Possible to skin the game to look like RCT1?

[hunterjwizard]

Hi folks,

I recently got back in to RCT and have been enjoying it as an idol game. I played one park for 300 years. 

 

I've sort of hit my limit on RCT1 and opted to load up RCT2, then OpenRCT2. It has a lot of potential but I just don't like the RCT2 interface. Its hard to explain but I really prefer RCT1.

 

Is it possible to "re-skin" OpenRCT to make it look like RCT1?

[ExCrafty]

Gday Hunter,

You can pretty much change all visuals if you go through the options menus before loading a saved game or starting a new scenario. Look for the "Options" up in the top right corner (If I remember right).

I'm not a fan of the RCT2 interface either, so I spent some time changing things to suit me. I don't have the game open atm, but there may even be a button/option to change to the RCT1 interface totally.

Hope this helps.

[hunterjwizard]

Well that is encouraging, thanks! I'll look into that today.

[hunterjwizard]

The themes don't appear to do anything besides change the color. My biggest issue is the location of the toolbars, there is a HUGE gap in the middle with everything you actually need being jammed way up in the corners. Is there any way to move those around?

[hunterjwizard]

Well I found a github discussion from 9 years in which someone was able to center-justify all the buttons, that would work too. But it doesn't seem this made it into the main codebase. There is an eye-rolling yet classic engineering reply on the thread: "people can use keyboard shortcuts, and no one who doesn't use keyboard short cuts could possibly care about button location".

[ExCrafty]

42 minutes ago, hunterjwizard said:

The themes don't appear to do anything besides change the color. My biggest issue is the location of the toolbars, there is a HUGE gap in the middle with everything you actually need being jammed way up in the corners. Is there any way to move those around?

As far as I am aware, that's how OpenRCT2 has been made. Yes, all the "tools" in one place would make things a little easier, I agree.

38 minutes ago, hunterjwizard said:

Well I found a github discussion from 9 years in which someone was able to center-justify all the buttons, that would work too. But it doesn't seem this made it into the main codebase. There is an eye-rolling yet classic engineering reply on the thread: "people can use keyboard shortcuts, and no one who doesn't use keyboard short cuts could possibly care about button location".

<sigh> Responses like that are the main reason I don't go on any "technical" types of forums or such. The "If you don't already know, then you shouldn't be using (insert thing here). It is/was a common occurrence years ago when I wanted to give Linux a try. 

[hunterjwizard]

13 minutes ago, ExCrafty said:

<sigh> Responses like that are the main reason I don't go on any "technical" types of forums or such. The "If you don't already know, then you shouldn't be using (insert thing here). It is/was a common occurrence years ago when I wanted to give Linux a try. 

I've had the EXACT same problem with Linux on many successive tries. You'd think the community would want more people to get in on their hobby.

 

Its even worse in the technical world. I work in enterprise support. Trying to explain to an engineer that his poorly-designed user interface is generating large numbers of support tickets, and a small change could save the company tens of thousands of dollars... only to have him say "its not a problem because I use the command line for everything" will make you want to rip your hair out.

[jensj12]

There is also work going on to add the option to replace all ride thumbnails with the RCT1 versions. Might still take a while though, but there are people actively working on the game that care about the RCT1 feel.

[hunterjwizard]

2 hours ago, jensj12 said:

There is also work going on to add the option to replace all ride thumbnails with the RCT1 versions. Might still take a while though, but there are people actively working on the game that care about the RCT1 feel.

That's awesome! I really hope that project gets off the ground!

[DriverKaldie]

20 hours ago, jensj12 said:

Might still take a while though, but there are people actively working on the game that care about the RCT1 feel.

Thank God I only like the music...I have played RCT from the day it came out until RCT2 was released, and a new world opened up. Now I play the RCT 1 scenarios in OpenRCT. I recently bought RCT Deluxe on Steam (my original copy is long gone) so I didn't get the infobox each time that I am missing RCT files in OpenRCT2. The music and intro from RCT are the nostalgie for me...To hear that sound 24 years later is great.

[hunterjwizard]

I actually just found my original copy of RCT1 again after it being lost for many years. In fact I found the original CD, jewel case, manual, and box. All in separate places no less. I don't know what 15-years-ago me was thinking, but that guy sure did a number on his vintage games collection.

[Gymnasiast]

On 14/10/2023 at 22:21, hunterjwizard said:

The themes don't appear to do anything besides change the color. My biggest issue is the location of the toolbars, there is a HUGE gap in the middle with everything you actually need being jammed way up in the corners. Is there any way to move those around?

The RCT1 theme also enables the status bar, stoplight open/close buttons and a few other things.

There is indeed no way to left-align the top toolbar like RCT1 did. Although I wonder if that would really work that well if you consider the resolutions OpenRCT2 tends to run in. I guess it would be easy to try by fiddling a bit on TopToolbar.cpp.

On 14/10/2023 at 22:27, hunterjwizard said:

Well I found a github discussion from 9 years in which someone was able to center-justify all the buttons, that would work too. But it doesn't seem this made it into the main codebase. There is an eye-rolling yet classic engineering reply on the thread: "people can use keyboard shortcuts, and no one who doesn't use keyboard short cuts could possibly care about button location".

I went and looked up the thread. You completely misrepresented what IntelOrca said there. This is not okay.

For anyone interested, here is the discussion in question:  https://github.com/OpenRCT2/OpenRCT2/discussions/15643

The only thing IntelOrca says is "I also think that players are more likely, going to want / use hotkeys to get to particular windows and tabs, and that the players who don't use hotkeys aren't bothered about a button to access a particular tab quicker." - emphasis is mine.

Additionally, you will notice that if new features are suggested, we will generally ask why it is needed. We have limited time after all, and every feature means extra maintenance and more things to go wrong. Many features have come with new bugs of their own or other unforeseen circumstances. Bugs that we then get flak for.

Edited December 31, 2023 by Gymnasiast

[ExCrafty]

Firstly, @Gymnasiast, great to see you back in here, hope things are going well.

I personally, would like to see the tool bar icons more customisable in their positioning, but it's not a "must have" by any stretch.

Many games these days have gone with customisable tool/action bars, but they all have paid staff doing the work. So, if it happens, it happens <shrug>.