Tools for Rule the Rail!
Here are some tools that you may find useful, for your track projects.
Rule The Rail Layout Viewer 2.0.
This Layout Viewer was put together by Willi Leopold.
"Layout Viewer 2.0. exists of two main components:
1. Layout Manager (corresponds to Layout Viewer version 1.0):
Browse layouts with preview pictures and layout descriptions
Archive layouts and start RTR with the layouts you just need for this game session
Manage archives and make backups of layouts
2. Start-Up Manager (new!):
Screen Settings
Select program options like framerate, camera control and many more
Use special ground textures
Choose from different track styles
Set grades
Choose between 5 night and 13 day skies, including great light effects
RTR-Basic-Mode for fast testing or Full-Mode
Start RTR directly with a layout selected in Layout Manager
Developer panel
And much more... "
DDS Thumbnail Viewer.
Are you fed up trying to find the right .dds file,
what it looks like or its name- number.
Well here is a small application that puts a .dll file on/in to your PC
that turns your .dds files in to thumbnails,
its OK thay are still .dds files, but they look like small .bmp images.
"DDS Thumbnail Viewer Allows you to view .dds files in Thumbnail view in the Windows Explorer." Now with an Installer. (.exe) [1.8 MB]
Up to and including Windows XP Only
SageThumbs.
SageThumbs:
SageThumbs is a powerful shell extension allowing to preview enormous amount of image formats directly in Windows Explorer by using Pierre-e Gougelet's GFL library (XnView's author).
DXTBmp.
DXTBmp DXT Extended Bitmap Manipulation.
Images can be passed to any Paint program for editing in 24 bit and then re-imported and saved in any of the 16/24/32 bit formats. Transparency (Alpha) channel of textures can be viewed and edited separately from the main image.
Note:
You may need the mwgfx.dll to run this program.
Windows Texture Viewer.
Windows Texture Viewer:
WTV was developed by Tomas Blaho for simple DDS viewing, especially for those DDS files with an alpha channel. WTV 0.89b [85KB]
23rd December 2008.
TrueSpace.
" The Caligari site has been closed down by Microsoft.
So here are some links to the program and Resources. "
WINGS 3D.
Wings 3D is an advanced subdivision modeler that is both powerful and easy to use.
Originally inspired by Nendo and Mirai from Izware,
Wings has been developed since 2001, when Björn Gustavsson and Dan Gudmundsson first started the project.
Richard Jones (optigon) maintained Wings and coded most of the new additions between 2006 and 2011.
Wings 3D is currently maintained by Dan Gudmundsson (aka dgud at github and sourceforge).
Wings 3D offers a wide range of modeling tools, a customizable interface, support for lights and materials, and a built-in AutoUV mapping facility.
There is no support in Wings for animation.
Wings 3D is open source and completely free for use in both personal and commercial projects.
Wings 3D gets its name from the Winged Edge Data Structure (WEDS).
This is the data structure used to store the adjacency relationships between edges, faces, and vertices in a Wings 3D model.
fragMOTION.
fragMOTION:
fragMOTION is a powerful 3D modeler specifically intended for the creation and animation of characters. fragMOTION is intuitive and easy to use and contains many features that are only found in top of the line modelers. And if that's not enough for you, the event driven scripting system makes it a breeze for you to add your own features.
RtR X-Ray.
RtR X-Ray offers the possibility of the installed models Rule the rail track and view multiple IDs assigned.RtR X-Ray.exe, a model viewer, ID checker and validator for Rule the Rail
Display of the 3D model with texture
Display the polygon count
Display the installed. Xli files
Display the files contained model
Display of model parameters (name, number, scale, type of object reference model, max. Speed, max. Wagons)
Display of used multiple IDs
Creating your own files XLI
English, Portuguese, German
Create a file containing all the identifiers used.
Supported operating systems: XP, Vista, 7
Is required. NET Framework 4 and DirectX 9, if the DLL being distributed to delete's.
Credits: JimKnopf.
Theme Editor.
Chris
" This is a little tool that Paul made.
This was his beta version, the latest, his alpha version was never completed as far as I know.
This little tool can aide you in selecting which Items from an .xli file will load when you start up rtr.
Buy using this I have found that it can cut loading time down drastically, by removing those models that you don't wish to use on the board you are developing.
It also maintains a back up version of the original .xli files so that you are not constantly manually altering the files.
It creates Themes and stores them so you can use them again later without having to redo all those xli files again. "
Chris / Capt Paul Kelly
I downloaded the Theme Editor from larneil's link but after installing it,
I tried to start the program.
But it would not load as it could not find a d3drm.dll file.
I googled the net and on a MS-forum I found a link http://www.dlldump.com.
I downloaded the file and placed the file in the same directory as the Theme Editor.exe file (Brainbombers\Rule the Rail!\XM). And now the program launch fine.
The problem occurs when you are using Vista/Windows 7, as these version uses directX 10/11 and they lack some of the older files from the older versions of directX.
dexurish
Added by Capt Paul
You can also place d3drm.dll in the " Windows\System32 " folder.
This will allow other older (not updated) programs besides the xli Manager to use this library in Vista and Windows7
Validation Tool.
X File - Validation Tool
" The Validator will validate to ANY named XLI file, either existing or new ones you may create.
The program generates and writes the necessary XLI "validation" number along with the x file validation numbers - however ... The Validator WILL NOT validate models to the "base_" xli files.
I did this in order to preserve Brain Bombers' registration plan. "
Capt P Kelly
.XLI Number.
If you just need to get an .xli number then you can use the XLI Maker that is Up On/At 
If you wish you can download the Microsoft Excel 97-2003 Worksheet version for your use.
XLI Checker. 5.2.0
XLI Checker.5.2.0 10th March 2020
1. It lists the XLI/XL2 entries and checks for duplicates.
2. It lists the entries in the OTX files and shows duplicates as well as orphan entries.
3. It lists the ltex file entries and checks for duplicate entries and orphans.
4. It lists the X files referenced by any XLI/XL2 file. It lists unused and missing X files.
The program can safely remove unused X files.
5. It lists the texture files referenced by the X files as well as
unreferenced texture files.
The program can safely remove unused texture files.
6. It lists the soundsource file data and identifies duplicate IDs, unreferenced IDs in a
soundsource file, and missing WAV files.
7. It lists model data in enginespots files (file and ID only) and identifies duplicates
and orphans.
Dale.
13th September 2015 - Version 5.1.1 released.
Version 5.1.1 has one bug fixed. If there were texture files where an X file used texture with a name like "texturefile.dds" and an unused texture file happened to be named like "texturefilesimilar.dds", the unused file would not be removed as an unused texture.
The problem was in my comparison algorithm and has been fixed.
Since unused texture files don't really harm anything, it really isn't necessary to get this version if you don't want to.
Dale.
Skyboxes.
If you need a different Sky then you can generat one at http://www.nutty.ca
More Here http://www.custommapmakers.org
