DCForum Discussion Forum - Significant progress made, more to be done, help needed

(was graphics glitches in a few areas)Hi, I got a lot accomplished last night!To recap, I installed gp9cab.zip which is sam spade’s GP-9 cabview to trainsets\common.cab\gp9\ and hinoscb2.zip to trainsets\common.cab\gp9v1\. Hinoscb2.zip did not work in trainsets\common.cab\gp9v1\ but worked fine when I copied it into the trainsets\3DT_GP9_demo\cabview\ folder. Gp9cab.zip is a highly accurate cabview based on the original GP-9 operators manual. Hinoscb2.zip is closer to the default GP38 layout with corrected windows and repositioned controls. The left side view of gp9cab.zip is a view from the engineers station looking out the left forward and left side windows. The left side view of hinoscb2.zip is a view looking directly out the left forward window, viewing down the track, as if the engineer had walked across the train to the other side of the cab.First off, I need to apologize to Sam Spade. In an earlier post I stated that the left side view of gp9cab.zip is a view looking across the cab identical to the default GE dash-9 view. In looking closer, the file was clearly renamed for this mod and is a correct GP9 view. (What was throwing me for a loop is there is a table visible on the right side of the left view, which does not appear on the left side of the forward view, so the views don’t “flow” as well as they could) (Although, It’s a lot easier to be a critic than it is to “fix” the problems). The forward view in gp9cab.zip is much more realistic and detailed and I definitely prefer it. I initially thought I preferred the left side view from hinoscb2.zip, but I must admit that the gp9cab.zip view is more true to life and gives a better view of the virtual world passing through the windows . I will probably keep two .cvf files (one for each left side view) so I can have either one.WHAT I DID: First I figured out how to get hinoscb2.zip working from the trainsets\common.cab\gp9v1\ folder. What I did was open the gp9cab.zip’s gp9-ndb.cvf file and look for references to .ace files. Sam changed all the files that were located in the same directory as the .cvf file to reference the local directory. (I.e. from graphic ( ***.ace ) to graphic ( “..\\..\\common.cab\\gp9v1\\***.ace” ). I did not change these lines and it still worked (although it is probably more accurate and doesn’t hurt anything to change them). However, there were a number of .ace files called out in the .cvf that did not exist in the trainsets\common.cab\gp9v1\ folder. For these files, I changed these files from graphic ( ***.ace ) to graphic ( “..\\..\\gp38\\***.ace” ). Once I changed all the references, the file worked from the alias.What is puzzling NOW and bothers me, although it doesn’t matter is why the file worked in the trainsets\3DT_GP9_Demo\cabview folder. This folder initially had one file in it “gp9.cvf” which aliased everything to the “..\\..\\GP38\cabview\***.ace” folder files. But when the file worked in the trainsets/3DT_GP9_Demo/cabview folder, I was aliasing the gp38.cvf file that came with the hinoscb2.zip file and this just referenced the filename that should have been (but was not) in the local folder. The only logical explanation I can come up with at this time is that maybe there is some code that says “if the line is in a .cvf file and the .cvf is in a trainsets\***\cabview\ folder and the .ace file does not exist, use the trainsets\gp38\cabview\ ***.ace file for the image”, but that is just a WAG. In any event, the alias folder now works.Next, I copied over the gp9cab.zip files to a new trainsets\common.cab\gp9v2\ folder. I renamed the gp9-ndb.cvf file to gp9.cvf. By replacing a couple of graphics and cutting and pasting code from the hinoscb2.zip’s gp38.cvf file, I was able to get the front view from the gp9cab.zip file married to the right side view from the Hinoscb2.zip file. I was well pleased and should have called it a night but I pressed on, and . . .WHAT I NEED HELP WITH:These are mostly questions for Sam Spade, but if anyone else knows the answer, please jump in.First off, the gp9cab.zip file’s GP-9InstallMe.txt file mentions the gp9-ndb.cvf and gp9-wdb.cvf files, but the .zip also contains a gp9.cvf and gp9-sp.cvf file. I assume the gp9-sp.cvf is for Southern Pacific, but I am not sure. Could you confirm?Also the GP9-Front-SP.ace has transparency and a greenish hue to it. In viewing it last night (it was about 2:00 A.M.), I was thinking this was a transparent overlay (underlay) to use with the GP9-Front1024.ace file, but I don’t see it called out by the gp9-ndb.cvf file so now I am guessing it is the forward view for the Southern Pacific GP9 cabview. Please confirm.Next, the InstallME.txt says to determine whether your engine uses dynamic brakes or not. How do I determine this? (For the file I am working with, 3Dtrains website says "GP9 demo without dynamic brakes", but if I were using a different .eng file or just in general, how can I tell?)Finally (but this is the hard question), I don’t remember if the gp9-ndb.cvf cabview is missing the dynamic brake handle, or if the handle is still there, but fixed in place and not called out, but the guide slot for the handle is definitely still there. Shouldn’t this be removed if the train does not have dynamic brakes? (I.E., wouldn’t a real train without dynamic brakes not have the guide for the dynamic brake handle?)If it shouldn’t be there, how do I remove it? To your surprise, editing the part out of the image is not the problem. I am very familiar with Gimp and fairly familiar with Photoshop, although I prefer Gimp, of the two.Here is the problem:I can open the GP9-Front1024.ace file using TGATool2 from http://fly.to/mwgfx (thanks again Blake Tyner), but if I try to send the image to Gimp I get a “missing G-something.dll file error). I recently re-installed Gimp and don’t really even know if it will open image manually, but: Any other Gimp users getting a similar error and can clue me in on the fix?Sending the image to Photoshop or Irfanview works fine and editing out the brake lever slot is Photoshop is relatively straightforward, but . . .The original .ace file contains a transparent alpha channel and I can’t seem to get TGATool to export in anything other than I .bmp which doesn’t support layers or transparency. Is there a way (or another program) to get .ace image into .TIFF or .TARGA or .XCF (Gimp) or .PSD (Photoshop) or .PNG or some other format that supports layering or transparency natively.Sure once I get the image into Photoshop, I can redefine the transparent layer and I can save this new layer to an alpha channel and save as a .targa file which TGA tools can read, but this seems like redoing a lot of work that has already been done once and also means that I am changing parts of the image that don’t require modification.I also can send the alpha channel to Photoshop from TGATools, but it gets imported as a separate image with the transparent parts black and the non-shown parts of the image white. There is probably a way to overlay this image, but I don’t know how and it seems like more work than just re-creating the alpha channel as described above, which also seems like too much work?How do you guys (cab designers) do it?Note: I would like to know how to do this even if it is determined that the lever slot should remain in the image as I would like to use it for other projects.Thanks in advance for any assistance!P.S. - Sam Spade, if I get this working (-ndb1.cvf, -ndb2.cvf, -wdb1.cvf, -wdb2.cvf, etc.) do you want me to send the files to you or do you object to my posting them here? (I realize I need to also contact the hinoscb2 author first before posting!

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Ok, I had a RTFM error in the last post! I thought there would be an export to Targa in TGATools, and it was save as. Since no one had replied yet, I am going to edit the original post, but I still have weird (really, really weird) stuff going on so please read the initial message again.Thanks in advance!!

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Ok, couldn't edit the initial message more than an hour later.I finally figured out the image editing stuff, so I'm relatively happy So I basically have Sam Spade or someone really familiar with GP-9 questions and they are as follows:How do I know if an .eng file needs controls for dynamic braking or not?The original GP9cab.zip includes a regular and a -wdb gp9-front1024.ace file, but I cannot find anything different between the two files???Should the -ndb view still include a slot for the Dynamic Brake lever, even though Dynamic Brakes are not required?The left side view from the hinoscb2.zip file matches the texture of the Tedlar(?) paneling in the (non-SP) cab better than the table and chair image in the gp9cab.zip file. However, I prefer the look and feel of the gp9cab view file much better. Also, if you play with hinoscb2, you will see that there is only a wall between the fireman's station and the gauges, and there is a little shelf under the fireman's window. Can anyone verify whether the desk/table on the right side of the gpseriesleft.ace file belongs there. Also could someone blend the left side view so that it flows better into the straight ahead view?? I will try to experiment with this, but it really is over my head, (blending out a 1/2-inch by 1/8-inch panel is one thing but redrawing an image with correct shading is something else!!!)If the files need to be modified and I get them done, do you want me to post them or E-mail them to you, or do you just want to leave them as is?Thanks in advance for the help!!!BTW, here's what I found out about the image editing in case anyone else is having problems or just for general knowledge:TGATools will allow you to view the .ace files. Once you have them open, you want to save them as targa files.Photoshop will allow you to open and edit targa files, however, after I saved them as targa files (24-bit color depth) I found that TGATools couldn't read the alpha channel. I never found out if they worked in MSTS even with this, because I had a typo in my .cvf file.The Gimp will allow you to open and edit targa files, Save as Targa and be sure NOT to use RLE compression, however for some unknown reason, TGATools loads the Targa files upside down and mirror imaged (the text reads right to left).So the trick is to edit your image in the GIMP and the select horizontal flip (from the main tools window) and Image rotate 180 degrees. This messes up your targa image, but TGATools will now open it in the correct orientation when you save it as an ace file. Do this by selecting "Export as Ace (alpha)" from the main file menu.NOTE: the above is what I found on my system, however, I don't know that all systems have these problems.

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LAST EDITED ON May-17-02 AT 06:48 AM (EDT)Another correction!>The original GP9cab.zip includes a regular
>and a -wdb gp9-front1024.ace file,
>but I cannot find anything
>different between the two files??? The original file only has a gp9-front1024.ace file. I created the gp9-front1024-wdb.ace file by copying and renaming the original so it wouldn't be lost when I reworked the image. That's what happens when you work sth like this off and on for a couple of days instead of straight through.Sorry for all the errors!!!P.S. Pretty sad when there are four messages in this post and they are all from the thread originator! OTOH, I guess maybe people are figuring if they wait long enough, I'll figure it out myself and go away (which is possible , but most stuff now I need answers from someone familiar with the GP-9 itself, as I am not.

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