Laguna Seca Laserscan Complete, Release for Assetto Corsa Expected Late 2017

[Paul Jeffrey]

Marco Massarutto has confirmed laserscanning of the epic Laguna Seca Raceway has been completed, suggesting the track may appear in game before the end of 2017.

Already widely acknowledged to be making its way to Assetto Corsa sometime in the reasonably near future, the noise around Laguna Seca and the simulation has died down somewhat in recent months, leaving fans of the game to wonder exactly what is happening with the famous American venue.

With something of a well timed update post on his personal Facebook page Marco Massarutto, Product Brand Manager of AC developers Kunos Simulazioni. has gone on record to state that the laserscanning element of the track creation has now been completed (albeit later than anticipated), and the track is in the works to be completed and released to the game by the end of the current calendar year.

Long anticipated by fans of both Assetto Corsa and American themed race tracks, Laguna represents one of the most impressive driving experiences in the United States and has been host to numerous high profile national and international level car and bike racing events throughout its illustrious history.

Well known to sim racing fans thanks to its almost ever present representation in games such as Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsport, finally PC players will get the opportunity to sample a fully lasterscanned version in Assetto Corsa.

Despite the delays Massarutto confirmed scanning completed just this week after unexpected delays, with the following statement made via Facebook released by the Italian Kunos founder:

"After a pile of burocratic and logistics issues that resulted in a sensible delay of our operations in US, [finally] Yesterday we have completed our laserscan survey at Laguna Seca, so the track should be completed and available for Assetto Corsa within the end of the year."

Exciting times ahead for fans of the track and simulation as it should prove to be incredibly interesting to drive a full scanned version of a track that has been so popular in racing games over the years. At this stage it is not clear if the track will be a free bonus content addition or form part of a future DLC release for the game, however it is expected that more details will be released in future as development back at Kunos HQ continues to progress.

Assetto Corsa is available to purchase now for PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

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Laguna! Anyone else excited? What are your memories from this track in other racing sims / games? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[Manfredk2]

Me to. I will never drive the tracks in real life so i dont care if it is 100 percent real or not

 

[Michael Hornbuckle]

So if there was a process/tool available that would produce an exact replica of real world tires/physics, would you guys want/expect your favorite simulation developer to use that tool, or would you not care if they didn't bother with it since the current way produces results 'close enough'.

 

[Will Mazeo]

So if there was a process/tool available that would produce an exact replica of real world tires/physics, would you guys want/expect your favorite simulation developer to use that tool, or would you not care if they didn't bother with it since the current way produces results 'close enough'.

Depends... Would it cause a slow pace in car release in a way that I could have 30 well done cars but got only 8 because "new process is accurate enough" and huge part of the data will have to be dropped because desktop PCs can't handle it... and on the top of that make things more expensive? If yes don't bother with such a process/tool

 

[Brandon Wright]

So if there was a process/tool available that would produce an exact replica of real world tires/physics, would you guys want/expect your favorite simulation developer to use that tool, or would you not care if they didn't bother with it since the current way produces results 'close enough'.

That's leaving out a very important factor, development time. If this tool would allow 15-20 highly detailed cars per year with said realistic tires/physics then it's a no-brainer, of course we want it. However, if the development pace with this tool was so slow (and possibly expensive) that we only get 1-2 cars a year, that probably would not be ideal for most consumers. Personally, I'd take a couple dozen "close enough" cars a year over 1-2 über detailed cars a year, but others may feel differently.

 

[Stereo]

I don't think laserscanning slows down trackmaking, or even adds much cost - if you want a "good" version you need staff onsite anyway, to take photos/measurements of the whole circuit, not just working from random onboard video and track planning surveys.

Of course it costs more than doing crappy conversions from rfactor, which is why modders can put out dozens of tracks a year. But the people who do it right are not working faster than AC staff.

 

[Brandon Wright]

I don't think laserscanning slows down trackmaking, or even adds much cost - if you want a "good" version you need staff onsite anyway, to take photos/measurements of the whole circuit, not just working from random onboard video and track planning surveys.

Of course it costs more than doing crappy conversions from rfactor, which is why modders can put out dozens of tracks a year. But the people who do it right are not working faster than AC staff.

Right, and that's not the point I was trying to make. But we only get 1-2 laser scanned tracks from Kunos per year where R3E doesn't do laser scanning (except for the Nords) and they've already released several tracks this year. Obviously there's other factors involved that make it not an apples to apples deal, but it's hard not to draw the comparison.

 

[Tibor Solyom]

He mentioned Silverstone in that comment, not Norschleife.

Oh yes, sorry.
I wanted to talk about how pointless this discussion is, but it seems it was a totally wrong example because of my misreading.

I read very often, we could have more tracks without LS, but I think it's totally wrong. LS makes track developing faster, and I don't think it's so expensive compared to the total costs. I think the licensing costs and working hours together must be about 70-80% and LS 20-30%. And because LS makes it easier, I think they can save on the working hours too. So I think they could save maximum 15-20% of the developing costs, if they don't use LS.

But.
I'm sure there are very huge differences between licensing costs. I can imagine some track costs 2-3 times more then another one. For example Suzuka must be really expensive, if even pCars couldn't afford it, and Hockenheim seems quite cheap, if AMS despite their relatively poor sales figures (which is a shame) could buy it. And I can imagine Mr. Mateschitz doesn't need so much money for the Red Bull Ring like a state-owned circuit with a stubborn management,
And I didn't say anything about the surroundings. E.g. Monaco vs. Brno, endless buildings vs. trees. So, what I say is, a non-LS track could have a twice higher price then a LS track.

Add this to the fact, LS tracks can develop faster, I'm pretty sure we couldn't have more tracks without LS.

Some people think they operate like this:
They save some money from the income of DLC's, and if they finally have the huge amount of money for the procedure of LS, they fly to the track, except of Australia, because the tickets are expensive, scan it, come back to the only one guy who can build tracks (he is a fantastic artist for sure) and we can have a new LS tracks finally.

No. It's a business. And they are quite good in it (thank God).

I don't think they couldn't build a team around that guy, I don't think they couldn't afford more investment to buy new circuits (yes, for more income). It seems it's a strategy from them, which we have to accept. And we not necessarily have to know the reasons.

Yes, we can only hope there will be some change in this strategy with the new owner, and we will get more fantastic LS tracks in the next title

 

[Albert McSaltens]

To know that a track is laserscanned and thus is as true a representation of its real counterpart as is possible is nice for sure, but its ultimately not a stringent requirement for a high quality track.
Some people seem to be overly obsessed with having all the bumbs and scratches and blades of grass at the right place.
Laserscan is just a very convenient way to get precise info on the track and its perimeter, and providing the track artist with the neccessary data to work with. What the trackmaker then makes of it, is solely up to him.
Zandvoort was done to the same level of detail as the laserscanned tracks, and does not lack behind the smallest bit in appeal or quality.
I'm very much looking forward to Laguna Seca, but not because it is laser scanned, but rather because I know, that Kunos only puts out highest quality content, no matter the source material!

Zandvort has no way near same accuracy as the laser scanned track, maybe you did not look properly, but has noticable inacuracies, let alone camber, and kerbs

 

[natedogg1867]

Right, and that's not the point I was trying to make. But we only get 1-2 laser scanned tracks from Kunos per year where R3E doesn't do laser scanning (except for the Nords) and they've already released several tracks this year. Obviously there's other factors involved that make it not an apples to apples deal, but it's hard not to draw the comparison.

To be fair, R3E does have a 'team' of track artists all working on the projects while AC has... Simone?

You cant expect 1 guy to do the work of 4+ guys. And this seems to be the crux of the criticism of AC's track releases. Of course, this doesnt take into account the cost of licensing and paying people to do more work...

 

[Brandon Wright]

To be fair, R3E does have a 'team' of track artists all working on the projects while AC has... Simone?

You cant expect 1 guy to do the work of 4+ guys. And this seems to be the crux of the criticism of AC's track releases. Of course, this doesnt take into account the cost of licensing and paying people to do more work...

Of course. And again that's not the point I was trying to make, nor was I really criticizing AC's track releases, just drawing a comparison between two different methods/studios. Michael made a hypothetical comment, I replied with clarification on that hypothetical comment which I felt left out an important piece of the equation. Regardless of whether or not laser scanning is more efficient or how many people are building the tracks, we only get ~1 laser scanned track a year which is a pretty slow pace and if cars were released at a similar pace, per Michael's analogy, it would not make many people happy and makes the analogy moot IMO.

Anyway, not really worth discussing since Kunos are going to do things the way they see best, as they should.

 

[gecco]

Zandvort has no way near same accuracy as the laser scanned track, maybe you did not look properly, but has noticable inacuracies, let alone camber, and kerbs

Yeah right, but I was talking about details, appeal, and quality, while you are talking about something different, accuracy. Maybe you have not read properly what I wrote.