the limitations of the AC engine, mainly weather and night/day effects. There are mods (search Sol and Content Manager) you can use to make AC look almost as pretty as ACC, so wasn't perhaps as necessary as they initially thought to use a different engine.

Also new games of the same variant come out almost yearly. I mean, look at Call Of Duty where a new one is released each year exactly the same as the last (except slightly better graphics and different locations). I think we do really well with racing sims where their life span is MANY years. AC came out about 7 years ago and still going strong.
 
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Im thinking Kunos used an existing engine as the new management team decided to explore it as a cheaper option, rather then the rebuild required of the AC engine. Be interesting to see what the next game is built upon.

Also, they talked at the time of of what components they could import out of AC into unreal (physics) and no doubt a bunch of car and track assets, so in effect they did merge them....
 
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You're making straw man arguments. No one thinks a tree out of place will have a negative effect on lap times, nor is that the reason why there's been a push towards laser scanning.

You're on a racing simulation website complaining about people wanting more accurate racing simulation? There's a percentage of us that are striving towards more and more realism, and laser scanning is one tool towards that goal. For the people who don't care, well, a laser scanned track isn't exactly going to detract from their experience, will it?
Who is straw man? Does he race too ?
No, what I am saying is, you drive down your street all day, you know every bump on that street and adjust your driving accordingly. If your street gets put into a game, then you know where the bumps are and you have an expectation of accuracy. That realism makes sense.
If you have never been to the Niurburgring, Bathurst, Daytona, Silverstone, or any other track, laser scanning won't make your experience any better. You don't know sh!t to begin with. As long as you get some FFB to use as a driving aid, you will just drive the circuit as it is. You have no idea what the experience should be.
 
Not sure if i agree.
If i am offered (or buy) a track of Bathurst then i expect it to be as close to Bathurst as they can get it.
I have never been to Bathurst and unlikely too either, but still expect buildings to be where they are in real life, trees to be where they are, road marking/furniture to be the same and road textures to be the same too.
Miss any of them out and is it still Bathurst or just a part representation of it?
The route may be the same, but there will always be something missing.

I use a full motion rig and love feeling road bumps etc. Even at the expense of possibly making me slower.
 

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