Planet Coaster: What you've been up to?

[DistortAMG]

Yeah as Tim said, there is no limit on PC. you can build as much as you like.

The thing is, the counter is not so much as Frontier protecting their product, it is a necessity on console, without it, the game would not be allowed to be on Microsoft's and Sony's console platforms.

Without going deep into computer science, it all comes down to the fact that non of the consoles utilise a virtual memory system. This is a problem, especially when it comes to games like Planet Coaster, where you can build unlimited. The more you add, the more memory is used. Without a virtual memory system, when the RAM allocation is used, the system will crash. It is a simple as that. One of the terms and conditions of getting a game onto the main gaming platforms is that your code / game, has to run stable, you cannot have any thing in the game that will cause a game or system 'fatal' crash. Without this limit, the game would crash for everyone after a certain point. Meaning when Sony and Microsoft were testing the game to certify it on their machines, they would have found this and not allowed it on. Frontier obviously know this, they have made games for the platforms before, hence the counter.

The reason why the bump from old gen to new gen is not a generational as some would like, boils down to the fact that the next gen Series S machine, still has 8GB RAM under the hood, the same as the previous gen Series S. Yes, it is much faster RAM, but the capacity is the same. The Series X and PS5 have a larger pool of memory to work with, but because the RAM is system wide unified, that extra RAM goes to drive the frame buffer to support the extra resolutions the top end next gen machines can output. The actual RAM allocation per game is the same, be it the Series S or Series X. If memory serves me correct, 5GB per game, with the other 3GB allocated to the Operating system, then any extra on the faster machines, to the frame buffer, that is set up by the console manufactures, and developers have no say over that. So the smaller extra amount of content is somewhat driven by the faster components in the machines, not because there is more RAM capacity to hold more objects at runtime. So that is why the jump in the counter is not as huge as people make out. If that makes sense.

It is a PC game designed around PC's, amazing that they have made it work on consoles full stop, especially as they have no virtual memory system. This sort of game is not at all your typical console game.

But PC's by their very nature have a very robust virtual memory system, so this sort of issue is not a problem. You can literally build, build build. Until you have no FPS because 9 times out of 10 you have so many objects that the DirectX API becomes the bottleneck holding back FPS, not memory or processing power.

 

[Tim]

...I've learnt that coasters don't seem to impact it as much as I thought, paths however seem to hammer it. Terrain mods and lakes etc don't seem to have an impact. Does the width of paths matter? How about creating your own buildings as opposed to preset?

That's interesting about the paths. I wonder why they effect performance so much.

Creating your own buildings vs presets won't make any difference as they'll both be made of in-game scenery pieces.

Terrain on the other hand is a real performance saver that PC users should be making the most of aswell! Because terrain changes its shape as you mold it adding more doesn't usually add a fresh surface but alters what's already there. It also blocks lines of sight that I think will help performance. Similarly water is just a single plane.
I was watching a let's play of a mega park someone built where all the dark rides had terrain roofs rather than building pieces (but painted to mimic them) and as a result the park still ran at a decent frame rate.

 

[Matt N]

From my experience @Matt.GC, it’s mostly scenery & guests that are the real FPS killers. Admittedly, I play on PC as opposed to on console, but from my experience, a lot of scenery can really kill those frame rates, and a lot of guests has a pretty noticeable effect too.

That object limit sounds like a bit of an inconvenience, however, and not something I’d cope with too well myself; I like the relative freedom the PC version offers.

Reminds me of when I used to play RollerCoaster Tycoon 3D on my Nintendo 3DS (this is going back about 7 or 8 years; do people still even play on 3DSs?), and once I’d built a coaster and a couple of small flat rides, it would come up with “Sorry kid, local zoning laws prevent you from building any more”.

Do gaming console makers (e.g. Nintendo, Microsoft etc.) require a set amount of FPS to be attained by a game, thus limiting the amount of objects that can be placed within a map, or is this limit simply down to the often lower performance (or at least, formerly lower performance; I know many modern gaming consoles are matching gaming PCs in terms of performance) of DSes/gaming consoles?

 

[Matt.GC]

That's interesting about the paths. I wonder why they effect performance so much.

Creating your own buildings vs presets won't make any difference as they'll both be made of in-game scenery pieces.

Terrain on the other hand is a real performance saver that PC users should be making the most of aswell! Because terrain changes its shape as you mold it adding more doesn't usually add a fresh surface but alters what's already there. It also blocks lines of sight that I think will help performance. Similarly water is just a single plane.
I was watching a let's play of a mega park someone built where all the dark rides had terrain roofs rather than building pieces (but painted to mimic them) and as a result the park still ran at a decent frame rate.

Yeah, paths absolutely hammer the counter. Say I built an area with 2 coasters and a flat, they'd probably take up around 15%. If I connect that area to the entrance of another park area with paths, path the area to connect the facilities, ride exits and entrances and then build some moderate size queue lines, you're looking at another 10 plus.

So if I built 4 areas, that's around 30-40% just on paths. Facilities don't seem to effect it too much. Scenery depends on the scale. Trees and smaller objects are OK, buildings aren't.

I've just built another park the last 2 days and I'm learning a little bit more. Building my own stuff means I use less pieces and that seems to bring it down a little. I'm separating areas by heavily using terrain as opposed to separating by distance (which necessitates more paths) or theming/buildings/scenery which I can't afford to use. The areas are also tiny, so my coasters are right on top of eachother with their stations backing directly on to main pathways to save on using more pieces for ride exits. I'm then plugging facilities into these same pathways. It's tricky finding the room and when I had busy shops in my first area, the area was so tight I didn't have any room to build any more. It's like building 2 Coasters, a flat, toilet block, staff building, food shop and a couple of drinks shops all in the Smiler pit! I'm then filling my vast expanses of land that I can't use in the park with big lakes and moulded terrain to make it look better.

The console version also limits the guests to 4000. You can't go above this number. I just think it's madness for it to be set so low because I've reached that dreaded 100% a few times now and the game still doesn't flinch. No slow down, it seems to stay around 60fps even when these areas are rammed with guests and the coasters are flying around on top of each other, all the textures load fine. I get that there were probably large demands made of Frontier to get the game licenced that it needed to perform well but this counter seems way too harsh. I can still build what I want, I just can't build it all in the same park and it's sucking the enjoyment out of what is otherwise an excellent game. I can't play RDR2 or TLOU2 in more than 30fps on my new next gen console but the frame rate and performance of a game that I'd happily play downgraded a little won't let me build some flat pathway's? I feel a little ripped off to be honest

 

[MaxPower]

Since lockdown 1.0 I've been dabbling with PC and created a park with a couple of rides based on those at Towers.

Enjoyed working on it but realistically don't have the time to put any more work into them.

 

[Matt.GC]

Since lockdown 1.0 I've been dabbling with PC and created a park with a couple of rides based on those at Towers.

Enjoyed working on it but realistically don't have the time to put any more work into them.

That's very impressive I must say. Custom supports and everything.

 

[JAperson]

The Rita plaza shown in this photo is really well done and very accurate as far as I can tell, very impressive indeed. The rest of it looks great but thought particularly this bit looked really good, perhaps its just he angle of the camera but it looks really good.
I too like the custom supports like @Matt.GC said, must've been a lot of work to get them exactly right.

 

[DistortAMG]

Started a small dark ride yesterday for my Island park, nothing special, a run of the mill small dark ride, haunted in theme I think it will be. I just love building dark rides, fitting as much as possible into a relatively small space intrigues me. Pictures to come soon.

Got some amazing custom scenery (theme makers toolkit) off the Steam workshop so will be using some of them. Some of the custom scenery is great for adding realism, control box's, fire exit signs, custom walls and theming pieces, that sort of thing.

A good way I have found to get a load of brand new scenery and objects into the game, is download a decent workshop park with loads, the game will then download all the custom scenery used for that park (it takes a while due to Steam doing them one by one). Then they appear in your game.

It is important to note too, these are not the same as blueprints, as I have seen some confusion before. Blueprints are stuff made up from exisiting in game objects. Thememakers toolkit objects are brand new (to the game) 3d objects made by people to add to the game, and there is some real excellent custom stuff on the Steam workshop (all free!). There is absolutely loads on there infact.

 

[Matt.GC]

Started a small dark ride yesterday for my Island park, nothing special, a run of the mill small dark ride, haunted in theme I think it will be. I just love building dark rides, fitting as much as possible into a relatively small space intrigues me. Pictures to come soon.

Got some amazing custom scenery (theme makers toolkit) off the Steam workshop so will be using some of them. Some of the custom scenery is great for adding realism, control box's, fire exit signs, custom walls and theming pieces, that sort of thing.

A good way I have found to get a load of brand new scenery and objects into the game, is download a decent workshop park with loads, the game will then download all the custom scenery used for that park (it takes a while due to Steam doing them one by one). Then they appear in your game.

It is important to note too, these are not the same as blueprints, as I have seen some confusion before. Blueprints are stuff made up from exisiting in game objects. Thememakers toolkit objects are brand new (to the game) 3d objects made by people to add to the game, and there is some real excellent custom stuff on the Steam workshop (all free!). There is absolutely loads on there infact.

That's a very good tip actually, thanks for that. My only frustration with the console edition is that most of the parks people have built contain loads of DLC that I don't own. We have less to choose from (although there are still loads of masterpieces people have built in console). But it may be worth perseverance as I'm sure there will be some good custom builders out there who have built parks without DLC. Custom objects can also help with the dreaded piece counter of doom as well over found as they tend to contain less pieces than in game defaults.

 

[Tim]

That's a very good tip actually, thanks for that. My only frustration with the console edition is that most of the parks people have built contain loads of DLC that I don't own. We have less to choose from (although there are still loads of masterpieces people have built in console). But it may be worth perseverance as I'm sure there will be some good custom builders out there who have built parks without DLC. Custom objects can also help with the dreaded piece counter of doom as well over found as they tend to contain less pieces than in game defaults.

I don't know how the console version works but on PC I belive you can use stuff with DLC in it, you just can't edit it yourself. Or does that only apply to parks you can download?
It's been a while since I played without the DLC.

 

[DistortAMG]

That's a very good tip actually, thanks for that. My only frustration with the console edition is that most of the parks people have built contain loads of DLC that I don't own. We have less to choose from (although there are still loads of masterpieces people have built in console). But it may be worth perseverance as I'm sure there will be some good custom builders out there who have built parks without DLC. Custom objects can also help with the dreaded piece counter of doom as well over found as they tend to contain less pieces than in game defaults.

Yeah for sure there are master builders out there who make parks without DLC. I should have clarified further, so you have blueprints in the game, both console and PC, these are custom objects, buildings and that sort of thing, essentially that people have made using in game objects. You can then download these blueprints into your game on both PC and console.

The Theme makers toolkit is slightly different and as far as I am aware is unfortunately PC only. What this allows people to do, is create 3D objects, from scratch, in their 3d modelling software of choice and then import them into the game, not using any of the existing in game objects, this is what is generally referred to as custom scenery.

This is a game changer, as people can literally add any scenery they want to the game, without having to make it up using in game pieces, if they can model it, they can place it in the game, and many people have. There is literally thousands and thousands of items to pick and choose from for your project. It is like having free DLC packs, basically, but instead of being made by Frontier, they are made by the community. In Planco we are lucky, because RCT3 had a very strong custom scenery community, most of that seems to have come across to this.

Here are some cool custom scenery items I have recently got, the only issue is, there is so many too choose from you get lost. Remember, the difference is, these are not made up from any in game items, they are brand new in game item, made by the community, it also represents the tinyest slither of the quantity and diversity of what can be downloaded.

All these are just scratching the surface though, there is so much it is overwhelming at times.

For anyone interested in getting items from the workshop on Steam (PC) it is very simply to find and choose items you want. When you go to the workshop tab on Steam, you then need to make sure from he filter panel on the right hand side, you have the 'thememakers toolkit' option selected only.

This will then filter out all the blueprints made from in game objects, to just the totally custom scenery only. Then you with one click your selections are added. There is about 400 pages with each page having about 30 different items to choose from, some items being packs such as wall or tree packs, with many items in.

It is great for when you are wanting to add specific scenery to a new ride as there is always usually something there to use.

If anyone is interested in actually making items for the theme makers tool kit, this handy website from Frontier is where the magic happens. Click the link below.

Thememaker's Toolkit (planetcoaster.com)

Hope that clears it up

I do hope they add this to console at some point, as it adds so so much to the game. I downloaded a custom made B&M test seat the other day for the entrance of my ride, mind blown!

Sorry if this sounds like an advert, I just rate it so highly as it adds so much. But also, so many people seem to get confused with the difference of downloading blueprint made custom scenery made from in game items and downloading totally 1000% bespoke, custom made from scratch things via the theme makers toolkit.

 

[DistortAMG]

Double post sorry! (not sorry) If the images are too big, or take too long to load, please let me know. I will adjust accordingly.

Here is a progress report of the newest and first ever dark ride being installed into Adventure Island. As a first attempt of a dark ride, the park have decided to keep it simple with a modest scope.

While this looks like your local Tesco under construction, this is in fact the interior of our brand new Ghost Train. In 12 months time, what you see here will be full of all sorts of spooks and ghostly apparitions! The steel workers have recently left and the people responsible for skinning the building have now taken over. The race is now on to get the building watertight, so that Karmer Studios can come and actually haunt this place!

Electrics have been routed to the building already, so that as soon as the roof is on and the walls are sealed, electrician's can waste no time in hooking up the power. While the park are going for a more traditional 'laff in the dark' / 'fairground style' ghost train, there will be a lot of blacklights, apparition's and effects. All these require power, this is where they will get it from.

We were allowed up in the cherry picker to grab a few photos, you can see the modest scope of the ride here, we believe it to be the correct sized dark ride for our park right now. Not too big but not too small, while going for a more traditional ghost train look, it is still a modern ride in a modern building.

Looking the other way from the cherry picker, one wall has already been put in place. We anticipate the building's skin to be installed very quickly. We hope to be watertight with first fix electrics in 6 weeks!

We are currently looking at the buildings front, the frontage and queue of the ride will go in this space. Originally plans were made to incorporate the ride frontage into a street, we are not sure if these plans have been shelved yet, we will try to find out. We will be back at some point in the future with another construction update. Until then, catch you on the flip flop!

 

[Matt N]

In terms of what I'm up to at the moment, I'm currently laying the groundwork for a park concept that I'm personally incredibly excited about; I'm working on a horror-themed park, which is something I've never really seen done before in PlanCo! I'm no horror aficionado, so it is pushing me out of my comfort zone a little, but I'm excited to give it a try!

I did make a thread about it, but if you don't want to traipse all the way over there, here's what I've revealed about it; say hello to Sinister Springs:

Hi guys. Just as a heads up, I'm not posting anything I've created here yet, but I just wanted to let you all know that I am still working on stuff in Planet Coaster, and I've created this thread today to introduce you all to a park concept I'm working on that I'm very excited about; I would be really keen to hear your thoughts on it.

After I finished Worlds of Globala a few months back, I started to ponder what I should tackle next in Planet Coaster. While I know I'm still working on Newman's Pleasure Gardens, my vintage park (I am working on that too, and more content will hopefully be coming soon from that one), I wanted a different park project to sink my teeth into when I finished Globala. And I thought that an interesting one to try would be an entirely horror-based theme park. It is pushing me out of my comfort zone a bit, as the game doesn't have tons of horror scenery aside from the stuff in the Spooky Pack and I'm not a horror aficionado in the slightest (I've never watched a proper horror film and don't especially like Halloween in the parks), but I feel that there's a gap in the market for a full-on horror park, both in terms of Planet Coaster (I've never seen anyone do one before) and in real life (I can't think of any real-life precedent for this kind of park, off the top of my head), so I thought it might be fun to give it a go. So with that in mind, let me tell you a little bit about my latest Planet Coaster pet project... Sinister Springs, the land where your worst nightmares come alive!

Sinister Springs, as I implied above, will be a horror park, with each area telling a different scary story within the overarching theme of horror. It will very much be a thrill park aimed at older guests, with big roller coasters, as well as some other types of ride (for instance, I'm looking forward to exploring the dark ride possibilities that the horror genre has to offer). I don't know about you, but I think that the theme and subject matter of Sinister Springs would likely put families off straight away by its very nature, so I wasn't sure it was worth targeting families a huge amount.

But you as guests aren't just coming to Sinister Springs for a fun, horror-themed day out, oh no; there's a full backstory as to why you're there in the first place, and it is as follows:

(I know that's pretty heavily inspired by the Saw films, but as I said above, I'm not a horror fan myself, so the one horror film that has a coaster themed to it seemed like a fair source of inspiration...)

So, I hope that's given you all a brief explanation of what Sinister Springs will be, and built the hype a little! While I've got nothing to show off in this post, I will leave you an image showing part of what I've done so far, just to give you a little morsel of what's to come:

While the park (heck, even the initial entrance area I'm starting with) is far from finished, and this is only showing a very small section of the entrance area, this picture gives away more hints than you might expect if you look closely...

So, that's a basic introduction to Sinister Springs, the horror park I've started in Planet Coaster! I apologise for the lack of any actual content in this post (I know you probably don't like that I'm being a tease, so sorry about that...), but I'll admit I'm very excited about the concept and couldn't wait any longer to tell you guys about it; I was very keen to know your thoughts!

In terms of when I'll be posting content from this park; I wouldn't like to put a date on it, especially considering that I'll admit to being in a bit of a creative block in PlanCo at present, but I'm hoping it will be fairly soon that I'll be showing off Sinistra's Lair, the park's entrance area!

What do you guys think? I'd be really keen to know your thoughts on the concept, or any ideas or suggestions you might have for the park!

(Thread: https://towersstreet.com/talk/threads/sinister-springs-planet-coaster.6030/)

 

[MaxPower]

That building looks really good so far @DistortAMG

I've never really been able to make dark ride buildings look realistic like that.

 

[Skyscraper]

Any ideas on what to name this way-longer-than-it-should-be indoor coaster?

Includes four lift hills and the building has nearly 6,000 pieces!

 

[Tim]

Any ideas on what to name this way-longer-than-it-should-be indoor coaster?

Includes four lift hills and the building has nearly 6,000 pieces!

Do you have a theme in mind? If it's meant to be in the dark a space name might work well.

 

[Matt N]

I haven’t really been up to too much in game lately, but I just wanted to ask; as stupid as it probably sounds, do any of you ever get “creator’s block” in Planet Coaster?

I only ask because I feel like I’ve been a bit stuck creatively for the past few months, making quite limited progress. I was hoping to find a way to get myself out of this creator’s block I’ve been stuck in… do any of you have any suggestions?

 

[Thameslink Rail]

It is quite easy to get creators block on Planet Coaster due to the time and effort required. I find the best way to get out of it is to just do something different: have a shower, go for a walk, play a musical instrument, draw, whatever you enjoy that requires minimal effort and preferably doesn't involve a screen.

 

[Matt N]

As much as I'm excited about Sinister Springs, I am currently finding it a little difficult to generate ideas for it, as well as for Newman's Pleasure Gardens, so for now, I've decided to try and get out of my creative block by doing something slightly more conventional that I have a greater amount of ideas for. I've decided to start a park based around some of the base themes (Idea 1 in the post a few posts up; Sinister Springs was Idea 2); it will have an underlying nautical theme, and will be named DiscoverySea! I have quite a few ideas brewing for it already...


I know you guys seemed to really like the Sinister Springs concept, so I apologise that I haven't been more able to generate ideas for that one, but I will come back to it. For now, though, I look forward to showing off DiscoverySea in the not-too-distant future!
EDIT: Idea 1 is as follows:

Idea 1

• The first idea I had was for a theme park with an amalgamation of the various different “base” themes within the game, with 6 themed areas focusing on what I’d call the base themes; Pirate, Spooky, Adventure, Western, Fairytale & Sci-Fi, as well as an entrance area.
• The park would also be built either in a lake, or have water playing into its landscape somewhat, and would have a little bit of a nautical exploration theme to it, kind of like Tokyo DisneySea.
• I would also focus more on the Resort side of things than I did with Worlds of Globala, with numerous themed hotels, maybe an entertainment complex as well (given what PlanCo offers, this would likely just be some restaurants and food stalls), and possibly even a transportation system akin to Alton Towers’ monorail to transport guests to the park’s main entrance, showing off some of the park’s various sights along the way.
• The park would be similar in terms of ride lineup to Worlds of Globala, with a variety of coasters, dark rides, water rides, flat rides and other things for all ages, although I’d perhaps try and focus on less, higher-quality rides in this park as opposed to putting in loads & loads of flat rides like I did in Globala. Obviously I would still build a fair amount of flat rides, but I’d like to try and shoot for some more dark rides in this park, as well as perhaps a properly large-scale, heavily themed water ride, which I’d argue that Globala lacks.
• In terms of the project’s scope, it would most definitely be a mega park project, likely similar in scope to Globala if not a bit bigger, although the park itself would perhaps be a little smaller.
• I’d like to do this project because my first parks in the game centred around these more basic themes, and with my (in my opinion) improved building skills, I feel like I could ensure greater quality and do the concept a lot more justice now.

 

[Skyscraper]

Think I'm going to have to start a new park soon, this one is ginormous.