Regarding your feature request, that functionality would need to be part of the AdvTrains Livery Tools modpack since this livery pack mod only contains livery data. That being said, it is an idea that I have previously considered for the livery tools modpack but I have not yet implemented it due to some technical considerations. Until such functionality is implemented, here are a couple of workarounds:
For a "database" of custom liveries within a game instance, I build a rail yard where I keep wagons with my custom liveries applied. Then when I want to apply one of the liveries from a wagon stored in the rail yard to another wagon, I use the livery tool's ability to save a livery design (from a wagon in the rail yard) and apply the saved livery design to another wagon. Thus, the wagons in the rail yard becomes a visual "database" for my liveries in that game.
For a database of custom liveries that can be shared between game instances, I create a "lightweight" livery pack. This workaround does require some experience with modding but is not too complex. For an example, see Classic Coaches Nationality Livery Pack which can be used as a template for creating such mods. With this approach, the custom liveries appear as named liveries in the Predefined Liveries tab of the livery tool when the "lightweight" livery pack mod is enabled.
Thank you, Xenon! I very much appreciate your review and the feedback.
With respect to changing the cursor in the 3D view of the wagon, that certainly would be a good improvement. Unfortunately, I did not find a way to accomplish that given the limitations of formspecs. In the meantime, I will continue to look for other ways to make it obvious that the viewing angle of the 3D model can be manipulated interactively in both the normal and expanded view. I had previously experimented with setting the tool tip, which worked, but it seemed a bit clunky and sometimes obscured part of the model while dragging so I removed it. Perhaps I'll revisit that approach to see if I can find some reasonably short text or set of symbols for the tool tip that would be sufficient.
Your interpretation of predefined liveries versus livery templates is exactly correct. Using the edit button on the predefined liveries tab allows you to view the livery template name and the associated values that were used to create the selected predefined livery. This allows you to not only see how the predefined livery is defined but you can then also use it as a starting point for creating a different livery.
Thank you, Sylvester! I appeciate your in-depth review and the feedback. I am indeed still working on the developer documentation and will also review the button workflows you mentioned.
Thanks, Blockhead. I appreciate the in-depth reviews that you typically write and this one is no exception.
Your comment about niche scenarios raises a valid point to keep in mind. I do want to underscore your last statement though that you can use Classic Coaches without AdvTrains Livery Tools. Doing that or limiting livery customization to at most one color override per livery will mean that its performance will be no worse than other mods that support the bike painter tool. In fact, it's not possible to distinguish a wagon that was customized by the bike painter from one that had the equivalent customization applied with the Livery Designer Tool. (Unless the color is pure black, #000000 since, as noted in the README, the bike painter can't apply that color to Custom Coaches while the Livery Designer Tool can.) Internally, both tools update the wagon data identically when only the first overlay is modified. In short, color overrides that are set to "None" do not increase computational load.
On a side note, AdvTrains Livery Tools currently limits the number of overlays to 6 per livery template. I added that limit specifically because of this potential performance concern and want to do more testing before changing it. So far, I have tested a single player game hosted on a computer from circa 2010 (2.8 GHz CPU, 6 GB RAM) with 108 highly customized wagons (6 color overrides for each) in very close proximity (that is, in a train yard) and did not observe a serious performance issue. It took less than 2 seconds to render all 108 wagons when moving into their vicinity. The wagons then performed similarly to other wagons once rendered. Of course, smaller or more wrinkled potatoes may have more noticeable performance issues.
I'm sorry that you are having that issue. It sounds like it could be an installation problem. Try un-installing and then re-installing the modpack. If that doesn't work, could you please describe the directory (AKA folder) structure of the installed modpack and verify that the various "texture" directories (folders) are not empty?
If you want to verify that your installation is complete, here are the "texture" directories you should find and the number of PNG files in each, assuming you have installed the latest version (1.91) from ContentDB:
Thanks!
Regarding your feature request, that functionality would need to be part of the AdvTrains Livery Tools modpack since this livery pack mod only contains livery data. That being said, it is an idea that I have previously considered for the livery tools modpack but I have not yet implemented it due to some technical considerations. Until such functionality is implemented, here are a couple of workarounds:
Thank you, Xenon! I very much appreciate your review and the feedback.
With respect to changing the cursor in the 3D view of the wagon, that certainly would be a good improvement. Unfortunately, I did not find a way to accomplish that given the limitations of formspecs. In the meantime, I will continue to look for other ways to make it obvious that the viewing angle of the 3D model can be manipulated interactively in both the normal and expanded view. I had previously experimented with setting the tool tip, which worked, but it seemed a bit clunky and sometimes obscured part of the model while dragging so I removed it. Perhaps I'll revisit that approach to see if I can find some reasonably short text or set of symbols for the tool tip that would be sufficient.
Your interpretation of predefined liveries versus livery templates is exactly correct. Using the edit button on the predefined liveries tab allows you to view the livery template name and the associated values that were used to create the selected predefined livery. This allows you to not only see how the predefined livery is defined but you can then also use it as a starting point for creating a different livery.
Thank you, Sylvester! I appeciate your in-depth review and the feedback. I am indeed still working on the developer documentation and will also review the button workflows you mentioned.
Thanks, Blockhead. I appreciate the in-depth reviews that you typically write and this one is no exception.
Your comment about niche scenarios raises a valid point to keep in mind. I do want to underscore your last statement though that you can use Classic Coaches without AdvTrains Livery Tools. Doing that or limiting livery customization to at most one color override per livery will mean that its performance will be no worse than other mods that support the bike painter tool. In fact, it's not possible to distinguish a wagon that was customized by the bike painter from one that had the equivalent customization applied with the Livery Designer Tool. (Unless the color is pure black, #000000 since, as noted in the README, the bike painter can't apply that color to Custom Coaches while the Livery Designer Tool can.) Internally, both tools update the wagon data identically when only the first overlay is modified. In short, color overrides that are set to "None" do not increase computational load.
On a side note, AdvTrains Livery Tools currently limits the number of overlays to 6 per livery template. I added that limit specifically because of this potential performance concern and want to do more testing before changing it. So far, I have tested a single player game hosted on a computer from circa 2010 (2.8 GHz CPU, 6 GB RAM) with 108 highly customized wagons (6 color overrides for each) in very close proximity (that is, in a train yard) and did not observe a serious performance issue. It took less than 2 seconds to render all 108 wagons when moving into their vicinity. The wagons then performed similarly to other wagons once rendered. Of course, smaller or more wrinkled potatoes may have more noticeable performance issues.
Wow, that was a very kind of you to write. Thank you, Blockhead!
Hi crazytailsno1,
I'm sorry that you are having that issue. It sounds like it could be an installation problem. Try un-installing and then re-installing the modpack. If that doesn't work, could you please describe the directory (AKA folder) structure of the installed modpack and verify that the various "texture" directories (folders) are not empty?
If you want to verify that your installation is complete, here are the "texture" directories you should find and the number of PNG files in each, assuming you have installed the latest version (1.91) from ContentDB:
Marnack
I'm sorry, lavaholed, but I don't have any at the moment.
Thank you, lavaholed! I will certainly check out your modpack when it's published.