PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Racecourses Out In June!

While Koreans are doing their best to prepare PyeongChang for the 2018 winter games, our 3D artists are on the cutting edge of snow sports training with another Olympic resort about to spread out in front of you in virtual reality, on every SkyTechSport simulator. Follow us back stage and learn about how we did it.

We bet most of you didn’t think of South Korea as a winter sports destination. Much colder than the 2014 Sochi, PyeongChang, which will host the 2018 Winter Olympics, has actually hosted top-class races for the first time this February.

Officially opened on January 22, Jeongseon Alpine Center features a 2857-meter course with 4 large jumps and long, sweeping turns.

On February 6, FIS Ski World Cup gave a chance to test the brand new venue built specifically for the Olympics — and to give rise to both critics and praise by world-famous athletes. SkyTech VR will soon bring you there and let you tackle Slalom and Giant Slalom, which provide the exact same physics as their originals.

How do real mountains travel to the digital world?

SkyTechSport engineers flew to South Korea in person to scan the slopes. This time and effort consuming process starts from multiple descents down the course.

Imagine them snow ploughing strictly straight down the fall line of the course with GPS recorders in their hands, time after time, each run moving just several feet to the right.

The result is a few dozens of lines that make up a precise model of the slope’s profile.

The other ingredient of 3D mock-up is the data we get from satellites on the mountains surrounding the race track. The two arrays of data are then merged at our design studio, and here are the “bones” of the course.

The “flesh” comes next: some more runs down the slope in a helmet with 4 cameras coupled with a drone’s shots from above give a detailed 360° image for textures. All objects are 3D-scanned as well: buildings, lifts, some trees and even rocks. SkyTechSport artists scrupulously render textures onto objects made out of polygons, and the replica comes to life weeks later.

Is that it? Not yet. Gates, slope lines and nets are placed onto the slope in strict accordance with FIS regulations, and we finally have a Slalom, a GS or even a Downhill. What can be more exciting than rushing down a world-renowned track from the other part of the globe, before it even gets famous?

Stay tuned and be among the first mortals to compete with Olympic stars on the very same racecourses.