TLDR: Surfers Paradise Street Circuit is one of the greatest – in all its various layouts over the years – and no mod version up to modern standards exists. But there's decent LIDAR data available! Anyone interested in helping out?
I love driving CART and V8 Supercars in sim, and I've been struck by the lack of quality versions of the Surfers Paradise street circuit in any sim. Especially the full length layout from before 2010.
There's the TOCA Race Driver version, a version made by modder Neel Jani for GTR2 that's been converted everywhere (e.g. AMS1 and AC) but is too wide in places and has no kerbs, WIP versions from FVR that look tolerable by rF1 standards but are rather unfinished, and a 2012 version by zolee145 that's solid for rF1 or AMS1 standards but not really up to the standard of 'modern' sims like rF2 or AC.
In other words... despite the massive number of mods out there, there's no 'modern quality' version of one of the greatest street courses of all time anywhere in the world. Surely it's time someone made a Surfers mod including current and past layouts! And since it's the workhorse of modern sim racing, AC seems like the right game for which to make the mod. Then (with the creators' permission) the track could be converted backwards to games like AMS1 or forwards to rF2.
The main ingredient for most high-quality track mods nowadays is LIDAR data. And there is data available for Surfers Paradise in both 2009 (before the light rail train made the original layout impossible to race on) and 2014. Go to https://elevation.fsdf.org.au/ and find your way on the map to Gold Coast then to Surfers Paradise, click "Order data", click "Draw", then draw a box around the area surrounding the circuit, click "Search", look at "Point Clouds", select the squares of data you want, enter an "Industry" (I personally chose "Entertainment") and an email. Then a link to the data in LAZ format will be emailed to you!
Following LilSki's advice, I imported the 2009 files into CloudCompare, processed them, selected only a small area around the circuit, converted to a mesh, then exported to PLY and imported into Blender (which, beware, may take OODLES of RAM while importing). A couple screenshots of the results are below. The resolution appears to not be as high as the LIDAR available in the USA... but looks serviceable all the same. I should add – it's not shown in the screenshots, but the raw point cloud data are classified, seemingly differentiating between the ground/road, buildings, and trees/vegetation.
As you can see, the trees overhanging the roads make things somewhat inconsistent, the water areas are extremely low poly and wonky in places, and skyscrapers are irregularly shaped. BUT... when I look up close in Blender, the road edges are clearly visible almost all the way around the track! And since it's LIDAR data, all the road dimensions and corners are correct!
To make a track out of this, you'd need to clean up your mesh made from the original data – fix the watery areas, make buildings into true-to-life shapes, remove the inconsistencies caused by trees, and add proper trees where they should be. Then add textures, and you basically have a LIDAR-correct 3D model of Surfers Paradise! Then you need to (virtually) "build" the street circuit for various years with walls, kerbs, grandstands, and overhead bridges. And bam... there you have it.
I would commit to doing this project, but (a) I first have other modding commitments I want to complete for rF1 and AMS1; and (b) I have zero 3D modelling experience, so this would be an extremely arduous process with a likely suboptimal result. Regardless, I would be happy to help in any way I can – for example, I could help with project management, textures and track layout research, AI tweaking, or testing.
BUT I really hope this project idea catches the eye of one or more experienced modders in the AC community. Anyone who reads this and wants to take on the project themselves or chip in, please comment below!
I love driving CART and V8 Supercars in sim, and I've been struck by the lack of quality versions of the Surfers Paradise street circuit in any sim. Especially the full length layout from before 2010.
There's the TOCA Race Driver version, a version made by modder Neel Jani for GTR2 that's been converted everywhere (e.g. AMS1 and AC) but is too wide in places and has no kerbs, WIP versions from FVR that look tolerable by rF1 standards but are rather unfinished, and a 2012 version by zolee145 that's solid for rF1 or AMS1 standards but not really up to the standard of 'modern' sims like rF2 or AC.
In other words... despite the massive number of mods out there, there's no 'modern quality' version of one of the greatest street courses of all time anywhere in the world. Surely it's time someone made a Surfers mod including current and past layouts! And since it's the workhorse of modern sim racing, AC seems like the right game for which to make the mod. Then (with the creators' permission) the track could be converted backwards to games like AMS1 or forwards to rF2.
The main ingredient for most high-quality track mods nowadays is LIDAR data. And there is data available for Surfers Paradise in both 2009 (before the light rail train made the original layout impossible to race on) and 2014. Go to https://elevation.fsdf.org.au/ and find your way on the map to Gold Coast then to Surfers Paradise, click "Order data", click "Draw", then draw a box around the area surrounding the circuit, click "Search", look at "Point Clouds", select the squares of data you want, enter an "Industry" (I personally chose "Entertainment") and an email. Then a link to the data in LAZ format will be emailed to you!
Following LilSki's advice, I imported the 2009 files into CloudCompare, processed them, selected only a small area around the circuit, converted to a mesh, then exported to PLY and imported into Blender (which, beware, may take OODLES of RAM while importing). A couple screenshots of the results are below. The resolution appears to not be as high as the LIDAR available in the USA... but looks serviceable all the same. I should add – it's not shown in the screenshots, but the raw point cloud data are classified, seemingly differentiating between the ground/road, buildings, and trees/vegetation.
As you can see, the trees overhanging the roads make things somewhat inconsistent, the water areas are extremely low poly and wonky in places, and skyscrapers are irregularly shaped. BUT... when I look up close in Blender, the road edges are clearly visible almost all the way around the track! And since it's LIDAR data, all the road dimensions and corners are correct!
To make a track out of this, you'd need to clean up your mesh made from the original data – fix the watery areas, make buildings into true-to-life shapes, remove the inconsistencies caused by trees, and add proper trees where they should be. Then add textures, and you basically have a LIDAR-correct 3D model of Surfers Paradise! Then you need to (virtually) "build" the street circuit for various years with walls, kerbs, grandstands, and overhead bridges. And bam... there you have it.
I would commit to doing this project, but (a) I first have other modding commitments I want to complete for rF1 and AMS1; and (b) I have zero 3D modelling experience, so this would be an extremely arduous process with a likely suboptimal result. Regardless, I would be happy to help in any way I can – for example, I could help with project management, textures and track layout research, AI tweaking, or testing.
BUT I really hope this project idea catches the eye of one or more experienced modders in the AC community. Anyone who reads this and wants to take on the project themselves or chip in, please comment below!
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After deleting the janky faces/edges in the water and edges of the scan, and after smoothing some tops of buildings, this scan is looking quite nice IMO. 
