Images2TGA Tutorial.pdf

Tools for Asset Repair by PEV Image by Alberte Zato

Images2TGA Revision 1.1 to suit Images2TGA Version 1.15

30 August 2012

This tutorial was originally written for John King's Trainz

Resources News Letter.

Texture2TGA that just performed the conversion. Now I

supply Images2TGA that has many more features.

Introduction

I don't propose to write about reskinning. Sufficient to say

that many tutorials are available so I will just say that the

Images2TGA tool can assist in this process.

Trainz uses a render engine called Auran Jet to display and

move objects within the simulator. Auran Jet supports a

suite of proprietory file formats that define 3d objects,

surfaces, animations, sounds and so on.

Repairing Downloaded Assets

TS2009, TS2010 and TS12 only support DXT compressed

textures which are made by conversion from image files

when assets are committed into the game by the Content

Manager program. If you wish to download or import an

asset from an earlier version and it has texture files in the

Auran binary *.texture format, you will find that Content

Manager will not import them. To succeed the textures must

be converted to TGAs. I recommend using my

Images2TGA to convert to TGA files and generate the

required *.texture.txt files.

Any 3d object or surface can be modelled as a series of

triangular facets, on to which surface colouring (textures)

are added. All of this information is gathered together in a

"mesh". The mesh contains all of the 3d geometrical data

needed to define the shape of the object as well as the

texture specifications to select surface colouring, and the

texture mapping details to correctly place the texture images

on to the various portions of the surfaces.

The progressive mesh was the same as the indexed mesh

but with the addition of data that could simplify the mesh for

distant viewing. (lower the Level Of Detail). Auran later

chose to use multiple 'im' meshes instead of a single 'pm' for

their LOD method.

What Can Images2TGA Do?

The Indexed Mesh contains references to 'textures' for

surface colouring. A 'texture' is a special form of image file

with in-built features to achieve LOD and to control

rendering within the game. The latest versions (TS2009

onwards) use DXT compression to reduce texture file size.

DXT compressed images are now directly supported by

most video cards.

1. Display images. The program can open any image type

used in Trainz and display the image and alpha image (if

present) Trainz supports .texture, .TGA, .JPG, and .BMP

image files. All of these can be opened. All images can be

viewed full size. Transparent sections can be viewed

against a selectable coloured background.

2. Convert to other formats. Once opened an image can

be saved back to .TGA, .JPG or .BMP formats. There is no

need to save to .texture files as these are created when

assets are committed into the game. When texture images

are saved to TGA format the appropriate *.texture.txt file is

generated automatically.

Reskinning

Many users of Trainz wish to make their own versions of

rolling stock or scenery based on existing assets in the

game. This can be done by recolouring the existing assets;

a process called 'reskinning'

3. Add or remove Alpha channels.

To reskin an asset the textures need to be edited. The

Auran texture format cannot be opened with normal imaging

programs like Photo Shop, Paint Shop Pro, or the Gimp.

Hence I decided to provide an intermediate conversion to a

format that could be readily edited. I chose the TGA format

because it supports an in-built Alpha channel for

transparency. Initially I provided a program called

4. Open the image or alpha image in you favourite

image editor.

5 Merge an external image as an alpha channel.

Using Images2TGA

in Windows explorer and point it to this program before this

will work.

Installation

The name of the Last File opened is also displayed. Click on

that to re-open the file.

If you don't have this program, please download its installer

program (PEVImages2TGA_setup.exe) from my PEVSoft

Download page.

The Exit option closes the program.

Once the file is opened its image is displayed along with any

alpha channel.

http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/~villaump/pevsoft.htm

Run the installer and the program will be loaded on to the

Program Files area of your C: drive, along with a desktop

icon and an entry in the PEVSoft folder of your All Programs

menu.

Setup

Before attempting any conversions you should connect

Images2TGA to your favourite image editor (Photo Shop,

Paint Shop Pro, Gimp or what ever.)

To set up editing, open the Images2TGA program and click

on the 'Setup/Editor' in the main menu. You will be

prompted to locate your favourite image editor. An open file

dialog will appear allowing you to browse to your editor

program. Click on it to select and save its location for future

use.

Full sized versions of the images can be viewed by right

clicking on either image and selecting Display Actual Size

from the pop-up menu.

“Setup/OpenWith” creates the 'OpenWith' macros for

Content Manager for TS2009, TS2010 and TS12. This

allows you to run Images2TGA directly from the Content

Manager.

If you have installed Trainz TS2009, TS2010 and/or TS12 in

the default folders then this process is completely automatic.

If the “OpenWith” installer cannot find a Trainz installation it

will present a folder search dialogue window and ask you to

locate the installation. If you don't have that version

installed press the “cancel” button. Otherwise locate the

Trainz application folder.

In Content Manager you will find that you now have an

Open With option in the right click popup menu. Using this

option Images2TGA will automatically search the opened

asset folder and its sub folders for texture files to convert to

TGAs. All textures in the asset should be converted and

appropriate texture.txt files created.

I recommend, also, that you you make Images2TGA.exe the

program that opens *.texture files when you double click

them in Windows Explorer.

Opening a File.

The program can open Trainz Image files only. (.texture,

.TGA, .BMP or .JPG)

Transparency can be enabled to view masked or blended

alpha images against the window background. To view

transparent, right click on the main image and select Display

Transparent from the pop-up menu.

To Open a File,start the program and click on the File menu.

Click on Open and the open file dialogue box will be

displayed. The file extensions are filtered so only the correct

types are available.

Files can also be opened by double clicking in Windows

Explorer. You must add the .texture file extension to the list

Creating an Alpha Mask

A masked alpha channel can be added or substituted for an

existing alpha image.

The mask is created by right clicking on the main image,

and selecting Create Alpha Mask from pop-up menu.

Note that the transparent portions of the image have a

checker board pattern in the background colour. As below:

The tolerance input window will open and you can adjust the

colour tolerance with the spin-edit box.

The background colour can be changed by right clicking on

the main image and selecting Transparent Background. A

colour selector will appear for you to choose a new colour.

Convert To TGA

The opened Image can be saved as a TGA, BMP or JPG

file. If it has alpha data this will be lost if saved as BMP or

JPG. Hence the program automatically offers to save as

TGA when the image has been loaded from a texture.

The tolerance is the value plus or minus that is selected

from the RGB value (0-255) when you pick a colour (next

step).. So if you enter 5, any value between plus 5 and

minus 5 of the select colour value will be made transparent..

(Black on the alpha image).

To save an image, click on the File menu and then click on

Save As. The Save File dialog will be displayed and you

choose the file type to save, and enter a file name. Then

click the save button to complete the save of the file.

When you have accepted the tolerance value, the colour

picker is enabled. Notice that RGB values appear next to

the cursor and change as you move the cursor over the

main image.

When you save a *.texture to a TGA the program will

automatically make the appropriate *.texture.txt file.

(See first image on the next page)

If you have lots of textures to convert to TGA's use the trawl

facility included in this program..

Click on the colour that you want to be transparent and the

new alpha mask will appear in the Alpha image panel, as

below:

Select Edit and your editor will open with the image in it

ready to edit.

Similarly to edit the alpha image, right click on the alpha

image and so on.

When ever you save the image file in your editor the file will

be updated in the Texture Viewer.

Note: In your image editor, do NOT save as a different file

name, just press the save button.. If you save to a different

file name, the connection to the Images2TGA will be lost,

and it will not reload the saved image.

Also, do not change the size of the image.. It will not merge

with the other channel if you change the size.

Trawling

Images2TGA can be used to trawl (or search) for images to

convert. Before attempting to trawl, the type of images to

convert to TGAs must be set.

Adjust the tolerance and try again if you are not satisfied

with the result.

Note that this process makes a masked alpha channel.

Masked alpha channels have only two values, black and

white or 0 and 255, in the colour data. If there is any pixel

with a value other than 0 or 255 the alpha channel is

considered blended.

For TS2009, you must be very careful to ensure that you

have only black or white in your alpha images. Any

intermediate values will hinder performance and in some

cases will not work in TS2009 native mode.

Editing the Main Image or Alpha Image

The image and alpha channel can both be opened for

editing in an image editor such as Gimp or Paint Shop Pro.

If you have connected Images2TGA to your editor as

explained in the SetUp section above, you can open your

editor from Images2TGA.

From the Options menu select the image type or types that

you would like to convert to TGAs.

To edit the main image, right click on the image to bring up

the pop-up menu.

The Convert Textures option enables conversion of Trainz

Binary textures (.texture files) to TGAs.

The Convert Textures option is set by default when the

program is run for the first time after installation.

Content Manager 2 or 3), as detailed in the SetUp section

above, and as shown in the image of Content Manager

below.

If you click on " Images2TGA.bat " in the Open With menu

of Content Manager 2 or 3 the program will convert

whatever textures or images it finds to TGAs with texture.txt

files.

The Convert JPGs option enables conversion of JPEG

images to TGAs.

The Convert BMPs option enables conversion of BITMAP

images to TGAs

The files processed are listed in the text box below the

alpha image as the conversions progress. The program

keeps a log (named Trawl_Log.txt) of files found and shows

the actions taken on each file. The log is accessed from the

File menu and clicking on View Log. The log file

accumulates data every time trawl is started. The Log

should be deleted after large trawl conversions. A delete

option is included in the File Menu.

If none of the above options is set the progam will display a

message and do no conversions.

Trawling must be launched from the command line

(typically from the batch file in the 'Open With' menu of

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