that's a shame, sadly gradients dont translate well when converting from png to dds. you could try a similar effect using dark and very dark points, altough it will probably not be as effective as what you tried here. this wouldve looked great i imagine without the compression.
Yes, I use per vertex shading in some places, but it is not what I wanted for the interior. Fortunately, my second test went good. Problem was with the alpha channel. Combining textured layer + overlay shading does not work well. However the reversed approach works. A grayscale shading layer + overlay repeated texture seems to be a good way how to bake an ambient occlusion into the mod
Progress: reworked interior texturing with the first working version of ambient occlusion combined with repeated patterns
Progress: texture and shading detailing. Approximated light distribution in rear lamps and front fog lights using normal tweaks. Added shaded bumpers and fully customizable numberplates. Created a special metallic skin to support more factory colors (such as "ice blue" in the picture). Still working on some difficulties with a dashboard.
Progress: finished textures, default skins, shading and dashboard lighting. Created proper LOD2 and LOD3. The mod is visually finished. Skins include basic color with old CZ numberplates, metallic color with old UK numberplates and my shark-mouthed car with old SK numberplates. Now I have to create a proper animation and send the car to Škoda for a review.
Progress: added a steering animation and fixed a damping bug. The stock version currently drives similarly to what I remeber and keeps lifting an inner rear wheel up in the air during sharp turns. Currently waiting for an approval from Škoda to publish the mod.
Started working on a Kit Car version. It looks like the FIA historic database does not contain enough data to reproduce the car correctly so I have asked for a help from a car museum to get a more detailed specification.