Changing the Mapping on Content Colors

Feedback, questions, updates on current projects, you name it!
Post Reply
Col Hogan
Posts: 246
Joined: Mon Aug 06, 2007 10:15 am
Location: South Carolina, USA
Contact:

Changing the Mapping on Content Colors

Post by Col Hogan »

Hi Guys
I'm not sure if I'm asking this right, BUT, is there a way to make the color of the roof on the boxcars matchup with the coloring of the wooden slats on the siding ??

Here's what I'm thinking - since the color swab is so small, 64x64 or 128x128, could the size of the swab be broken down using the 'mapping' so that parts of the edge of the roof that go along the side of the car could match with the aging of the paint runs of the rust and crud on the siding.
(clear as mud....???????)

Basically, can the roof be made to match the siding of the cars where it has paint runs and corrosion.

Thanks a million.
Ken
"Floundering Around in Mediocrity For No Particular Reason...."
Image
Pencil
Site Admin
Posts: 1287
Joined: Sat Oct 08, 2005 10:28 am
Location: Portland, Oregon

Post by Pencil »

Ken,

Generally, yes it can. Which boxcar are you referring to?

Curtis
Col Hogan
Posts: 246
Joined: Mon Aug 06, 2007 10:15 am
Location: South Carolina, USA
Contact:

Changing the Mapping on Content Colors

Post by Col Hogan »

Well Curtis, not any one particular in mind, however, some have been repainted very nicely and with some TLC and near the top there is some nasty stain and it could only be in one place. And even two places on the other side.

I was wondering how to get the mapping correct on the roof.tga files (64 x 64) or (128 x 128) so that I could match the roof stain with the siding stain.
Would that roof.tga have to be divided into segments with appropriate spacing considering where the stains would be ?
OR -
Have the stains in place first on the roof and plan the stains and runs on the siding, which may be a tad easier. Not sure which, yet.

Am I on the right track ?? :?

Ken 8)
"Floundering Around in Mediocrity For No Particular Reason...."
Image
Pencil
Site Admin
Posts: 1287
Joined: Sat Oct 08, 2005 10:28 am
Location: Portland, Oregon

Post by Pencil »

OK, I think I understand. You are re-mapping an existing boxcar so that you can add more detail to the roof?
You can increase the size of the roof texture and get rid of the tiling - maybe 64x256, or something. Then you could just paint the stains in the appropriate place. Does that make sense?

One thing you might be able to do is to add the roof texture to the boxcar body texture; increasing the dimensions of the body texture to accomodate it. That would reduce the number of textures; which would make TRS run better.

I'm assuming you are modifying a car; if you can point me to the unmodfied car, I might be able to help a little better.

Curtis
Col Hogan
Posts: 246
Joined: Mon Aug 06, 2007 10:15 am
Location: South Carolina, USA
Contact:

Post by Col Hogan »

Thankyou Curtis
It is becoming more clear now. If I make the .tga file larger like you mentioned, I could paint the stain in place. But would the longer size indicate the longer run of the roof ?
(64x = short side (ends of boxcar)
(256x = long side (sides of the boxcar)

I had always been curious about the size of the swab given in the files not knowing why some had to be smaller or larger.
Now, adding roof texture to the boxcar body thereby decreasing number of textures isn't something I'm clear on. I'm at the office and cannot send an example of the boxcar til later 2day.

I suppose I could use one of Rick's examples of your re-skinned 30ng boxcar. Dynamite addition, BTW.

Could you (sort of) explain the relativity of the sizes of the .tga color files ? I really wanted to increase their size but was always a bit leery of doing it. Any help ?

Ken
"Floundering Around in Mediocrity For No Particular Reason...."
Image
Pencil
Site Admin
Posts: 1287
Joined: Sat Oct 08, 2005 10:28 am
Location: Portland, Oregon

Post by Pencil »

Col Hogan wrote: If I make the .tga file larger like you mentioned, I could paint the stain in place. But would the longer size indicate the longer run of the roof ?
(64x = short side (ends of boxcar)
(256x = long side (sides of the boxcar)
Yep, thats right!
Col Hogan wrote: I had always been curious about the size of the swab given in the files not knowing why some had to be smaller or larger.
Trainz automatically scales the textures to fit. If you use a 512x512 texture, it won't be as blurry as an 8x8 texture (to give some extreme examples). You can change the dimensions of the texture, and it will work just fine (as long as you stick to powers of 2; such as 128 / 256 / 512 / etc)

Hope that helps!
Curtis
Col Hogan
Posts: 246
Joined: Mon Aug 06, 2007 10:15 am
Location: South Carolina, USA
Contact:

Post by Col Hogan »

Yes. This helped a huge amount. I'll keep this thread as reference for the next batch of kit-bashing I do. So you're saying that even if the color swab is bigger, going from say 64 x 64 to 512 x 512, that the resolution would be improved also ? I remember about the powers of 2 but could not remember how it was applied. Now I know. Does this also have an effect on the poly count since colors are generally pretty heavy???

Thanks Curtis.
"Floundering Around in Mediocrity For No Particular Reason...."
Image
Pencil
Site Admin
Posts: 1287
Joined: Sat Oct 08, 2005 10:28 am
Location: Portland, Oregon

Post by Pencil »

It doesn't affect polycount, but it does impact the system. You generally want to use the smallest texture you can that still looks good.

The rule of thumb Auran gave us was that each additional texture gave approximately the same impact as adding 200 polygons, but we don't have a similar rule of thumb for texture sizes.
Post Reply