Formula Basic - WIP

DD SimDesign

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A new WIP project enters the arena!

Formula Basic is a Norwegian entry level open wheel series, akin to Formula Vee.

This is a joint project between myself and a fellow community member (F4celess) - I'm handling physics and F4celess is working on model in all its 3D glory.

Spent a good few hours working on physics last night and got the car into a driveable state. Still a hell of a lot more refinement to do, but our 3D modeller is going on site to a track day with the cars to help get more data.

Sneaky peek at a WIP shot following a successful days physics work - and I'm sure F4celess will pop in to show some WIP shots of the model outside of AC.

This is a joint first go of an AC mod from scratch from both F4celess & I, so many steep learning curves to go I'm sure.

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I will pop in and show some WIP shots of the model outside of AC.
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More WIP shots

To begin with I wanted to just model the car for my own portfolio purposes. As there were tons of photos out there from the race promoter and I wanted a good long-term hard-surface modelling project to improve my Blender skills.

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Formula Basic is a Nordic series based on Formula Ford but with a custom chassis made to suit the engines available in Scandinavia at the time. Later on I showed it to the Arcis community and things escalated as this thread indicates. Withdrew kindly offered to do physics for this so I got working on adapting the model to ACs convoluted content pipeline.

As far as specs go, It has a 1.6L Ford Fiesta XR2 engine with a 4 or 5 speed gearbox. 87 motivated ponies and just over half a metric ton of mass. It should make for excellent close racing.

Having done most of the modelling seen so far I decided to go see the car for myself in real life, arranging a visit to Racing Performance Centre in Vestby, Norway. I got a bunch of measurements and reference photos I could use to make the model better.

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More research trip pics.

The plan going forward is to get the bits necessary to actually drive the car in a race scenario in, meaning proper suspension modelling, tire feel and driving characteristics.

On the modelling I still need to improve the shell, suspension accuracy, interior, engine area and textures overall. A long way to go still.

I hope to visit a race or trackday event in the coming couple of months, hopefully I can gather more data, textures and sound samples. Meanwhile, I'll work with what I got from the last trip.

- F4celess
 
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Model has been slightly updated to include some shaders so it doesn’t look like it’s been dipped in a vat of white paint in game anymore.

Also some updated animations and model hierarchy courtesy of F4celess.

Physics wise not much has happened my end since the last post, but have a few tweaks in mind over the next couple of weeks.
 
Mini update;

The mod now has as much real-world data from a driver that races in the real-life series - so as far as that goes it’s getting there.

Having some intriguing quirks to iron out with what I have so far, suspension geometry has been ripped up and redone after re-learning the physics pipeline (a lot of my understanding was fundamentally flawed!) - current challenges are mainly;

- Mega vague feeling in the centre of the wheel feedback wise - likely causes are negative mechanical trail, though the geometry is accurate and could be considered “expected”, it’s not particularly intuitive to drive. Toying around with this to find a decent compromise.

- Wheels ‘disconnecting’ when impacting with a wall/harsh bump. This I haven’t the faintest clue one, I’m guessing tie rod alignments but so far I’m coming up with nothing so far

3D wise the model is coming along nicely, and there is a heavily alpha version of the sound in the works by myself, though the audio levels are totally messed up, so will probably be another thing to start from the top with the stuff I’ve learned thus far.

A slow burner of a project for sure, but definitely been an enjoyable project to work on so far!
 
Physics are more or less done - I'll end up doing some fine tuning once the final suspension geometry is modelled out. Its super enjoyable to drive, can't wait for you guys to give it a try!

I've been scratching my head with AI the last couple days, no matter what I do, they just sit in neutral on the grid with the throttle pinned. I've tried as many things as I can possible think of to fix this, but to no avail. :(
 
Physics are more or less done - I'll end up doing some fine tuning once the final suspension geometry is modelled out. Its super enjoyable to drive, can't wait for you guys to give it a try!

I've been scratching my head with AI the last couple days, no matter what I do, they just sit in neutral on the grid with the throttle pinned. I've tried as many things as I can possible think of to fix this, but to no avail. :(

I'm no physics expert (I can barely get my stuff to stop CTDing, let alone actually set it up in the way I want!) but I would start by checking the shift up/down values in the ai.ini file, and the auto_shifter values in the drivetrain.ini file. Otherwise someone way more knowledgeable than me is required here :whistling:
 
First pass of the sound is in the game! Pretty happy with it for a very early version, there are some kinks to iron out, mainly adjusting audio levels, and getting rid of pops when the sample loops. Pretty new to FMod and sound modding, so still getting to grips with how to best sort that.
 
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Also fiddled about with the shaders some, following the KS values as I noticed some bits were quite dark on the model when making this test skin to see how it looks. Again, model is very early stages, but definitely putting a skin on it makes it feel like the project is coming together quickly. :)
 
Some further tweaks made to the sound, think I'm more or less happy with it, except the sample loops a bit too quickly and the pitch change is quite noticeable when you hang at the top of the rev range for a while. Easily fixed, I just need to make the pitch in the samples a bit more consistent. Also went a bit overboard with the low-pass filter on the internal sound :rolleyes:

The car in its alpha stage has been handed to a small group for bug testing on the physics side also, so I'm very keen to see what feedback there is so I can refine the physics further if needed.

There may be a showcase video with a short race against the AI coming soon...
 
Some further tweaks made to the sound, think I'm more or less happy with it, except the sample loops a bit too quickly and the pitch change is quite noticeable when you hang at the top of the rev range for a while. Easily fixed, I just need to make the pitch in the samples a bit more consistent. Also went a bit overboard with the low-pass filter on the internal sound :rolleyes:

The car in its alpha stage has been handed to a small group for bug testing on the physics side also, so I'm very keen to see what feedback there is so I can refine the physics further if needed.

There may be a showcase video with a short race against the AI coming soon...
Is it possible to try it ? ;-)
 
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