ummm, converting paint, confused

[john]

how do i convert a paint scheme to see if it works?

[scobleizer]

You need to look inside the "Trains" folder. Inside each folder for each locomotive or car there will be two folders:

1) a .BMP file
2) a .TGA file

You need to open these up in a bitmap editor like Adobe's Photoshop (a bitmap editor is not included with Train Simulator).

Change away.

Then save.

Then you need to look inside your "utilities" folder for a utility called "Makeace.exe."

This is a command-line application. That means you need to open it like a DOS app (from the command line).

Here's what I do.

First, I like my command-line apps in the root directory of my "C:" drive, so I copied this .EXE file to my C:\ folder.

Then, I open the command line application. You do that by going to your Start Menu/Applications/Accessories/Command Prompt (might be something different on your OS).

You'll get a Command Line application on your screen. It's a black box. You type in it to make it work. No menus or buttons.

So, type:

C:\

To get it to look at your C: drive.

Then type:

makeace ?

And you'll see what it wants you to do.

I usually copy my .BMP and .TGA files to the C: drive too. So everything is in the same place. If that's how you do it too, then all you'll need to do is type:

makeace filenameofbmp.bmp nameofwhatyouwantittobenamed.ace

And away you go.

You'll now have an ACE file (actually, two, because you need to do this twice: once for the .BMP and again for the .TGA file. You need to copy that back into the "Trains" folder (file names need to be EXACTLY THE SAME or they won't change). Make sure you backup everything before overwriting files, or you'll need to reinstall Train Simulator to get your original skins back.

If you do everything now your engine will have your new skin.

[john]

LAST EDITED ON Jun-02-01 AT 06:24PM (EST)[p]LAST EDITED ON Jun-02-01 AT 06:22*PM (EST)

okay, did that, now say i made a new loco file so i could still have a bnsf geep, now what? i can't select it in the consist editor, or the game, i can't even see thing that says its name (GP38#2)

[Nels_Anderson]

Go download my New Haven GP-38 and install that. That one will work as an additional GP-38 that you can select with the consist editor. Read the readme.txt file for instructions on how it's all done.