What am I doing wrong?

[worthless]

I hope somebody can help. Having (or so I believe) at last mastered the basics of creating and texturing a simple scenery object in gMax, I cannot persuade CMP to commit it so I can use it on my route. I have tried many times and always finish with the same error. "Could not load file ferryslip.tga".
As far as I can tell, I have followed all the guidelines and driven myself nearly crazy studying umpteen tutorials.

The file is 8-bit RGB, 256 x 256 pixels, at 72 pixels per inch. It was created in PaintShop Pro X and saved as a Targa (.tga) file.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Peter

 

[meridious]

Uncompressed tga ?

 

[worthless]

Yes, uncompressed.

 

[Euphod]

Often these errors are the result of a minor naming mistake....a space or a dash or somesuch?
Ed

 

[Jerker]

G'day Worthless,

As I understand the workings of things, all *.tga files for Trainz must not only be uncompressed as indicated by 'meridious' but they must also be of 24 bit resolution!

Jerker {}

 

[Lynxfan]

...but they must also be of 24 bit resolution!

The file will be 32 bit if saved with an alpha channel.

 

[worthless]

Thanks for the suggestions. I have changed the colour depth, re-written the config and done everything except whatever it is that will make it work! So, with the infinite patience that comes from many years of teaching college students, I think I must start again. No doubt I will be back here in tears when it still won't work.

Regards

Peter

 

[Smileyman]

Well it looks like the others have suggested the usual things that cause this error, but if you want you can send the asset to me and I'll take a look.
It's probably something annoyingly obvious.

You can find my Email address on my website if you decide to send it.

Cheers,
Smiley.

 

[jankvis]

I always use 16 bit and TGA file. With tga u can save the alpha file into it (u can't do that with a bmp file).

PLS send me the Gmax file and all the content in the cdp file(*.tga,*.tga_alpha,*.config), then I can try to help u...

Jan

 

[worthless]

Thank you all for your suggestions and offers of help. They are greatly appreciated - and may still be necessary! I have eventually managed to make the object appear in my route. It appears that I was a bit careless in not checking the defaults I had set up for saving .tga files. So now I have created my first piece of custom content - hurrah!

Now comes the second problem. The object in question is a reasonable representation of the car ferry slipway in Portaferry, Northern Ireland. In plan, I designed it as 30 metres by 15 metres. According to its propery sheet in gMax, it is those dimensions, give or take a few cenimetres which are accounted for by the fact that it is built of four boxes, with differing gradients. With great glee, I selected it in Surveyor and placed it on a blank-ish piece of ground. Horror of Horrors - it probably measures 30 x 15 inches, if that. Is there a simple way to scale it up?

Cheers

Peter

 

[jrockey]

As far as I know (but I'm certainly not an expert) you'll not be able to do the scaling in Surveyor. You'll need to go back into GMAX, load your original model file, scale it, and then export it again. Then, re-install the scaled version in Trainz.

That's not really very hard at all, though... especially compared to what you've already accomplished. You also won't have to modify any of the other associated files such as the .tga or config, since you already have them working. So, it's not as bad as it sounds at first.

 

[worthless]

Once again, many thanks to all. With your help and encouragement, I have achieved the first step - a piece of worthwhile custom content. Now, if I am to produce the route I'm hoping for, there's only the little matter of a few hundred more.

It's quite a steep learning curve for an old wrinkly, but really rewarding when you get there.

All the best.

Peter.