New Aircraft
- Thread starter seeseeme
- Start date
Hi Bh, thanks for noticing, the BA Viscount has been available for a few days, haven't had time to post. 
I sometimes get requests for older aircraft, so this is one of them, it is the larger 800 series version, with rectangular operating doors.
I have improved the translucent props by animating them, it has some interiors because the doors open, so you have to see something inside, all explained in the config description.
I use mainly Paint Shop Pro XI, it is not hard to use, has layers and useful perspective correction tools. There are some download sites for Paint Shop, demo versions requiring you to get a licence form Corel. I bought mine from Hervey Norman, about $130 at the time. Older versions, 8 and above are all you need, the newer ones probably concentrate on photo editing enhancements, and do not add any additional drawing features not found in version 8 to 11.
For alpha channels, I use Photoshop, it is very easy in PS. If I recall, I did a tutorial on making Alpha channels for both programs a long time ago, probably on my old website, link in the top menu bar, right corner, of my homepage. My webpage shots are made in PS, it has better text tools, shading etc than Paint Shop.
Ian
I sometimes get requests for older aircraft, so this is one of them, it is the larger 800 series version, with rectangular operating doors.
I have improved the translucent props by animating them, it has some interiors because the doors open, so you have to see something inside, all explained in the config description.
I use mainly Paint Shop Pro XI, it is not hard to use, has layers and useful perspective correction tools. There are some download sites for Paint Shop, demo versions requiring you to get a licence form Corel. I bought mine from Hervey Norman, about $130 at the time. Older versions, 8 and above are all you need, the newer ones probably concentrate on photo editing enhancements, and do not add any additional drawing features not found in version 8 to 11.
For alpha channels, I use Photoshop, it is very easy in PS. If I recall, I did a tutorial on making Alpha channels for both programs a long time ago, probably on my old website, link in the top menu bar, right corner, of my homepage. My webpage shots are made in PS, it has better text tools, shading etc than Paint Shop.
Ian
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I've decided on Paint.net (for now anyway) - it seems to be the simplest.
Following Rob's tutorial I've now got a Virgin 340-600 photo and Ian's Thai 340-600 component parts on the programme and will start playing about. Before I start, just checking that no-one is about to produce a Virgin 346 - more than happy to load another on my list if so.
One thing I notice at the moment - I've edited in Content Creator Plus, but the asset description in Content Manager still shows the description as "Thai" rather than Virgin.
I can see I'm going to need a lot of uninterrupted time for this - maybe I should ask the grandkids
Bob
Following Rob's tutorial I've now got a Virgin 340-600 photo and Ian's Thai 340-600 component parts on the programme and will start playing about. Before I start, just checking that no-one is about to produce a Virgin 346 - more than happy to load another on my list if so.
One thing I notice at the moment - I've edited in Content Creator Plus, but the asset description in Content Manager still shows the description as "Thai" rather than Virgin.
I can see I'm going to need a lot of uninterrupted time for this - maybe I should ask the grandkids
Bob
I've decided on Paint.net (for now anyway) - it seems to be the simplest.
Following Rob's tutorial I've now got a Virgin 340-600 photo and Ian's Thai 340-600 component parts on the programme and will start playing about. Before I start, just checking that no-one is about to produce a Virgin 346 - more than happy to load another on my list if so.
One thing I notice at the moment - I've edited in Content Creator Plus, but the asset description in Content Manager still shows the description as "Thai" rather than Virgin.
I can see I'm going to need a lot of uninterrupted time for this - maybe I should ask the grandkids
Bob
Bob,
You have to change the asset name where it appears on the left hand panes of Content Manager & the line item in the config.txt file. I'm not exactly sure which one is still off. The line item in config.txt can be done either by editing the config.txt file directly or by editing the field via the content manager editing tool.
The tutorial has it all but I do understand that there is lots to take in.
As far as the A340 is concerned.... It isn't on my radar at all. Pascal may have one planned, but he'll have to answer for that one.
Hi Rob
Think I must have misread the name in the Asset detail box because it is showing correctly as Virgin etc. The thumbnail and description is still Thai because I've not done the Virgin yet.
More frustratingly - the forward fuselage and cockpit area is missing off the cloned tga file copied to paint.net. I've tried various things last night, and again this morning including re-cloning but can't see what's wrong. Hope I'm not going to become a pain on here trying to do this.
Bob
Think I must have misread the name in the Asset detail box because it is showing correctly as Virgin etc. The thumbnail and description is still Thai because I've not done the Virgin yet.
More frustratingly - the forward fuselage and cockpit area is missing off the cloned tga file copied to paint.net. I've tried various things last night, and again this morning including re-cloning but can't see what's wrong. Hope I'm not going to become a pain on here trying to do this.
Bob
Bob,
Pretty much all of the aircraft skins have no cockpit. Vulcan makes the glass transparent and does not require the cockpit to be shown in the texture (.tga) file. You'll see what I mean if you preview the model using Trainz Mesh Viewer or Content Creator Plus. You'll find that Trainz doesn't alter the .tga file when you clone or edit.
Hope that helps.
Rob
Bombarier CRJ200 - Air Canada Jazz
Remember these?
Lined up outside one of Bill's new Aircraft Hangars (thanks Bill) are all four colour variations of the Air Canada Jazz Bombardier Canadair Regional Jet 200 series. Bill built these Hangars on my request so they are a bit... Air Canada, because I need them for my Vancouver Project. I like the new doors and the cranes inside.
This time the Jazz aircraft are the proper CRJ models instead of Gulfstream mimics. They come complete with all the bells and whistles of the recent Lufthansa model released by Vulcan.
During my re-skinning research I discovered to my horror that the Jazz brand has been discontinued. Air Canada Express is now the regional carrier for the biggest Canadian Airline. I liked the bright seasonal maple leaf colours of Jazz.
The Jazz jets are the first of many North American CRJ skins. The Red, Green & Orange variants are new versions of my Gulfstream mimics that have been available for quite some time. These new ones will overwrite the Gulfstreams. The Yellow one is new. I had thought there were only 3 colour variants but have since discovered there are in fact 4.
All now available on DLS.
Bombadier CRJ200ER Air Canada Jazz Green startup (2005+) <KUID2:590184:100062:3>
Bombadier CRJ200ER Air Canada Jazz Orange Startup (2005+) <KUID2:590184:100064:3>
Bombadier CRJ200ER Air Canada Jazz Red Startup (2005+) <KUID2:590184:100053:3>
Bombadier CRJ200LR Air Canada Jazz Yellow Startup (2005+) <KUID2:590184:100523:1>
Remember these?
Lined up outside one of Bill's new Aircraft Hangars (thanks Bill) are all four colour variations of the Air Canada Jazz Bombardier Canadair Regional Jet 200 series. Bill built these Hangars on my request so they are a bit... Air Canada, because I need them for my Vancouver Project. I like the new doors and the cranes inside.
This time the Jazz aircraft are the proper CRJ models instead of Gulfstream mimics. They come complete with all the bells and whistles of the recent Lufthansa model released by Vulcan.
During my re-skinning research I discovered to my horror that the Jazz brand has been discontinued. Air Canada Express is now the regional carrier for the biggest Canadian Airline. I liked the bright seasonal maple leaf colours of Jazz.
The Jazz jets are the first of many North American CRJ skins. The Red, Green & Orange variants are new versions of my Gulfstream mimics that have been available for quite some time. These new ones will overwrite the Gulfstreams. The Yellow one is new. I had thought there were only 3 colour variants but have since discovered there are in fact 4.
All now available on DLS.
Bombadier CRJ200ER Air Canada Jazz Green startup (2005+) <KUID2:590184:100062:3>
Bombadier CRJ200ER Air Canada Jazz Orange Startup (2005+) <KUID2:590184:100064:3>
Bombadier CRJ200ER Air Canada Jazz Red Startup (2005+) <KUID2:590184:100053:3>
Bombadier CRJ200LR Air Canada Jazz Yellow Startup (2005+) <KUID2:590184:100523:1>
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Hi Rob
Thanks for your reply but can't preview at the moment. Don't understand your last sentence but when I copy the working copy back to the asset directory I get the message Error - failed to load etc.
Maybe Pascal could comment on this as well as a user of the Paint.net programme?
Also - I can't see at moment how to get a mirror image so I tried a LH and RH photo of the same aircraft and it seems ok on the component file but I've not managed to preview it yet.
Have got a day to myself tomorrow - just Trainz and F1 qualifyers - so am hoping to make some progress.
Any quick comments in time for tomorrow would be appreciated.
Bob
I tried renaming files from ****.tga to **** .png and a few other things I can't remember now but nothing worked when I was trying to get a preview.
Thanks for your reply but can't preview at the moment. Don't understand your last sentence but when I copy the working copy back to the asset directory I get the message Error - failed to load etc.
Maybe Pascal could comment on this as well as a user of the Paint.net programme?
Also - I can't see at moment how to get a mirror image so I tried a LH and RH photo of the same aircraft and it seems ok on the component file but I've not managed to preview it yet.
Have got a day to myself tomorrow - just Trainz and F1 qualifyers - so am hoping to make some progress.
Any quick comments in time for tomorrow would be appreciated.
Bob
I tried renaming files from ****.tga to **** .png and a few other things I can't remember now but nothing worked when I was trying to get a preview.
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I'm a little confused about what's going on there Bob. I have the following comments that will hopefully help.
1. Stick to .tga (Targa) format. Targa files do not loose clarity when you save and re-open like .jpg, .png and others. This is one of the primary reasons they are used.
2. If you are using the Content Creator Plus" to view the file, you'll need to copy the .tga file back into the Trainz Editing Directory "C:\Program Files\Auran\TS2010\UserData\editing\<asset name>\body\" for you to be able to see it. Part of this means that if you've renamed the .tga to eg. "main_virgin.tga", you will have to change the line item in the "main_thai.texture.txt" to match the new file name. i.e. "primary=main_virgin.tga". If you haven't done this last step, Content creator won't be able to see it.
3. A further note on file naming. This is very important. DO NOT RENAME "main_thai.texture.txt. The model file looks for this and if you rename it, it will in turn not see the .tga file. Ian is the only one that can change this as he exports an encrypts the model.
4. If you are using PEV's Trainz Mesh Viewer, note 2. also applies although it looks at asset file groups anywhere rather than just the Trainz editing directory. Pascal, Ian and I tend to copy the entire asset directory from the editing directory to a working directory so that you can have a back stop if you make a mistake. Mesh viewer lets you copy the .tga back without closing down the program (as is the Content Creator way). It has much better viewing capabilities & I highly recommend downloading it (link to Shane Turner's website is in the tutorial but... http://trainz.shaneturner.co.uk/tut...ies/pevsoft-trainz-tools/trainz-mesh-viewer-2 ).
5. The picture editing software answer will have to come from Pascal. I'm not at all familiar with it. You'll need to use some sort of mirror tool when re-skinning at some point. What you will find is that at the top and bottom of the aircraft model there is a line where the LH & RH side of the fuselage meet. If you use 2 different photos, that line will become very obvious despite you thinking they are very similar. It doesn't take much of a shade difference to make it look really rough. By doing a mirror, they can be made to match up more cleanly.
Reskins are a bit of an art and it takes a bit to learn the little tricks. You'll soon understand why some of them are much more difficult than others. My recent Jazz aircraft are quite difficult for example. There is lots of messing around to get the leaf on the tail to match up correctly with the overlap onto the rear of the fuselage. Your Virgin Atlantic shouldn't be too difficult but I can assure you that its Virgin Australia cousins are really tricky since the logo spills way onto the fuselage.
I hope that helps. I didn't want it to be too long winded but this information is important to know & I struggled with it for a while. I spent countless hours of Ian's and Pascal's time trying to get on top of it.
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Hi Rob (again!)
Thanks - a quick response to hopefully catch you this evening your time....
1. I did stick to .tga - only played around with renaming after it didn't work.
2. Am using CCP and did copy back to the Editing directory as .tga Also have changed the texture.txt file using notepad.
3. Have not renamed the texture.txt file
4. Have not yet tried using the Mesh Viewer - will probably do so later
5. Yes I was hoping to catch Pascal because he's using Paint.net
Thanks again for your time - I have rechecked what I've done, then completely erased everything and started again. Far as I can tell, I've foloowed your tutorial to the letter and I see the problem as being with the paint programme. Might have to try GIMP later today.
Yes I suspected using two photos was too easy!
Bob.
Thanks - a quick response to hopefully catch you this evening your time....
1. I did stick to .tga - only played around with renaming after it didn't work.
2. Am using CCP and did copy back to the Editing directory as .tga Also have changed the texture.txt file using notepad.
3. Have not renamed the texture.txt file
4. Have not yet tried using the Mesh Viewer - will probably do so later
5. Yes I was hoping to catch Pascal because he's using Paint.net
Thanks again for your time - I have rechecked what I've done, then completely erased everything and started again. Far as I can tell, I've foloowed your tutorial to the letter and I see the problem as being with the paint programme. Might have to try GIMP later today.
Yes I suspected using two photos was too easy!
Bob.
Pascal - thanks for your mail - you have sorted out how I achieve the mirror image on Paint.net
Rob - still have the problem viewing the model with Content Manager and in the game.
I've used the cloning method and edited with Content Creator Plus
My files are ////editing/Airbus A340_642 Virgin Atlantic _2010__ Startup (underlines appear instead of the hyphen in 340-642 and instead of ( +) Presume this is normal
/body
/main_340-600 virgin.tga
/main_340-600 virgin - Copy.tga
/main_thai.texture.txt (edited using notepad to Primary=main_340-600 virgin.tga Tile=st
/My Documents/main_340-600 virgin.tga
after playing around in Paint, am saving to same file name. (eg .tga) (I was only playing around with .png file to see whether it saved layers)
On trying to copy the documents file back to the assets body file it seems to copy ok (the modified date changes to current date & time)
When I try to edit in CCP I get the message "Error - The texture 'body/main_340-600 virgin.tga' failed to load.
I have gone over your tutorial again and cannot see what's wrong.
If don't get to bottom of this will have to try the mesh viewer thing I suppose.
Hoping that by making my problem clearer than my previous ramble it will help you solve this for me.
Bob
Rob - still have the problem viewing the model with Content Manager and in the game.
I've used the cloning method and edited with Content Creator Plus
My files are ////editing/Airbus A340_642 Virgin Atlantic _2010__ Startup (underlines appear instead of the hyphen in 340-642 and instead of ( +) Presume this is normal
/body
/main_340-600 virgin.tga
/main_340-600 virgin - Copy.tga
/main_thai.texture.txt (edited using notepad to Primary=main_340-600 virgin.tga Tile=st
/My Documents/main_340-600 virgin.tga
after playing around in Paint, am saving to same file name. (eg .tga) (I was only playing around with .png file to see whether it saved layers)
On trying to copy the documents file back to the assets body file it seems to copy ok (the modified date changes to current date & time)
When I try to edit in CCP I get the message "Error - The texture 'body/main_340-600 virgin.tga' failed to load.
I have gone over your tutorial again and cannot see what's wrong.
If don't get to bottom of this will have to try the mesh viewer thing I suppose.
Hoping that by making my problem clearer than my previous ramble it will help you solve this for me.
Bob