Paul Jeffrey
Premium
In a quest to bring new and ever more detailed content to SCS Software's trucking games, a few lucky staff members recently visited the Scania Head Office in Sweden to laserscan a selection of trucks from Scania's new range. Read on below to see how they got on...
Ok so some of you might find this pretty boring, but personally I find it absolutely fascinating to see exactly how much work goes in to scanning and moddling a truck for inclusion in European Truck Simulator 2. One would be hard to not forgive for believing something as relatively sedate as a new articulated lorry getting added into a game that is all about following legal road limits and hauling cargo long distance is a fairly straightforward task, however SCS have proven that this is very much not the case!
Recently a select few staff members from the team had a trip over to Scania in Sweden with the task of scanning and photographing four new models to be included in ETS 2 in the near future. To mark the occasion and give fans a better insight into the work that goes on behind the scenes, the team have compiled an interesting video and written diary of their time over in Sweden. The video and diary summary give a very interesting insight into what exactly is required to reproduce these massive machines for their award winning trucking games.
The aim of the visit was to capture 3D scans of the Scania S 580 4x2 High Cab, R 450 4x2 Normal Cab, R 450 6x2 Pusher High Cab and the R 450 6x2 High Cab for the team back in the Czech Republic to reproduce for inclusion in European Truck Simulator 2.
"Having millimeter-precision 3D scan is a great reference, it can shave off precious weeks of iterative guess-work compared to only relying on photos, but there are still several hundred man-hours more to invest into the job to build the virtual representation of a truck" said SCS Software of their desire to use scan data for truck modelling.
"We're very happy with the data that we brought from Sweden. We are hard at work now on the detailed digital 3D model of the next generation of Scania trucks, creating it on the basis of the 3D scans... The cooperation with the fantastic people at Scania was excellent as always, they were very welcoming, helpful, and super professional" added the SCS announcement.
Despite the meticulous scanning parameters and photo's taken on-site at Scania, literally hundreds of man hours are still required in order to get the actual virtual models represented in game. With such colossal time and effort undertaken by the studio, imagine how much work needs to go into racing games to produce a full series representation of cars across different manufactures and models?"We're very happy with the data that we brought from Sweden. We are hard at work now on the detailed digital 3D model of the next generation of Scania trucks, creating it on the basis of the 3D scans... The cooperation with the fantastic people at Scania was excellent as always, they were very welcoming, helpful, and super professional" added the SCS announcement.
For those of you who might be interested in a little peak behind the scenes of an SCS field trip, you can check out the preview video and diary entries below. Keep on truckin' people!
Day 1 - Sunday
6:00 PM - we are setting off! All equipment is prepared from Friday. We went to Vaclav Havel Airport in Prague to embark a flight to Arlanda Airport near Stockholm. Picked up a rental car and travelled to the Scandic hotel located across the street from Chassiporten - the very manufacturing plant which can be found in the Scandinavia map expansion for Euro Truck Simulator 2. Quick dinner at Burger King. Elk Whopper is not present on the menu! What a pity.
Day 2 - Monday
6:00 AM wake up, breakfast. Meet & greet with our precious contact Nils at Scania Headquarters. Quick drive to the Demo Centre to pick up Richard. At the Demo Centre, one of the big hangars was made our improvised home for the three days. The pre-arranged trucks were waiting there at our disposal. At the same time as we were photographing the exterior, we were able to work on the interiors, as we were kindly provided with access to Scania S V8 and Scania R brown/light cab interiors adapted for exhibition and presentation purposes (no chassis, but plug and play). Before the first scan we needed to take down the side skirts and cover the truck with numerous sticker markers that improve the precision for both 3D scanning and photogrammetry. Scanning and taking pictures for the rest of the day. We worked long into dark, until we were eventually escorted out of the complex and wished good night - they really insisted that they are closing the facility for the day
.Day 3 - Tuesday
6:00 AM waking up slowly. All around there is darkness. Again. Daylight at this elevation during this part of year is short - only between 9:00 AM and 3:00 PM. Back in the hangar everything happens quickly and efficiently. One more Scania truck version arrives, sticking it with labels, undress and re-dress side skirts. Scanning and photographing takes the rest of the day, we just switched trucks in the afternoon. Data backup of daily work and good night.
Day 4 - Wednesday
Work progress basically copied Day 3 with a nice bonus in the afternoon. We get an invitation to test drive Scania S 730 on the closed polygon. What a nice surprise from our hosts! Our work is over. In the evening, there was only packing up and preparing for the trip back home.
Day 5 - Thursday
Early morning journey back to Stockholm went smoothly, air temperature was around zero and snow at a minimum. On the way, we only stopped at Ikea (where else!) and then bought a supply of dried reindeer meat at the airport.
European Truck Sim 2 and American Truck Simulator are both open world truck driving games by SCS Software. Both games are exclusive to PC and can be purchased via the Steam network.
You can check out the RaceDepartment ETS2 and American Truck Simulator sub forums for all the latest news and community discussions regarding these two surprisingly enjoyable titles. We also host a nice selection of mods to download too, so don't forget to have a look and see if anything takes your fancy!
Did you like the diary and video from the SCS visit to Scania? Are you surprised to see the amount of work that goes into bringing a virtual truck for these games? Which manufacturer or model would you like to see next for either title? Let us know in the comments section below!
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