Park CleanUp & Third-Party Applications

So we can manipulate the information in a way that it is beneficial to us we need to extract the data list from Park CleanUp. The utility I like to use for extracting text from Windows dialog boxes is SysExporter. The download link for this application can be found at the end of this article.

SysExporter requires installation. It allows us to extract the data displayed in list boxes, combo boxes, text boxes, and dialog boxes from almost any application running on our system. It’s easy to use too. Just launch the utility and wait a few moments for it to populate its top display with the contents of all the text it can extract for you.

Once it’s done we can scroll down the list in the top display until we find the entries for Park CleanUp. In this instance there are four entries so I’ve looked at the contents listed in the fourth column, Items, to see which row has the most likely number of entries. Common sense tells me it’s the row showing over 62,000 items so I’ve selected that row by left clicking on it.

The content of the Park CleanUp text box is now listed in the bottom display. To export this content go to File>Export All Items and save as type Tab Delimited Text File.txt. In this example we'll save it as Concordia Gardens Data List.txt.

We now need to sort this information so it’s easy to review. I'm comfortable with Microsoft Word so my first thought was to copy the text from Concordia Gardens Data List.txt, paste it into a Microsoft Word document, and then do an ascending alphabetical sort. Unfortunately 62,000 lines of information turned out to be too much for MS Word.

My Microsoft Super Agent has left me feeling disappointed. Obviously another way is needed and NotePad++ is just the application for this. A huge improvement over the Notepad application that comes with Windows, in NotePad++ we can edit a large variety of scripts and then save the data in over a hundred different file extensions.

For our purposes here we're going to use NotePad++ as an extended notepad so NotePad++ is also handy for our simple, everyday needs:

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NotePad++ displays the entries inside Options.txt files in the way that our game engine views them, with each entry on it’s own line as opposed to presenting this information in a wall of text like MS Notepad. This makes it convenient for us to edit our Options.txt files.

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Text can be composed in NotePad++ and then that text copied & pasted into other applications without the unwanted addition of difficult to delete text wrap marks or soft returns.

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If you’re reviewing log files with NotePad++ and the system changes the content of the log, NotePad++ will give a message on the fly asking if you want to update the text contents in the display so that you may read the changes Windows has made to the log file.

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Without choking on huge TXT filesizes and then hanging before displaying their contents, NotePad++ opens enormous text files in a flash.

NotePad++ is free and a link to it is located at the end of this article. If you were to download, install, and then launch NotePad++ a blank, new document would open by default.

As you see I’ve gone into Settings>Style Configurator and have selected the Khaki theme. I’ve also selected a Microsoft Sans Serif text style. Next I’m going to copy the contents of Concordia Gardens Data List.txt and paste it into a new document in NotePad++. After doing this the status bar at the bottom of NotePad++’ display tells us we just copied over 60,000 lines of text (there near the center where it says lines: 62,151).

After selecting all the text I’m going to go to Edit>Line Operations >Sort Lines As Integers Ascending. This will put the list in alphabetical order with the A’s first, as can be seen in the next image.

Now that we’ve sorted and saved this information we can better look through it and tell in an organized way what’s in this park. For example, if I need to see how many security guards are in the park I can go to where the S's are listed, find them all in one place, and count them all in one go.

In order to count the number of Security Guards listed, after I've glanced at the entries to confirm how they’re spelled in the list I’ll type into the Find dialog the search term as it’s spelled in the data list, and then select the Count toggle at the right.

At the bottom left in blue text the NotePad++ display tells us there are 84 SecurityGuards in this park. We can count any item in our Data List in this way.

If you wish to save your data to come back to it later you’d go to File>Save and choose the first option to Save As A Normal Text File.txt. Because I’m more familiar with Microsoft Word I’ve copied all the text in NotePad++ and have saved it as Concordia Gardens Data List.doc. After doing this I quickly looked over the data inside the DOC file and there was my Microsoft Agent looking rather pleased with himself.

I've used additional features in NotePad++ to clean up the text and remove all the unnecessary tabs between the trailing zeros. This makes the information easier on the eyes as I scroll through the 70,000+ lines of information. I could have mass deleted all the double zeros but some of the legitimate data might have included double zeros so I left those.

Create ParkZIP

When using Park CleanUp to export the custom content required for your uploaded parksaves into a zipped folder sometimes there will be an error message indicating that Park CleanUp was unable to zip particular files. After this most of us get busy determining which files they were after which we’d probably ourselves copy and paste them into the zipped folder. Eventually what will happen is after one such “unable to zip” export it will be noticed that after getting this same error message, you are suddenly unable to open some of your parks and are getting error messages. You might even check the files named in the error messages and find that they are in fact still where they are supposed to be.

The problem seems to be that every so often when Park CleanUp can’t zip files, some of the files it attempted to zip are corrupted, seemingly as a result of the halted zipping process.

When this happens starting another session of RCT3 or restarting your system won’t help. The only solution to the problem is to delete the entire contents of your Themed folder and to replace that with the contents of your backed up Themed folder. If you have not already backed up your folder then you will need to individually reinstall the CS sets listed in the error messages. If you must zip with Park CleanUp then do a backup of your RCT3 Program Files folder first.

Any time now that this author needs to export custom folders into a zipped folder the CS is copied, pasted and zipped manually, without using Park CleanUp. Again Park CleanUp is a terrific utility but this is just one of its little quirks.

Park CleanUp and The Windows Interface

We’ve mentioned on the previous page that we should use copies of our park files when working with Park CleanUp so that our original DAT’s remain safe. There are dozens of applications we may use on our PC in our day-to-day, each with its own interface through which, while opening and saving files, we’ve blithely and safely re-named, copied, pasted, and deleted Windows files just as if we were using Windows Explorer.

Park CleanUp seems to be the exception to this. When creating a copy of our park file the copy should not be made through the Park CleanUp interface but rather through the Windows Explorer interface. Copying files through Park CleanUp's Open File/Save File interface will corrupt your park file and will result in a DAT that will not open with RCT3.

Streamlining Your Game’s Overhead

With Folder Deletions

Decluttering Your Themed Folder

In Game Scenery

If you don’t ordinarily use the in-game scenery then some of or all eight of the Themed folders that came installed with your game may be deleted prior to opening any sandbox with which you’d like to start a new park. This will make the in-game menus much easier to navigate and reduce the overhead required for your game to operate but do be warned though this will limit the stall types, ride entrance/exit types, wall sets, flat ride types, and also some of the car types that might otherwise be available on any coaster you may build.

For a complete listing of which stalls and wall sets are included with each of the in-game folders inside Themed see our article here: Theming Our Stalls & Facilities.

Custom Scenery

Most every community member is aware that it’s economical on game resources to remove any custom content from our Themed folder if we haven’t yet used it in a park and we’re not going to use it. To assess the possibility you may be able to delete unwanted scenery from your parksave by deleting certain of your Themed folders see our heading Cold Cleaning Our Parks.

Removing sub-directories from the folders inside Themed is not recommended.

Firing The Park Inspector

It is possible to remove the Park Inspector from your game. This will slightly reduce the load on your game engine by there not being any individual present in your park who is always evaluating it. This will also eliminate any references to ParkInspectorMessages in the Data List.

To get rid of the Park Inspector see our article How To Kill The Park Inspector.

Park CleanUp Errors

Alloc error!

It seems that Park CleanUp is built with a time-out on the length of time it spends populating the list it will display containing the names of your park files. This error simply means there are too many park files in your Park’s folder for Park CleanUp to read within the populate time-out. You can navigate past this error and use Park CleanUp as you usually do.

To avoid seeing this error the solution is to move some of your park files into sub-folders.

Unhandled Exception

If your system is running too many16-bit programs at one time you will get this error message whether using Park CleanUp or any other 16-bit application on Windows. This is surprising seeing that Windows is now either 32-bit or 64-bit. To fix:

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Open your root drive. On most PC’s this is usually drive C.

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Go to the file config.sys. This file comes with the Windows installation. We’re going to replace this file because if we receiving this message the default values inside are insufficient for the number of 16-bit programs that we at times run on our system. Copy this config.sys file and put the copy aside in a safe place.

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Create a new TXT document either on your Desktop or inside My Documents. Name the new TXT file config so that it is now a file called config.txt. Open config.txt.

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Copy and paste the following information into config.txt:

Files=130

Buffers=1000

If you’d prefer to type in this information there are no lines or spaces either before the F or after the 1000. There are no spaces before or after either of the = signs.

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Once you’ve pasted this information into config.txt select File>Save As and save the file. Close config.txt.

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We’re now going to change our TXT file into a SYS file. Right click on config.txt and select Rename.

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To change the extension of this file we’ll replace the last three letters txt with the letters sys. Once you’ve done that select OK. Your file should now be called config.sys.

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Right click on the config.sys file you just created and select Copy.

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Go to your root drive. This will be the same drive you viewed in K above.

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Into your root drive paste the config.sys file you just made.

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Select the option to Copy And Replace. This will confirm you want to replace the original file with the copy that you just created.

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After step U restart your computer.

After you've done this any unhandled exception errors that are based on your system is running too many 16-bit programs will become a thing of the past.

Parsing Error

This indicates that Park CleanUp can’t open your park file because it's determined that your parksave is corrupted. Do take into account that sometimes there is nothing wrong with your parksave. Sometimes it really is corrupted. The only way to be sure is to try and load the parksave in RCT3.

Parsing Error

Park CleanUp will occasionally develop an error when it can't freely access your system's resources, e.g., if your system is due for a restart, there are a huge amount of temporary files that need removing, and your RAM and CPU are being used near capacity. Sometimes it won't throw any error at all and will process your cleaned up park as if there's no problem after which you'll observe you won't be able to open the copy of the parksave that you cleaned up although you won't have any problem opening the original parksave that hasn't been cleaned up.

Park File Thumbnails

Park CleanUp v2.0 contained a little function enabling the gamer to change the park preview image. This was a useful feature for someone who planned to upload his park and wanted to select what image displayed when the gamer later viewed the downloaded parksave in the Load Game menu in RCT3.

If we’re tidying our Parks folder and can’t recall which iteration of our park to save and which to delete, without launching our game Park CleanUp v2.0 was handy for looking over park thumbnails which could serve as a reminder of what we were last doing in which parksave. We could view our park's thumbnail preview image by simply loading the parksave in Park CleanUp.

As previously mentioned, several years after JoeyWP moved on to MineCraft he was kind enough to return to our community briefly and provide us with a final update for his utility. This last version of Park CleanUp is v2.1.

Regrettably Joey had inadvertently overlooked including this handy thumbnail feature in the latest version of this utility. Those of us who like to alter our parksave thumbnails will need to keep a copy of Park Cleanup v2.0 to hand in order to do so. You'll find the link below to this older version of Park CleanUp.

After you’ve launched Park CleanUp v2.0 there will be a toggle called Replace ParkPreview Picture. Left click on the toggle and browse to the image of your choice. Images used for Park CleanUp thumbnails need to be 74 x 58 pixels saved in a BMP format.

So as we've seen using Park CleanUp to streamline our parksaves and optimize our game is a little more involved than launching this utility, selecting a park file, and then running a standard CleanUp The ParkFile hosedown.

After reading this article and taking on board some of the information presented here you’ll move on from Beginner’s Park CleanUp right through any Intermediate stages and become a Park CleanUp power user. Both you and your game will be kicked up by Park CleanUp, the brightest tool in our kit.