In either videos or still images, chroma colored items are placed when there will be a need later on to edit out the chroma colour and replace it with an image representing something else, a process that usually involves replacing the background.

This process is used a great deal in the film industry where it’s also known as green-screen. For example, the actors might be filmed on a basic set with little on it and with a huge chroma screen in the background, the building they've been scripted to come out of might be shot at another time as a detailed model also in front of (and perhaps on top of) a green-screen, and during this time the CGI team is preparing the replacement images. Then with a film editor the chroma is removed behind the actors and replaced with the film of the building model while the chroma background that was taken with the building model background may be removed and replaced with a prepared image showing some mountains or maybe a space scene. As a result of this, when viewing films we’re realistically and breathtakingly transported back to 10,000 B.C., find ourselves voyaging aboard the Poseidon, or travelling into the future worlds of the Fifth Element.

This same process is used in RCT3 when someone wants to enhance a screenshot with something that either can’t be conveniently or otherwise set up in RCT3.

The following image shows a park that's been built and then enhanced with TexMod.

This image is quite lovely, but with the Chroma Sky and Backdrop ReTexture packs we can kick up our screenshots. You might ask, 'How would we do that?' The first thing we need to do is load our TexMod Chroma Sky and Backdrop ReTextures. For most, the first color retexture that comes to mind is the chroma green but there are trees against the sky and we're particularly concerned that we might edit out some of those vivid greens in that Lone Wolf's palm near the center of the image so we've loaded the Blue Chroma Sky and Backdrop Retextures TPF file. When we reopen the park this is what we get:

With our chroma color properly set up the next thing we'd do is to turn off the anti-aliasing settings in RCT3. This will give sharper edges to the chroma colors in the screenshot and make it much more convenient to edit out the chroma color. We're ready at this time to take our screenshot.

Open the screenshot in your preferred image editing application. With our screenshot sky and our backdrop now all in a single solid blue we can easily edit out this particular color. We prefer to use Photoshop's selection tools for this. After selecting the blue and deleting it, with our solid blue background edited out of our screenshot this is the result we get.

For those of you who are not familiar with what transparency looks like in Photoshop, here is an image opened in Photoshop from which everything has been deleted, leaving only the transparent background.

Now it's a simple matter to use Photoshop layers to slide in our alternative images behind the edited original layer which, in our slideshow below, shows our guests enjoying our heated pool complex in a variety of environments:

As you see it's possible to come up with spectacular effects and dramatic atmosphere with the right background image. Resizing and further transforming your background image (simulated perspective) will further enhance the appearance of your original RCT3 screenshot. Some of these images look a bit like oil paintings done by the Old Masters. Although we achieved these effects with my Chroma Blue Sky and Backdrop ReTextures pack one might have gotten the exact same effects by building some cliff faces in the park and then using the Chroma Blue Terrain Retextures pack. One pack isn't any better to use than the other - which pack to use is a matter of personal preference. In our case this park was already built right to the edge of the park map and in this example it was easier to load a TPF sky and backdrop retextures pack rather than expanding the size of the park map, pulling up cliff faces then loading an alternative TPF. To someone who already had their cliffs built the Terrain Retextures may have been a better option.

In my terrain retexture packs, the chroma cliff faces are there to enable someone to conveniently build a terrain wall and instantly create a chroma background by painting it with a chroma colour. This being done through TexMod will be quicker and will take far less game resources than placing several thousand chroma CS walls or chroma CS terrain blocks. We all know that if we add that many additional pieces of scenery in a huge park that’s already busy that might cause the game to lag or crash.

Elmer BeFuddled tells us that this is what he's done in the video he's created here in which he's taken the time to use a photograph to beautifully demonstrate the use of my green chroma retextures while also showcasing the excellent animation in his flags set:

After the person who’s set up the chroma terrain retextures is satisfied their image requirements have been met, because TexMod textures make no permanent changes to anything in the game, if one no longer wants to see a particular TexMod retexture in the game they simply don’t load the TPF’s the next time they open RCT3 after which the game's original textures will show.

The chroma ground textures are for anyone that wants to make these same sorts of image edits and wishes to include the terrain for editing in their park.

If someone wants to do some serious editing, in addition to using both the cliff face chromas & the ground terrain chromas they can also load my chroma sky & backdrop retextures.

The black retextures are for someone who wants to make a really huge dark ride. They can terraform to suit their needs and paint the terrain black so their ride looks good in there amongst all the dark. Using this method dark ride enclosures can be made up to a 254 x 254 map size and up to 225m in height (from a depth of -75m to a height of 150m above ground). Using this method to create dark ride enclosures will eliminate the need for thousands of black CS items to build the black enclosure. If they've got an outer space themed ride going on they could also use my black Chroma Sky and Backdrop Retexture for a black dark ride sky that shows the in-game sun which will flash by beautifully during the POV and look really stunning against all that solid black. Should they not want to see the sun the ideal set to use to build the black ceilings on such an enclosure is my Dark Ride Enclosure Toppers Set which can be found here:

The white retextures are for someone who, for example, might want a completely white background to present a CS set they made that they’re getting ready to upload.

Many consider the green and blue chromas to be interchangeable but this is not always the case: one might want to switch from chroma green to chroma blue if, for example, they’re planning on putting in a different background behind their RCT3 forest. Behind those trees all that blue will select and edit out better than deleting something which is just another shade of green, something we took into consideration when we made up our example images.

An image/video editing program is required to edit out chroma colors and to edit in replacement scenery.

To try your hand at chroma editing in RCT3 a good start is to download our Chroma Key TexMod Terrain ReTextures. These ReTextures will alter the color of your terrain and cliff edges so that they're keyed in chroma colors that can easily be edited out of screenshots or video. More information on our Terrain ReTextures and the download link can be found here.

  Chroma Key TexMod Terrain ReTextures