TS2016 article on Engine Driver

[buzz456]

People keep saying things like this and I still think it's mostly the designers being lazy in their original construction and mapping. Why would someone try to make it more difficult to re-paint? After all if anyone out there is a big fan of some particular railroad but there is no livery for that railroad so the hobbyist doesn't buy that particular offering. Along comes one of us re-painters and makes a livery for x-railroad that the hobbyist likes well then his gets on steam and buys that offering. I would think the re-paints would drive additional sales way beyond anything that might be lost not selling the few railroads that they have licenses for.

[DrewG]

Just to prove your point, look at the comments on your CSX u36b thread. People were saying they were going to buy the u36 just for those repaints.

[artimrj]

You know some of you act like DTG is the "Evil Empire". I highly doubt they will make it harder to do anything on purpose. You think they don't realize making repaints gets more sales? That's why they have the Marketplace. WHat a lot of you do not realize is there is no set guidelines or parameters set up for the developers. If the repaint is harder to do for another livery, you can bet it was not harder to do the original. He most likely made his texture sheet to work for that loco's livery. It's just the way things happen. DTG does not say "You have to make your texture files this way... so no one can repaint them." Good grief.

[CPRailfan34]

I was betting that it would be more difficult for repaints not because of the improved graphics but because along with a new graphics engine comes a new form of geometry file with more complex geometry making up the models, but you never know they might end up simplifying the texture maps, who knows. I was just speculating, I have done a repaint and it's not as easy as it looks, but that was just a simple cylindrical hopper. As for engines? I am not sure if I can do that as they are more complex.

[artimrj]

The way I see it is, a texture is a texture what ever it is running in. If you can open it with a graphics program it is all yours.

[buzz456]

Some things are not paint-able because of the use of a mirror image or the increasing use of decals that might not fit where the RR name goes and stuff like that that get used sometimes. Like I said by just trying to take short cuts some stuff is just not friendly to be redone so who knows what the future will hold and it's useless to try to guess unless the folks at DTG decide to tell us. Chances are they haven't even finalized what they are going to do about the actual moving parts of the game yet. I have no clue about how many copies of TS there actually are out there much less how many are actively playing the game.

[artimrj]

There are ways to see who and how many are in game on Steam but I have not explored those functions.

[Overshoe]

Active players Last 30 Days 1,076.5 Average 2,305 Peak

Numbers are higher during sales and at release of new versions. Peak use has been under 4000 since July 2012 which is the oldest date that I can see stats.

http://steamcharts.com/app/24010#All

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

Active players Last 30 Days 1,076.5 Average 2,305 Peak

Numbers are higher during sales and at release of new versions. Peak use has been under 4000 since July 2012 which is the oldest date that I can see stats.

http://steamcharts.com/app/24010#All

So few? I expected an average number of 10x more, like in the 10000's. Legitimate players, that is. There is perhaps the same number with a non-legitimate game.

[CPRailfan34]

The way I see it is, a texture is a texture what ever it is running in. If you can open it with a graphics program it is all yours.

that's a good way to put it, if it can be opened, it can be edited. nice call Bob

[buzz456]

The way I see it is, a texture is a texture what ever it is running in. If you can open it with a graphics program it is all yours.

that's a good way to put it, if it can be opened, it can be edited. nice call Bob

However like on one of these guys for instance on the Empire Builder Pack ll it seems that the designer put a decal on the nose that is always on top so you are unable to put any stripes across the nose and on the f59 or whatever it is the person used the same panels for the right and left side of the locomotive so one side is always going to have the lettering on backwards if there is lettering there on the that panel. This is the kind of stuff us re-painters find annoying, particularly when we have spent several hours before we discover this fault.

[bloodonfire3]

For decals, if you are handy with alpha channels, it shouldn't be a problem. I have spent a small amount of time on my fictional recently alpha-ing out some Amtrak California Decals off of the F59PHi from the Pacific Surfliner pack to repaint my fictional Coast Ranger Service.

[buzz456]

Yeah well if you can make this one disappear I would be most grateful. I have been around this block a bunch of times if you look at my re-paints and I sure can't get this one to go away.

[qrfan3]

I love repainting, especially fallen flags and most of all my favourite fallen flag RR. Most of my repaints are one of as I believe each loco is unique unto itself and in doing so I paint every part of that loco as per real life where possible.
In the past 6 months I have abandoned 3 DTG repaints of different models due to what has been discussed in this thread and have commented on such below.

I highly doubt they will make it harder to do anything on purpose.

Yes, one would think this would be the case, but I have found that repainting now has become much harder and time consuming as texture unwrapping has become near impossible to track down and repaint in some cases.

Some Examples:
Grab irons that are on the front and rear, are now split into millions of faces and spread over the complete texture where once they were a complete unwrap in one place on a texture. Headlight and ditch light surrounds done the same way. Parts of textures reused on the model in areas which is a problem for you if you need to have a different texture there.

He most likely made his texture sheet to work for that loco's livery.

This is true and why shouldn’t the developer / company be allowed to do so. They pay for the licence, they design and texture the model for sale for us to buy. That’s fine for those who want that particular road model, but becomes another issue for us who repaint into different roads, because you will find as I have that the model then becomes unpaintable as there is one texture for all the butt hinges, one to suit all the bolts, the logos are permanent and non-reversible, some parts of the loco maps an already placed texture wrap for that part and so on.
This is a real issue if your loco is multi-striped, has several colours…etc!!

If you can open it with a graphics program it is all yours.

Yes, most if not all textures are easily opened, it’s the application of how that texture is applied by the Geo file that becomes the issue.

Some things are not paint-able.

In all the years I have been repainting ( not as many as Buzz though.... ) I have noticed that it is becoming more and more frequent.

This is the kind of stuff us re-painters find annoying, particularly when we have spent several hours before we discover this fault.

It is very frustrating…..I spent several months doing a repaint on a model only to find the last few details could not be done. Did the model not work…no, it worked just fine. Did it look like the real loco as a finished product that you intended to end up like….NO, and this is the reason why I love repainting.

For decals, if you are handy with alpha channels, it shouldn't be a problem.

Yes, most decals are easy to manipulate but as Buzz stated, when they are part of the mesh face and applied in a certain way you cannot place stripes or logos over the top, therefore making a repaint of the model into the road colour you intended impossible.

To sum it all up, is the future of repaints a dying thing and is purposely being done bit by bit…I dunno and hopefully hope not, all I know is that it is getting harder and harder to repaint models. It would be nice if someone with authority from DTG could comment on some of these questions / queries that we have but I fear the rivet counters, finger pointers and abusers would dump heavily on them and this may be why DTG does not do so in many cases.

Just my worth!!

[buzz456]

Bravo! Well said.