Submitting contest parks, Turn "export" function OFF Options

[MidwestBoyInLA View Member Profile]

Hey everyone,

I just realized something that may save a lot of people a lot of trouble when submitting their parks and screenshots.

Since the custom objects can already be installed from the main contest download, contestants should submit their entries with the export function turned OFF. If you TURN OFF the export custom objects function (in the OPTION settings) your park's saved game will be MUCH smaller (usually around 100K).

If you submit your parks to us like this, we can save a considerable amount of server space.

When you're in the game and you click on the Disk icon there's an OPTIONS option. When you click that, it pulls up your game options.

At the very bottom is "Export plug-in objects with saved games":



If you have this checked, then when you save your game it will include ANY custom objects in the saved game file, thus making the file quite large (usually several Megabytes).

If you DO NOT check this box, then it will not include the scenery with the saved game.

This is a common problem people encounter when they open saved games and get red error messages saying .DAT files are missing... because they were not exported with the files.

For the purposes of contests and projects at RCT*Mart, where the original download of custom objects is already availble, we're asking people to NOT export their objects with saved games. That way the files are smaller, not only making emailing them to us easier, but also saving space on our server when we host all these parks. That way we can host more parks without worrying about running out of server space as quickly.

If you have trouble opening a park that did not export the objects, all you have to do is download and install the original park that had the custom objects, then you will be able to open the saved games.

If the contest is for you to select your own scenery, however, you'll need to make sure the export function is turned ON when you submit your parks, or no one will be able to open them.

Also, if you're able to, please check to see which image type will create smaller sized files (.jpg or .png). Usually one is 1/2 the size of the other. Please submit your screenshots in the smallest format possible. Also, cropping your screenshots from 800x600 (or larger) down to 640x480 will reduce the k size of the image by 50% as well... so whenever possible, please only submit 640x480 screenshots.

Thanks!!