Put it into the .sd file. ALL shapes have a .sd file. I'm pretty sure KUJU meant .sd to mean shape description. You want to use .dds? just record the replacement in the .sd file. OR looks there... if it says use def.dds for .abc.ace... no problems.
TextureSubsitution (
Replace ( oldfilename, newfilename )
etc.
)
It's so simple and it only comes into effect when somebody adds the parameters with the data.
Stick it on the .sd for cars and locomotives and you have a simple reskin. No need for a new folder, copying all the other files that remain shared; Just drop in the new texture, write a new .sd and .eng. Done. Consider... there are hundreds of re-skins of a PS-1 boxcar model. They could all go into one folder called PS-1 40ft Boxcar instead of the hundreds of different folders there are now. Ditto for all those American Locomotive models... get rids of dozens, if not hundreds of folders and have F-7, SD-40, etc., etc. Or SLI_SD_90's. Whatever. Vastly better organization -- IF someone wants to do it that way.
FWIW the exact same technique can be use to replace ancient LOD settings... 100m becomes 500. No big deal:
MeshFileAlterations (
TextureSubsitution (
ReplaceTexture ( oldfilename, newfilename )
etc.
)
LODSubsitution (
ReplaceLOD ( oldvalue, newvalue )
)
)
It's a simple way to help people update old content to more modern expectations and setting it up as MeshAlterations() let the OR team put anything that sometime down the road into the same general area... stuff like bias, maybe even shaders. It can't change anything more or less than what's already defined in the mesh but it will allow some changes.
Down the road new features, like time of day to turn on/off night textures go into a different section -- they're not changing the mesh, they're doing something new.
Bottom Line: Using the .sd as I suggest not only address migrating to .dds but also addresses other similar issues about the shape when it is being loaded,
and doing it all the same way, which, IMO is better than addressing them all ad-hoc.