What is 'Drive'?
Drive is an Areograph technology developed specifically for capturing open roads, circuits and race tracks - for use in a range of driving applications.
Due to roads being linear in nature, the Areograph road capture technology - code named 'Drive' - has matured rapidly, with a beta test video available to view on this page.
If you are looking to create accurate and realistic race tracks for a video game or hardcore simulation, Drive can provide the tools needed to capture and render 3D models of real roads - and it can do it faster and more cost effectively than traditional polygon methods.
After all, why re-create something when you can race on the real thing?
The Drive Process:
VIDEO: Beta test scenes of New Zealand roads, captured using Drive technology.
The Benefits of Drive:
- An entire track can be captured in a single day and be ready for racing on within weeks. This means a significant reduction in time and cost.
- Artists strive to re-create real tracks in immense detail, but nothing can compare to the authenticity of reality.
- Drive's scenery looks complex on the surface but it's actually very light work for the CPU; this means a constantly high frame rate.
- Drive can work in combination with laser scanned track data or it can generate its own road surface mesh down to a comparable level of detail.
- Our team of technical experts can assist in the capture and integration of Drive data into your existing simulation engine.
- Those trees you're driving past are not 'art assets' - every one is unique and you'll never see the same tree twice.
Drive - F.A.Q.
What's the point of Drive when modern driving games are already photorealistic?
We believe there is a huge distinction between something which is a detailed recreation of an environment as opposed to an environment which has been transplanted from reality into an interactive medium - which is what Drive does - with as little interference as possible. When a Drive simulation is put next to a ‘photorealistic’ traditionally texture mapped simulation, the difference is huge.
Why should I use Drive when our studio already has a mature and well established graphics pipeline?
If your company prides itself on the realism and detail of your racing tracks, Drive could help push it to the next level, and the tracks can be created more efficiently. Additionally, the 3D environment that Drive creates can be output in any number of standard formats (Maya, 3DSMax, etc).
How does Drive differ to a photo-textured polygon track?
The devil is in the details, and real life is rich in detail beyond measure... every object is unique, even if they look similar. No art team would have the resources to individualize every single feature in their environment, but with Drive the job is already done. Even the world's best texture-mapped track contains countless repetitions of trees, houses, signs etc... Not to mention that polygons tend to look very uniform, where as real life is more organic and nuanced.
We pride ourselves on our tracks being extremely accurate, can Drive really compete with this level of accuracy without laser scanning?
Drive is extremely accurate, comparable to the accuracy provided by laser scans. The good thing is that the Drive capture process can work side-by-side with laser data, providing the best of both worlds.
Capturing real roads seems like a huge challenge. What restrictions does it present?
The primary restriction of the Drive capture process is that the environment needs to be fairly static. This demands three boxes to be ticked before a successful capture can take place: #1: The lighting must remain constant (this means either a clear blue sky or a completely overcast sky). #2: The weather must not intrude (this means no wind and no rain). #3: The road must be empty – this means no traffic. Small things like birds and such can be easily removed, much like unwanted objects are removed in film post-production.
Can dynamic lighting be integrated?
Yes, the environment can have lighting added, such as flashes and reflections from car lights on wet roads.
How does integration of 3D models (cars etc) work?
The Drive data contains a full polygon dataset, alongside the rest of the 3D models in the scene. The Drive polygons have a custom shader attached, which are the conduit to our rendering algorithm.
Will the 3D cars look out of place in a 'Drive' environment?
As you know car models in modern games look superb. They have already reached a level of photo-realism that is sufficient to integrate with a Drive environment. But of course, car models would need to be adjusted to suit the environments' look and feel... this might just mean not going overboard on fancy shaders and giving the car a more realistic finish.
How does Drive maintain a high frame rate?
The load on the CPU and GPU are proportional to the number of pixels on the screen – which is typically static. This allows for ultra complex scenes, such as a whole city or countryside, to be rendered in real time.
How do you photograph roads?
A purpose built rig has been designed to travel down roads at about 30kmph (18mph). If the driving rig is not convenient there are a range of other options.
We are interested in putting Drive tracks into our product, will you help us capture and integrate the tracks into our existing engine?
We will help with the entire process. One scenario would be service based, where we would capture all of the tracks for you and then help with the integration. The other option is that we just provide you with the guidelines for capturing, and provide the tools – and assistance – you need to integrate your own Drive data.
I notice there are some visual glitches in the Drive video, what are these?
The videos are of our early beta tests, so a few visual oddities are present. This technology is brand new, with first real world implementations scheduled for mid 2010.
Can I use Drive to capture environments other than roads?
Drive has been specifically designed with roads in mind. We are working on other applications for the Areograph technology, including large open areas that would be suitable for FPS games. But if you think a long, linear space would suit your game or simulation, then please get in touch.
We believe there is a huge distinction between something which is a detailed recreation of an environment as opposed to an environment which has been transplanted from reality into an interactive medium - which is what Drive does - with as little interference as possible. When a Drive simulation is put next to a ‘photorealistic’ traditionally texture mapped simulation, the difference is huge.
Why should I use Drive when our studio already has a mature and well established graphics pipeline?
If your company prides itself on the realism and detail of your racing tracks, Drive could help push it to the next level, and the tracks can be created more efficiently. Additionally, the 3D environment that Drive creates can be output in any number of standard formats (Maya, 3DSMax, etc).
How does Drive differ to a photo-textured polygon track?
The devil is in the details, and real life is rich in detail beyond measure... every object is unique, even if they look similar. No art team would have the resources to individualize every single feature in their environment, but with Drive the job is already done. Even the world's best texture-mapped track contains countless repetitions of trees, houses, signs etc... Not to mention that polygons tend to look very uniform, where as real life is more organic and nuanced.
We pride ourselves on our tracks being extremely accurate, can Drive really compete with this level of accuracy without laser scanning?
Drive is extremely accurate, comparable to the accuracy provided by laser scans. The good thing is that the Drive capture process can work side-by-side with laser data, providing the best of both worlds.
Capturing real roads seems like a huge challenge. What restrictions does it present?
The primary restriction of the Drive capture process is that the environment needs to be fairly static. This demands three boxes to be ticked before a successful capture can take place: #1: The lighting must remain constant (this means either a clear blue sky or a completely overcast sky). #2: The weather must not intrude (this means no wind and no rain). #3: The road must be empty – this means no traffic. Small things like birds and such can be easily removed, much like unwanted objects are removed in film post-production.
Can dynamic lighting be integrated?
Yes, the environment can have lighting added, such as flashes and reflections from car lights on wet roads.
How does integration of 3D models (cars etc) work?
The Drive data contains a full polygon dataset, alongside the rest of the 3D models in the scene. The Drive polygons have a custom shader attached, which are the conduit to our rendering algorithm.
Will the 3D cars look out of place in a 'Drive' environment?
As you know car models in modern games look superb. They have already reached a level of photo-realism that is sufficient to integrate with a Drive environment. But of course, car models would need to be adjusted to suit the environments' look and feel... this might just mean not going overboard on fancy shaders and giving the car a more realistic finish.
How does Drive maintain a high frame rate?
The load on the CPU and GPU are proportional to the number of pixels on the screen – which is typically static. This allows for ultra complex scenes, such as a whole city or countryside, to be rendered in real time.
How do you photograph roads?
A purpose built rig has been designed to travel down roads at about 30kmph (18mph). If the driving rig is not convenient there are a range of other options.
We are interested in putting Drive tracks into our product, will you help us capture and integrate the tracks into our existing engine?
We will help with the entire process. One scenario would be service based, where we would capture all of the tracks for you and then help with the integration. The other option is that we just provide you with the guidelines for capturing, and provide the tools – and assistance – you need to integrate your own Drive data.
I notice there are some visual glitches in the Drive video, what are these?
The videos are of our early beta tests, so a few visual oddities are present. This technology is brand new, with first real world implementations scheduled for mid 2010.
Can I use Drive to capture environments other than roads?
Drive has been specifically designed with roads in mind. We are working on other applications for the Areograph technology, including large open areas that would be suitable for FPS games. But if you think a long, linear space would suit your game or simulation, then please get in touch.