I was all psyched up to hear some news about that iRacing on this epeisode, then I got the let down . I'll jsut have to wait a little longer to see if my money is worth it.
Nice episode! (as usual) I'm looking forward to the piece about iRacing too.
Some pieces of the interviews were a little hard to hear, though. (too low "angle of acceptance" on your mic perhaps?) Might want to see what you can do about that.
I'm really looking forward to next week and hearing more info about the laser scanned track in Australia. I thought that iRacing were pretty much the only guys that had this technology, but if this is just some Joe Sixpack that has managed to do the same thing it would be amazing. It could open up all sorts of options for LFS to get some completely accurate real world tracks. Perhaps not "premier" tracks that have expensive licensing requirements or exclusive deals with other companies, but we might at least see lesser known tracks in the game one of these years.
It's going to be awesome if the Eastern Creek track builder reveals that it's all been an elaborate prank and he's done the equivalent of giving a bunch of high school kids non-alcoholic beer and telling them it's the real thing.
Because honestly with Eastern Creek I saw nothing different in it to the well-made scratch-built tracks (not conversions) that are available for rFactor. Especially the fantasy ones seem to carry more detail*. With "detail" I'm referring to the track itself and not the scenery necessarily.
* I suppose because the creators didn't have the pressure associated with not pleasing fans of a real track and being doomed forever and ever.
I've downloaded the track right away, it's a very good track. But yep it's hard to notice a great difference in the track mesh, it's on par with most TOCA3 conversions. in terms of track surface detail and overall contour, the tracks from RACE07 still seems to be at a higher level.
But very good track none the less, awesome in the Dallara.
The author does admit that he'd achieve more precise results with a better (more expensive) scanner. I wonder how far you could go before you'd start to melt peoples computers?
I think you just stop where there's adequate detail for people to actually be able to distinguish specific and important traits of a track in as much as visiting gives a sense of familiarity.
Having done the scan as accurately as possible will give you all the bumps, dips, rises and the correct camber for turns, but eventually you'll end up having to approximate grip levels for the surface(s) of the track and other such parameters - and at some point you'll just run across limitations of the simulation platform you're making it for. For example, a track could be notorious for being in a windy area and dust being brought into the track ever so often - which sim could accommodate for that? So, in the imaginary scenario that you do visit the track (which is what all this realistic/accurate reproduction is about) you'd be in for an extra, possibly unexpected, challenge.
I suppose one could say that laser-scanned data is an "investment" for the future when simulation software becomes more accurate/complex as well - instead of carrying conversions of approximate track renderings from one platform to another like is being done now.
. I'll jsut have to wait a little longer to see if my money is worth it.
(as usual) I'm looking forward to the piece about iRacing too. 
or watched a lot of races there.