Annoying problem with newer JR locomotives.

[DARTrider]

Hello! I've found something very annoying with newer JR stuff (anywhere past the about page 15), where when I go to reskin it, lets say the new SP SD45T-2, into cotton belt paint, it shows up as transparent, like this: (Irfanview shows a black canvas with only headlights showing up)

I believe this has to do with Paint.NET but I could be wrong.
Another issue comes up when reskinning Wearsprada's GP7,9 and 18 models. When opened in Paint.NET they show up really small and when I zoom in the texture is all pixelated and gross-looking. I really wanted to try and reskin the new Geeps into something but I can't because of this (RI GP18 .tga file in the photo).

Will someone from JR help me out here? Thank you!

 

[JCitron]

The cones aren't just a Jointed Rail issue and it's caused by changes in the rendering engine in TRS2019, so there's not much you can do to make the lights any better.

 

[DARTrider]

Should've worded that differently, I meant anywhere past around page 15. I'm having trouble with the reskin files.

 

[chris2001trainz2010]

the image files show up as transparent because paint.net does not handle alpha textures well. photoshop, for example, separates color and alpha textures into "channels", and thus these images look fine in photoshop. there's an extension for pain.net that allows it to fiddle with alpha channels but it's fairly basic. gimp might have that functionality but i hate gimp so

as for the conrail geeps, they probably use a texture asset for multiple unique skins to be present. check the deps for one of these assets. if it has one, that should have the full-rez textures (the ones on the base locomotive are intentionally blurry probably for the sake of filesize)

 

[DARTrider]

the image files show up as transparent because paint.net does not handle alpha textures well. photoshop, for example, separates color and alpha textures into "channels", and thus these images look fine in photoshop. there's an extension for pain.net that allows it to fiddle with alpha channels but it's fairly basic. gimp might have that functionality but i hate gimp so

as for the conrail geeps, they probably use a texture asset for multiple unique skins to be present. check the deps for one of these assets. if it has one, that should have the full-rez textures (the ones on the base locomotive are intentionally blurry probably for the sake of filesize)

That's quite a lot of information, thank you! This will help me greatly. What is that plugin for Paint.NET called?
I've hit a wall again, when I click on the GP18's skin textures this gives me a blank canvas, so I should probably get that plugin!

 

[chris2001trainz2010]

alpha transform

most JR models have alphas over the main body textures. idk why, they don't seem to serve and practical purpose other than to bug pain.net uers

 

[hert]

alpha transform

most JR models have alphas over the main body textures. idk why, they don't seem to serve and practical purpose other than to bug pain.net uers

Probably to discourage reskinnng.

 

[ZecMurphy]

alpha transform

most JR models have alphas over the main body textures. idk why, they don't seem to serve and practical purpose other than to bug pain.net uers

If the meshes are using the 'tbumpenv' material, then the alpha of the diffuse controls the intensity of the 'metallic' reflection (or in TRS19, acts as the metallic map). The alpha of the normals map controls the specular reflection (or in TRS19, acts as the roughness map).

I can't say for sure if this is the case for all meshes, but it seems very likely to be the case of the main textures on most current assets.

Regards

 

[poolboy]

DARTrider, u need to be using photoshop to show the blended alpha map so it shows correctly

 

[DARTrider]

DARTrider, u need to be using photoshop to show the blended alpha map so it shows correctly

I got it to work with the plugin...sort of.

 

[fourteen]

i been using photoshop 7 for years to reskin. works for me.

 

[DARTrider]

I've just been using Paint.NET as its 1, cheaper and 2, much simpler in its aspects. My reskins aren't to be ultra-complex with weathering and details beyond the microscopic level, just simple in retrospect. Take my SP B30-7's I recently made. All the reskin is is a couple of logos stamped on, not hand-drawn or anything.

Glad to see Photoshop works for you, fourteen. Your Rock Island E's are very nice, might I add!

 

[crazytrain]

Yeah I don't have $360 dollars to pay every year so don't even try. People love reskinning JR stuff, why make it harder for that to happen? Its not like we're constantly asking them to release reskins. I got it to work with the plugin...sort of.

This drives content creators nuts. They spend all that time, money, and research into creating the best product they can, within the framework of the sim, only to have someone complain that they aren't able to dismantle and alter said content in the cheapest/easiest manner possible. And to do that complaining in the most inconsiderate way has to be even more frustrating. Lets' be clear. This isn't an issue with the product, but an issue with the end user.

 

[DARTrider]

I never thought of it that way, crazytrain. I guess it is wrong of me to say that, and I have the utmost respect for the JR creators and how they create their assets. I only want to do it in a relatively inexpensive way because reskinning is just a hobby of mine, not a business, and that's how it is for most newer creators, like me.

On a happier note, I made an SSW SD45T-2 just to demonstrate the plugin worked. Thank you all for the help!

 

[jregner1955]

There is a freeware program called TGA Tool that is downloadable from several sites that can handle this problem.

 

[DARTrider]

There is a freeware program called TGA Tool that is downloadable from several sites that can handle this problem.

Interesting, I'll check it out. Thanks jregner!

 

[norfolksouthern37]

alpha transform
most JR models have alphas over the main body textures. idk why, they don't seem to serve and practical purpose other than to bug pain.net uers

Incorrect. This is the environment blend channel.

Probably to discourage reskinnng.

It does serve that purpose, but not really the intent.

This drives content creators nuts. They spend all that time, money, and research into creating the best product they can, within the framework of the sim, only to have someone complain that they aren't able to dismantle and alter said content in the cheapest/easiest manner possible. And to do that complaining in the most inconsiderate way has to be even more frustrating. Lets' be clear. This isn't an issue with the product, but an issue with the end user.

I encourage folks to experiment and learn how things work, it is after all how I got to do what I do, but it also isn't really in my interest to reveal all of the inner workings due to time constraints or already offering a product that is what the user could never reach on their own simply modifying something else.

https://jointedrail.com/product/emd-ssw-sd45t-2-ph2b/

 

[DARTrider]

Thank you, NS37! Makes sense that you wouldn't want to reveal your secrets, if you did we'd have a million JointedRails! The SSW SD45T-2 was just a proof-of-concept and I don't plan on using it much, it isn't nearly as nice as the one you've made there. Thanks for all the content you and your colleagues have made for us, freeware and payware!