Question on how to repaint trains

[TrainGuy17]

Hello, does anyone here know if it is possible in the OpenRails world to repaint any locomotives or rolling stocks such as passenger train cars or sets, boxcars, and etc, and for locomotives such as CSX, Amtrak, MBTA, and etc? If so, how do I do that?

I am familar with this software called Paint.net in which I use to do repaints sometimes in another train simulation game called Trainz. The way how I am able to approach this is that I first go into the file of the locomotive or whatever I want to repaint, then once I go into it, there's a section that says mesh_body or mesh_art or something to that nature and I believe under it, it shows all the parts of the locomotive or rolling stocks and so once I click on one, it opens up the software and I am able to repaint. So in the OpenRails world, how do I get to the point of being able to repaint? Do I go to the file of either or the locomotive or rolling stock and is there a section or something called mesh and once I click on it I am then able to see all the parts under the category of the mesh or something?

Any advice would be appreciated.

[rdayt]

The textures are in the equipment's folder.
Chances are that they will be in an .ace format. Newer releases, in the last few years, might use .dds textures which can be edited by Paint.net without conversion.
In order to edit the textures they will have to be converted to format that Paint.net recognizes. An editor for the .ace format doesn't exist.
Shapeviewer and TGATool2A will both convert these to .bmp or .tga files that you can edit.
When done editing you can save them as .dds without having to convert back to an .ace. Paint.net is the only graphics program that will do this natively.

Randy

[TrainGuy17]

Ah, okay I see. Alright thank you so much!

[peterman]

When done editing you can save them as .dds without having to convert back to an .ace. Paint.net is the only graphics program that will do this natively.

Randy

Howdy,

It should be mentioned that you would also need to go into the shape file and edit the text to change xxx.ace to xxx.dds otherwise you'll be back here asking "What did I do wrong".

Peter

[TrainGuy17]

Howdy,

It should be mentioned that you would also need to go into the shape file and edit the text to change xxx.ace to xxx.dds otherwise you'll be back here asking "What did I do wrong".

Peter

Hello, Ah Okay I see, noted. So that's only when I finished editing thats when I need to go into the shape file of what I edited or into the shape file of the original one, like before I edited it?

[crstagg]

Hello, Ah Okay I see, noted. So that's only when I finished editing thats when I need to go into the shape file of what I edited or into the shape file of the original one, like before I edited it?

Think of the shape or S file as the skeleton and the ace or dds files as the skin. You paint the skin not the skeleton. So when you change the skin you may need to update the reference to the skin in the skeleton.

[rdayt]

Howdy,

It should be mentioned that you would also need to go into the shape file and edit the text to change xxx.ace to xxx.dds otherwise you'll be back here asking "What did I do wrong".

Peter

This is not true.
I've converted hundreds of .ace textures to .dds.
I've never adjusted the shape file because of it.
The way it works is, if there is a .dds and .ace texture with the same name TSRE will show the .ace and OR and Shapeviewer will show the .dds.
It does not matter whether the shape file calls for a .ace or a .dds. As long as the file name is correct the extension doesn't matter.
I delete the .ace after creating the .dds just to prevent the wrong textures showing in TSRE.
I'll open a shape in Shapeviewer and export the texture to either a .bmp or .tga, depending on if the texture has a transparency or not.
I'll open and edit the texture using Paint.net and save as a .dds in the textures folder.
Delete the .ace.
Done.

Randy

OR and TSRE will both handle a mixture of .ace and .dds textures if there is more than one. As will Shapeviewer.

[R. Steele]

T1.5.1-976-g502cbbef0 Merge pull request #947 from SteelFill/ace_fallback_fix
Fix .ace Textures Not Being Used as Fallback for Missing .dds
6be97760 Fix .ace textures not being used as a fallback for missing .dds

Phillip [ pschlik ] did some recent work on the problem of missing .dds versus ace files....appears the problem was actually fixed years? ago and then almost immediately reversed or negated by something else. Because of his recent work above, I don't think it is an issue anymore.

Perhaps he will notice this thread and set correct what I've got wrong about the dds vs ace problem in OR.

[TrainGuy17]

Think of the shape or S file as the skeleton and the ace or dds files as the skin. You paint the skin not the skeleton. So when you change the skin you may need to update the reference to the skin in the skeleton.

Ohh, okay I see. And uhh how do I update the reference exactly?

[TrainGuy17]

This is not true.
I've converted hundreds of .ace textures to .dds.
I've never adjusted the shape file because of it.
The way it works is, if there is a .dds and .ace texture with the same name TSRE will show the .ace and OR and Shapeviewer will show the .dds.
It does not matter whether the shape file calls for a .ace or a .dds. As long as the file name is correct the extension doesn't matter.
I delete the .ace after creating the .dds just to prevent the wrong textures showing in TSRE.
I'll open a shape in Shapeviewer and export the texture to either a .bmp or .tga, depending on if the texture has a transparency or not.
I'll open and edit the texture using Paint.net and save as a .dds in the textures folder.
Delete the .ace.
Done.

Randy

OR and TSRE will both handle a mixture of .ace and .dds textures if there is more than one. As will Shapeviewer.

Yeah, that makes sense

[eric]

This is not true.
I've converted hundreds of .ace textures to .dds.
I've never adjusted the shape file because of it.
<snip>
OR and TSRE will both handle a mixture of .ace and .dds textures if there is more than one. As will Shapeviewer.

By the specifications, it's true that the shape should refer to the texture needed.

There's a workaround that allows you to get away with being sloppy and lazy not following the file specification.

At some point, dds will get replaced by something else, and your hundreds of files will break because you took a shortcut.

I'd recommend doing it right the first time, and updating the shapefile to the expected texture name and suffix.

[crstagg]

Ohh, okay I see. And uhh how do I update the reference exactly?

Shape files are compressed text files. Uncompress, edit, recompress.

Since you don't know the basics, I suggest you copy the files to another location do your editing and repainting and test before you screwup.

[TrainGuy17]

Shape files are compressed text files. Uncompress, edit, recompress.

Since you don't know the basics, I suggest you copy the files to another location do your editing and repainting and test before you screwup.

Oh, okay I see. Alright awesome will do and thanks so much! This is my first time doing repaints so I'm just a beginner lol