Assetto Corsa Track Creation - NLR Drift

VR Testing in Assetto Corsa and Modeling Time-lapse
https://youtu.be/DDoDxOPmIw0

One of the biggest struggles I’ve had with 3D renderings is the background/environments for the cars. What better way to practice and learn about creating environments than to create tracks for one of my favorite games?

A friend of mine sent me a top down shot of a track layout he really liked from another game (Live For Speed), from that I decided to recreate and take it alittle further for Assetto Corsa (AC). I’ve created one track before, however i never really finished the project, and left before polishing. I took some of the knowledge i gained while building that track, and wanted to expand and push my boundaries a bit. Thankful the track itself is pretty simple. Its flat, the corners are squared vs being a curve, and since it was more of a parking lot track in Live For Speed, i had a ton of freedom to make it into its own environment for AC. After getting the base curve down for the track surface, I created a 10m wide slice that I can use an array modifier to create the drivable surface. I added a simple ground plane for the grass texture/surface to give the track a home and then we started testing the layout. Right away it was pretty spot on.

After finalizing the track surface, i needed to build the pits. It was suggested to have the pits on a hill, so we could see everyone on the track while we merge from the pits so we dont have issues pulling out in front of people. With alittle testing we changed the pit lane and then i decided to make it feel like a parking garage. I created the top parking “pit” surface, then had to come up with a way to get people from the top level down to the track level. One of my favorite movies is Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift, and an iconic scene from that movie is the parking ramp spiral. Watching DK slide up the spiral, bumpers inches from a wall, really gets me excited, so of course its the perfect way to get people from the top pit surface down to the ground level.

After creating the spiral, we tested it by trying to tandem drift down it. Which showed that when the same track surface overlaps itself in AC, the cars visually glitch up and down several feet in the air. Splitting the spiral’s surface so it doesnt overlap itself, and creating two different spiral surface meshes (one for the top half, and another for the bottom half) fixed it! Now its time to work on making it visually interesting.

I added a few trees and a couple light poles, but it wasnt enough. Adding a few walls around the track for bumper taps helped, but it was still bland. A friend suggested flashing lights along the top of the walls, and with a little testing i was sold! I added the lights on the wall, then we isolated a couple lights and changed them from flashing red, to solid green for clipping point indicators. With some graffiti and a couple posters added, it was time to jam online with some friends!