1925 A1 Berkshire (Gumboots Locomotive Works)

[Blackhawk]

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)

I tried installing the Berkshire and then the skin in 2 copies of RT3 and no luck in the skin coming up in either. As for looking at the pk4 file, etc. I can't help in that area.

[Gumboots]

Ok, I got it working! You can skin third party custom locomotives! I know because I've just done it.

What's more, by doing it manually I was able to get this skin running with full-sized 1024x1024 A skins. IOW, in-game selectable skins are NOT limited to the 512 x 512 A skin that TrainSkin.exe spews out. You can get quality as good as the primary skin if you are prepared to do the work.

Zipped PK4 is attached. As long as you have my A1_Berkshire already installed, this pack will give you a second skin with a green firebox and boiler, like the Division Point model of a Boston & Albany A1b (pix in slideshow at bottom of this page).

Pix of it running in the game follow.

Both_skins_running.jpg

Upgrade_dialogue.jpg

NOTE: Personally I do not consider this skin read for prime time. It was made when I was working on this Berkshire before New Year, to try out the idea of a second skin. All I did today was add some stuff necessary to get it running as a selectable skin. Although it's quite nice I'm not happy about some of the detailing.

It's attached here purely as a proof of concept, so that people can see it is possible to have selectable skins in the game for custom, third party locomotives. If people want to play with it they're quite welcome to, but I'd prefer to do a better version of it before people start talking about the archives.

[Gumboots]

Ok cool. Got the beauty shot problem sorted. It seems as though skins for third party locomotives will only show the beauty shot for the primary skin. If you try to have a different beauty shot for each skin, it throws a tantrum and gives you the mutant gold-plated Kriegslok.

So, it works now, in that at least it shows a nice picture of a Berkshire even if it doesn't have a green boiler. This is pretty good, since I find I hardly ever look at the beauty shots anyway.

I've also whipped up a pretty decent profile image, again of a Berkshire but this time with green boiler.

I've edited the last post to remove the "known issues" since they're now fixed, and ditched the old zipped PK4. New zipped, more-but-not-completely finished PK4 attached here, if anyone wants to try it and give feedback.

ETA: Zipped PK4 deleted. Updated versions of both skins added to later post.

[Gumboots]

Figured out which lights are which in the Berkshire and H10282 and NYC J1 Hudson models (they share the same Light files). There are 8 Light files in total (except that the Hudson is missing 2, since it doesn't have the pair of small running lights up front).

The only difference between the Berkshire and the H10282 and NYC J1 Hudson is that the Berkshire now has the lights inside the firebox moved rearwards to compensate for the new position of the backhead, and the Hudson lacks the running lights. Yes, Berkshire lights have been moved now. Cross one thing off my revamp list.

I've also done the alpha channels to allow for headlights and windows to glow at night, and for the lights inside the firebox to give firebox and backhead dial lighting at night. I found that it wasn't necessary to go further than the E skin with the cabin windows. Headlight and running lights were fine only going as far as D. I only went down to the C skin for the backhead detail as it'll never be seen when zoomed out further.

Since both the primary (black) and green skins use the same alpha channels, doing it for both wasn't any harder than doing it for one. It's just a matter of fixing one, then copy/pasting the entire alpha channel to the second skin's images. I actually just nicked the relevant chunks of alpha channel out of the default H10 images, since for the bits in question the only difference between the Berkshire and H10 is that the Berkshire has the extra cabin side. That just meant copy/pasting the alpha for that into the new location.

I also tweaked the alpha for the narrow windows at the front of the cabin. That only had translucency/night glow for a small square at the top of those windows. I just put a selection around the window gfx, then got a brush with some grey and extended the translucency to the full height of the windows. Easy.

Anyway, that's #2 crossed off the revamp list too.

So, Light files (for either the Default H10 or for the Berkshire or for the NYC J1 Hudson).

Light 1 is the headlight,composed of 2 individual lights: 1 for spherical glow and 1 for the main beam.

Lights 2 and 3 are the small running lights in front of the feedwater heater (These are missing in the NYC J1 Hudson model, but could easily be reinstated).

The last 5 are at the rear, and do cabin dial lighting and firebox effects.

Light 4 is the middle of the three small lights at upper right of the backhead (This is #2 in the NYC J1 Hudson model).

Light 5 is the one above and to the left of Light 4 (This is #3 in the NYC J1 Hudson model).

Light 6 is a larger one, on the centreline and lower, to do the firebox effect (This is #4 in the NYC J1 Hudson model).

Light 7 is the last of the three at upper right, lowest and furthest out (This is #5 in the NYC J1 Hudson model).

Light 8 is the small green light at upper left of the backhead (This is #6 in the NYC J1 Hudson model).

Pix attached. Wont load revamped zips yet as I'm tossing up whether to do a bit more tweaking.

New_lights_front.jpg

New_lights_cabin.jpg

[Gumboots]

Ok, have contemplated further tweaks. Aint happening. Not at the moment. There's other stuff I want to get onto, so for now the Berkshire development is stopping at this point.

Attached are two new zipped PK4's. These have the corrected alpha channels for both skins, and the corrected lights positioning for the primary locomotive files.

If there is enough demand for it, I will look at finishing the green skin up into something a bit slicker. Would also consider other colours, again if there is a demand.

@Hawk: The new PK4 for the main locomotive (ie: the one inside A1_Berkshire.zip here) is ready for the archives, when you have time. I would like it to replace the current zip as it is a better example. IMO it's not worth keeping the old one.

All notes and PSD's still apply, so no need to change any of that. The only changes have been to .DDS alpha channels and the positioning of the firebox lights. That's all contained in the PK4 itself.

[Hawk]

@Hawk: The new PK4 for the main locomotive (ie: the one inside A1_Berkshire.zip here) is ready for the archives, when you have time. I would like it to replace the current zip as it is a better example. IMO it's not worth keeping the old one.

Got it updated.

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

[Tomix]

Quick question, with the "skins" are the wheels supposed to change when you select them? With my Thomas skins created by TrainSkin.exe, I have to save the game, and reload it to have the wheels change texture. This only works on the default locos I've tried, because when I tried to make a skin for the Black 5, it didn't show up in the other color when I reloaded the game.

[Gumboots]

I haven't tried changing the wheels yet. I know some people had trouble getting custom wheel colours to show up, but one bloke said he got it to work. Unfortunately he was a bit light on detail, and hasn't been back since. He mentions it here.

I assume he means putting all the image files loose in that folder as well as in the PK4, but frankly I can't see why that would make any difference. They should load the same either way. Mind you, I haven't tested it yet.

I got the extra custom skin to work for my Berkshire (obviously) but am not quite sure how I did it. Probably best if you take a look inside the PK4 for it and do a bit of comparing.

[Lirio]

That's a good looking locomotive Gumboots, great job! I notice you're using the profile icon I made for it, and it pleases me that I was able to contribute in some small way. ^_^

[Gumboots]

Glad you like it. It even has four back wheels now.