This is a little beyond my focused interest but very interesting. Thank for doing this mod and asking these questions Alex72! Very interesting indeed!!
It gets the more complex the more you learn . Generally I'd say putting your model into the sim can really highlight some areas where your topology is not smooth but reflections will also hide some as well. I think if you don't get the topology right the car will look a bit off. That gij's video shows some good pointers on getting the edges done well. All that is very important if you want to get the shading look right around those vents on the car. For wheels and some other parts you probably need to adjust the vertex normals to get them look nice. Probably the body as well. I think at this point if I was you I'd just watch as many youtube tutorials to learn new things (knife project tool, bevelling, inset, using the 3d cursor as pivot and later on uvmapping and texturing). Also check some wireframe pictures of how other people have made the same car. Maybe checkout BLAM for blender if you are feeling adventurous . Remember that subdivision is not a magic tool. For it to work well you want your model in all quads because triangles can create abnormalities on your mesh. In the finished product triangles are ok because rf2/gjed triangulates it anyways. And you need to add support loops and creases to get the edge roundness correct in lots of places because otherwise the subdiv just transforms the car into a blob. Also if you use subdivision you need to do a lot of cleaning afterwards (in edge select hold alt and click on an edge and it selects the whole edge. then press x and choose delete edge loops). Subdivision is great for creating big smooth curved surfaces but you'll soon grow to huge poly numbers if you don't remove unnecessary vertices and edge loops. And if you apply your subdiv too early it will be very difficult to change things later
Forget the part of vertex normals. Rf2 (or gjed) doesn't seem to support them. I had set up all my stuff to have them set correctly but when you load in gjed there is no difference no matter where your normals are pointing.
@T1specialist Cheers buddy. Yeah learning how to model, the techniques, at every area i come up on is tough. It looks so easy but then when i try im not happy, and then i delete a lot of mesh and start over. But i guess thats normal hehe. I just learned about the subdivision small button "quads to tri's" after you subdivide it will take care of the loose edges that is made from subdividing by turning them into triangles. Pretty neat. One thing i have struggled with is some kind of smooth function. Like if you make an area that is soft, rounded but still not a perfect round shape then its really tough moving each individual vert to make that shape... Must be some tool that can help with that by marking all faces and then use a tool with parameters or mouse-drag function to make a soft smooth unconventional surface. "Smooth" function seems to mess everything up lol. Also areas like side pillars on each side of the front window is more complex because they have flowing shapes that go all directions (down the door, down the hood and the window) its like three ways the mesh split up into and its hard for me to make it beautiful. Last thing is going from the low res mesh into more detail. I struggle knowing how to do it. Some areas are easy but others i cant find the solution. Yet. Did little on the back. The lights are not in right position depth wise and shape is not 100% correct yet, and i dont know if they have too much faces or too little. I did 16 point circle to make them.
You can select and edge or a vertice and by pressing g twice you can then slide it along other edges. The first model is always the one where you have to redo a lot of stuff because once you have done something you soon learn a better way to do it. It can be frustrating or rewarding depending how you look at it . The f40 is a good first car to model. It doesn't have complex curved shapes and there is tons and tons of super high quality reference material for it. The downside is that people expect excellence from you because it is such an iconic car.
