I should just start working on custom scenery.

[DarkMeasures]

No modeling experience or anything.

But I need the experience for college. If doing the models and such in videogames is my future, I might as well start now.

Anyway, any good links I can use to start? I know the one tutorial isn't finished yet.

[Der Freak 00]

Read the stickies, there are enough tutorials ;)

[LuckyGirl]

Maybe this helps you:

A 3D modelling program:
Download the MilkShape trial (after 30 days trial you will have to register it for a fee of $25/£25).
I have found the "Coaster Car 101" tutorial the easiest (so once in a while I got still stuck or it looked slighly different then in the pics )
Go to You can find it on this website http://modstothemax.net
Just register, then go to the download section (this is not possible before you register).
Go to those sections: Ultimate Ride/UR Tutorials.
Although the coaster car was modelled for another game, the tutorial will explain all the basics - I think I spent about 1-2 days doing this, but it depends on how much time you have. I know, you want to start modelling right now, but you need to learn the basics first.

You can download MilkShape here:
http://www.swissquake.ch/chumbalum-s.../download.html



A file converter program:
Then download Biturn - this program will convert your MilkShape files into ASE files, so that you can use them in the importer. Biturn is very simple. You just click on the file you would like to convert and the file type you would like to convert it into. That's it
You can download it here:
http://mirex.mypage.sk/index.php?selected=1
I think I have the latest (top) version under the section "Biturn"

Jonwil's importer program:
This program is required to import your ASE files into RCT. It will allow you to set your scenery up as loudspeakers, walls, etc.
I personally have used "Klinn's importer tutorial". It's on the http://modstothemax.net website. Go to the sections "Roller Coaster Tycoon3"/RCT Tutorials.
You can Jonwil's importer here:
http://sebar.com/jonwil/


The order in which I have lister the programs, is the order you will use them.
Also, you need a program to create textures with. If you have a good program and are familiar with it, that's great. If not, I would recommend concentrating on learning modelling first, and use MS Paint for textures at the beginning.
Your textures need to be 64x64/128x128/256x256/512x512 pixels. In Paint, just click on "Image"/"Atributes" > you can change this here.
Make sure you save the texture as a 256 colours bmp

Once you are familiar with everything, you can download this free paint program:
http://www.gimp.org/

Again, you probably wanna read tutorials to learn this, as it is quite a complex program - but worth while.
Before you save tetxures in it, make sure you click on "Image"/"Mode"/"Indexed" and index it.
Save it then as a bmp file. You might get the option to save it "RLE" encoded -> do NOT do this (it won't be accepted by the converter).

To ensure it was safed as the correct bmp file, I usually open it in MS Paint and save it under a different name "x2.bmp" with 256 colours. For some reason GIMP sometimes saves bmp files as 16 colour mode files (if I do something wrong i don't know) and it won't work in the importer.

[weasel497]

Wow that was a long post... And that's all you will need for custom scenery. Oh, and a TON of patience and a cool temper... That's why I gave up CS.

[LuckyGirl]

@weasel - I posted this before, so I only had to copy ;)