My idea is to have an open source ultra-realistic driving sim which will be a multi-purpose software which can be used to teach learner drivers in every possible situation in a safe environment rather than throwing them straight out on the road where an accident could occur causing harm or trauma. By teaching drivers with such realistic precision, it could assist in lowering the horrendous death toll that seems to rise every year (In Victoria) benefitting all road users. While being an educational tool it can also be a training tool for those who already are in high positions in the motorsport world, as they can utilize such software can learn the circuits they race around finding every meter they could possibly use and lines to take to further excel their skills, bridging to this idea, this software could be marketed to those at home who are simple looking for some fun entertainment to enjoy either driving around with a realistic feel or being their own home racer. (If they have a racing wheel setup of course). Such a project at this current stage in time would be innovative as it has been attempted as a game but never as a learning tool that could potentially benefit many.
Drawbacks
The drawbacks to this would be the price of requiring the equipment to get an accurate feedback as a cheap setup would not provide the sufficient experience for it to be considered “realistic”. This would also require a lot of space to if the regular person were to attempt to buy this simulator but luckily It can be updated just like an app so it could be kept up to date with minimal ease.
Why is it Interesting
This project will be interesting as it will not only be a safety assisting tool, it can also be a leisure activity and training program for those who use it. With alarming statistics of 1226 deaths on the road in 2018 a push to lower this number whilst teaching drivers would be a positive addition. Following this on steam in 2018, in the racing genre which was quite broad, simulators took the top 3 spots with farming and truck simulators before an actual “racing” game. Clearly simulators are popular and will therefor likely be interesting. F1 teams have all now incorporated simulators to test their drivers around each circuit and with newer updated sim coming along it is guaranteed to attract attention especially if it’s open source.
http://www.inductpro.com.au/driversafety
Description
Beginning with the menu, being open source it must be flexible to accommodate with all the potential options people may want to achieve so it would start with a clear UI of menus containing a “begin” and “options” where it would progress to a clean interface with a good amount of options regarding the original target audience with “safety” where situation examples would be from simple driving a route to demonstrating a dangerous situation such as a blowout, with room for more obviously. The menus would follow a friendly game like menu so it is easy for those to use and remember, continuing with this simple start and failure sounds would be present to indicate whether one has “passed” the learning tests. The racing side of the software would present an array of real life and fantasy circuits paired with a decent amount of race vehicles as a starting point for real teams to test their setups, modifications and driver abilities to build the key essentials to become competitive in their field. Personal bests, records and logs of changes live and vehicle wise are kept so analysts can monitor and find whether or not there is more time to be found or if their new additional part is not functioning as expected which is vital for teams who cannot always go back and forth to circuits especially if they are in different countries hence becoming extremely important. These basic necessities can assist a team in developing their drivers to be faster, more consistent and calmer under pressure with AI implementation. Of course, being open source like with the safety tests more can be added but would require tools to do so. Game side would be just like any of the other popular racers out there but be very open to changes making it desirable to sim racers which would want and with exposure from racers would
The Tools Required
The tools required to build such a project would be quite vast as there are models, software engines, sound files and numerous amounts of programming involved. A software to create the models used would be something along the lines of Blender or 3DS Max to create accurate and realistic models with high detail that would be viewed not only on the software but within the sim itself. A minimum of two engines would be required, following a similar approach to Kunos Simulazioni a graphical engine and a physics engine would be used to ensure accuracy with extremely realistic details, potential graphics engines to use would be the popular unreal engine 4 which can provide the most realistic of graphics and lighting as shown in many examples. An accurate physics engine would extremely complicated but in terms of accuracy it would have to be on par with iRacing or Rfactor which copy all the fine details from real life from the wake of following other cars draft to the flexing of tires under pressure. “A physics engine is a complex system of high-speed mathematical functions that replicate and deliver dynamic forces using data-driven calculations, thereby leading to a series of instantaneous dynamic actions and reactions. Consequently, iRacing’s virtual world leverages the same physical dynamics and that drivers experience in the real world.” – iracing.com Sound engineers would require their own software to develop all the sounds heard from the cars and which direction for them to come from, this would require samples from multiple angles such as inside, hood or third person. A highly experienced team of many people would almost be necessary for this to come together.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-S9bt1aj6hc
The Skills
The skills required for this project are quite vast, strong abilities within creating models accurately, work on a physics and graphics engine which would involve a mass amount of mathematical knowledge and create realistic sounds. All of which would highly likely need a team as one person would have an incredibly high work load.
The Outcome
If such an idea were to be made, it would create many uses for itself which are clearly stated and branching from an idea for a game it now has an actual use that can be seen as a great tool. A learning tool will no matter what be helpful especially when based from a country with such alarming driving statistics and with a bid to lower that number, no doubt seeking assistance from external sources such as government would be easier. Real racing teams would be able to utilize this and develop their cars and drivers to great results and of course the ever increasing racing community who would see it as a game would also greatly benefit with another title under their belt to compete on, similarly to FIA’s E-sport championship event on F1 and McLaren’s shadow event in which the winner received a job at the McLaren headquarters.