Intro to reskining for Trainz with Fireworks

Authors Note: This post has been sitting in drafts for a while waiting for me to mock up some pictures for it. I'm pretty certain that won't happen for a good while longer, so I've decided to go ahead and post it without the pictures.


Lets start off with a few basics, terminology, etc. These tutorials are geared towards reskining 3D models for N3V (formerly Auran) Trainz Simulator series (TRS), for the most part these tutorials should work for any version of TRS.


Programs:

• Trainz Railroad Simulator - I'm using Trainz Railroad Simulator 2009, any version should work except Trainz Driver.
• Adobe Fireworks - I use CS5, most things haven't changed in Fww since it was owned by Macromedia, earlier versions should still work.
• PEVsoft Mesh Viewer - Great simple program for viewing the 3D files, locating textures, etc. If your doing this for a different game; look around there may be a similar version available for your game.
• Notepad - or similar program
• Irfranview - This program is great you should have it even if your not reskining. It opens almost any image file, has basic editing capabilities, & can convert to just about any image. Irfranview also has audio & video support, but there are better programs (VLC) out there.
• Web Browser - Chrome or Firefox are my recommendations, but you probably already have a favorite, if your reading this.

Terminology & File Types:

• TRS - Trainz Railroad (or Railway) Simulator, usually followed by a number to indicate version; such as: TRS9 or TRS2006.
• Fww - Adobe Fireworks
• .im - current mesh file used by TRS
• .pm - (Progressive Mesh) older mesh file used by TRS, you should convert up to .im using PEV's converter
• .tga - standard image file used for textures in TRS
• .png - Fww's native file format
• KUID - a unique identifier ever asset in TRS gets, no two assets should have the same KUID
• KUID2 - updated version of the KUID, allows for updating & replacing files.

A Fireworks Breakdown:

The best way to describe Fww to someone who knows a bit of the Creative Suite, is that Fww is a cross between Photoshop & Illustrator that has been tuned down a bit. Fww allows you to seamlessly work with both Raster & Vector images in one file, as well as using most Raster tools on your Vectors (and vice-versa).

In a default setup you should have your toolbar on the left, Properties area on the bottom (unlike most Adobe products), Optomize (History is hidden here, and more helpful) on the Right, Layers is below Optomize, then a bunch of collapsed windows my most often used is the Special Characters window.

The Layers Window

Unlike photoshop, anything you put into the file ends up here in it's own layer, instead of having a Layers & a Paths window. 

The Properties Window

Probably the most unique to Fww window. This window changes based on what tool or object you have selected. Down here is the best place to change colors, add effect & adjustments, change overlays, do your pathfinding, etc. There are two layouts you will see most often, the default (selection) setup and the type setup.

Selection Setup

1) Positioning & Size

2) Fill Color. Graidents & textures live in here.

3) Line Color. 

4) Filters & Effects. Top Line is opacity & Overlay types, Second Line is the "Filters" this includes adjustments. Hit the [+] button to bring out the listing. Each filter you add will show up in the box below. 

5) Filter listing. This lists all your filters you used, drag & drop to rearrange, double click to adjust.

Text Setup

1) Postioning & Size (box, not type)

2) Font Face, Size, Color

3) Kerning, Leading, Alignment

4) Indents, Stroke

5) See #4 in Basic.

PEV's Meshviewer

You can get PEV's Meshviewer here:

http://members.optusnet.com.au/~villaump/pevsoft.htm

Right-Clicking on a loaded mesh will bring up a contextual menu. The most important option here for reskining is "View Textures". This will bring up a small window in the Lower Left of the viewer & will probably render your object in wireframe. Scrolling thru the list in the bottom left (yes it's a list) will render your object with only one texture at a time on it & give you the texture's file name so that you can find it for reskining.

Holding the Control key down and pressing an arrow key will move the object around in the view. just pressing the arrow key or clicking & dragging will rotate the object. Shift & and an arrow key will zoom, alternatively you can use your scroll-wheel.

Basic Rules with TRS models.

With the exception of built-in objects, some older stuff and ground textures; an Item must contain a minum of 4 files:

• Config.txt - this file contains the basic information about the object. See the Trainz Dev Wiki for more information on this.
• .im (or .pm) file - this is the physical mesh of the item. View this in Meshviewer.
• .tga (or .bmp, or .jpg) file - this is the textures for the file. Trainz supports 3 file types. Most people use .tga. I prefer to use .bmp or .jpg as Fww cannot write to .tga. However one can convert a .png to a .tga using irfranview.
• .texture.txt file - this file is a "pointer" file and tells the mesh where to look to find it's textures. DO NOT rename this file. If you are using a different texture file name or format, you must change the line inside this file to point to the correct texture. Edit with a Notepad.

Most object have many more than 4 files.

.Texture files

a .texture file (with no .txt at the end) is an encoded version of the .texture.txt AND the corresponding image file. Use PEV's Images2TGA to extract this file then delete it.

Tips for a good forum signature image

A forum signature is a little place at the bottom of each post you can plug a bit of generic advertising for something you support. Usually it's either your own website, blog, threads, etc or something you support (petitions, non-profits, games, companies, etc). These little blurbs of information are usually fairly restrictive in how much space you have. Here are a few simple steps that should help make your signature work better.

I've found that a good average maximum size for a signature is approxametly 800px by 150px; some forums allow larger images some only smaller ones. Make sure you read the forum rules and know what size limitations you have. Most forums also restrict in Byte size as well (generally under 50KB).

800x150 image.

Simple Steps

• Keep your colors simple. For your graphical elements & text pick no more then 4 colors. You can use Images if you desire, but again keep them limited (I would suggest no more then 2). You need to make sure all the colors you are using (including those in the pictures) work well together. There are a number of color picking formulas out there, you don't need to know them, however I would suggest bookmarking Adobe Kuler where you can enter one color, pick your formula and view it's suggested colors. It's generally a good idea to keep away from the straight colors (such as full red or full blue) but to go for tints of them instead. This will help keep your signature softer on the eyes and make people want to look at it more. A brightly colored signature will make people just want to skip over it.
• Keep your text and fonts to a minimum. Use no more then two fonts. Try to keep them a solid color this is easier for people to read. If you must use an image (or gradient, texture, etc) make sure that you have decent contrast between the text and it's background. Keep your body text down, you want to get someone's attention. If they are interested you then provide them with a way to 'read more'. Avoid using Comic Sans & Papyrus, they aren't that pretty of font's and since you are making an image you do not need to stick with web-safe options.
• Limit your effects. Most graphic editing software comes with tones of effects for the most part these detract from the look of your image when used. If you need a drop-shadow, simply duplicate whatever you are making a shadow for, change it's color & opacity) and off set it a bit. Do the same for outlines (especially on text) however instead of offsetting it, enlarge the item a touch, if you use the outline tool make sure you have it set to place the outline outside the object (or text). Gradients are fine to use in moderation, you need to make sure however that the at all places in the gradient there is enough contrast between the object and the background.
• Minimize your Animations. Gif animations are possible however tend not to really be needed. If you must animate, make it small & unobtrusive. Using animations increase file size and loading times and make it hard for people to see your signature
• Transparency. Transparency is great these days, it allows you to make your signature blend in with the forum theme. However this can also be a cursing as well, when designing your signature to have transparency you need to make sure that the majority of the time your signature does not blend into it's background. If your not animating as well use the png transparency, not the gif. The GIF transparency swaps a color for transparency so, you will loose a single color, this can cause issues if you use images & gradients, it will also cause your transparent color to show up in odd places if you resize at all, as the resampling will make new color swatches that are similar but not the same as your transparent color.

Remember: KISS.

Some good resources:

http://kuler.adobe.com

About Greyscaling (best way to check contrast)

www.photobucket.com (good image host)

My Top Android Aps

I currently use an HTC Thunderbolt phone which has Android 2.2 on it (hopefully I'll have Gingerbread soon!). I've compiled a list of various aps I use quite frequently on it, and would suggest anyone else using Android to check them out. I will have screen captures up later.

Commonly Used Aps:
Go Weather
An elegant weather ap, using Wunderground data. it includes live backgrounds as well as a large collection of skins & widgets.

Google Music (beta)
The Google Music system is a Music Handling system that allows you to access your music collection from any computer and up to 8 devices at one time, however the cloud system is still under beta and is not publicly available. You can request to be invited at http://music.google.com
The ap however will still function as a good music player even without the cloud access.

YouTube Remote
This Google ap allows you to control youtube videos playing on your computer from your phone quite simply. After logging into your youtube acc't (usually your google acc't as well) you go to www.youtube.com/leanback launch the ap you relax. You can search; queue up; view suggested, recommended, & subscribed vids and much more.

Firefox Beta
The great web browser Firefox is available on your Android device. There is a non-beta version out however I have not tried it. The current beta supports: Tabbed Browsing, Forward & Back buttons, Sync, the Firefox Download Manager, and a ton of other options.

SVOX Classic TTS
A replacement Text To Speech (TTS) program that has a large collection of different voices that are much better then the default voice used. I prefer using Victoria. Each voice is considered a different paid program so I would definite go thru the samples first & pick the one you like best.

Less Used Aps
BBC News
Quite simply an app that lets you read the latest news from the BBC.

Bank Aps
Most major banks now have aps that allow you to: find the nearest location, check your balance, make transfers, etc. Check to see if you bank has one!

Google Sky Map
A great sky chart ap that uses the GPS to give you a picture of what you are seeing in the night sky. Hold your phone up to the sky and it will tell you what star that bright blue one is.

Vlingo
A voice to text ap that has fairly accurate recognition & is fairly flexible. after activating you can say "Text Jamie, Let meet up at eight" and it composes the text message.