Pacific/Penn 462 not so basic bug fixes

[AMD 103]

Thanks, it looks much better now, but I'm having some whacky geometry problems.

The tender trucks are buried inside the tender body, the pony truck wheels aren't aligned with the trailing truck, and the leading truck frame is floating above the wheels.

This is from a savegame I had going earlier.

Also, what would I have to do for you to make a version with a high-mounted headlight, like the original Poptop Pacific? The center headlight looks kinda weird to me, even though I know it's not technically incorrect.

I'll even mod the smokebox texture for you.

Edit: Got my terms mixed up big time.

[Gumboots]

Try replacing the locomotives. I have noticed that when editing loco files the game seems to "get stuck" on a combination of new code and previous code. If you replace the locomotive, it all sorts itself out. I'd just use an event to get yourself however much cash you need to replace all of the Pacifics, and do them all in one hit. It should be fine on any new games though, because they won't have the old code "stuck" in the game engine.

The high-mounted headlight would be easy to do, because you'd only have to shunt the light around in the body.3dp, then move the Light1.3dp points to match the new position. All the other files could stay as they are. But, at the moment I don't have any motivation to do it. It'd be an ideal first project for someone. Import body.3dp into Blender > grab light mesh and move it > export > done.

[AMD 103]

Yep, replacing the locomotive did the trick. (It was a sandbox game, so cost wasn't any sort of problem.)

Well then, I'll give it a whirl, since I'm starting to get a grip on Blender.

PM please.

[Gumboots]

Why do you need a PM? You already have the necessary RT3 files, and you know about PRR Railfan if you want any more drawings. If you have any questions, might as well just ask them here.

Do note that I haven't tested the import/export script with the latest branch of Blender (2.8.x). It was made for the 2.7.x branch, and I know it works with 2.7.9, but I haven't tried it with other versions yet. I just keep using 2.7.9 because I don't want to deal with the changes in workflow and it does everything I need it to do.

[AMD 103]

Well crud. All my training was done with Blender 2.8. I've reinstalled 2.79, and it's so different from 2.8.

Another day, when I figure out the camera controls for 2.79.

The reason I asked for a PM is because I'm lazy , and I'd like the source files so I don't have to mess around with textures so much.

[Gumboots]

Oh the PSD bits? Attached.

You can try the script with 2.8. It might work. I just don't know, as I haven't tried it myself.
If it doesn't work with 2.8 I should probably look at updating it.

[AMD 103]

Thank you sir, but I also wanted the blender file.

But, all things being equal, I'd like the plugin updated for 2.8. The interface got a major usability boost in that update. (Yes, I did load the plugin into 2.8, it said it needed a newer version of Blender, and no .3dp import and export were available.)

[Gumboots]

Ok, exported .3dp files for loco Body and Light1, which should be all you need. Have already moved the light. You might still want to play with texturing though.

At the moment I'm not fussed about the import/export script, but if you're keen to have it working with 2.8 I suggest you rock on over to the Blender forum and get it sorted.

[AMD 103]

Thank you ever so much sir. I had the correct Keystone Graphic from another project, so I rescaled it, applied the effects you used onto it, and added the proper numbers. Also flipped and modded the smokebox grabiron to be correct for the K4, which is on the bottom half.

I still need to do the B through G textures without the fuzzy edges which causes the glow.

The screenshot isn't doing me any favors, so I also cropped the smokebox from the main texture.

Penn462L_A.jpg (55.88 KiB) Viewed 8913 times

The PSD file is attached in case anyone wants to poke at it.

K4_PSD_Mod.zip

(25.69 MiB) Downloaded 138 times

[Gumboots]

Aha! That's the Pennsy H3 firebox front. I recognise that. Works well.
Sorting out the alpha channel of the smaller skins isn't hard. Read this:
viewtopic.php?f=24&t=3642&start=50#p44250

[AMD 103]

I know, but are my changes seemlessly integrated into the original smokebox front?

I did create the B through G textures using a somewhat convoluted process.

1. The first TGA files created were resized using Nearest Neighbor resampleing to ensure the alpha channel had hard edges.

2. The A texture itself was downsized to the appropriate resolutions using Bicubic Sharper resampling, I did this for B through G, starting from 1024 always.

3. the RGB layer from the downsized A was copied to the appropriate files. From 512x512 to 16x16.

Here's the result.

Once again, thanks for catering to my whacky wish.

[Gumboots]

I know, but are my changes seemlessly integrated into the original smokebox front?

Looks fine to me.

I did create the B through G textures using a somewhat convoluted process.

The only catch with your method is that it won't allow you to exempt pixels if you want them to keep partial transparency, because you want them to glow in the dark (headlight lenses, cab windows, etc). If you use a selection directly on the alpha channel, then apply threshold to the selection only, you can pick and choose which pixels get zapped.

If you're not worried about that, then your method is fine. I do it by:

Resize down with Bicubic Sharper > Switch to Channels view > Select alpha channel > Select pixels I want to zap > Image > Threshold > Usually default 128 is fine (tweak depending on results) > Save resulting image.

Personally I wouldn't use TGA, except in exceptional circumstances. They give a performance hit to some extent, due to taking 4 times the VRAM of a DDS that's the same size.

TGA might be worthwhile if a particular skin has gradients or other detailing that turn to crap with DDS3 compression, but I seem to get good results with DDS. And if I was going to use a TGA for a particular skin I'd only use it on the A and B skins, because once you get down further than that nobody will be able to tell the difference anyway.

[AMD 103]

I forgot a tiny detail. The textures are now DDS files, the TGAs were just a intermediary step so I could get them into DXTBmp. Whups.

I'll try the method you mentioned for future reskins, and to fix some of the 1.06 diesels.

[Gumboots]

You should be able to work directly with DDS in Photoshop and Gimp. I use the old nVidia DDS plugin for Photoshop. I have an old pre-CC standalone version of PS, and the nVidia plugin works just fine.

There's a similar plugin for Gimp. I have a vague idea the latest version of Gimp even has DDS handling built in by default, but it's been a while since I looked at Gimp.

[eldomtom2]

Do you still have the original version that fixes the issues with misalignments on one side without making changes to the rest of the model?

[Gumboots]

Maybe. Not sure. I'd have to see what I have stashed.
Why would you want it, though? It's a humungous mess of a thing that doesn't look like any real loco.

[eldomtom2]

I am fond of the often goofy and inaccurate vanilla locos.

[Gumboots]

Lol. Fair enough. They drive me up the wall. I'm always wanting them more accurate.

Anyway I did have a look around, but I can't find the old version anywhere. My guess is that I deleted it ages ago, so I'd have to recreate it from scratch.