First attempt at transit modding: Success!

[FlyHigh]

It took me a while but I've finally got around to properly figure out how transit textures work and how to modify them.

The process is quite forwards and I must thank jplumbley for his tutorial from back in 2008.

Of course I've changed the workflow a bit since some techniques are a bit outdated (details at the end of the post).



0. My starting point was Mateen's EuroTexture for avenues (thank you!) distributed with the NAM34.

I've took the time to go through the .dat packages and to understand the naming of the IIDs. A detailed explanation can be read here.

1. Extracted all the files and separated them by tile. It is a hard task but it allows for organisation of thought and is a way to clarify what textures belong to each tile.



2. Thanks to Null 45 and his plug-in for photoshop the use of FiSHMan can be avoided and files can be read directly.

3. I've created the alpha files and exported all the single textures and alphas separately. These will usually be 4 per tile plus 2 alphas. For wide radius curves the mechanism is different requiring more textures per tile (quite ingenious the way these are implemented, by the way).

4. Used SC4 Tool to generate the zoomed textures and properly package the tile.

5. Replaced the textures in the EuroTexture pack (after a proper backup, of course!), reIndexed and ran the game!


Result:

See that green hue that looks like faulty rendering?







that was me. 

This was just a proof of concept on how easy would it be to re-skin transit textures.
One can better appreciate the work of the NAM team when one realises how many individual textures are included in the mod (this package alone has 52 textures. Only one of many)!

So, thank you guys for your hard work! 

============

NOTES:

I've actually wrote an 'action scrip' for photoshop as to generate the alpha channel from a ready made texture. It made the monotonous task a lot easier. It still needs to be polished since it requires manual selection at certain steps but I'll gladly release it of there is an interest for it.

Also, for the sake of simplicity I've used SC4Tool to generate the smaller zoom levels. It is probably do-able inside photoshop altogether but I was concerned for compression issues since I'm not sure about the algorithm sc4tool and photoshop uses. I will be testing this in the future.
If my believe proves right and smaller zoom levels can also be generated inside photoshop, then SC4Tool can also be avoided reducing the hassle of using yet another software program.

[eggman121]

Great first attempts at modding FlyHigh

Small steps can go a long way to learning the techniques used for NAM modding and it was acutally T21s that got me into NAM modding in the first place.

If you are familiar with Ilives reader you may know transit modding can be completely overhauled.

Personally I use Paint.net and GIMP for most of my work since I don't have a copy of PS.

I am keen to see where you go with this making new textures can be time consuming and can be hard to get right.

I am always pleased to see people take on new endeavors.

-eggman121

[mgb204]

If you are looking to override an entire network, you'll soon find the number of textures gets out of hand. What you need for big texture jobs like this, is the maximum amount of automation. That way, you can spend your time just making the textures themselves. GoFSH (available on the STEX), is the perfect tool for such works. Armed with just one base texture and a special "Definition Alpha", it will automatically create the MipMaps, a complete set of wealth textures and then even package it all into DATs. You will need to create a simple script and organise the textures, but there is simply no quicker way than GoFSH to create textures.

Full details on these processes are documented here.

[vortext]

Nice work FlyHigh! 

Incidentally making a network texture override, which is basically what you've done here albeit for one tile, was my very first step into modding SC4 as well. I distinctly remember how excited I was when it finally worked, let alone when I realized all the possibilities it opened up. And well, here we're 6 years later and I'm still tinkering. So be forewarned the rabbit hole that is modding SC4 can be pretty deep!

As you noticed the tutorial is a bit outdated, however, there're numerous tool available nowadays to speed up workflow. Personally I still use Null45's BatchPNGtoFSH to get textures in game, and use PS, in addition to FilterForge, to make textures. Also, if you want to create textures for use in the Lot Editor please request a personal IID range over here.

Hopefully with proof of concept established and armed with modern tools you'll feel confident to tackle larger projects as it's always nice to see members pick up modding. 

[null45]

Also, for the sake of simplicity I've used SC4Tool to generate the smaller zoom levels. It is probably do-able inside photoshop altogether but I was concerned for compression issues since I'm not sure about the algorithm sc4tool and photoshop uses.

Are you referring to the DXT compression algorithm?

The Photoshop FSH plug-in uses Squish for DXT compression when the 'FshWrite Compression' option is checked, if it is not checked it uses the same DXT compression as SC4Tool.
Images saved with the 'FshWrite Compression' option normally have less texture degradation after compression, but it darkens some Maxis textures.