Marias Pass unavailible

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

Just out of curiosity, how hard is it to reskin Marias Pass Rolling stock?
If they started issuing it without the BNSF trademarks, can someone even reskin this stuff?

Hard, I believe, because of the mashed up texture mapping.
There are no MP based repaints? A sign of the difficulty perhaps?

So, until DTG updates the MP rolling stock with the latest realistic braking, you are probably better off repainting a Sherman Hill ES44 from UP into BNSF, assuming the UP ES44 isn't mashed up.

[TheRailfan98]

So, until DTG updates the MP rolling stock with the latest realistic braking, you are probably better off repainting a Sherman Hill ES44 from UP into BNSF, assuming the UP ES44 isn't mashed up.

All DTG's ES44's are mapped relatively the same given a few minor details needing different textures (i.e. the difference in light position between BNSF and NS, vents, etc.), so they're all mashed up like most of DTG's engines

Brandon

[buzz456]

Is mashed up a technical term with which I am unfamiliar?

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

Is mashed up a technical term with which I am unfamiliar?

Probably not, Buzz. https://www.collinsdictionary.com/spellcheck/american?q=mashed%20up

English not being my first language I meant to say: a sheet cut to pieces in such a way that a person cannot easily put it back together.

[MadMike1024]

Is mashed up a technical term with which I am unfamiliar?

Probably not, Buzz. https://www.collinsdictionary.com/spellcheck/american?q=mashed%20up

English not being my first language I meant to say: a sheet cut to pieces in such a way that a person cannot easily put it back together.

Actually the right word for it is not used in pleasant company. I've been trying to reskin the DTG D&RGW SD9 for the Siskyou line, but - I can't add decals, the SP lights that PapaXpress made won't add on, etc. The templates are odd sizes and so misaligned that it makes striping a model near impossible. It can be done, but I'm near bald already.

[Ericmopar]

That is sad, but it's a credit to the reskinners in the Railworks community, that DTG encodes them that way.

If you can figure out what they did to "scramble" them up...

I was reading about this somewhere a few months ago. I stumbled across it in another gaming forum. They were quick to say it's to protect copyrights, but it also obviously inhibits custom skins in gaming.
Somewhere in game is the mechanism to put the puzzle together.

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

That is sad, but it's a credit to the reskinners in the Railworks community, that DTG encodes them that way.

If you can figure out what they did to "scramble" them up...

I was reading about this somewhere a few months ago. I stumbled across it in another gaming forum. They were quick to say it's to protect copyrights, but it also obviously inhibits custom skins in gaming.
Somewhere in game is the mechanism to put the puzzle together.

It weren't so bad if there were relatively cheap Marketplace reskins. But many have said to have apparently been delivered to DTG but not yet/never got published?
Have you put a scrambled locomotive on the rails in a free roam? You can see the rendering engine struggle to piece the texture back together. I don't think scrambled textures improve performance, so what weighs heavier for DTG? Performance or copyright? What copyright exactly? Did DNSF/NS/UP/CSX stipulate in their license that their "officially licensed" locomotives are exclusive?

There are still the old Kuju and abandoned early RSC models, those can be repainted relatively easily.
For use in AI services the lack of advanced/broken features of the later incarnations doesn't matter much. Light, exhaust and sound emitters can still be changed to bring them inline with the latest and best.

If you can transplant the cab and repaint the nose you can even drive them using the few available instruments that have been added since to the ES44. Don't know if this is possible, though.

[BNSFdude]

It's the artist. Reppo has been making a majority of the models DTG publishes under their own name as a contractor, and he opts to paint in soft ware and easy unwrap the models leaving an absolute mess for anyone wanting to skin.

[awaken1977]

It's the artist. Reppo has been making a majority of the models DTG publishes under their own name as a contractor, and he opts to paint in soft ware and easy unwrap the models leaving an absolute mess for anyone wanting to skin.

it could be a side effect of 'baking' textures in 3Ds Max or similar program

[ex-railwayman]

It's the artist. Reppo has been making a majority of the models DTG publishes under their own name as a contractor, and he opts to paint in soft ware and easy unwrap the models leaving an absolute mess for anyone wanting to skin.

Yes, but, before we all lay the blame at his door, maybe he was instructed to do it like that by DTG, many of these Payware locomotives and wagons are now sold in .ap packs to stop folks from reskinning and modifying them, all the items I've purchased from the Marketplace, British, American and German, for example, are all in .ap bundles.

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.

[BNSFdude]

.ap's save on load times by not digging through archives and instead finding one file.
They're easily opened by WinRar.

[ex-railwayman]

I use 7zip and I've opened every one of my .ap packs to extract all the files so that I can add appropriate repaints and modifications, enginesounds, Krellnut's fabulous bogie sounds and anything else I want to do, I then archive the .ap pack onto a portable HDD. I edit EVERY route to my personal preference adding trees and other vegetation, road vehicles, houses and industrial buildings, etc, to my heart's content. I can now play the game as I want to and not how DTG want me to, that's the difference, and it is all very easy to just copy and paste an .ap pack into my Asset folders if I ever need to check something, or, get the original files back, no need to waste several hours doing a verify cache, or, anything else untoward, it's all very simple, that's what computers are for, to make life easy.

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.

[BNSFdude]

To install mods other than reskins, one doesn't need to unpack an .ap.

[awaken1977]

Those who concern, can sign this petition
I don't believe to all that petition thing, but I signed

"A request to BNSF and DTG regarding the use of BNSF branded products outside the USA"

https://www.change.org/p/roger-nober-st ... de-the-usa

[trev123]

This petition has been around for quite some time and has been abandoned by the instigator of it.