Hello, I've made a quick low effort hood for the k series to learn how modding works but I've run into a few things id like to fix. First off I don't know how to make the louvers use the color of the car they appear void black in game with some lines around the edges. Do I need to do something with the UV map or is something else going on here? Second no matter what I do with the smooth/flat shading I cant get the edges around the hood to match the original. I've included the mod if anybody wants to look at it, any suggestions on things I can change or improve would be appreciated as i'm trying to learn before I tackle a larger project.
Looks like your UV map is indeed messed up (haven't downloaded to verify but 99% sure just from the pics), the lines you see are mostly from the normal map, which is why it's good practice when modifying official vehicles to not only check against the diffuse texture but also the normal map. Best way to fix would actually be to get the unmodified hood and stitch in your vent parts while trying to keep the UVs unmodified in as many places as possible. Try pinning the UVs in blender before even starting to modify the mesh, and maybe make use of the boolean modifier to cut holes without disrupting the geometry.
If I use the boolean modifier the vents themselves would still be black wouldn't they? Unless I manually add them to the UV map. Either way it sounds like i'm starting over unfortunately. On the upside I did figure out the issues with the shading, it had to do with the original being made in 3ds max and blender not supporting smoothing groups, using an edge split modifier fixed it. I found this thread on it from 2015 https://www.beamng.com/threads/how-to-fix-shading-errors.14269/ Edit: So it sees the UV map didnt like me cutting the hood in half to use a mirror modifier, any way to avoid that or fix it when im done?
You will be far better off not using a mirror modifier, as you will want to preserve the second UV map for skin support. And yes, you will have to add the vents to the UV map
