Locomotive Model Viewing, Editing, and Creation

[BrentON1995]

Hi all! I'm fairly new to the Open Rails community, getting into it over the past few months. I've purchased a few items from TrainSimulations and I've been having a lot of fun with the simulator.

TrainSimulations products are great and their models are well detailed and look very good, but there is something I noticed about their EMD standard cab locomotives. The roof line is somewhat off, with a bit too steep of a slope on the engineer and conductor side. This can be seen in the attached screenshots when comparing two SD40 models.

This seems like it could be a relatively easy fix and as something of a tinkerer, I would like to have a crack at it.

So I'm wondering if anyone has some pointers as to the possibility of doing this and what might be required, such as the tools needed etc. A particularly important part of this would be obtaining permission from the creators.

Any information is appreciated. Thanks!

TS_SD40.png SD40.png

[CSRX]

They both look about right from my standpoint as an engineer/conductor.

But the second locomotive, is definitely an older one, so really shouldn't be compared new to old.

[superheatedsteam]

If you are good at matrix math, you could open a decompressed shape file for the model in a text editor, find the specific points of geometry that you want to modify and change the values as you desire. You would probably also have to adjust the UV mapping for the edited areas.

If you are a 3d modeller you probably already know about file format conversions and editing within a 3D modelling package.

The vast majority of creators do not allow such modification as covered in their EULA but it cant hurt to ask.

If you want to have a crack and get an idea of what is involved, download the Blender source files for a SD40-2 and have a tinker.

https://github.com/superheatedsteam/generic_SD40-2

You may find that making your own model is less problematic than modifying someone else's.

Hope this helps.

[BrentON1995]

Thanks. I appreciate the advice. Are there any resources available for applying textures to 3d rolling stock models?

[pwillard]

Are there any resources available for applying textures to 3d rolling stock models?

The skills you need are that you know how to use your "bitmap editing tool of choice" with some proficiency. Photoshop, paint shop pro, gimp, paint.net, affinity, krita, etc

You also need a way to convert ACE files back into editable bitmaps and those tools are in the file library.

[superheatedsteam]

This really helped me understand texturing.

https://www.uktrainsim.com/index.php?form_reader=texturing1

Many more modelling tutorials that cover a multitude of MSTS subjects here.

https://msts.steam4me.net/tutorials/index.html

[slipperman]

Hi superheatedsteam,
Sorry, mate, but neither if those sites is available now!

Putting the above addresses into the Wayback Machine will enable various captures to be seen. I suggest any tutorials of interest are downloaded to your local PC.

Cheers,
Ged

[superheatedsteam]

Don't be sorry Ged, my bad. I copied the links from the Wayback Archive but didn't test them after posting.

Cheers,

Marek.