Models and Textures Download

[Tomix]

Ah the art of reverse-engineering. I am currently testing to see if the stuff I export out of 3ds max is close to the 3dp files.



Doesn't look so good. I'm going to try a version of Blender 2.4 and see if it is similar.

[Gumboots]

Use twelve columns for your view. The .3dp files use four bytes each for x, y and z coordinates. Having things in twelve columns makes it much easier to spot patterns.

[Gumboots]

Example screeny here:

[Tomix]

After comparing, the 3ds max one looks nothing like the 3dp file at all. The Blender 2.4 file looked sort of similar, but not the same thing.


Back to the drawing board I guess. I would assume the version the user on the forum was pre 2.4, as the Interface looked different.

[Gumboots]

Hmm. Looks like I'm still stuck with manually coding the hex to get my ideas off the ground. Hey ho. Could be worse.

[Tomix]

I'll keep trying different versions and see what I get.

[Tomix]

Just tried Blender 2.36 and there is no 3ds export feature. Must be some version of 2.4.

[Tomix]

Probably found one of the better ways of using this model pack for now, making the profile images.



Makes it much easier!

[Gumboots]

Note for Tomix.

Try this: 3DS MAX Scene Interchange.

[Tomix]

Hmm, I'll have to try this. Thanks Gumboots.

[Gumboots]

Hey I figured out how this stuff works. Easy once you get the hang of it. Start by having Blender in Object mode. Select the default cube by right click, then delete it with Delete.

To save keystrokes you can then just import all the .obj files for the model one after the other (still in Object mode), then select all objects (A key, then A again), deselect camera (hold Shift, right click on camera, right click again) and lamp (same procedure), then R > X > -90 > Enter to rotate the entire loco model to the correct orientation in one go.

I've also found that deleting the default lamp and then creating one Sun lamp up in the sky to one side, and two Hemi lamps equally spaced below track level and each side of the model about half way along, gives good usable lighting of all components.

After that you then have a bit of a rigmarole to get all the bits showing the skin image, and there is the drawback that the 3D view window will not show the skin's alpha channel (meaning wheels are square blocks, etc) but it's still a very handy aid for basic skinning. Basic procedure is to start by creating a new UV/Image editor window (drag a new window down from the top right of your 3D view window, then set the new one to UV/Image editor type). Open your skin image via the "Open image" button on the toolbar. In the other 3d view window, select an object (ie: loco body or whatever), switch to Edit mode, then go to the toolbar of the UV/Image editor window and use the select arrows at the left end of the image bar to select the skin image from the dropdown list. Over in the 3D view window, the selected object should now be skinned.

To do the rest of the model, switch back to Object mode, select the next object you want to skin (ie: Bogie1), switch to Edit mode and go click the image in the dropdown list again. Rinse and repeat until the whole model is skinned in 3D view. You can then screw around in PS or GIMP or whatever to change the skin image. Use the Image > Reload image option to see how your changes look in 3D.

Oh and while I think of it, after the whole loco model is imported and realigned correctly, and after you have your lamps set up the way you want them, you can then save the whole shebang as one handy .blend file. That means next time you want to play with skinning the same loco things are all set up for you.

This Blender gizmo is going to be very handy.

Just as an example, the attached zip (two posts down now) contains all elements for the 242 A1 loco. Skin image is included as part of the .blend file. To view the complete model with skin in place all you have to do is open Blender, then go File > Open > Navigate to your folder or whatever > 242_A1_complete.blend > Open Blender File. Easy.

[Tomix]

Just as a tip, I'd upload .blend files. .blend1, .blend2, etc are backups of the main .blend file. You can rename the backups to .blend and they will work, but it's easier to just upload the original.

Congrats for making progress on this stuff. I'll keep checking to see what you have in store for us!

[Gumboots]

K, sorted the alpha thing thanks to tips from Tomix via PM. PM's are usually kept private but in this case, since it's just Blender tips, I figure it's ok to copy the tips to the forum.

In the 3D viewer, press N and scroll down on the right menu until you find Shading. Once you get there, change the multitexture to GLSL and that should do it. Keep in mind when using GLSL you always need to have lights in your scene otherwise the model will be black.

Reference Image http://i.imgur.com/JHwWMfD.png

I took a look at your materials and they also appear to not have the textures applied. GLSL requires this so I'll show you in a few pictures how to do this.

1. Go to the Material tab (checkered Circle) and make sure your material is selected. Scroll or expand the view so you can find the Transparency tab. Once there, tick the box and make sure Z Transparency is marked. After that, set the Alpha value to 0 and the Specular value to 0 if you wish.

Reference Image http://i.imgur.com/Gw00R4t.png

2. Now head to the tab right next to the Checkered square. This is the Texture tab. You will see that there are no textures applied to the material. Let's fix that. Go ahead and click the New button, and change the type from Clouds to Image or Movie. The Preview window should be black now.

Reference Image http://i.imgur.com/MyfilFd.png

3. Now head to the Image section below Colors and click open. Find your texture when prompted. Now find the Mapping sub menu and change the tab that says Generated to UV. Scroll a bit more until you find the Influence section. From here, tick the Color and Alpha box and keep them at 1.

Reference Image http://i.imgur.com/gEv93Uf.png

That should do it. Let me know if something doesn't work.

So yeah, that works. Have deleted the dodgey old attachment from my previous post and loaded a good one to this post.

[Gumboots]

I was just checking out the Northern 484 model for a bit of a change, since some rough ideas I had about that were what started my infamous "Re-skinning for beginners" monster thread. I don't know how it happened, but the Truck2.obj file in the Texture Dump zip appears to be borked. The mesh is wrong and it maps to the wrong part of the skin image. Anyway, I opened a fresh copy of the original .3dp in 3dConverter and re-exported it as a Wavefront .obj. There are several export options that are all nominally ".obj" and perhaps the wrong one was selected just for that file (easy mistake if you're doing lots of them). The new .obj is fine now.

Anyway the rough ideas today for the Northern included perhaps doing a better Daylight skin at some point, plus I was playing with the three quick and easy custom colour schemes I came up with ages ago and making them a bit darker. This is what I came up with today (Daylight not included). They still need a bit of tweaking, but they show promise.

Rough_Northern_skins.jpg (94.77 KiB) Viewed 8022 times

[RulerofRails]

Mainly for curiosity, I tried the blender file you uploaded. All I can see is a hot pink body. Going through the process that Tomix kindly shared it seems that a png file is necessary for the skin but cannot be found. I assume it is hidden somewhere in one of the PK4s? I just don't know where to look.

PS. The Northern skins look good. For some reason I feel they would suit a map of India perfectly.

[Gumboots]

Ah. I thought the blend file packed the skin images automatically. I must have forgot to tell it to pack them up. Don't worry about it. They're WIP anyway. If you want to play around with your own skins for the Northern, just get the default A skin .dds, import it into PS or GIMP, then save it as 32 bit .tga. Link that up to the model in Blender, then play around with colours to suit yourself.

[Gumboots]

More Blender tips, for anyone who needs them. Controlling the view is critical for fast and easy working. Shift+C centres the view on the global origin (ie: x, y and z = 0).

The right side tool shelf in 3D view (use N to call it up) allows locking the view to the cursor too. This is really handy for working on components since it means you can just left click anywhere and then rotate the view around that point.

Also, after importing a whopping great .obj file full of all sorts of stuff, using Edit mode > Face select option, then either the "Select > Select Linked" or "Select > Linked Flat Faces" options makes for easy grabbing of components you want to split. You can sometimes use Shift+Alt+Right Click to do the same job, or just Shift+ Right Click to grab faces one at a time.

Anyway, once you have all the faces you want selected just hit P, then select "Faces" from the dropdown list. Hey presto, you now have a new and separate object for your component. Rename it in the objects list at the right side of the screen and you're good to go.

[Gumboots]

I'll be updating the Engines in a few days with the wheels and bodies combined together. This saves the user time instead of manually importing. I'll try to fix the material files too.

Since Blender doesn't have a proper Batch OBJ import tool since 2.4 (which doesn't even work well)...

I've just been starting to use this stuff, with a view to fixing some simple bugs in existing locos (yes, I'm enthused about that again, now that the tools are available).

Anyway, the importing of masses of .obj files takes the most time, so I went and found a batch import script for .obj>Blender.

The first answer on this page works perfectly with the latest Blender (2.75): http://blender.stackexchange.com/questi ... efront-obj

This makes the process really fast and simple. Just copy all files for the relevant asset to one folder, with no other files in it, then grab the address of the folder and run the script in Blender. Voila! One complete models with all bits.

To make the process even easier I've set up a basic clear file ready for imports, with non-selectable lamps in place so I can see things once the textures are applied, and so that components can be selected and deselected en masse without getting the lamp mixed up in it.

Blender will still import the .obj's standing on their noses, if they were exported from 3dConverter. All this requires to fix it is to select all objects (A key) and then R>X>-90 to rotate them all to the correct orientation.