Engine & Consist Texture Files for Custom Skinning

[ultimusrex]

I am running Trainz 2009 via Steam (the game delivery service, not a steam engine) and would like to try my hand at some custom skinning of existing engines and cars. I am a graphic designer, so I am very comfortable working with Photoshop and texture files, like .tga. But looking around the Trainz directory, I cannot find any of the existing skins for reference.

So basically, I need to know where they are supposed to be and how to install new ones that I create so that they will work in the game.

In searching the forums, I've found a few mentions of the different file types and the programs that you can use and why Paint Shed is now obsolete (I used to use it back with Trainz 2004, or UTC, or whatever I used to have)... but I haven't seen any mention of where I'm supposed to be able to find these files or where to put them once I've created a new skin. Thanks to anyone who can clue me in.



NOTE: Just after posting this, I found the Content Creation Support sub-forum... If a mod would like to move this over there, that would be fine with me.

 

[jergiles]

Texture Files for Custom Skinning

I too am trying to paint my own textures but can not find the files.

 

[wrussd2]

The local mesh and textures files are located in the following folder;

\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\trainz 2009 railroad simulator\local\

Inside the local folder you will find a collection of "hash" folders that contain the data you are looking for.

However; you would be far better off to select the item you want in Content Manager and then open it for editing in Explorer. You could then copy the files to a convenient location for editing.

Hope this helps
Russ

 

[johnwhelan]

Step one clone the item
step two edit in explorer.

Step three edit the graphic file.

The following link maybe useful.

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Trainz/Basic_Reskinning_for_beginners

Cheerio John

 

[Dermmy]

If you mean to get into skinning seriously a polite note to content creators will often yield the original psd files which will make re-skinning much easier then simply editing the tga's...

Andy

 

[johnwhelan]

If you mean to get into skinning seriously a polite note to content creators will often yield the original psd files which will make re-skinning much easier then simply editing the tga's...

Andy

What on earth is a psd file?

Thanks John

 

[Pencil42]

psd = photoshop file. It would have all the layers intact, so you could edit one layer without affecting other layers.

 

[ultimusrex]

Thanks for clearing a couple things up for me, everyone.

But I do have another question... I tried opening one of the engines that came with the game for editing (the UP DD40X), but the only files that showed up for me to edit are the .texture files, no .tga files.

Also, when I'm finished editing the .tga files and whatever else, does the "Commit" option in the content manager install the train to be usable in-game? Or how do you actually install them, if not?

And finally... as far as changing the names and specs and stuff... i'm assuming you just edit the config.txt file in the trainz folder in the editing directory. Am I correct?



I'm checking out that tutorial linked above... looks like it will be a big help and maybe answer a few of my other questions... but i'd still like to know how to get a hold of the textures of the UP DD40X and the like, in the filesystem, so I can use them for reference when skinning my version...

 

[rweber95]

Many of the original Auran assets use a graphic format called .texture which I believe is proprietary to Auran. First you should download a program called texture2tga from http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/~villaump/pevsoft.htm which will convert a .texture file to a .tga plus a texture.txt file which references the .tga file and place everything in the .../TS2009/Editing folder.

After you've edited the .tga files you do the commit operation which will convert them into the format required for Trainz and place all in the local/hash folders.

Asset names are in the config.txt file. Specs (enginespec, hornsounds, interior) are in separate files reference in the config.txt file.

Bob