RCT Discussion / OpenRCT: advantages and disadvantages

Considering LL is such an important part of the heritage of this site, and considering there is still amazing LL work done, I feel it's pretty arrogant of a new member to come here and say something like nicman did. Furthermore, what does such a post contribute to the discussion? We all know LL is "obsolete", it's a 16 year old game that can hardly be run on modern computers. However, the same goes for RCT2 which, after all, isn't that different from LL and is very much obsolete compared to something like Planet Coaster.

 

In fact, the obsolesence of LL is the very thing that makes LL integration in OpenRCT2 so important to some of us: people are having trouble running LL on modern computers, so to be able to view all the classic LL parks in the future we need to have a modern, future-proof program capable of viewing these old parks. For me personally it's also the question of getting back some of LL's features that were removed in RCT2 and which the developments in custom scenery and rides haven't been able to fully compensate for: all the land textures, the booster track pieces and last but not least the way path construction works (this will probably be hard to implement in OpenRCT2, though, if it is to also retain the RCT2 way of building paths, but one can always hope!).

You guys are taking this too seriously, no reason to write a Tolstoy novel over a five word sentence, lol. If nicman wants to believe that RCT2 has made LL redundant then so be it, no reason to dog pile him.

 

 

The following is unlikely but I thought it would be cool to speculate:

 

As far as RCT1 on newer computers; I could be wrong but doesn't it have trouble running due to having such a small resolution and having a 256 color palette? A lot of games from the late 90s and early 2000s have had similar issues, Age of Empires II comes to mind and I know they recently released an HD edition with new features and updated graphics that runs flawlessly on most modern computers. Could the same thing happen with Roller Coaster Tycoon?

 

I found this while digging through the Steam forums: http://steamcommunit...728086887197034

 

It probably won't ever happen but it would be cool seeing a remastered version of the original game.

Echoing what mintliquer said about LL compatibility. And Jaguar, OpenLL would essentially be a remaster. From what the people close to the project have posted though, my impression is it won't happen, sadly.

*Sigh*

We have said so many times OpenRCT2 will support all RCT1 features. That includes land, mix-and-match pathing and all other things people miss from RCT1. We already have reinstated lots of them and we're not finished. SV4/SC4 import is already here and will be further implemented and improved upon. Importing files from RCT1 and RCT2 will always be possible. I therefore doubt there is a need for 'OpenLL' as OpenRCT2 will support both games.

 

And yet, it looks like many people who reacted are apparently unaware of that (and still expressed an opinion). Nothing I just said was new, it has been said several times: here, on the OpenRCT2 chat, on Reddit, on the OpenRCT2 wiki.

 

And still we get comments like this one:

Having OpenLL (or whatever it will be called), should be higher priority than adding in game lights or some of the other things that are on the horizon.  

 

To me Open should be about increasing the functionality of the game, the new zero clearance, and object section are incredible additions that make the game much more enjoyable and less tedious to play.

 

Doing this for LL would be much more preferable to adding new features to RCT2 that in reality are not all that groundbreaking and are more gimmicky than an actual improvement.

 

This is tiresome. We consult the NE community to ensure OpenRCT2 will work for everyone. That is not going to work if people comment without looking at trivially available information. It's tedious enough to keep repeating the same information on the forums or Reddit, and most people on there are usually complete novices. You, on the other hand, aren't novices and because of that I expect that you do you research before complaining.

 

In addition: many of you are complaining OpenRCT2 lacks LL features, without providing much detail. Could you list what exactly is lacking, and is not already announced here, here or on the issue tracker.

I tried opening some LL parks I made in OpenRCT but it didn't work. Do you know if hacked LL parks are supported?

Also I checked out the list of missing LL features you posted and I didn't see the LL style wooden coaster banking there. Banked turns on wooden coasters look different in LL.

This is tiresome. We consult the NE community to ensure OpenRCT2 will work for everyone. That is not going to work if people comment without looking at trivially available information.

 

You will always get this at every single forum. We often have to deal with people that ask questions that have already been answered multiple times, it's just what happens, no one here is trying to be disrespectful or trying to annoy you or any of the open team. No one is trying to be demanding either, a lot of people are just very very passionate, and are also enjoying the conversation that is going on. I wouldn't take everything to heart, and I wouldn't worry about commenting/answering questions all the time as a lot of the time other members will answer it for you. 

This is tiresome. We consult the NE community to ensure OpenRCT2 will work for everyone. That is not going to work if people comment without looking at trivially available information. It's tedious enough to keep repeating the same information on the forums or Reddit, and most people on there are usually complete novices. You, on the other hand, aren't novices and because of that I expect that you do you research before complaining.

 

In addition: many of you are complaining OpenRCT2 lacks LL features, without providing much detail. Could you list what exactly is lacking, and is not already announced here, here or on the issue tracker.

 

 

It wasn't meant as an attack or complaint, rather a suggestion or personal preference.  Just to me I'd prefer improving in game elements rather than bringing in new ones.  

RCT1 support status is work in progress. Some parks will work to some extent. See https://github.com/O...l:"rct1 import"

You may also want to check these pages: https://github.com/O...res-not-in-RCT2 and https://github.com/O...CT2-equivalents

I tried opening some LL parks I made in OpenRCT but it didn't work. Do you know if hacked LL parks are supported?

Yes, I know, considering I wrote quite a lot of RCT1 compatibility stuff .
Seriously though, we try to support every park that can be opened in RCT1 and RCT2. That includes those with hacks. But hacks are often very dependent on implementation details, so we sometimes need to put in some extra code to deal with them. Could you open an issue report on our tracker, upload some of the parks, and describe what exactly break? Preferably with a screenshot if the issue at hand concerns rendering.
 

Also I checked out the list of missing LL features you posted and I didn't see the LL style wooden coaster banking there. Banked turns on wooden coasters look different in LL.

I didn't know there was a difference? Could you provide a screenshot of both styles?

I'll get on it soon!

You may also want to check these pages: https://github.com/O...res-not-in-RCT2 and https://github.com/O...CT2-equivalents

 

 

I saw the 'Evo of RCT2' as one possible feature, if that's the case then that would be so awesome to include some of the cut content in the game, mainly the military tank car ride and the robot entertainer.

It's simple. Open an LL spotlight from our site in Open. Doesn't work because LL is unsupported, sadly.

 

Opening an SV4 in the editor is trivial.

SV4 files are not fully supported yet, so some parks may fail to open or have parts not working right, especially if they've been hacked. Support for loading of SV4 files is planned but it isn't finished yet, that doesn't mean it won't be done at some point in the future.

It's simple. Open an LL spotlight from our site in Open. Doesn't work because LL is unsupported, sadly.

*Sigh* I just said LL is supported and any parks not opening is a bug. Please read properly.

Wtf is this attitude.

 

In the load game dialogue, SV4 isn't even showing up as a file to open. How is that "supported"? If you choose "use system dialogue" and force the SV4, it just says "unable to load file".

 

Again, download any LL spotlights you want from this site and you will get this error. It's pointless to even name a park.

 

Truth of the sad matter is that the Open devs have no serious interest in LL. I don't blame them, but I just needed to hear it.

i tried a few, both sv4's that require drexler (hacked) and ones that don't. I can click the file to load, but openrct just crashes (the game shuts down aka 'closes unexpectedly'). i'm running the latest osx version.

For the first year or so, OpenRCT2 had difficulty successfully loading SV6 files from NE, because they tend to be heavily hacked and those hacks often end up corrupting memory and generally breaking things. I'm not surprised that most of them don't load correctly yet.  I was able to open the park linked in this issue without problems, so some support is definitely there.

 

The OpenRCT2 developers have said in this thread and elsewhere that RCT1 parks are intended to be supported and if they fail to open that's considered a bug - but there are a lot of such bugs at the moment because it's still a work in progress.

I think you guys are doing a great job, both for RCT2 and LL. Its probably the only thing that keeps me building from time to time.

Investigation as to why many SV4 files fail to load is still ongoing. We have been able to determine which version introduced the problems, but since that was quite a big update (an overhaul of the object loading system) it isn't easy to find the responsible code. We will get back to that as soon as there is any progress here.

 

Meanwhile, another missing piece with regards to RCT1 import has been implemented: flat-to-steep pieces for the Junior Roller Coaster (their diagonal counterparts will follow later, though). This means Diamond Heights now looks like this: