Importing Your Car Model

A tutorial on the entire process of Importing is beyond the scope of this article. However there are enough differences between Importing standard CSO's and Importing car models that we feel the need to specifically point those differences out here. This article will therefore skim over the Importing process while detailing only what's necessary to the process of getting a car successfully imported.

The first thing to remember when importing custom cars is that they are processed as animated models even if the car does not come with animated doors, animated restraints, or animated features. Car models, therefore, are always entered into the importer with the Animated Models tab.

If you erroneously begin Importing your car model as a static model and after that remember it should be an animated model you can simply switch your model over from the Static Models tab into the Animated Models tab.

Now let's double-left click on our model to see what needs to be done. Right out of the gate there are four things that need correcting.

Sorted.

Unlike with CSO's, with Animated Models all we need to do with basic Effect Bones is to get them into the Effect Points window.

After you have done that, if you wish the rear camera to face rearwards from your car now is the time to do that. What we want to do is to edit the matrix and not insert a transformation (as we would with CSO's) so we don't use the Insert Transformation side of the Matrix Editor dialog - we go directly into the Transformation Matrix and edit the numbers there.

By the way, if you want peeps in your car to face the rear of the car you'd accomplish that using this same method.

Sorted.

Select OK until you've returned to the Create OVL window.

Next:

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delete the Prefix,

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copy and paste the name of your model from the Edit Animated Model window into the name field here,

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browse to and select the folder in which are your ASE, your WagenDaten_, & your texture(s), and then

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click on the + at the right to add your LOD's.

After you've selected + to add your LOD's the Edit Level Of Detail window will display with a default value of 0.0.

A value of 500.0 is a good all-around value for temporary use.

We're all ready to go so left-click the Create Scenery OVL toggle at the top right.

Our error message will be made up of three warnings which we can read by clicking on the Details toggle:

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As we're not creating a Themed Folder and are in fact using the Importer as a third-party utility for our work with CTR Creator we don't need a prefix.

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When our car model is completed we can add all three LOD's then. Progressing with our car model will be simpler with only one LOD for now.

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CTR Creator does not accept static models as car models, therefore they need to be imported in the Animated Models dialog. Because we know we haven't included actual animations with our car model we may ignore this caution.

Click the continue toggle. After you do this don't move the cursor or do anything with the keyboard. If we do anything else at this time we risk bringing another process to the front of the operating system and the Importer won't display this next message.

And there in the middle of our display, like a breath of fresh air, is the message indicating our OVL save was successful. Our car OVL's will now be ready in our folder for use with CTR Creator. By now your folder should have in it

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your car model ASE,

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your WagenDaten_ TXT file,

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your texture(s), and now

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your car OVL's

CTR Creator will look for all of these files to be in the same folder in which it reads the WagenDaten_. If all of these files are where they should be we're ready for the next step with CTR Creator so let's close the Importer and launch CTR Creator. What we want to do next is for CTR Creator to read the WagenDaten_ we've already prepared so we'll hit this toggle.

The appearance of the display will change with two new toggles appearing below the one just selected.

We may do one of two things at this time:

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We can choose to overwrite our WagenDaten_. If we select this toggle, missing field values will be filled in and any values with incorrect names will be written over with the correct field names. After that we could hit the toggle to create our car OVL's.

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If we're sure about our WagenDaten_ entries we could move directly on to creating our car OVL's which we've done in this example.

Although there won't be any message indicating your car OVLS have been created your folder will now have in it an additional folder called CTR_EXAMPLEModelCar. Your folder name will start with CTR_ and end with the actual name of your car model. What CTR Creator has done is taken the car OVL's we made with the Importer and converted them for use in the game as a ride car. This CTR_ folder may now be placed directly into our Cars/TrackedRideCars folder. To see our car in the game all we need to do is to set up a BahnDaten_ TXT file that calls for the use of our car, run that BahnDaten_ through CTR Creator, and then in RCT3 build the track to which we’ve added our Car_ as a car type.

This car folder may also be uploaded and shared with other community members so that they may create a track of their own with your car on it.

Should you need to know what sorts of information are required in the BahnDaten_, our previous session, BahnDaten_ Keyword Values, has shown what sorts of information need to be included so that CTR Creator can make your track OVL's.

Drag the above toggle to a

convenient place on your screen.