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RCT Graphics Helper is an add-on for Blender 2.79 that aids the creation of sprites that match the graphical style of Rollercoaster Tycoon.

Prerequisites

The following programs are necessary:

  • ImageMagick (7.0.8-6 or higher. Q16 Without HDRI) added to the Path variable. For Windows install the "ImageMagick Q16 x64 static.exe" option.
  • Blender (2.79)

Optional

  • Sprite Compiler The Libsawyer Sprite Compiler is recommended as it allows you to optimize the sprites for OpenRCT2 by packing them into a .dat file, this file is used by the .parkobj generation when activated. Download the libsawyer-tools zip file (For windows download "libsawyer-tools-win-x64.zip"), copy the gxc.exe file to a convenient directory and add it to the path variable
  • OpenGraphics Repository Having the OpenGraphics repository cloned in combination with Node.js allows the add-on to automatically create the asset pack file. On step 5 of the add-on installation point the OpenGraphics path to where you have the repository cloned.
  • Node.js (16.15.0 LTS or higher) Required for the asset pack workflow for OpenGraphics.

Installing

  1. Download the latest release of the RCT Graphics Helper Blender add-on.
  2. In Blender, click on File > User Preferences > Add-ons > "Install Add-on from File..."
  3. In the file explorer window, select the downloaded RCT Graphics Helper zip file.
  4. Enable the add-on by clicking the checkbox to the left of "RendeR: RCT Graphics Helper"
  5. Expand the RCT Graphics Helper add-on settings, and set the "OpenRCT2 Path" path to the location of the /openrct2/ folder that contains the object directory.
  6. Click "Save User Settings".

Usage

  1. Open an existing file, or create a new file and make sure it's saved in its own folder.
  2. Remove any global light sources.
  3. In the RCT Tools toolbar on the 3D view toolshelf, click "Initialize / Repair" in the "RCT Graphics Helper" section.
  4. This will create the lighting rig, and set the correct render settings.
  5. More options are now available in the RCT Graphics Helper section. Click the "Render" button to start rendering the scene.
  6. In the folder where the Blend file is saved, an "output" folder has been created with the rendered image files.

Please check the guidelines for the best results.

Documentation

Check out our wiki for more in-depth details on all the available options.

Notes

Lighting

The lighting intensity of the three light sources (dome, filler and main) are not yet final, an may be tweaked in the future for better results.

Animated Materials

Animated colors, like the water colors, or the chainlift colors from the palette are not yet properly implemented.

Column based Multi-Iile Objects

Multi-tile objects can currently only render sprites for each tile. The game more commonly relies on splitting a large sprite into several columns rather then splitting it per tile. This is not yet supported.

Render Times

The rendering times can be a bit high as the plugin relies on a lot of post processing, which accounts for about 2 thirds of the total processing time. The add-on does not yet utilize parallelization, but this will likely make the add-on much faster.

Why Blender 2.79?

As of Blender 2.8, Blender removed "Blender Render", a scanline renderer. This renderer is the closest thing we had in Blender to what was used for the graphics seen in the Rollercoaster Tycoon games. In Blender 2.8 the alternatives are Cycles and Eevee, but sadly I found these renderers too sophesticated and true to life to mimmick renders from ~1998 rendering software.