A short while ago, we told you we were working with leading driving simulator specialist AVSimulation to bring the best of its latest SCANeR release and Unreal Engine integration to our customers.
We’re now delighted to announce that we have delivered another SCANeR project, in the shape of an upgrade to Renault’s Guyancourt legacy driving simulation environment.
The project demonstrates that we make it possible and efficient for users of SCANeR Studio to upgrade their existing legacy 3D environment models to stunning Unreal Engine powered SCANeR UXDRender environment models, delivering far greater realism and visual fidelity.
Below, we take a brief look into the project’s success, and examine some of the challenges that we turned into opportunities along the way – just like we could for your business, too.
Three steps to “truly incredible realism”: Phase 1
AVSimulation’s solutions have been described as delivering “truly incredible realism”, and to get to this point we worked with AVSimulation to manage the project in three phases.
Phase 1 involved converting the existing OpenFlight-format Guyancourt model to an Unreal Engine 4 environment, and making it work with the SCANeR UXDRender.
This created a model that looks and feels very similar to the original supplied version, for consistency, but that benefits, under the bonnet, from vastly improved scene lighting, dynamic shadows, and sky and weather effects.
There were many critical considerations in this phase of the project including graphics file formats, scene hierarchy and how best to handle items such as alpha channel textures and decal features like manhole covers.
Phase 2: intermediate upgrade
Having converted the model, the next step was to upgrade it to get maximum benefit from Unreal Engine’s exceptional visualisation capabilities with minimal remodelling effort. This included the addition of Physical-Based Rendering (PBR) materials to surfaces and replacing old foliage models with vastly improved UE4 trees, grass, and foliage.
To achieve this as efficiently as possible we have developed streamlined processes and workflows that reuse as much as possible from the original model while using the very best tools and services available from the games industry, for example the fantastic library of materials available in the Adobe Substance 3D Asset library.
Phase 3: full upgrade
Having put these initial upgrades in place, we then focused on upgrading specific key areas of the Guyancourt environment, remodelling buildings and other objects for greater realism and detail, and adding emissive lights for realistic night-time simulations to showcase the very best of what SCANeR and Unreal Engine can offer.
As ever, we devised some original solutions to deliver improvement efficiently where it was needed most. We made changes inside Unreal Engine to improve the lighting realism, and to implement features such as the retroreflective surface on signs.
Smarter simulation to deliver better outcomes
Our upgrade of Renault’s Guyancourt simulation environment has been an excellent example of how we go the extra mile to find solutions that address challenges efficiently and at maximum cost benefit, and how we identify where existing investment and assets can be repurposed and reused.
For businesses and industries that use simulators, this is invaluable expertise in itself. But it’s also backed by a decade of experience in 3D modelling and visualisation technologies, now partnered by one of the world’s foremost simulation specialists, and a successful relationship with one of the world’s biggest automotive brands at the leading edge of simulator development.
For more information on our 3D visualisation, modelling, and simulation solutions for road, rail, construction, training, and other sectors, get in touch.