RCT3 Kennywood Videos: Jack Rabbit

UPDATE: I took the second video down on YouTube, so that link will no longer work. Check my next post to see why (I replaced it).

If you followed my rants from a couple weeks ago, you know that I was having problems getting good-quality, correctly oriented videos of my RCT3 Kennywood ride re-creations posted to YouTube. Well, I've finally gotten around the problem...sort of. I went ahead with my mirrored video I got out of iMovie '08 and posted it a couple weeks ago. The picture quality is decent, but it's mirrored, so everything's going the wrong way. I didn't go out of my way to call attention to the video, though, since it's literally ass-backwards (and I didn't misuse "literally" there, since I'm defining the video's ass as its correct horizontal orientation).

I feel I can call attention to it now because I managed to get my hands on an older version of iMovie and finally turned out a non-mirrored video! So everything's great now...except the picture quality is terrible. There are a couple HD options on this older version of iMovie, but, interestingly enough, this version ALSO FLIPS AND MIRRORS THE VIDEOS ON IMPORT WITH THE HD SETTINGS. Hmmmmmm, that is interesting. I guess it's not just an iMovie '08 problem, then. Fortunately, though, this iMovie HD let me flip and mirror the video back to normal. Unfortunately, however, doing so effed up the quality horrendously and made the playback unbearably choppy. W...T...F? Either iMovie really doesn't like RCT3 .mov files, or the software is utterly, hopelessly useless. Though I guess those two options aren't mutually exclusive for my purposes. I would say I just have to plunk down the money for iMovie '09 if I want a cure for my video editing woes, but I have absolutely no confidence that it will be any better at handling these issues.

Anyway, I digress. Below I've posted links to both my good-quality, ass-backwards mirrored video and my bad-quality, ass-forwards regular video. Let me know which one sucks less.

Jack Rabbit (Mirrored)

Wrong way, buddy.

Jack Rabbit (Normal)

That's better. Um, kinda.

Also, as promised before, I've made note of some inaccuracies in my re-creation I'm already aware of. Some can probably be fixed, while others can't really be helped.

• I included a few speed boosts (block brakes) to prevent the cars from stalling (including after the very first bend). You can spot them on the track.
• The tunnel's a little shoddy. There are a number of holes, and the walls aren't the right type of material.
• The trees in the center are too low. Even the tallest ones don't reach as high as they should alongside the track.
• The surroundings aren't quite right. No random buildings on either side.
• The station's too open. Its lack of enclosure probably has to do with my omission of the bordering buildings.
• The queue line isn't curved (can only do right angles) and probably doesn't extend as far as it should around the first bend in the track. Ah, but you don't really see that here, anyway.

And others, I'm sure. You'll also notice the water flickering and changing colors in the background. I guess my graphics card doesn't quite cut it.

If I have the time and patience, I might redo some or all of my Kennywood re-creation when I pick up the RCT3 Soaked expansion and make use of its added features. Who knows, though? Plenty of inaccuracies will remain regardless. But some of the stuff could surely be improved.