|RSR| Real Sim Roads - Photogrammetry Maps for Sim Racing

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A Brief History of Sim Racing

It's hard to imagine a world without racing games, and it's even harder to imagine a world without sim racing. The genre has come a long way since the early days of Space Race and Pole Position. In fact, some would say sim racing is in its golden age, with more realistic graphics and physics than ever before.

Having a sim racing cockpit at home with excellent build quality used to be a pipe dream, with a low-cost steering wheel being most gamers' only interface with their software. Immersion was left to the imagination, helped along if your coffee table happened to be the same height as an F1 car. Virtual reality headsets were only seen in science fiction, and a future where they were commonplace seemed unimaginable.

But with sim racing in its current state, it's possible to have a fully immersive system in your living room, complete with a PC or console, VR headset, pedals, hand brake, multiple haptic feedback devices, and more, enabling VR experiences with an unmatched sense of speed and a distinct feeling that you're driving a real car around a racing circuit or dirt rally.

There is so much to add on, that a discerning sim racer might spend as much on a single brake pedal as a typical gamer would spend on an entire console!

The difference between now and then is night and day, but the goal remains the same: to have as much fun as possible.

Where did it all begin?

Flight simulation as entertainment first took form with early titles like Jet Rocket and Interceptor in the '70s. However, it was arguably Microsoft's release of Flight Simulator in 1982 that popularized flight simulators as a genre.

Shortly after the popularization of flight sims, racing simulations started to appear in the late '80s with titles like Indianapolis 500: The Simulation, released in 1989. Sim racing began to distinguish itself from arcade-style racing at this time, placing a focus on recreating the experience of being in the driver's seat.

Since then, there have been many different takes on the sim racing genre, with titles like Forza Horizon and Project Cars taking a more arcade-style approach, while Gran Turismo and Assetto Corsa focus on realism. VR systems have become more accessible, allowing for an immersive world that transports you to your favorite track or dirt road in an instant.

What Is a Racing Simulator?

At its core, sim racing is a subgenre at the cross-section of immersive simulators and racing games. Here, the focus is on the experience of driving vehicles in various conditions. This can include open-world environments, closed tracks, drift racing, dirt rally racing, rallycross, and more. A proper system has a steering wheel and pedals and provides force feedback through the wheel and a motion platform.

Sim racing has exploded in popularity in recent years, thanks to advances in virtual reality, graphics, and physics technology. This has resulted in some of the most realistic simulator experiences ever seen, where you can control every aspect of the car and feel like you're really behind the wheel. Advancements in motion platform technology combined with the latest VR headsets have created a level of exhilaration that rivals real-world driving. All this while sipping from a mug on your coffee table.

One of the most important aspects of any sim racing software is the physics engine, which determines how the vehicle behaves. Racers depend on a physics engine that accurately models real-world conditions, creating an immersive driving experience. The challenge is to incorporate as many factors as possible such as tire grip, suspension, weight transfer, and more, while still keeping the racing fun.

Another challenge is achieving a convincing level of realism. This can be determined by the graphics, which should be as realistic as possible, and by the force feedback, which should feel natural and intuitive. This might even include vibration in the pedals to simulate ABS or a loss of grip on the track. A good racing sim will also include features such as weather effects and day/night cycles to add to the realism.

A key feature that sets sim racing apart from other genres is its use of telemetry output. Telemetry data can be used to improve your driving technique by providing feedback on things such as braking points, acceleration, and cornering speeds. This data can also be used to control motion platforms that accurately recreate the feeling of being in a real car.

Is Assetto Corsa Open World?

One aspect that sets Assetto Corsa apart from other driving simulators is that it is open for anyone to develop maps to drive on. A number of modders have created an open-world environment typically referred to as a freeroam. This means that rather than following a predetermined track or course, you can freely explore and drive around in an expansive virtual world.

Real Sim Roads is working towards building a large open-world map entirely using photogrammetry. This endeavor will take a long time but once it is complete, it will be the most immersive and realistic free roam ever created!

What Are Some Limitations of Common Mods for Assetto Corsa?

While there are some great sim racing mods, there are also a number of limitations that need to be addressed.

Roads that are created by hand in 3D software often feel lifeless and lack force feedback detail because of overly smooth tarmac. Handmade mods are also limited visually because they utilize repeating textures which make roads and environments look flat and artificial. Even the best handmade mods still have an artificial, computer-generated feel to them. While these roads may be easier to create, they can't compare to the level of realism found in Real Sim Roads. Thanks to photogrammetry, which produces accurate textures and meshes, Real Sim Roads can create mods for Assetto Corsa that look and feel like the real world. This makes for more realistic and challenging driving conditions.

With Real Sim Roads, sim racers will experience roads that have varied textures and accurately replicate real-life surfaces. Alpine Meadows is a great example of this: the road itself is covered with asphalt patches and large cracks. These details are faithfully recreated in the game, giving players a more realistic and immersive sim racing adventure. Cars move around on their suspension more realistically, too, thanks to the natural camber changes captured in the road mesh.

This attention to detail completely transforms sim racing and provides an unparalleled level of immersion.

In short, Real Sim Roads provides users with content that is unmatched in quality.

What Makes Real Sim Roads Different?

For those not in the know, Assetto Corsa is a simulator game that has been gaining in popularity over the past few years. It offers a great driving experience, thanks to its realistic physics engine and high-quality graphics. It also has a large community of creators who produce new cars and tracks for others to enjoy. This includes a vast effort to improve the visual fidelity of the game through new weather controllers, lighting engines, post-production filters, and more.

However, most drivable maps are nowhere near realistic. The tarmac often feels flat and lifeless, and the textures are usually of low quality. The road surface lacks small bumps and other variations that make a road look and feel real.

This is where Real Sim Roads comes in. We are a dedicated team that uses photogrammetry to create the most realistic tracks with real physical measurements and features. This means that when you experience the environment through Assetto Corsa, it looks like a true-to-life recreation of a real-world location. And it drives like one, too.

Our tracks feature accurate textures, shadows, and reflections, allowing you to immerse yourself in the best possible experience. We have also added features like detailed 3D trees and snow to make the environment feel even more alive.

The driving experience on our roads is also incredibly realistic. We use the photogrammetry mesh to accurately replicate the physicality of the road and its features. This allows users to get a true-to-life driving experience, with accurate cornering and road surface feeling.

Our content is easy to install and use in Assetto Corsa. All you need to do is download it from our Patreon and install it using Content Manager. The best part is that our tracks are made to be used with any car in Assetto Corsa, giving you the best possible driving experience regardless of your choice of vehicle. In fact, you will come to love plenty of your favorite cars even more once you experience them on our tracks.

What Are the Goals of Our Project?

The long-term goal of Real Sim Roads is to develop an entirely new virtual reality simulator game that addresses the limitations of current software. The game will feature high-quality tracks and vehicles, accurate physics modeling, photorealistic graphics, photogrammetry assets, and next-level immersion through hand tracking and force feedback.

In the meantime, we are developing the most realistic mods ever created for Assetto Corsa and plan to port our creations to other sim racing games such as rFactor 2.

The process we have developed is a repeatable workflow that can be used to scan any road under the right lighting conditions. We continue to learn new tricks and improve our techniques with every scan. Our photogrammetry assets will form the basis of our future simulator which will be an open-world online experience with ultra-realistic physics, graphics, and car culture activities.

Another goal is to cultivate a thriving community where individuals can create, modify, and sell digital sim racing content. This marketplace will be integrated into our open-world sim racing experience and allow creators to provide high-quality content that is both licensed and monetizable.

We aim to create a system that fairly compensates creators while also preventing theft and premature release of works in progress. This will lead to a more vibrant and creative sim racing community.

The goal is to create a metaverse that doesn't suck. A metaverse that is photorealistic, immersive, and filled with interesting content. A metaverse where you can be anything you want to be and do anything you want to do (as long as it involves cars). We hope you'll join us on this journey!

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What Challenges Do We Face?

Real Sim Roads is an ambitious project, and there are several challenges we face on our way to creating the best sim racing experience ever. One of the biggest is user acquisition. The sim racing community still has a lot of players who are used to free content, so convincing them to pay for a premium experience can take time. We have to make sure the quality of our tracks and cars stands out enough that they are willing to become a Patron and continue to support the project.

Capturing the road is a challenge in and of itself, and the best scans require Mother Nature to cooperate. Soft, even lighting produces the best results, but an overcast day might be too dark overall to collect clean data. The ideal balance of conditions is needed, which can lead to wasted time and money if a scan is affected by bad lighting or weather.

When it comes to photogrammetry, one major challenge is data management. We are creating a ton of data with each scan, and making sure that our workflow is consistent and efficient can be difficult. We have to constantly review the data to make sure all scans capture the best quality images possible in order to accurately recreate real-world environments.

Storing and accessing all of that data is a huge challenge too. A single 3-mile road like Alpine Meadows uses around 7 TB of images! Not only is that an amazing amount of data, but it needs to be on ultra-fast SSD storage to speed up the reconstruction process.

We use only the highest quality, 35 MP EXR images for our workflow as this produces the best results for game engines. We also use a color chart to ensure proper color correction so the in-game look matches reality as closely as possible.

Another challenge we face is ensuring the best performance. Our photogrammetry scans are incredibly detailed, so we have to work hard to make sure our tracks run smoothly and don’t cause any hiccups in framerates or stuttering motions. We put a lot of time and effort into optimization so that everyone can enjoy playing without any issues.

We also have to ensure that our content is optimized for all PC configurations. This can require a lot of tweaking and testing, but it's the reason that Patreon supporters will receive monthly updates to existing tracks. As we receive bug reports from users and perform our own performance enhancements, we will continue to improve existing tracks along with releasing new ones.

How Can You Support the Project?

We are offering early previews of our photogrammetry tracks as Assetto Corsa mods in exchange for supporting us right now. Our goal is to release at least 1 new map every season, with additional bonus content and updates in between.

Bonus content can include photogrammetry assets for your own mods, mini-maps (we have a slot car track planned among other things), desktop and phone wallpapers, and more. Our content will improve over time as our funding increases and we can dedicate more resources to better capture hardware and a larger team.

‍Click here to become a Patron and support Real Sim Roads.

Your support is not just for these mods, it is to help fast-forward the entire genre of sim racing. To give you an idea of the costs involved, a recent quote for scanning roads using a hi-res 360 camera was roughly $10,000 USD per km for capture and reconstruction.

We are already investing the time and money needed to create these roads, and with your support, we can produce even better photogrammetry and release maps more often.

Click here to become a member and check out the tracks we are working on!

We are currently using Metashape to reconstruct over 70 miles of roads from Mt. Rainier, Mt. Shasta, La Honda (Northern California), Malibu, Sundance, and more. The project is moving along slowly but surely! We are completing a few miles at a time and will be releasing them as regular updates for monthly supporters.

Go here to become a member and support our project!

We are also raising money through more traditional means, as any startup would. If you are an accredited investor or fully-funded game studio interested in this project, please get in touch! You can email us at contact@realsimroads.com

What VR Headsets Are Supported/Recommended?

Real Sim Roads work with any VR headset that is supported by Assetto Corsa. This includes VR headsets from Oculus, HTC, Valve, Pimax, Varjo, and more. We recommend Varjo headsets for their extreme clarity and resolution, which produces an uncanny feeling of being in a real environment when used with Real Sim Roads.

All of our internal testing was performed using a Varjo Aero VR headset and Open XR. Open XR is highly recommended over OpenVR/SteamVR because it generally runs faster with less overhead.

What Type of Motion Platforms Are Supported?

Real Sim Roads is the perfect addition to any sim racing setup with a motion platform. The more detailed and realistic your motion platform, the more you will get to experience the subtle bumps and camber changes of Real Sim Roads.

As with VR headsets, any motion platform that supports Assetto Corsa will also work with Real Sim Roads.

You may wish to adjust your motion settings once you have tried Real Sim Roads on your sim racing rig, in order to properly feel every detail in the road. If you have adapted your settings for other mods which are typically very flat and have less dynamic camber changes, we suggest creating a new profile for Real Sim Roads so you can quickly change settings when you switch between mods.

Then again, you may never look at other mods the same way again. If you never went back, we wouldn't be surprised.

What Controllers Are Supported/Recommended?

You will be able to use any controller that is compatible with your VR headset or simulator rig. For driving, we support all modern wheel and pedal sets from manufacturers like Fanatec, Thrustmaster, Logitech, Simucube, and more. We recommend a high-end direct drive system like the Podium DD2 and Accuforce Pro in order to have the most realistic driving feel.

The better your hardware, the better your experience!

What If I Don't Have a VR Headset or Get Sick in VR?

Just like in traditional racing games, you will be able to play in a first- or third-person view on a single monitor or triple screen setup. You can see your car from an external camera view and use all of the camera features in Assetto Corsa.

That said, our initial release Alpine Meadows is a work in progress and some higher camera angles may reveal parts of the track that are not completed. We recommend an in-car camera for driving as this is the perspective that the road was designed to be used with.

This means that you can still practice driving on Real Sim Roads without having to wear a VR headset. This will also be helpful for those who experience motion sickness in virtual reality.

However, we recommend using a VR headset for the best experience.

Where Can I Find Download Links for Real Sim Roads?

Ready to upgrade your sim racing experience? You can view all of our available AC tracks from Real Sim Roads on our website, https://www.realsimroads.com/downloads

On the downloads page, you will find links to our Patreon for the latest releases from Real Sim Roads as well as previous releases. The current version includes Alpine Meadows, a full-length mountain track that is available for Assetto Corsa.

Download links are always on our Patreon and you can go directly there by clicking this link: https://www.patreon.com/realsimroads

As our knowledge and skills improve, we will constantly update our existing tracks and incorporate what we learn into new releases. Updates can include a new layout, performance improvements, visual enhancements, better AI traffic, and more. All of our updated tracks will be made available to our Patrons on a monthly basis.

How Do I Install Real Sim Roads?

Installing Real Sim Roads is simple and takes only a few moments. All you need to do is download the files for your chosen track mods from our Patreon, locate it on your drive, then drag and drop it into Content Manager. Once it's installed, start up a race and enjoy Real Sim Roads!

Where Can I See Videos of Real Sim Roads in Action?

Check out our YouTube channel for videos of Real Sim Roads in action. Our videos provide an overview of the mod, show off existing tracks, and even feature new designs we are working on.

We are also in the process of creating car documentaries using Real Sim Roads for some of the action shots. Send us a list of cars you want to learn about and we'll choose the best ones to make episodes about!

Make sure to follow us in YouTube by clicking here to subscribe to Real Sim Roads. Make sure to click the confirmation when the page opens!

Subscribe to Real Sim Roads on YouTube

Photogrammetry Maps for Sim Racing

Picture yourself in a car simulation that blurs the line between real and virtual.

Experience realistic environments with accurate textures and surfaces.

Finally, the sim racing content you've always wanted.

An experience so lifelike, you'll forget it's a simulation.

Our Core Values

Make It Real

Make It Fast

Make It Beautiful

Alpine Meadows Statistics

Initial Polygon Count

Road Collision Points

35MP Source Images

Ready to upgrade your sim racing experience?