Hanoi Street Circuit - Vietnam GP 2020 1.0

Hi! After my initial one day release of Hanoi track for Assetto Corsa last year, I spent probably around 3 weeks (in total spread across the year) in the mean time trying to update the track, the looks, adding environment buildings, and changing the layout (as it was different when initially announced). Seeing the official 2020 game Hanoi track video reminded me that I never released that update! So, I am releasing now, in the state as-is, unfinished.


I initially planned to release it in time for this year's Vietnam GP date, but RL stuff happened and couldn't find time for it. As I'm very busy nowadays, I will not continue working on the project. Note that the track is half-baked (see "BUT" below). I want to get this project off my shoulders so that it doesn't keep hanging in my mind as "to do". And frankly, there is no point working on it still as the official game is about to come out. Therefore, I am releasing the source files of the track, so that anyone can continue the work, or convert to another sim as they wish. I'm putting the MIT license on the files, simply because I don't want to be held liable if something goes wrong on your end (there's nothing I'm aware that should). You are free to publish your own updates/conversions, but crediting me for the original would be nice I also hope this project might serve for newcomers to learn about 3D modelling a racetrack (although not the best example!).


You can download the new updated track from [Race Department](https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/hanoi-street-circuit-vietnam-gp-2020.23990/).


BUT, as I'm ending development, note that there's plenty of incomplete things:
- My track is a lot bumpier than in the official game video, this is because it seemed like there are quite some wavey elevation changes in the [Tilke video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NBdG612AE8), which I tried to replicate. We won't know exactly how bumpy it is until we see racing I guess. It's a street track so I expected it to be somewhat bumpy. I'm not aware if Codies laser-scanned the track or not (it just looks dead flat to me in their video, like they forgot to put any elevation, even artificial, the real track can't be THAT smooth!);
- The track lacks a proper AI line, which means the AI can't drive on it. So, you can't race on it, you can only set fast laps in practice (see pointers for devs below if you wish to implement);
- There are plenty of missing trackside objects and details;
- The final art-pass should have been done, where I'd tweak the models, textures and material properties to make it look better and polished;
- ..Not to mention extensive testing which I have done little of, and mostly Jacques Villeneuve style (on an XboX controller, because it's hard to dev and wheel at the same time!).
- No trackside cameras, so no way to view your lap outside of the car


Pointers for developers:
- The track was created from scratch in Blender, hanoi.blend is your starting point. The only other source is tree textures that come from Textures.com. I tried to make all objects as "procedural" (non-destructive) as is possible with Blender. So, for example, the barriers all come from a single mesh and are placed using a curve, modifying a single barrier will automatically apply changes to all the barriers in the scene.
- The bumpiness/elevation changes of the track is entirely procedural and created using displace modifiers. That means you can reduce or remove the bumpiness if you wish. Although you will have to go through each object that has the displace and modify the values (Blender sucks a bit on that multi-editing part).
- To import the track into Assetto Corsa, you need to export from Blender with .fbx and then import to knEditor (shipped with AC). Then export it from there to the game.
- There's plenty of tutorials how to use knEditor online, but note that it is just AWFUL to work in. There are crashes, errors that tell you nothing, parameters that don't get saved, the UX is rubbish, no official documentation on most features etc. (one of the reasons why it took me much longer to make than it should, I hope I never need to use it again in my life!).
- Before you export from Blender, select the EXPORT collection and export only that. You need to convert all it's objects to meshes and then export. But..
- ..To ease this annoying exporting process to knEditor, I made a custom Blender 2.8+ plugin for single-click exporting the files that you can find HERE. Simply import the plugin and set collection to EXPORT. Remember to revert to your previous save after you finish the export! (read the docs on the plugin readme).
- Implementing the AI line: TBH, I couldn't fully understand how it works (I understand in principle but couldn't make it work in game). There are [conflicting] tutorials you can find online, and some involve driving around the track and some moving every fastlane point in ksEditor. The AI line is also partially dependent on "track edges" which don't exist at the moment. Since the track surface mesh is not separate from runoff, the AI tool will not know where it should look for track edges. The runoff should therefore be separated first.
- As for exporting to other sims, you're on your own there. Note that every sim has a completely different way of handling track data, such as surfaces, lap detection, garage spots etc.


Btw, besides random stuff I do for free, I'm also an indie game developer, follow me on twitter if you want to see stuff I'm doing: [nothke](https://twitter.com/Nothke)


Hope you make something of the track!


The source is available here: https://github.com/nothke/hanoi-track-ac