From 2015-2017 Universal's Islands of Adventure was TripAdvisor® Travelers' Choice as the World’s Number One Amusement Park. It’s been said that when you visit Islands of Adventure in Universal Orlando Resort you are not just visiting another theme park, you are entering myths and legends inhabited by fabled beasts, super heroes, and magical creatures. In addition to this, Universal's Islands of Adventure features some of the most innovative rides and attractions ever made.

This season’s Showcase! Article features a CS Artist who seems to have a different take on the creation of CSO’s. A repeat visitor to Islands of Adventure, he began in our community posting on Atari’s RCT3 forums and in the Summer of 2011, on ShyGuy’s World he posted links to updates of the sets he’d already created which are based on Port of Entry in Universal’s Islands of Adventure.

You’ve probably guessed by now that this artist is L-33, known to some of us as Lee. We are pleased to present Lee/L-33 as the first CS Artist featured in our Showcase!

Having chosen Lee’s delightful series of arid/outback outpost/desert-esque themed pieces, it was our intention to release this article as a Summer Showcase! While collating this information we were so charmed by the textures and the pieces in these sets we found the more we worked on this article the more we wanted to play. Thusly, as you see this article is being released as Showcase! Fall 2018.

Some years ago I had used Lee’s Building 1 Set in a station building I’d constructed and found that I really liked some of the pieces he had included. It was my desire after that to make my first CS set which was to be a small set made up of the pieces I would have liked to have had along while building my station structure. When created, that set would have served only as an extension of Lee’s POE Building 1 Set.

Around that time I contacted Lee and mentioned my wish to make a POE extension set. I asked if he would mind sharing some of his textures so I could match my pieces to his. At the very most I thought I just might possibly receive one or two textures. I didn’t know at the time how generous Lee is with his resources and he shared a couple of zipped folders with me along with some advice on how to make CS in addition to suggesting how he thought best to introduce custom content into the community. Lee’s unexpected avalanche of generousness was almost overwhelming and while I didn’t make immediate connections between the files he sent I was able to see just how much information he had shared and made it a point to thank him for making free with his material.

I’ve mentioned in one or two other locations on this website that I’d used Blender some years ago. Shortly after hearing from Lee I attempted to import a model into RCT3 using a random model I had made in Blender on which I had applied a randomly selected texture. I got a single scenery piece into an RCT3 sandbox. Lee said it was a good sign I actually got a piece imported into the game. Unfortunately we each got caught up in our day-to-day and that was the end of that.

It was years later that I opened SketchUp intending to apply one texture to a balloon shape, and I’ve used SketchUp ever since.

In this edition of Showcase! we’ll review Lee’s best known sets:

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POE Building 1 Set

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POE Building Set (an extension to Building 1 Set)

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POE Building 2 Set

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Confisco Grille (an extension to Building 2 Set)

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POE Building 3 Set

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POE Extras

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Studio Walls

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Alpha Paths

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POE Building 4 Set

L-33’s POE Building 1 Set

Until we started this article, out of all Lee’s sets his original Building 1 release is the one I’d used the most and is the set for which I wanted to make a POE extension. This charming 20-piece set is located in the Scenery Items menu.

Lee’s image below shows the building that can be constructed from Building 1 Set.

Using this image as a guide in addition to Installing Building 1 Set would be a great way for someone to get introduced to building with CS.

What I particularly like about this set is how well the colors are visually aligned, and with the way Lee has combined the terracotta and white brick texture along with his effective use of these textures throughout the set. The blue glass in this set juxtaposes beautifully with the terracotta in the brick texture. The subdued terracotta shades of the roof tiles complete the co-ordinated appearance of Lee’s set.

Using two complementary colors in this way could have been overwhelming but Lee’s effectively minimized this with the use of his white plaster texture. Some of the pieces in POE Building 1 Set mix beautifully both with other CS sets and with in-game scenery.

I’ve used Lee’s two-toned brick texture pieces to great effect in this coaster station/staff facilities building complex that I built:

These screenshots have been taken in a park that's a little different from the one presented on page 4 of my Screenshots article. These images show that I’ve revisited this park and have updated the area around my Viper One coaster. The noticing sort will have observed in these screenshots that I’ve gotten a start and have already made a few pieces of my L-33's Port Of Entry Expansion Set.

L-33’s POE Building Set a.k.a.

L-33’s POE Wall Set

While Lee enjoys building and releasing sets in pre-constructed units, because of the community’s interest in his creating individual set pieces with more versatility he’s re-released some of his Building 1 Set pieces in different placement configurations as a Building 1 Set extension. In view of that, while Building 1 Set came with 20 pieces, this extension has over 60 pieces. Lee has additionally introduced a few new pieces in this extension all of which can be found in the Walls, Roofs, and Buildings menu.

In response to the community’s request that he make some of his downloads compatible with other CSO’s he had enjoyed success in achieving this with some of his set pieces, but on the whole he said he was finding it extremely challenging.

As this update is an extension to Building 1 Set Lee has suggested that we keep both the original set and the updated set installed as some of the pieces from the original set aren’t included in this extension.