Is it possible to edit other people's CSO?

[yali ben-shmuel]

Is it possible to edit other people's CSO?

[wolfpaw]

I'm not too familiar with editing and creating custom content so maybe someone else can answer if I'm wrong but I believe you can if you have the right files? Edit what you want and re-import into RCT3? I would be careful though and if you do that at least do it for your own projects and give credit to the original creators. Might not sit right with them if you edit what they created and upload it yourself.

[RobertaME]

Yes, it is entirely possible to edit other people's CSOs.

I did this with nothing more than Notepad++ and its Hex Editor plugin to give the ride a cost (nothing should be free) and change its name. (still looking into OVL code to find more things that can be changed without unpacking them and trying to repackage them entirely... which is neigh unto impossible in many cases)

The REAL question is "Is it allowed/ethical to upload fixed versions of a CSO for other people to use?" I edited my own downloads of these files for my own use, so it's no big deal... but whether or not I should be able to (or be ethically justified in) uploading those for others' use is a very contentious subject. I look at it as an homage, giving credit to the original creator and adding to what they've done... the creator might think differently, though. ::shrug::

[Bookworm91]

Usually to do anything CS related, you need the sketchup file and colors used.  To my knowledge, there is no way to get that info from an .ovl file.

[RobertaME]

19 hours ago, Bookworm91 said:

Usually to do anything CS related, you need the sketchup file and colors used.  To my knowledge, there is no way to get that info from an .ovl file.

The OVL files themselves can be edited to a certain extent, changing things like their EIN stats, cost, name, description, etc by directly changing certain hex values. You have to be careful though because changing the wrong values can make the object crash your game.

I'll be putting together a tutorial on how to change those aspects that I know how to change by direct hex editing soon. I'll post it up here for everyone to have access to it.

Hope this helps!