​​​​​​​Halloween World - RCT3 Spooky Theme Park

[Wilhelm1407]

I've been wanting to make a Halloween theme park for a long time now.   I started on creating a guest drop off point, which includes pavilions for guests to wait under, as well as restrooms in the shape of crypts. I also plan to add a bus stop in front of all of these things. I don't intend on creating an entire parking lot so the bus stops will also be for shuttles to the other lots. 

 

Edited October 22, 2023 by Wilhelm1407

[Kablary]

YEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSS!! An RCT3 park in 2023?! Unheard of, but stupidly exciting!

This is wonderful, Wilhelm! Love that the bathrooms are crypts  I am so jazzed to see your theming prowess come to life with the spooky decor. That gourd-geous rotunda is giving me all the feels right now 

[Wilhelm1407]

Just now, Kablary said:

YEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSS!! An RCT3 park in 2023?! Unheard of, but stupidly exciting!

This is wonderful, Wilhelm! Love that the bathrooms are crypts  I am so jazzed to see your theming prowess come to life with the spooky decor. That gourd-geous rotunda is giving me all the feels right now 

Lol what's funny I didn't even really plan for the restrooms to be crypts. I just was adding crypt walls for decoration, and I realized I could fit a decorative arch door thing between them. Then I was like Oh I could turn this into a building and I'm sure restrooms are needed around here so... let them be crypts I guess  They also have ATM machines on one of the walls inside. 

[wolfpaw]

Can't wait to see how this turns out! A brand new RCT3 park in 2023 is pretty cool to see - especially a horror-themed one! Don't see too many of those - can't wait to see what you do. I know it's gonna be amazing as usual, m'lord.

[Wilhelm1407]

A quick update before bed. I managed to crank out most of the bus stop details. Still needs more lighting and seating though. Debating on what will go on either side of them, as well as what to put next to the outer areas of the crypt restroom buildings. Also if anyone has suggestions for what style I should aim for in regards to the park gates and ticket booths. 

5 hours ago, wolfpaw said:

Can't wait to see how this turns out! A brand new RCT3 park in 2023 is pretty cool to see - especially a horror-themed one! Don't see too many of those - can't wait to see what you do. I know it's gonna be amazing as usual, m'lord.

Thank you! I had actually been debating for a while if I wanted to make this park in RCT3 or Planet Coaster. I chose the obvious because I know RCT3 better. I'm pretty sure I'd still be trying to shape the round about right now in Planet Coaster lol Perhaps after I complete this park I will attempt a Planet Coaster one and make it a chain of Halloween Parks.

[Kablary]

20 hours ago, Wilhelm1407 said:

Also if anyone has suggestions for what style I should aim for in regards to the park gates and ticket booths. 

I figured the ticket booths would carry over this Haunted Mansion-esque architecture. As for the park entrance, I like how you're basically getting off the bus and immediately punching in your last ticket, so to speak, since you're greeted by mausoleum bathrooms  Would be interesting to see a park entrance that is a little more obscure and abstract. Like, you've already been entombed, so what awaits in your afterlife? No one knows for sure, but it's likely very dark and dismal. I love Pumpkinrot's aesthetic, so maybe something drab, earthy and twisted?

[Wilhelm1407]

I managed to get more work done tonight on the bus stops, and guest pickup area. 

 

Here's an overview looking toward the bus stops. 

Ground view of the entrances to the bus stops.

Ground view looking toward the bus stops from the guest pick up and drop off traffic circle.

Updated front view of guest pick up and drop off traffic circle. 

[wolfpaw]

Love this little roundabout, I could totally see edgy teens from high school hangout here on weekends since they're too broke to enter the park 

Love the layout, whenever there are structures or layouts that break the grid in RCT3 it always just looks so much better - CURVES IN RCT3!

[Wilhelm1407]

Happy Halloween everyone!  I've started working on the park gates. I decided I wanted to go in a semi family friendly direction with the park, and have zones specifically for the more intense haunt attractions.

I redesigned the pickup drop off pavilions and made them part of the park gates. I drew inspiration from some ghost train facades as I felt they are spooky but festive. Still deciding if there are too many lights on the building... One of the more odd inspirations I had was Starlight Theater in Kansas City. I liked the shape and felt I could make it castle-esque. I still haven't quite figured out what the back side of the gates will look like.

Beyond the gates I'm thinking I will build a Halloween themed Mainstreet. So think Mainstreet but swap all the bright colors for dark spooky colors, and I will probably use mostly StationJimJr's Ghost Cabin wall and roof pieces. From there I will plan out the zones surrounding the main street. 

 

Edited October 31, 2023 by Wilhelm1407

[RobertaME]

Happy Halloween (and Nevada Day) to you too!

I love the look of the drop-off! The lighting is excellent and the centerpiece has just the right touch of spooky. Can't wait to see the interior of the park when you get to it.

[JB]

I think an entrance should be quite bright, so people can see it from a distance and know where to go. 

[wolfpaw]

Agreed, love the lighting on this! Top tier spoopy-ness entrance you have going on there, m'lord.

[Wilhelm1407]

So I may have some bad news. I tried opening the files to this project this week, and the game keeps crashing. I'm not sure why it's happening  

[Traveller]

43 minutes ago, Wilhelm1407 said:

So I may have some bad news. I tried opening the files to this project this week, and the game keeps crashing. I'm not sure why it's happening  

Oh dear, that is bad news! The same thing happened to me last week, and after exhaustive troubleshooting, cleaning up the .dat file, backtracking recently installed CS sets, etc. I was able to finally solve the problem by installing a missing CS set, which had only one component of it used in the park file, but after re-installing it was no longer crashing, which is truly strange, because I had already cleaned up the .dat file, and it was no longer appearing in the "List of Required CS" in ParkCleanup 2.1.  - Have you tried checking for missing and required CS with ParkCleanup?

[Wilhelm1407]

1 hour ago, Traveller said:

Oh dear, that is bad news! The same thing happened to me last week, and after exhaustive troubleshooting, cleaning up the .dat file, backtracking recently installed CS sets, etc. I was able to finally solve the problem by installing a missing CS set, which had only one component of it used in the park file, but after re-installing it was no longer crashing, which is truly strange, because I had already cleaned up the .dat file, and it was no longer appearing in the "List of Required CS" in ParkCleanup 2.1.  - Have you tried checking for missing and required CS with ParkCleanup?

That's the weird part I checked the file for missing cs sets, and it said I'm not missing anything. And I haven't deleted any sets since I made it. 

[Traveller]

8 hours ago, Wilhelm1407 said:

That's the weird part I checked the file for missing cs sets, and it said I'm not missing anything. And I haven't deleted any sets since I made it. 

 I assume you don't have any backups or earlier versions saved for crosschecking purposes, so the next thing I would do is to check any and all CS sets you may have installed either immediately before or after the last save date, and temporarily remove those CS sets - and if those removed sets are not extensively used in your park .dat -file I would try to clean up the dat file again. One other problem with crashing park files I have encountered has been in situations where the park has included coasters with custom CTR or CFR. It's worth mentioning that the weird way how RCT3 saves custom made parks and scenarios can also cause issues, because RCT3 includes reference data for ALL installed CS in your .dat file, regardless if it is used in the park or not! The main thing is, that you shouldn't give up trying everything you could possibly think of! My own experience with these  crashing issues is that 9 out of 10 I have been able to restore functionality, as long as the actual file is not corrupted because of Windows or HDD issues. (BTW. Fragmented NTFS file blocks can sometimes cause crashing, and I have solved occasionally these issues by simply doing a thorough defragmentation.) So, odds are still in your favor, until you have really exhausted any and all possible solve attempts. I'd love to help anyway I can, because I know exactly how frustrating and infuriating these things can be. So, if there's anything I could do for you, just ask! The main thing is not to lose hope and optimism just yet. It's still too early for that!

[JB]

You might try turning the shadows off, load the park, and see if the crashing continues. Some CS and CFRs have really large virtual footprints that confuse the game and can cause it to crash.

[Traveller]

4 minutes ago, JB said:

Some CS and CFRs have really large virtual footprints that confuse the game and can cause it to crash.

This is very true! Oversized, uncompressed textures, which often inflate disproportionately otherwise rather modest CS set do occasionally seem to bring RCT3 into a state of confusion. One reason for these seemingly almost random crashes is the result of some weird internal file or folder size limits. I have seen loading crashes happen without any real reason, and only been able to start the game only after reboot. I believe the internal max total size limit for RCT3's CS sets is somewhere slightly above 4.3 Gb - which really shouldn't by no means be a definite maximum.... And this is weird because the limits seem to apply even on Windows 10, no matter the size of RAM. I've even had RCT3 Complete Edition refusing to start in my high-end gaming rig, which currently has 64 Gb of DDR4 memory, if the CS set number and size has been too much according to RCT3's opinion...

[JB]

I wonder if Wilhelm is using "Large Address Aware" to allow the game to use 4Gb of RAM instead of the default 2Gb? This probably isn't the problem... but you never know.

[Wilhelm1407]

7 hours ago, JB said:

I wonder if Wilhelm is using "Large Address Aware" to allow the game to use 4Gb of RAM instead of the default 2Gb? This probably isn't the problem... but you never know.

I actually don't even know how to use that lol

[Traveller]

16 hours ago, JB said:

I wonder if Wilhelm is using "Large Address Aware" to allow the game to use 4Gb of RAM instead of the default 2Gb? This probably isn't the problem... but you never know.

JB may be onto something tangible here... (Be warned, this gets a little bit "nerdy" from here... )

Here are the basics: When a 32-bit application (such as RCT3) is "Large Address Aware", it can access up to 4 GiB on x64 operating systems and all memory that isn't used by the operating system and other applications on x86 (32-bit). 64-bit versions of Windows require no modifications to the operating system to benefit from this application; however, in 32-bit versions of Windows, you must increase the user memory setting. In another words, "Large Address Aware" does nothing really useful if you are already running a 32-bit Operating System - the absolute limit for applications will still be permanently set to 3.25 Gb of available RAM. Changing this limit is possible - but this is something not for basic - or even advanced users, and definitely requires extensive knowledge of how Windows kernel works. I consider myself well acquainted with registry modification and basic O/S modding, but I still would prefer not to even attempt that type of drastic and fundamental modification.

So, Wilhelm, if the size of your "Themed" folder exceeds way above 4 Gb, the only way to solve possible problems related to file/folder size limits is to decrease total size well below the 4+ Gb limit - and this is done just by simply removing all unnecessary CS sets. And JB is right, this may not be the cause for your crashing, but as he said, "you never know." It's still worth trying, though! - I still think most park loading problems with recently saved files, are related to a variety of possible issues with CS sets. However... corruption incurring during saving process are not totally unheard of, but they really are rare.

Edited August 18, 2024 by Traveller
added more info.

[Kablary]

22 hours ago, Wilhelm1407 said:

I actually don't even know how to use that lol

Shoot me a DM over on Discord and I can walk you through it, Wilhelm!

[Traveller]

I'm rather curious... Have you guys been able to convene and get any (hopefully positive) results... ?

[Wilhelm1407]

On 8/18/2024 at 10:25 PM, Kablary said:

Shoot me a DM over on Discord and I can walk you through it, Wilhelm!

I'll shoot you a message sometime this week

20 hours ago, Traveller said:

I'm rather curious... Have you guys been able to convene and get any (hopefully positive) results... ?

Sadly I've been so busy at work the last few weeks I've just been coming home and immediately crashing into bed