I need Content Creation Help

I bought TRS2010EE Deluxe. I have no problem running any senario that I choose to. Everything works just fine. This is my only version of Trainz, I am a newbie for sure.

I have gmax 1.2 and Trainz Asset Creation Studio installed. I have followed two tutorials. Gary's Trainz tutorial brickbox for trainz-build 1.3 and Ian's Trainz on how to build a simple house for trainz-build 2.6

I have all of PEVSoft software installed and working. I used AssetX to view both these assets, and do not get errors. Both assets commit to my Install without errors. Both show only Black boxes when I go into Trainz Object selection. The brickbox tutorial is a simple box using a brick.jpeg image for the skin. The simple house uses a house.bmp image that I mapped to the little house, which looks fine in gmax but, all I get out of the house from gmax is the chimney, which is spinning in the Trainz Object selection. The little house looks right in gmax, but only the chimney comes out. AssetX shows only the chimney as well. I made sure that I did not have either the chimney or the house selected when I exported from gmax.

Can I get someone to provide me with a solution for both of these tutorials that are made for trainz-build 2.9? Everything from the .gmax file to all the files I need to do a commit without errors.

Thanks in advance,
Rad

G'day Radk,

It has been my experience that despite documentation tot he contrary, Trainz does not like the use of *.jpg type files as 'textures'. I have found that when I use them (mostly because I have forgotten about their format), the objects textured with them appear in Trainz with what appears to be a totally black texture until one gets extremely close to the object and views it with the light 'reflecting' from the side of the plane being viewed. To overcome this, convert all textures to the *.tga format (24 bit, uncompressed - as per the instructions). The same applies for *.bmp type files (when used as 'Diffuse' images) , although these are (and can be) used as 'subsidiary' images (for Opacity, Glossiness and Specular, for example) in Materials. Also, check to make sure that all of the texture images you have used are sized with their height and width in values that are multiples of "powers of two"; that is, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024 and 2048 (if your video card will allow this last option) and that these dimensions are in a relative ratio of no greater than 8:1...

Jerker {}

Hello :wave:

Try to make a group with all the meshes into gMax and export to Trainz format.

And, of course, use .tga file format for the images files like Jerker says.

Regards from Spain.

Manuel

Don't use groups, they don't export from GMax.

Paul

I don't know, Paul. I have left groups in my models, more by forgetfulness than anything, and they have exported just fine, although I will admit I have never grouped everything as one grouping. I have also used bmp's fairly interchangeably with tga's without any problems. In fact I have never heard of a good explanation of why tga's are to be preferred, although I would listen if somebody knows.

Thanks for your replies.

I made sure that the texture brick was in the .tga format and I used Paint Shop Pro to make sure it is in fact a multiple of 2. And it is a 256x256.

I created a new brick_box using a different name, and got the same result. A black box. It is still black, no matter how close I get to the box.

My file brick.texture.txt contains:
Primary=brick.tga
Tile=st

My file brickbox.im shows up fine in AssetX. It also shows up in CCP when I click on the mesh-table default.

And here is my config file

kuid <kuid:540371:100011>
username "Brick Box V1"
kind "scenery"
trainz-build 2.9
light 1
category-class "BH"
description "This asset is from Gary's iTrainz Tutorial."
author "RadK"
license "EULA"
contact-email "Rad.Killmer@gmail.com"
category-era "1800s"
category-region "00"
mesh-table
{
default
{
auto-create 1
mesh "brick.im"
}
}
kuid-table
{
}

Hey All, as a matter of note, my video card is Nvidia GTS 450, I have a LG Led monitor and 8 gig of ram. A fairly high end system.

And I have tried both DirectX and OpenGL in trainz Options.

I read in one of the tutorials that I needed to be wary of names. Could my use of "brick" for the .tga texture and "brick" for the .IM file be a problem? I used "C:\Auran\Trainz_custom\Scenery\brick" as the folder name.

Also, what is the brick.gmw file used for? I can't open this file with anything I know of.

The gmw file is a file Gmax creates for some reason when it exports to Trainz. You can delete it from the Trainz file with no effect.

Since you are creating in 2010 you will need to follow certain texture naming conventions and will need to have normal maps of your textures, also named correctly. This is...I am told...spelled out in the Trainz Wiki.

You might just try modifying your config file by setting the trainz-build number to 2.0, thereby fooling 2010 into thinking this is earlier content from 2004. If it works for you then you can at least see you are on the right track, although you won't be able to upload it to the DLS anymore in that version.

Someone more knowledgable than me can explain about the normal maps.

Rad

On the face of it, I can't see that you're doing anything wrong. You may be a newbie, but you've covered all the bases that I would have normally asked about.

I'm a little surprised by some of the misinformation being given to you here; as far as I know Trainz will happily accept .jpg textures, it was only that versions older than TS2009 (I think) were faster at processing uncompressed formats like .tga and .bmp, so .jpg wasn't the recommended format. In terms of grouped objects in gmax, like gfisher said, I too have sometimes left those in my objects and they exported and showed in Trainz quite OK. I'm not sure that every texture in TS2010 needs to be a 'normal map' either. I know it can handle 'regular' textures from older version objects, so it should be OK with them (I'm not 100% on that since I've never made a build 3.x object).

I suspect that your black textures are something much deeper, and possibly due to drivers, settings etc. You're not the only one with this problem. Here are some threads that might give you some clues, or at least someone else to write to ;

Blackness

gtx 465 with tranz 2010 problem

Problem with items from Download Station

Things black

BAD TRAINZ, BAD AURAN

If you do manage to solve this, it would be good to put the solution in this thread for the benefit of others who might also be having the same issues.

~ Deane

.

Solution found!!!

Dinorius Rredundicus pointed me to another thread (GTX 465 with Trainz 2010 problem) and in that thread, I found the solution presented by TheStoons, which is:

"You need to turn off hardware compression in Content Manager and recommit any assets that are showing as all black. (From the File Menu, choose Settings, select the Miscellaneous tab and untick Enable Hardware Accelerated Texture Compression)."

I changed the setting as described here, and the brickbox popped right in.

Thanks so much.
Rad

George,

TGA *can* be preferable to BMP if you are using transparency or specular effects - TGA files can include an alpha channel; BMP (and JPG) files require a second file. Having one file instead of two files is (was?) better from a performance standpoint - one less file system access.

JPG should be same ingame performance as BMP now that CM converts textures when you commit. Previously (pre-TS2009), Trainz had to de-compress JPGs on the fly, which added some overhead. JPGs give you a smaller filesize - benificial when uploading or downloading the asset (or taking up space on your hard drive). However, the compression can give you unwanted artifacts on your texture.

Curtis