Right, lets get a few of things out of the way first. 1: Yes, I know that other people have asked this question before, but as far as I have found, none of them have actually had it solved, or shown a way they solved it themselves. 2: Unlike the other people who have asked this question, I actually have some knowledge on what a jbeam is and how to edit it. I also have some knowledge of what a mesh is and how to edit it. I have some knowledge of how to use blender, but very little on textures and materials. 3: I want to swap the Gavril V8 into the front of the SBR4, which is important to the rest of the post. 4: When I refer to 'the engine' I and referring to the engine and supercharger. This means that when I say "I copied across the engine's jbeam", I have copied across the jbeam for the engine and supercharger. Now that's out of the way, onto my sorry saga of engine swapping! I had wanted to do this for ages, and finally, a few weeks ago, I decided to try. Chapter 1: The beginning first, I looked at what a jbeam file was, and found 'sbr_engine.jbeam'. I thought "yes, this is it! I'll just copy some things over and it'll be done!". I found that there was a different section for every engine that could go into the car, and though "well I'll just copy across the V8 from the Barstow then!". I did this, and (as most people will know), nothing changed. So, I went back, and noticed a section that defined the 'slots'. After looking a bit more carefully, I saw that this was what defined what the engine connected to, and what connected to it. So, I copied across the slots from the normal SBR's engines, and loaded up the game again. This time, the engine appeared, and I could attach it to the car. This was good, except it had all the normal SBR4 transmission, intakes and exhausts. It also didn't change the model, except for removing it entirely. This was getting annoying. Chapter 2: The realisation After far too long researching, I learnt about this odd thing called a 'dae' file. I looked at sbr.dae, and found text. I thought "this isn't right... the one I saw was a model file...". I then opened it in blender (or imported it, as opening it didn't work), and saw the model. After brief celebration, I imported the Barstow's dae, and moved the engine (being careful to get the right one) into the front of the SBR. I loaded up the game, and it didn't work. The car was invisible, except for the wheels and number plates (or license plates in the US). This was clearly not going to be easy. Chapter 3: The next attempt Not one to be deterred, I continued. "must be to do with textures...", I thought. So, I went and looked at the rear engined pigeon mod, by @machine. I saw that he had 'barstow_interior.dds' in the zip. I did the same. It still didn't work. Chapter 4: Clutching at straws Next, I tried copying every Barstow texture across to the zip. It still didn't work. I tried looking for an option in blender to edit materials and textures. I knew there was one, but couldn't find it. I then tried something different. Chapter 5: A new perspective I looked over the tutorials in the tutorial index by @Nadeox1, and noticed one on 'multidae' (also by @Nadeox1). I looked over it, and thought "yes! this is exactly what I need!". It wasn't. I finished doing exactly what it said, and ended up thinking "this clearly wasn't made with engines in mind". Much anguish ensued. Chapter 6: A new(er) perspective I then noticed that there was a file called 'materials.cs'. I thought "hell yeah, this must be it". I noticed that it said about what parts had what materials, and thought "well I'll just copy those across for the Barstow's engine then!". Nope. Still didn't work. Chapter 7: Giving up By this point, I was about to give up, when I realised: "wait, why don't I ask the forums?". And here we are. If anyone can tell me the many things I'm missing, or point me towards a tutorial I've missed, I would be enormously grateful. I've wanted to mod for years, and this is a massive hindrance to my excitement. I hope that someone takes the time to help. I have completely reinstalled the game, and I am ready to try again.
I suggest, as a first step, you create a folder structure as follows: Documents/Beamng.drive/mods/unpacked/v8_sbr_cc2/vehicles/sbr/v8/ This allows you to work properly and without overwriting any files, as in case you need custom materials (which you need). This allows for quick editing and prevents files overwriting each other.
