Railworks America

I used to be able to troubleshoot an issue like this, but its been quite a while since I repainted and I've forgotten a lot...
I'm trying to repaint the Searchlight Simulations 100 ton coal hopper into some generic NS schemes. When I place the default car in-game, the textures are applied dull and realistic. However, once I make any changes to the texture, it appears in-game all shiny and unrealistic. I know this issue is usually related to the Alpha channel, but for some reason I'm unable to update the alpha. I'm not sure how changing the texture would affect this in any way. Any help appreciated!
My repaint:



The original textures:

it's an Alpha channel that needs to be darkened to remove the "shinny" effect. I think the main texture is a light blue overlay.

What editor are you using? I use DXTBmp to manually import a alpha when necessary to get rid of the "shine". One of the techniques is to make a template there and then darken it to suit.

buzz456 wrote:What editor are you using? I use DXTBmp to manually import a alpha when necessary to get rid of the "shine". One of the techniques is to make a template there and then darken it to suit.

I use DXTBmp as well. However, lately DXTBmp has been giving me an issue where it won’t export. It will reload the image after editing, and when I hit ‘save’ in DXTBmp, it looks like it’s exporting properly. But then nothing actually changes to the file and it keeps the unchanged version. It happens every now and then when changing the main texture and it happens almost always when I need to change the Alpha.

I hope I'm not making this too simple but you have to tell it to 'save as' and then specify the compression. You said it's been a while.

buzz456 wrote:I hope I'm not making this too simple but you have to tell it to 'save as' and then specify the compression. You said it's been a while.

I wish it was a simple fix like that, but it isn't... That's what I do to export, and it says it's exporting, but then it just doesn't actually save anything. If I 'save as' a new name, it creates a new file with that name, but it holds the original texture. It happens every time I edit any alphas, and every now and then it happens for the main textures too.

Words are sometimes confusing. I don't know what you mean by "exporting". You open the file from the editor with DXTBmp as a bmp then you import the alpha from wherever you have it stored. Then you save as a 'DDS Texture'. It should default to the same name as the bmp and the first time anyway you need to tell it where you want to save it. That one should now have the alpha in it. I use RSBinTool to import and then save the DDS texture to the TgPcDx file.

buzz456 wrote:Words are sometimes confusing. I don't know what you mean by "exporting". You open the file from the editor with DXTBmp as a bmp then you import the alpha from wherever you have it stored. Then you save as a 'DDS Texture'. It should default to the same name as the bmp and the first time anyway you need to tell it where you want to save it. That one should now have the alpha in it. I use RSBinTool to import and then save the DDS texture to the TgPcDx file.

Sorry, I'm really bad at explaining...basically, I understand the typical process. It used to work last time I did it over a year ago.

By 'Exporting' I really just mean saving. DXTBmp just doesn't save some things. It'll 'reload after edit' properly and show the changes I made while in the editor, but once I hit save it does nothing. It says it's saving, but the file it saved is still the original DDS texture that I exported from RSBinTool BEFORE making any edits.
Am I explaining it any better...? I do apologize for making it confusing

It's all right. I have never even tried to use that feature. I'm using Paint.Net mostly and I save it there to a folder I call paint stuff. Then in DXTBmp I go to file and then open. It asks what and where I want to open. That one opens in the main window and then I 'import' the alpha layer and then save it as a DDS.

What you're doing doesn't seem to work here either.

Thanks for the tips. I'll try this out when I get a chance!