Opinion | Real or Fantasy?

[Dr. Death]

Anyone that legit believes fantasy circuits are automatically bad hasn't driven on some of the best Live For Speed maps like Blackwood, or some other really good fantasy circuits from gran turismo. Some of them i really think the world would benefit from having them IRL.

 

[delpinsky]

I prefer real life tracks.
But... if a fantasy track is so well designed to appear as good and detailed as a real one, then it's fine.

 

[barf]

I think I have a preference for 'real' locations, but no problem with fantasy roads being cut into the hillside etc. Fictional terrain does seem to lack some of the character real terrain has, and it seems like a wasted effort to make terrain when the world is already full of beautiful places... that just need better roads ;-)

 

[Ricardo Rey]

Many real tracks manipulated real terrain and put a fictional idea down to make a real track. If it's fun, who cares.

 

[barf]

Exactly, I voted for 'both' and agree with the consensus here, a good layout is the most important thing.

 

[AnthonyStuart]

after a while, you can get to a point where it feels like every real track has been done a thousand times, and I want a new challenge, fictional tracks are a great way to keep the brain working on finding new lines

 

[Jonathan Young]

For the most part I prefer real tracks (it’s an immersion thing). However when Formula E came out in RF2, I remember that the fake track they built was far better than the real formula E tracks (which suck, even if the cars themselves are pretty cool) so there are exceptions!

 

[ChevyGuy566]

As someone who grew up on Trial Mountain, Grand Valley Speedway, Deep Forest Raceway, Midfield Raceway, Apricot Hill, etc, a good fantasy track can be just as memorable as the best real world circuits.

 

[elloLeo Kinnunen]

I voted real but I have enjoyed a couple of fantasy tracks here and there. Dave Kaemmer captures my thoughts pretty well in the nurburgring promo video iracing put out: real tracks are made by expert teams of surveyors and engineers. It's hard for a lone or couple of fantasy track modders to beat that for creating the right road cambers and gradings. Obviously not saying that all real tracks are winners but nothing in fantasy category compares to the best of real for my 2c.

 

[Gelly916]

Horsma, Sveg, Pinewood, Mills, ECT. All great fantasy circuits!

 

[boomn]

For a long time I though Machwerk was based on real roads. I enjoyed driving it the same after I learned that as before

 

[Zhabik]

It all depends on the quality of the product - a well done fantasy track is better than a poorly done real one. After all, we are driving a virtual car around a virtual track and so, in essence, they are as real as each other.

 

[LibranRabbit]

Either, as long as they are good graphically, great road mesh with variances and long, I repeat, long!

 

[MarcG]

75-25 in favour of Real tracks, nothing gets the juices flowing like racing on a life-like version of the real thing, the run over the top of The Mountain at You Know Where for example is a thrill knowing that your doing what your heroes do in real life.

I have however spent many hours on fantasy tracks, Loch Lommond, Mills & Toban in rf1/2 are fine examples of very fun fantasy tracks to race on...oh and Lienz was spectacular! I'm sure I'm missing a couple others but those ones really meant a lot to me and still do to this day.

 

[BrainsBush]

Both. And from an immersion point of view my personal preference is real life track. When you paid a visit to a track or seen a race on TV/internet and then recreate it yourself in a racesim.

But e.g. fictional track Zandvoort 2019 is also good

 

[Ghoults]

I voted real but I have enjoyed a couple of fantasy tracks here and there. Dave Kaemmer captures my thoughts pretty well in the nurburgring promo video iracing put out: real tracks are made by expert teams of surveyors and engineers. It's hard for a lone or couple of fantasy track modders to beat that for creating the right road cambers and gradings. Obviously not saying that all real tracks are winners but nothing in fantasy category compares to the best of real for my 2c.

I think it is the exact opposite what you said. The most difficult part of creating a fictional track is not about creating realistic and perfect road cambers, correctly engineered ground fillings and matching some ideal only a real circuit could be. The most difficult part is figuring out, understanding and creating the imperfections what create real race tracks. Very few tracks have perfectly round corners, perfectly straight straights, perfectly smooth camber transitions, straight white lines, bumps or any other kind of perfect anything. Very little made before computers is done to an accuracy of even one meter. Not even close vertically. Every real track is full of these flaws and that is what makes the best real and fictional tracks really good. It is all these imperfections.

 

[Matthew327]

I'd say both. Real tracks are the real deal. But some of the best tracks available (for Assetto Corsa for example) are fantasy tracks. Feldbergring, Deutschlandring, Fonteny... Just to name a few.

 

[carlsenth]

I prefer real tracks, as the idea of a sim to me is to do the real thing in a simulation.
But i like both. I occasionally play GT Sport, and their made up tracks are great. Took me a while to realize that they weren't real. Just assumed they were japanese/asian traks (And I'm not really familiar with all of them.)

 

[Franz Surowetz]

Was mich stört, sind 100 Autos auf den Parkplätzen und Ständen, aber keine Zuschauer oder Marschälle und einige Kameraeinstellungen

 

[SaXXXon]

I choose both. Especially if the fantasy circuits are made like they were real. Toban, Essington, Mills, Aosta come to mind. And it's a lot of fun to design the fantasy circuits as if they were real, while still keeping a bit of unique idea.

Like mentioned here, as long as it seems real. I love Sveg Raceway.