Where are the tracks?

[Daggerman]

For several years now the track development has been crawling at a snails pace. Why haven't Kunos expanded their team in order to develop tracks at a quicker pace? Am I right in saying that the tracks are done by one person? Did they not ever think that maybe having two people might make things quicker?

The cars are done by multiple people, yes? Why not tracks?

 

[Andy-R]

AC modders have brought some really nice interesting tracks to drive into AC IMO... Bridgehampton, Donington, Mas Du Clos (short loop), NJMP Lightning, RIR, Thruxton, Thompson Road, VIR are all fun tracks to drive.

Speaking of tracks, I have just become aware of New Hampshire Motor Speedway infield through something called YouTube... so much for infields being flat and boring, it looks like a great little layout!

 

[aphidgod]

There are easily a dozen mod tracks in AC that don't feel out of place next to official content. (I can name names if it's necessary.) Some are even made using lidar data and should satisfy the laserscan mafia.

 

[Emery]

I'm currently working with mobile lidar scans and can say that claims of accuracy depend on a lot of variables. The scans that I'm working with involve many kilometers of roads, long enough that multiple scans are required. What happens is that the reference for the scans can drift as the scanner vehicle is driven along the road. When the scans are linked together, oftentimes there can be a couple meters of misalignment where one scan ends and the next begins. Depending on the roughness of the road, a 1 meter misalignment can happen in only 100 meters of driven road and other times it's only 0.1 meter misalignment after a kilometer. Misalignments are why stationary lidar is used for the most accuracy.

Lidar shadow is another problem. Vehicle-mounted lidar is not going to see into the bottom of ditches or behind objects, for instance. If the budget is large enough, then an aerial lidar scan will supplement the other scans.

As has been said before, when you build a track for any game, the majority of the lidar points are effectively thrown away, particularly when it comes to the scenery beyond the track surface. Trees on the horizon that a driver uses for reference points are morphed into generic blobs of approximate texture... if we're lucky, at least the tree species and height are correct, but most of the time they aren't the same species (off color, deciduous vs. conifer) and the height is off by several meters. Buildings and walls are likely going to be placed within 100 cm, maybe 10 cm when they're next to a track, but rarely more exact because they're represented by large polygons compared to the actual surfaces and the artist isn't going to spend more time on the placement.

Having said all that, I do prefer a track based on lidar data. However, lidar is not a "must-have" by any means because there are a lot of tracks I like to drive that will never have lidar scans available because the tracks disappeared long ago or have had substantial changes.

 

[Ben Lee]

Mod tracks are ok, although frankly, most of them can't touch the quality of a studio produced work. There are a few gems which modders have produced, however a lot of mod tracks look like rFactor rips from 2007.

I too would like to see more tracks produced by Kunos, I don't fully understand why they produce so few.

 

[Radu Oros]

There are easily a dozen mod tracks in AC that don't feel out of place next to official content. (I can name names if it's necessary.) Some are even made using lidar data and should satisfy the laserscan mafia.

There is as much laserscan mafia as there is for non-ls tracks mafia, lidar mafia, cad mafia, ripped tracks mafia.

Reiza's tracks are lidar based and not the same type of laser scanned like Kunos. Kunos and Iracing use the same type of laserscan, although Kunos rents mobile scanners and Iracing has static devices, while Reiza and SMS use lidar which is a different laser scanning technology. I can't really explain the differences between the type of laserscan used by kunos and iracing and lidar laserscan used by reiza and sms, but there are differences in accuracy with what kunos and iracing do, which result in better race tracks for the simulation/game software. The end result of the british tracks in project cars and automobilista are lower quality on the track surface where we drive the cars in the sim.

Doesn't Reiza have a good amount of track artists (since the times of game stock car)+the track modder Patrick who might also help on the official tracks, who himself has a huge list of popular tracks as mods for both GSCE and AMS. Then is easy to see how Reiza managed to pump out a bigger number of tracks than Kunos. Kunos on the other hand invested more in popular race tracks and in better laserscanning technology, although rented scanners because over time the technology evolves and better to let that job for experienced companies and just rent when they need to make a track. Hopefully with the help of Digital Bros for a new game they can hire more track artists and expand the list of popular race tracks.

On the other hand SMS is a power house with a big amount of track artists and lidar drones, with the end result being a big list of tracks for project cars 2. The lidar drones like the static laserscanner iracing uses manage to cover more area around the track, but iracing's and kunos is more accurate than lidar. (the mobile scanner used by kunos has less range but for the race track itself where the ls van drives when performs the scanning is as accurate as the static scanner in iracing's tracks).

 

[2stains]

There are easily a dozen mod tracks in AC that don't feel out of place next to official content. (I can name names if it's necessary.) Some are even made using lidar data and should satisfy the laserscan mafia.

Could you please name them for me either here or in PM.
Thank You.

 

[aphidgod]

Could you please name them for me either here or in PM.
Thank You.

No need for a PM, these are all legit and hosted here @ RD. In no particular order, IMO this list is all on par with official content:

• Thomson Road
  
• Bridgehampton
• Riverside
• NJMP Lightning
• Donington
• Paul Ricard
• Miseluk
• Krajiska Zmija
  
• Glava Zete
• VIR
• Tajo Road
• Tor Poznan
• Luccaring

Additionally Sergio Loro's work is quite good if you're into historic tracks. There's a new(ish) Australian track whose name escapes me at the moment... a couple of the SimTraxx rallies are really nice, try Peyregrosse or Semetin if that's your thing. And I'm sure there are a few other good ones I'm overlooking.

 

[gecco]

With only so many copies to sell and the general attitude being that a track must not cost more then a few bucks, seriously what do you expect?
The ones that make their voice most heared now asking for more tracks will be the same ones that would scream the loudest if tracks were put out at a faster pace, and with a higher price tag.
Kunos simply can not risk to put more resources into making tracks considering the costs involved, and with keeping the potential revenues in mind.
What we urgently need is to change our minds and accept to pay for this stuff.
A licensed track, laserscanned and recreated in high quality, is worth at least USD 20,- if not more.
Assetto Corsa should not be seen as a game, but as a platform for the beautiful hobby of Simracing

 

[2stains]

USD 20 ? They would be better sticking with a lower price and move more units than a higher price to move less . Lots of people won't even buy into AC due to the lack of tracks let alone pay $20 on top of the purchase price for a single track and laserscan isn't even the biggest requirement . Use more traditional methods and keep the price down .
Especially since there are so many great mod tracks why would anyone pay $20 for one .
Iracing isn't even that price nor R3E and lots of people refuse to play or pay their prices .
I personally have all R3E content along with all AMS , AC and even pCars (and probably will pCars 2 also) and only a bit of Iracing stuff and will continue to buy anything any of the Devs release as long as its reasonable to me for price .

 

[Albert McSaltens]

Only Laser scan tracks for me, it's too obvious for me when a track is laser scanned or not while driving it and watching it from tv camera replays, It' 2017, non laser scanned tracks are now a thing of the past generation

 

[Shadowoff]

So, I dont deny any modders work but I prefer laser scanned tracks aswell as for me a sim shouldnt just be in the handling/ffb/physics realistic, also in the content. To be honest, in my almost 500 hours AC I never drove any fantasy track in it. Ofcourse some modded tracks but only those which had some good quality such as Le Mans, Bathurst, ...

 

[BenCollins]

There's a new(ish) Australian track whose name escapes me at the moment

There are several: Barbagallo, Eastern Creek and Baskerville are all excellent tracks. All available on this website.

 

[aphidgod]

Big fan of Baskerville, you'll find my name on the donor plaque easter egg if memory serves.

Wouldn't call Eastern Creek quite "OEM quality" but it's still a good track. I drove a lot of laps there while doing physics for a time attack car that runs in WTAC.

 

[LilSki]

Modders have this wonderful thing called Lidar data. It allows for very accurate track creation. Problem is very few people are making new tracks on this data. They are still converting tracks from rFactor and Codemasters games. Granted not every track has been scanned but many are with good resolution data.

 

[Albert McSaltens]

for mods is fine, but i would not buy any track if it's not laser scanned, unless it's an historic track, that can't be scanned

 

[Paul Wright]

to be fair, having done mod work on cars and tracks for rfactor, i can thoroughly and completely understand why tracks don't develop at the same rate as cars it's a chalk and cheese comparison to a certain extent and i don't envy anyone who dedicates their free time to modding at all now

ps - first post in AC, first post in RD for a few years, kudos to you all for keeping such a strong platform

 

[Tobiman]

With only so many copies to sell and the general attitude being that a track must not cost more then a few bucks, seriously what do you expect?
The ones that make their voice most heared now asking for more tracks will be the same ones that would scream the loudest if tracks were put out at a faster pace, and with a higher price tag.
Kunos simply can not risk to put more resources into making tracks considering the costs involved, and with keeping the potential revenues in mind.
What we urgently need is to change our minds and accept to pay for this stuff.
A licensed track, laserscanned and recreated in high quality, is worth at least USD 20,- if not more.
Assetto Corsa should not be seen as a game, but as a platform for the beautiful hobby of Simracing

$20 for a track would make it more expensive than iracing which charges more because they don't have as many active members. Track dlcs is the way to go I feel. A single track can easily go for $8-9 and when you put them in packs, there could be a little discount applied to encourage people to spend more.

 

[Edivad82]

Hello. Sorry for my english but for such a long text I used Google Translator.
I think I've downloaded all available AC circuits (I've searched in all mod sites) and have tried them all to see the quality and possible errors then try to fix them. In these I look very much the visual quality that is the one that surely pleases the player more. There are many circuits of all kinds (circuits, roads, hillclimb, kart, dirt), of high and low quality. But for me a player is not important to be 100% recreated. Of course it would be the icing on the cake. If Kunos developed new circuits and not just machines, even paying, I would surely take them because I know there would be a complete quality product.
It would be nice to develop official Track Packs, many "famous" circuits are not there and it's a shame especially when you find quality mods like the RSS 79 formula. AC is currently the most fashionable game for PC and still has a lot of potentials to express.

 

[jimclark06]

always i think that is a greedy politic of kunos...for example..why they dont buy the copirights of the excelents tracks of simraceway? the company is dead..and i think were a cheaper and magnificent oportunity! ..just a litle offtopic..zandvoort or Ac always reminde me the SRW version...Both are so similar!!!!.and for final..The number of available tracks its not the same that their quality......Regrettably¡
It's just my humble opinion...

 

[Epistolarius]

always i think that is a greedy politic of kunos...for example..why they dont buy the copirights of the excelents tracks of simraceway? the company is dead..and i think were a cheaper and magnificent oportunity! ..just a litle offtopic..zandvoort or Ac always reminde me the SRW version...Both are so similar!!!!.and for final..The number of available tracks its not the same that their quality......Regrettably¡
It's just my humble opinion...

What is and why is it "greedy"?

And I have no idea about Zandvoort in Simraceway but the AC and iRacing versions are very alike, which tells me that the version in AC is a good example for non-laserscanned tracks in terms of accuracy. It shouldn't be a surprise then that it's similar to the Simraceway version.

And as for why they don't just "buy the copyright" from Simraceway... they would need to license the brand from the circuit just the same and still implement any sort of received data into the sim.