Stokers' Corner

[WPandP]

The issue we have run into, with mod content that replaces an existing asset (like a new skin for a Tool & Die, for instance), is that within Saved Games, the old assets may still occur. The saved file includes some of those assets. However, anything newly spawned in the game will use the new assets just fine. This puzzled me for a while - I created a revamped Coal Mine, yet on some older custom scenarios I'd go in to play it and there would be the old Coal Mine right at the start. It was using the old graphics assets, but the BCA file was working right (as I had made it slightly more productive), and sure enough as soon as a new mine spawned, it was the right kind.

So, if you're trading out the default 1.06 warehouses for unique industries (yay!), don't be shocked if you go to play a 1.06 scenario and see old warehouses still. That just means those industries were placed in the scenario editor and saved with the scenario (as opposed to spawned at game start).

[Stoker]

I suppose I will have to add a "This might not work with saved games" disclaimer.

[WPandP]

Yeah. Though, it isn't that it isn't working; it works fine, it's just that saved content may not be updated. Most scenarios don't have pre-placed industries, they just spawn at launch, so that won't be a problem. But for someone who has played a few years in to a scenario, saved, then installed a bunch of mods, they shouldn't be surprised when they return to that scenario, to see all the old stuff.

This is true for almost all mods - my rolling stock behaves the same way; save a game with a train in it, and those cars won't be updated until the train gets to its next stations and loads up a new set of cars.

[Stoker]

I am using Hex Editor Neo. I havn't been able to figure out most of the features of it, but I am cavemanning my way through by just manually typing all changes. Is there an easier Hex Editor? I am also curious why not all Hex entries show as symbols in the text readout.Example "08" "07" and "27" all register as a period in the text readout. I am assuming that to change these values, you must do it in the Hex portion only.

[WPandP]

I use Tiny Hexer by mirkes.de - just Google that and you'll find plenty of download sites, though http://www.mirkes.de doesn't look like the right place to go - it is not being actively supported there. The main reason I like TH is that it have a Structure Viewer (I think that is what it is called) that converts the hex code into sensible floating-point numbers on the fly. So, using this tool, you can just type in the new decimal value you want it to be, without having to find some conversion tool first. I don't know what features Neo has going for it, so I can't say for certain that TH is better, but I really like it.

The characters that show on the right panel are just the ASCII text equivalents for those bytes, and I guess there are just several bytes which have no ASCII character equivalent. They all get rendered the same way. One thing that really tripped me up at first was that "00" and "20" looked the same - "00" tells RRT3 that it has reached the end of a text string, whereas "20" is the space-bar character, still a part of the text string. If I goofed between those two, then it would get the name wrong and fail to load assets. Another thing you'll notice is that the original programmers of RRT3 were rather sloppy with their text strings... they would just type the new name, up to the "00", then leave the rest of the junk beyond that point. So you end up with a bunch of nonsense in the text string portions, which doesn't affect how the game functions, but can be confusing to you as you mod.

[Stoker]

Thanks. I got TinyHexer. It seems better than Neo. I am able to do copy/paste with tinyhex, and couldnt figure out how to do it with neo.

Heres a link for anyone who wants TinyHexer. It's free http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/t ... 35737.html

[WPandP]

Another great feature of TH is that it automatically backs up the files you change... that will save your hiney! And, you can set it to permit undos beyond the last save, which is CRITICAL for 3DP editing - you change a point, save, load the model in-game to check, and discover whether you've changed the right point to the right value or not. Most of the time, you need to undo and try again. Same thing would be true for BCA and other file types - just keep the file open in TH, and you can check your work as you go by loading it in-game.

[Stoker]

I am trying to make this BandAid as small a download as possible by mainly just having new BTY files that use existing graphics to reskin the 106 buildings. I think I could include 4 or 5 "new" (repainted) buildings and keep the download to around 10-20 megs. I repainted the Bauxite building with a red scheme and intend to use it for a "Rock Quarry" producing Rock only . The "Quarry" included with 106 based on the Aluminum Mill is just way too big, you cant place it where you would want a rock quarry to be(Mountains).

Edit to add: Those features in TH sound great, I will have to try that.

[Stoker]

Which surface texture files are essential? I see in the 106 files only 2 texture files per building having the suffix "A" and "A-1" and they both appear to be the same size image when opened, and they seem to be identical. The original buildings have 6 and sometimes 7 texture files, all being different sizes. I am assuming the different textures are applied according "level of detail" settings. If I am going to copy a building and repaint it, can I just make two same textures as I see for the 1.06 ones?

[WPandP]

The "A-1" files I assume are superfluous copies. The A texture is always highest resolution, and you're right that game-default buildings (all objects really) have 5 or 6 iterations. These are not Level-of-Detail per-se; regardless of what video card you have and LOD settings, the game swaps an A texture out for a B when you get a certain distance away, then to C as you zoom out further, etc. The thing is, you can get by with just an A texture - if no B exists, it just won't make the swap. However, an aesthetic advantage of creating the B texture is to avoid a moire pattern: when you have a fine-grained texture like corrugated metal, if you don't have a pre-rendered B texture then you're forcing the video card to scale that texture. When the size of the corrugations, in this instance, become less than 1 pixel, you end up with ugly patterns. By creating the B texture yourself, you are supplying a texture that doesn't have to be reduced as much by the video card.

For editing purposes, I always just work with the A texture only, until I declare that I am done. At that point, I'll resample at the lower resolutions and save as B and C etc. versions. But I think the game works fine on the A texture alone.

[nedfumpkin]

I've seen stuff disappear if the smaller texture files are not there.

It is possible to just include the skins for your new building and you would just refer to those new skins in the bty file, and to the default building model for the 3dp and 2d files.

[Stoker]

Well, I have managed to successfully swap out all of the warehouse modeled buildings to other existing ones. The footprint however, has remained for the warehouse. I see in PJays BTY notes "outside footprint", but I cant make heads or tails of what is going on with that entry.

000 207 : 36*48*24 = 41472 : occupied data
041 679 : 4 : int : ?4 : 0
041 683 : 4 : int : ?5 : 0 or 1
041 687 : 12*5 : ?6's
041 747 : 30 : string : fertilizer increases this farm's output for...
041 777 : 4 : int : ?7
041 781 : 46 : 00000000000 ....


occupied data
------------------
0,5,6,..: outside footprint

I dont know which location this is referring to or what the values should be. I am guessing that once I learn which bytes need to be changed I can copy the data from my target building to get the correct footprint?

[Stoker]

Thanks for the textures advice. Are you saying that if I create a new industry based on an existing building that all I would have to include for the download is the BTY and BCA files and a new skin image(Mipmap) ONLY if I tell the BTY to access an existing building(3dp files)? Or do I need to include the copied and renamed 3dp files as well? I am trying to keep this BandAid as small as possible.

[Stoker]

Let me throw out a "for instance" example here. I want to create a new industry based on the Bauxite mine that produces Rock. I make new BTY and BCA files using the new Unique name for the new industry "RockQuarry" and I repaint the BauxiteMine_A.dds and rename it RockQuarry_A.dds. I make the BTY access the "BauxiteMine" 3dp files and the RockQuarry dds skin file. I would then only have these three files (BTY BCA and the skin-dds or tga) to post for downloading and it would use the existing BauxiteMine 3dp models already on the downloaders' computer?

[Stoker]

I have a graphics question also. If i "snip" out the area on the .dds image of an object will it become invisible or will it leave an unpainted shell ? As an example, on the WeaponsFactory .dds , can I eliminate the cannons in the yard by just cutting out that section from the skin image?

[WPandP]

That is correct, Stoker. The reference to an already-existing 3DP file means you don't have to provide a 3DP file as part of your download.

My approach, however, has been from an opposite viewpoint; I provide ALL assets for my content, relying on no existing assets. My main reason for doing so is that this way, I am free to change anything and everything, such as re-spacing trucks to look right, etc. The other reason I do so is that it makes uninstalling the mod that much simpler - all the assets with my unique name are removed. Only one file gets overwritten - the BCA or other similar file, which lists the assets used. Of course, this makes the download a little bigger. But thus far the biggest DL I've created has been my Express Cars mod, which was 20 mb but was not Packed into PK4 format. I'll be re-releasing this soon, and I'll see how big it is as a PK4. That isn't much bigger than an average map. Individual buildings, even with all of their assets packed together, are only a couple mb as a PK4.

As for making parts invisible, yes, if you erase parts of the skin file then you're essentially painting those facets invisible - the cannons, in your example, are still there, just "cloaked". All of my buildings do this to some degree; the Hopper Yard, for instance, paints everything but the floor as invisible, to create one flat plane that is skinned as two tracks.

[Stoker]

I am using Photoshop CS3 to repaint skins and am having a problem. When I save, an NVIDIA screen pops up asking what type of file to save as. Everything I have tried so far hasnt worked properly in the game. I cant find any info on the original files to direct me to the correct save mode except on the file name at the top of the object window that has the suffix " ,RGB/8 " I know it needs to be a dds, but it is asking for "color pallete" info example : "pallete RGB 8 bpp 256 colors" is an option that seems the closest to the tag on the object window. It also is asking about the MIP map, and I am assuming it should be "use esisting MIP maps" but again I am not sure.

[nedfumpkin]

If you've got the export filter, then the format for dds is dxt3. If you're having trouble getting proper files, you can save as tga and then convert to dds using the command line converter NVidia supplies. I included a link and instructions in the docs for the passenger carriages.

Best advice with bty files is to start with a copy of the industry you want to replicate. So if you want to make a quarry from the iron mine, then use the iron mine bty and change the first two entries and the fifth to the quarry name.

[Stoker]

I have been using the BTY from the industry I want "rebuildinged" and inserting the name for the building to be used as the replacement. I will try it the other way around as you suggest. I think I have the export filters on PS. I will try again.

[Stoker]

I remade all of the building swap bty files using the target building as the base and everything works perfectly.I used only existing buildings/skins, with the intention of repainting them slightly different soon. I gave my current project map a runthrough using the 1.06 buildings with replaced skins. Worked great. I was getting superb AI track expansion, I think the "warehouse" skins constrict things for the AIs track planning . Using buildings with a smaller footprint also seems to improve the spawn characteristics.