Pacific/Penn 462 not so basic bug fixes

[Gumboots]

This fixes the connecting rod and the main frame side plate being stuffed through the wheels on one side. Also fixes the rear truck gfx stuffed through the wheel on one side. It's still a rough model, just not quite as rough now.

Throw these into PopTopExtraContent or UserExtraContent if you want to try it out.

Edit: Have done a comprehensive update on this bugfix, so the old file has been removed.
New file will be posted soon, after a few more small tweaks.

Update: The new file is up. You can get it from this post.

[Altoona+BeachCreek]

Exciting work being done! Still little time to test and enjoy, but some time soon hopefully. Thanks!

[Tomix]

Hmm, I should really try and get into this Hex editing. Once I get free time during the summer I'll certainly try this stuff out.

[AdmiralHalsey]

Hey Gumboots since the Pacific is obviously modeled on on Pennsylvania RR Pacific shouldn't it be renamed to something like K-4 Pacific?

[Gumboots]

Hmm, I should really try and get into this Hex editing. Once I get free time during the summer I'll certainly try this stuff out.

It's not actually difficult, as long as you understand the basic principles and you have a good editor. This little box of tricks only required making one X value on the second line of the file the same for all the drivetrain files. That's literally a five minute job, and sorted the connecting rod problem, etc.

The main frame side plates were also set at different distances left and right, for some unknown reason. That's what was causing the problem with the rear wheel on one side, so I just evened those up too. Fortunately they happened to be right at the start of the body file. If they hadn't been there I probably wouldn't have bothered fixing them, simply because the Penn 462 body file is such a nasty mess that I haven't thought it worth mapping.

This one could still benefit from some tweaks to wheels sizes and spacings. The flanges for the front coupled wheels and the rear wheels on the front truck overlap each other. The wheels rims for all wheels are above the track too. Those wouldn't be hard to fix, if anyone wants to try it.

IMO, the problem with hex editing is not so much that it's difficult. It's that it's too easy, but very time-consuming if you get into detail. I find myself wanting to fix everything just because I know I can, and if I don't I'll look at the result and think it still needs fixing. This leads to loco rebuilds taking quite a while if you have other things to do as well.

[Gumboots]

Hey Gumboots since the Pacific is obviously modeled on on Pennsylvania RR Pacific shouldn't it be renamed to something like K-4 Pacific?

Probably should, if anyone wants to.

[Tomix]

I'm sure you've said this in other threads, but which hex editor do you use? I tried using Hxd, but I like using the hex editor that came with the TM Development files since it doesn't delete a byte when I replace a value.

[AdmiralHalsey]

Hey Gumboots since the Pacific is obviously modeled on on Pennsylvania RR Pacific shouldn't it be renamed to something like K-4 Pacific?

Probably should, if anyone wants to.

I'd do it myself if I knew how too.

[Gumboots]

I'm using the Standard version of HexEditorNeo. I like it a lot, but it's not a freebie (quite cheap though).

HxD shouldn't delete bytes. I don't remember it doing that. The problem with HxD is it doesn't keep track of where you are in the file. There's no bookmarking system, and IIRC it loses the selection every time you save.

XVI (the one in the TM kit) also has no bookmarking system. This will effectively make significant loco modding off limits. You need to be able to visibly map where you are in all those long columns of meaningless crud. Without that there's too much eye strain and brain strain to make loco modding interesting or enjoyable. XVI is only suitable for editing very short files, IMO.

Tiny Hexer has a basic bookmarking system, but I haven't tried it.

This one seems very good: http://www.hexedit.com/index.html If I was after a freebie, I'd give that a go.

[Blackhawk]

For editing the bca/bty and cargo files I've used the last one Gumboots recommended. HexEdit can over write or insert and it has the ability to bookmark things in a file. I haven't used Tiny Hexer but WP&P used to like that one. And my first attempt was HxD but HexEdit does things better than that.