RCT3 Custom Scenery Importer: Beginner's Tutorial online (new: French Version)

[Belgabor]

Hi everybody,

I've created a beginner's tutorial for the current version (17fix1) of the custom scenery importer.

Beginner's Tutorial (http://rct3.sourceforge.net/tutorials/beginner_tutorial.html)
Guide d'utilisation du logiciel d'importation d'objets de décor personnalisés pour RCT3 - Niveau débutant (http://rct3.sourceforge.net/tutorials/beginner_tutorial.fr.html) (French Version by yesmydear)

It is essentially a get-your-first-object-into-the-game how-to, so it doesn't explain every feature of the importer. It is also importer-centered and therefore contains only rough guidelines for modelling.

Any comments, improvements and other suggestions appreciated.

Note: If you want to translate or enhance it, please contact me. The html page is generated content, so any changes you make to it are wasted efford. If you want to hack the css, go for it. I wanted to get it online, so I didn't have the time to fix a few remaining uglinesses :D

[Startours_3000]

^woot this should help me lol

[madshell]

Excellent!!!

I'll read through this later on today.

[Novix]

omg, couldn't you release this one 2 weeks ago?!! :p :p
very nice!

[xss277x]

Very cool! Even though I already know how to import, I'll probably still find useful imformation here.

[MaxInfinity]

Greatt work on the importer and the tutorials, Its re-sparked my interest in rct3.
How does the shared texture referencing work in the new importer

[Belgabor]

That's great!

Texture ovls are not hard to do:

Setup prefix and theme name, otherwise the automatic things in the next steps won't work correctly
The texture ovl
Open the create scenery ovl dialog
Add your textures.
Do not add models, lods or references.
Save to the name the importer suggests. If you need mone than one texture ovl, you need to copy the ones named differently by hand (see below).
The actual Scenery OVL
Open the create scenery ovl dialog
Add non-shared textures. Do NOT add the texture(s) you will reference to.
Add the model(s). If you created the texture ovl in the same session, the texture names are available in the drop-down like the "local" ones (this is the so-called texture cache). If you did not create the texture ovl in this session, you can add texture names to this cache with the green "flag" toolbar icon in the Create Scenery OVL window.
Add the filename of your texture ovl (without the .common.ovl) to the references. This is a relative path to where the texture ovl will be in relation to the scenery ovl. If you used the default above, just press Add as the textbox is pre-filled with the right reference.
Finish the scenery ovl(s) as usual
The Theme
Create as usual. Do NOT add the texture ovl as scenery.
Install
If you didn't use the proposed texture ovl name (or have used mone than one), copy the texture ovl files to where RCT3 expects them to be (in my case, in the theme directory with the style.*.ovl files). A texture ovl with the proposed name will be copied to the 'shared' directory (where the proposed reference points to) automatically. The "success" message after pressing "Install" will indicate this.
That's it :D

Note: To repeat, you can use more than one texture ovl, but you need to use the correct reference then and copy it by hand to the right directory.

[MaxInfinity]

Thanx Belgabor I'll play around with it. The importer is great much easier to use. what would be great and save lots of time would be a standalone version of atari's rendering engine, so we can see exactly what the model will look like in rct3, without having to load the the whole game everytime to check the model looks right, I dont know if this is possible, it would save hours and hours of work.
Anyway keep up the great work

[Belgabor]

A preview is planned, but I have no idea when I get around to implement it. It will probably not look exactly like in game, but allow you at least to see whether you set up everything correctly (eg textures, transformation matrix, effect points).

[Obi_Wan_Cannoli]

Wow, nice job Belgabor....startours...I LOVE YOUR AVATAR!!! I'M CHANGING MINE TOO!

[msdavis13man]

Very nice! It succesfully imported my Statue of Liberty model! I'll try to show a pic.

[StarRngr4.0]

A preview is planned, but I have no idea when I get around to implement it. It will probably not look exactly like in game, but allow you at least to see whether you set up everything correctly (eg textures, transformation matrix, effect points).

Its desperatly needed Bel. Its taken forever to finish up my curved walls because I had to load, place, exit, tweak, reload.... Rinse and repeat ad infinitum.

[Rollermessenger]

Friends,

from Bremen I can report that the new Importer is a great Program - much easier to work with it, more possibilities and, most important, no crash if you make a mistake.

But - if I see it right - there is a mistake with the program without a crash.

If you import an ase-file in the scenery creator the colour of the objekt name shows you if it is ok or not (good idea!!). But I always get a red color that indicates that some data lacks.

I made a simple square wall with a picture on it for a test. I made it with blender V2.42a by sizing the cube from the origin. I exported directly to ase via ASCII Scene v0.6.1, I exported as obj and 3ds files and changed to ase by bitrun - always the same.

But I can make a complete object an import it to the game. I see its moving picture in the blue circle down left and I can place it everywhere. But It looks like glas, not like a wall, an when I click it it is invisible but with shadow.

I tried houres to find the mistake. But then the solution was very simple: I used the version 14 of the Importer and the wall with its picture came to the game just as I wanted it. I used the same ase-file coming directkly from blender.

So, version 14 works, but version 16fix4 not? What is the thing???

[StarRngr4.0]

Its red because you did not add a texture to the object. your objects texture must be added via the create scenery dialog rather than in blender. ASE only exports the UV mesh, not the actuall texture used.

[Belgabor]

Actually ASE supports bitmap textures, but the ase export script does not write them. Anyways, the importer ignores that information as supporting it would open a whole can of worms.

[StarRngr4.0]

darn. Close in the generals, but as you zoom in I miss the mark.

*DOH*

[Rollermessenger]

StarRngr4.0, of course I added the bitmap-texture to the object. Without that it is not possible to create an ovl-file and i is not possible to see the object with picture on it in the game.

But I still don't understand why the same procedure is working with version 14 and not with version16. In both cases I used the same ase and bmp files.

[Belgabor]

Sorry, I don't fully get what happens.
When you open an ASE file, all valid meshes are colored bright red because data is missing. You have to assign them a texture.
Dark (brownish) red meshes are broken in some way and you can't access their settings.
In the old (v14) importer you also had to assign a texture, otherwise you couldn't create the ovl. Also broken meshes usually caused the importer to crash.

[Rollermessenger]

Belgabor, what you tell me I did. I hope so.

- I opened the Create Scenery ovl Window.
- I added a texture-file (256*256 bmp) in the Texture Window and let the automatic name.
- I added an ase-file (simple 4m*4m*0.1m wall) in the Edit Model Settings Window and let the automatic name. The meshes field tells me that is a cube, in red.
- I closed the Edit Model Settings Window by ok.
- I see in the Models-field in the Create Scenery ovl Window that I have an 1/1 meshes with 12 faces.
- I clicked here back to the Edit Model Settings Window, "cube" is still red.
- I clicked via "cube" to the Mesh Flags Window and added the texture name.
- I closed Mesh Flags Window and Edit Model Settings Window
- I added the standard-LOD's in the Create Scenery ovl Window.
- I didn'd change any other settings an clicked to create the ovl-file. The message is that Saving Scenery ovl is successful.
- I tested the shorter way and assigned the texture in the Edit Model Settings Window to the mesh before going back to the Create Scenery ovl Window
- In both cases "cube" is black when I open the Edit Model Settings Window again, after assigning the texture. Is the mesh repaired?
- In both cases I can make a scenery object later from the ovl file, but as I told, I can see only its shadow in the game.

What's wrong???

[Belgabor]

Seems you're doing everything correctly (you can directly edit the mesh settings (your shorter way), it doesn't make a difference), so I'm quite puzzled why it doesn't work correctly. Could you please post a screenshot of your scenery settings?

[Rollermessenger]

Here is a screenshot of the different settings and one of that you can see in the game.

http://www.filefactory.com/file/98def9/

http://www.filefactory.com/file/ec21ed/

I have checked another thing: Because I will later use and publish the objects for WILD I clicked the expansion-flag for WILD. But I have only Soaked on my computer since a while. I’ve made the experience that objects made for WILD are paritally invisible when you have only Soaked without a patch. So I made the object with the three different settings für None, Soaked and Wild, but always the same result.

[Rollermessenger]

http://www.filefactory.com/file/98def9/

http://www.filefactory.com/file/ec21ed/

second attempt for pictures

[Rollermessenger]

They do not allow me to send pictures. So I give you the links to the fileserver.
http://www.filefactory.com/file/98def9/

http://www.filefactory.com/file/ec21ed/

[Rollermessenger]

I hope now it works. My former used server, RCT-Dimension, closed some days ago, and at filefectory I realised too late that I have to register to see and download the pictures, andyou too. Now I try it with Megashares.

http://d01.megashares.com/?d01=8ee159a

http://d01.megashares.com/?d01=e798f9b

[Belgabor]

Your lod setup is wrong. The way you put it the model will be (roughly) maximally shown at distance 0.0, which essentially means never. Delete the lod you added and press the "A" button, this will add the default lod levels that will get you started.

And before a mod sees this, you have to use the edit button, don't quadruple post

[Rollermessenger]

That was the hot tip!
Thank you Belgabor!

[Belgabor]

Bitte, kein Problem :p
(you're welcome)

[MaxInfinity]

Is there a flag that stops the custom scenery moving, when you raise or lower the terrain around it. Its a pain when you want to adjust the terrain and everything you've placed moves with it.

[Belgabor]

Yes, set Flag 6. But you have to unset Fl33 (probably you have already), otherwise you cannot modify the terrain under it.

[MaxInfinity]

Great stuff Thanx Belgabor. Before I change everything is there any downside to doing this.

[Belgabor]

I have no idea. Never used it, I just found it mentioned when I researched for my facts&figures thread (now page).

[MaxInfinity]

Right I know I've seen it somewhere but I spent the last hour trying to find it. What flag is it to turn off shadows, so the object doesn't cast them. I'm just experimenting and need to try this.

[Belgabor]

It's among the visual options in the Create Scenery OVL window. There is currently a bug affecting this, for a workaround read here (http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1598664&group_id=181524&atid=897547).

[Obi_Wan_Cannoli]

I know this has nothing to do with anything, but where can I get a WORKING version of the object dumper? I keep getting an error that l ike ccp. wasn't found or something...I'm downloading the one from Jonwil's site on sebar.com

[Belgabor]

Updated the tutorial for v16fix5

[Coasterman]

I can't see it and I want to figure out how to import scenery which I'm in the middle of the process of doing.Oh well:(

[Belgabor]

What do you mean by "I can't see it"?

[Coasterman]

It's blocked.Can you,Belgabor post the new importer[updated] and the toturial on another site?Please?

[Belgabor]

Who on earth blocks sourceforge and why?!?

[Coasterman]

I'm not blocked from sourceforge meaning that I can be at Vodhins site but for somereason parental controls[one of my two blocking filters,is blocking your site from acess.I have no idea why thoughbecause I saw a bit of it before this stuopid parental controls sign popped up,which was after I went the first time.But, what could be bad with it?

[Belgabor]

Vodhin's place is not on sourceforge. Get the controls disabled for sourceforge, there is nothing on there that makes them necessary, neither is on any of our pages.

[Angelis84]

This is a French traduction of your document for your website, I post the continuation progressively (with the EDIT button)

Si quelqu'un pouvais m'aider a modifier mes erreurs de traductions, il y a des termes techniques que je ne comprend pas. a vot' bon coeur les francais :) les phrases en rouges sont a traduire, et le reste est a corriger donc ...

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Ce tutorial vous mènera tout au long des étapes à l’importation de votre premier objet dans RCT3. Seulement les options et les étapes obligatoires pour une importation de base seront expliquées. Ce document s'applique à la version 16fix5 du logiciel d’importation RCT3.


1. Préparation pour l’importation

Cette section vous expliquera ce que vous devez faire avant de lancer le logiciel d’importation.

1.1. Préparation initialeTandis qu’elle peut sembler insignifiante, c'est une étape importante pour maintenir une bonne organisation : Créer un dossier sur votre disque dur qui contiendra tous vos « sets personnels ». Vous devriez également créer un sous-dossier pour chaque ensemble.
Il est recommandé de mettre chaque objet dans un répertoire avec tous les dossiers lui appartenants.

1.2. Création du modèle 3D

Le processus de création de l’objet ne serra pas expliqué dans ce document. Vous devez obtenir un logiciel de création 3D approprié et lire quelques tutoriaux pour savoir comment vous en servir. Voici une liste de logiciels le plus souvent utilisés pour la création d’objet pour RCT3

- 3DStudio/3DSmax. Modeleur 3D professionnel très coûteux. (Vous pouvez obtenir une licence académique)

- MilkShape. Shareware (25$) bon marché avec une période d'essai de 30 jours.

- Blender. Modeleur open source professionnel Gratuit. L’interface utilisateur est assez atypique et exige donc d'un peu de patience pour s’y habituer mais devient un outil puissant quand on sait l’utiliser.

- SketchUp. Existe en deux versions, Google SketchUp (libre) et SketchUp pro (film publicitaire, etc). Très facile et intuitif a employer. Les inconvénients classiques sont que la version libre peut seulement exporter les formats de Google Earth, qui doivent être importés et re-travaillés dans Blender pour les insérer par la suite dans le logiciel d’importation. Un autre inconvénient est que SketchUp produit parfois des modèles qui doivent être nettoyés dans Blender.

Pour plus d’informations détaillées sur la modélisation d’objets (tutoriaux), regardez la page de Belgabor. http://belgabor.vodhin.net/software/ (en anglais)

Pour créer vos modèles vous devrez suivre l’esprit des directives suivantes :

- Créer un modèle simpliste pour vous accoutumer aux procédés d’importation. Un simple cube fonctionne très bien par exemple.

- Créer votre modèle a la bonne taille et placez la correctement. Un espace dans RCT3 est habituellement 4x4 des grandes unités de mesure (dans SketchUp c’est un peu plus complexe). Pour plus d’information à ce sujet, regardez les figures sur la page de Belgador http://belgabor.vodhin.net/facts/

- Créer des objets avec le moins de polygones (également appelé « poly », « tri », ou « triangle » possible pour que l’objet fonctionne dans le moteur 3D de RCT3. Plus votre objets aura de polygone, plus le moteur du jeu devra effectué de calculs, et donc pourra laguer ou même faire planter le jeu. Essayez donc de rester en dessous des 500 polygones, ou en dessous de 300 c’est encore mieux. Notez que le moteur emploie des polygones triangulaires tandis que la plupart des modeleurs modernes emploient des polygones à 4 coins ou sommets. Ceux-ci sont convertis en triangles dans le processus d’exportation ou de conversion, ainsi le nombre réel de polygones peut être beaucoup plus important que le résultat du logiciel de création 3D.

Voici les façons de maintenir le nombre de polygones le plus bas possible.

- Faire des objets rond seulement si nécessaire. Les pièces arrondies emploient habituellement plus de polygones que les autres. Ne faite donc jamais de cercle de plus de 16 « sections » sans une bonne raison. Si une partie de l’objet est vraiment mince, vous pourriez même obtenir un bon résultat avec juste trois « sections » soudé entre elle (plus d’infos ci-dessous).

La même chose s’applique aux sphères. Les modeleurs peuvent créer ce qu’on appelle des UV-Sphères. Celles-ci génèrent plus de polygones mais ont une carte UV plus facile, ne les employez seulement si vous avez besoin d’y ajouter une texture complexe.

- Effacez les polygones invisibles (et donc inutiles). Si vous modèle a (a l’intérieur) face1.3s invisible du au procédé de modélisation, enlevez-les car ils utiliseront trop de capacité de traitement. Maintenez à l’esprit qu’ils peuvent affecter l’éclairage si leurs sommets sont soudés aux polygones les plus évidents, il peut donc être nécessaire de les garder dans certains cas (plus d’infos ci-dessous).

- Employez des textures « alpha ». C’est une technique plutôt avancée, mais vous devriez vous rendre compte de ses possibilités. Si vous voulez créer un objet ou on peux voir a travers (une balustrade par exemple), il serra plus facile de le faire en utilisant des « plane » avec une texture « alpha » assignée ou on peux voir a travers (ndlr : bon ok, j’ai rien compris a ce passage, a revoir au niveau de la traduction)

Souder/dé souder (weld/unweld) votre modèle. Pour comprendre ce sujet, vous devez d’abord comprendre comment le moteur 3D de RCT3 (et probablement tous les autres moteurs 3D) gère l’éclairage des objets. Pour ceci il faut comprendre que la direction de la lumière est différente selon l’heure (dans RCT3 il y a le soleil le jour, et des lampes la nuit) et comment la direction de vos objets est employée. «Now you may ask what a normal is. Let's start with a face normal. You can imagine this as an arrow that points away form the face being perpendicular to it, so if compared to the direction the light comes in you get the angle under which it hits the face » et il est possible de gerer la lumiere en consequence.

Pour faire des objets plus réalistes, le moteur 3D emploie plutôt des « vertex normals ». Ce concept est un peu plus dur à comprendre. Les « vertex normals » sont des propriétés des sommets (vertices, corners) de votre objet et représente la « normal » du plan de la tangente de votre objet à ce sommet. Pour comprendre ce que ça signifie, imaginez votre que l’objet que vous avez crée est réel, que vous le placez sur votre bureau en le touchant seulement par le sommet. Il se trouve verticalement au plancher dans cette position, les « normals » des sommets sont automatiquement calculés par votre logiciel de création 3D.

Voici le concept des sommets soudés et dé soudés dans le jeu. Imaginez le coin d’un cube, habituellement votre modeleur le crée soudé, cela signifie que le coin est seulement un sommet qui est employé par les trois faces qui l’entourent. Si vous dé soudé ce sommet (tout dépend de l’application que vous utilisez, cherchez « Unweld » ou « Unbind » points/vertices) « a copy of it is created for each face that uses it. In the example above the one corner vertex is replaced by three, one for (and used by) each face. If you think a bit about it you will realize what that means for the vertex normal(s). If the vertex is welded, its vertex normal will point away from the center of the cube and the engine of RCT3 will treat it as if the object was supposed to be round there. If the vertex is unwelded, each of the three vertices in it's place gets its own vertex normal. As each is only part of one face, its vertex normal is identical to the face normal. You may want to have a look at the weld/unweld section on Belgabor's facts & figures page for some pictures about this. The take home message is you need to unweld vertices/edges if they are supposed to look “pointy”, if they are supposed to be round, keep them welded.

Usually you cannot selectively unweld a vertex in regard to certain edges, you can only fully unweld it. If you want to keep some edges that it's part of welded, you need to first unweld it and then weld the vertices of the faces whose common edge you want to have welded. Note: How to weld depends again on your modeler, it can be a bit hard to find (for example it is called Remove Doubles in Blender).

- Usually you shouldn't bother using the 3D modeler's materials for your object. RCT3 and therefore the Importer can only used uv-mapped bitmap textures, while most modelers use procedural (calculated) textures. There are ways to make a bitmap texture form such procedural textures (usually called texture-baking or uv-baking), but usually they don't lead to a satisfactory result. »

1.3. Obtention d'une texture « bitmap » pour votre modèle

Comme cité ci-dessus vous devez employez des textures « bitmap » pour vos sets personnalisés. Une autre chose nécessaire pour la texture finale que vous utiliserez dans le logiciel d’importation est que la texture doit être carré, et la taille du fichier doit être une puissance de deux (par exemple 64x64, 128x128 ou 256x256). Notez que la taille du fichier peut avoir un effet sur le chargement des objets et de la quantité de mémoire requise plus tard dans le jeu (ce qui peux le faire laguer), il faut donc ne pas prendre des textures plus grandes que nécessaires. Je recommanderais d’utiliser la taille 256x256. Si vous avez une texture très détaillée, vous pouvez utiliser 512x512. Si votre objet est simplement coloré, utilisez simplement un texture 4x4 avec la couleur en question (peut-être même que 1x1 fonctionne, mais je n’est pas testé)

La première solution (et la plus dure) pour obtenir une texture est de la dessiner vous-même en utilisant un logiciel de création comme Adobe Photoshop ou The Gimp. Même si vous ne voulez pas dessiner votre propre texture, c’est une bonne chose d’avoir ce genre de logiciel dans vos programmes.

Le deuxième solution est de trouver une texture appropriée sur le web, il y a un bon nombre de sites proposant des textures libre de droit (et bien plus en payantes). Une chose que vous devez garder en tête, c’est de ne pas violer le droit d’auteur (le copyright). Il n’est pas nécessaire de dire q’une chose est protégée par un copyright, le copyright est automatique. Donc si un site n’indique pas explicitement que vous libre d’utiliser les images ou les textures qui s’y trouve, vous ne pouvez pas. Il faut savoir également que les logos et les noms de marque peuvent être protégés par les lois sur le droit d’auteur (marque déposée, …) ainsi, il vaut mieux ne pas les utiliser. Si vous êtes gênés par ce genre de lois, sachez que si vous crée un objet 3D (un set perso pour RCT3) il est automatiquement protégé, et d’autres personnes ne peuvent pas utilisez vos modèles ou textures sans votre autorisation.

Une troisième solution est d’utiliser un logiciel spécifique de création de texture. Un bon exemple (gratuit qui puis est) est Wood Workshop par Spiral Graphics, qui est une version libre d’utilisation dans un but non commercial. Ils offrent aussi des packs de textures libres qui peuvent être vues avec « Genetica Viewer » (gratuit lui aussi). Il y a aussi d’autres logiciel pro de création de texture, « Google est ton ami » (dite moi si vous en trouvez de bon et gratuits :-p)

Il vous faut aussi créer une texture pour l’icône, c’est une image « bitmap » qui apparaîtra dans le menu de sélection de votre thème dans le jeu. Elle a les mêmes restrictions qu’une texture pour modèle 3D, le seule chose qui change c’est qu’on peux (qu’il faut) utiliser un .png avec un transparent (autrement dit fond blanc/gris) la taille standard est 512x512 et habituellement les icônes 64x64 sont crée. Vous n’avez pas besoin de créer les icônes finales pour l’instant, mais au moins une texture provisoire est nécessaire. Les icônes seront numérotées plus tard, commencent en haut a gauche, et en allant vers le bas (comme l’écriture occidentale)

1.4 ....

(TRADUCTION EN COURS / TRANSLATING IN PROGRESS)

[kornsoadhts]

Every time I try to load a model from 3dsmax that i made using splines, the importer crashes. I made the model 5 times separately but it crashes every time. All of my other models work, except the ones I make from splines. Why is this?

EDIT: Fixed the problem VVVV

[kornsoadhts]

Ok, I figured out how to fix it. For anybody that ever encounters this problem I will tell you what you can do to fix it.

When you make an object with splines (trace a picture with the line tool, then extrude it into a 3d object), the importer crashes when you try to load it. You can get around this by the following:

1. Surround the object in a box that hides every piece of the splined object.

2. Use the boolean subtraction tool to subtract the spline from the box. (You should now have a just a box, hollowed out where the splined object used to be.)

4. Now create another box that is slightly smaller than the last one, but not smaller than the hollow part of the box. Use the boolean tool again and choose different methods (Subtract A from B, Subtract B from A, etc.) until you see the object you had originally. It can now be imported into rct3.

[pteri3]

Nice tutorial! It helped me a lot :)
But I don't get alpha textures. I just have no idea how many textures to add or what option to use (SIalpha, SIalpha mask etc.) or anything really.

[Belgabor]

That's not the scope of the beginner's tutorial =)
That will be explained in the advanced tutorial, but that section isn't written yet. Regarding the texture styles, a bit of information can be found on my facts & figures page.

[pteri3]

ok, no problem. i'll go look on your facts and figures page :)

[Cedar Point]

I'm trying to convert my .png file (SketchUp) into a .ASE file with Biturn. But when I look up in the scroll down list of file formats to convert it to, .ASE isn't there. I downloaded max-ase, the ase installer (I think), but I can't find any thread about how to install it. I tried installing it every logical way that came to me, but the .ASE format still doesn't show up. What's wrong?

[Belgabor]

Um, png is a 2D image format, it's impossible to convert to ase. You need my sketchup ase export script to be found on my software page.
But I don't recommend using Sketchup as a Beginner. It's easy, but also easy to make technically bad CS if you don't know exactly what you're doing. Try to start with MilkShape or Anim8or (or Blender). You can use Sketchup later as a short-cut if you know what to pay attention to.

[xss277x]

I recommend Blender if you have patience to learn :sour:

[yesmydear]

Edit : this was supposed to be a PM. Sorry

[Cedar Point]

Oh right...duh. :noob:
So I installed my theme, but when I try to load RCT3, the game gets to 40% Load Resources, and then crashes. Has this happened to anyone else?

[Belgabor]

Then you set up something wrong in the theme part. Reread Section 2.3 (http://rct3.sourceforge.net/tutorials/beginner_tutorial.html#sect23) of the beginner's tutorial. It's highly likely that something went wrong in that part.

[Sliverfas]

I know i asked this in the seperate thread but i selected "Fix Orientation" and my objects are still appearing half ay below ground.

All Position parameters (n) should be set to 0 (zero), the Size in squares (p) both to 1. The Size (o) should be set to the size of your model in modeller units. You have to keep in mind in this case that x/y/z here refer to the game's coordinate system. This doesn't matter if you didn't need a model transformation matrix or use MilkShape. If you had to use the Fix Orientation matrix you need to shift the values “one up”, so the size in the x direction in your modeller goes into Z, y into X and z into Y.


Quoted from tutorial, for part "o" what am i suposed to enter in the sections??? Maybe that will fix the problem. Thanks for all your help Belgabor. You are very wise when it comes to importing ;)

[Belgabor]

I know i asked this in the seperate thread but i selected "Fix Orientation" and my objects are still appearing half ay below ground.
Give me three screenshots, your model in Blender, the Model settings window in the importer and the model in game.



Quoted from tutorial, for part "o" what am i suposed to enter in the sections??? Maybe that will fix the problem.
No, it won't help. You need to set it to the full size of the object. Press "n" in Blender in object mode and it should tell you the dimensions of the object.

[Zilly]

this tutorial (and andrewwhurly) mixed together helped me create custom scenery :)

But most from andrewwhurly

[surfingoz]

I have started work on a Lego set and I need my objects to be raisable without set height increments(go up smoothly), I tried setting flag 33 and i think it was 13(I did what it said to do in Belgabors facts page) but they still lock in at the set heights. Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks,
surfingoz

[StarRngr4.0]

Nope... height over ground is locked into per unit incrementation. You;ll have to allow for that and make all your blocks at least 1 unit high.

[BurgerQueen]

Hi. I just tried to import my first CS piece.
But every time i tries to add a scenery, I can't press OK.
Heres a pic of what it looks like.
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/8185/editscenerysettings1ew8.png

[surfingoz]

You need to set unknown 1 and unkown 2.

[BurgerQueen]

Ahh.. Thanks. It worked now.

[ELDoro]

I have a question about making my first custom scenery piece. I'm following along with tutorials and stuff but still have a question. I'm using Sketchup and created a part and applied my texture to it within sketchup. Now when I'm using the RCT3 importer do I still have to upload a texture with this program? Does the importer not recognive the texture I applied within sketchup?


thanks

[LightGrenades]

When you create the OVL, you need to add the texture and "assign" it in the importer.

[ELDoro]

so should i not even bother adding it within sketchup?

[LightGrenades]

You have to do that as well. Texture and group it in sketchup, then you have to do the same for the importer.

[hyperwaves]

Ok Guys, I have made my models, and I import them to ASE Files, and i saw Atari's Objects are OVL Files. How do i change the ASE??? (I have Jonwil's importer)

[StarRngr4.0]

thats what the importer does. You export from the moddeler as .ase

you then READ THE TUTORIALS ABOUT HOW TO USE THE IMPORTER

The importer will read the .ase file and export a .ovl file that the game can use.

[Slyther360]

I have a problem i was adding my my modle but i can't get my ase. File!!!!

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

~Slyther360~

[veryConfused]

My problem is that when i get to step 2.3.1 it constantly crashes. I am using Google Sketchup to make the object, and I have been messing around with it for about a year, so I know how to use it. I just hit the ok button on that panel, and then it crashes. Can you help??

[Dark_side300]

can anyone help me before i lay over and die?

well, ive made some CS and when i imported them into the game the were on the side, rather than standing up straight... can anyone tell me why this is happening or does anyone know how to fix it.

ive seen it happen before to other members and they've fixed it, somthing to do with the matrix... i dont know im not clever. but if anyone knows how to help me it'd be great if u could tell me.
thanks.
dark_side300

[Belgabor]

can anyone help me before i lay over and die?

well, ive made some CS and when i imported them into the game the were on the side, rather than standing up straight... can anyone tell me why this is happening or does anyone know how to fix it.

ive seen it happen before to other members and they've fixed it, somthing to do with the matrix... i dont know im not clever. but if anyone knows how to help me it'd be great if u could tell me.
thanks.
dark_side300
http://www.ataricommunity.com/forums/showpost.php?p=9604259&postcount=2

[Dark_side300]

THANKYOU SOOOOOO MUCH!!!!

[katies29f]

Now I have a new Problem after getting the other problem fixed I am now getting the No Sid for SVD error and I checked its not putting my ovl's where they belong.

[Obie]

I did a search and couldn't find this fundamental info. I also don't see it in the tutorials, (could be I just don't see it right in front of me) but I have downloaded the importer software which I installed in my programs file as that seemed logical. I don't know where to install the ovlmaker. Sorry if I sound completely dense but I'm brand spanking new to cs for rct3. I have some experience with other games, just not this one. :o
I am running Vista if that makes any difference, probably doesn't.
Thanks.

[Belgabor]

ovlmake is not necessary to make static CS. It also hasn't been publically announced as it's tricky to use and there are no easy tutorials for it's primary use (animated CS) yet.
For now, keep to the importer and get used to it. If you want to animate stuff later, we can talk again but prepare for a steep learning curve (if you're curious, have a look at the readmes in the ovlmake archive).

[coinich]

If you are planning on making a lot of CS, I suggest not putting it into Program Files, but have it in a folder on the Desktop, with subfolders holding the actuall importer, as well as the models and textures you use as well.

[Obie]

Oh, okay. Thanks to both of you. I was going by the "step by step" tutorial on retexturing, I thought that might be a good place to start but then I saw that the writer was pointing to "My Documents" and I thought maybe I was supposed to put the ovl thingy in that file. Oh dear. Okay. making more work for myself than I needed to. I have the free Genetic Viewer and love making floor and wall textures so I'll see if I can't figure out how to import some stuff into my Photoshop CS and do some tinkering. Thanks again, sorry to be a nuisance.:)

[ollie101]

Hey,

I hate to make myself sound like an idiot but I just can;t seem to get this to work. I've been playing around with sketchup and the importer and managed to import a few different walls with textures working well and everything. The problem comes when I have more than one group in sketchup. I have grouped and textured everything in sketchup as normal but when I load my .ase file into the importer I only get one group appearing on the right hand side. This is quite annoying as it means I can't use multiple textures. Does anyone have a fix for this? If you need any more information I can supply it :)

[Belgabor]

You have to give your groups different names.

[ollie101]

Thanks a lot man, now I feel like an idiot lol

I assumed it generated names like group001,group002 or whatever; I should've realised

Sorry for dragging up this thread

[zookboy]

Sorta stuck Biturn wont convert my sketchup file and the onyl files i and save it as is .skp help?

[FlyingDutchman7]

Download the plugins from Remarkable forums!

[stu-2693]

isn't that advertising? the plug ins are available other places, not just there...

has permission been given to put them there? i also don't see the point if there is already a download on (i think) belgabor's vodhin.org page ;)

[zookboy]

Thanxs Sorted Now

[Belgabor]

stu, the plugins are GPL'd script files, so anyone can host them without explicit permission.

[stu-2693]

yea, well i just assumed... as most things need permission of some sort these days

[Belgabor]

Well, it's somewhat special. The GPL forces people to host the source along the binaries, but them being script files, in this case both is done at the same time =)

[stu-2693]

the most i know about copyright stuff is that if you make something, you own copyright to it :p

[freesz]

I got a problem i think... i saw a tutorial on youtube and i'm working with google sketchup 6.

On youtube it says i need to go to plugins>RCT3>placement>Full tile

But the problem is... i don't got the plugins buttons :S
I show ya..
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/5708/pluginhl7.jpg

Do i see it wrong or does it stand somewhere else?

Ty for helping meh

[sherman454]

You have to download the plugins

[freesz]

You have to download the plugins
I did, but where to put them?

[sherman454]

C:\Program Files\Google\Google SketchUp 6\Plugins

[freesz]

Found it ty

Oooh and how to get that nooby guy away??

[feefeefee3]

I hope that will help me a lot and, I hope to 1 day be making Custom Scenery sets, and maybe even CFRS 1 day.

[freesz]

How to import a scenery with 2 different textures??

[VampireSundae]

If I need to fix the model settings of every piece, do I have to make new .ovl files, then change the scenery settings, or will they automatically change since I do not plan on changing the .ovl name?

[Belgabor]

Whenever you change something in the Create OVL window, you need to recreate the respective OVLs. If you refer to the Scenery Settings accessible via the Scenery button (in-game name and so on), no, you do not need to recreate the individual ovl files.

[noop279]

How do i get it in english lol?

[Belgabor]

I don't know, maybe by clicking on the link?!?