Difficulty applying images to Blender model

[Tonya37]

I wasn't quite sure where to post this, but this thread seemed the most apposite to me. Perhaps the moderators could move it for me if it is not.

I have been experiencing difficulty in following the tutorial "Tutorial - Exporting A Crate " in document "BLENDER EXPORTER FOR MSTS AND OPEN RAILS" by Wayne Campbell and Pete Willard". I am using Blender V 5.2.3 LTS and MSTS_ORTS_Exporter_AddOn_v5.3.0.

Specifically

• I have completed steps 1 to 4.
• Then the Materials and MSTS Materials don't appear. I have double clicked on the image icon(?) the red globe on the Material level of the MAIN_2000 item of the MAIN collection, which does make them appear, but is that the correct procedure?
• The next step "We will use the default material (5) that is already applied to the Cube," I don't understand how it is done. I've tried clicking on the "Material Item" (blue bar) but nothing seems to happen. I have also tried ignoring it altogether.
• I followed steps 8, 9, 10 and 11 - I was able to access the texture file and "Accept" it but nothing happens.

II have in fact been able to complete the sequence of steps successfully (in Blender V3.6) but I don't remember how and I am now no longer able to reproduce the procedure.

You will by now have gathered that I am an absolute beginner, so no doubt the problem is that I am doing something wrong - nothing to do with the Exporter.

I would appreciate assistance with this, and also an explanation (if possible) of what each of the steps is doing - much better to know what I'm doing, instead of the "monkey see, monkey do" approach I'm using at the moment.

I have done this in gmax in the past, so I understand in principle what is to be done, but not the specifics.

Regards to all

Tony

[superheatedsteam]

Hi Tony,

I don’t have that tutorial in front of me and I don’t fully comprehend your explanation of your Blender configuration so I am posting a screen capture of how I configure material/texture setup for a .S file export from Blender.

c44aciMaterial.jpg

In the Material Properties tab (1) you will see the name of the material (2) that is applied to the selected object in the 3D viewer. The material can be called anything you like and you can rename an existing material by double clicking the material name or create a new one, or copy an existing one and renaming it. I normally use the name of the texture file as the materail name so I remember what’s what. If you have more than one texture to be applied to your model then you will have to create a new material for each unique texture.

If you have the .S exporter add-on installed in Blender you should see a MSTS Materials section (3) in the Material Properties tab. In the BaseColourPath, click the folder icon to browse to the texture file you have created for your model to tell Blender to use that texture file for the material. Solid Opaque is the default and used if the texture file does not have an alpha channel / transparency. If it does have an alpha channel, you would select either Transparency On/Off if it is one bit alpha and Alpha Blended if using 8 bit alpha.

In the Shader workspace (4), you can see the node structure for that material, from the UV node > texture node > shader node then finally to the Materiel Output node with the noodles controlling the flow. The Update Shader check box in the MSTS Materails section normally configures this for you. When wanting to view the material in the 3D viewer, press the Z key and ensure Material Preview is selected if you want to view the material on the object.

I will often use the Image Editor window to display the material I am using. If I update a texture in GIMP and export it, I will use the Image>Reload Textures (or ALT + R) in the Image or UV Editor to force Blender to reload the newer version of that texture file.

I had a devil of a time getting my head around materials/textures in Blender. The more you hang out there the easier it gets.

Hope this helps, if not then post again, maybe with screen shots as there can be slight differences in the Blender UI between versions..

Cheers,

Marek.

[pwillard]

Firstly, trust Marek; they know what they are talking about....

Secondly, while the documentation that comes with the Exporter is sufficient to show how the Add-on works, it doesn't really focus on teaching the nuances of how Blender works.

That's why I created a living notebook. In other words, it's an unfinished document that explains how to get started creating OpenRails Content with Blender.

You can find it here ( ORTS Content Creator Notebook ): http://railsimstuff.com/modelers-resources.html. It might be helpful.

(Yes, I know my site has an expired HTTPS cert)

If you follow the "How to make a Jersey Barrier" section, I go over applying textures to a model.

[scottb613]

Hi Folks,

Just an observation - I haven't looked into.

IIRC: When creating a new material - simply selecting the texture in the MSTS field after creating a material - used to be enough to setup the material. With the newer versions of Blender - it seems you have to go into the shader panel and link a texture node to the material.

Is this correct - or do I have ot wrong?

Regards,
Scott

[pwillard]

Blender 5 API changes made me disable the "auto update" shader by default because it caused data loss in some situations. (But I think I managed to fix in the most recent releases)

But it's a simple button press in the MSTS materials section now as well. (Though remember to double-check the UV MAP assignment for sanity)

image.png

[scottb613]

Blender 5 API changes made me disable the "auto update" shader by default because it caused data loss in some situations. (But I think I managed to fix in the most recent releases)

But it's a simple button press in the MSTS materials section now as well. (Though remember to double-check the UV MAP assignment for sanity)

Hi Pete,

Thanks for the explanation.


Regards,
Scott

[Tonya37]

Thank you everyone for your most helpful replies. It is going to take some time to read and assimilate them, but I just wanted to let everyone know that I appreciate your assistance. Some initial comments:

@Marek: I tried navigating through Blender following your guide, and it has cleared up a lot of mysteries. Next step will be to actually add a simple texture, I'm a lot more confident now that I follow what the buttons do.

@Pete: I was (and am) using the ORTS Content Creator Notebook as my prime guide to entering Blender. It is super clear and super helpful and certainly the best by far of the fifty or so tutorials (including many video tutorials that in general are quite hard to follow, not nearly as good as well illustrated text tutorials) that I've consulted so far. I was aware of the Jersey Barrier tutorial but it seemed at the time that the crate tutorial might be simpler to follow. So now I'll try following the Jersey Barrier tutorial, at the same time bearing in mind Marek's comments. BTW should I keep the "auto-update" shader on or off? It was one of the things that was puzzling me, that I thought perhaps I was doing wrong. (Now using Blender 5.3 with Exporter v 5.3.0 - was using Blender 5.2.3 with Exporter 5.3.0 - perhaps that was a mistake.)

@Scott: I believe you are right. While thrashing around to get things to work I found that the texture appeared in Blender 3.6 by simply selecting it in the Exporter - but not in Blender 5.2.3 - this was one of the things that I didn't understand.

Now to try again, I'll let you know how I progress (or not!)

Regards

Tony

[pwillard]

You can keep things auto-updating. But it's an area I have been fussing with lately, and you may need to manually select textures in the shader nodes and the MSTS Materials section at times.

[Tonya37]

Thanks Pete. BTW I was using a superseded version of ORTS Content Creator Notebook - I've now downloaded the current version.

Regards

Tony

[daria22]

Glad it's sorted, Tony. The out-of-date Content Creator Notebook catches a lot of people, since old copies still turn up in searches.

[Tonya37]

Screenshot 2026-11-13 141035.png
Got it! (More or less).

[pwillard]

Once you get comfortable with this workflow... everything starts getting easier.

[Tonya37]

Pete

Especially with your tutorials to hand!

Regards

Tony