Several Suggestions

[JMBuilder]

Integration of X7123M3-256's custom coasters

Obviously, this would require communication between the OpenRCT2 developers and X7123etc...

 

Addition of track sprites not shared between coasters

This is one of the issues with the custom coasters mentioned above. The coasters that should have vertical slopes and inversions simply don't, and the stock coasters (especially the wooden coasters) could really benefit from those smooth steep-to-horizontal transitions. Corkscrew coasters could also use banked sloped curves and the like.

 

Addition of new track sprites altogether

In the "Wild" expansion of RCT3, the "extended coaster" had access to things like diving loops, larger corkscrews, diagonal inversions, etc.. These would be awesome in OpenRCT2.

 

Catwalks and custom supports

Special scenery items that can merge with coaster tracks, allowing extra touches of realism for coasters.

[jensj12]

Catwalks and custom supports are already possible with custom scenery items and the disable clearance cheat.

Adding extra track sprites requires new sprites. Feel free to contribute.

Combining track pieces from different coasters is possible with the allow arbitrary ride type changes cheat. Adding completely new track pieces (or new coaster track) requires a new save format, new track piece definitions and possibly a lot of new sprites (for the trains).

[X7123M3-256]

8 hours ago, JMBuilder said:

Integration of X7123M3-256's custom coasters

My rides should work fine in OpenRCT2. In fact, they were developed and tested with OpenRCT2 so I'd be more concerned about whether they work with vanilla (they should do, though).

 

8 hours ago, JMBuilder said:

 

Addition of track sprites not shared between coasters

There's no reason this can't be done. But this means creating new sprites, and creating sprites that look good and go well with the existing ones is very difficult. I did this for the Intamin track, but the result just looked terrible (see picture). Upon closer inspection of the sprites, the lighting makes no sense and I've given up on any further attempt.

 

8 hours ago, JMBuilder said:

Addition of new track sprites altogether

 

In the "Wild" expansion of RCT3, the "extended coaster" had access to things like diving loops, larger corkscrews, diagonal inversions, etc.. These would be awesome in OpenRCT2.

Impossible without a new save format. Also, even when we do have a new save format, this requires more than just track sprites - any rides that are to have the new elements would also need additional sprites (unless the new elements are just resized versions of existing ones). In practice, this means that the new elements wouldn't be available on default coasters, at least until we also have a replacement graphics set that can be extended more easily.

8 hours ago, JMBuilder said:

Catwalks and custom supports

 

Special scenery items that can merge with coaster tracks, allowing extra touches of realism for coasters.

These already exist.

[JMBuilder]

I do have the Mack Mega downloaded. What I had in mind was integrating the rides into the OpenRCT2 mod itself so that they don't have to be separate downloads.

Can I have a link to the catwalks and supports? And is there a mod that contains scenery items that look like coaster tracks so that I don't have to clutter the rides list of a park with nonexistent coasters?

Edited July 9, 2017 by JMBuilder

[X7123M3-256]

1 hour ago, JMBuilder said:

Can I have a link to the catwalks and supports?

Easiest way to get them is to download the Xtreme97 workbench from here, but it includes a bunch of other scenery objects as well. The alternative is to download objects individually from here, but it's a bit of a pain to search. I am aware of another catwalk object besides the one in that workbench, but I've found it to be quite glitchy. Another popular choice is to use 4th dimension or wooden coaster track as a catwalk - for which you don't need any CS.

 

1 hour ago, JMBuilder said:

scenery items that look like coaster tracks so that I don't have to clutter the rides list of a park with nonexistent coasters?

It's technically possible to do this. However, it would consume a lot of scenery slots, and they are already quite scarce to start off with (especially for large scenery). This tends to be a bigger concern for people than cluttering the rides list, so I am doubtful that anyone has made a comprehensive set. What you can do is prefix the names of rides which are not intended to operate with the letter "z",  since this causes them to be sorted at the bottom of the ride list below all the actual rides.

A quick browse through the NE database reveals that someone has made the train tracks into scenery items. I'm not aware of this having been done for any other tracks - you could but unless you're not using much other custom scenery I wouldn't advise it.

Edited July 9, 2017 by X7123M3-256

[cascadia]

You can also use the tile inspector to duplicate tracks to use less ride slots.

 

Another place to get ride and scenery downloads is here:

 

https://web.archive.org/web/20160527064921/http://www.rctmart.com/downloads/index.html