Pacific/Penn 462 not so basic bug fixes

[Gumboots]

This fixes the connecting rod and the main frame side plate being stuffed through the wheels on one side. Also fixes the rear truck gfx stuffed through the wheel on one side. It's still a rough model, just not quite as rough now.

Throw these into PopTopExtraContent or UserExtraContent if you want to try it out.

Edit: Have done a comprehensive update on this bugfix, so the old file has been removed.
New file will be posted soon, after a few more small tweaks.

Update: The new file is up. You can get it from this post.

[Altoona+BeachCreek]

Exciting work being done! Still little time to test and enjoy, but some time soon hopefully. Thanks!

[Tomix]

Hmm, I should really try and get into this Hex editing. Once I get free time during the summer I'll certainly try this stuff out.

[AdmiralHalsey]

Hey Gumboots since the Pacific is obviously modeled on on Pennsylvania RR Pacific shouldn't it be renamed to something like K-4 Pacific?

[Gumboots]

Hmm, I should really try and get into this Hex editing. Once I get free time during the summer I'll certainly try this stuff out.

It's not actually difficult, as long as you understand the basic principles and you have a good editor. This little box of tricks only required making one X value on the second line of the file the same for all the drivetrain files. That's literally a five minute job, and sorted the connecting rod problem, etc.

The main frame side plates were also set at different distances left and right, for some unknown reason. That's what was causing the problem with the rear wheel on one side, so I just evened those up too. Fortunately they happened to be right at the start of the body file. If they hadn't been there I probably wouldn't have bothered fixing them, simply because the Penn 462 body file is such a nasty mess that I haven't thought it worth mapping.

This one could still benefit from some tweaks to wheels sizes and spacings. The flanges for the front coupled wheels and the rear wheels on the front truck overlap each other. The wheels rims for all wheels are above the track too. Those wouldn't be hard to fix, if anyone wants to try it.

IMO, the problem with hex editing is not so much that it's difficult. It's that it's too easy, but very time-consuming if you get into detail. I find myself wanting to fix everything just because I know I can, and if I don't I'll look at the result and think it still needs fixing. This leads to loco rebuilds taking quite a while if you have other things to do as well.

[Gumboots]

Hey Gumboots since the Pacific is obviously modeled on on Pennsylvania RR Pacific shouldn't it be renamed to something like K-4 Pacific?

Probably should, if anyone wants to.

[Tomix]

I'm sure you've said this in other threads, but which hex editor do you use? I tried using Hxd, but I like using the hex editor that came with the TM Development files since it doesn't delete a byte when I replace a value.

[AdmiralHalsey]

Hey Gumboots since the Pacific is obviously modeled on on Pennsylvania RR Pacific shouldn't it be renamed to something like K-4 Pacific?

Probably should, if anyone wants to.

I'd do it myself if I knew how too.

[Gumboots]

I'm using the Standard version of HexEditorNeo. I like it a lot, but it's not a freebie (quite cheap though).

HxD shouldn't delete bytes. I don't remember it doing that. The problem with HxD is it doesn't keep track of where you are in the file. There's no bookmarking system, and IIRC it loses the selection every time you save.

XVI (the one in the TM kit) also has no bookmarking system. This will effectively make significant loco modding off limits. You need to be able to visibly map where you are in all those long columns of meaningless crud. Without that there's too much eye strain and brain strain to make loco modding interesting or enjoyable. XVI is only suitable for editing very short files, IMO.

Tiny Hexer has a basic bookmarking system, but I haven't tried it.

This one seems very good: http://www.hexedit.com/index.html If I was after a freebie, I'd give that a go.

[Blackhawk]

For editing the bca/bty and cargo files I've used the last one Gumboots recommended. HexEdit can over write or insert and it has the ability to bookmark things in a file. I haven't used Tiny Hexer but WP&P used to like that one. And my first attempt was HxD but HexEdit does things better than that.

[Tomix]

I downloaded the free version of Hex Editor Neo, so I'll give that a spin and see how it goes. It has a portable installation which made me choose that one.

[Gumboots]

Probably should, if anyone wants to.

I'd do it myself if I knew how too.

Loco names are done on the second to sixth lines of the .car file, if you are using a twelve column display. Twelve columns is the best, since it makes X, Y and Z co-ordinates line up nicely. It also happens to work well for .car files.

The section that handles the in-game name has to be sixty bytes long (five lines at twelve columns). The name has to be followed by a blank that has the hex code of 00. That's why the Pacific name doesn't display the ".Loco" bit in the game. Anything after the blank is dropped from the display, so you just see "Pacific 4-6-2".

Loco_names.png (13.25 KiB) Viewed 16208 times

Don't use a standard spacebar blank after the name because that wont work. That has a hex code of 20 (you can see examples in the shot) and is used for punctuating the name, but you need the 00 after the name for it to work.

The rest of the 60 bytes is just filled up with padding that has a CD hex code. You can see how it works in the pic. To get a loco called A1 Berkshire, I pretty much just typed in A1 Berkshire in the ASCII columns, then added the 00 after it in the hex column.

[Gumboots]

I downloaded the free version of Hex Editor Neo, so I'll give that a spin and see how it goes. It has a portable installation which made me choose that one.

No bookmarking in the free version, so it's no better than HxD. Try HexEdit.

[AdmiralHalsey]

I'd do it myself if I knew how too.

Loco names are done on the second to sixth lines of the .car file, if you are using a twelve column display. Twelve columns is the best, since it makes X, Y and Z co-ordinates line up nicely. It also happens to work well for .car files.

The section that handles the in-game name has to be sixty bytes long (five lines at twelve columns). The name has to be followed by a blank that has the hex code of 00. That's why the Pacific name doesn't display the ".Loco" bit in the game. Anything after the blank is dropped from the display, so you just see "Pacific 4-6-2".

Loco_names.png

Don't use a standard spacebar blank after the name because that wont work. That has a hex code of 20 (you can see examples in the shot) and is used for punctuating the name, but you need the 00 after the name for it to work.

The rest of the 60 bytes is just filled up with padding that has a CD hex code. You can see how it works in the pic. To get a loco called A1 Berkshire, I pretty much just typed in A1 Berkshire in the ASCII columns, then added the 00 after it in the hex column.

What do you use to edit the files?

[Gumboots]

This one seems very good: http://www.hexedit.com/index.html If I was after a freebie, I'd give that a go.

[AdmiralHalsey]

This one seems very good: http://www.hexedit.com/index.html If I was after a freebie, I'd give that a go.

[AdmiralHalsey]

Woops. I did not mean to make so many posts. My internet has been going slow lately and I have to click the submit button a couple times before it registers.

[Hawk]

I deleted the extra two posts.
You can delete your own posts.

[AdmiralHalsey]

I deleted the extra two posts.
You can delete your own posts.

Thanks Hawk.

[Gumboots]

Alrighty then, I've gone and done a revamp on this beast. It actually has the dimensions of a PRR K4s now. It was even built off an original PRR drawing, although since I started with PopTop stuff it's not as detailed as a $1,000 brass model. Looks a heck of a lot better than the default mutant thing though, and has a reasonable poly count.

This has no custom stats and no renaming of the internal hex code. It's all bog basic PopTop in those respects, so can be used with any saved game and with any scenario that allows the Pacific. It will be too strong when hauling my custom (lightweight) express cars, but will be fine with default RT3 express cars for people who use those. I'll work out custom stats for my cars later.

It looks like this:

Installation is dead simple. It's just a bunch of loose files, that get dropped into PopTopExtraContent or UserExtraContent to override the default Pacific files. That's why they're loose files: they only work as overrides if they aren't packed.