Hi everyone! Finally I made something worth a topic. I post it there because it's meant to be an attraction, but in hindisght it's more a triggered events show.
This is called Shark Attack, and it's a true, working 4D theater - a first in Planet Coaster if I'm correct.
It's not functional as in guest compliant (#bringbackbadRCT3habits), but functionnal in term of show.
First, let me show you a POV, and then I'll explain all this. Note that since I recorded this video, I tweaked a few things.
PLEASE NO FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY DURING THE SHOW!
[video=youtube;yXPOty4lt8E]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXPOty4lt8E[/video]
-
WHAT I DID AND HOW I DID IT
The project started when I saw this genuine 4D theater movie made by Whizzbang3D Productions Ltd. I liked its cheesiness and immediately pictured some effects I could do in Planet Coaster (BUBBLES!).
[video=youtube;kXNAN_yX3SA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXNAN_yX3SA[/video]
I started by choosing a screen, and the 16m wide turned out to be perfect. Lit or not lit was the question, but I rapidely figured the lit version is way to bright to emulate a cinema screen. However, I'll have to light the unlit screen with outside light sources, otherwise it'll stay in the dark...
This picture is rather late into the building process, but it shows something interesting: I put a timestamp on the movie in order to help the synchronisation the effets. Because yes, this works as a progammed show, and everything is time coded.
... the timestamp turned out to be useless, as you can't really work the synchronization within the game: The billboard doesn't go along the show, that mean you can't restart easily, and you can't skip to a certain part.
What I did instead was working with a normal video player, and a piece of paper. Here is said piece of paper:
I wrote down each cue and converted them in seconds (yay maths). I also had to note how long I wanted certain effects to be on, mainly lights, by subtracting the time the effect should turn off, by the time the effect should turns on (yay maths...).
The first effet I did was actually the automatic doors, entrances and exits. It's a key element as it set the scale of the whole building, after the screen itself (and the archer).
I originally wanted four doors, and closer apart from each other. But due to the way I did them (can you tell?), I couldn't. Planet Coaster isn't really filled with triggerable doors, so I did what I could... and aside for the placement and how short it stays open, I really like how it turned out.
I put screens above the doors with a video displaying a message, but I really struggle with the brigtness of the TV. First it was too bright, so I tamed it down, and there you can see the background is too dark. It is supposed to be the same image as the theater screen (it's a still)...
Here is the theater during the load/unload process. Floodlights and doors highlighted.
You can see in the bottom left the two consoles I used. One is linked to the other by a trigger. I didn't need two of them and don't really know in hindsight why I used two, but it was easier to split the effects. One is mainly for special effects, screens and doors, the other for lights.
Here are the show lights. Doors are left in the dark, arches are highlighted instead. These arches help hiding the lighting equipment, as well as providing a theming element.
Notice how the screen is lit by regular spotlights as well... It's all brown.
Now that the screen "opened" and you see the ocean, it would have been weird to keep brown lights, so I triggered some to be blue.
Here you can see the equipment on the ceiling:
Now, Planet Coaster keeps the texture of the lights on even if they are turned off, which is obnoxious... My solution was to copy-paste all the lights, make a completely black version, and off-set them ever-so-little so the texture overlaps the actual light. The lighting still works.
It's less distracting to the eye, especially how bright their textures are otherwise.
This is one of the physical effects you can get while on the ride.
But really, these effects were pretty simple and straightforward to make. I struggled a lot more with the lights.
In an ideal world, you'd have a cue for a light to turn on, and a cue for the light to turn off. But not in Planet Coaster.
Furthermore, let's consider the following sequence:
- Lights on for 128 seconds
- Lights off for 10 seconds
- Lights on for 128 seconds
This would have been neat to have one time the objet, and trigger it twice with a different duration to accomodate each situation.
BUT YOU CAN'T. A light object = a fixed duration.
So I had to copy-paste my fixitures to the number of sequences I needed them.
THAT'S NOT ALL. Planet Coaster has a limitation of 60s lenght per light. That mean, 158 = 60 + 60 + 38, and 128 = 60 + 60 + 8.
That means for this one light effect I already have 2 times the objects. Wait, no 4 times: you do can uses the 60 multiple time... but not twice in a row or it flickers. So you got to have two of 60. (at least that's what I did, but I just realised I could have swapped the sequences to never have two 60 in a row)
THAT'S STILL NOT ALL. The lights in Planet Coaster work in a on and off fashion. I wanted some nice fades... Well, I eventually made my own. To make one, I took a light ensemble and copy-pasted it three or four times. Then, I gave each of the copies a slightly darker shade, until t was almost black. I set these lights to last 0.2s, and triggered them.
Then, I only add to trigger the fade to 0.2 x number of shades before the actual light kicks in (yay... maths...), and do the same for the fade out.
Another effect I was looking forward to, but a bit reluctant to takle, was the disco bit. It's the part where the girls dances and there're party lights.
Those party lights are meant to be moving lights. I made them by copy-pasting the same light multiple time, but rotating each one of the copies by an increment. Each one last 0.1s.
I also made them fade in and fade out by changing the color of the first two and last lights.
Now take a look behind the screen (literally), this is the control room. I made that last to clean things up, but that's basically how I worked. Each blob is a separate building. When I want to trigger a particular set of effect, I select the building, raises it and then can select it without any troubles. Remember that for any lights, I may have 4 or 5 copies overlapped...
That's it for what I do. Now let's jump into the second section of this post...
WHAT I WANTED TO DO BUT FAILED
Before starting the project, and even during it, I had no idea what would work and what wouldn't. I'm rather happy at what turned out to be possible, however here are some ideas I tried, but failed.
SEATS
Yeah no, I haven't even tried. Let's say it's a stand-up 4D theater - and those exist! I'm leaving this as a note as I'm sure many will point that out. IT'S EASIER FOR MAINTENANCE, OK?
SURROUND SOUND SYSTEM
I wanted to make a real sound system with multiple channels (front, back, left and right). However, I faced two problems: one is that I couldn't get to sync the audio with the bilboard, it was off by a second depsite being from the same file (one converted to .wav) triggered at the same time. I could have fiddled with it more, but I faced another problem: a deadly echo. Planet Coaster has some amazing sound effects and I really like them. But sometimes it backfires, and here it's what happened, the room is full of echoes, the soundtrack is inaudible.
Plus, the original file is in mono, so I had to do some work to do each audio channel by hand.
A CONTINUOUS SHOW
I wanted it to work autonomously, set the show on repeat and it goes on and on. But that does not work, or at least, the bilboard doesn't (AKA the main screen)... The show does restart right away, but the bilboard is broken the second time. It also messes with the sound...
So, for the time being, you can enter the room and start a show ; but you can't let it go throughout the Planet Coaster day, casually take a peak inside the room and be sure to have a show with everything in sync.
A SECOND VIDEO SCREEN
You might have noticed, the movie has some weird moments where nothing really happens, or weird things occurs (all the gas bottles exploding at one point). It's due to it being an interactive movie where guests can shoot at the screen. I trimmed down some scenes, but it was still a bit awkward at some points. So it gave me an idea... plus, it has a voice over which is perfect for it...
I wanted a second screen, like a TV or something where I could show turn the voice over into a character. Think about Star Tours or others attractions where you can see by a video transmission who's speaking.
Although I had no additionnal footage to use, nor any skill in animation, I have myself and a green screen! How awesome would it be, to play in your own creation.
So I recorded a lip-sync version, where I was "acting" over the audio and what happened on screen. That would have made dull moments less dull.
Now I don't want to post a video of my first and only take becasue it's really really bad, but here's a still:
I borrowed an old shirt from my brother, and used a still from the movie as a backdrop.
But I quickly discontinued it due to synchronisation problems... at various steps. Between what I recorded live and the original file in the video editor, between the two bilboards in the game itself... Plus my acting..
-
Phew, that was a long post, wasn't it? But I really enjoyed working on it, and I hope my explanations can spark some inspiration for you guys.
I'll put the theater on the workshop for sure, maybe tomorrow. I'll leave it to you to do an exterior, tho! And add/replace scenery inside if you want.
This is called Shark Attack, and it's a true, working 4D theater - a first in Planet Coaster if I'm correct.
It's not functional as in guest compliant (#bringbackbadRCT3habits), but functionnal in term of show.
First, let me show you a POV, and then I'll explain all this. Note that since I recorded this video, I tweaked a few things.
PLEASE NO FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY DURING THE SHOW!
[video=youtube;yXPOty4lt8E]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXPOty4lt8E[/video]
-
WHAT I DID AND HOW I DID IT
The project started when I saw this genuine 4D theater movie made by Whizzbang3D Productions Ltd. I liked its cheesiness and immediately pictured some effects I could do in Planet Coaster (BUBBLES!).
[video=youtube;kXNAN_yX3SA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXNAN_yX3SA[/video]
I started by choosing a screen, and the 16m wide turned out to be perfect. Lit or not lit was the question, but I rapidely figured the lit version is way to bright to emulate a cinema screen. However, I'll have to light the unlit screen with outside light sources, otherwise it'll stay in the dark...
This picture is rather late into the building process, but it shows something interesting: I put a timestamp on the movie in order to help the synchronisation the effets. Because yes, this works as a progammed show, and everything is time coded.
... the timestamp turned out to be useless, as you can't really work the synchronization within the game: The billboard doesn't go along the show, that mean you can't restart easily, and you can't skip to a certain part.
What I did instead was working with a normal video player, and a piece of paper. Here is said piece of paper:
I wrote down each cue and converted them in seconds (yay maths). I also had to note how long I wanted certain effects to be on, mainly lights, by subtracting the time the effect should turn off, by the time the effect should turns on (yay maths...).
The first effet I did was actually the automatic doors, entrances and exits. It's a key element as it set the scale of the whole building, after the screen itself (and the archer).
I originally wanted four doors, and closer apart from each other. But due to the way I did them (can you tell?), I couldn't. Planet Coaster isn't really filled with triggerable doors, so I did what I could... and aside for the placement and how short it stays open, I really like how it turned out.
I put screens above the doors with a video displaying a message, but I really struggle with the brigtness of the TV. First it was too bright, so I tamed it down, and there you can see the background is too dark. It is supposed to be the same image as the theater screen (it's a still)...
Here is the theater during the load/unload process. Floodlights and doors highlighted.
You can see in the bottom left the two consoles I used. One is linked to the other by a trigger. I didn't need two of them and don't really know in hindsight why I used two, but it was easier to split the effects. One is mainly for special effects, screens and doors, the other for lights.
Here are the show lights. Doors are left in the dark, arches are highlighted instead. These arches help hiding the lighting equipment, as well as providing a theming element.
Notice how the screen is lit by regular spotlights as well... It's all brown.
Now that the screen "opened" and you see the ocean, it would have been weird to keep brown lights, so I triggered some to be blue.
Here you can see the equipment on the ceiling:
Now, Planet Coaster keeps the texture of the lights on even if they are turned off, which is obnoxious... My solution was to copy-paste all the lights, make a completely black version, and off-set them ever-so-little so the texture overlaps the actual light. The lighting still works.
It's less distracting to the eye, especially how bright their textures are otherwise.
This is one of the physical effects you can get while on the ride.
But really, these effects were pretty simple and straightforward to make. I struggled a lot more with the lights.
In an ideal world, you'd have a cue for a light to turn on, and a cue for the light to turn off. But not in Planet Coaster.
Furthermore, let's consider the following sequence:
- Lights on for 128 seconds
- Lights off for 10 seconds
- Lights on for 128 seconds
This would have been neat to have one time the objet, and trigger it twice with a different duration to accomodate each situation.
BUT YOU CAN'T. A light object = a fixed duration.
So I had to copy-paste my fixitures to the number of sequences I needed them.
THAT'S NOT ALL. Planet Coaster has a limitation of 60s lenght per light. That mean, 158 = 60 + 60 + 38, and 128 = 60 + 60 + 8.
That means for this one light effect I already have 2 times the objects. Wait, no 4 times: you do can uses the 60 multiple time... but not twice in a row or it flickers. So you got to have two of 60. (at least that's what I did, but I just realised I could have swapped the sequences to never have two 60 in a row)
THAT'S STILL NOT ALL. The lights in Planet Coaster work in a on and off fashion. I wanted some nice fades... Well, I eventually made my own. To make one, I took a light ensemble and copy-pasted it three or four times. Then, I gave each of the copies a slightly darker shade, until t was almost black. I set these lights to last 0.2s, and triggered them.
Then, I only add to trigger the fade to 0.2 x number of shades before the actual light kicks in (yay... maths...), and do the same for the fade out.
Another effect I was looking forward to, but a bit reluctant to takle, was the disco bit. It's the part where the girls dances and there're party lights.
Those party lights are meant to be moving lights. I made them by copy-pasting the same light multiple time, but rotating each one of the copies by an increment. Each one last 0.1s.
I also made them fade in and fade out by changing the color of the first two and last lights.
Now take a look behind the screen (literally), this is the control room. I made that last to clean things up, but that's basically how I worked. Each blob is a separate building. When I want to trigger a particular set of effect, I select the building, raises it and then can select it without any troubles. Remember that for any lights, I may have 4 or 5 copies overlapped...
That's it for what I do. Now let's jump into the second section of this post...
WHAT I WANTED TO DO BUT FAILED
Before starting the project, and even during it, I had no idea what would work and what wouldn't. I'm rather happy at what turned out to be possible, however here are some ideas I tried, but failed.
SEATS
Yeah no, I haven't even tried. Let's say it's a stand-up 4D theater - and those exist! I'm leaving this as a note as I'm sure many will point that out. IT'S EASIER FOR MAINTENANCE, OK?
SURROUND SOUND SYSTEM
I wanted to make a real sound system with multiple channels (front, back, left and right). However, I faced two problems: one is that I couldn't get to sync the audio with the bilboard, it was off by a second depsite being from the same file (one converted to .wav) triggered at the same time. I could have fiddled with it more, but I faced another problem: a deadly echo. Planet Coaster has some amazing sound effects and I really like them. But sometimes it backfires, and here it's what happened, the room is full of echoes, the soundtrack is inaudible.
Plus, the original file is in mono, so I had to do some work to do each audio channel by hand.
A CONTINUOUS SHOW
I wanted it to work autonomously, set the show on repeat and it goes on and on. But that does not work, or at least, the bilboard doesn't (AKA the main screen)... The show does restart right away, but the bilboard is broken the second time. It also messes with the sound...
So, for the time being, you can enter the room and start a show ; but you can't let it go throughout the Planet Coaster day, casually take a peak inside the room and be sure to have a show with everything in sync.
A SECOND VIDEO SCREEN
You might have noticed, the movie has some weird moments where nothing really happens, or weird things occurs (all the gas bottles exploding at one point). It's due to it being an interactive movie where guests can shoot at the screen. I trimmed down some scenes, but it was still a bit awkward at some points. So it gave me an idea... plus, it has a voice over which is perfect for it...
I wanted a second screen, like a TV or something where I could show turn the voice over into a character. Think about Star Tours or others attractions where you can see by a video transmission who's speaking.
Although I had no additionnal footage to use, nor any skill in animation, I have myself and a green screen! How awesome would it be, to play in your own creation.
So I recorded a lip-sync version, where I was "acting" over the audio and what happened on screen. That would have made dull moments less dull.
Now I don't want to post a video of my first and only take becasue it's really really bad, but here's a still:
I borrowed an old shirt from my brother, and used a still from the movie as a backdrop.
But I quickly discontinued it due to synchronisation problems... at various steps. Between what I recorded live and the original file in the video editor, between the two bilboards in the game itself... Plus my acting..
-
Phew, that was a long post, wasn't it? But I really enjoyed working on it, and I hope my explanations can spark some inspiration for you guys.
I'll put the theater on the workshop for sure, maybe tomorrow. I'll leave it to you to do an exterior, tho! And add/replace scenery inside if you want.
Last edited:
lease fix the display sequencer!Give us a timeline,so we can time effects and fireworks better![up][up][up][up][up]