Train Sim World 4 – Livery Designer Explanatory Guide

Livery Designer Explained

Welcome to the Livery Designer! Before you get started, the first thing you must decide is what train you would like to make a livery on – all TSW2-TSW4 content is compatible with the Livery Designer, as well as some select TSW2020 and older content.

The settings when making a new livery are straightforward but help you identify and categorise your custom collection. Kick things off by choosing a name, it can be whatever you want it to be, so long as it’s sensible, just something that help you, and others, know what they’re about to see! You can also add a description to add more detail about your livery, maybe it has deep lore and background… or maybe you just want to say it’s cool, either way this is the perfect space for that.

Lastly, and a key function for how liveries operate, you can select whether your new design will be Active or Inactive, and this applies to the function of AI usage within Timetable Mode.

Active liveries will be able to be selected by the Timetable’s substitution system, as well as being selectable by players, and of course available in Scenario Planner, Free Roam etc.

Inactive liveries can still be selected in all manners of playable services and formations, but they will NOT appear as AI in timetables. So, if you’re working on something intricate and haven’t quite finished yet, or creativity got the better of you – bright pink and neon yellow everywhere – but naturally that does not belong in moody Peterborough, you can hide it from view.

You can change settings at any time, liveries can be renamed, or made active/inactive whenever you wish.

Now that you’ve made a new, albeit very plain livery, it’s time to give it some colour, or maybe even some color. Let’s run through all the ways you can modify your designs exactly how you like them!

Paint – This will change the whole colour of the otherwise blank, grey canvas, this is good if your livery will have one overall tone or base coat.

Decals – This is how you add detail, lots and lots of detail! Decals are individual shapes which let you recolour specific sections of the chosen vehicle. Many decals are able to be pigmented as you please much like the painted body, but some are also predefined in colour, such as logos or symbols.

You can manipulate decals in various ways, resize, warp and rotate to contour around the locomotive or to build up your own bigger shapes and patterns. You can toggle between uniform and individual control of a shape’s axis, and if you need to you can choose the main face the decal is on, the front, the left side of the vehicle etc. You can also project decals, projecting manipulates the depth and wrap of a given decal. For example, on many locomotives there are handrails which you may want to highlight, but without block filling in the body behind it. Setting Angle to a low % and depth to a high % would project the decal only a certain depth into the model, meanwhile the angle would ensure it covers the whole geometry of the handrail, not just the outside edge. Setting both values to full will mirror a decal on the other side of the vehicle, very useful, but be mindful of decals with text on!

Speaking of text, you can add decals by the letter, or type out what you want text to say as one group. There are multiple fonts available, including additional ones unlockable via Mastery for various route add-ons.

And speaking of groups, you can group any selection of decals which are all on the same side of a vehicle, meaning they can be moved and copied as a single entity, this is useful if you need to duplicate a custom logo or design, which you don’t want mirrored, onto the other side of the vehicle.

If you make a mistake you can undo and redo steps, this saves the bother of trying to remake a decal in a certain way, and helps you get back to the point before it all started to go wrong. You can simply just reset a decal as well though, back to its default scale and rotation settings and start again.

Per vehicle, you can place up to 1000 layers of decals, allowing for lots of detail to be added, everything from text and logos to warning labels and rainbow stripes.

Don’t forget to save regularly, and once a livery is complete, take it out onto the rails, and capture some fantastic screenshots of it! You can also share your custom liveries on the Online Sharing Hub, and of course, download other people’s creations.