Ties and Ballast references

[styckx]

I'm going to eventually start play with terrain textures and track at some point in the future and been meaning to get out and get some references to use because everytime I feel like playing I never have references. Finally got down to the tracks and snapped a bunch of reference shots for myself and figured I'd share. Free to use by anyone for whatever.

26 pics total, fresh out of lightroom: http://www.justawful.net/downloads/tracks.zip

Three samples.

[g_nash]

Additional dimensional data to go with the reference materials

http://www.akrailroad.com/

http://www.akrailroad.com/tee-rail-sections-data

http://www.akrailroad.com/tie-plates-ra ... -fasteners

Thank you for the pics

[Toripony]

It is very thoughtful of you to share!

Thank you,
Tori

[CoolShady]

First post! Yay!

I just recently got RW and I'd like to get into some texture editing having some previous experience from a few other games. It seems to be the thing that is neglected the most since everyone else is just focused on trains and routes, it's also the thing that annoys me the most as I'm a bit of a eye candy fiend.

First question, how do I open a TgPcDx file with Photoshop?

[arizonachris]

Hi, CoolShady, welcome!

As far as I know, the only way to open a TG or GEOPcDx file is with RWTools. http://www.rstools.info/rw_tools.html It's donation ware, first 24 uses are free. I just threw $15 into the pot and bought it. I don't do any designing, but it's a very useful tool for just adding rolling stock or locomotives and cloning existing routes. Railworks does have some built in editing ability, but not as good as RWT.

Hang in there, someone else with better experience will be along soon. You can also start your own Topic and ask questions. In the mean time, there's a lot to read here.

[Toripony]

From my files (someone else asked this one time).....

How to get a TgPcDx texture file into your graphics editor.
First, download and install the application DXTBmp. http://www.btinternet.com/~mnwright/programs/dxtbmp.htm
1. Next, I assume you have RWTools installed.  In the RWT Options menu, select Texture Editor Path and put in the path to the DXTBmp application executable that you just installed.
2. Now, RIGHT-click on a TgPcDx file and choose Open With... and choose RWTools from the list (or make the file/app association).  OR you can open RWTools, then File, Open, and hunt down the texture file (I hate drilling down through all of those folders so I use the former method).  Either way, you are now in RWT with the texture file open.
3. From the RWT Graphics menu, select Convert TgPcDx to DDS.  You'll get a msg box; just close it. DO NOT CLOSE RWT... it must remain open for now!!
4. Go back to the Graphics menu and select Edit DDS file.  DXTBmp will open with a view of the texture file in DDS format.
5. From the DXTBmp Prefs menu, select Select Editor and point it to your Photoshop or PSP application exe (by default it will open MSPaint).  BTW, these options only have to be set once.
6. Now, from the DXTBmp Image menu, select Send to Editor.  Photoshop will open with your texture file in BMP format where you can edit at will.  This is where you can paste a brick texture over it if you so desired (and feeling a little funky, lol).
7. When finished, Save the file with the same name overwriting the file in the temp location that DXTBmp created when it sent the file over to PSP.  Close PS or just switch back over to DXTBmp.  (This step might be a little different in PSP than in Photoshop.  When I do this in Photoshop, it automatically opens the temp folder that DXTBmp created containing the temporary BMP version of our file.  If you ever need to go hunt this down, it should be in a temp folder under your C:\User folder\your username\Local.)
8. From the DXTBmp Image menu, select Reload After Edit.
9. From the DXTBmp File menu, select Save (NOT Save As...).  In the File Save Dialog, you'll see it is pointing to a folder called TempDDS containing your texture file in the DDS format.  RWT created this when you sent the file to DXTBmp originally.  Save the file there, overwriting the original.  (leave the Type field as is... it knows what to do) Close DXTBmp.
10. From the RWT Graphics menu, select Convert DDS to TgPcDx.  In the Convert DDS dialog, you'll once again see you're in the TempDDS folder and there's your texture file.  Select it and confirm the alerter that this IS what you want to do. (If you ever have to hunt it down, something probably went wrong.  The TempDDS folder exists only temporarily under the RWTools installation folder; it vaporizes when you close RWT)
11. You are done.  You can now close RWT.  You have walked the TgPcDx file through conversion to a DDS, then conversion to a BMP, done your editing, then walked it through conversion back to DDS and finally back to TgPcDx.
 
Now that you have DXTBmp on your system, you can associate your TgPcDx files with the app; it will open those files directly.  So now by simply double-clicking on any texture file, you can view it instantly in DXTBmp.  But remember, if you want to EDIT it, you'll have to follow the entire RWTools conversion-conversion-conversion-conversion procedure.  You'll also see the Alpha Channel content in the upper right corner of DXTBmp.  I have edited that Alpha Channel using this same procedure; it opens in your graphics editor as a b&w bmp.
 
Toripony