RollerCoaster Tycoon Image Converter V1.0

This program takes a bitmap image and converts it to the .tp4 format used for the ride preview images in RollerCoaster Tycoon (RCT).

Instructions:
1. Get your image. The image to be converted needs to be an 8-bit bitmap in the windows .bmp format. It should be 254*200 pixels size.
For example, you can take a screenshot in RCT and import it into Paint Shop Pro. Cut out a 254*200 pixel image of your ride in Paint Shop Pro, paste it as a new image and save it as a Windows bitmap (.bmp) file. Feel free to write/draw/paint out the background on it if you want. 
2. When this is saved, run RCTConv.exe. Hit the top left (load) button; this will give a load file dialog. Choose the .bmp you just saved and hit 'OK'. The bitmap will load and be displayed.
3. Hit the 'Save' button to the right of the 'load' button. This brings up a save file dialog. Custom tracks are saved in the RollerCoaster Tycoon 'Tracks' directory with a '.td4' extension. For the image to work in RCT, it must be saved in the 'Tracks' directory and with the same name as the coresponding track but with the '.tp4' extension. E.g track 'MyCoaster.td4' should have an image saved as 'MyCoaster.tp4' in the same directory. The .tp4 extension is added automatically.
4. In RCT the custom track's camera icon should now be enabled. Click it!


That's it! Enjoy. 

Just a quick note: Most saved tracks are 300-400 bytes. These images are 52Kbytes - over 100 times bigger than the tracks. It's probably a good idea to make tracks available either with or without images if you're planning to make a lot of them. I expect the official site won't accept these images, either.

Known problems: None. 

That's it for now. Any problems, comments or suggestions, mail me:
acfeinson@compuserve.com

Cheers,
Conrad Feinson

This program is Freeware and may be copied and distributed in zipped format with this readme.txt file included.
The latest version should be available at:
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shadowlands/5366/rct.html
RollerCoaster Tycoon is published by Hasbro Interactive under the MicroProse brand.
Donald A. Yacktman provide a lot of information on the .tp4 file format; thanks for that.

Above all, thanks to Chris Sawyer, without whom we'd all have more sleep and get to work on time... let's face it, he's the best:) 

29/04/1999