SKINNING BUGS

[AZ Rail Rat]

Use this topic to post Train Skinning problems. If you have a Logo or Portrait skinning problem, please start a new topic for them.

Known Operation: When a new skin is created, tga files are packed and the new file goes to \Data\UserExtract\Content folder. We were told that to get rid of a made skin you no longer want, just delete the file from that folder.

Problem: Just deleting a new skin file DOES NOT get rid of everything!!!

During Beta Test, I made a Duke tender with a red AZRR on each side. Now, when I make a new Duke, use the original tender file and a painted loco file, the same tender I made before comes up.

Theory: tgas get placed somewhere else in the game and for some reason get used instead of the file compiled in TrainSkin.

WORK AROUND: Rename the original tender skin and convert. That will bring in the old tender.

TIP: (WIN98 and maybe others except XP) You will soon learn skinning tools use the old DOS 8-character file naming. It is VERY difficult to tell which file to put where as most are the same and show up as ~1, ~2, ~3 & ~4. Loco file for one engine may be ~1 and ~2 for another. So, when naming your painted files, make sure names are no more than 8 characters or prefix like TDuke.... or LDuke... so you can tell where they are.

I keep only working files in the TrainSkins folder. Makes it easier instead of going through the 221 files to find the ones you need. I keep mine far away and made them Read Only. Then, I copy them to a Paint Shed folder to work them, then put them in TrainSkin for processing.

That way WHEN I screw up a paint job and might forget to rename the file, I can have the original one to fall back to.

I am working with the GIMP. I am following exactly the minimal documentation that accompanies CtC. After recolouring or redrawing a logo or loco I run the convert program and it shows up in User Extra Content as it is supposed to. Usually the files are not exactly the same size as the ones that come with the game that I start with.

All set then, I load RT3. Well sometimes it crashes immediately, sometimes it waits till I try to buy the skinned loco. I get the message:
'Open PIMapChain: unable to locate DDS, JPG or TGA file for Shay_Loco.'

Skins I download off the net work fine.

What am I missing?

[PJay]

how exactly do you save your new skin in The Gimp ?

I start with the loco file that belongs to the same type.
Paint it a different colour.
Save as... under a new name.
The GIMP automatically saves it as a TGA.
A window comes up with two choice boxes, both checked by default.

Ah, so now I must check the four possible combinations of checked and unchecked... :?

[EPH]

Without knowing anything about GIMP, I can't advise you. The most common PaintShop error is saving the file as .tga 'compressed' whereas to work correctly it must be saved 'UNcompressed'.

I've been doing a lot of work with F3 diesels, and the nose art is a massive pain in the, um, yeah. Lines that connect on the drawing don't connect on the finished train, and the nose sports a pointy ram that distorts everything you put on it.

Paradoxically, the 'simple' red-black-gold Milwaukee Road skin took me agonizing hours of try-and-try-again, while the complicated Santa Fe Warbonnet worked first time, cigar band and all. The only complication with that one is that, once again, I can't put any lettering on the nose. *sigh*

I haven't noticed any problems with tenders, but I only do finished sets of loco, tender and profile.

[PJay]

I found this description of the "Save As TGA " function in The Gimp:

hen another menu will come up with two radio boxes and two options labeled RLE Compression and Origin at Bottom Left,

The first one (RLE Compression) should certainly be unchecked. I don't know for sure about the second one, but if you set it wrong, the game won't crash but you skin will be upside down :)

[ColdDarkParanoia]

this is just a quick question but how do you switch between different skins whilst ingame? (for loco's)

[EPH]

In the game, selecting different skins works like this:

Go to build a new train (or rubberstamp, or replace) and you'll see some tiny gold arrows to the left of the loco pic. Click on those to scroll up and down through the list of skins for that loco (this actually displays the Profile ).

The arrows will only appear if there is more than one skin for the loco.

[Wolverine@MSU]

And you will only see the different skins if you have modified the "little loco" picture (can't remember what it's called, I think it's "profile"). If you don't, you'll scroll through the skins but they'll all look the same.

[bombardiere]

I have an interesting “Ghost Train” skin bug. All skins (both the ones is covert and those I load from here) “glow” during night. Usually around bogies or hand rails etc. (areas which I don’t usually paint) This could due my computer/display card, but I doubt that. I can live with the “glow”, but I wonder if others have this problem. (haven’t read anything in any forum) Interestingly amount of “glow” seem to differ between conversions.

Another bug I have noted is not really to do with skinning. Sometimes the Wheels get stuck, especially when “gliding” from maintaince shed to water tower. (connected with traffic jam) Interesting here is that when wheels get stuck, the game reverts to skinned set of wheel. In other words, then the game is using modified skinned tga pictures.

To some degree I am happy with the skinning tools, but I sometimes wish that Poptop would give proper tools to really modify the game engines.

[Dalvino]

Hi all,

I am attempting to reskin engines in RT3. I am having mixed results. On one machine, the process appears to complete successfully, but the profile is blank when seen in the list and the engine is a multicolored mess that isn't even close to what I painted. In another situation the PK4 is created successfully, but when running RT3 after, I receive an error - OpenPIMipmapchain unable to locate a valid DDS, JPG or TGA file for <name of new engine>. In each case, I am using GIMP, saving as TGA and deselecting the RLE compression option. When running TrainSkin, the process completes successfully and the PK4 is created, but it is only 600 bytes, which makes me think something is going wrong. Does anyone have ideas on what can correct this?

Thanks,
Dan

[bombardiere]

Possible issues:

#1 The trainskin converter doesn't work with win98. It messes up things
#2 The tga files must be save as uncompressed

Beyound that hard to say. I get that error message only when I am seriously messing with the engines files.

[nedfumpkin]

I get the same errors when attempting to skin. I even upgraded to ME to try to correct the problem but to no avail. Now I beg people to convert my skins for me.

[bombardiere]

Still Ned :( uuuuuuufffffffffffffffffffff

I can only say that it work on XP. Have you 1.05 patch?? I hear somewhere that extra skins may not work with out patch 1.05.

It is weird to discuss the same topics in different forums, but I am lazy and post this here.

If you need help with building skins, I can offer some assistance. If you want, I can convert building dds skins files to tga. The game itself can use tga files instead of dds. If you need help, I assume that you have downloaded my engines. The readme file contains my email address, so please contact me there.

Anyhow, the Atlantis project sound interesting. I haven't played much, because I have been messing with teh system, but it will one that I will defitenately have a go. :lol:

BTW Dan, typical reskin is between 400-700 kbs (if I remember correctly) depending if there is a tender or not.

[Dalvino]

Thanks for the responses. I will try on XP. I think I am using the 1.04 expansion. I will try applying 1.05 and see if that helps.

Thanks again,
Dan

[nedfumpkin]

Bombardiere, I have given up worrying about the skinning utility for now. I will want to do a log and portrait for Atlantis, so I will look into it again when I get to the point.

I should have a playable version by the end of the weekend coming up. Writing events for the scenario will be relatively easy now. I do still have to look into the balance of the industries etc, so I will be trying things out over the next few days.

If you can extract tga files from dds files, then if you could get me an icon for cargo as a tga file I would really appreciate it. I wouldn't mind bing able into include new icons since I am forced to use existing ones. My experiment with making icons didn't work. Any cargo would be okay, I have to make icons for crystals, electrodes (rods), empty cores (same rods different colour) and bio-diesel. Also, if you could get me the skin for the Stadium, then I am sure I could make it look like a temple.

So far the pk4 file for just this scenario will be about 10 meg.

[Dalvino]

I think I finally got things squared away, and I am in business. I was able to successfully generate a new skin. :D TrainSkin does appear to have issues with operating systems other than XP - I tried ME and 2000 with no success. Also there were specific selections in GIMP that needed to be used - when saving, save as TGA (obviously) and there is another dialog that displays - turn off both options (RLE Compression and Origin in lower left). On some of the images I also had to add an Alpha channel (Layer/Transparency/Add Alpha Channel). After updating and saving the TGAs, TrainSkin ran successfully and I was able to use the new skin in the game.

Thanks,
Dan

[fourteen]

Speaking of skinning, been out of it for a while, and just got back into it, and i cant get the loco skins to show u in the pk file. The stock ones, and my old ones that i did before work, however the new ones do not, i beli9ve it has something to do with before i was using photoshop 5 now using photoshop 7, and something to do with the alpa channel(maybe) so the question is how do i save it in photoshop 7 to get it to work right? Thanks in advance.

[bombardiere]

The basic rule is that save as uncompressed.

save as > options > uncompressed

[fourteen]

no options for that under save as, about all i can do is change the type of file to save it as, or as a copy, thats it

[bombardiere]

Ok, I am using Paint sho pro 7, so it might be different in your program.

Anyhow, after eading all these post, I still think it is a compression issue. But how to set it right in paintshop, I don't know.