The AEM7

stormfather · Post by **stormfather** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 7:16 am

The AEM7 was an American electric locomotive assembled by EMD, starting in the late 70s. The primary customer was Amtrak. The AEM7 was used to replace the aging GG1 fleet, as well as the new but unpopular E60. The AEM7s body was assembled by Budd and its electral components were assembled by the Swiss. Or possibly the Swedes.

The AEM7 weights about 100 tons, which is pretty light as far as locomotives are concerned (The GG1, which the AEM7 replaced, weighed in at 240 tons.) The AEM7 produces a whopping 7,000 horsepower, making most other trains look like hondas. In fact, wikipedia claims that the AEM7 has the highest horsepower to tonnage ratio of any train, but take that with a grain of salt because its from wikipedia.

There are about 60 AEM7s in service today, and many other locomotive types, such as the ALP44 and ALP46, are based off the AEM7.

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Im working on an AEM7 for my America map. I'm using the re66 as a base and plan on giving it a comprehensive reskin to make it look as much like an AEM7 as possible without actually modifying the model itself. I've got some pictures posted below, however I'm far from done with it. I'll keep adding and changing the pictures in this first post to keep everything organized, I'll also add the download here once it's all done.

snoopy55 · Post by **snoopy55** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 3:57 pm

how would I go about creating a new train that had the custom skin as a default without modifying the old train? ie. I need a method to create a copy of the standard train that only has this one custom skin.

I can't be totally sure on this, but having played with other items, and seen other items played with, take the existing engines' data, rename it to what you want, and re-skin that.

gforce · Post by **gforce** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 4:15 pm

have a look overhere
http://hookedforums.com/a/viewtopic.php ... highlight=
that's how to do this for a traincar,
for a train there must be followed more or less the same way...
(other files, and other xml)
or look at the wiki where i've got a post about changing industries textures wich does more or less the same,
http://www.hookedgamers.com/wiki/Sid_Me ... _From_Copy
to be sure that your skin is fully displayed and not the user-color, see post in basin...demo post and to show them in the roundhouse there's another post somewhere...
good luck...

(i've done it already once with the crocodile, and yes i've done it in the same way as industries)

stormfather · Post by **stormfather** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 8:14 pm

I've got a skin that works in game when using the standard file names (re66).

I've copied and renamed the .nif, .kfm, dummies, event (new train) and routing files. I've modified and successfully implemented my event and routing icons.

I've renamed the .kfm file and have edited the XML so the game successfully calls up the renamed .kfm to make the train. I've opened the .nif file and changed the references within from the original skins (re66) to the new skins. It seems all I have left to do is to edit the .kfm file and change the reference from bobobo_re66.nif to aem7.nif. On another thread, gczobel mentioned something about using the same number of letters in the file name, so I've tried bobobo_aem7.nif. However, when I open the .kfm file (with nifscope?) I get an error message, and I get another error message when I safe the .kfm file. When I run the game, I get a CTD.

I checked the validity of my .nif file by renaming it bobobo_re66.nif (ie the original) and changing my XML reference back to bobobo_re66.kfm. The game worked, and the train used my new AEM7 skins which were referenced in my modified .nif, meaning that the .nif and the skins were properly implemented.

Which means that I'm messing up the .kfm when I edit it. Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

Also, does anyone know how to change the spot where the logo appears?

snoopy55 · Post by **snoopy55** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 8:37 pm

Not to familiar with those logos, but can you make it bigger and put the AMTRAK at the top edge with the rest clear?

stormfather · Post by **stormfather** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 8:44 pm

snoopy55 wrote:Not to familiar with those logos, but can you make it bigger and put the AMTRAK at the top edge with the rest clear?

I was planning on making two versions of the skin. One would bear both the amtrak color scheme (the red wite and blue in the picture) and the AMTRAK markings on the front and sides. The other one would have the red, white, and blue around the base, but would somehow incorporate the player color as well. However, the logo (red SMR in my pics) is in the way and I think that the logo's placement is determined by the nif file, which I don't know much about. I'll take a look at it later and see if I see any references in there to something along the lines of a logo, and then through trial and error see if I can remove it or not.

Dr Frag · Post by **Dr Frag** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 5:08 pm

1. I made a post about editing .kfm files. NifSkope works fine, it does produce a write error when saving the .kfm but the file works. Open the .kfm with NifSkope, select View-->KFM, expand the tree and modify the NIF filename. Save the file but make sure to use the .kfm extension and NifSkope will write the proper KFM date tree to the file.
2. I have manually modified many vertices (3D data points) using NifSkope and my first foray was to modify the logo (called decal in the .nif) The logo should be located under NiNode(Scene Root) --> NiNode(MD) --> NiNode(MD NonAccum) --> NiNode(ENGINE_layer) --> NiNode(b_body) --> NiTriShape(decal_1). Expand the NiTriShape(decal_1) tree and select the NiTriShapeData element and in the Block Details window expand the Vertices tree. There are eight vertices that correspond to the four corners of the two logo panels. When you select one the corresponding dot in the 3D window will turn yellow. Modify the X, Y, Z coordinates to move it where you want it. When you have finished right click on the Vertices tree and select Mesh-->Update Center/Radius.

Hope that helps,
DF

stormfather · Post by **stormfather** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 8:10 pm

Awesome, thanks for the info Dr. Frag. I'll give it another shot when I get home tonight.

OzoB · Post by **OzoB** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 1:41 pm

You are exactly were i was on the ice trian.It would be kool if you figure this out as i gave up and started with a new model

stormfather · Post by **stormfather** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 2:41 pm

I got it.

I just worked it through bit by bit and it ended up working.

First off, make sure that your .nif correctly references your new skins. To check this, copy the original (TGV) .nif, then change the internal references to your custom skin. Load up the game, and if the TGV uses your skin, then your nif file is corect.

Next, rename your nif file. It may be necessary for this nif file to have the same number of letters as the original (better safe than sorry, right?). Copy the kfm file for the base train (TGV).

Rename the kfm file manually (right click, rename). Once again, it may be necessary for this nif file to have the same number of letters as the original.

Now, right click on your KFM and select edit nif. It'll open up, and you'll get an error message. Disregard the error message, and, under the view menu, select KFM. A window will open up, and in there you'll find a reference to the old (TGV) nif. Change that reference to your new nif. Now press save, and instewad of typing in a file name, click on your kfm in the save window (to overwrite it with the changed nif.)

Finally, open your trains.xml and change the kfm reference to your new kfm.

All these steps may not be necessary, but it's pretty much exactly what I did. I kept running into trouble when I saved the kfm file as a new file, it only worked for me when I saved over the original (copy).

If it won't work for you, I'd be happy to give it a shot and see if I can get it to work.

Lowell · Post by **Lowell** » Wed Apr 11, 2007 10:29 pm

Did you get your Amtrak model finished? I think it looks good from the pics.

EDIT//I noticed that NifScope acts strange when editing the kfm file name on the right side of the browser. I get errors as well...it will still save okay like Dr Frag says.

stormfather · Post by **stormfather** » Sat Apr 14, 2007 3:41 pm

The AEM7 is all done. I ended up making a GG1 and Hudson (by reskinning the p5a and A1) in the same way I made the AEM7, and included some more custom content, including 2 new goods (machinery and iron), complete with reskinned cars (a brown boxcar and a rusty hopper.) I also redid the gold mine's texturemap, turning the gold mine's mountain into a desert mountain to help differentiate it from coal and iron. I've got it packaged up with the America 1.2 map's fpk file.