BILLBOARDS? I have a couple of challenges for any scenery-makers willing to try

[Fisherman]

To all of you amazing scenery-makers:
You guys have made all sorts of cool discoveries about the game code while making scenery. We have lights now…and stand-alone particle effect objects. I’m sure there are great discoveries yet to be made in the code. My challenge is this. Try to come up with a better set of billboards. Ideally, they would have no frame borders…this would allow us to build gigantic custom billboards with no seams by piecing smaller ones together. And even more importantly, they would have no collision detection. It is very annoying to not be able to have two billboards occupy the same tile facing each other. Without this ability we cannot have custom artwork on both sides of a ride track or path without placing the billboards an extra tile away from the track or path. I use the track intersect scenery cheat to at least place one set of billboards right up next to a track, but you still cannot have two in the same tile facing each other with the track going in between. So that’s my challenge…create for us a better set of billboards. Purty Pleeeeeeze????

-Derek

[weebletns]

Actually, you can!

All you have to do is place the billboards where you want them (it will be red) and then press shift so they go up into the air and turn blue, placeable. Place them there and lower the land tile- taking down the billboards but not moving the track. This also works for track to go through any scenery piece w/out fiddling with collision detection, and even works on paths. (paths must be raised though) Fill in the holes with terrain tiles or the floor, and you're set!

[khmaster]

Or you can just import it into a 3-D modeler, and then put it in the Scenery Importer.

[weebletns]

Actually, you can!

All you have to do is place the billboards where you want them (it will be red) and then press shift so they go up into the air and turn blue, placeable. Place them there and lower the land tile- taking down the billboards but not moving the track. This also works for track to go through any scenery piece w/out fiddling with collision detection, and even works on paths. (paths must be raised though) Fill in the holes with terrain tiles or the floor, and you're set!


EDIT: Wait, you can't have two in the same space? If the above doesn't work, try placing them in one tile, both at different heights show the game should let you, and lower and slant the land tile until both are brought to the same height at ground level.

[khmaster]

You posted that twice... why?

[hotroddude]

Vodhin did it.... cube number 26 was a billboard it didnt work as one but thats where it showed up so i guees he'd be the one to ask

[DarkRidePerson]

Or you can just import it into a 3-D modeler, and then put it in the Scenery Importer.
Actually, you cannot do that. The bilboard will show up in the game in the correct place, but it will be black and will not accept any images.

[skippytim]

That is correct, it would work but you couldnt put custom scenery on it. (which sux)

[Aceana]

I'm not sure if this will work, but I do know that someone made a successful custom scrolling sign before.

[DarkRidePerson]

I'm not sure if this will work, but I do know that someone made a successful custom scrolling sign before.
That actually will work (if you try really really hard) because it doesn't have to accept images from an outside source.

[Fisherman]

Wow...this sounds tougher than I thought it would be...I'll experiment with raising and lowering the land tiles a bit. Thanks for all the ideas!

-Derek

[CoasterSim.Fan]

iceatcs I know had some successes with custom billboards.

[marnetmar]

I made a scrolling sign for a new park entrance in my Egypt set & iceacts has had success with new billboards. I haven't had time to try it out myself yet, but I'm sure ther'll be some new ones out before long in different sizes.

[weebletns]

Sorry about the duplicate post, I hit the edit button though...

I tested the solutions and the sloping land doesn't work but I did sucessfully encase a track piece with four billboards in one square- but the trick can't be done with only normal-size billboards.

It's a start, and if anybody still wants I'll post an explanatory pic.

[Fisherman]

Yes, please post a picture of what you tried.

Thanks!

-Derek

[weebletns]

Here's a pic of the best I have come up with so far using the smallest possible billboards, its not perfect but I did get all four in one square.

http://img158.imageshack.us/img158/7957/enclosedcoaster8qu.th.gif (http://img158.imageshack.us/my.php?image=enclosedcoaster8qu.gif)

It looks pretty good from the coaster too.

http://img162.imageshack.us/img162/3440/coastercam7zw.th.gif (http://img162.imageshack.us/my.php?image=coastercam7zw.gif)

[Fisherman]

COOL! So how exactly did you do that again? I tried and tried but I couldn't get it to work...

[weebletns]

I'll try to explain, and keep in mind that my discovered trick has a plethora of other uses too :noob:

The basic principle is that by lowering the land underneath the billboard (and the track) the billboard will lower with the land while the track stays stationary. This fools collision detection as well. Because you cannot have two boards at the same height in the same square, however, the longer boards are needed. By placing the two-by-ones, you can lower the entire board by one lowering one of the land tiles.

1) Place the only 1*1 above the track in the square you want, and lower that land square until the board is where you want it.
2) Place a 1*2 board above track and other board in the same square, across from the first one placed. Lower the square that only the bigger board penetrates to get both boards at track level.
3) Place the second 1*2, again lowering the land tile unique to that board to lower the whole thing.
4)Lastly, for reasons I don't know, you'll need to use a 1*4, as there is no 1*3. Lower the two land tiles under the last board farthest away from the others, making it drop to track level.
5) (You'll probably need to change the camera setting from normal to see the tiles) Fill in the holes with flooring or terrain tiles.

I might show some other board and track arrangements if the issue doesn't lose interest.

[Fisherman]

Wow...okay...so what if I just want say a long "hall" with billboards on both sides...can I do that? Let's say 6 tiles long by 1 tile wide with artwork on each side and open at both ends.

-Derek

[weebletns]

I'll try out new arrangements like that later today probably and get some more pics.

[iceatcs]

I have already discovered the custom billboard successful and it is only display for RCT3 Extended research centre at the moment. You may cannot to get this work on the latest Jonwil importer cos of little bug on custom billboard SID. But there is mod importer which it is only for testing for Extended members. It does working with the new texture SID that allow to custom billboard.

I hope it will be out in public then I will be glad to add this part on my coming up tutorial for custom scenery.

[Fisherman]

Thanks weebletns!!! I got it to work!!! My next ride will greatly benefit from this technique! Here's a test:

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/6087/shot09881el.jpg

Basically, as long as you use 2 x 1 billboards you can make just about any combination:

http://img57.imageshack.us/img57/8443/shot09938wy.jpg

Thanks again!
Derek

[jiberishwerds]

ok...i dont get it :bulb:
will ssome one please try and re-explain it for me?:noob:

[reillysix]

Some could sure explain it, 4 months ago!!

[jiberishwerds]

well sorry for doing some research on the fourms b4 i just made a thread of one that was already made.

[weebletns]

The general principle is that when you lower the land under a ride and scenery piece, the scenery piece will be lowered but the ride will not move. This way, you can make the scenery piece intersect with the track and get around collision detection for vanilla scenery.

So if you put a piece that you can't place on the track above the track, and then lower the land under it, the scenery place will move to where you want it on or right by the track. You can also move pieces onto paths.

To lower objects that are bigger than one tile, you need only lower half or more of the tiles under them. In example, for a nine tile scenery piece you would only need to lower five of the squares under it to lower the whole piece. This is important because sometimes you'll need to use bigger pieces for lowering because lowering just the one square in question conflicts with other scenery pieces. (see post 16)

[jiberishwerds]

i generaly get what to do, but at the same time im having problems with corners, and besides this method seems like waaay to much work.
but i guess this is the only way?
or has there been a new break thru? lol

[weebletns]

there might be soon. as of yet the billboards are still hard to work with and the only cs billboards (not including shyguy's picture frames and such) are iceatcs's, and those still have collision detection and are not entirely seamless. (max height is 1/3)

[Fisherman]

AMEN! The corners are definitely tricky. Sometimes you have to just lower the corner of a tile...but not the whole tile to get the corners to work. I really do wish someone would make seamless, collision-free billboards. I'm really surprised no one has tried or figured out how to do it yet...it seems rather simple. (boy was that an underhanded challenge or what???) ;)

-Derek

[weebletns]

It looks like obiwan cannoli is heading for that kind of piece in his bits and pieces thread.

[teck50023]

Just curious if anyone has figured this out yet?

Expert moders, does anyone have any information on this project? I would not mind trying to give it a try. I have no Idea about this yet though, and I am a begginer with the program.

Any info would help. And if anyone would like to maybe make this a group project I would be willing to help with it.

[yesnt]

Yea, im doing a billboard set, links in my sig. :)