Hi everyone! I was wondering if anyone here knows of any tutorials on how to make custom scenery for RCT3? I have so many things that I would like to make for scenery but I don't know how. Somewhere I heard about using a program called "Sketchup". I have that program, will it work for creating scenery? And how would I save a file? Thanks!

I have good news and bad news.

First the good news – here’s list of what I believe would be needed in order for you to get a good start:

* Belgabor’s OvlMake
* Blender (forget about Google Sketch-Up)
* various Blender scripts
* I’m not sure if Belgabor’s Plug-Ins work with Blender but if they do, those
* Tutorials
* Belgabor’s and/or Jonwil’s Importer
* A copy of the “mingwm10.dll” File to go in the installation directory of RCT3 Object Importer after installation, if it’s not already there
* ASE Import/Export Plug-In
* Bitturn and/or ASE Converter
* Possibly Jonwil’s RCT3 File Dumper

And if you’re interested in creating rides, also:

* CTR Creator
* Track Decoder Utility
* Ride templates


And now the bad news:

In RCT2 all you needed to create CS was an object editor and an image editing program – that's the extent of my CS creation experience. However, the above list represents the things I have over time downloaded and put aside as I have come across them so I’ll have them to hand and be ready to wade through them on the day I’m prepared to get started making CS. I probably won’t need all of them but I’m sure I’ll need most of them. From this list it’s plain to see that creating scenery for RCT3 isn’t as simple as creating it was for RCT2. I have the highest regard for anyone who has created beautiful, working CS for this game and my hat’s off to anyone who could get their head around and create working CFR’s and CTR’s.

Finally, I provide this information as you're a newby, you seem keen to get started, no one else has had the time to welcome you yet and I thought this information might give you a leg up.

If any of the above items are unnecessary, if any are duplicates, or if any have been overlooked I’m sure another board member would add to this thread.

Welcome to our site.

* Belgabor’s OvlMake
* Blender (forget about Google Sketch-Up)

What version of Blender? (I think 2.48?)
Did you use Blender personally? For me, I frequently use Sketch-up. But I'm still learning to use Blender.

Hey, about belgabor's OvlMake, what's the use of that?
when I use that, black screen appears (the cmd appears)
I have the version 0.5.

I have Blender 2.49, Python, and loads of plug-ins. I understand from help I’ve gotten and help I’ve read that one limits themselves creating CS with Sketch-Up. Sketch-Up is easy to learn but can only take you so far. Blender, while having a rather steep learning curve, will do more to help you reach your potential once one’s gotten used to how it works.

If I remember correctly you’ll need to go to the Python site to download Python interpreter for use with blender:

http://www.python.org/download/


As with CS, Blender/Python scripts come with various instructions as to how they should be installed in various files.


Here are some additional links that might be helpful:

blender.org Home Page for complete Blender documentation
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:So...l_Previews

Blender Python Scripts Catalog (same site, different page)
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Extens...ts/Catalog

Blender Tutorials-Resources-External links – BlenderWiki (same site, different page)
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:Tu...rnal_links

a Forum for Blender Artists
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthre...?p=1459100

Blender Plugin Repository
http://www-users.cs.umn.edu/~mein/blender/plugins/

Blender Theme Repository
http://www.graphicall.org/themes/

Blender Underground Home Page
http://blenderunderground.com/

Blender Wiki - Every Material Known to Man
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:...own_to_Man


I don't know what's going on here. I've copied and pasted these links with smilies disabled and it's not pasting properly. All these links work as I've just tried them. I hope you can figure out where this information is from what's come up.
___________________________________

In the .txt read me file that came with OvlMake, The_Cook wrote (copied and pasted here):

“OvlCompiler is a command line tool that can be used to compile simple XML files into .ovl files that contain animations. An XML file specifies the meshes (in .ase format), textures (in .bmp format), details of the bones and the animation steps for the bones. The tool is limited simplistic animations where a mesh is assigned to a single bone.”

And in the HTML read me (copied and pasted here):

“OvlMake is the successor to OvlCompliler, a command line tool to compile simple xml files into ovl files. OvlCompiler was written by the_cook to provide a tool enabling creation of animated scenery for RCT3…..

I've put considerable efford into finally understanding how ovl files work. While I have not yet understood all, I was able to rewrite the creation code in a much cleaner fashion. This also leads to the creation of cleaner ovl files by ovlmake. Therefore it may be a good idea to use ovlmake to compile your scn files for static scenery as well.”

To the best of my knowledge The_Cook is single handedly responsible for analyzing .ovl files and in doing so has allowed us to arrive to where we are today with CS, CTR’s and CFR’s. I believe this HTML was written by him although I haven’t read specifically that he wrote it. If the author of this HTML file is not The_Cook and is reading this I hope you will realize my misidentifying the author was not intentional.

According to the license text I have OvlMake v3 © 2007

_____________________________

12 March

Here are a few more items you might want to consider:

RCT3 Animator
CTR Creator
Track Section List utility (possibly)

You can get them here (a site recommended previously to me by Wojoma):

http://www.rct-3.org/files/category3-rol...p-trainer/

Thank you for that lot of information! THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!!! Now, I will try to make custom scenery with Blender! (With animations)

Man. Why do you need Blender?