BNSF 25th Anniversary locos

[lateagain]

As I own both I see no difference in detail whatsoever. The Scenic Sub Loco's have a Freight Animation that adds a lot of detail that their older models couldn't handle. The Mullans pass Loco seems to have identical detail but is pitched at Open Rails only, thus avoiding the need for a FA?

As I said feel free to do what you like with them but the Scenic Sub runs fine in MSTS too

My bad, I didn't read Geepsters post carefully enough. The PTC antenna (?) was added sometime after 2014 and before 2016 by which time, judging by pictures of 5828 on Railroad Pictures Archive was well and truly due for a respray anyway.

The brakewheel is missing but I had to read the post to spot it LOL! It's rather poorly skinned on the Mullans Pass version sticking out as an orange blob against the weathered side panels.

I only have the much more interesting Santa Fe version of the Seligman Route and that's the MSTS version. The MSTS version doesn't include 44AC units according to the blurb but the Open Rails Version does.

I assume that the PTC is being fitted to the whole fleet?

[lateagain]

Hi Pete,

Thanks for that. It was exactly what I was looking for as a direct comparison.

You made some interesting points.

Obviously 2048 is the way to go for detail and getting that extra detail for the same file size is a "no brainer" Indeed scaling the logo's down to fit on a 1024 skin obviously created quite crude images, although they look better than I could have expected in the Sim(s)

I was interested in the degredation issue. I've encountered this with my earlier attempts with .aces and especially with MSTS's inability to display best quality images.

As my other great interest is photography I "bit the bullet" and subscribed to Adobe Creative Cloud, which is what Photoshop and various other adobe programmes come under now (check out the deals, they're pricey but you get more than just one programme and access to a lot of "free bonus" programmes and utilities too) but I haven't played around with DDS yet, although I did download a converter programme.

PSP has run in parallel with Photoshop for years now and I'm sure they both have pluses and minuses, but you use the tool that you learn to use?

As the saying goes "Minds like Parachutes ....work best when they're open" so your arguments and samples persuade me to look into them more. Trouble is not many people still making new stuff although the standard has improved beyond any reasonable expectation over the last 19 years!

Thanks again. I'll have a play

[ossie]

You're welcome Geoff... and I couldn't recommend dds more to anyone that is still making textures. The only complaint I have about it is that my 1024 ace textures now look pretty scrappy when they're running alongside the 2048 dds ones, so as so often happens, solving one problem creates another.

Thanks for the heads up about Adobe Creative Cloud. I have to admit I haven't kept up to date with the editors so if/when I get back into that side of things in a big way it'll be worth looking into an upgrade!

Edit... it seems that when I managed to get the images directly into the forum I lost the "zoom in" effect, so here's another link to allow that:

https://i.ibb.co/cxstcff/Open-Rails-2020-08-22-07-22-10.png

[lateagain]

I never got into reskins with FSX but I remembered that Martin Wright made a programme available that's just the job for getting .dds into Photoshop. Is that what you've used?

For anyone following this and interested http://www.mwgfx.co.uk/programs/dxtbmp.htm

I think you've highlighted another real problem in "solving one problem creates another" too.

I enjoy photoskining boxcars because few (certainly not me!) have the artistic skill to paint extreme weathering or paint convincingly the sort of random damage done to them by fork lifts or other loading accidents. Although there are a wealth of photographs the older stuff has few high quality colour images and these already require cropping and distorting to make them fit an .ace file. Blowing them up to 1024 is often a stretch and 2048 probably a bridge too far when the original image is not very big to start with. That said the opportunity to edit fine detail in any image is obviously improved.

I think we also have to step back from our efforts occasionally and look at our work in the Sim? For example it's great to have detailed loading signage on a wagon.... BUT you ain't gonna read it when it's hurtling past in the Sim LOL!

[ossie]

Yes Geoff, Martin's program is the one I use.

And yes, the quality and quantity of modern digital photography made my era of choice for reskins a no-brainer but you're absolutely right about the drawbacks of older/smaller photo images for people working with photo/slide scans from earlier eras and in that case larger texture sizes are only going to make a hard job worse.

When I run the game I tend to spend more time trainspotting rather than driving and I can definitely pick the differences in texture sizes as the trains roll by... everything looks sharper with the larger textures but it's definitely horses for courses. People who spend all their time in the cab probably couldn't care less what size textures are flashing by them or whether the wheels are round or Flintstone, but for anyone skilled in painting or those reskinning modern rolling stock, 2048 dds is definitely going to give more bang for your buck.

[flanker]

I used the Mullan Pass model, for these ES44AC's. Looks great, but is 5828 one of the numbers to be used? Sorry if I missed that info somewhere!
Only trouble was converting the ACE files to DDS for the shape to work properly, and not sure if anyone has discovered, but a quick google search brought up this tool, and works just fine for me, when I am only converting one or two at a time.

https://anyconv.com/tga-to-dds-converter/

Hi Shawn, or here. http://www.easy2convert.com/

[geepster775]

Or simply use a DDS plug-in for photoshop, then there is no converting between tga or ace necessary. Open the DDS in photoshop, edit it, and save it.

[lateagain]

Or simply use a DDS plug-in for photoshop, then there is no converting between tga or ace necessary. Open the DDS in photoshop, edit it, and save it.

Just downloaded the dds plugin for Photoshop. There's a YouTube video on how to install it ....which is awful BUT if you freezeframe it you can copy the link from the screenshot. It takes you straight to the download. I tested it for virus and malware and the download includes an html "read me" and the necessary files for both 32bit and 64bit Operating systems. The site that it comes from doesn't have that link (when I looked, it does have other plug-ins for PS) and I believe this is quite old now? Works fine in Photoshop 2020.

If you look at the "BNSF Railway" Facebook page it has everything in it's Photos section you'll need.

[CSRX]

I've done photo skins and paints for years, and only recently started trying out the dds files, as mentioned, for better quality on larger images, and no major hit on the file size, compared to the old tga system.

I don't use photoshop, I use Paint Shop Pro, which from what I can tell, does not have this dds extension, which doesn't bother me much, normally it's just a quick conversion with either the .ace, or the .tga.