RCT3 Index list for Downloadable, Missing/Lost and "Most Wanted" CS content?

[Traveller]

I am currently in a  VERY time consuming process trying to recover salvageable CS content from my old HDD, which got bricked nearly 10 years ago. One of the problems I am having is that many of the CS packs only exist in their Style\Themed\ -folder, therefore missing any info files, readme and possible screenshots, etc. One of the folders recovered was named "11" and the files in that folder were named imaginatively named in style of "1.ovl"  and... surprise, surprise "2.ovl"

I was wondering if there is any kind of "master list", or index for known CS content currently available for download and especially for CS packs which are considered "missing" or "lost"?

- If there isn't such a list, I think it might be a good idea to create one, which could then keep updating in regular intervals, say once a week or a month.  This could be .xls file or something similar. What do you think?

[Kablary]

Frankly, I love this idea. I'm not really in love with the amount of work it will take  But perhaps it can be a group effort! 

I am nearly done completing a previously-started list on SGW for a set of custom structures - it's got around 150 sets on it that I've managed to link back to ParkCrafters, so that might make for a good launching point. Would like to hear input from other Staff, too. Could be a great community-building experience. 

Edited March 18 by Kablary

[Traveller]

Oh well... to give you an idea what I am up against: I finished yesterday retrieving everything I could from my old squeaky bricked HDD. All the RCT3 stuff is now finally under one main folder, all I need to do now is to do the most frustrating part, sorting all this mess out, and get rid of 100% verified duplicates and check known dependencies for the sets, then do painstaking crosschecking against dates and versions of the sets, and again delete the duplicates. Sounds easy, right?  Well... there are now 57.6 Gb - or to be precise, 61,900,693,504 bytes in 380,628 files, and 25,151 folders!  - And just that it wouldn't get too easy: for an example a basic duplicate search found fourteen (14!) duplicates of ShyGuy's Mainstreet sets, and many of them seem to be different versions with different dates. I did some basic math, and I think it will take me a minimum of 3-4 weeks if I would (and could) spend 8 hours in 7 days a week, just to do a basic process of elimination. I don't really want to think about how much and what was permanently lost. As my granny used to say; "What's gone, is gone!".

[Kablary]

14 minutes ago, Traveller said:

Oh well... to give you an idea what I am up against: I finished yesterday retrieving everything I could from my old squeaky bricked HDD. All the RCT3 stuff is now finally under one main folder, all I need to do now is to do the most frustrating part, sorting all this mess out, and get rid of 100% verified duplicates and check known dependencies for the sets, then do painstaking crosschecking against dates and versions of the sets, and again delete the duplicates. Sounds easy, right?  Well... there are now 57.6 Gb - or to be precise, 61,900,693,504 bytes in 380,628 files, and 25,151 folders!  - And just that it wouldn't get too easy: for an example a basic duplicate search found fourteen (14!) duplicates of ShyGuy's Mainstreet sets, and many of them seem to be different versions with different dates. I did some basic math, and I think it will take me a minimum of 3-4 weeks if I would (and could) spend 8 hours in 7 days a week, just to do a basic process of elimination. I don't really want to think about how much and what was permanently lost. As my granny used to say; "What's gone, is gone!".

You and I discussed the benefit of having redundancies available with regards to older versions of sets, like the Main Street collection you mentioned. I've since learned that older versions were replaced or updated for a reason, whether it was to fix broken textures or optimize file sizes, or just plain 'ol expand existing sets with additional pieces. And in most of the readme's for these updated versions, they say "please remove any previous version of this set from your disk." So in that regard, I'd say it's probably acceptable to omit those particular duplicates. I realize that backtracks what I said last week, but I feel this makes the most sense, since those older versions of the sets were never meant to be kept anyway once updated! 

Does that make the workload any less? Not likely, as you'd still need to cross reference the sets available here and see if they're indeed the most current available. BUT that's at least some lesser steps for you later on? 

[Traveller]

Ah... but you forget one thing: Some of the readme -files I've read, say that I should keep the old files and overwrite, if asked. This suggests to me that some of the newer versions might only include the newer versions of the files, but omit the older, existing ones. Which I think is just poor planning, but I have already found one such set, which requires me to have BOTH the older version AND the new one. I don't know about you, but to me that's just bonkers! I don't know what some of these authors have been thinking (or drinking ...or smoking) when they thought that would be a great way to save space! (Hey! -There's no face-palm emoji in here! -so evil monkey it is.)

[wolfpaw]

I don't believe there is a master CS list of missing or lost files but I do have an archive of CS packs that I've kept that many are probably not uploaded onto the site... and I'm sure this is the case with many other people that have collected CS packs over the years.

We could get a team going of many people that have archives of CS packs on their end that aren't uploaded and have everyone upload their files which we can then remove duplicates and organize them once they're on the site. Similar to the CSDepot Strike Team but instead of moving files over from the CSDepot site it would just be from everyone's own archive. It's a good starting point to get a lot of missing packs and files uploaded I think.

Also, I've moved this topic to the RCT3 section of the site since this is strictly about RCT3.

[Traveller]

1 hour ago, wolfpaw said:

We could get a team going of many people that have archives of CS packs on their end that aren't uploaded and have everyone upload their files which we can then remove duplicates and organize them once they're on the site. Similar to the CSDepot Strike Team but instead of moving files over from the CSDepot site it would just be from everyone's own archive. It's a good starting point to get a lot of missing packs and files uploaded I think.

This sound really good to me. However, I can already foresee the many problems ahead. Firstly there is the issue of the varied file names, often changed names of the authors, the fact that there are sets which have been bundled together - thus creating a fantastic confusion regarding the great quest to locate and make CS objects available for download for generations to come (I hope) .

I have only recently taken notice that the only way to have any chance of succeeding locating many of these CS sets, is to have as wide community collaboration as possible. I am currently in process of sorting out several CS sets I have rescued from my old hard drive, and are planning to upload here. Many of these are available no longer, as far as I know, on any website. I keep finding almost weekly a set I thought would have been lost for good. But this takes  time - a LOT of time, its laborious for many reasons, and only having a real passion, patience and faith in that this is all worth while doing. RCT3 is one of the very few games I really love to play - it has the definitive "LEGO -effect" - if you are familiar with this term.

One strategy I have found being unexpectedly fruitful has been to search, locate and download CS bundle packages, which often have been gigantic in size. As an example, I recently downloaded several such collection packs from www.coaster-games.org and found inside huge pack several CS sets I haven't seen anywhere else. Links to these mega packs are often very elusive, I have found some by watching RCT3 related YouTube videos, which have had links to download CS packs, usually from sites like Mediafire.

To have this type of project really to succeed is entirely possible, but it does take commitment, and from my own past experiences with other gaming modding communities, there really needs to be firm guidelines - a sort of solid rule-sets for how it should be done, so it won't turn into utter chaos... But this all up to you, and I really can't thank you enough for creating this site in the first place, which has totally renewed my interest in the sheer never ending versatility to produce enjoyment and satisfaction for playing "just" a game!

 

"That's not a moon. That's a space station!"

-Obi Wan Kenobi in "Star Wars" (1977)

 

[Traveller]

I don't know if this would be any use, but I was able to locate from Wayback Machine The Complete List of Custom Content The newest listing I found is from January 24, 2021. The exact URL must have changed sometime after that, I think. All the directories seem to be accessible, nothing can be downloaded, naturally.

Already there are notes like "No Known Working Download!" for a number of CS sets. It just breaks my heart to think that some sets really could be lost forever....

[wolfpaw]

On 3/18/2024 at 1:41 PM, Traveller said:

This sound really good to me. However, I can already foresee the many problems ahead. Firstly there is the issue of the varied file names, often changed names of the authors, the fact that there are sets which have been bundled together - thus creating a fantastic confusion regarding the great quest to locate and make CS objects available for download for generations to come (I hope) .

I have only recently taken notice that the only way to have any chance of succeeding locating many of these CS sets, is to have as wide community collaboration as possible. I am currently in process of sorting out several CS sets I have rescued from my old hard drive, and are planning to upload here. Many of these are available no longer, as far as I know, on any website. I keep finding almost weekly a set I thought would have been lost for good. But this takes  time - a LOT of time, its laborious for many reasons, and only having a real passion, patience and faith in that this is all worth while doing. RCT3 is one of the very few games I really love to play - it has the definitive "LEGO -effect" - if you are familiar with this term.

One strategy I have found being unexpectedly fruitful has been to search, locate and download CS bundle packages, which often have been gigantic in size. As an example, I recently downloaded several such collection packs from www.coaster-games.org and found inside huge pack several CS sets I haven't seen anywhere else. Links to these mega packs are often very elusive, I have found some by watching RCT3 related YouTube videos, which have had links to download CS packs, usually from sites like Mediafire.

To have this type of project really to succeed is entirely possible, but it does take commitment, and from my own past experiences with other gaming modding communities, there really needs to be firm guidelines - a sort of solid rule-sets for how it should be done, so it won't turn into utter chaos... But this all up to you, and I really can't thank you enough for creating this site in the first place, which has totally renewed my interest in the sheer never ending versatility to produce enjoyment and satisfaction for playing "just" a game!

 

"That's not a moon. That's a space station!"

-Obi Wan Kenobi in "Star Wars" (1977)

 

I would rather get everything uploaded and then we go through and organize everything, that's the same approach we did when migrating the CSDepot over. Staff has been discussing and already has plans to organize our downloads library better sometime this year. If we can get everything uploaded and then comb through everything and remove duplicates, test out bundles, remove outdated packs, etc. then I think that would be a better approach instead of having to collaborate with everyone offline to upload the final correct files.