Adding ground texture's to the CC (Part 2)

In my last post on this I explained how I copied the EUTexturing.bin file the CC was using to my routes provider/product folder so I could easily add new textures to it. Now I will experiment with adding some ground textures to the BIN.

First I don't want to experiment on an active route. If I mess something up by when trying out a new texture on the route canvas, and then remove the texture from the BIN then I will get unpredictable results which may include the dreaded SBHH message. The way around this is simple. As my Dad would do in machining... if you need to do something special, make a tool to do it. In this case my tool will be a clone of the TestTrak route. If I fowl up my XML, I can delete the route, and clone again.

Once again I will alter my TerrainBlueprint section in the RouteProperties.xml so I will have a private copy of the BIN file I can alter and make a copy of the EUTexturing.bin file, renaming it to TestTexturing.bin.

<BlueprintID d:type="cDeltaString">Environment\Terrain\TestTexturing.xml</BlueprintID>

I will use RWTools to edit the BIN. There are a lot of interesting settings in here, and I will post about them later on because I will want to change a few for the CC. For now, I want to go to end of the last texture listed in the file.

</cMixTexDescriptor>
   </MixTex>

To add a texture, you will need a texture. Since the CC already has a dependancy on G-TraX's Portland Terminal (PT), I will select a texture from that route. In the future I plan on creating my own ground textures, and will add them to the BIN in the same way. In the PT BIN file I see a texture named Asphalt000 that is not reprisented in my new BIN:

<cMixTexDescriptor d:id="56736104">
     <BaseTextureName d:type="cDeltaString">G-TraX\PortlandTerminal\Environment\Terrain\Urban\Asphalt000</BaseTextureName>
     <BaseSpringTextureName d:type="cDeltaString"></BaseSpringTextureName>
     <BaseSummerTextureName d:type="cDeltaString"></BaseSummerTextureName>
     <BaseAutumnTextureName d:type="cDeltaString"></BaseAutumnTextureName>
     <BaseWinterTextureName d:type="cDeltaString">G-TraX\PortlandTerminal\Environment\Terrain\Urban\Asphalt000_Wi</BaseWinterTextureName>
     <DisplayName d:type="cDeltaString">Asphalt 00</DisplayName>
     <LocalisedDisplayName>
      <Localisation-cUserLocalisedString>
       <English d:type="cDeltaString">Asphalt 00</English>
       <French d:type="cDeltaString"></French>
       <Italian d:type="cDeltaString"></Italian>
       <German d:type="cDeltaString"></German>
       <Spanish d:type="cDeltaString"></Spanish>
       <Dutch d:type="cDeltaString"></Dutch>
       <Polish d:type="cDeltaString"></Polish>
       <Russian d:type="cDeltaString"></Russian>
       <Other/>
       <Key d:type="cDeltaString"></Key>
      </Localisation-cUserLocalisedString>
     </LocalisedDisplayName>
     <Wang d:type="cDeltaString">eTrue</Wang>
     <FloraIndex d:type="sUInt32">0</FloraIndex>
     <FloraDensity d:type="sFloat32" d:alt_encoding="0000000000000000" d:precision="string">0.0000</FloraDensity>
     <Category d:type="cDeltaString">eConcrete</Category>
    </cMixTexDescriptor>

I will copy (not cut!) and paste the texture from the PT BIN into my BIN between the two lines I mentioned above. Save the BIN, restart RW, clear the cache, load my test route... off we go!

The last step happens in the editor. Since the new ground texture came from G-TraX Portland Terminal, I will need to enable it in the object filter.

Yes, the SOO and Rusty Red you see are not illusions. The QA work is just about done. They will be available by their respective authors at RWA "soon".

Update: Something screwy happened on my test route. When I cloned TestTrak it came up fine, but the ground turned into the black hole of nothingness... I know its not something I did in the route properties, or in my new BIN, as I transferred them file for file over to the original TestTrak and it worked (as you see in the screen shot). I bet there is a bug in the cloning function, which may explain why the clones of Portland Terminal die.

Further Update: The cloned route is now working. Not sure what changed to make it happen, but at least I have a throwaway work bench again.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4