Locomotive Painting

[alexl102]

Ok, I've had a look through and I can't find a .tga file in any of the folders. I may have cloned an already-reskinned item, do I need to find the original in order to reskin it? It's my first attempt, I'm a little baffled!

 

[pcas1986]

Ok, I've had a look through and I can't find a .tga file in any of the folders. I may have cloned an already-reskinned item, do I need to find the original in order to reskin it? It's my first attempt, I'm a little baffled!

Sounds like its an older asset that uses the "something.texture" format. Images2TGA will convert those to a TGA format file.

Once you have the tga version, you will also need the descriptor file which will be like "something.texture.txt". The format of that file is described at this page. http://online.ts2009.com/mediaWiki/index.php/Texture_file

and a sample might look like this:

Primary=my_image.tga
Tile=st

Most of the values are defaulted.

Before you start playing with the image file, you might want to commit your clone in Trainz and make sure you can view it in Surveyor. It should look exactly like the original.

 

[alexl102]

Thanks very much Paul. I'll try my hand at that!

 

[Zeldaboy14]

Some of these download sites are a little deceptive and you need to be careful which link you click. However, I just followed Kieran's link and, while it took me around a couple more links, I did download the zip file. My antivirus said it was clean. BTW the actual download link was http://www.dotpdn.com/downloads/pdn.html

Actually I think Paint.net is just as confusing as GIMP. All those windows all over the screen annoy me. If I had to choose one over the other I would choose GIMP.

For the original poster I suggest you also get a copy of PEV's Images2TGA which is Trainz friendly and can do some clever stuff. It is not an image editor like Paint or GIMP but can be set up to launch those programs if required. I use it a lot.

You can get Images2TGA via Shane's site at http://trainz.shaneturner.co.uk/tutorials/index.php/home/utilities/pevsoft-trainz-tools

Also, I had to ask - is there any reason why the OP could not use PaintShed with TS06 and then import the CDP from his/her modified loco/traincar into TS10? That might be an easier option although I see she/he has already had some success.

I still have some Paintshed pdf file giving instructions. They are a bit ancient - just like me. :hehe:

I use Paint.NET for reskin's, and I don't find it all that hard to mess around with. I've learned from a good 2 years of using Paint.NET with both Minecraft Texture/Resource Packs and Trainz Baked Textures and Regular Texture Reskining. @pcas1986 You have a Paintshed PDF Tutorial? Wow.

 

[alexl102]

Sorry to be a pain; I have a new issue. I found a loco with .tga files that I wanted to reskin. So, I followed the paint.net tutorial on wikibooks, created new layers, reskinned, saved in correct format and over-wrote the original files in the edit folder. However, when I try to view my reskinned loco in meshviewer it said that there was a problem because it could only handle things that were 256 colours and 24- or 32-bit.

When i tried to commit the asset, there were loads of errors about binary conversion and being unable to find the textures etc etc. I'm a bit confused!

 

[Zeldaboy14]

Some sort of compression will be enabled with the .tga files, and you need to untick the box that has the compression so it saves without compressing the .tga file. Trainz can't read compressed picture files, hence .png files can't be read by Trainz.

 

[alexl102]

I know exactly what you're talking about. Thanks!

 

[Zeldaboy14]

No Problem! It has been mentioned a lot here on the forums since .tga files were starting to be used with Trainz.

 

[alexl102]

Thanks very much for all the help Zeldaboy and others! Successfully reskinned a loco and tested it in Trainz

 

[pcas1986]

I use Paint.NET for reskin's, and I don't find it all that hard to mess around with. I've learned from a good 2 years of using Paint.NET with both Minecraft Texture/Resource Packs and Trainz Baked Textures and Regular Texture Reskining. @pcas1986 You have a Paintshed PDF Tutorial? Wow.

There are lots of good, and frequently free, image editors programs out there and Paint.net is just one of them. But my preferred is Paint Shop Pro although I have another that was much more expensive.

Actually I have a couple of Paintshop tutorials in pdf form, one dated 2002 and one dated 2004 so, like I said, they are a bit ancient in Trainz terms. If you want copies let me know. I think you have my e-mail address. I have never used them as I don't use Paintshop and neither do I reskin assets.