Mirrored geometry+Normal map/Texture?

ENODMI

Ok, so Im building a small robot, Ive modeled half of it and mirrored the other half, Im using the normals i captured from the original by keeping my the uvs of the mirrored geometry the same. I have pulled some of the mirrored pieces uvs into their own unique space on the map and used photoshop to copy over the normals from the original. Now the problem i have is that i will be adding txt for the mirrored unique pieces and as a result ill have to type the words backwards...no big deal, but i'd rather be able to have it not reversed. So i flipped just the uvs i needed to do the txt on.. anyways, the texturing problem is fixed, but the normal maps look strange. do i need to reverse a channel on the normals? I tried flipping the red because i mirrored the pieces on the x axis..and it looks like crap. Any ideas? Do i need to post some picts to help explain?

PredatorGSR

Yea, best method is usually to use an alpha card overlay for text. Another method is that if the text is on a flat surface, you can cut in edges around the text area, and flip the uvs of only that small cut out section, so that the text isn't mirrored, but everything else is. It only works if the text area is flat and matches up pretty well though.

ENODMI

Thanks guys, think im going to give the floating alpha plane a try since the area im working with is flat. I have another area that isnt flat, so i guess ill just work it mirrored

EarthQuake

You mirrored the normals, but then unwrapped it uniquely, and copied the normals over? I'm really confused as to what you're actually doing here. Some images would help.