Modifying Coal Stage

[Dap]

I am running Trainz 2006.
I am using the Coal Stage by Vulcan, kuid 60238:38169. In his readme file he gives instruction on how to convert it to a gravel or rock stage as follows: "While the contents are coal you may replace the texture file for some other materials. I have included a file for gravel and one for rocks that you may use. Just delete the coal.tga file and rename the gravel.tga or the rock.tga to coal.tga. Keep a copy of the original files if you need go back to the original or reinstall the .cdp file."

I have done this, but it still shows up as coal. Any helpful suggestions ?

 

[rweber95]

Here is a list of the files in Vulcan's TRS20006 builtin Coal Stage:

coal.texture
coala.tga
coalstage.im
config.txt
gravel.tga
readme.txt
rock.tga
coal.texture

The mesh file (coalstage.im) will normally display the textures that are in coal.texture so renaming one of the other files will not change anything. The .tga texture files (coala, gravel and rock) can not be displayed except but by replacing the coal.texture file with a text file that lists the texture you want to display, usually done by listing the texture file in a xxxx.texture.txt file. I deleted the coal.texture file and replaced it with a text file named coal.texture.txt. The contents of this new file are:

Primary=coal.tga
Tile=st

Now what ever texture file that is named coal.tga will be displayed. Vulcan's instructions will now work, ie. rename rock.tga to coal.tga and the coal stage will display the rock texture. Since there are 2 Coal Stage kuids available in Surveyor Object, on in (F3) mode and one in Spline mode, be sure to select the spline mode. If you have the line:

-showkuids

in the ..\Auran\TRS2006\Trainzoptions.txt file, you can make sure you're displaying the right kuid.

Bob

 

[vulcan]

Hi Dap, Bob.

The instructions work for the original model as uploaded, the coal.texture.txt file calls up the coal.tga. By replacing this file with another image, and using the same name (coal.tga) the texture would change to that of the other image.

Unfortunately, when someone supplied a layout to Auran to be included in TRS2006, they used this model in the layout, and now the coalstage is a built in object.

When it was included, all the files are complied, and both the coaltexture.txt file and the coal.tga are now one compiled file, coaltexture. This means that simply swapping the texture files as instructed will not work, the model always uses the coal.tga file inside the compiled file.

Bob is correct, you have to delete the compiled texture.txt file and do your own, calling up the coal.tga file as he says. Make sure the correct name for the file is coaltexture.txt.txt, Windows does not always show the .txt extension on the end, it must be a plain .txt file.

Be aware you cannot change the name of the texture (coal.tga) in the coaltexture.txt file and expect it to work. The exported coalstage.im file already has the coal.tga name locked inside, so the coaltexture.txt file must always refer to this name - you cannot use gravel.tga inside the coaltexture.txt file for instance.

Hope this helps your understanding. Thanks for your help Bob.

Ian

 

[sterrett]

Just an idea that might overcome the "built in" problem - and please don't shoot me if I'm being a bit thick!

Would "cloning" the coal stage (assuming you have TRS2004 or beyond) and editing the new cloned version with the texture you want before committing it in CMP work?

 

[sterrett]

Just tried it - it works.

1. In CMP, select vulcan's Coal Stage.
2. Right Click Mouse and choose "Clone"
3. In "Search" Menu, choose "Open For Editing" - this will show your cloned file in the right hand window.
4. Select your "Cloned" file and click RH Mouse button, this time choosing "Open In Explorer"
5. In Explorer, select "coala.tga" and click RH Mouse button - select Rename
6. Rename coala.tga to any name you like (I suggest oldcoala.tga)
7. Select one of the other textures and rename it to coala.tga
8. (Optional Step but makes finding your cloned file easier) Select the config.txt file and double click it which opens it for editing in either Notepad or Word Pad. Scroll down to the line that says "Assets Filename" and rename the filename to Coal (Rock) Stage" or "My Coal Stage" or another name that you will recognise as your cloned file.
9. Close the Explorer window
10. In CMP, Right Click your cloned file and select "Edit" "Commit"

Next time you run Surveyor, your cloned file should show up.

 

[Dap]

Bob, Ian, sterrett

Thanks for your help. Replacing the coal.texture file with a new coal.texture.txt file does the trick. I mistakenly labled the new coal.tga file "coal.tga.tga" that does not work .

I did what sterrett suggexts but it does not work for me. Any way to get the readme file revised for the next release?

So many things to learn about this stuff. Thanks for your help. I couldn't do it with guys like you.

David

 

[vulcan]

David,

Cloning the file will not open up the compiled texture.txt file as you have found. Cloning is useful to make another asset version, but you still have to do as Bob says to create a correct texture.txy file.

I would not update a built-in file to change the readme file. When developing TRS2006, and CMP, I could not convince Auran of the benefit of having a readme file easily accessible in CMP, so have given up doing them. Some of my models can be a little complicated to use and I cover those items on my website, with more information on usage.

Auran however has since increased the length of a description in the config, and has now provided a right click option in CMP to read the config, so that is where the how-to-use information should be placed now.

I also included information on how to handle these compiled texture.txt files on page 193 in the TRS2006 and TC Content Creator's Guide, to extract the images using tgaTools2 and to make a new texture.txt file. That may be a useful read.

Ian

 

[JCitron]

Just an idea that might overcome the "built in" problem - and please don't shoot me if I'm being a bit thick!

Would "cloning" the coal stage (assuming you have TRS2004 or beyond) and editing the new cloned version with the texture you want before committing it in CMP work?

You're not being thick. This gives me an idea too.


John

 

[Dap]

I also included information on how to handle these compiled texture.txt files on page 193 in the TRS2006 and TC Content Creator's Guide, to extract the images using tgaTools2 and to make a new texture.txt file. That may be a useful read.

Ian

Ian,

Thanks for the tip. I'll have a look and see if I can understand it all. Right now I am content to have three different aggregate stages in spline form. And someday I hope to be a content creator . . .

David