Moving Locomotive Rear Lights

[meeshu]

For a model of a SD70ACe locomotive, the rear lights are not quite in the correct position. The lights are positioned a bit too high. The lights should be located on the protrusion a bit further down.

I have tried just moving (actually copying) the rear lights (texture) down and applying the change to the associated *ace image file. But the moved (copied) lights texture appears beneath the rear protrusion and not on top of it!

So, how to get the rear lights texture to appear on top of the rear protrusion?

rear_lights; lights down here.png
rear_protrusion; lights on top.png

[superheatedsteam]

This might help. https://www.trainsim.com/forums/foru...rts-of-texture

[meeshu]

Thanks, but I was quite aware of my earlier thread regarding modifying shapes. That thread doesn't answer my question. In any case I'm not modifying shape(s) here.

For this situation here, all I want to know is how to apply part of texture to a raised portion of the shape.

[superheatedsteam]

Sorry I miss-understood your post. I thought the 'protrusion' the arrow is pointing to in the lower of the 2 images was the geometry for the light unit.

[yellowdog]

You have to find where the raised portion is mapped on the texture(s). You've discovered that it isn't mapped to the section where you moved the light.

[geepster775]

Looks like this is a shape file mismatch involving Danny Becks old freeware stuff. 4304 is not a Mullan number.

I am also unaware of which shape file features this individually mapped part outlined in yellow. This is not a feature of the original Danny Beck MRL pack or Mullan pack. If you want help you need to be a little more detailed in what you are attempting. P.S. answer your PMs

[CSRX]

The area the headlights are on, should be flat. There is no major "bump" where the headlights sit on.

https://imgur.com/a/NnO1yXt#eH7UeQp

[oper190]

As far as lights are concerned, it is possible that a Rail Road might have spec'd lights to be in different locations, or later changed them.

Case in point, LIRR M1/M3s originally only had the two lower headlights:
m3.jpg
Later the upper headlights were added, some with one, others with two:
m3a.jpg
Therefore no two maybe exactly alike.

[meeshu]

The locomotive in question is the MRL SD70ACe unit number 4304, which does exist.

The "protrusion" at the rear of the locomotive is slightly exaggerated, but this is supposed to be the rear lights fixture. It does protrude very slightly. It is not perfectly flat.

No PM's that I can see at the moment?

Just to clarify what I'm wanting to do as it seems there may be some confusion.

The existing rear lights as positioned on the corresponding *.ace texture file, places the rear lights just a bit above the protrusion (the protrusion is where the lights should be located) on the body of the locomotive instead.

I'm wanting to place the rear lights part of the *.ace texture file on the protrusion.

I tried moving the rear lights part of the *.ace texture file down to the position of the rear lights protrusion, but the resulting rear lights appeared beneath the protrusion and not on the end of the protrusion as wanted.

So it seems that maybe some editing of the shape file (adjusting texture placement coordinates) is required to specify that the rear lights part of the *ace texture file should be positioned slightly outwards to correspond with the end of the protrusion(?). Yes?

I'm not yet concerned with any other issues with the locomotive model. I'm focussing on the rear lights positioning for now.

[yellowdog]

Please see my response above. The area where you want the lights to appear isn't mapped "logically" to the area where you think it should be. This is very common. So now you have to find where it IS mapped. This probably has nothing to do with shape editing and everything to do with you figuring out where, exactly, the texture is mapped.

[geepster775]

Yes, 4304 does exist, in the old Danny Beck pack, but your shape file is not original to that pack. So where did it come from? Where did the mismatch between shape and texture originate?

[CSRX]

That "protruding" part, is NOT the headlight location. That part has something totally different going on for it, that is why not all SD70M-2 or SD70ACe's have that item. The headlights are either above that part, or below that part, like I showed with the NBSR 6409 (same specs as the MRL 4304 minus the M-2 difference).

[PerryPlatypus]

The low res, somewhat cartoonish textures in the original post make me think this may be from the super old freeware MRL units in the file library here, mrlsd70a.zip. Hard to tell with such a tiny screenshot though, and no other context by op.

[lineman]

The texture seems to be from the Dwight Miller SD70Ace's from early MSTS.

[dlfrenchmd]

I am probably missing something, but my first thought was using photoshop or equivalent modifying software to copy/paste a rectangle of the lights where you show you want to move them, and cover the original with a corresponding rectangle copied from the black. Since it is an .ace file, you will have to convert it to TARGA or something and back when finished unless your software works with .ace files.
Dan