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docs

Documentation and gameplay manual for OpenRCT2.

The live branch can be viewed here: https://docs.openrct2.io

The pages are written in a markup language called ReStructuredText (RST). It is conceptually similar to Markdown and Wikipedia pages.

Guidelines:

Be sure to follow these guidelines prior to writing pages, taking screenshots/GIFs, or making pull requests.

  1. Write documentation in UK English, like the game itself.

  2. Add screenshots and GIFs to your pages.

  3. Set the game to UK English, pounds sterling, metric, Celsius and the default (RCT2) theme when taking screenshots or GIFs.

    Keep these settings for consistency. If the context calls for it, you may deviate from this. For example: if you're demonstrating the theming capabilities of OpenRCT2, including a screenshot with a non-standard theme makes sense.

  4. Covering basic gameplay has the biggest priority. Later on, we want to branch out to more advanced topics.

If you need ideas on what to write, there is a draft of the Table of Contents here: https://github.com/OpenRCT2/docs/blob/master/toc.md
Make sure to focus on the bits under “Playing” first (see point 4)

Building:

If you want to build the docs yourself, you’ll need Python 3, as well as a few additional libraries. On Debian-like, these can be installed as follows:

sudo apt install python3-packaging python3-jinja2 python3-snowballstemmer python3-imagesize python3-alabaster

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docs's Issues

Document how to run a dedicated server

There should be documentation that covers how to run a dedicated server for OpenRCT2. This should cover things like OpenRCT2 user permissions, starting the server using systemd, and other handy things to know when running OpenRCT2 on Linux in headless mode.

Should this documentation cover "basic" server things such as port forwarding and good network security practices, or should it focus on just how to get OpenRCT2 running in a headless mode?

Document how to construct generic track based rides

There should be documentation going over how to build generic track based rides.

This is probably going to be the largest amount of work in this subsection, because most rides use this style of building. There should be information about using the construction menu in general, what each of the buttons do, using special track types, and probably a couple of other things I'm forgetting at the moment.

This section should not cover things like banking, which will be covered in the roller coaster section.

Document how to create custom content

There should be documentation for how to create custom content. There should be sections for:

  • Creating Custom Shops
  • Creating Custom Vehicles
  • Creating Custom Rides
  • Creating Custom Scenery
  • Creating Custom Scenery Sets
  • Creating Custom Entrances
  • Creating Custom Water/Palettes

Document some basics on placing and modifying scenery

There should be documentation covering how to create scenery, how to paint the scenery that supports it, and how to use features like the foresting feature, using the control key to select a height to build at, how to use the shift key to raise/lower objects, and other things needed for basic scenery usage.

Document how to use viewports and the map view

There should be documentation on how the many views in OpenRCT2 work. Things like zooming in/out, rotating the camera, viewing underground, and the map view should be covered in this section.

There should be some extra focus placed on the new OpenRCT2 features like cut away view and highlight path issues and how they work.

Document how to use the financial summary screen

There should be documentation for how the financial summary screen works, and how to open it.

There should also be info on how to take out a loan, how to start marketing campaigns, and how to set research funding.

Document how to manage guests

There should be information about how to manage guests.

This should cover things like how to find a guest's current stat levels, the amount of money they have left, what they are carrying, and how to view a summary of all guests' thoughts about the park.

Document how to build roller coasters

There should be documentation covering how to build effective roller coasters.

This includes, but is not limited to:

  • Controlling G-Forces
  • Using Brakes
  • Using Block Brakes
  • Creating Launch Powered Coasters
  • Creating Multiple Stations
  • Creating Synchronised / Dueling Coasters

This is going to be a particularly large section, it might be useful to get some basic information down first, then we could add specific things in later (like how certain coasters get bonuses/penalties for # of inversions, how intensity can penalize excitement)

Document game settings and options

There should be documentation for each of the main settings and options for the game.

For things related to rendering, there should be on/off preview images for each setting so the user can easily see what the effect is.

This would cover the "Configuration settings" and "Options" headers in toc.md

Document generic ride information (ratings, admission price, popularity, maintenance)

There should be some ride-agnostic documentation related to ride ratings, admission price, popularity, and maintenance costs - what the actual numbers are, how they affect pricing, how to manage them.

Individual ride types would get their own information if they need to expand on these things (roller coasters can control their stats much more than something like bumper cars can, for example).

Wrote a title sequence tutorial and was recommended to post it here, don't have permission

I wrote a tutorial on the title sequence editor, but I don't have permission to post documents. Could someone with said permission copy the following text into a document? I would prefer to have it in the playing subfolder of the docs folder.

Gustav Goblin's Title Sequence Tutorial

One of OpenRCT2's unique new features is the ability to make your own title sequences. These are made in the title sequence editor, which uses a series of simple commands to dictate where the camera goes and how long it stays in one location.

Creating a title sequence

The title sequence editor can be loaded at any point in the game from the options menu. The editor is located in the tab with the spiral slide. (1). To create a new title sequence, click "Edit Title Sequences" (2) and click Create (3.) A window will appear asking for a name. Enter the name and click OK (4).

1

Loading a park

Once your title sequence is created and named, you'll still need to add it to the sequence. Go to the floppy disk tab (1) and click Add (2). A window will pop up with all your parks listed, much like the regular load save window. Click the park you want and it will appear in the list of parks in the title sequence. (3) You can add multiple parks to a title sequence, but for simplicity's sake, we'll just be using this one.

2

From there, go to the last tab in the title sequence page, the command editor (1). Click Insert (2) and select "Load Save" from the command drop-down list. The park(s) you added in the floppy disk tab will appear in the "Save to load" drop-down window. Since we're only using one park, it will be the only park that appears in the list. Select your park and click OK (3). The command to load the park will appear in the title sequence editor.

3

Location

Before we do anything else, it's a good idea to go back to the floppy disk tab and load the park you're using by clicking on it and then clicking Load. This will load the park and allow you to freely navigate.

One of the two most important commands in a title sequence is Location. This command uses a pair of coordinates to tell the camera where to be. Click Insert again (1) and select Location from the drop-down Command list (2). If you position the camera on where to start before inserting the command, your location will automatically appear in the coordinates. However, should you want to change the location after inserting the command, move the camera where you want it to be and click Get (3). This will change the coordinates to your current location. Once you're satisfied with your coordinates, click OK (4.)

4

Something worth noting is the location command can be finicky and not be exactly where you want it to be. If this is the case, select the location command once it's in the list and click Edit. From there, you can tweak the coordinates until you're satisfied. What I like to do is shrink the ORCT2 window to the smallest possible size (the resolution you see in this screenshot) when selecting my coordinates so I can center them better.

Wait

The second of the two essential commands is Wait. This command tells how long the camera stays in a certain location. The default time is 10,000 milliseconds, which translates to 10 seconds. While it may be tough to get used to milliseconds (removing the last three zeroes is an easy way to convert from milliseconds to seconds), this allows for more precise timing in title sequences.

The wait command is inserted in the same way as the location command, with the only variable value being the length of the wait. However, the wait command needs to come after location or any similar commands, as placing it above them will render them useless.

5

Playing and Zoom

Now that we've added a sequence of commands to our title sequence, it's a good idea to preview your title sequence to make sure it looks good. To preview the title sequence, click the play button which is being pressed in the screenshot. When we play our sequence, we notice the screen is zoomed out a bit! This isn't what we want, so we'll need to add a zoom command.

6

Click Insert again and change the command to Zoom. Zoom in to the desired level (location doesn't matter) and press Get (1). Press OK once you're satisfied with your zoom level (2).

7

Title sequences can get long, and playing the whole thing just to check one part is very tedious. This is where Skip To comes in. While playing a title sequence, clicking a command in the title sequence editor and then clicking Skip To will skip to the selected command. It's very useful for longer title sequences.

Rotate

The ride pictured below would make a great focal point for our title sequence, but we need to rotate the camera to see it properly. This means that along with the location and wait commands, we'll need a rotate command as well. One anticlockwise rotation is equal to one click of the rotate button in regular gameplay. Since the angle we want requires two presses of the rotate button, we'll need to enter a value of 2 into the anticlockwise rotations. Remember to put the wait command after the location and rotate commands!

8

Follow Sprite

After our first two shots, we have a nice view of Ozymandias' Revenge curving around this fountain. We could keep the camera here and watch it run its course, but it would pick up the pace if we followed it to the station.

As usual, insert a new command and change the command to Follow Sprite (1). Click Select Sprite (2) and click the sprite you want to follow. In this case, we'll be following Ozymandias' Revenge, so we'll click on the first car of the train. (You can select the other cars of the train as well.) The window under the Select Sprite button should change based on what you selected. Click OK after you're satisfied with the sprite you want to click (4). It's worth noting this doesn't require a location command since our location is focused on the coaster, although you could use a rotate command if you want to change the angle.

8 5

Follow Sprite isn't just limited to tracked rides. You can also follow guests and staff! Additionally, following a flat ride centers the camera on the ride without the use of a location command, something I find really neat.

Other commands

There are many more commands you can use in a title sequence. Load Scenario is self-explanatory; it loads a scenario from the scenario selection screen instead of a save game. You can use multiple load save/scenario commands in a title sequence if you want to feature multiple parks. Just place one after a wait command and continue the process as normal.

Speed is an easy command to use. Just place one alongside a location command and change the speed to your desired setting. The speed settings are the same as the ones ingame; normal, quick, fast, and turbo. However, hyper speed is unavailable for use in title sequences. It's recommended to put a Restart command at the end of a title sequence, although I've found a title sequence will restart regardless.

9

Conclusion

A good idea is to open the default title sequences in the title sequence editor and analyze them. Observe where they choose to focus and how long they stay there. The first shot of RCT1's title sequence has become iconic not just among the RCT community, but among many gamers as a symbol of PC nostalgia.

Even when you master the commands of the title sequence editor, you can still go further. Tell stories with your title sequences. Take viewers on a tour of your favorite park. Have a title solely focused on following your favorite roller coaster or a train that goes around the park. You could even make a stop motion animation using quick wait commands! The title sequence editor has limitless potential, and it's up to you to determine what you do with it.

Make installation pages more complete

Currently, most of the documentation is spread out around openrct2.org, openrct2.io, the GitHub wiki, Reddit posts and docs.openrct2.io. The goal is to concentrate all this documentation in one place (and link to it from the older sources). Also, much of the documentation is written in a quite generic way, while the docs can give more specific instructions for every operating system, hopefully increasing its user-friendliness.

  • Windows
    • Installing OpenRCT2
    • Retrieving files from RCT2
    • Retrieving files from RCT Classic + Mini Game
    • Retrieving files from RCT1
  • macOS
    • Installing OpenRCT2
    • Retrieving files from RCT2: disc
    • Retrieving files from RCT2: GOG
    • Retrieving files from RCT2: Steam
    • Retrieving files from RCT Classic + Mini Game
    • Retrieving files from RCT1: disc
    • Retrieving files from RCT1: GOG
    • Retrieving files from RCT1: Steam
  • Linux
    • Installing OpenRCT2
      • Distro-specific
      • AppImage
      • Compiling yourself
    • Retrieving files from RCT2: disc
    • Retrieving files from RCT2: GOG
    • Retrieving files from RCT2: Steam
    • Retrieving files from RCT Classic + Mini Game
    • Retrieving files from RCT1: disc
    • Retrieving files from RCT1: GOG
    • Retrieving files from RCT1: Steam

Document how to construct flat rides

There should be documentation on how flat rides are constructed.

Since this section is fairly simple, maybe giving some information like stats on a per-ride basis could be useful?

Document installation process on MacOS X

In order to complete the installation section, there should be a page of documentation detailing how to install OpenRCT2, similar to the one that already exists for Windows.

This page should cover common mistakes/issues (if any) when installing on MacOS.

In addition, maybe it would be useful to cover how to get the files from Steam, since it can't normally be downloaded for MacOS as far as I'm aware (you have to manually download the game files using a command line iirc).

Document managing user content

There should be documents about managing custom user content such as custom music, save files, rides, etc.

There's probably some more that I'm missing, but I'm not sure what OpenRCT2 allows users to do in so far as custom content.

Document how to construct tower based rides

Document how to build things like observation towers, lifts, etc.

The main thing to cover is that they sometimes utilize some kind of special track piece to "cap off" their tops or create another station.

Document installation process on Linux

In order to complete the installation section, there should be a page of documentation detailing how to install OpenRCT2 for Linux, similar to the one that already exists for Windows.

This page should cover common mistakes/issues (if any) when installing on generic Linux in addition to specific common Linux distros (Ubuntu, Debian, Arch? we can decide which ones, probably the ones there are packages for).

In addition, maybe it would be useful to cover how to get the files from Steam, since it can't normally be downloaded for Linux as far as I'm aware (you have to manually download the game files using a command line iirc).

Document how park rating is calculated

There should be documentation on how the park rating is calculated, and therefore what things impact the rating the most.

Perhaps we could also roll up park awards into this section as well?

Document how to use the scenario editor

There should be documentation / a tutorial about how to use the scenario editor.

This section will be fairly big and should cover these main topics:

  • Choosing Objects
  • Random Map Generator
  • Setting The Park Perimeter
  • Setting Research Order
  • Setting Park Options
  • Setting Scenario Options
  • Converting Saved Games To Scenarios

Document how to use track designs

There should be documentation covering how to save/load track designs.

This should include things like adding scenery/paths to a design and placing the design (mirroring, rotating).

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