1925 A1 Berkshire (Gumboots Locomotive Works)

[Gumboots]

New one is loaded. File name is A1_Berkshire_dev_toolkit.7z and it does what it says on the tin. It has the extra PSD's for wheels and rivet examples, and I've highlighted and screenshotted all the .3dp points for loco body, loco truck 2 and tender body.

Loco truck 1 and tender trucks weren't changed by me so I didn't bother doing them. They're only basic boxes anyway so shouldn't really need their own guides.

[Hawk]

Both files are now available.

http://hawkdawg.com/rrt/rrt3/Xtras/NewEngines.htm

[Gumboots]

"Re-skins". It was a bit more than a re-skin, mate. Whatever. As long as people have fun with it that's all that really matters.

[Hawk]

I was a bit unsure about that. I know you did a lot more to it than just re-skining it, but I couldn't decide if it was a new loco or not.

I can move it if you think I should.

[Gumboots]

I'm not that worried about it, but the stats are also different to the preceding versions so it wont be in the same in terms of gameplay. Also the skins for this couldn't be applied to the other versions since so much has been rebuilt. I'm inclined to think it belongs more under new locos, but am not that fussed. I already know where to get the thing and how it works.

[Hawk]

Okee Dokee! I moved it to the New Engines section.

http://hawkdawg.com/rrt/rrt3/Xtras/NewEngines.htm

[Gumboots]

Just had a thought. It may be better to have a bit more explanation in the readme on the downloads page. I split the readme's into two (one for the PSD folder and one for the .3dp folders) but the one shown on the downloads page should probably include an expanation of both. Suggest using the attached file there. No need to change the actual zip.

[Hawk]

I'll get them swapped out.

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Edit 1: Got it swapped on the web page and in the zip.

[Gumboots]

I already have a revamp to-do list for this thing.
I have this problem. I'm always thinking of how things could be better. It's a worry. Don't expect me to do this immediately but.............

Berkshire things to finish:

1/ Move rear lights back to match new position of backhead (should be easy).

2/ Edit skins so they have glow in the dark where it is actually wanted (ditto).

3/ Remove stroke layer style from driver PSD spoke edges to lighten things up a bit.

4/ Extra layer for rear truck bogies (should be easy).

5/ Turn tender "wheels" into real wheels FFS (bugs me, so should do).

Those are the definites.

---------------------------

Possibles ( more work n stuff bleh :P ):

1/ Add cabin side interiors for better looks there (not hard, but tedious).

2/ Could also add extra pipes along boiler, etc (not hard, but tedious).

3/ Perhaps better backhead detail (should be easy).

I was wondering why on earth my Berky had lights hidden deep inside the firebox where nobody would ever see them. Yesterday it clicked. They're the default lights that show through the semi-transparent bits of the backhead. The only reason they're currently buried deep inside the firebox is because some nutter decided to make a Berkshire out of a Mikado, and made the firebox longer without realising all the effects that would have.

WP & P hadn't tried modifying lights files so wasn't sure how they worked. I've taken a quick look at them and think I can figure it out. Will play around with it sometime. Now that I've figured out how to get Photoshop to edit the DDS skins to have partial transparency only where I want it, I'll also look at getting a nice night glow back into the headlight and auxiliary running lights up front, and to the cabin windows.

The extra layer for the rear truck bogies is a minor thing. Most wheels have two layers to give the flanged effect. These ones don't but very easily could (bogies are some of the simplest thigs to code) so I might do it. The tender "wheels" are a bit more work. They're not actually wheels. They're just part of a solid truck graphic and skid along the track. This is really noticeable when the train is running and has been bugging me. I don't like seeing "wheels" skidding along the track so am planning to fix it.

The other stuff may or may not happen, depending on how I feel at any time.

[Gumboots]

Hey someone try something out for me. There's an old thread here about the possibility of skinning third party locos. IOW, having multiple skins selectable in the game, like you can with default locos.

Nobody seems to have actually tried it yet, so I thought I'd give it a shot just to see what happened. I already had a trial version of the Berkshire with a green boiler (mentioned in the old Berkshire thread) so I packed it up and gave it a test run as a second skin.

It doesn't work.

Ok, so I got clever. Just to see if it was the third party engine making it not work, I changed the .dsc file to point to the H10282L body file instead of the Berkshire one. Since this appears to be the only bit that really matters, with the rest of the code mostly just being your custom image and skin names, I figured it might look a bit weird but it should be testable as a working skin for the H10 2-8-2.

That didn't work either.

I've checked the coding of the .dsc and .imb files and as far as I can tell there's nothing wrong with it. All files are present and accounted for, and match the content of working skin PK4's downloaded from this site. Currently, I'm stumped.

Questions: Can someone who has made a working skin before have a look inside my PK4 and see if they can spot anything I've missed?
Also, just for the heck of it, can someone who already has my Berkshire installed try this skin out in their RT3 and see if it works for them? (Just to check it's not a glitch on my box).

Cheers.