Flatcar loads

[buzz456]

Yes.

[jalsina]

I just looked at the Victory Works blog and they have interesting pictures of WWII military vehicles over era flatcars, as part of their S160 project, I think. They have an extensive variety of different flatcar loads including a S160 steam loco: http://victoryworksts.blogspot.com
It is probable some WWII models come from other games and are exported to TS.

[Chacal]

As far as I understand, there is no way to access the .GEOPCDX file. You must have access to all of the source files which means that you cannot load DTG's tank (or any other model for that matter) into a modelling program and edit it unless you are the creator/author.

You'd have to create an entirely new model of your own, export it as an .igs, and then export it to the game using the blueprint editor. Once it is exported into .geopcdx, there is no reversing the process.

Actually, it is easy to access and even modify, up to a point, the geopcdx file.
You can open it using RWTools, or by passing it through serz.exe and then opening it in a text editor.
It is a XML file containing text nodes for object attributes and binary data for vertices and faces. You can edit the text nodes, but editing the binary data isn't worth trying (although it would be relatively easy to reverse engineer the whole file back to an editable format by writing a conversion script, if you had a lot of free time).

A geopcdx file always has data about the main object, and sometimes also has children objects. Each child object has a position matrix describing its position, rotation and scale relative to the root object. A good example of this is Britkit's Russel snow plow.

It is easy to edit the matrix and change these attributes, or disable child objects entirely. If the M1 Abrams tank's turret was a child object, changing a single value in its matrix (as described here) would rotate it 180 degrees.

I've looked at the Tank.Geopcdx file uploaded by Jalsina and sadly the whole tank is one single object, there is no child for the turret.
So there is no easy way to rotate the turrets.

[jalsina]

Pity about the turret.
The tutorial you (Chacal) pointed out to get me underway with the Abrams rotation, shows how the matrix values are displayed in the GeoPcDx xlm, so I agree it would have been relatively easy to do that job if the turret had been a child.
Editing a Geo the other way (nodes) would be a tiresome work of trial and error and unfortunately something not legit.

It is also quite possible those military equipment could have come from other games related with tactical combat and were exported to TS (as I mentioned before with the Victory WWII objects).

[Ryan93]

Ah, Thanks for clearing that up Chacal. I was thinking in much simpler terms as far as importing the model back into a 3d program from .geopcdx. My apologies.

Great information!

[Sibell]

To edit or hack a Geo isn't allowed,and there is another problem...with every update the Geo's will be reset.
This happens to me when I edit the Geo from the Racetrack F40 to set new path for the decal folders I create.
I think every update overwrite the ''old'' Geo's and replace them with new ones. Or, and this is also happend to me...the whole ''new'' folder with the engine I create and the edited Geo's will be completely remove.
Bad for me, because I have to make my ACE & Caltrain F40 completely new, but now I will take the Soldier Summit F40 because it will be better to add childs.
If someone have some good pictures of the Abrams, I can try to built it in Blender with the reversed turret

[jalsina]

A modified Geo (if at all possible) from a DTG DLC should be legitimate for re-distribution provided the author (hacker) assures that the DLC is required ( purchased by user) to get the new Geo to work properly.

As of the Abrams there must be many drawings available in Google. However what is important if it would be build, is not making it too detailed (too many polys, or triangles if you wish) or otherwise it will be a fps killer in a long train. Take a look to the simple wheels detail in both the M1 and the M2 from the February reward:

20160321212532_1.jpg

There are other visual errors in that Abrams (and the other vehicles) more important than the rotated turret. You have the 50 cal, 7.62mm and optics ranger deployed, which can´t be possible for transportation. Check also in the Bradley the lights open hatches and the missiles launcher.
This is why I have insisted in my previous posts that those vehicles were modeled for other tactical combat games and reused here.

[buzz456]

I'm sorry that is not accurate. You are not allowed to modify anyone's Geo files except for your own use.. They are that person or company's intellectual property.

[jalsina]

I'm sorry that is not accurate. You are not allowed to modify anyone's Geo files except for your own use.. They are that person or company's intellectual property.

Don´t worry. I am not planning to introduce a revolution on that point. See that I made that assertion in conditional tense. This has been discussed so many times.
However, I still don´t see differences from modifying the physics, sounds system or even the textures. It is something I will never understand. But it is only an opinion.

[buzz456]

The model is the person's intillectual property. What it does, how it behaves is not. It would be like saying I built this model but it can only go ten miles per hour.

[Chacal]

If the model had a turret as a child object, I could write a script that turns the turret around 180 degrees.
I would be free to distribute the script because it would not contain any IP.

[buzz456]

If the model had a turret as a child object, I could write a script that turns the turret around 180 degrees.
I would be free to distribute the script because it would not contain any IP.

.Yes but that's always the big IF. If these people making this stuff would make more child objects a lot of this stuff would be easier to modify to make it more prototypical but for reasons only known to them most of them don't leaving us with the choice between grumbling about it or learning how to model so we can make our own assets leaving someone else to grumble about something we did that they didn't like.

[jalsina]

If the model had a turret as a child object, I could write a script that turns the turret around 180 degrees.
I would be free to distribute the script because it would not contain any IP.

This means that in your opinion, even a child´s rotation wouldn´t be allowed (or right) in other´s GeoPcDx.

[jalsina]

The model is the person's intillectual property. What it does, how it behaves is not. It would be like saying I built this model but it can only go ten miles per hour.

Intellectual? It is about skills for using a modelling program. It has less or at least the same intellectual aspects than setting a physics blueprins, textures painting or engine noises.

What about,
1-I built this model and I set a horn for it. I want it to use a K5HLL. I don´t want anyone to use another horn like an RS3.
2-Or I built that model for scenery (or whatever) that could work as a wagon loading, but I don´t want anyone to place it over a flatcar.
3-I want this loco to use advanced brakes. I don´t wish anyone changing the brakes. I want my model to behave as this. The others are wrong.

I could write a book about different examples because once I made three steam locomotives for MSTS with everything included by myself and I know how I felt towards designing the physics (there wasn´t much similar at that time). I had to record the engine noises (not just the proxys) and it took a hell of time. Believe me, as author the model and the animations or particles were as important as the model, textures, physics and sounds.

[BoostedFridge]

The model is the person's intillectual property. What it does, how it behaves is not. It would be like saying I built this model but it can only go ten miles per hour.

Intellectual? It is about skills for using a modelling program. It has less or at least the same intellectual aspects than setting a physics blueprins, textures painting or engine noises.

Intellectual property is the legal right to ideas, inventions, and creations in the industrial, scientific, literary, and artistic fields.