This Assetto Corsa Mixed Reality Video Shows VR Racing’s Potential

By
Paul James
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32

This enthusiast video which uses green screen video capture to fuse virtual reality footage, demonstrates how impressively accurate VR racing games are becoming.

The trend set by the excellent mixed reality videos from Northway Games, showcasing their excellent room-scale title Fantastic Contraption, continued last week with Valve adopting similar techniques to convey the power of the HTC Vive VR system.

This new video, produced by racing enthusiast Marcel Pfister, uses a green screen technique to mask off the real world, save for his arms and steering wheel, then mesh video capture from the sim racing title Assetto Corsa with headset mounted camera footage.

The results are an impressive demonstration of the Oculus Rift’s tracking accuracy and how close the AC’s representation of real life racing is right now – with the physical and virtual worlds closely aligned in motion.

assetto corsa oculus rift steamvr steam summer sale 2014

Assetto Corsa (which means “Racing Setup” in Italian) has included preliminary virtual reality support for some time, with Oculus Rift DK1 support added back in 2013. Recently however, the title’s VR support seems to have stalled, with the developer stating development focus efforts have been focused elsewhere just now:

“Although the retail version of Oculus Rift is finally available, at the moment our core team is focused on the submission and release of Assetto Corsa for consoles…”

However, the desire seems still to be there to bring AC to the recently released Oculus Rift consumer edition:

“Our aim is to support VR – and not necessarily only the Oculus Rift – when we will be able to take the time and resources required.

We fully understand that people who have invested in the purchase of a VR device want to use it as much as possible, and we know that Assetto Corsa guaranteed a ton of fun with the Oculus SDK2 (that could only be better with the retail version), therefore we promise that we will take the time to evaluate the option of creating proper VR support in harmony with other tasks and priorities that we have already scheduled.”

Mixed reality techniques are proving to be a powerful way to illustrate to the uninitiated just how effective and immersive virtual reality can be, something that is tricky to pull off via traditional marketing methods. We’re all for it.

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Paul James
Based in the UK, Paul has been immersed in interactive entertainment for the best part of 27 years and has followed advances in gaming with a passionate fervour. His obsession with graphical fidelity over the years has had him branded a ‘graphics whore’ (which he views as the highest compliment) more than once and he holds a particular candle for the dream of the ultimate immersive gaming experience. Having followed and been disappointed by the original VR explosion of the 90s, he then founded RiftVR.com to follow the new and exciting prospect of the rebirth of VR in products like the Oculus Rift. Paul joined forces with Ben to help build the new Road to VR in preparation for what he sees as VR’s coming of age over the next few years.
  • George Vieira IV

    So is this something the person wearing the VR headset gets to see, or is it just so when you live stream it’ll look cool?

    • Marcel

      Its the second thing ;-). At the moment it’s not possible to see while playing

      • George Vieira IV

        Thanks

        • Sam Illingworth

          That’s not my understanding of it. Here’s how I understand it.

          A person has their wheel set up with green material behind it, and to the sides of their seat, so when they sit down they’re surrounded by green, except for the wheel and their seat.

          The person puts on a VR headset, so they can’t see any of the real world anymore, but see the game in VR.

          The headset has a camera on the ouside, filming the real world (ie the green screen, the wheel and the player’s arms), so we have two video streams – the real world view from the camera on the headset, and the in-game view.

          The two views are brought together: the in-game view is superimposed on the green material in the real life view (and, apparently, the in-game wheel and hands have been removed, or we’d see them in addition to the real world ones).

          The end result of this is a video which looks like what the player sees in-game, except with their real life hands and wheel instead of the virtual ones.

          I’m not sure quite what the point is, in this case. Simply showing the in-game view, with the in-game wheel and arms, would look pretty much the same.

          • jlschmugge

            The point is to see how well the simulation in the virtual world is mimicking the actions by the user. To those who haven’t tried VR or aren’t even into video games, this wouldn’t come across when viewing just the game. When you see it with real hands it makes more impact to represent VR’s immersion in a 2D video.

          • Sam Illingworth

            Yeah, I get that, but since it’s not at all obvious at any given moment that they’re not in-game hands it’s not always obvious that you’re seeing a mixed reality video (I know you can work it out by paying attention from the start, but the fact we’ve had somebody here who didn’t understand suggests it’s not the clearest demonstration).

            I don’t think it works as well as the Fantastic Contraption and Valve’s green screen videos, doesn’t have the same impact, I feel. Still cool though, I definitely want to play some racing when my Vive comes.

            Edit: just watched it again – it does look pretty man awesome. The driver really makes a meal out of that overtake though doesn’t he? :P

  • Raphael

    ““Although the retail version of Oculus Rift is finally available, at the moment our core team is focused on the submission and release of Assetto Corsa for consoles…” << Any developer who focuses on console over PC and VR is not a developer I want to support.

    Project Cars FTW.

    • jlschmugge

      Console is a much bigger market compared to the just barely existent VR market, and Kunos Simulazioni is a rather small team making a big game. Think of the fact right now probably only about 15-20% of all people that ordered a Vive or CV1 Rift actually received theirs, and most of the rest still have to wait a month to 4 months. It wouldn’t make sense to jump on it right now. They just released the console version of their game with serious overhauls in fidelity that also transferred to their already existing PC market. I’m sure that once everything is going smooth with sales and patches, VR is next on the list. Also one of the issues Kunos had is that even though they had VR working on the DK2, Oculus decided to make that SDK no longer work with the CV1. By the time Kunos had the SDK and CV1 to work with, their console game was already under way.

      Project Cars also had the benefit of developing for the console and PC together before Kunos started their console port. It’s more of a timing issue that is driving the priorities of the two developers. If Project Cars was just releasing on consoles now and didn’t have VR yet, I’m sure the story would be the same.

      • Raphael

        While I don’t disagree with anything you’re saying… I personally dislike anything console related and think overall they’ve had a negative impact on PC gaming.

        • quf

          For the same reason they’re developing the game on console, that is also helping to improve the interface usability for pc, for VR. Since the AC menus only work with mouse, they will need to adapt them for a better use to someone who has VR headset, for the menu launcher and in-game launcher, where you control setups, pitstops.

        • Gorilla Jones

          LOL get a clue my friend. Its a small company and they need to pay the bills. Hardline opinions like yours are thankfully going the way of the dodo. I play PC and consoles and they both have great experiences.

          You sound like Nick Burns…Computer guy. Look it up.

          • Raphael

            Utter nonsense. Cliche argument. This developer heavily promoted the fact they were jumping in to vr from an early point so they have a responsibility to support those who bought the game for that reason.

            Because of the backlash from vr users they have added cv1 support so that renders your misguided argument invalid.

            They are also working on htc vive support and i will purchase assetto when that update comes.

            You may have fun playing simulations and games on a tiny rectangular window in 2d…. I don’t.

          • Gorilla Jones

            LOL rage much? They do what keeps the lights on, economics 101 doof.

          • Raphael

            You’re a bit dumb aren’t you. You’re clearly oblivious to the fact that have done more vr work since this story was published and they also have a htc vive now. So you’re responding to an old story that is no longer applicable. I’d say that makes you pretty vacant.

          • Gorilla Jones

            Yes, triple 3D projectors using immersive display pro. Go to Inside Sim racing forums and see it.

          • Gorilla Jones

            Oh, and for the record dummy, I have a 50 thousand dollar driving simulator. Check out my youtube channel under the same name. It has a 17 foot surround 240 degree screen, full 3 dof motion, G seat, servo wheel. Tiny screen? Lol

            Go to Inside Sim racing forums and look at the Porsche simulator thread, then come back here dummy.

            I only mentioned consoles because I like them as well, I’m not an elitist asshat.

            They are a small team and they need money.

            My guess is you’re Raphael Baker from Facebook. He’s an Internet tough guy too. Lofl

          • Raphael

            You have a 17 foot 240 degree screen in 3d? Assuming it is 3d then it is still far short of the immersion you get with vr. If it’s 2d then it’s totally outdated technology you should update with vr. Motion platform is good but the screen is pish.

            Small team small company crap again… Are you even aware of the history of this game? This developer heavily promoted the fact they were adding vr. To drop vr would mean going back on their words and let people down. Since the story was published about them focusing on idiot boxes (consoles) they have added new support fitter oculus cv1 and they are now adding support for htc as well. So that renders your small company needing the money line as utter nonsense.

            They are fulfilling their promise to vr users. There are one man developers also creating games with vr support so this idea you have that vr support requires a massive budget is utter tripe.

          • Gorilla Jones

            Guess you’re not listening. I have both VR and the surround screen. Also you have no idea what you’re talking about. My immersion is the ultimate, I’m in a real car. The screen surrounds the entire cockpit. Again, go to ISR and also watch my videos. Sheesh. You’re thick.

          • Raphael

            Why would I go and look at your videos? You’ve tried to win an argument by telling everyone to go look at a facebook account. I should take an interest in your overpriced toy because?

            “My immersion is the ultimate, I’m in a real car.” << If you were in a real car you'd be driving on a real road.

          • Gorilla Jones

            Are you dumb? You said “you only play on tiny 2D screen” or something like that. Guess you again are wrong. There is a trend here. You’re always wrong.

            Oh and genius, all VR is a toy. LOL.

          • Raphael

            “Oh and genius, all VR is a toy. LOL.” — Why do you add a LOL? Is it because you think you’re entertaining everyone here?

            Given that VR creates life-size 3d visuals in a compact form – hardly a toy. It represents a natural evolution in display/control technology. The toy is here to stay.

          • Raphael

            So because your argument is invalid you go hunting for facebook accounts… how old are you?

            No I don’t want to go look at your racing sim.

          • Gorilla Jones

            LOL, the only reason I knew it was you is because you’re acting like a complete asshole everywhere you go. The fact that I could tell it’s you is very sad.

            Doesn’t matter if you look or not, it’s awesome.

            Keep on acting like a psycho buddy, you’re doing a great job.

          • Raphael

            Ding dong. You get a medal. Now go build a $100,000 simulator for Elite Dangerous and shut up.

          • Gorilla Jones

            Game…..blouses. lol

            What a doof.

          • Raphael

            How did you end up with a 50k driving sim?

  • Falcon195

    Retaining your body goes a long way towards establishing presence.

  • crim3

    The funny thing is that a setup like this could be built for actual game play with CastAR.

  • I love this game. Thank for sharing.
    Chuyen mục dành cho game thực tế ảo với những game mới nhất dành cho kính thực tế ảo.

  • Raphael

    I look forward to buying Assetto when the Vive support comes.

  • shopat

    HTC Vive.. Assetto Corsa runs really smooth with supersampling 1.5 on 970gtx 8GB, OR supersampling 2 on 1070gtx 8GB

  • Mike Moeller

    gotta love kunos. churn out dlc and console versions, take took facebooks money, and left us vive users in the dust.