Railworks America

Could someone please direct me to a tutorial so I can edit the roadname files with Michael Stephan's PRR Passenger Cars? When I paint over the old roadname, it still shows through in black when I type in a new roadname.

Hi,

Sorry for missing this thread until now.

Editing the road names works like repainting any other texture. The only important bit you need to know is that the actual typed text goes into the alpha channel (white text over black background), while the main texture channel will be 100% filled with the desired color of the text.

You can either replace one of my existing number textures, a.tgpcdx etc., or you can create your own. These are case sensitive, so "a.tgpcdx" is a different texture than "A.tgpcdx". When you do your own you must then also add them to the numbers.bin file inside the texture folder.

Hope this makes some sense.

Cheers,
Michael

Michael,

I hate to appear simple-minded, but I cannot seem to grasp the concept of editing alpha channels. You made this statement: "The only important bit you need to know is that the actual typed text goes into the alpha channel (white text over black background), while the main texture channel will be 100% filled with the desired color of the text." When I open your textures, these two channels are totally reversed. The alpha channel shows up as solid white and layer 1 is black with various color text. If I open the files directly into Paintshop Pro, the alpha is transparent with the lettering in the desired color and layer 1 is black with white lettering. After I erase the lettering on the alpha channel, the new lettering I place is "splotchy" with holes where there should be solid color.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to locate a tutorial on Editing Alpha Channels with Paintshop Pro "for Dummies" that makes sense. Most of them start with a TGA file that I cannot get into a TgPcDx format for Railworks. I have used Dxtbmp and RWTools to edit RW files but just don't get it. I really want to create my own personal roadnames for your passenger cars and Dick Cowan's steam locos for a series of steam era scenarios.

Thanks for your patience and your help.
Harry

Harry, I think you would be interested in this plugin for PS:
http://developer.nvidia.com/nvidia-text ... -photoshop

I use it to convert my TGA files (32bit no compression) into DDS files. I then use RW_Tools to convert the DDS into TgPcDx.

Hi,

If you have DXT2BMP and RW_Tools installed you already got all you need to edit a texture and its alpha.

First, follow the standard procedure to convert the TgPcDx to dds with RW_Tools. Then open the exported dds (see RW_Tools's temp folder) in DXT2BMP.

In the case of the name (or any autonumber) textures, first, go to the IMAGE menu and "send to editor" the main image. To make you life easier, you should choose your preferred paint tool first in the PREFS menu of DXT2BMP (it defaults to MSPaint). When your image has loaded in the paint program, flood-fill all of it with the desired color of your name/number font. Use a light grey if you want it to appear white in the sim. Then save the image file (overwrite yes). Return to DXT2BMP and click on "Refresh after Edit" in the IMAGE menu.

Now repeat the same for the alpha channel (ALPHA menu --> "send to editor"). Only this time, flood fill the whole image with 100% black (0,0,0 color) and then type on it in 100% white (255,255,255). Save the file when you're done, return to DXT2BMP and run "refresh alpha" in the ALPHA menu.

Now save the DDS file in DXT2BMP, return to RW_Tools, and convert the whole thing back to its original TgPcDx. If you didn't exit RW_Tools while you were editing the image, it will find the correct files automatically after you click on convert to tgpcdx.

Hope this helps,
cheers,
Michael

Thank you, Michael, your suggestions worked! Thank you also for your patience and understanding. I have been trying to edit alpha channels since the early days of MSTS with no success. Now I have roadnames for the Colton & Northern, MC&SA, and Alabama Midland railroads. In addition, I have some ideas about putting roadnames on the 4-4-0 & 2-8-0 tenders found in this library. I appreciate your contributions to Railworks. Your work is excellent and I wish great success for your company.

Harry

I have a new computer and the process listed above will not work. When I convert the file back to TGPCX, the alpha channel goes to all white and the image is a flood of the lettering color. I am still using Paintshop Pro 7.0 and DXTBmp along with RW Tools. On the other hand, I can edit converted TGPCX files that don't contain alpha channels. I can't see anything in the process that has changed, but it just doesn't work any more. Any ideas?

BTW, I have discovered that you can substitute letters (such as C&P) for the numbers on the cab of the 4-4-0 and 2-8-0 in the RWA library. All you have to do is copy one of the existing number in the engine's texture folder, rename it to number_C.TGPCX, and repaint the image as a "C". Then, when you select the locomotive in the scenario editor, manually change the locomotive number to "C&P". I haven't tried it, but I think the same process will work with the tender.

Now, if I could just produce some letters and symbols...

I suspect it's the auto-refreshing part of dxtbmp not working - can you save the alpha channel as a seperate image and manually open it in psp?

Letters can be done by the text tool if you can find a suitable font ( one of the fun parts of texture work, that ) - symbols are best done using the pen tool, I posted a little howto about that some time ago - although that might have been for Gimp thinking about it.

Yes, I can save the alpha separately. How do I access the auto-refresh setting? Do I need to reinstall DXTBmp?

Ah, I have no idea! I use photoshop, you can just edit alpha channels directly in that ( they're no different to any other channel ).

If I get a moment I'll install it & poke buttons and so on. If you can, try manually loading a saved file into the alpha channel in dxtbmp and saving the whole thing out again, maybe that will work?

I've figured out part of the problem. Paint Shop Pro 7 doesn't save the alpha channel when it saves a DDS file. I also tried saving the file and alpha as a TGA and converting it to DDS, but that also produced a solid tan block. I downloaded the latest DDS utilites, but something still isn't right. Back to the drawing board...

After several hours, I have solved part of my problem. Michael Stephan's passenger roadnames edit perfectly with the above method. I have successfully edited ATSF, Cimarron & Pacific, SP, and Taos & Santa Fe roadnames for his PRR Passenger Pack. They are DXT1 ARGB files with 7 mipmaps. Cecil Kerr's 4-4-0 cab numbers are DXT3 files with 4 mipmaps. For some reason, DXTBmp and Paint Shop Pro will not edit the DXT3 files. Cecil's numbers are 32x64 and Michael's numbers are 64x64. When I try to resize them with DXTBmp and PSP, they save at 64x64 rather than 32x64.

I can create a 32x64 graphic with alpha in PSP, but I don't know how to save it in the DXT1 format. Any help out there? If I can create the new graphics, I can put a C&P roadname on the Cecil Kerr steam locos.

Harry

Pretty sure DXT1 doesn't have alpha - you'd need to save it as DXT3. Which, appears to be a problem...

Michael Stephan's roadnames are DXT1 and they do have alpha channels.

Can you post one of the roadname tgpcdx files? I've only got his Doodlebug, that has the roadname as DXT3.