Planet Zoo - Custom Billboards
- Thread starter Chante Goodman
- Start date
I was playing around with the billboards feature a little while back in Planet Coaster in anticipation of PZ ever receiving them. As a matter of fact billboards and getting to understand this feature was the main reason for me getting this game, and what I found out will translate perfectly into Planet Zoo.
As many have pointed out, the lack of props in Planet Zoo can often leave areas feeling sterile. It is also very difficult to create interesting and realistic viewing areas in the game without this feature, as it would take an immense amount of official props to fully decorate them. With the billboards feature this is a thing of the past, as areas can be as intriguing, realistic and detail as you want them to be.
All of the assets below, from signs to backgrounds were created using Planet Coaster billboards. Since I was also using the billboards to recreate marine and aquatic exhibits, showing still videos of real animals, it was very easy to create a matching vibe with the billboards as props and signs. Obviously in Planet Zoo the style is very different, since we are dealing with stylized animals and a game that has its own visual identity, so it would be beneficial to create billboards that blend in well with this style.
One of the most anticipated benefits of billboards for me is the inclusion of custom exhibit backgrounds in the game. Often used in Reptile/Amphibian exhibitions murals and backgrounds not only to create a fully immersive experience, but to add character and create a story. That is one of the main currently missing components in Planet Zoo, and especially indoor areas featuring these kinds of exhibits.
Being able to add elaborate tile murals to the interior and exterior of buildings is another use of this tool I'm really looking forward to. Many talented players have done incredible jobs recreating tile murals in game with thousands of pieces, sadly this has an adverse effect on game performance. With this feature that problem should go away.
As many have pointed out, the lack of props in Planet Zoo can often leave areas feeling sterile. It is also very difficult to create interesting and realistic viewing areas in the game without this feature, as it would take an immense amount of official props to fully decorate them. With the billboards feature this is a thing of the past, as areas can be as intriguing, realistic and detail as you want them to be.
All of the assets below, from signs to backgrounds were created using Planet Coaster billboards. Since I was also using the billboards to recreate marine and aquatic exhibits, showing still videos of real animals, it was very easy to create a matching vibe with the billboards as props and signs. Obviously in Planet Zoo the style is very different, since we are dealing with stylized animals and a game that has its own visual identity, so it would be beneficial to create billboards that blend in well with this style.
One of the most anticipated benefits of billboards for me is the inclusion of custom exhibit backgrounds in the game. Often used in Reptile/Amphibian exhibitions murals and backgrounds not only to create a fully immersive experience, but to add character and create a story. That is one of the main currently missing components in Planet Zoo, and especially indoor areas featuring these kinds of exhibits.
Being able to add elaborate tile murals to the interior and exterior of buildings is another use of this tool I'm really looking forward to. Many talented players have done incredible jobs recreating tile murals in game with thousands of pieces, sadly this has an adverse effect on game performance. With this feature that problem should go away.
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I have a question... not sure if it has been discussed before.
For what I understand from the announcement details, the smallest screens (1 and 2 meters) are for "Habitat and Exhibits". Does it mean that the images displayed must be related to a nearby species? So, for non-species related (placed anywhere of the zoo without getting education alerts) you need to use the "Projection screen", which it's 4m wide. Is it correct?
Just asking it because I was thinking about some custom billboards announcing menus for the zoo restaurant and the ones of 1-2 meters would be great. 4 meters would be too big. The same for some other generic billboards about the zoo (membership signs, zoo maps, exit signs, ...).
EDIT:
We thought you may like to know the Custom Billboard sizes, so that you can begin working on your images and videos to upload into the game once our next update is complete!
We hope this helps! We're looking forward to our PlanZo Fam putting the Custom Billboards to good use!
- Screen Panel - 1:1, Square, 512 x 512px
- Conservation Education Board - 9:16, Tall, 256 x 456px
- Projection Screens (8m, 16m, 32m) - 16:9, Wide-Large, 1824 x 1024px
- TV Screen (4m), Projection Screen (4) - 16:9, Wide-Medium, 912 x 512px
- TV Screens (1m, 2m), Habitat & Exhibit Screens - 16:9, Wide-Small, 456 x 256px
I had a similar question. How big is the "screen panel"?
It would be really nice to be able to utilize those "habitat & exhibit" screens that are 1m and 2m for anything. I would be really disappointed if we were limited to 4m+ for things beyond habitats.
I would imagine that we can use them for anything and we don't necessarily need to link them to a specific habitat because that would deflate the excitement around this in a pretty major way as it would take away a chunk of the functionality that most people are excited about.
Roughly how large will the square billboards be in-game?
Hello! Custom billboards are out and they are great. I love that you have added all the animal info images from the old info panels so that we can use them in any other screen size. I have two remarks to try to make them even better:
1) The names of the images haven't been translated into Spanish. It's confusing having the animal names in English.
2) The classic question: Can we have a search bar? With so many pictures available, we waste a long time searching (and having it in English makes it worse, because the order in which they are shown is different from the orfer in the zoopedia and everywhere else.
1) The names of the images haven't been translated into Spanish. It's confusing having the animal names in English.
2) The classic question: Can we have a search bar? With so many pictures available, we waste a long time searching (and having it in English makes it worse, because the order in which they are shown is different from the orfer in the zoopedia and everywhere else.
Can anyone get the boards working? I'm doing SOMETHING wrong and have no idea what it is.
This should be set up perfectly ... I got them working in Planet Coaster, so why not in this game?
This should be set up perfectly ... I got them working in Planet Coaster, so why not in this game?
Can I just say as someone who had no experience with working with the Planet Coaster billboards, I absolutely love these are so user friendly (so long as you follow directions!) I've already got several meerkat boards created in hopeful anticipation- I may just put them in a habitat and pretend for now. As someone who has not one whit of painting/drawing artistic ability, being able to just find pictures of the animals or just nature and just be able to put it in the game is fantastic.
I'd honestly imagined this would be a whole lot more difficult than it is, so this was not really the big part of the update I was most excited about. well that's changed.
I'd honestly imagined this would be a whole lot more difficult than it is, so this was not really the big part of the update I was most excited about. well that's changed.
Hello, just started playing the new DLC and update and very excited for this! Just wondering if anyone knows if one is playing Planet Zoo with 1) MacOS, and 2) NVIDIA GeForce (as a mac owner this is the only way I can play), is it possible to still use custom billboards? If so, what folder should I put the custom image and video files to?
not possible, unfortunately.
Does anyone know where the original Education Signs are saved? I think it might be easier to create new Signs with the original Sign as a Base
.webm is apparently one format my video editing software doesn't support. Does anyone know a free app to convert videos to .webm that doesn't leave a huge watermark on the videos? I haven't been able to find anything that doesn't want to charge me a bundle, and I don't want to pay $60 or more for software that I'm not going to use 99% of the features on.
Someone recommended HandBrake to me. So far I don't have any Problems with it
is we can use files from the workshop, why not to let us use our own files? They should fixt it
Will there be an update removing the restriction of .TGA files for users with Win older than 10? I'm using Win 7 and I can't use the billboards as they are now. Frontier preloaded images don't show up, and any image converted to .tga looks like garbage. Really disappointed with this, and I really don't understand such an arbitrary decision as to force the game to differentiate between the operating systems. Win 7 processes the other formats just fine.
(Not trying to sound miserable or anything. Just really disappointed and frustrated.)
(Not trying to sound miserable or anything. Just really disappointed and frustrated.)
I've been making a file which contains a lot of the images and videos I use in planet coaster. Most of these were obtained from the workshop of CaptainPerhaps on Planet Coaster.
Some I made myself. They work perfectly well in Planet Zoo. I have used the videos in Planet Zoo to construct a simple aquarium.
Some I made myself. They work perfectly well in Planet Zoo. I have used the videos in Planet Zoo to construct a simple aquarium.
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Might take a Look at those Files later. I've already wasted a Eternity for the Search for suitable Videos. Maybe I'm just searching on the wrong Sites but it seems to be impossible to find good Stock Footage of Alligator Gars and Lobsters
I will have to go thru the aquarium project files I had created some time back but I can definitely facilitate both still camera footage video segments to you. As far as the lobster is you could be a little specific it would help, I believe I have footage of Whip lobsters, several different spiny lobsters (mostly from the Caribbean, but also Japanese), slipper lobsters, western rock lobster and a few others. As far as the alligator gars I have a very large collection of still video footage of this species, both in natural settings and aquariums. Let me know what lobster species you are looking for, and will put something together for you. I have well over 800 aquarium videos from a project I was working on with the Planet Coaster platform so anything else that you would like do let me know.
Sounds great. What exactly do you mean with still Video Footage?
Regarding the Lobster, I would need to take a Look at all those Species first
Edit: the Western Rock Lobster seems to resemble most the kind of Lobster I want, but either Google only shows Pictures that aren't that good or all those Species don't have Claws or only very small ones. Even though they aren't even close to what I'm searching, the Slipper Lobster does also look like a interesting Animal that I might like to add to my Zoo.
Found out that the Species I'm searching for is the Maine Lobster.
The Tropical Rock Lobster does also look interesting. Do you also have Footage of these 2?
I think I could build a complete Zoo just with Lobsters
I assume you don't have a complete List of Species that you have suitable Footage of?
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