Custom Content general tips?

[Ryno917]

Hey guys, I'm looking to make a few items for the game for my own playthrough (I'll share them, as well!) but I have a few questions on some of the general things. I'll be using Blender for the 3D and the plugin to render the sprites. While I'm relatively new to Blender (year or so playing with it for various things) I've done a lot of video game modding in some form or another over the last ~20 years and I'm an industrial designer by trade so I'm not coming at this from scratch.

- What scale/units should I be using? In general the proportions of the game are a little cartoony; how tall should a light pole be?
- The plugin's general guide says models should be centered on the origin; does this apply to path objects (benches, litter bins, lights, etc) as well, or should they be modeled off to the side (and how much), or is this all handles by setting an offset in the object builder?
- How do you set up a light to actually be a light in game (using the hardware based night time lighting in OpenRCT2)? Is it possible to specify light colour?
- How do you set up something as a litter bin? Bench?
- I tried a quick, simple render with the plugin and I get an empty .PNG. I never render with Blender so I have no idea where to start looking for the problem; any tips?
- How do you set up your own 'scenery group?'

I'm sure I'll have many more questions as I get deeper into things, but I'll start here for now Eventually I'd like to make a few shops/stalls and the odd train; baby steps, first, though!

Edited September 1, 2020 by Ryno917

[X7123M3-256]

12 minutes ago, Ryno917 said:

- The plugin's general guide says models should be centered on the origin; does this apply to path objects (benches, litter bins, lights, etc) as well, or should they be modeled off to the side (and how much), or is this all handles by setting an offset in the object builder?

Yes, generally objects should be centered on the origin. IIRC, fences are a bit weird and I'm not sure about path items.

56 minutes ago, Ryno917 said:

- How do you set up a light to actually be a light in game (using the hardware based night time lighting in OpenRCT2)? Is it possible to specify light colour?
- How do you set up something as a litter bin? Bench?

This is something that's set up in the DAT (or JSON) file. This isn't something the Blender plugin does, it only renders the sprites. If you want to create a DAT file you can use another tool like the object editor, JSON files are plain text (but will only work with OpenRCT2 and don't yet export with the park). You cannot specify light colour as far as I am aware; in the original game lights were non functional.

 

59 minutes ago, Ryno917 said:

- How do you set up your own 'scenery group?'

You can use a tool like Trigger's group creator

[Ryno917]

Thanks @X7123M3-256 for the tips! I'll dig into the suggestions and see if I can wade through the rest of it

[X7123M3-256]

13 hours ago, Ryno917 said:

Thanks @X7123M3-256 for the tips! I'll dig into the suggestions and see if I can wade through the rest of it

I can help somewhat with this as I've made several custom rides and other objects and also experimented with the Blender plugin you're using. However, I use a lot of my own software to do this so I have little experience with more commonly used custom content creation tools such as the object editor - for that I recommend asking over at New Element.

It should be clarified that in OpenRCT2 there are two types of custom object files: there is the original .DAT format (that also works with vanilla RCT2) and also a new JSON based format. The advantage of the latter is that you don't need special tools to create them - a 3D renderer and a text editor is all you need. However, JSON objects do not (yet) export with save files, so must be manually installed by users. There is currently no difference in functionality between them, but it's likely that the JSON format may be extended in future to support new features not in the original game (e.g, if you wanted to have a way to specify light color).

Oli414's Blender plugin only handles rendering the sprites, and does not generate a .DAT file. However, you can use the object editor to make a DAT file from your sprites. It is also worth pointing out that for simple scenery objects, drawing sprites by hand is an option instead of 3D rendering.

 

[Ryno917]

My first step will be getting a good model sorted for a light post and then I'll play with the render plugin; my quick test yesterday didn't yield the results I expected but I'll have to dig into it a bit more. I have never used Blender for rendering (always used Keyshot, or built 3D game assets for realtime stuff) so I'm probably missing something basic there. Hopefully I can figure that out in the next few days and then I can get into the object builder. I think I'll go the .DAT route for compatibility with Vanilla RCT2 and RCTClassic (which my girlfriend uses) for the time being, and I'll dive into .JSON if/when it gets some extended features.

[X7123M3-256]

24 minutes ago, Ryno917 said:

I have never used Blender for rendering (always used Keyshot, or built 3D game assets for realtime stuff) so I'm probably missing something basic there.

Bear in mind that you don't have to use the Blender plugin - you can render sprites however you wish. The advantage of the Blender plugin is that it is preconfigured to produce sprites that should fit the game fairly well, but note that this match isn't perfect and a lot of people (including me) are using different settings.

[Ryno917]

9 hours ago, X7123M3-256 said:

Bear in mind that you don't have to use the Blender plugin - you can render sprites however you wish. The advantage of the Blender plugin is that it is preconfigured to produce sprites that should fit the game fairly well, but note that this match isn't perfect and a lot of people (including me) are using different settings.

I suppose I could set something up in Keyshot to match lighting/isometric view, but I think I'll stick with the plugin for now to get into the flow of things with RCT. Every game has a different way of doing things and making quality content requires that knowledge first and foremost

[X7123M3-256]

7 hours ago, Ryno917 said:

I suppose I could set something up in Keyshot to match lighting/isometric view, but I think I'll stick with the plugin for now to get into the flow of things with RCT. Every game has a different way of doing things and making quality content requires that knowledge first and foremost

Yeah, the plugin is a good place to start. I started working with those parameters but I found they didn't work well enough for what I wanted, so I ended up with a different lighting setup. There's a few people experimenting with what works best at the moment.

[Ryno917]

Ignored my real work this morning to whip these up. Couldn't find any modern horizontal wood panel walls, so I made my own. Panelling got lost a bit, but they'll do for me. I created traditional tile edge walls, as well as walls centered on the tile for a specific use case I have in mind. I'll also make some 'cutout' versions I can use to mask the front of some stalls and make some windowed areas.

In addition to this set, I'll also make a set of poured concrete walls and large modern siding panels similar to this:

 

 

 

[X7123M3-256]

2 hours ago, Ryno917 said:

Ignored my real work this morning to whip these up. Couldn't find any modern horizontal wood panel walls, so I made my own. Panelling got lost a bit, but they'll do for me.

Looks pretty good, seems like the texture doesn't quite tile properly though. Are they recolorable, and if so how do they look in other colors?

[Ryno917]

Thanks! Yes, tiling is an issue (I think it's not being lit evenly), and from one angle they don't align properly so there's definitely still some tweaking to do. Right now they're not colourable, but I might enable that at some point. The siding slabs will definitely be colourable, though. I might make a second version with more obvious paneling, too, since these are just a bit too flat imo.