Mod F1 1982 for rFactor

Alright so this may take quite a bit longer than usual, since I'm now at a point where I'd have to start building cars from scratch.
I found some photos from a Lotus 87 and a Fittipaldi F8C, but if I'm going to be completely accurate, I'd need photos from an 87B and an F8D, respectively. Also, I've found a 1981 F1 mod for F1C 99-02, and I've extracted the MAS files of the 1981 Lotus, Ensign, Toleman, Arrows, Fittipaldi and Theodore, but I'm not sure as to how to work with those, if they're even worth working with at all.
So I don't know how you guys just start modelling the cars from scratch or how long it should take to even get an idea of where to start, but I don't want the fact I'd have to do that cause the whole project to stall, if that makes sense.

Just wanted to do this as a little PSA maybe, in case I don't come up with anything over the course of the month. There isn't much going on here anyway, so I suppose there's nothing else worthy being reported about the current build?

Understand that Pascal, take your time, you have a lot of work ahead if you want to get this mod right, honestly the 82' mod wasn't liked very much by the guys I know that's into this era of 75' to 85' F1 & Indy cars, expecting a mod similar to Dave's 76' 77' & 78' F1 mods which are really liked, but got something not even close, seems JC & Varjanta had a very different take on everything with F1 82'.

Yeah, well so far i've been digging and looking for blueprints, or anything that would be of any help.
I found stuff for the Ensigns (both N180B and N181), the Toleman TG181 and the Lotus 87B. However, only from the side so far, which is just..the side-view, literally.

An advice if you want to start modelling, load the 4 wheels and put them where they are intended to be. The hide them if needed and start modelling. Keeps your perspective and proportions of the car you are doing 

Alberto Ibañez wrote:

An advice if you want to start modelling, load the 4 wheels and put them where they are intended to be. The hide them if needed and start modelling. Keeps your perspective and proportions of the car you are doing 

That's a great advice, now the only thing I'd need to figure out is where to put the wheels in the first place

Because for example what I did with the BT49D was take the BT50's wheels, move them in the scene file in 3dsimed, then copy the object and insert it into a new object, set pivot point, export. But then I'd already have a chassis ready and stuff like that.
But I think I can start like that by importing the wheels, in the 87B's case, from the Type 91, move them around in ZModeler, and hide them like you said.

What modeling software are you using?

Pascal, I'd advise Blender as modeling tool: free, a bit hard to learn at first, but then it's quite a blast. It can export to 3DS, Collada, FBX... whatever you like

Plus, can I suggest you this site for 3D blueprints?

http://www.smcars.net/

Jason White wrote:

What modeling software are you using?

I've got Blender 2.79, ZModeler 2.2.6 and 3DSimED31 at my disposal. The "issue" being that I'm quite a newbie with both Blender and ZModeler. So far I've only used Blender to figure out the mapping of existing cars, like the BT49 and 179 in order to give them their respective 1982 skin, and ZModeler mostly for re-mapping of, for example, mirrors or parts of the mesh.

Grabriele Maruca wrote:

Plus, can I suggest you this site for 3D blueprints?

http://www.smcars.net/

Thank you, I'll check it out! So far I've only been able to look at the-blueprints.com and getoutlines.com.

Maybe there are tutorials here or here that can be of help?

Jason White wrote:

Maybe there are tutorials here or here that can be of help?

Thank you, i'll look at those.
Any sort of tutorial is much appreciated. The only one I've been looking at so far, given that I spent most of the past days looking for photo material of the cars (imagine that, I haven't been able to find anything for the Arrows A4 or Fittipaldi F8D as far as blueprints or such is concerned), was this one here: http://www.zmodeler2.com/docs/program/fulltutor/contents.html

A pretty good side view of the car:

Arrows A4:



Fittipaldi F8D:



So far only this that i can found

I've seen those already, too. Sadly those aren't taken from a "perfect" angle to serve as help. If I were to try and model a car from a photo taken at say, an 80-degree angle instead of a perfect 90-degree angle, it would end up looking quite quirky. But sadly, as far as I see it, finding blueprints is difficult as hell. And those that I found, I first gotta re-size and re-position, so that they're perfectly centered, too.

To be honest, the only really good and usable blueprints I've seen are, of all things, from an old Auto Union Streamliner, but I doubt I could use that for an early-80s Formula One body

Pascal Mikula wrote:

I've seen those already, too. Sadly those aren't taken from a "perfect" angle to serve as help. If I were to try and model a car from a photo taken at say, an 80-degree angle instead of a perfect 90-degree angle, it would end up looking quite quirky. But sadly, as far as I see it, finding blueprints is difficult as hell. And those that I found, I first gotta re-size and re-position, so that they're perfectly centered, too.

To be honest, the only really good and usable blueprints I've seen are, of all things, from an old Auto Union Streamliner, but I doubt I could use that for an early-80s Formula One body

Mate, if it can be of any help, I'd give you this advice:

Instead of trying to get the perfect shot, try to "combine" the best ones: for example, take a shot where the camera is directly facing the front tire, then the body, then the rear tire. In this way, the perspective distortion can be completely eliminated and you can use photos more reliably. It helps having hundreds of megabytes of photos to look through, though.

For example, I'm modelling an Effyh 500: there are NO blueprints available, just a load of photos. I've took some screenshots of the Goodwood Revivals, looked every nook and cranny for period-accurate photos... then I've used those in Blender to model specific parts of the car: used a picture for the front, a picture for the center, a picture for the rear... and so on. It takes time, but the result can be as good as a blueprint. Especially if you did technical drawings somewhere in your life

Also, you can take a side pic and paint flat black or white the contour of the car that exceeds from the side view, then resize it to the proper dimensions. Height won't change, no matter how angled the car is, what changes is the length. So use the rim height as yardstick, you know the size of the rims, so resize the pic till they are round (same width and height), then all the car will have the correct proportions as well.

Don't forget that that's my first ever time I'm even going close to modelling something from scratch, you guys all have probably more years of experience in modelling than I have had years in my entire life combined, so to speak.

Who knows...maybe I'll try my luck at the Streamliner first, it seems to be a rather """simple""" shape, to get used to the whole stuff..before trying my luck at the technical and complicated shapes of an F1 body. Not to mention that the one drawing from the Type 87B seems to be just so messy, like I can't for the life of me get the front and rear perspective to overlap perfectly. So that'll take some time too.

Quote :

Instead of trying to get the perfect shot, try to "combine" the best ones: for example, take a shot where the camera is directly facing the front tire, then the body, then the rear tire. In this way, the perspective distortion can be completely eliminated and you can use photos more reliably. It helps having hundreds of megabytes of photos to look through, though.

I'd honestly do that if I had the opportunity to! However, the closest thing I've come close to being close to a Formula One car was when there was this automobile exhibition in Leipzig ten years ago and I stood next to a McLaren MP4/4.

Pascal Mikula wrote:

Don't forget that that's my first ever time I'm even going close to modelling something from scratch, you guys all have probably more years of experience in modelling than I have had years in my entire life combined, so to speak.

Who knows...maybe I'll try my luck at the Streamliner first, it seems to be a rather """simple""" shape, to get used to the whole stuff..before trying my luck at the technical and complicated shapes of an F1 body. Not to mention that the one drawing from the Type 87B seems to be just so messy, like I can't for the life of me get the front and rear perspective to overlap perfectly. So that'll take some time too.

Quote :

Instead of trying to get the perfect shot, try to "combine" the best ones: for example, take a shot where the camera is directly facing the front tire, then the body, then the rear tire. In this way, the perspective distortion can be completely eliminated and you can use photos more reliably. It helps having hundreds of megabytes of photos to look through, though.

I'd honestly do that if I had the opportunity to! However, the closest thing I've come close to being close to a Formula One car was when there was this automobile exhibition in Leipzig ten years ago and I stood next to a McLaren MP4/4.

No worries, mate: that's where "brothers in arms" come to the aid

https://cdm17257.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p17257coll1/search/searchterm/Grand%20Prix/field/subjec/mode/all/conn/and/order/title/ad/asc

About the experience... I can't say anything about Alberto's years in 3D-modeling (I can only say for sure his expertise is way, way, WAY ahead of mine ), but I've been in the game for 6 years now, all I can say to you is to try modeling something really simple: for example, an Early '60s F1 or Indy (since they're just long tubes). Streaminers are great for praticing NURBS modeling, with their smooth curves and somewhat tricky noses. The hardest (at least for me) to model are cockpits fot GT cars and 1970s and onwards cars. I really do suck at modeling those ^^;

Hi Pascal!

I discover this topic today and what a fantastic project!!

And you want also to make a trackpack after that? So perfect!

Totally agree with you for Long Beach 82, a great improvement is necesary (Maybe the 1979 version can be a great basis?)

The 1979 version looks more accurate, because the 82 version is a too narrow from the reality, and the AIW is not the best, moreover, the climb to Ocean Boulevard is too steep I think also (and I agree for the 2nd corner which is too narrow)

But anyway! So happy to see this 1982 project!


I don't know if someone has already told you, but there is a 1982 Race by race mod which exists, but for f1 challenge.
Maybe this mod can help you to make for rFactor, so this is the link:

http://www.mediafire.com/download/xme95z17auf5u2n/F1C_1982_Race-by-Race.rar


Also, there is a great forum where you can find great pictures from 1982, these pictures are Race by Race so I think it can be a good help (if you don't know it already) here it is:

http://wookey.forumotion.com/t607-race-by-race-1982

You need to register first, because it is accessible only for members, but when it's done you can click again on the link I've sent you and It will be run.


Good continuation and I stay tuned

Best regards

Timothé Pillet wrote:

Hi Pascal!

I discover this topic today and what a fantastic project!!

And you want also to make a trackpack after that? So perfect!

Totally agree with you for Long Beach 82, a great improvement is necesary (Maybe the 1979 version can be a great basis?)

The 1979 version looks more accurate, because the 82 version is a too narrow from the reality, and the AIW is not the best, moreover, the climb to Ocean Boulevard is too steep I think also (and I agree for the 2nd corner which is too narrow)

But anyway! So happy to see this 1982 project!


I don't know if someone has already told you, but there is a 1982 Race by race mod which exists, but for f1 challenge.
Maybe this mod can help you to make for rFactor, so this is the link:

http://www.mediafire.com/download/xme95z17auf5u2n/F1C_1982_Race-by-Race.rar


Also, there is a great forum where you can find great pictures from 1982, these pictures are Race by Race so I think it can be a good help (if you don't know it already) here it is:

http://wookey.forumotion.com/t607-race-by-race-1982

You need to register first, because it is accessible only for members, but when it's done you can click again on the link I've sent you and It will be run.


Good continuation and I stay tuned

Best regards

Hello, thank you for bringing this up again! I've had some looks at the F1C 1981 mod, to get some grip at the 1981 cars used in 1982, so seeing a link for a race-by-race 1982 mod is like a Jackpot to me! I'll definitely look at those things. However, due to some real-life shit and other stuff happening, also mostly my lack of skill as far as modelling from scratch goes, it's all sort of on hold.

About the tracks, I've sort of compiled a theoretical track pack in my own install already, using Imola 1994, Long Beach 82, Caesars Palace 82, Paul Ricard 1975 and the other tracks being from the GPC79 pack. That's sort of what I'd use for a track pack until the time for a proper one comes.

No problem mate

It was just to bring my little stone to the building


Good continuation

Well, looking at the readme from the race-by-race mod, it says it's based on the rFactor mod by Varjanta and the GP4 mod by Pedro.

Given that the Varjanta mod was based on the GP4 mod as well (and Pedro being part of Varjanta makes it sort of obvious), I'm not very enthusiastic about finding missing cars there. But we'll see.

EDIT: Okay I see that mod has the Fittipaldi F8D and the Ensign N181, so I'll look at those. But I can't find either the Lotus 87B nor the Arrows A4, nor the Theodore TY01, nor the Toleman TG181B/C.

I have not seen it really really in details (I have played it sometimes ago) but in my memory, all the cars were there.
For the Toleman TG 181 I am really sure at 100% that the car is in the mod.

Yeah, I see what you means, it’s maybe not a big help because you have already the 1981 mod,

The 1981 F1C mod from the images looks like it contains an Arrows A4 and Theodore TY01, I'm not sure what Lotus it contains or if it contains the Toleman.

http://wookey.forumotion.com/t1149-f1c-1981-race-by-race-mod-released

Timothé Pillet wrote:

I have not seen it really really in details (I have played it sometimes ago) but in my memory, all the cars were there.
For the Toleman TG 181 I am really sure at 100% that the car is in the mod.

Yeah, I see what you means, it’s maybe not a big help because you have already the 1981 mod,

I'll check again the Toleman directory, but I haven't looked further into it last time because the details only said "1982 Toleman" instead of the model name.

David Sabre wrote:

The 1981 F1C mod from the images looks like it contains an Arrows A4 and Theodore TY01, I'm not sure what Lotus it contains or if it contains the Toleman.

http://wookey.forumotion.com/t1149-f1c-1981-race-by-race-mod-released

I'll look at that too. I've got another F1 1981 mod, but I'm not sure if it's this one or not. The one I have has a Lotus 87, Toleman TG181, Fittipaldi F8, Theodore TY01, Ensign N181 and...well a directory which is simply called Arrows81. But those F1C models are, in my opinion, so confusing and so strange to ook at in 3DSimEd that I've not really looked that much further into them. Who knows, maybe my project will end up as some sort of tangled-up mess of all sorts of mods even though I hope it'd end up better.

I didn't read the whole topic, but what is the chance of this mod being converted to AMS?

Congrats!

Marcello Oliveira wrote:

I didn't read the whole topic, but what is the chance of this mod being converted to AMS?

Congrats!

First of all, I'M BACK!


To answer your question, the chance of it becoming an AMS mod once it's finished is 100%. It's definitely on my list but I won't convert a mod where things are still missing.