A.J. Posted February 28, 2011 Posted February 28, 2011 (edited) I got around to writing a tutorial today. I'll post the first part here to check if the online format is okay and what can be improved. I tried to make it as simple as possible without sounding stupid. It's very cluttered, mostly copied and pasted from a Notepad file. I'll fix it up before publishing, of course. Ahem - [tutorial] Understanding Newton2 If you haven't playing NoLimits for very long or you've been in a cave all of your life, you probably can't tell the difference between a NoLimits track made exclusively in the editor and a NoLimits track created using an element made in the supplemental program known as Newton2. If you're reading this tutorial, you are most likely "new" to Newton2. Most Newton2 users who you would ask for help would refer you to a YouTube user known as TheRealEntropy, who created a great series of videos explaining how to construct different sorts of elements for NoLimits tracks using Newton2. This tutorial is designed to get you started in Newton2 before you watch TheRealEntropy's YouTube videos. In this tutorial, I'm going to go over the user interface of Newton2 and its terms, to get you familiar with the modifications that make the program tick. Let's get started! TABLE OF CONTENTS Part 1 - The Editing Window and Options Part 2 - Sections, Saving, Opening and Restarting Part 3 - Parameters Part 4 - Track Construction - Single-Zone Force Part 5 - Track Construction - Multi-Zone Force Part 6 - Track Construction - Straight Geometry Part 7 - Track Construction - Curved Geometry PART 1 - The Editing Window and Options This is your main editing window. This is where you can see where your track is going, in a similar manner to NoLimits' 3D mode. Navigating in the 3D Environment Navigating in the editing window is relatively simple. [yet to be produced mouse graphic] To enable movement inside the editing window, simply right-click in the 3D environment. Your mouse arrow will disappear and you will be able to move about inside the environment. Moving your mouse around adjusts the angle of the camera. If you hold down a left-click, you will move forward in the environment. Holding the SHIFT key while moving forward enables you to move faster. BE CAREFUL! Unlike in NoLimits, holding the CONTROL key will not slow your movement down. Also, you are unable to move backward in the environment - you must turn your camera around and move forward. The Top-Right Corner [yet to be produced screenshot] You'll notice that there are some numbers in the top-right corner of the editing window, called the Position Coordinates. These numbers indicate the start and end positions of the very end of the track section relative to the center of the environment. In this case, the end of the track section is about 20 meters from the X-center and 20 meters off the ground. HERE'S A TIP. We'll get into how track sections work a little later in the tutorial. BE CAREFUL! Newton2 operates in metric only. There is no setting for Imperial measurements. However, there is a converter built into the program. Display Options Just below the bottom-left corner of the editing window is a Display Options drop-down. Checking the "Shadows" box will enable shadows in the 3D environment. This will decrease Newton2's performance, but it will help you out if you can't tell exactly where your track is going. Checking the "Visual Fins" box will enable visual cues on your track to aid you in construction. Selecting "Heartline" will let you see your track's heartline. Selecting "Normal/Lateral Force" will let you see what forces your riders will be experiencing at any point on your track. Selecting "Vertical Radius" will show you how your track changes vertically. Checking the "Position Coordinates" box turns the position coordinates on and off. Checking the "Anti-Aliasing" box enables Anti-Aliasing for computers running Windows Vista or Windows 7. Undo/Redo These buttons are self-explanitory. Undo on the left, redo on the right. Conversions The Conversions window is for...conversions! Newton2 offers simple conversions to help you if you don't usually use metric. On the top is a length/height conversion. Just below it is a speed conversion, and just below that is an angle conversion complete with trigonometric values. Under the three conversions is a station length estimator. Just put in how many cars are on the train you'd like to use and how many rows there are per car, and Newton2 gives you a metric length of how long your station should be. For example, a Gerstlauer Euro-Fighter would have one car with two rows. It's very simple! On the bottom is a quick reference guide to how tall or short your roller coaster's heartline should be depending on the train you are using. HERE'S A TIP. We'll get into how the heartline is actually changed later in the tutorial. Options The options window is useful for when you want to set contstraints for your ride. For example, you might want to have a vertical G-force of higher than 4G, or lower than -4G. The Force Options sliders let you set how long a force is allowed to be exerted, how much roll is allowed on a Force section of track, how high and low vertical Gs are allowed to be, and how high and low lateral Gs are allowed to be. The Straight Options sliders let you set how long a straight section of track can be and how much roll it's allowed to have. The Curved Options sliders let you set what angle a curve can have, how much lead in/lead out it can have, how wide it can be, and how much roll it can have. The Program Options are self-explanitory. Calculus The Calculus window shows you the math behind your track section. View Cube The View Cube lets you select orthographic views of the environment to get a true measurement. You can shoose between the top view, front view, and right side view. If you're in an orthographic view, simply click the cube for the view you are currently in to return to the typical 3D navigation. Saving as a NoLimits Element (.NLELEM) When you want to send your track to NoLimits for real-time testing, click the "Save Element" button. First, you will want to click "Get Path" to select where you want to save your file and what name you want to give it. The Options sliders/buttons allow you to set how much smoothing you want on your track, how you want the track's endpoints tapered, how long each section of NoLimits track should be, how much of your Newton2 track you want to save, and how your rolls and heartline should be. HERE'S A TIP. Newton2 draws out your NoLimits track just like you would do in the editor. However, it draws it out in very small sections in precise places, and smooths it out for you. You determine how long you want each of those small sections to be. BE CAREFUL! When you save your Newton2 file as a NoLimits element, it is exactly that - meaning that you have to go in and select which sections of your track should be stations, which should be lifts, etc and delete vertices accordingly. Now that you have a slight handle on the Editing Window and its options, let's get into how you actually begin constructing a track. [/tutorial] Edited March 30, 2013 by A.J.
QueerRudie Posted February 28, 2011 Posted February 28, 2011 I think it looks good- simple, easy to use (format wise; I'm still learning how to use NL myself.) One question that does come to mind: If we post up pictures of Newton2- could we possibly run into a copyright infraction? I don't think (of my knowledge of copyrights etc.) that we would- but it might be something to consider. I know that Chris Sawyer (RCT I and II) has no problems with it- and has encouraged showing off the software in the past; but as for others, I'm unfamiliar with it- I can't wait to see what can be done with RCT I/II R.D.
djbrcace1234 Posted February 28, 2011 Posted February 28, 2011 I'm going to mess around with codex ( a trainer for RCT) and I can also do a lot of hacking tutorials for RCT2 as well.
robbalvey Posted February 28, 2011 Posted February 28, 2011 ^ We should be fine with copyrights. It's really no different than when we send out games to IGN for review and they grab screens. We're not selling the images, and I highly doubt the guy who made the program would mind us promoting it.
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