Railworks America

Hey everyone.

I'm trying to create a reskin for the IHH Challenger, and after I save the .dds file for the skin, I try to import the .dds file into RSBinTool. Simple right?

Wrong.

I get an error that says this: "This file does not appear to be the right height."

I don't understand what I'm doing wrong. I have looked all over the internet, forums, you name it, and there is not a SINGLE topic related to this.
any help would be great.

Thanks,
Noel.

Do you have the right format for saving? It should look like DXT3 ARGB...look on the skin in RSBinTool (bottom left) what it's supposed to be and then save it how the original file is.

That probably is your problem but if that doesn't fix it holler back. I have done this every way wrong that's possible so I consider myself somewhat of an expert.

AHA! That worked! Thanks for the help, both of you.

Now I can finally finish my creation.

Not sure what ya'll know, but here's my issues. I've edited my file and saved it as a DDS file, but it then asks for the settings, and I'm not sure which ones that I have to use for it to be the appropriate file that RSBinTool will accept. Any ideas?? Thanks!

This one is easy. Look over at RSBintool and see what it says the file format is. I assume you are talking about saving it from DXTBmp.

buzz456 wrote:This one is easy. Look over at RSBintool and see what it says the file format is. I assume you are talking about saving it from DXTBmp.

The original file was a TgPcDx file, and converted it to DDS with the RSBinTool then I am trying to convert it back, but I don't know how to get it into the 32bit ARGB uncompressed. My question is on the Paint.Net settings, I'm not sure which settings will make the dds equal to that so I can reconvert it back to the TgPcDx file.

My process: TgPcDx to DDS through RSBinTool->Edit in Paint.Net->Attempt to save as DDS with the settings that I am confused about->Get rejected in the conversion from DDS to TgPcDx in the Bin Tool again. So yeah, that's where I'm stuck. If I can figure that out I should be golden.

How are you converting the image back to DDS in Paint.net? Does it use its own plugin or does it work with the Nvidia DDS utility?

I use DXTBmp as a converter. I save the .bmp file from Paint.net then open it with DXTBmp. In there I can add the alpha layer to my liking and then save it as a .dds. There is where you get to choose what form of compression you want. If you take the .dds that you made from the RSBinTool and run it through the DXTBmp utility on the way to Paint.net you will have it opened as a .bmp there.

Your sequence will be: Open your repaint texture with RSBinTool, export as .dds. Open that .dds with DXTBmp. After initial setup you click down at the bottom and it will send the file to Paint.Net. You also have a choice of saving the alpha channel so when you go back you can use that same alpha. You do whatever you want at PAINT.net then save as a named .bmp. Open that saved file (I always name it something that makes it easy for me to find) with DXTBmp, bring your saved alpha (or make a new one) back and then you save it as a .dds. This is where you get to decide compression etc. Then you should be able to import the .dds back with RSBinTool with the changes you made and all you have to do is say save and it will put it back into the folder you got it from.

It seems like a lot of clicking at first but with a little practice this method works well. I have a work folder on my desktop that I just call buzz where I save the files going both ways so I don't end up with all kinds of stuff in odd places. The computer will be asking if you want to replace existing files after you go through the sequence for the first time so you are sure you are changing the right file. This all works exactly the same way with GIMP as far as the sequence goes FYI.

Ok, so I get all of this done, and I go to import the DDS back into the Bin Tool and it says that the DDS File was succesfully imported. But I go to hit the save button and nothing happens. And when I close out it asks me to save and I try to save over the original file and I get an error saying that the file is read only. Any idea why or how to fix it?

If you have RWTools there is a tab that says make all files read write. Also click on file properties to do a individual change to make it read write. Either of these will allow you to save back to the game.

buzz456 wrote:If you have RWTools there is a tab that says make all files read write. Also click on file properties to do a individual change to make it read write. Either of these will allow you to save back to the game.

Sweet! I didn't see the tab in RS Bin Tool, but I went under the file properties and fixed it. Hopefully I will get this to look good in my game!