DaveL,
Just checked on this one. It's an old trainz-build 2.0 asset (but a really nice one). The kuid and version are exactly the same in both T:ANE and TS12.
The Japanese writing and Mitsubishi logo on the tanks comes from the image used also by some ladders and guard railings on top of those tanks ( ladder_01-ladder_01_alpha.tga). The texture made from it is a blended-alpha transparency and works as expected in T:ANE. It may be that the .texture.txt file associated with this image in the TS12 copy doesn't have the correct alpha tag line. It seems unlikely because Kenichiro is a really good creator and would have noticed this, but I can't think of another explanation at the moment.
I don't own TS12 so I can't verify this myself, but the file;
ladder_01-ladder_01_alpha.texture.txt
in the TS12 copy should contain these lines;
Primary=ladder_01-ladder_01_alpha.tga
Alpha=ladder_01-ladder_01_alpha.tga
Tile=st
AlphaHint=semitransparent
If it doesn't, you could try inserting those lines and see if the Japanese characters (and ladders/guard rails) appear. I'm thinking maybe someone at N3V spotted the error in the original asset (as used in TS12) and fixed it when they made it a built-in for T:ANE, but didn't bother changing the kuid version number??
~ Deane
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