Post here to comtribute to the project

I'm also looking for full members to help me out with code and whatnot. I'm going to open a private board if I get enough people to join the project. But anyone can post in the public area with info or ideas. I'll take all the help I can get on this.

If it is ever finished, I'll try to credit all the contributors in the release documentation.

Anyone who's wanted a RCT park importation ability for RCT2 would do well to help this project out.

Hey ja227: good to hear from you again! I guess my first question is "what language are you planning to write this in?" If you're going to use C++, then I'd be more than happy to help, but if you're looking at VB or something off the wall, then all I can offer is help debugging. Unfortunately, I dumped my old RCT1 parks a while ago, but I do still play RCT2, so I can do some testing or documentation.

Cheers!
Humble Programmer
www.humble-programmer.com

Hey, I'm glad you stopped by. I'd appreciate any help you could offer

I'm doing it in C++. I'm using snippets from my trainer codes, but since I have not done much with actual SV6 and SV4 files themselves, I'm currently coding data structs for the two file types. Doctor J has the SV4 file format almost fully documented, but I still have a few fairly large holes in my SV6 docs.

It seems, however, that many of the fields in SV6 files are just there because Sawyer left them in from SV4 files. Things like the zillions of cheat detection fields and the extra checksums, although stiill there, may not even be checked by RCT2.

I had actually planned on doing this project 1 or 2 years ago, back when interest in RCT2 was much greater. But it just seemed overwhelming at the time, and I didn't want to do it. That and I kind of figured someone like Dr. J would come out with a converter after the object editor was 'done'. That never happened, so I'm going to bring the project back to life.

My biggest concerns are the rides (and their sprites), which have been rearranged quite a bit since RCT1. I never did figure out some of the operational fields in the ride structs. I may have to just close all the rides and clear the vehicles from the sprite area upon conversion.

Heck, I may just clear all sprites, since they aren't part of the park's infrastructure anyway. With this type of project, simplifying any unnecessary complication is better than keeping it.

I'll deal with the objects by building an available object table to emulate RCT1's available object set, distributing any custom objects needed with the converter.

The deleted land types are one of the biggests setbacks I can already forsee. I will probably have to settle with the closest match, even though there aren't many good matches for for RCT1 land textures among RCT2 ones. I though about scenery emulation, but I'll leave that for the user to touch up the conversion. This project will be difficult enough w/o trying to automatically emulate land with scenery.

- John