Please, help an old man save his hair!

[MadMike1024]

I have been skinning Richard Cowen's FT/F3/F7/F9 repaint kits, and saw that there is a second headlight available for the F7. Several of the locos I'm modelling had the second light, some didn't. For the life of me, I cannot figure out how to make the second headlight work. The original instructions say to learn how to edit .bin files from the web. There's a wonderful collection of jewelry to individualize the locos, but currently they're worthless to me.

Can anyone point me to someplace that explains how to add stuff to a .bin? I know how to delete unwanted sections, how to edit the file pointers, and how to edit the loco name. Every time I try to add something it crashes spectacularly.

[PapaXpress]

OK, I will take a stab at this. I think you can open the bin files using RWTools, which in turn will make them XML, and somewhere in there you will need either need to add a section or enable it to include the headlight.

I don' have the XPack yet (I am asking Dick if he would be open to a bundle price for remainder that I need... yes I would like the whole collection), however since I want that WP and SP F7 you just finished I maybe pushed to buy it separately. When I get it, I can try to help more with the coding side of things (I am better at coding than with graphics).

Update: I really should have a cup of coffee before posting anything... I completely missed that you were editing the bin files as XML.

Also after massive amounts of searching during lunch, I cannot find one example of where someone used Dick's F7's jewelry. As far as I can tell when they wanted the second light they would skin either Marc's or Cesar's F7.

[Kali]

I can tell you how to add generic items, but unfortunately you really need specifics in this case, and I don't have the models involved.

Usually crashes are caused by you not writing correct XML, often because you have a typo somewhere or you forgot to close a tag. It sounds like you're trying to add child objects; in that case copy an existing child object section ( everything inside a <cEntityContainerBlueprint-sChild> section, including those tags ), change the ID number, change the filename to point to the child - a child is a blueprint, so it's called as an xml file when on the disk it's a .bin file, and don't forget to check the provider section - and then you'll have to change the location matrix to the right place, and I hope that is provided for you somewhere.

You might say "well, I just changed everything I copied and pasted", but really you copied & pasted the syntax & changed the values; hopefully that will be enough to stop any crashes.

If it's not a child object then I have absolutely no idea without owning the kit.

[KCJones]

There is no F7-LowerHeadlight shape file (geopcdx) but there is a F9-LowerHeadlight.geopcdx.

1) Copy the F9 file into the F7 Fittings folder and rename to F7
2) Open this file with RW_Tools and change the two occurances of f9a-01 to f7a-01 and save.
3) There should already be a F7-LowerHeadlight.bin file in the F7 Fittings folder.
4) If you don't fancy editing the shape file you will need to use the f7a-01 and f9a-01 for locos with lower headlights.

I hope this helps.

Dick

[MadMike1024]

Ok, adopted a daughter block that drew the pilot. Pulled an 8-digit number out of my butt, and inserted it in the proper quotes. Changed the daughter name to 'HeadlightLower' and then changed the file name to 'F7-LowerHeadlight.xml'. It works. It worked for the E7 as well. BUT, and there's always a BUT... the lower light ring shows the dreaded 'Missing Texture' message on both. More searching to be done.

[Kali]

Open the geo file of the child in RWTools & check the texture paths, the materials are all near the top ( or you can use the tree view ), It will probably be fairly obvious.

You can wire a child headlight up to the main one ( providing the child one lights up at all, anyway ), but it needs a bit of scripting. Thankfully for single-ended engines it should not need to check which way it's facing.

[PapaXpress]

Mike, I should purchase Kit 06 F3 and Kit 09 EMD E7 for this, correct?

I cannot find any reference to the FT (Kit 04 FT), was this a real engine, or a rare one?

[Kali]

The FT was the original F series type, I think.

[arizonachris]

Isn't there a default RW F7? I know there is a Chief from 3D Trains (I have that one and it's fantastic) Maybe there was another F7 in the pack I bought from Marc without the Warbonnet livery.

Yeah, here, it's the one on the far left: (you may have to zoom in a little)

[Kali]

No, you're right, there's a default F7. With a big chunk of work it could be very good too texture-wise ( although as someone who's never seen a real F7, I have no idea if the model is the right shape ).

[PapaXpress]

Just purchased.

Yea, I have Marc's F7 as well. The problem is that there are many models out there, and skins for each. Since Mike is using Britkits, and has graciously made SP power I will support Mr Cowen (with the hope that he makes more motive power I can use).

But lets face it. For both the F3 and F7 I paid $15.88 USD (£9.50 GBP), which (after a long thought) is a bargain.

[arizonachris]

With a big chunk of work it could be very good too texture-wise

I think Mad Mike said as much, it was very confusing as to how to try and reskin it. Texture map or what not (I'm just a driver, I know zip about any of this editing)

[Kali]

It's a lot better than a great deal of the stock out there to reskin, it's just a bit annoying as the bodysides are split across two textures. That and just making paint templates for it takes forever as there's so many parts. It's all nicely laid out & fully bump-mapped though, one day I'm going to try & see how good I can make it.

[MadMike1024]

It's a lot better than a great deal of the stock out there to reskin, it's just a bit annoying as the bodysides are split across two textures. That and just making paint templates for it takes forever as there's so many parts. It's all nicely laid out & fully bump-mapped though, one day I'm going to try & see how good I can make it.

Marc at 3D Trains has done a repaint template for the stock F7. It doesn't have the bump maps, but he has layered it nicely.

http://www.3dtrains.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=16671 (requires registration to download)

Here's an oddity: The lower headlight works and colors properly on the F3...

[Kali]

Oh, nice, thanks for the link. That's large amounts of the annoying bits out of the way.

You'll have to ask Mr Cowen about the headlight, too specific a problem for me to know what the matter is I'm afraid :(