Stokers' Corner

[Stoker]

Thanks Ned, but the command line process might just be a bridge too far for me. The Nvidia plug ins I already have, take a look at the screen i posted above. It shows the Nvidia Plugins window and the settings I was using.

[nedfumpkin]

I don't use photoshop so it wouldn't make any sense to me.

When you get your skins done, post them in a zip, and I'll convert them to dds if you want.

[Stoker]

Does GIMP make this process any simpler? I have that also and have used it to mod skins in other games. As for having you convert .tga's for me, how do I know if the tga's are being saved correctly? I have done some tests and they are not showing up in the game when I put them in the UEC folder, so I am assuming there is something wrong with the format or something .

[Stoker]

Well, I tried using GIMP, and it saves in the correct format. I would definitely prefer to use Photoshop though, the GIMP just doesnt have a lot of the color changing tools that PS does. Am I simply not selecting the right save format in PS? This is bizarre and frustrating. PS will save in dds, but it cuts the image in half- keeping only the left side of the original. The resulting image will show up in the game, but obviously being painted on the the model body all wrong. Did the stooges that made this game invent their own graphics formats or something? I have never run into any problems trying to repaint skins for games before.

[Stoker]

Bring out the GIMP. The GIMP's sleepin Zed. Well then I guess you'll just have to wake him up now wontcha?

Something odd is going on here. I tried saving a skin repaint as TGA's and RT3 would not recognize them. I then took these same TGAs and opened them in the GIMP and saved them as .dds files. SHAZZAM! The game recognizes them. WEIRD. Perhaps I might have to make do with this hodge podge method to do the painting in Photshop saving as .TGA and then convert them to .DDS with the GIMP.

This was a simple repaint of the Bauxite Mine:

[WPandP]

I use GIMP, not Photoshop, and when I save a TGA, it prompts me with two checkboxes - one for compression, and the other for "Origin at bottom right". Because I don't want either, I make sure neither option is checked. However, it seems like the first time I save a given TGA file, both options are by default checked. This leads me to believe that this is default behavior, and perhaps your problem is that your TGA's are being saved with these options enabled. I don't know what to tell you about disabling them in Photoshop.

Ned, do you know whether the same restrictions apply, if you are just creating a TGA that you will later convert to DDS? Can you still get a correct DDS if you save the TGA with compression or even at 32 bit rather than 24? I haven't tried it using my DDS converter.

[nedfumpkin]

I haven't tried either, so I don't really know. Since what I have going on is working, I am not so much inclined to mess with it.

[WPandP]

Stoker appears to have answered my closing question - he is saving TGA's in PS that don't work in-game, yet produce workable DDS's when converted.

My other reason for using TGA's rather than DDS on my mods is that it leaves them in a more ready state for others to develop their own skins. All this hassle we each go through, to arrive at a reliable way of creating DDS files, I don't think the average modder should have to go through that. If I provide a DDS, then they have to at least find a way to read that file. A TGA, on the other hand, just requires that they have an image editor, which if they are embarking on a skinning project they most certainly already have. And I always envisioned others, like NedF and Holger, etc., developing alternative skins for stuff that I produce. Yes, the TGA is bigger, but I figure that anyone downloading and installing a mod is doing so willingly and they can make their informed choice when they go to download. Mapmakers have the same dilemma - a 1024x1024 map is a huge file to download; they might have chosen to make something 256x256 instead, with the accompanying loss of geographic resolution. If the player can't afford the bandwidth to download the huge maps, then they can just choose to play with smaller ones. I actually prefer a bigger map, because I happen to have a fast computer and a decent net connection, and I don't want to skimp on geographic detail. So, yes, the TGA's present a cost in the form of filesize, but a benefit in terms of non-proprietary format.

I wonder, too, whether a PK4 with DDS files is really that much smaller than one with TGA's instead. I would think that a DDS could not compress as much as a TGA (since the TGA is in uncompressed format), and thus the penalty for the final mod isn't all that great. I haven't tested this.

[Stoker]

This whole format issue is very strange. I have been doing some tests to try to get a good way to produce and correctly save any skins. My last test revealed a true oddity. I opened the Weapons Factory skin as a .dds in GIMP. I removed the cannon skins by selecting and clearing those areas and saved the skin- going through and saving all the sizes from A to F in the UEC folder. I fired up the game and everything worked perfectly- the cannons did not show up- this was the first step I was taking to repaint this building as a more generic factory for other uses. I then closed the game and opened the modified weapons Factory skin in Photoshop and the cannon skin portion is still there! Thinking I must have made a mistake and opened the original file, I re-opened it, and it is definitely still there. I then opened the same file in GIMP and it is exactly as I had saved it- with the skin portions for the cannons being cut out. I suspected that I perhaps made a new layer and that the cutouts were made in this top layer, leaving the original layer, which PS is seeing, but that does not appear to be the case as there is only 1 layer. It looks like the easiest way for me to produce some repainted skins will be to just do it all in GIMP and save them as .dds, even though I am much more familiar with the PS tools and effects.

[WPandP]

I have seen the same kind of thing - when you "clear" an area, it really just changes the alpha channel without changing the pixels in the base image. GIMP is showing you how things look according to the alpha channel - i.e. the pixels are clear - while PS is showing you how things look in the base image - i.e. the pixels have various colors. Both are true.

I know what it is like to give up one image editor in order to learn another; it irritates you for a while. But rest assured that GIMP is fully capable of doing any edits you need to do, and I think that once you get used to it, you won't miss PS (too much).

[Stoker]

Well, after a fairly long (a year?) hiatus, I have gotten the RT3 bug again, and have some time to produce something useful for the community. I have several 80% complete maps and a nearly completed add-on for 1.06 that fixes the non-use issues with the new cargoes and ties up many of the loose ends left by 1.06, without being a complete redux of the game like Trainmaster. This add-on isn't meant to "compete" with Trainmaster, I view that as something geared towards the RT3 modder community and hardcore RT3 gamers, and what I am working on is meant to be as simple and small (around 50 megs compared to the nearly 1,000 meg zipped size of TM) as possible in regards to installation and playing, meant for the casual RT3 player. The add-on will enable more cargoes to be available from the start date (Yes- they had Steel, Furniture, and Cheese in 1829 ) to allow for more complex early railroad scenarios to be created without changing the functionality of most scenarios. In other words it will be backwards compatible with previous 1.06 and earlier scenarios and can be used without having separate installs of RT3. There will be a variety of new industries, and scenarios made using these new items would of course need to be played using the add-on. The biggest change is requiring the use of fuel for most heavy industries(using completely new industries- leaving the originals intact so earlier scenarios will still function), hence I have given the name King Coal to this add-on. I will be posting updates and asking for advice and ideas in this thread, and of course, please feel free to ask questions, give any comments (good or bad) and give suggestions about the direction of the project.

Keep an ear to the rail, King Coal is just around the bend!

[Stoker]

Here's a sample of the new industries that help fill in the non-used cargoes from 1.06 and also some new industries that make sense in early time period scenarios. All of these buildings can be built beginning in 1829 except the Advanced Smelter, which can be built starting in 1856. Everything is still being tested to refine in/out/profitability ratios, but these seem to work well . I am currently using existing building models for all of these, I will repaint some existing ones to differentiate them and hopefully find a few new ones as well.The Company Housing is the same as a regular house, but can be built by thee player. This allows having a buildable house, but unlike when checking "house" in the overall industries list you don't have ALL of the houses (20? 24?) crowding the build list in the game, and only allows a certain level of house(small) to be built instead of all of them

[Stoker]

I have been experiencing a very odd RT3 malfunction. The Hotel is turned off in the build menu on all maps, even when I try opening the Editor and enabling/disabling Hotel in the Industries list. The really odd part is that the same thing is happening in all 3 of my RT3 installations, which are completely separate. Is there some sort of residual memory cache that is screwing this up?

[Stoker]

This problem only seems to affect my 3 installs of RT3 with the 1.06.exe .In a clean 1.05 install I have everything works perfect. It is very strange. I can start a map-(any map) from the main screen- and all buildings that are supposed to be buildable (including Restaurant and Tavern) in that scenario are there EXCEPT for Hotel. I can Shift+E to open the editor and the Hotel will then show on the build menu, but will disappear as soon as I go back to regular play mode. I have tried changing build hotels/taverns/rests in the conditions menu- changing back- saving- reopening- etc etc all to no avail. I have been working on some maps for "regular" 1.06 in a clean install, and havn't tampered with the Hotel in any Mod install .But, after I noticed this problem this morning, I tried my 2 Mod 1.06 installs- and they both behave exactly the same. I suspect it has something to do with the enable/disable Industries Overall function of the game as it does some really weird stuff when your working on scenarios, but why it would affect 3 separate installs makes me think that the game must have some settings cache that it saves- and gets recalled when any version is running. Looks like I might be doing some clean installs today.

Update: Looks like the effect was being caused by only 2 or 3 saves of a certain map. After one of the maps with whatever it is thats corrupted is opened- it and all games after that would not show Hotel in the build menu . I trashed the saves and everything seems ok now, and not much lost.

[Stoker]

Here's a sneak peak of an upcoming scenario titled Mile High and Rising. It's made for 1.06 and uses all of the cargoes for the period 1865-1900 which the scenario takes place in.