How to Hex Edit in RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, Different trains on different tracks Options

[ClockworkMyr View Member Profile]

(Apologies if this isn't the right category, if it isn't please move accordingly)

How to HexEdit in RollerCoaster Tycoon 3






Okay, I was just screwing around with a Hex Editor when I thought "Okay, what would happen if I used it on RCT3?" These are some of the results. You can make Looping Mine Trains, Inverting StrataCoasters (The Launch Section track makes TTD a complete possibility with the smoother uphills as well), or semi-realistic Intamin Inverting Coasters.

We're going to do a tutorial in changing the Shooting Stars cars (Which absolutely nobody uses) on the Corkscrew Coaster into Mine Train cars.

1. Download a hex editor (I googled Hex Editor and picked the first result).

2. Navigate to My Computer/C Drive/Program Files/Atari/RollerCoaster Tycoon 3/tracks/coasters/(Any of the rides you want). Use the Hex Editor to look at the .common.ovl's in each folder. Leave the Unique.ovl's alone, screwing with them could be bad. WHATEVER YOU DO DO NOT MODIFY ANYTHING IN THERE AND SAVE - THAT COULD WRECK THAT COASTER ENTIRELY AND REQUIRE DELETION.

3. Take the Corkscrew.common.ovl and copy/paste it to the Desktop without modifying it. This will serve as our back-up copy in case something goes wrong.

4. Boot up the Hex Editor. Open the MineTrain.common.ovl with the hex editor and look at the MineTrain data in the upper left of the right column. It's just MineTrain, but you should memorize it.

5. Now open the Corkscrew.common.ovl and where it says ShootingStar in the right column, type over it (No insert key needed) MineTrain. On the left column, you probably saw the coding change. Take the rest of the coding in ShootingStar and change the binary into zeros (2 0's per binary... bit thingy). Make sure there are little squares right up until the square before "straight".

6. Save this data over the current Corkscrew.common.ovl and open RollerCoaster Tycoon 3. When loading the resources, if it stops at 40%, something went wrong so open the back-up file and try again. Make as many back-ups as you feel are necessary.

7. If it loads to the menu, go to a sandbox and open the Corkscrew Coaster. Build a design and change the Vehicles until you get to where Shooting Star was. The Mine Train should be there. If so, congratulations! You've just hex edited RCT3!
How to do others:
You can do longer names, but you must remove some track data. As you can see in one of the pictures, the curve in that Stormrunner costs $0 to build. Why? When replacing the StormRunner cars with TTD cars, we have to take the medium curve data out, so it costs $0. This is only my theory, I thought it would take it out altogether. Try at your own risk. Shorter names are the same as what we did with the ShootingStar-to-MineTrain cars, replace the binary with null coding that acts as spaces. I recommend not screwing with the track data personally, it could really screw up the game.

I was able to get the Impulse Cars onto an Inverted Roller Coaster myself, and that always is sweet. The train size limits still hold though, but those are pretty well reasoned.

So, thanks for reading this tutorial!

Sidenote: While experimenting with the Bobsleigh Coaster, I found the cars to sail off the track on all types of inversions because they aren't directly attached to the track.

[MidwestBoyInLA View Member Profile]

That's pretty awesome.

Good job!!