Tennesee Valley Railroad GP7 avaliable?

[evilcrow]

Hello Piere,
As far as I can see, it's the bump map that causes the "sparkles". I've tried various ways on one of my steam loco reskins, such as a flat bump tga with or without an alpha, the reflection texture such as env-metal, again with or without an alpha; and always end up having a flat or "sparkle" loco.
I always now use "tbumpenv". If I use "tbumpgloss" it will be on something like a loco number or name plate, eg something small.

See the screenie below, I hope you can pick up the shades of the alpha's shown as displayed in "Images2tga. Note that the normal and the non normal main image are not the same size, it doesn't seem to matter.
For the normal map I've used a completely flat image (Use Images2tga to fix the "uniform" error). It may be that you could use a normal image with a very very slight amount of detail, (make it the same size as the non normal image), too much detail on the normal image and it will show up every nook and cranny.
Lastly make sure the texture.txt file shows AlphaHint=semitransparent and not masked alpha.

Cheers, Ken

 

[fourteen]

where do you get the im editer? Thanks.

 

[Forester1]

Hi Fourteen! It is available for download here: https://contentcreation.trainzsimulator.com/im-editor-edit-im-files/

 

[evilcrow]

That link seems to put one in a constant loop now, why I do not know.
Try the link that clam1952 has kindly provided https://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?1131-Narrow-gauge-screenshots/page237 SEE #3548 FOR IM EDITOR

Cheers, evilcrow

 

[Forester1]

Sorry, I should have double-checked that link. Hopefully N3V will correct.

 

[fourteen]

is freeware models allowed to modified and uploaded to the dls?

is there any type of help manuel for it? Looking at pics above need bumpmaps? not even sure how to do that.

btw got the file, installing now. Thanks

 

[evilcrow]

re post #25 Forester1
That link has been out for a least 4 months.

re post #26 fourteen

1. Depends on the license granted by the original author. Some are very generous such as the late bendorsey and others won't let you do anything at all. No license shown means no alterations etc.
Even if the original author is dead the license still applies.
2. IM.Editor as far as I am aware, has no manual. Bump textures can be added to the "Diffuse" texture, provided a "diffuse" texture exists. Using a bump texture varies from model to model. Everything therefore is "trail and error".

Cheers, evilcrow

 

[Piere]

OK. I'm calling this done (for now ). I finally have a result I can live with.

Strangely though Ken, I couldn't work out how to do it the way you suggested. I couldn't get any sort of shine out of it using tbumpenv.

In the end, I went back to tbumpgloss and the single biggest result I got was removing the alphas from the main and normal texture. They are now both single layer textures. That immediately got rid of the worst of the "sparkles".

I then took the bump texture and resaved it as the normal file, as it was a "cleaner" version with less noise in it.

I also ran that through a couple of filters in photoshop to "soften" the plain areas a bit more.

And here is the result:

Yes, there are still little "flecks" of reflections as you move around the model which is probably what you're referring to in the results you've had. But, compared to what I was getting before, I'll take this as a win.

And a comprison with the original version.

This has, by far, been the most effort I've put into a reskin. But I do really like those colours and the added richness that the shine gives.

Thanks very much again Ken for your patience and generosity in passing on your advice and suggestions. It has been a great help.

Edit: I've since loaded it up into a different route than I was using for testing, and now it looks completely different (not in a good way). Oh well. I'll come back to it later I guess.

Cheers,
Piere.

 

[evilcrow]

Hello Piere,
That looks a whole lot better. I will try your Alpha method on the next skin I do, thanks for the info on that.
A different route could mean you have the environment/time of day settings different to your test route ??.
At the moment I'm looking at 2995Valliant's "BR Std Tender BR2-Lined Black, Late Crest ex-works" <kuid:248163:104005>. It's an updated reskin of the original by Trainboi1.
I could learn from what he's done, especially the alphas.
Cheers, Ken

 

[Forester1]

I like them both. The duller version could be an older, weathered loco. Curious what you ran into on the second route.

 

[Piere]

I like them both. The duller version could be an older, weathered loco. Curious what you ran into on the second route.

The reflections are stronger and don't look as good as when I was "testing" it, unfortunately.

Cheers,
Piere.

 

[evilcrow]

Oh, I see what you mean, try a flat normal map.

Cheers, Ken

 

[Saturnr]

The duller variant very much resembles 1829 before its repaint a few years ago, or TVRM’s 1824.

Saturnr

 

[Piere]

OK, now I'm REALLY confused.

I haven't hade any meaningful changes, but I have discovered somehting odd.

The reflections aren't too bad here. I could probably live with them. But......

....this is the other side.

I haven't changed anything. All I have done is rotated the loco. And, no, if I move the viewpoint around, I never get this level of reflections on the other side.

At least this explains the difference between when I was editing it and when I placed it into this route. I was always looking at the other side. It may also explain the difference I saw when I said I removed the alphas and got better results. I might have been looking at this side in the test route previously but then started using a different track after that which placed the loco the other way around.

<sigh>

Cheers,
Piere.

 

[evilcrow]

Try using just "reflection" only. No alphas and no normal maps to worry about. There will be a certain loss of detail at certain angles.
Use a "env_metal" texture at low settings and increase if needed.
Trainboi1 did reskins for WVRR SD9'S, have a look at those https://trainz-forge.com/diesel-locomotives
Here's a reskin of an old VMD GP9 with just reflection texture method, it's got a bit of shine but no "sparkles".

Cheers, Ken

 

[DARTrider]

I'm just gonna say, I lost all understanding of this thread once it got to meshes and textures and env_metal and whatnot, someone please explain! The TVRM Geep is looking spectacular though!

 

[evilcrow]

I know of no manual or guide I'm afraid. It's all learn as you go along, opening up content creators models to see what they did.
Trail and error and hope for the best. A bit here, a bit there. Try this https://contentcreation.trainzsimulator.com/category/vehicles/rollingstock/

Tools you will need:
https://trainz.shaneturner.co.uk/tutorials/index.php/home/utilities/pevsoft-trainz-tools
IM Editor https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ePY...ew?usp=sharing
Paint.net https://www.getpaint.net/index.html


Cheers, evilcrow

 

[jordon412]

Well, this thread has definitely gotten a lot longer since I last read it. I've been away in Orlando at Universal Orlando Resort with family since February 17th and returned yesterday (February 21st) not long after 9PM. I see that the 1829 has gotten a lot shinier since I've last checked on this thread, which is more appropriate for a museum locomotive. I will say that I plan on going to the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum not this weekend, but sometime next weekend (March 4th and 5th) because the first weekend in March is always the beginning of Steam Season, so Southern 4501 will be pulling the Missionary Ridge Local for the first time this year. It's a tradition for me to go to the TVRM on the first weekend of Steam Season.

 

[Piere]

Try using just "reflection" only. No alphas and no normal maps to worry about. There will be a certain loss of detail at certain angles.
Use a "env_metal" texture at low settings and increase if needed.
Trainboi1 did reskins for WVRR SD9'S, have a look at those https://trainz-forge.com/diesel-locomotives
Here's a reskin of an old VMD GP9 with just reflection texture method, it's got a bit of shine but no "sparkles".

Cheers, Ken

Thanks again Ken.

I have tried that method but I'm not a fan of the loss of detail that goes with it.

I'd really like to understand why one side of the loco is shinier than the other? If I could get the right side to look like the left side, I'd be happy.

Cheers,
Piere.

 

[Piere]

G'day All.

While enjoying a relaxing Sunday afternoon, I thought I'd come back and revisit this project (did I say "relaxing"? ).

I started by deleting the original model I'd been working on and cloning a new one as I'd made so many changes to the old one that I'd lost track of what was what, and I thought it would be better to start with a clean slate.

Long story short, check this out!

The long version:

I started by going back to the tbumpgloss method I was using before and noticed that it wasn't changing anything (it was still the original matte). The original setup for the bump map was:

Primary=bump.tga
Alpha=bump.tga
Tile=st
NormalMapHint=normalmap

So I started experimenting with making a seperate alpha file (just copying the original and re-naming it to bump1) and changing the "normalmaphint" to "AlphaHint=semitransparent" as suggested by Ken previously to see what would happen (it looked terrible).

I then converted the new bump alpha to grey-scale (and it still looked terrible) but, almost by accident, when I zoomed out a bit, I noticed that model didn't look too bad. Seeing as I hadn't been playing with the other LODs, they were still in the original configuration of using tbumpenv.

So, once I set the main LOD back to that, with the new, greyscale bump-alpha set-up, I got this!

I guess this is what you have been suggesting previously Ken but, with all the changes I had been making to the previous model, I hadn't seen these results. So thanks for your perserverance and patience with your help and suggestions. It looks like I got there in the end.

I'm really happy with this now.

Cheers,
Piere.