If you have put files in the folder Cars\TrackedRideCars or Tracks\TrackedRides, nine times out of ten that coaster will show in the first menu, Roller Coasters.

Then select for Roller Coasters:

This is the Roller Coaster submenu and is the one you’ll search for Ubuntu’s Hyper Track, the one you downloaded with .ovl files:

It may be at the bottom of the list near the “U” listings where it may be listed as Ubuntu’s Hyper Track, it may be listed as Ubuntu’s CTR, it may be in the “C” listings as CTR Ubuntu’s Hyper Track, or it could be in the “H” listings as Hyper Track. Sometimes it will only be found after a thorough search. There are instances where a downloaded track will show in the Transport Rides menu. If you can’t locate this particular download in the Roller Coasters menu then the Transport Rides menu would be your next best bet. If it’s not there then it’s time to check all the menus. Check the Water Rides menu last as that’s the least likely location in which you’ll find it.

CFR’s that go in Style\Custom are usually in Thrill Rides or Junior Rides (in order of likelihood). Again, if they’re not there check Other Rides and Attractions next and then any of the other menus, again ending with Water Rides because again that’s the least likely place it’ll be.

If you have .exe installed the file [AirPoweredRC]Safari’s Sizzlin’ Sumthin.trk, then this is where you’ll find that:

C:\Users\[YOUR USER NAME]\Documents\RCT3\Coasters

When installed via .exe file, all coaster .trk files can be found in that folder. If there is no .exe installer with your download you’ll simply move them into this folder after you have decompressed them.

When RCT3 is launched, opening TRK files made with CTR's can crash your game unless that particular CTR is installed before you open the TRK file in your game.

As a matter of interest the RCT3 installer puts all .trk files in this folder:

C:\Program Files\Atari\RollerCoaster Tycoon 3\Coaster Designs

Those coasters have been built by the developers after creating the various track types. It is highly likely that these particular tracks have been designed more for developers’ testing purposes than for our convenience.

Track Files in Relation to Their Version of RCT:

.td4 files are RCT1 tracks.

.td6 files are RCT2 tracks.

.trk files are RCT3 tracks.

RCT1 tracks can be converted into RCT2 tracks by using the TD4 to TD6 Track Converter Utility. This utility worked beautifully when this author owned a copy of it at which time it was used, as a Windows Explorer add-on, to convert all filed RCT1 tracks into RCT2 tracks.

Very rarely this conversion can be simulated without the utility by simply changing the track file extension from .td4 to .td6. Without the converter utility the most reliable way to convert TD4 to TD6 files is to have a copy of RCT2 installed and to copy all your TD4 files into your RCT2 Tracks folder after which you'd need to Launch RCT2, place into a park each track you want to convert, and save it as a TD6 file.

There is only one way to convert RCT2 tracks into RCT3 tracks and that’s with the in-game converter that comes with RCT3. There are many instances where RCT3 will not convert the track and this is almost always because RCT2 coaster loops are three tiles long and in RCT3 the track loops are four tiles long. The error is due to the converter, during the attempt to convert, setting a location in code to begin the track but because of the difference in loop sizes the track end data code does not match the track start data code so it rejects the conversion as failed. Should you come across this problem the RCT2 Track Decoder Utility will provide a list of the track sections that went into the building of that RCT2 track. With the utility you can print out a list of the track sections and follow that list to manually re-build the track in RCT3.

Just like RCT2 tracks, RCT1 tracks can be directly converted into RCT3 tracks with the RCT3 in-game Track converter. See our article here with further observations on converting your legacy tracks into RCT3 tracks: Using RCT3's Legacy Tracks Converter.

BAK Files

Any downloaded file with .bak appended to the file extension will not display in RCT3. RCT3 adds the .bak extension to a file when it believes a back-up of that .dat file is required. This most commonly occurs when we open a parksave, do further work on the park, and save our changes over the existing parksave rather than saving our changes as a new file. There are only two types of files on to which RCT3 will append the .bak extension:

Park Files

These begin begin as .dat files. RCT3’s addition of the .bak extension will change this type of file into one with a .dat.bak extension. If you remove the .bak part of the extension this file is again usable as a park file.

Scenario Files

These also start out as .dat files. RCT3 will delete the .dat extension and replace it with a .bak extension so you’ll end up with a scenario file that simply ends with .bak extension. If you replace the .bak extension with the original .dat extension this file is again usable as a scenario file.

If after you have restored the file extensions the file does not open as a park or as a scenario than your guess is as good as anybody’s what sort of a file you have downloaded.

At that point delete the file. What that file may contain is not worth the time it would take to find out what sort of file extension it needs in order to be opened.

There are download links below for the three best known file compressors.