scenerio recovery, Loss of all objdata Options

[ziprescue]

O.k. don't try this at home kids. I thought I was being clever by creating a few scenerios which contained all the objects I wanted to save. Then completely unistalled RCT2, ww and tt. But when I put them back into the scenerio folder, of course nothing would load. Can these parks be saved? I was under the impression when you added a saved game or scenerio the game would automatically put back the objects in objdata folder.

zip.

[ziprescue]

I know what I did wrong, close topic
Thanks.

[TheVelvetFoxx]

Topic closed as requested by member.

[Nforce]

I reopened the topic to ask a question of ziprescue that may be of great help to others who may also try this.

I think I know what you didn't do correctly, but I want to make sure. Would it be possible for you to tell us what you did wrong so that others don't make the same mistake?

[ziprescue]

Well, this may seem long so I'll try to keep the important parts at the top.
First, I recommend you have a back-up disk. I have a rewritable disk which contains all the .dat, rides, programs and zip files I've downloaded from various sites. I have over 180 files on this disk which I continue to add to. This has saved me a lot of heartache because I can recover anything. For instance, If your fond of the "pink water" add-on, you'll lose this if you completely re-install the game.

Having too many objects in my objdata folder is a recurring problem from me and there's a couple of methods to tackle this. You can use the datveiwer tool and windows explorer to sort through each Item. However, a problem for me has been that I have duplicate pieces, and from the file name I can't always tell which is a loose piece and the one that belongs to a scenery tab. If you'd really like to "clean house" you may try this approach if you have backed-up your favorites as I mentioned above.

Un-install RCT2, ww and tt. I was still left with the objdata folder in the root directory which now only contains the downloaded objects. Then, I renamed this folder and saved it to disk as an archive to refer back to. Now using the datveiwer doesn't seem like such a large task because there's much less files to sort through. The datveiwer does not recognize the tab if one was included in a scenery group, so to retain it, re-install the scenery packs you still wish to keep from the original zip file. Knowing I can refer to the archive anytime I want to, I only spent about 20 mins putting back "loose" items, paths and rides I wanted to immediatly recover. I was quite pleased with this method because I now have a clean slate with a fair amount of room for new things. (Warning: this was not a considertion of mine, but you should back-up your track designs if have any that were not included with the game. If you have many, this approach could put too many "holes" if you don't put back all the scenery you included).

As for the method that failed me, I'll tell what went wrong. First, remember a saved game and scenario does not contain all the information about the objects you included but merely refers to them. If I wanted this to work I needed to create scenarios of the items I wanted to keep, load the scenario, save it as a game and the convert the saved game to a new scenario ensuring I have the "export plug-in objects" option selected. This method may work for you if your very careful. I did not have the "export plug-in objects" option selected, so when I tried to re-install these scenarios the game did not have the .dat files to refer to. I'd avoid going this route to save stuff because for starters, if you have several entrances you want to save you'll need to create a scenario for each one!

I hope this helpful,

Zip.

[TheVelvetFoxx]

Glad you did that Nforce! This is excellent information. Thanks to Zip as well. :banana-wink:

[Neeltje]

Indeed a very good article Ziprescue. The only thing I don't understand is why you want to have a saved game converted to a scenario, instead of a simple scenario with the plug in option selected.

Personally I don't go bothering about creating scenarios for the reason you mentioned, but after going through the proces of saving and reinstalling I've become much more picky in what I download and how I save my downloads. As I don't have rewritable disks like you, I have to be careful with my memory space for backups. For what it's worth here is my method:

Everything I download goes directly to my memory (USB) stick in folders like 'usermade objects' 'usermade scenarios' and so on. I use the 'explore' function (rightclick on the zip file) to copy the files to the RCT2 folders. So everything stays in zipformat on my stick. Usual the zipfilenames tell me what they contain, but if they are obscure I change the name of the ZIP to something more clear. So all my new objects are either saved as the original zips or in zipped scenarios or saved games I downloaded.

[ziprescue]

Neeltje, you're right, one too many steps. I had yet to create any scenarios for anyone but myself and the "export plug-in objects" was something new to me. You can bet from now on I'll be mindful of this option when I spend a lot of time creating a scenario.

[Nforce]

Excellent work zip. I know it's tough to lose all those objects you've downloaded. I've been downloading objects since we were able to make them thanks to Dr. J.

The only problem is that I didn't download everything that was posted at RCT Station prior to its unfortunate demise. I only downloaded those objects I considered useful to me. I now realize that I should have downloaded all of it, just to have it. Right now, I download only what I might use. There's just too much junk being created by people who have no clue as to what might actually be useful.

[MidwestBoyInLA]

Has anyone attempted to recover what was lost at RCT Station? Contacting the former owners?