Is there something like PEV's Mesh Viewer for Mac?

[epa]

I'm a lifelong Windows user finally packing up all my Trainz stuff and going to Mac.

Now as I'm sure you've all noticed from the screenshots I post, I reskin stuff. A lot. And I guess it didn't occur to me until just now that there's seemingly no way to view meshes with textures on them outside of Trainz itself on the Mac, as PEV's Mesh Viewer is Windows only, and the way Crossover works, I don't think I can actually access files on the Mac from Windows programs. So that's kind of a surprise roadblock.

I know the Trainz Mac user base is already pretty small, and the number of Mac content creators is probably somewhere in the single digits, so I can see why there wouldn't be a whole ton of demand for a Mac Mesh Viewer.

So, my fellow content creators on Mac, is there any way to see what a skin in progress looks like before fully committing it into the game?

Matt

 

[pdkoester]

I'm a lifelong Windows user finally packing up all my Trainz stuff and going to Mac.

Now as I'm sure you've all noticed from the screenshots I post, I reskin stuff. A lot. And I guess it didn't occur to me until just now that there's seemingly no way to view meshes with textures on them outside of Trainz itself on the Mac, as PEV's Mesh Viewer is Windows only, and the way Crossover works, I don't think I can actually access files on the Mac from Windows programs. So that's kind of a surprise roadblock.

I know the Trainz Mac user base is already pretty small, and the number of Mac content creators is probably somewhere in the single digits, so I can see why there wouldn't be a whole ton of demand for a Mac Mesh Viewer.

So, my fellow content creators on Mac, is there any way to see what a skin in progress looks like before fully committing it into the game?

Matt

There actually *are* ways to preview meshes with textures on macOS — you’re not stuck committing every skin into Trainz.

1. You can run PEV’s Mesh Viewer through CrossOver. Just map a shared folder (e.g. Z to a macOS directory and Mesh Viewer will open your Trainz assets normally. This is what most Mac creators do.

2. A tiny Windows VM (Parallels, UTM, VMware Fusion) also works great. Mesh Viewer is so lightweight that even a minimal VM runs it perfectly.

3. If you want a pure‑Mac workflow, you can export the mesh from Trainz as FBX/OBJ and load it in Blender. It won’t read .im files, but it’s fine for reskin previews.

So yes — you *can* preview skins on Mac without committing them into the game.

 

[epa]

...

1. You can run PEV’s Mesh Viewer through CrossOver. Just map a shared folder (e.g. Z to a macOS directory and Mesh Viewer will open your Trainz assets normally. This is what most Mac creators do.

...

Huh, I figured it would work in Crossover, but I didn't know you could do shared folders. I've dabbled in it some, bought it cheap on Cyber Monday, but I haven't done much with it yet.

I will check that out. Thanks!

Matt