Codex Memory Editor

The Codex Memory Editor is a trainer created by darkfire for Loopy Landscapes. It differs from other RCT trainers in that it is aimed solely for parkmaking and not for playing the game as it was originally intended. It is also more complicated than other trainers as most of it’s features are more general-purpose with more open-ended possibilities than the features of traditional trainers.

The main feature of the trainer is the Map Control, a GUI for manipulating objects in the game map. Each object is represented by a series of widgets for modifying each object.

The screenshot on the right shows a square with 2 intersecting Roto-Drop towers and a section of gray tarmac path on a grass tile.

Land tiles have different widgets to other objects and are always shown as the first object on a square even if there are underground objects. Hence each square in the map control can be distinguished by being started with a piece of land.

For regular objects (e.g. the gray tarmac path in the screen shot) the following widgets are present; (Starting with the leftmost)

• Description of the object
• Color (only for colorable objects)
• Base height
• Clearance height
• More options
• Tick box to select this object

The color can be changed by clicking on the colored circles to help the user identify which object it is. The object can be moved up and down with the arrows next the base height, the clearance height will be corrected automatically. Modifying the clearance height can allow other objects to be built through this object. The more options (+) button will display a properties dialog/menu that varies depending upon the type of object. Finally it is possible to select and unselect the object with the tick box, there are then options to modify all selected objects at the bottom of the map control.

The heights of objects are displayed as a number between 0 and 255, each height marker in LL is 4 of these units high. By default changing the height of an object with the map control is done in increments of 4, but you can change this to 1 for more precision by selecting +/-1 at the bottom of the map control.

Land tiles are displayed with the following widgets:

• Type of land
• Base height (this always moves in increments of 4 as the sides do not render properly if the land is raised by a quarter of a height marker)
• Stack (raise or lower the contents of everything on the square)
• Collapse/Expand the contents of the square
• More options (same as a normal object, with this you can change the slant of a tile)
• Select/unselect object

There a two different map controls available, one that shows every square that has been modified since the saved game was loaded (i.e. the section of the map you are currently working on) and another for modifying squares that have not been changed.

For the former start construction monitoring and open the map control (crane icon). Then every object built will appear in the map control window. For the later open the map overview (rightmost icon in the toolbar) and select the square(s) you wish to edit. These will then appear in the map control on the right.

The properties dialog/menu for each object in the map control varies depending upon the object to offer more modifications, but it always shows the raw record in hexadecimal as the last widget. Each object on the game map is 8 bytes long, this widget shows these eight bytes as 8 hexadecimal numbers in a 8×1 grid. See Doctor J’s documentation of the SV4 file structure for what the values mean.

There is also a more traditional Hex Editor, this can be found from the first menu on Codex toolbar or more usefully; middle clicking on a square in codex’s map overview will launch this hex editor starting from the address of that square.

Clicking End of Game Map from the locations will show the region of memory currently being displayed by the main map control.

Removing Height Restrictions doesn’t work in Windows XP and possibly Win2K and Vista too. (see the LL FAQ)

Having a large number of objects in the Map Control will make it load very slowly.

If you don’t restart construction monitoring after loading a new park, the construction monitor may display lots of objects and hence take a long time to load.

Post in the forum topic for help.

You might want to check the forum topic to see if there have been any updates recently.

You can download the installer here. Last updated 13 July 2006. You’ll need this if this is the first time your installing the editor.

If you don?t have the UK or US version of the game then you?ll also need this saved game. When prompted, load the park in LL and click next in the Wizard, after a while you should be told that it?s found the values it needs (i.e. where the saved game was in memory) and you can now use the trainer. You only have to do this once.

If you want to update the trainer without running the installer again, you can download the latest codex.exe here.

I used to play LL on Windows 98 as it was quicker and doesn’t have that annoying right clicking in windows thing XP has. So there are a few files you’ll need to get the editor to work on XP. These will be installed in the System directory by the setup program provided. But luckily you’ll only have to do this once, you can just download the codex.exe file and overwrite the original when updating.

• Download the setup program

• Log in as an Administrator if you?re not already

• Run the installer

• Put the program wherever you want, probably best wherever you have the other LL trainers et al.

(I don’t seem to be able to disable the setup program asking if you want a start menu folder for the editor. But if you do, you can create one)

• Finally, if you don’t normally play LL as an administrator you’ll need to run the trainer once as Admin so it can create a value in the registry. This is only required for the first time you run it.

• If you *don’t* have the US or UK version you’ll need to load the saved game codex.SV4 the first time you run it. This is all explained by the on-screen instructions, you just may want to pre-emptively download it

Here I’ll explain the basics of the Map Control: how to change the positions of objects.

• Open up a park in RCT.

• Start my memory editor.

Stacking:

• Build an abstract block, and now click the crane button in the editor toolbar.
  You should see 2 objects. One should be the block, and above it the land tile it’s on.
  If not, try building another glass cube.

To the right of where it says Glass cube there are 2 boxes with numbers in them. The left one is the base height of the cube, the other is the clearance height. The base height is the height of the object above the bottom of the square (height 0), the clearance height is the that of the top of the object. Next to these heights are up and down arrows to change them. Changing the base height will automatically correct the clearance too, but not vice versa.

• Click the up arrow for the base height a few times and you will be able to place another cube underneath the first.

Now 2 glass cubes should be shown in the control

• Select “Quarters” (circled in the pic) instead of height markers and move one up or down again. See how the cube now only moves up or down slightly, allowing for more precise positioning.

• Select “Height markers” again and now click the up arrow right of where it says “Stack:”

See how this increases the height of all objects on that square; be careful not to stack rides though!

• Use the arrows to the left to move the land tile itself up or down.

• Now build a couple of other objects

• Select a few of them by clicking the check boxes on the far right

• Now use the arrows at the bottom of the window to move all of these up or down.

This too adheres to the height markers/quarter option.

Cloning:

• Finally, drag the control of a glass sphere onto the control of a glass cube, when you drop it/release the mouse button, the cube will be changed into a sphere. This can be done with any objects, allowing you to build things where they would normally be difficult/impossible to place (and, of course, for copying things (see how-to #3)).

• If you load another game whilst the trainer is running, you should probably stop and restart construction monitoring using the traffic lights button before using the map control again.

See Codex/Invisible Track

You can create transfer tracks with the Beast trainer. But not delete them, as you?ll get an Error Trapper if you try.

Now there is my editor and 4cars out, there?s no excuses for still doing it that way. :P This goes for boats on water too. Here?s how you do it with mine:

• Build the station (of a new ride) where you want to the transfer track to be.

• Start construction monitoring

• Build the entrance and exit of the tt ride.

• Open the map control (crane button)

• Build a piece of path, then in the map control drag the piece of path onto the entrance and then the exit.
  Turning the entrance and exit to path. Then you can delete the three pieces of path.

(Alternatively you can lower the entrance and exit)

• Open the modify ride options window, and change the operating mode to powered launch and the launch speed to 0.

• Now open the ride in game, wait until the restraints/doors of the cars close (if applicable)

• Click once on the close (red light) button for the ride

• Open the modify ride options window and change the track type to crooked house.

• Lower clearances and build the appropriate track under the hovering train.
  (Build it in the opposite direction so it doesn?t keep merging with the station)

See Codex / Merging

See this video tutorial

I (darkfire) wrote all the code, custom controls and documentation.

It couldn’t have been done without Doctor J(ames Hughes). Without his information about the SV4 file format there simply wouldn’t be an editor. The names of all the scenery items displayed in the map control and lists of track/car types etc in the in the ride window etc are also all from his technical information.

Special thanks go to the creators of the Beast and Dragons IOA trainers for inspiration.

The idea of generating the map overview was inspired by PEEP and the Save game modifier, so they deserve the credit there.

The icons used in the newer map control are lgpl icons from kde-look.org: Nuvola and Crystal Clear.

• LoopyLandscapes FAQ
• The Codex memory trainer forum topic