Algorithmic Roller Coaster Building

May 01, 2019
Luke Nickel

In a fantastic turn of events, I’m learning how I can export roller coaster track as CVS files. This means that I can effectively turn a roller coaster into data. This is quite fun, because it means that now I can manipulate numbers (in ways that are much more difficult in the hand-built nature of the editor) and import them back as track.

I’m currently experimenting with algorithmically generating roller coaster track. I guess my goal is to make an even more impossible track… something that defies all expectations. Below are a few examples of some initial attempts at building tracks using data manipulation rather than hand-building techniques.

This is a simple randomization of track within about 150 metres. I don’t think I’d want to ride this any time soon…
This is a little bit more elegant. Here, I take a simple element (a small hill) and repeat it. Each time it is repeated, I change the element’s values by a small randomized amount. The result is a more elegant flowing distortion of the original element. I lit it up all fancy, too.

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