Hi guys, pretty new to this whole modding thing in rf2, so please bare with me! I am looking to build (from scratch, or from someone else's base) the current spec (2013-14) Formula Ford EcoBoost 200 as seen in the British Formula Ford championship. Firstly what is the rough path that I need to follow in order to achieve this, would it be a case of just designing a body and building it on top of another cars mainframe or would it be from the ground up (what I am after) to therefore replicate the real thing. As I have said I am new to this and have a hell of a project to come to, but am willing to try my best and want to try and make it as realistic as possible in every single way. They are a reasonably light car (555kg) with around 200bhp from a 1.6 turbo engine. The cars use slick Dunlops and use minimal aero, with a flat floor, small rear wing and a fair size front wing. The cars also boast the option of either mono or dual shock at the front. Thanks for any help, I appreciate that what I have said is very vague and the terminology is not quite correct but meh. RBrocky!!
Do you have any knowledge using 3DS Max? or any 3D software? If not, then you've got a tough time ahead of you. I presume the fact you posted the thread means you haven't had 3D experience otherwise you'd be making it. To develop vehicles like this you need to have a 3D Modeling program, the best one being 3DS Max even though it is the hardest to learn. All Pro's use 3DS Max. We could provide you with info, but if you have no prior knowledge of modeling, this feat will be quite a hard one for you. I'm not meaning to provide any negativity here or put you down, its just the reality of the situation. If you're looking to learn how to model in 3D, I would suggest watching youtube videos on 3d modeling with 3DS Max, start playing around. At first your models will look bad, but if you keep at it, with each change, with each progress, it will slowly get better and better. If that is what you decide to do, I'd be more then happy to view what you do and give you advice and tips, but that's as far as I go. Your best bet is probably finding someone to do it, but in many cases, artists won't make a car they're not into unless they are paid, and in such situations, you have to know the quality and requirements you are wanting more so than the artist so you don't get screwed over. I know a few guys who have paid someone to make a model for them and the model turned out to be useless and unusable. Anyhow, if you have any specific questions on 3D Modeling or modding, feel free to PM me.
Ok mate, as i say I am quite new to this and am interested in taking up this task. When you say 3D modelling, do you mean similar to CAD programs etc as I've had a fair amount of involvment in such like using CFD etc etc, I will not bore you. Anyway, how do I go from creating a CAD shell to a car with characteristics of the actual car? Is this again through (for example) this 3DS Max program or is that added later to any specific shell? And thus so will mean that the two are completely individuals that are merged together or will the model that is built in "3DS" be as one with the model I have made. Hope this makes sence, thanks for your help.
F1-S-R is currently working on this car: http://f1-sim-racer.co.uk/index.php...00/14721-wip-pics?limitstart=0&start=10#14721 If you go through the thread you can see there is already a finished model of the car with some nuances to work on. Porks is finishing it up and getting it into rFactor 2. Doesn't mean you can't do it too but I thought I point this out to prevent frustration. If I were you I would contact Porks to see if I can help.
CAD is pretty much useless when it comes to video games; CAD is all NURBS (math), but games require polygonal models (triangles in space). You can convert a NURBS model to triangles, but it will be horribly inefficient and require a veritable butt-load of work; so much so that it would be much quicker and easier to learn a polygonal program and make the entire car before you would be finished fixing up the mesh converted from a CAD program. Not to mention that getting a clean model from Solidworks into 3DS is a pain in the arse (I use Solidworks at work, and occassionally when we're really busy we hire a freelancer to do pretty renders when I don't have time, and they always seem to use 3DS or Maya, and it's always a big problem). I'm about to begin the long road to learning either 3DS or Maya myself, for exactly that reason.