Naming Station Nameboards - what's required?

[Oldpufferspotter]

Hi everyone, I'm getting deeper into this route building business!
I have downloaded the LSWR/SR concrete station platform kit and found to my delight that it includes seperate station nameboards. These are blank, and if I am getting it right(?) I can create a texture with a name and insert it into the textures file/folder. I have Paintshop Pro7 and RS_Tools_TMB. So far so good, but I don't appear to have the KS_bin_editor. I've searched my computer for it without result and I cannot find it on the Rail Sim downloads site, nor can I find it in the uktrainsim downloads library. Could any of you folks tell me where I could get it from please?
Also one other query: in the RS Asset Authoring Guidelines, section 5.4 (page19) it appears that one texture containing all the alphabet can be used for all the different nameboards in a route, quote 'by mapping portions of a letter/font texture onto quads'. Er - what is a 'quad'. Is it one individual letter place, or is it a space for a complete word?
Hoping someone can put me right once again.
regards from an Old Chap.

[AndiS]

Re. editor/converter: there are three options, I guess. You most likely refer to Ben's, for which I cannot find the link right now.
There are also Bill's (t1metraveler): http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic. ... 95#p975295 also available at http://www.activitysimulatorworld.net .
And then there are Mike Simpson's TMB (The Missing Bits), available at http://members.optusnet.com.au/virtualt ... loads.html .

I have never done a reskin, so I cannot tell you which is the best. But I remember the first one mentioned for that purpose for sure.

Re. alphabet: I guess these separate letters are only useful in conjunction with dynamic station signs, i.e., such where you just put the name in some field in the XML file (or blueprint) and it shows up automatically on the object. These do not work currently. So you are down to assembling the letters for each sign manually in a 2D graphics programme of your choice.

[Oldpufferspotter]

Hi AndiS, Thanks for your reply. I have Mike Simpson's TMB which is where I read in his help file of the KS_bin_editor. I will certainly have a look at the other website you mentioned.
This is the very first time I will have tried to do anything in the way of my own graphics and importing them into Rail Sim. I thought that just adding a name to an already supplied nameboard might be the best way of having a first crack at it. It seems to be a matter of adding an extra 'texture' to a list of textures in a file that already exists and works well.
At the moment I am reading up and trying to understand how to do it and how these things work.
From the RS Asset Authoring Guidelines on Mileposts, Speed Restriction Signs and digital Station Clocks, it seems that a 'quad' can be one or more characters wide, and that it has to be set up to indicate where on the nameboard that particular character or characters will appear. I am trying to sort out how to do that as the basic first step at the moment. The letters or digits then have to be 'mapped' on to the 'quads', that'll be step 2!
No doubt it'll all be straight forward enough when I get to know. It's that old learning curve again.
Thanks again for your help,
regards from that Old Chap.

[AndiS]

Forgot to say that a quad is nothing but a polygon with 4 corners, also called plane because, must naturally, the 4 corners must lie in one plane to make sense on station boards.

The other hint I forgot is this: Almost all 2D drawing tools let you place text in the drawing. They all come with a ton of fonts (character styles) and you find more on the net, for free if you are lucky. Experimenting with them is nice beginners' fun and you might find a font which comes close enough to your prototype. Also consider that there are several options re. size, bold or not and all that. If you found one which is good enough, you just need to select the right colours and create a new texture for each of the station boards in no time, just by typing the text in the drawing programme.

Then you can forget the whole quad business, you end up with a single complete texture per station board face in one step.

[GenesisMan]

Then you can forget the whole quad business, you end up with a single complete texture per station board face in one step.

Hi Andis,
Till now...but in the future...it is in the hands of RSDL.

See this post I made on their forum:http://www.railsimulator.com/en/node/2874

[Oldpufferspotter]

Hi GenesisMan,
Thanks for that link to 'the other place'. I've added it to my notes, and I also left a request there myself.
It really would be handy to be able to name stations easily as required. Anyway I'm battling on to understand how to do it within this LSWR platform kit.
regards from that Old Chap.

[Oldpufferspotter]

For anyone else who has been wondering how to place a name on the station name boards in Mike Brinton's LSWR concrete platform kit, Mike has posted an answer to my query on the Rail Sim site Forum. Look for Help and Support, Scenery Placement, Changeable Object Names.
Thanks for everyone's help and suggestions,
regards from that Old Chap.
P.S. by the way my reference above to KS_bin_editor, or KRS_bin_editor I have found should be for RS_BinEditor! I found it and downloaded it from this site!