So I've been playing with the old ETK-I and ETK-W wagon mods (using an older version of the ETK-I, which can be found here) and I just can't stop being bothered by this one detail that's off: So what I'd really like to do is basically make modified ETK-I front doors, where the only difference is the lack of chrome windowsill trim. It seems like it should be simple, just changing one little material on each door and then doing some part renaming, but I haven't a clue how to do this exactly. Can someone please help me out? I'm not afraid of getting my hands dirty (assuming I really have to delve into depths like using Blender, which I took a look at and yet still have no idea how to use at all). Thank you all in advance to whoever replies!
So, not sure if my method will work, but can always try regardless. Basically, open the .zip with the car, copy the .dae file to your desktop (for ease of access), open up Blender; in File menu at the top left, select Import & choose Collada (dae). Browse for the dae file you placed on the desktop & import it. After you're done with that, right click (I think it's still standard, I'm using Blender 2.79 controls) on the "offending" door, press Tab to get into Edit mode & then at the top of the Viewport, on the left-ish you will see these icons: Select the third icon, which will put you into 'Face select mode'. Now that you've done that, right click on the part of the door you want to change the material on, which in your case is that trim piece. Go to the right side of Blender & in there, look for this odd-looking red & gray "ball" which is the Material selection tab. In there, you will see a list of materials that are attached to that particular trim piece. It is most likely that the chrome material is named something along the lines of <modname>_chrome. When you want to change the material, you have to click on the material you want to be changed (if there's more than one) & then click the little dropdown arrow in the material window, which will give you a list of all materials available on the car (which the modder has created). From the list, select the required material & click Assign. This will change the material on the piece of mesh you selected earlier in Face selection mode. When you're done, press Tab to go back into Object Mode. Press Ctrl + S to save the file which will bring up a prompt. Overwrite the .dae file you had on your desktop & put the new dae into the mods' .zip. If you have done that, the car ingame should now have a black piece of trim instead of chrome
Thank you so much for the very detailed reply! The mod's wagon chassis body didn't come with those doors (it just used the default ETK-I doors), so I basically did what you said except I copy-pasted the front doors from the BeamNG ETK-I .dae. I changed the sill materials to black (using the list of materials that came with the door from when I copy pasted it ig, which had a lot more materials than any part of the wagon .dae which I copy-pasted the doors onto), renamed the doors so they wouldn't conflict with the regular ETK-I doors, and then did the rest (export, etc.), but I just wound up with a big old "NO TEXTURE" decal for the entire outside of the door. What bugs me the most is that that happened even though I only changed the materials of the triangles which composed the sill trim. Screenshots of what exactly I did: I really appreciate the help tho fr! Anyone have any clue on what I should do now, by chance?
Ehhh... That happens if you copy a model from one file to another without adding the material in the materials.json file. I sadly can't help you with that, so you will have to get someone else to do it