I've read rumors that art made in the original two RCT games were made in LightWave. Is that true? [noob]
What's your take on art/rides/mods made by users in the community?
IF modding is a possibility either from the get go or as time goes by; any pointers on detail level/polycount restrictions/texture size, PBR or Spec/gloss workflow?
Not rides per se, but.. somewhat interesting either way for all of us I guess.
Will you please forward the wish for a "free camera" mode in order to float around and make the very best of angles, zoom, dolly, pan/tilt and such to show off our own designs to the community? [hehe] As a followup and plus to that : support for 3D Connexxion hardware to control the camera in this mode would be even more awesome. [yum]
Good evening folks! It's good to be back again
Hi OlaHaldor
"I've read rumors that art made in the original two RCT games were made in LightWave. Is that true? [noob]"
When I worked on RCT2 the source files we received were built in an early version of cinema 4D, this made for an interesting development process as we had to reverse engineer how RCT2 was built with very little hard background information. This tied our hands quite a bit and we had little access to the engines core and could only re-imagine existing rides. But I'm very proud of what our team managed to achieve with such contained set of working parameters. I remember spending months building tens of thousands of sprites for new coasters, amusement rides and scenery. This is were I really caught the bug for roller coasters.
On a side not I worked with Lightwave for about 5 years in previous companies. i loved the modeller and having a separate layout program made total sense [yesnod]
"What's your take on art/rides/mods made by users in the community?
IF modding is a possibility either from the get go or as time goes by; any pointers on detail level/polycount restrictions/texture size, PBR or Spec/gloss workflow?
Not rides per se, but.. somewhat interesting either way for all of us I guess."
Modding was a big part of what kept RCT3 alive for so many years and that has not gone unnoticed by us. We've been inspired by what the community has managed to create with our game. Some of the things we've seen have been absolutely breathtaking.
I think it's too early to discuss if we'll have modding within Planet Coaster but as I've said, we understand it's potential.
As for advice on modding in general - Keep it clean, optimise wherever possible without compromising the quality. It's surprising how much a difference having clean, efficient UV layouts and topology makes to overall performance. We use a metalness, spec gloss workflow in our engine which has bought new challenges but also given us a powerful tool kit to create some beautiful surfaces. I'm a total control freak when it comes to keeping things efficient, tidy and having realistic surface response. Also anything mechanical should have a justification for how it works (pistons, gearing, cables should all be visible if possible) What you'll see in March is just the beginning and already we think it's looking stunning. I often double-take when I'm walking past desks because I keep thinking I'm seeing a photo or video of a real ride!
"Will you please forward the wish for a "free camera" mode in order to float around and make the very best of angles, zoom, dolly, pan/tilt and such to show off our own designs to the community? [hehe] As a followup and plus to that : support for 3D Connexxion hardware to control the camera in this mode would be even more awesome"
We want to show off the game in the best light possible and we'll endeavour to give you guys all the tools we can to help you explore and show-off your creations - consider both requests passed on to our code and design teams [squeeeeee]