Railworks America

While working a repaint of Great Northerner's GNRy wood reefer, I was noticing that when the car side is sun lit, it appears differently than the shade side (see below). What's strange is that the ladder and side grab iron colors appear different from sun lit to shade, yet the overall car side is appears consistent. Has anyone else run across this? I was noticing in some other wood reefer repaints, the issue is also there, but not nearly as pronounced as the overall base car color is much lighter. I have tried rotating the car, changing the scenario lighting from afternoon to morning, different routes. Still the same results. It seems there is something with the textures, at least on the ladders, that are affected by the environment. I'm hoping I just missed a texture somewhere. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Sun lit side

Shade side

Just off the top of my head and not knowing which lighting you are using I suspect it has something to do with the alpha layer.

Lighting is standard. I do not have AP lighting installed. As for the alpha, I'm using a 24 bit bmp image set at 97% black, imported into the DDS file using DXTBmp. I fiddled with the main texture for awhile, and came up with a compromise if another solution can't be found. For this paint scheme, it really needs to be a wood reefer and I was hoping to keep it freeware.

On a side note, I was comparing the main texture against the steel reefer version, and other than the size, they look identical. Maybe tomorrow night I'll try using the wood main texture on the steel car and see what happens.

I have two different 40ft wood reefer folders here. One of the shows that weird look and the other one does not. In any event the one also done by Michael from the Cascadian Route looks OK in any lighting. I was poking around in the library and apparently there is a new and a old model. Make sure and check out the new model from Michael by checking out the Carnation offering by QcRail.
The one from Cascadian uses all decals for the markings so it might be easier to work with.

Buzz, which folder is not showing the weird look? Also, thank you for the tip regarding the Cascadian reefer. I was hoping to keep the repaint as a freeware item, but the next best thing would be based on an RWA donation reefer.

Make sure and check out the new model from Michael by checking out the Carnation offering by QcRail.

I checked the Wood reefer within the GreatNorthener GNRy folder and the Carnation or PABST beer reefers do display correctly. For the Carnation reefer, here is the base GeoPcDx file : [<GeometryID d:type="cDeltaString">GreatNortherner\GNRy\RailVehicles\Freight\40ft-Reefer\Default\[00]reefer-main-01</GeometryID>.

Good luck with your reefer

Bernard

I think this is it for this Dubuque reefer. I'll do a little test driving this weekend, and then it will get packaged up for the library. Special thanks to Buzz and QCRail for the assistance with this project. It is much appreciated!