F1 25’s laser-scanned tracks, reverse layouts and improved customisation detailed

After last week’s My Team overview, F1 25’s latest deep dive video delves into its improved authenticity and customisation. This year’s official F1 title sees the long-awaited arrival of laser-scanned tracks, reverse layouts and an expanded livery editor alongside various graphical and audio improvements.   

New laser-scanned tracks

Codemasters’ F1 games are often criticised for having inaccurate circuits compared to other sim racing games. To rectify this, Bahrain, Miami, Melbourne, Suzuka and Imola have been updated with new LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) scans in F1 25. Codemasters claims these tracks look and feel more realistic as a result, with an improved feel of elevation and surface than before.

Of course, F1 25 is not the first racing game to feature laser-scanned tracks, with Suzuka also appearing in racing simulations like Assetto Corsa and iRacing. However, Codemasters points out that, unlike other games, F1 25’s LiDAR data is taken from Grand Prix weekends. This means all five laser-scanned tracks will replicate specific details from the Grand Prix layouts, such as barrier placements.

Elevation changes feel more noticeable in F1 25’s updated circuits, with the cars reacting to bumps and undulations.

“LiDAR tracks are a win across the board for us,” F1 25’s Senior Creative Director Lee Mather explained.

“We are catering to a broad audience. To somebody who’s a more casual fan, they watch the sport, they saw Suzuka last weekend and they go ‘oh that looks beautiful’. They can fire the game up, and they get to see exactly what they saw on TV. So that really hits authenticity for that kind of player.”

“But then you come to the esports players and sim racers. And they get the kerbs that are right, the potholes that are right. They get all the visual detail that gives them points to brake. It really caters to a broad spectrum.

“We get a lot of value out of what is a lot of work to rebuild all those tracks in LiDAR. It’s about visual fidelity and accuracy, but also the actual fidelity and accuracy of the track rhythm.”

Comparisons with the real circuits show how F1 25’s updated tracks look truer to life, with improved surface shaders and higher quality foliage. This includes accurately placed trees, with specific species for each circuit. For example, Japan’s signature cherry blossom trees are lined across Suzuka, replacing F1 24’s generic trees. It’s a minor detail, but it gives the circuits more character.

When it comes to laser-scanning the remaining circuits, Codemasters says this is “a long-term project.”

“Because it’s the first time we’ve done it, Formula 1 is scanning the tracks as the season goes on for us,” said Mather. “So that’s why we could do them in the order that we’re doing them. We’re rolling as the data comes in. It’s a long-term project to overhaul the circuits in-game.”

Three reverse tracks

One of the most surprising new features in F1 25 is the addition of reverse layouts. For the first time in an F1 game, you can tackle Silverstone, Austria and Zandvoort in reverse. This provides a new way of experiencing otherwise familiar tracks we’ve driven around countless times in F1 games. It also helps compensate for this year’s calendar’s lack of new circuits.

Although there are only three reverse variants, adapting the existing layouts was a significant undertaking, according to their creators. “There’s a huge amount of work that goes into the tracks beyond just the visuals in terms of all the track markup, DRS zones, AI training we have to do on every track, sector times, start grid lights, marshal placement, flags…it goes on and on,” F1 25’s Creative Director Gavin Cooper explained.

Careful consideration went into choosing which tracks would get the reverse treatment, as not every layout is suitable. “We’ve been able to do this for what we think are the three best candidate tracks in F1 25. Not every track will work well playing backwards, but we think these three represent a really fun experience.”

New decal editor

Elsewhere, F1 25’s car customisation has evolved thanks to a new and improved decal editor. Previously, this was limited to flat colour decals that had to be placed in specific slots. “That system wasn’t as good as it could have been,” said Cooper.

“If you took a couple of hundred player-created designs and turned them into a flip book, as you flipped through that, you would see very quickly there’s a very rigid structure to what those designs could look like, enforced by where we put those decals. That’s the problem we were trying to solve.”

“Players wanted to create authentic designs, but they couldn’t do that. They wanted to create liveries that looked like they could go alongside the official cars and not look out of place. That’s what we’ve delivered this year with the new decal editor.”

In essence, the new decal editor allows you to focus on specific areas of the car and freely rotate or scale decals to get the exact look you want.

While you could change the colour of sponsor decals before, the designs were basic. F1 25’s fictional sponsors will have stronger brand identities, with decals sporting distinct designs, logos and colours.

Staying loyal to a sponsor also unlocks special title sponsor liveries with themed designs. Codemasters is confident that this, combined with the ability to create your own sponsor designs, results in “the best looking liveries we’ve ever had in the game.”

In response to community requests, you can now change the font and colour of your driver numbers. Furthermore, engine sounds will be based on the engine supplier instead of the car you pick in My Team.

Another welcome change is that special edition liveries can be applied to the official cars in Driver Career, Grand Prix, Time Trial and F1 World and will no longer be removed. In previous games, you could only apply them to the F1 World car, or they were only available for a limited time in a live service update. 

“You had to use it on the F1 World car, which led to situations where you go into a multiplayer race and race ten white Red Bull liveries at the same time, mixed with a bunch of other F1 World liveries. It wasn’t very authentic,” said Cooper.

“A more authentic way was when we patched it into the game, which we did a few times. That meant you could use the livery when you were using the official car. But the downside is that ultimately it had to be patched out again, and you didn’t get to keep it forever.

“We’ve introduced a new system so that we now have an entirely parallel inventory of special edition liveries. When you get them, you can use them, but they’re applied to the official cars, not the F1 World car. Everywhere you go where you can pick a team, you can choose the livery you want to use from the ones that team is fielded.”

New invitational events for F1 World

While My Team is receiving the most significant overhaul out of F1 25’s game modes, F1 World, introduced in F1 23, won’t be neglected.

“F1 World is still really important to us in the sense that it offers a large number of players bite-sized gameplay – things they can do where they can just log on, play a few races, feel like they’ve achieved something and feel like they’ve got something out of the game even if they don’t want to go into the deeper, more long-term gameplay afforded by some of our other modes,” said Cooper.  

Invitational events are new for F1 World, unlocked as rewards for events or Podium Passes. These “one-time keys” invite you to unique multiplayer races with special gameplay mods, from restricting certain assists to forcing you to play in cockpit view or reducing your car’s power.    

Up to ten players can enter an invitational event together, competing as a team against the AI to win as many points as possible and collectively earn prizes. More difficult invitational events have higher prize tiers and point requirements, so you’ll want to enter these events with more players for a better chance of claiming the prize.   

F1 World’s Driver of the Day system also has a new UI, making it easier to send friend requests to players you might want to race with. As well as Driver of the Day, new accolades will highlight players who achieve the fastest lap, most overtakes, and cleanest driving.  

Visual and audio improvements

Other areas will also see improvements. Codemasters claims that tweaks made to Flashbacks, which allow you to rewind and resume if you make a mistake, will make them more user-friendly. “I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen new players have a crash, use the Flashback system, not scroll back far enough and have the same crash twice in a row in quick succession. That’s not a friendly first experience,” said Cooper.

Changes made to the Flashback system will make it “clearer you’re rewinding through time rather than just cutting to a different position on the track,” according to Codemasters.  

In terms of visual updates, the PC version will support path tracing, an improved form of ray tracing that lights a scene indirectly from light bouncing off other surfaces. If your graphics card is powerful enough to run it, Codemasters says path tracing will bring a “big step up in terms of visual fidelity.” 

On the audio side, Sky Sports F1 presenter Naomi Schiff joins Natalie Pinkham and Anthony Davidson in new media and paddock cinematics across Driver Career and My Team, and podium cutscenes will have different crowd sizes depending on the circuit.

F1 24 added voice clips from the real drivers talking on the team radios. Building on this, the number of voice lines has doubled in F1 25. You’ll also now hear them in qualifying sessions, with interactions between drivers, team principals and race engineers. 

F1 25 releases on 30^th May for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, with three days of early access included in the Iconic Edition. It will not be released on PS4 or Xbox One, marking the first time the F1 series has skipped last-gen consoles since F1 2015.

F1 25 year-on-year improvements at a glance

• Five laser-scanned tracks: Bahrain, Miami, Melbourne, Suzuka and Imola
• Laser-scanned tracks feature improved shaders, feeling of surface and elevation and more accurate tree placement
• Three reverse tracks: Silverstone, Austria, Zandvoort
• New invitational events and Driver of the Day system for F1 World
• Special liveries will no longer be patched out or limited to F1 World
• Improved livery editor with more freedom when placing sponsor decals
• More user-friendly Flashbacks
• Path tracing for PC version
• New cinematics featuring Naomi Schiff
• Double the number of driver voice clips, which can now be heard in qualifying