ElectroShock Custom Building Set - Now Wild Compatible!

[Klinn]

Update! Now Wild-compatible!
Works with regular RCT3, with Soaked, and with Wild expansions.
Click link just below for latest Setup program.

Update! New easy-to-use installer!
Just save the ElectroSet Setup on your computer and double-click it to install.


Update! The ElectroShock Building Set can now be recoloured!
See the post on page 3 for details.


Howdy Folks!

It took a little longer than expected, but I've finished putting together my first package of custom building pieces for your downloading pleasure. These custom walls, roofs, and other odd bits were originally created for use in my ElectroShock Coaster video but I’ve added a few new ones too. I've also put together another video clip showing the new features, e.g. the translucent tube and girders.


Original ElectroShock Coaster Video
New Video Highlighting Translucent Tubes


For those that haven't been following this adventure, custom scenery has only become possible thanks to the hard work of JonWil, who analysed RCT3’s files and created utilities to import objects into the game. A huge round of applause should be sent his way.


Caution!

Creating and using custom RCT3 objects is still at the experimental stage. While these parts have been tested and should not cause any problems, by using them you are assuming all risk should something corrupt your Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 installation or your parks. Don’t expect any help from Atari or Frontier if things go bad, they will not support a game modified with third-party fan add-ons. Only use this set if you are comfortable mucking around with RCT3’s files. These custom parts were developed and tested on the North American retail release of Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 complete with the Soaked expansion. They should work just as well on other versions, but there are no guarantees. If you’re not confident in your ability to recover from tinkering with RCT3’s files, then don’t.

Still with us? OK, you can get the ElectroShock Building Set from my site, or use this direct link to the installer program. Below are tips on how to install and use the custom wall set.


Installation & Uninstalling

- Save the ElectroSet Setup program anywhere on your computer, then double-click on it to install the building set.

- To uninstall the set, go to the Windows Control Panel and double-click on "Add Or Remove Programs". Select "Klinn's ElectroSet Version 2" from the list and click the "Remove" button.

- After deleting the custom scenery, if you load a park which included items from the set, it should load OK but of course the custom buildings will be gone.


Using the Custom Building Set

Start up a new sandbox park or new custom scenario and open the walls section of the scenery list. Make sure you don’t have the Sci-Fi theme filtered out, since that’s where my ElectroSet appears. Scroll down through the wall sets until you see ‘Klinn’s ElectroSet’.

If you are trying to use the items in an old park or old custom scenario, not a new one, by default the objects are set ‘To Be Invented’. They will not appear until your researchers discover them. If you want them to be available immediately, you’ll have to make a slight change to the park with the Scenario Editor:
- Open the park with the Scenario Editor.
- Click the ‘Set Up Inventions’ button.
- Select all the ElectroSet items in the middle column.
- Click the green arrow under the right column to move the items there.
- Save the park.

By putting the ElectroSet objects in the ‘Available From Start of Game’ column, you’ll be able to use them right away, you won’t have to wait for them to be invented in the game. When creating a new custom scenario, remember to put them in the column you wish, depending on the scenario objectives and restrictions you are setting up.

Once you can see the Klinn’s ElectroSet group, open it up and you’ll see the pieces included:

- Electro Wall Curved 01 - a basic curved wall.
- Electro Wall Curved 02 - as above but with a circular entrance.
- Electro Roof Curved 01 - fits on top of either curved wall.
- Electro Roof Curved 02 - used where two roofs come together.
- Electro Roof Cap 01 - plugs the hole in center of curved roof sections.
- Electro Roof Cap 02 - same, but shows where to place Electro Post 01 on top.
- Electro Filler 01 - if use reverse-curve walls, fills in gap.
- Electro Tube 01 - fits between one Electro Curved Wall 02’s opening and another.
- Electro Tube Frame 01 - place over top of tube to ‘support’ it.
- Electro Tube 02 - fits between regular RCT3 walls.
- Electro Tube Frame 02 - place over top of tube to ‘support’ it.
- Electro Girder 01 - vertical triangular framework section, stackable.
- Electro Girder 02 - horizontal framework section, add more sections onto the ends.
- Electro Post 01 - vertical electrical post, can add firework effects.
- Electro Post 02 - horizontal electrical post, can add firework effect.

As you select and place the custom objects, you’ll see a couple of differences compared to the normal RCT3 items.

First, while you’ll get a ghost image of the object itself, there’s only one blue square on the ground to help you gauge its position. To get around this, I sometimes swing my viewpoint almost directly overhead and get the object in the right spot, hold the left Shift key down while swinging my viewpoint back down to ground level, and slide the object up and down as required. It can be a little tricky when working on a large building, try not to curse the custom objects too much.

Secondly, there is no collision detection - you can place the objects anywhere except on a path, even overlapping each other. This can make it harder to stack wall sections. They won’t jump up to the top of the previous one; you’ll have to raise them to the right height yourself.





Four of the curved walls make a complete circular building, but there are many other ways of combining them. You can flip a wall around so it curves the other way and it will match up with other walls. If you place a reverse-curve wall above a regular one, there will be a gap between them. Fill this in with the Electro Filler 01 panel. The same filler works up under a curved roof that overhangs a reversed wall.





The centre hole in a roof can be filled with either style of Electro Roof Cap. These can be positioned so they’re snuggly fitted into the roof, or raised one notch to reveal a ring detail. Electro Roof Cap 02 has some ribs on it to help show where an Electro Post 01 can be positioned on top. I tend to leave the roof caps off until after I build walkways or coaster tracks through the buildings. In fact, you can even thread a steep or vertical coaster track right through the center hole.





The Electro Tube has two parts, the translucent glass and the tube framework. Place one of each in the same spot to complete the set. Tubes can connect walls that are various distances apart by floating closely in between or overlapping as needed.





You may notice that when roller coasters go through the tubes, the coaster cars disappear. The peeps are still there, so it looks like they are floating along the track. Looks fine when riding the coaster, it’s only from the outside that the cars temporarily disappear.

(continued next post...)

[WoddenWarior]

Awesome work, Klinn. I'll have to DL these!

[Klinn]

(...continued from previous post)

The vertical Electro Post 01 occupies a quarter tile. This allows you place a fireworks mortar within it to make the ‘electrical discharge’ effect. Use the ‘KLN-ElectroPost01.frw’ firework and attach it to the mortar. If you place two of these posts close together, on either side of a coaster track for example, you can hide a fireworks mortar in the top sphere of one post and have it shoot an electrical effect over to the other post. Use either the ‘KLN-ElectroPost02-0.frw’, ‘KLN-ElectroPost02-90.frw’, ‘KLN-ElectroPost02-180.frw’, or ‘KLN-ElectroPost02-270.frw’ firework depending on which direction (angle) the effect should travel.





Electro Post 02 fits between two closely spaced buildings, either with or without circular openings. Hide a mortar inside and use ‘KLN-ElectroPost03-0.frw’, ‘KLN-ElectroPost03-90.frw’, ‘KLN-ElectroPost03-180.frw’, or ‘KLN-ElectroPost03-270.frw’ to get the electrical discharge effect across the post. Again, which fireworks effect you use depends on the direction (angle) you want it to travel.





Any time you place a mortar, you’ll have to make sure it’s on the right quarter tile to line up with the Electro Post. It takes a bit of practice until you get used to it.

The two girder sections are pretty easy to use. Just stack the vertical one (Electro Girder 01) as high as you want. The horizontal one (Electro Girder 02) can be extended by adding sections onto either end. To finish the end that doesn’t have the triangle of struts, just flip the last piece around so it overlaps the previous section. Like all the custom objects, there is no collision detection, so you can overlap pieces freely, embed them in walls or the ground and so on. You can use them with my custom curved walls, or with the regular RCT3 walls to build framework like this:






Known Issues

- Objects will not appear in old parks until they have been ‘invented’ by your researchers. If you don’t want to wait for this to happen, see the beginning of the section above for instructions on using the Scenario Editor to make them immediately available. This is only for old parks. Any new sandbox parks will have them automatically, and when creating a new custom scenario you can choose when they will become available just as you would with any regular scenery item.

- When positioning an item, there is only one blue ghost square on the ground. Makes it tougher to place them, but see the previous section for tips on getting around this.

- The walls aren’t true ‘wall’ objects in the sense that they don’t automatically flip around as you move them close to the edges of the ground grid squares. Since you can’t see the blue ghost square on the ground, that behaviour became confusing. Just use the regular ‘Z’ key to rotate them to the correct orientation, then place in position.

- There are some weird dark or light triangles or blobs on the objects. This may be caused by smoothing errors introduced by the format of the mesh file. Experimentation continues.

- Roller coasters may disappear when they travel through the translucent tubes. With some coasters, only the trailing cars vanish. For other types, all cars disappear. Only the peeps and the coaster wheels remain, so it looks like they are floating along the track. It looks fine when you’re riding a coaster, it’s only from the outside that the glitch appears. This could be an obscure rendering optimization built into the game, or it could be due to the drivers used for specific video cards, hard to say.

- The curved roof and roof cap pieces are still a little polygon-heavy. When you’re building, be sure to test the park with peeps in it every once in a while to make sure it hasn’t slowed down unacceptably.

- All icons in the ElectroSet group have white backgrounds, not alternating white and grey.

- Mortars placed in Electro Post 02, or in the top sphere of Electro Post 01, end up a little too high. As a result, the horizontal ‘electrical discharge’ effect is not quite in the right place.


Making Your Own Custom Scenery

If you would like to try your hand at making custom scenery, be sure to visit the General Forum and look for JonWil’s threads. They contain all the information you need to get started. Hopefully as the community builds up more experience, some tutorials will be written to help guide folks through the process.


Redistribution

Please feel free to pass along the ElectroSet Setup file of the custom buildings, or to host it on your web site, so long as it is not done for profit. Please include the ReadMe file so that other users will know how to use the set.


Contacts

If you have any problems or suggestions, please send me a PM at the Atari RCT3 forums. My user name is ‘Klinn’. Or send an email to Klinn AT Designamatic DOT com.


Acknowledgements

First and foremost, major props to JonWil, who somehow managed to decode much of RCT3’s file formats and create an incredibly useful Importer utility. Wouldn’t it be nice if you sent him a PM expressing your thanks? If you want to learn how to build your own custom RCT3 objects, be sure to check out JonWil’s threads in the General Forum.

Thanks as well to many of the Atari forum regulars who have been experimenting with custom objects and sharing their experiences and information. In particular, Pumper, Marnetmar, Guybrush, and Miss O have helped clarify many things that puzzled me as I built the ElectroSet. In addition, all your enthusiastic feedback while I was developing this custom set kept me plugging away at it. I hope it meets your expectations and gives you some interesting new things to try in your parks.

And finally, thanks to Frontier and Atari for creating such a fascinating game that just keeps getting better and better!

[JCat]

I just want to state how fantastic this set is. It was meticulously desgined, and works flawlessly. This is an absolute, stunning set of objects to compliment any park, and with the talented members we have here, there's going to be some mighty eye-popping masterpieces.

[Guybrush_47]

Klinn, you may want to update your work. I've worked out how to add in collision detection and some other stuff. Looks great however, i'll install it up and search for bugs tommorow

[Klinn]

Guybrush: Actually, for this set, I'm glad there is no collision detection. I used to have collision detection working back when I built the first version of these pieces with the older version of JonWil's Importer, and it was a royal pain for a lot of the things I wanted to do.

Pumper: Thanks for the compliments, and thanks to both you and Marnetmar for kindly testing the pieces. I'll be looking forward to the cool stuff you two come out with.

[marnetmar]

Big Thanks to Klinn for the new "Goodies" for everyone to play with These all look really Great & worked perfectly fine for me in the game. We've still got some things to figure out, but this is a great start to I'm sure many more Very cool new additions to the game.

Excellent work once again Klinn

Also a huge Thank You to Jonwil for making the importer that made these mods & others possible

[Tidus243]

Great jonwill and GREAT Klinn!!!! I'm very happy to use your creation!!!! It's a fantastic add-on for RCT3!!! you know, you are great, and I can see all your smiles full of satisfaction that you do each time you read our posts...that is the real value of your hard work. Thanks Klinn.

[hillibilly]

You are really amazing to have built and shared this with everyone Klinn. The walls and tubes are a GREAT!! add-in and I will use theme with evrything. Thanks Again.

[KoasterKid23]

Thanx Klinn!

[CoasterExpert]

Omg thank you sso much klinn. Especially Jonwil for making this possible.

[Da_Jokerman]

I like this stuff. You go Klinn! And I guess Jonwil too.

But I do have one thing to say. The glass tubes and electro tube frames would have been better if it just took up one block of space. You would have more control of the length. But hey I ain't trying to be a complainer just expressing a thought that entered my head. I still plan on using this stuff. I hope I can one day be able to create cool custom stuff like this.

[ytivarg]

Excellent work... and not only to Klinn, but everyone who's work made this GIANT step possible.

And, to Klinn... the set is awesome. While I have yet to download the set and install it into the game, I already see a hundred different possibilities. Maybe not so much with the walls and such (Which I like, but I can't see a use for them in what I'm currently working on.. perhaps a future project?), but your custom girders and the electro posts... now those... can be used in a ton of applications.

This just might have to end up in Gotham City

Thanks again.... Awesome work!

[ytivarg]

Just installed it... worked flawlessly! (As soon as I realized in order to make it work in an already established park in Sandbox Mode, one needs to make those items available in Scenario Editor!)

Pieces look awesome! Now we (and by we, I mean all of you guys ) need to figure out how to make the user-selected coloring work.

[n747]

and what an amazing set it is - i thought that i couldve had no use for it (the size of the thing), but after looking through it and trying some out, its mroe versatile than you gave credit for!

its a step in the right direction, and has enabled me to test my hand at mixing themes. i saw that a lot of the original themes fit like a glove next to yours. here are some shots of what i mean.


i was able to use the girders, in combination with the arc of the spinning wild mouse coaster to make this cool entryway that could fit in any real life theme park. the girders are incredably usefull and i hope you continue with support structures (*cough* tubular coaster supports *cough*)


i was able to use the electrical posts as a jumping fountain centerpiece that doesnt conflict with the path system. they came out magnificent.


and lastly, the main structures are a very bold statement in the fabric of the game. i didnt want to use every piece, because it was too big for the space. so because these pieces are non-confrontational with existing scenery i was able to add a mesh balcony type thing right below the start of the round walls. plus, i was able to nest concrete blocks to create a pretty neat roof. the glass tube gives a level of drama too, all great objects. and extremely useful.

thanks so much for these Klinn. with the great minds here, the scenery should be multiplying by the end of the month! again, thanks Klinn and good luck on future projects!

[Da_Jokerman]

Yo man where did those jumping foutains come from? That has to be player created because I haven't seen that in my game.

[rizzla]

Absolutely awesome, Klinn! Thank you very much for all this hard work and sharing the results with us! Seeing this in my RTC3 made my eyes go all wet:



I'm sure I'll be able to fit a few pieces into my park somewhere...

[Vampyress]

Excellent work Klinn! You did a great job!

I went and downloaded them right away, and experimented with them to see what was possible. I just wanted to let you know (since you're being very accurate with a "bug list") I found two more possible bugs.

These being;
* You can build paths under the walls, not just inside the building or around. (though I assume this is caused by the "no collision detection")
* When building lamps around the electro tubes, they start to flicker a lot, best seen at night. (not the lights, the tubes)

Dunno if either of these were intentional, so I thought I'd share them.

Regardless, I love the package and will definately use them!

[2005]

no one i think has yet figured out collision detction but most of the time its an advantage............

i didn't know you could add detailed textured icons, i'll try that.......

[live_the_thrill]

Bravo!! Very nice work!! It works on mine and mine is RCT 3 Europe! I want to use this on so many rides, only problem is that it isnt at an angle so I could use it on a Space Mountain RIde!! It is great that you can put rides through it!! I wish you could change the color, but you cant have them all!

[Sawyer]

Hey, erm im gonna sound really stuoid now, but mi really confuzzeld lol i have the europian RCT3 and i dont know how to instal it, please help ?

[Klinn]

Thanks for all the kind words, folks, I'm glad you are enjoying the building set. Please bear in mind that I don't consider these parts to be all that great. The first attempt at anything usually has some rough edges, and these items are certainly no exception. With the talent shown by various mod-makers around here, I have no doubt that you'll see some much more amazing things in the near future.

n747: Heh-you get the honour of first screenshots with the new parts! It was interesting to see them with "bloom" on, since I normally have that option turned off. Glad to see you used the green colour on other items - like others, I hope we can create re- colourable custom pieces sometime.

ytivarg: I didn't realize you couldn't incorporate them straightaway into an existing sandbox park, I'll have to experiment with that.

Vampyress: Yes, you can build paths right through the walls because of the 'no collision' thing. But that also meant I could put the coaster through the wall opening, plus other building tricks, so for this particular set it seemed a good trade-off. Thanks for the note about the lighting, I think it is because Frontier never expected glass surfaces to be used in this way, so there are some odd things happening in rendering. It will be interesting to see if it changes when Soaked is released, since they have their own transparent tube walkways.

Sawyer: When you followed the instructions to install the set, which part was confusing? If you could let me know how far you've gotten or what you've tried, I'll have a better chance of helping you.

[KoasterKid23]

After downloading and installing these I went and played some of the scenarios and every once and a while one of the items would be researched in the main scenarios. I was very surprised because they were programmed without your objects.

[2005]

just got them, looks very professional, excellent models. Only (small) bad thing is slightly high poly count but overall by far the best models made even compared to rct. I think we are going to see some really good models from klinn.

[Sawyer]

ooo i have it now,

Amazing Work, can't wait to see more off you

[RCT4me]

They looks too high in polygon detail. I'm going to have framerate nightmares if I install this...

They look great though. If only there was a way to texture them...

Good job.

[ToonTowner]

I felt compelled to comment as I feel I know a little about custom scenery in RCT games.

Firstly, this is a great first attempt at a custom scenery pack. Of course, there will be small glitches and problems associated with the early stages of RCT3 custom scenery, but overall this is a very well modeled attempt. I understand that things can't be recoloured yet and hope that until this is resolved there is not too much custom scenery available that will just need to be redone once it's an option. That is not within your control right now so is just a minor concern. I actually think having collisions off for these items was a good choice as it gives the builder far more flexibility when building. I still hope someone develops a trainer to turn collisions of when building as that is my favourite feature of trainers in previous versions of RCT. (hint hint to anyone with the knowledge to do this )

However, as someone else already mentioned, my biggest peeve with these is the fact that the girders and tubes are multiple tiles long or clearance levels high. It would seem to me that when designing objects, versatility should be a major consideration. With that in mind, it would be much better if repetive patterns like in these two objects were broken down to their smallest common denominator which would allow the users to have girders or tubes of any length/height required for their work. The lack of collisions does allow this to some extent, but I still think the object would be far better served as single tile pieces.

Still a great first step! Congrats.

[ytivarg]

Originally posted by Klinn

ytivarg: I didn't realize you couldn't incorporate them straightaway into an existing sandbox park, I'll have to experiment with that.

It got me thinking I had done something wrong at first... Immediately after installing, I opened a new sandbox, and boom.. they were there ready to go. When I opened Gotham City (I prefer to build in Sandbox vs. Scenario Editor) they were nowhere to be found. I quickly realized I had to open Gotham City in Scenario Editor, and edit the Electro set into the "Inventions" list so that they were available (they auto-set to the middle column, to be invented during the course of the game). After that, they worked perfectly. Just something you might want to add to your website directions and/or readme file. It's an easy fix, but just as easy for someone new downloading your set to overlook and think they don't work!

Originally posted by ToonTowner

However, as someone else already mentioned, my biggest peeve with these is the fact that the girders and tubes are multiple tiles long or clearance levels high. It would seem to me that when designing objects, versatility should be a major consideration. With that in mind, it would be much better if repetive patterns like in these two objects were broken down to their smallest common denominator which would allow the users to have girders or tubes of any length/height required for their work.

I'd have to agree here, mainly with the glass tube and the surround for it. I attempted using it on Mr. Freeze's (Gotham City) launch tunnel. The current length of the tunnel requires that I overlap the tube by one square. This causes a horrible flicker on the glass tube. A single tile version of the tube, and the surround for it, would have made these pieces much more versatile. I have not had a problem with the girders, however. They seem to be at the right length to build vertically and horizontally at any height/length.

[2005]

i disagree becasue having hundreds of custom objects one square in size isn't realistic.

The whole point of custom objects is they can be big and made to fit a given situation by the park creator, with minimal polygons.

[Da_Jokerman]

Yea but sometimes it can be an inconvenience.