NCAA 17 (FieldBuilder) v3.1

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pick6
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Re: NCAA 17 FieldBuilder v2.0

Postby pick6 » Wed Nov 09, 2016 8:04 am

For once, Slydways' presence here is not actually the primary reason I want to walk away this time, but it definitely made the decision easier for me! There are actually a couple of user names I'm aware of that may or may not also be multiple-banned user slydways (aka hsfpc).

I honestly don't care about whether he stays or goes, but I would really like to get to my Dec 3 deadline if possible. Took me a while, but I am finally ready to upload v3 of this mod, which contains the long-awaited new half-field and which incorporates many visual improvements to the existing art. Also included is much-improved MICH and MISS fields. However, both have temporary endzones right now, because I need to create the endzones letter-by-letter from scratch by hand. This is what I enjoy doing the most, and I think both will come out looking as sharp as the OHST endzones (which were also hand-built)!

So here's the deal; if slydways can stay away from just this thread for the next 3 and a half weeks, I will be happy to continue working on those endzones, and aim to have those 2 teams plus FSU finished by Dec 3. In return, slydways will be free to do whatever he wants with my fieldart at that point. (To be clear, I am not giving permission for him to do whatever he wants with it, but once I am gone, he will have that freedom regardless.)

But since there's still no reply from Littleware about the status of the roster, I don't need much of a push right now.

Regardless, I will still upload v3 of this mod, plus the relevant updates to my FieldBuilder framework. After that, all bets are off! Depends on how bad slydways wants my endzones. ;)

Re: NCAA 17 FieldBuilder v2.0

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pick6
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NCAA 17 FieldBuilder v3.0

Postby pick6 » Thu Nov 10, 2016 5:27 am

VERSION 3 NOW AVAILABLE FROM THE FIRST POST!

As before, this comes in a "full release" zip file, and an "update only" zip file.

If you haven't downloaded this mod before, download the "N17FB v3.0 full release.zip" (338 MB).
But if you downloaded the previous version (v2.0), then just download the "N17FB v3.0 update only.zip" instead (88MB).

All the existing field .tpf's have been converted and re-built to incorporate my new half-field, meaning all the .tpf's now contain two TrueTurf half-fields. Some of the improvements will be more noticeable than others, but the two best examples are OHST and LSU.

Also worth mentioning that MICH and OHST have painted-on midfields that are split between each team's two TrueTurf fields. (That is, half a midfield painted onto the left field, and half a midfield painted onto the right field). My reason for this is because the regular standalone midfield method does not give good results when the border is not white, so painting them on takes a little longer, but looks much better. Over time I intend to re-do the rest of the mids like this too as it gives a more natural look. LSU would benefit the most though, as it would then allow me to achieve that spray-can effect! :-D

The generic field that's present in the NCAA base.tpf has also been tweaked further, with shortened diagonal lines in the endzones, and a painted-on midfield for a more natural look.

As I've mentioned already, MICH and MISS currently have temporary endzones, and still need to be finished. FSU is also currently being worked on (but not included in this release). To be honest, there are details about all of the included fields that can still be improved on, mainly to do with sideline areas and broken lines, but also some padding.

From the start, my approach was always to focus on a smaller number of teams, but with high-quality fieldart. If I hadn't taken that approach, I never would have explored using two half-fields, and so never would have achieved the results visible in this release. Interest has been about what I expected (on the low side), but I am happy I stuck with the plan!

ROSTER:
All 10 teams now have correct names and jersey numbers for all players, plus heights and weights. All players also have correct skin tone and individual equipment. However, only the players from BAMA, CLEM, FSU, LSU, and MICH have been rated so far, which means that the players from BAY, MISS, OHST, OU, and TENN still have Madden-generated ratings.

Hopefully the ratings will get done in time, but that's out of my hands.

Finally, the STADATA.dat that was included in the previous release was not actually needed, and can be safely deleted.

To repeat, I am no longer responding to pm's as I wish to maximise what time I've got left.

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Re: NCAA 17 FieldBuilder v3.0

Postby pick6 » Mon Nov 21, 2016 7:35 am

I've finally posted the update to the framework itself, which can be found in the FieldBuilder framework thread HERE. Please note you don't need to download that to use this mod; that is aimed at folks who wish to develop their own stuff.

Regarding this mod, no word from Littleware in over 4 weeks so I have no idea if he's done any or all of the remaining teams' ratings. Either way, I'll be wrapping up for good on Dec 3.

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Re: NCAA 17 FieldBuilder v3.0

Postby pick6 » Wed Nov 23, 2016 8:22 am

I've decided that the concrete perimeter around a field is real important! :D When it's done well, it really adds to the individual feel of an stadium. So much so that I've started making sure the clouding effect in it is smooth either side of the 50 (i.e. there is no visible join where one field half meets another). To do this I had to create a concrete perimeter that covers the full length of the field (4308x2513), and then first take just the left half, rotate it, and paste it into my TrueTurf, and then just the right half.

I know most folks won't give a damn about this sort of thing, but this is what I like doing the most; finding ways to continually improve stuff. I first started on my LSU field two years ago, and I love the fact that it's been improving all the time! Eventually I'll get around to a painted-on "spray can" midfield, and then I'll be done. Perhaps. ;)

(Right-click to view at 1280x720)
LSU wide (concrete border).jpg
LSU wide (concrete border).jpg (380.76 KiB) Viewed 4295 times

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Re: NCAA 17 FieldBuilder v3.0

Postby pick6 » Fri Nov 25, 2016 5:10 pm

8 days left for me so this is the final call for Littleware to please check in with a progress update! :( It's been 5 weeks since he last logged in, and despite me repeatedly emphasizing that I was on borrowed time, this roster looks unlikely to be finished in time.

I always say to folks that I don't mind when life gets in the way ('cos that's the way it should be! :D ), but it would have been real helpful to know if he's even done any more ratings or not. If I'd known it would pan out like this I would have put a shout out 5 weeks ago to see if anyone else wanted to pitch in, so I do find that lack of communication frustrating.

Additionally, it's hard to stay motivated on this project myself when no-one else has made a single contribution in those last 5 weeks. I seriously considered walking away from it even before then, but decided to stick it out til the deadline just because others have contributed here, and I felt I owed them that much.

It's a shame, 'cos it's a nice little mod, but there just hasn't been enough interest from the community in general to sustain it. To be specific:
  • Only 5 teams have been rated in the 12 weeks so far and I find that quite disappointing. (It also took two people to get just those 5 teams done.)
  • Only one person showed any interest in wanting to contribute to fieldart (mee), but I ended up spending a lot more time in tutorial stuff than I expected. As I've said, my methods are quite basic really, so I was kinda hoping that others might pitch in at that point also. At least all my tips 'n' tricks are out there now.
  • There has been zero offers for .dat uniform making (actually not quite true: one person did suggest taking the Heisman .tpf uniforms and tweaking them slightly to avoid detection, despite me saying this in the first post:
    Spoiler:
    pick6 wrote:Please note that permission has not been given to convert the Heisman uni's to .dat, and while it's not what I hoped for, I'm completely ok with that. I expect others to fully respect that decision also. And before anyone asks, just because it's been done before without permission, that doesn't make it ok to re-use that now! Anything that others contribute must be their own work.
  • A lot of my time was also taken up in developing the FieldBuilder framework to incorporate two half-fields, slowing down my own fieldart further. I would have loved to work on this with someone else, but the only interest it generated was others asking for help with hex-editing for .dat-based graphics. I spent a lot of time in pm's helping others with hex-editing issues of their own (on stuff I'd already covered previously) which ultimately stills contains limitations that FieldBuilder does not. I really wish that could have panned out different.
  • Finally, I thought there was a lot of potential for further development with marching band snippets playing after big plays etc, but it never got any further interest.

Anyway, unless Littleware posts in the next few days, I'll have to go ahead with a roster workaround to make it more usable. At the moment, the other 5 teams are rated too low, so what I can do is transfer higher Madden-generated ratings across (attribute by attribute) so that overall there is more balance among the 10 teams. 5 teams still won't have hand-tweaked ratings, but they'll play much better.

But I really hope Littleware either posts before then or not at all, 'cos it will be a complete waste of my time to do all that for nothing! :shock: What little time is left will then be spent trying to work out whether to finish MICH, MISS, or FSU. I may just tweak the logos instead (which was originally important to me).

I would like to thank again those who have contributed, and especially moonbax for his playbook-assigning which really makes the teams unique. To me that has been the single most important contribution by far. :)

As I said back in May, I wanted to demonstrate what I had done a year ago in a FieldBuilder-based Irish league mod (unreleased). This mod has gone much further, with real players throughout, unique playbooks, much better fieldart, and more possibilities with the further development of the framework itself. In my mind I have realized that goal completely.

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elguapo
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Re: NCAA 17 FieldBuilder v3.0

Postby elguapo » Fri Nov 25, 2016 10:23 pm

Have you looked at psp roster i posted? Just take the teams and cut them down to 55 players. At the minimum you should have a roster with actual names. If littleware comes through for then you'll have the roster you wanted.

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Re: NCAA 17 FieldBuilder v3.0

Postby 1312qohelet » Fri Nov 25, 2016 10:54 pm

pick6 wrote:It's a shame, 'cos it's a nice little mod, but there just hasn't been enough interest from the community in general to sustain it.

It's a beautiful mod, pick.

I have an Idea.
elguapo has given you permission to use his roster.
Well, instead of actually using his roster, I could use his player ratings to fill out your 5 remaining teams.
Likeness and equipment is complete for those teams, correct?

Let me know

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Re: NCAA 17 FieldBuilder v3.0

Postby BelieverInTeal » Sat Nov 26, 2016 12:02 am

I haven't really been following along so forgive me here but which teams are missing? I'm reluctant to get too involved but if Q does the ratings, I'll do the equipment. We'll split up the work.
Image

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Re: NCAA 17 FieldBuilder v3.0

Postby 1312qohelet » Sat Nov 26, 2016 12:32 am

BelieverInTeal wrote:I haven't really been following along so forgive me here but which teams are missing? I'm reluctant to get too involved but if Q does the ratings, I'll do the equipment. We'll split up the work.

Would you be willing to do the attribute ratings for the remaining teams, BIT? I have already completed the player likeness and equipment.
I have zero knowledge of the NCAA Football, much less the players.
I was able to match the likeness and gear from google images and espn. But I can't do that with player ratings

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Re: NCAA 17 FieldBuilder v3.0

Postby pick6 » Sat Nov 26, 2016 7:21 am

Hmmm... interesting. I don't want to have a knee-jerk reaction so I will take a little time to consider all my options before I reply. I'll post again by this time tomorrow.


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