GP4: 2020 Haas VF20 WIP 2

I've finished shaping the Haas car in recent days. Here's some shots of the car before I started attacking it with bodylines and final small details. The car came close to the GP4 polygon limit of just over 65,000 faces, and I've managed to finish the car with about 100 polygons to spare and no reduction in detail, so I'm quite pleased about that.

Not since 2011, when I created the Ferrari F150th, that I have created a 'modern' F1 car, having been focused on 1990s cars. So it was noticeable that with all the more complex winglets and details that everything took a while longer. For example, the 1990s cars had 3 flaps on the front wing and maybe a vane or two underneath, but now there are 5 elements with more complex curves, with curved holding devices and tyre sensors. 

Obviously the recent attention on the bargeboards area has sprouted so many extra vanes, with the Haas in particularly having lots of different elements. Thankfully there were just a development of the previous year's car, so it did not take too long to decipher photos. I decided to go for the gills on the side of the cockpit, as per the launch version and I almost regretted it when I was running low of polygons towards the end. I hope it adds just a little added interest as they tested various configurations of it during testing. 

For 1990s cars, I would usually be spending lots of time trying to brighten up photos and take a best guess, but thankfully at the launch of the real car in Barcelona, there were some very clear shots of the diffuser. The only element I did not include was the slotted vanes on the underside. The rear fins are unique on the Haas, with the S shaped vents. They seemed to have eliminated any vents at the leading edge of the rear endplate, which suited me when I was modelling it. 

From a more aerial shot of my car, you can see a bit more of the detail on the floor, the slotted vents and all their associated vanes and flips. In order to get all that detail, I had to be economical on the main shape whilst still keeping it smooth, which I think I was able to achieve. 

Since those shots have been taken, I have now mapped the car, split up all the parts to work in GP4 and put a very quick livery on it. The car is now with my friends at RSCT to put the livery on it, I look forward to the results. Until then, here's a quick screenshot of the car ingame. 

GP4: Updated 1994 Cars Download Links

Whilst I'm busy with my other projects, I wanted to share with you my WIP cars that can be played in GP4. There's quite a lot released. 

GP4 1994 Ligier JS39B

EDIT: the complete car is available here

GP4 1994 Williams FW16B

EDIT: the complete car is available here

GP4 1994 McLaren MP4/9

This is an updated Work in Progress release of my 1994 McLaren. I have put the basic livery on the car, and I’ve done a quick AO map, baking shadows onto the shape. The car has changed since I done the shadows, like where I’ve moved the camera forward, so the shadows need updating but it’s a start. **update, I've fixed this now*** There's been some small updates on the car too. 

EDIT: the complete car is available here

I've also reuploaded a mirror to Loren's late season Minardi M194 which includes a mid-season French GP version and a Hungarian GP version. These are all excellent low poly updates, maybe one day I will get around to doing a higher quality version.

French GP:

Hungarian GP:

GP4: 1995 Ferrari 412T2 now available to download

Today, I release my 1995 Ferrari 412T2 for GP4, one of my favourite cars from the 1990s. The download link is at the bottom of this post.

The car comes ready to replace the original car from the 1995 mod, with low downforce shape and non-tobacco textures, as well as early and late season variations of the airbox logos.

My thanks goes to David Marques who did much more than just paint this car and really making it look fantastic. The car and textures are fully compatible with the F1C car. 

David was able to remap much of the extra parts of the car, including the cockpit and the parts at the rear of the car which enabled them to have a much better texture. 

This is also my first venture into AO shadow maps. I think it looks OK, but there is room for improvement for future works. 

Overall, I'm really pleased with how this car worked out. I hope you enjoy it. 

You can read my previous blog posts on my inspiration and build diary here:  https://fongugp4.blogspot.com/search/label/412T2

GP4: Haas VF20 WIP 1

I thought I would take a break from my 90's GP4 cars, and at the beginning of launch season, I thought I would tackle a 2020 car, and why not the first car that released pictures. It's now the beginning of May and the car is still a little way off.

The Haas VF20 is a mix between the 2019 Ferrari and the 2019 Haas. 

As with the 1995 Ferrari 412T2, I used a mixture of the high poly models of the Ferrari and Haas (around 90,000 faces) from Codemasters 2019 game and also the lower poly versions from Real Racing (around 32,000 faces), and I'm aiming to be somewhere in the middle. 

Work begins at the front of the car, with the nose from the 2019 Haas and the front wings from the 2019 Ferrari. 

As the car developed, I worked on the monocoque and main chassis structure. The rollover bar is mainly the Ferrari whilst the front of the sidepods and vanes are from the VF19. The actual sidepods themselves are unique, and it took a few goes for me to get them as I liked. The rear end of the car is very similar on both models. Front wing end plates have been added, it's basically the late season Ferrari one. 

Having completed the chassis (bar minor tweaks and improvements), I started working on the rear wing. The little indent on the top trailing edge of the rear wing is also unique, with the 2019 cars featuring only one dip in the middle, whereas the 2020 VF20 contains two of these dips. This is also the first halo I've created and I rushed them a bit, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I also started the first iteration of the boomerang wing, which featured on the late season version of the VF19. It took me a few goes to get this right. I also started work on the suspension elements, again mostly a direct copy from the 2019 Haas car. 

The front suspension upper arm at the front is now two separate elements, with a larger surface area to direct the air more. It reminded me of the late 2006 Super Aguri SA06 that I modelled years ago. The front camera was added, along with the top elements of the rear suspension and the beginnings of the super complicated bargeboard and floor areas, along with the triple boomerang that's unique on the 2020 grid. 

Below, this is the latest progress on the car, a lot more complete, but still a long way to go. I felt like the last month I've just been making flips and slots and they are taking forever to model! The vanes under the nose are from the Ferrari, with some additional vanes, and then the bargeboard area is largely a development of the 2019 Haas. The floor along with side of the sidepods is essentially the 2019 Ferrari except the very rear which is a bit more unique to the 2020 Haas. But as you can see it's just endless slots, managing the boundary layers and creating vortices and I can't wait to get to the end of it. 

I put a bit more detail into the cockpit, basing it more on the Real Racing 3 model which seems to have a more accurate cockpit than Codemasters which has a generic one. The mirrors are new, and they look very similar to the 2020 Ferrari. The sidepods and airbox have been refined as has the rear end. The diffuser is from the 2019 Ferrari with changes. The brakeducts have also been added, the rear one in particular has at least 9 winglets attached to it. 

Hope you like it so far. There's still someway to go - I've written a to-do list and it's too long to post here. But when its complete, I'll post some close up shots. 

Stay tuned for some more GP4 news coming soon.