Modders Wanted- MVP NCAA Baseball

[bctrackboi11]

As many of the folks who have been around here for a while know, a full NCAA mod has been kicked around a few times with no real progress. Well I am proud to share what myself and Rroy0824 have been working on for the past couple of years.

What this mod has:

Teams: We have 124 of the top college baseball teams in the country replacing every single playable team in MVP 05.

Uniforms: Uniforms for every team in the mod with accurate number fonts, including alternates. (Currently about 90% done)

Equipment: Authentic aluminum bats will replace all of the wooden bats in the game.

Stadiums: While we can't get every single stadium into the game, we can get the "best of the best", as well as the many neutral sites (Stadium list to follow below)

College World Series: Both Rosenblatt Stadium and the new TD Ameritrade Park will be in the mod, and included will be a dynasty save file with the final 8 teams in the CWS.

Artwork: Thanks to Yankee4Life we have lots of hi-res photos to use for various loading and background screens.

What this mod doesn't have:

Rosters: To make the roster making process a lot faster, we imported various teams and players from the Layman Database in MVPedit and renamed the players to randomized names with randomized characteristics. Rroy0824 did lots of research to import teams with similar attributes to their real-life counterparts. The roster is 100% complete.

Portraits: To make this easier, we aren't assigning or making portraits for anyone. Everyone will have a portrait ID value of 0.

Audio: I know very little about audio. The biggest need is the replace the sound of a wooden bat with an aluminum sound. Everything else is low priority.

Stadiums: It is impossible to create a stadium for every single team, so I created a master list of stadiums and which slots they will use (again, see below). This is the biggest area left of the mod and the area we need the most help in.

Dynasty: Dynasty play is not available, but as mentioned before, you will be able to play the final rounds of the College World Series.

Where we need help:

So far, this has been a mostly two-man operation, but any help in creating artwork, logos, and most importantly stadiums would be appreciated. Screenshots of what we do have will be in subsequent posts. If you want to help mod and test things out, let us know! Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more info!

For a small tease, here are the stadium select screens I've created for some of the stadiums we have completed...

 

 

[Guaro1379]

hello bctrackboi11 I really liked the mods NCAA anything you need let me know will gladly give you a help

Stadium minessota I built it, with the stadium of the Indians, that's good to see there

[bctrackboi11]

I sent you a PM, but the biggest help I need is the stadiums. Here is the list. Completed Stadiums in BOLD, In Progress in ITALICS.

The list looks overwhelming, but many of the stadiums are based on older minor league parks in the downloads section. I also have permission from SALVA to use MVP Caribe stadiums as a base if needed. If you do decide to knock one on the list out, send me a message please.

Stadium Name	Team/Event	File Name
Falcon Baseball Field	Air Force	anahday/anahnite
Goodwin Field	Cal Fullerton (day)/NCAA Regional (night)	netwday/netwnite
Fluor Field	Clemson-South Carolina Rivalry (Greenville, SC)	safeday/safenite
Clark-LeClair Stadium	East Carolina	arliday/arlinite
Baum Stadium	Arkansas/NCAA Regional	Usceday/uscenite
Camden Yards	Army-Navy Series (2006)	jacoday/jaconight
USA Stadium	Austin Peay/Memphis Neutral Site (Millington, TN)	comerday/comern
Jackie Robinson Ballpark	Bethune-Cookman	kaufday/kaufnite
All Pro Freight Stadium	MAC Championship	Metrdome
BB&T Ballpark Winston-Sale	Appalachian State	orioday/orionite
Hi Corbett Field	Arizona/NCAA Regional (night)	fenwday/fenwnite
Baggett Stadium	Cal Poly/NCAA Regional (night)	yankday/yanknite
Durham Athletic Park	Duke	tropdome
VA Memorial Stadium	MAC Championship (2009)	skydday/skydnite
Canal Park	Akron Neutral Site	bankday/banknite
Plainsman Park	Auburn	coorday/coornite
Durham Athletic Park	ACC Championship	dodgday/dodgnite
BB&T Ballpark Charlotte	Charlotte vs. NC State	petoday/petonite
Great American Ballpark	Reds Collegiate Invitational	sbcpday/sbcpnite
Phoenix Municipal Stadium	Arizona State	wrigday/wrignite
Charlotte Sports Park	Snowbird Baseball Classic	gabpday/gabpnite
Oneok Field	Big 12 Championship	minuday/minunite
Seller Field	Bowling Green	millday/millnite
Comerica Park	Clash at Comerica (Central Michigan vs. Michigan State)	pncday/pncnite
Bright House Field	AAC Championship	bushday/bushnite
Hoover Met	Alabama/SEC Championship	turnday/turnnite
Victory Field	Ball State/Indiana Neutral Site	propday/propnite
Marlins Park	FIU/Miami Neutral Site	rfksday/rfksnite
AT&T Park	Cal Baseball Classic	sheaday/sheanite
UFCU Disch-Falk Field	Texas Longhorns	a001day
Ray Fisher Stadium	Michigan Wolverines	a002day
George Steinbrenner Field	Florida Four Classic (USF/Florida/Florida State/Miami)	a003day
McKethan Stadium	Florida Gators	aa01nite
Boshamer Field	North Carolina Tar Heels	aa02nite
San Jose Municipal Stadium	San Jose State Spartans	aa03nite
Haymarket Park	Nebraska Huskers	aaa1nite
Alex Box Stadium	LSU Tigers	aaa2nite
Turner Field	Georgia-Georgia Tech Rivalry	aaa3nite
Minute Maid Park	Astros College Classic	astrdome
Safeco Field	Washington Huskies	cineday
Reckling Park	Rice Owls	clevday
Bill Davis Stadium	Ohio State Buckeyes	crosday
Cliff Hagan Stadium	Kentucky Wildcats	fencday
Dedeaux Field	USC Trojans	forbday
Dick Howser Stadium	Florida State Seminoles	grifday
Dodger Stadium	Dodgertown Classic	hiranite
Reese Smith Jr Field	Middle Tennessee Raiders	metpnite
Target Field	Big Ten Championship	olymdome
Lindsay Nelson Stadium	Tennessee Volunteers	poloday
Busch Stadium	Illinois-Missouri Rivalry	qualnite
Trustmark Park	Miss. College Series (Ole Miss/Miss. State/Southern Miss)	shibday
Jim Paterson Stadium	Louisville Cardinals	spotday
Rosenblatt Stadium	College World Series (2010)	tigrnite
TD Ameritrade Park	College World Series	veteday

[bctrackboi11]

Cliff Hagan Stadium- University of Kentucky

[Guaro1379]

GOOOOOOOOD

[bctrackboi11]

Next up: Robin Baggett Stadium in San Luis Obispo, California. Home of the Cal Poly Mustangs and 2014 NCAA Regional Host. Based off a stadium from MVP Caribe with permission. I will also be making a night version with more neutral branding for the Regionals version.

[mee]

I am gonna try to make a stadium. Should i have light skies or dark?

[bctrackboi11]

Whatever you want. Which stadium are you taking on?

[bctrackboi11]

Myself and Roy are finished with about 90% of the uniforms. As a teaser, here are some screens of one of my favorites, Tulane (their logo is based on the St. Louis Cardinals)

And as a bonus here is a throwback from 1983:

 

[Gordo]

Just my 2c, but since the number of stadiums seems daunting and stadium modders aren't around like they used to be, wouldn't releasing a "beta" of sorts (with the stadiums that are done) be advisable?  My concern would be freeze-ups with all of the modding going on.  Get the community to give feedback on any freeze-ups they are experiencing with this.

Also, I have some global ranges for rosters that I've incorporated with mine in the past if you're interested in using them.

[rroy0824]

The lack of the old stadium modders doesn't concern me.  While it is sill a lot of work, the list is not as daunting as it seams.  What we are basically asking people to help out with is picking stadiums that are similar to the college stadium and replace textures to make the stadium look close.  There is really no Oedit or Zmod or whatever involved.  While the stadiums are not perfect, they usually look pretty great.  Think of it more as modding stadiums in the 2K games.

As for a beta, not to speak for bctrackboi11, but I don't think we need one right now.  I really don't think a site wide beta would be the way to go, but maybe we could send one to a few trusted people a few weeks before release.  I would rather release a complete mod that we are happy with instead of a half done one. That is part of the reason this is taking so long, but I think it will be well worth it.

I actually would like to look at your global ranges, if you don't mind.  I am sure there is some useful stuff in there that we could use.  Thank you for offering that. 

  

[bctrackboi11]

14 hours ago, Gordo said:

Just my 2c, but since the number of stadiums seems daunting and stadium modders aren't around like they used to be, wouldn't releasing a "beta" of sorts (with the stadiums that are done) be advisable?  My concern would be freeze-ups with all of the modding going on.  Get the community to give feedback on any freeze-ups they are experiencing with this.

Also, I have some global ranges for rosters that I've incorporated with mine in the past if you're interested in using them.

So about the crashing. Most of the crashing issues are associated with the models.big file size. As we are using just generic faces, the majority of cyberfaces can be removed. After removing the cyberfaces and repacking the models.big file in my own experiments I have found that crashing occurs a lot less often. 

As for stadiums, quite a few already exist and just need minor changes. But as Roy stated, the plan is to use existing stadiums (mostly minor league parks) to make these, so it is really just an issue of some graphical edits. 

I agree with Roy though, a public Beta seems counterproductive at this time. We have spent 2 years off and on making this come together and I only see fit to release it in polished, final form. 

[Gordo]

Ok....good luck.  You guys obviously know what you're doing.  Looking forward to "pinging" some hits!

[mee]

I am trying to create Alex Box Stadium. Can anyone help me with crashing issues?(yes i fixed the other issue bctrackboi11)

[rroy0824]

Walk me through the process of what you did before the crash and maybe I can help you out.

[mee]

14 minutes ago, rroy0824 said:

Walk me through the process of what you did before the crash and maybe I can help you out.

Took one of the game's minor league stadium and replaced these files using EAGRAPH

crowd0.fsh----mm01

cram32.fsh---ads0 dug1 num1

Then I closed EAGRAPH and placed the stadium back in the STADIUM folder...

That's it...

[rroy0824]

Give me some time and I'll post a write up on how I do these stadiums later tonight.  It is a little different then that and it might help you and others out. 

[rroy0824]

So here is basically how I do this.  It may not be the best way and bctrackboi may even do things differently, but this works for me.  Attached are some tools that you need.  Take all of them except nfshtool.exe and put them in a folder with a copy of your stadium file.  Right click on unpack.bat, click edit, replace stadiumname.big with the stadium name file (example a001day.big), and press save.  Do the same with pack.bat. 

Now click on unpack and you should get a bunch of files.  Look for cram32.fsh and drag it into nfshtool.exe to open it.  This should give you a file with all the stadium textures, except things like sky, grass, and crowd.  Those are in other files and are done the same way.

Now find the texture you want to replace, edit it, save it, make multiple copies at different sizes by scaling the image in Photoshop, and, if needed, create a grayscale alpha the same way.  Note that the textures are 24 Bit .BMP files and the alphas are 8 Bit .BMP grayscale.  The best way to create the alpha is to use the old one and take out whatever you don't need by blacking it out.  Black will make the old textures transparent. 

Then drag the index file to nfshtool.exe, click on pack.bat and you are all set.  If you need to change something else, say the sky, then you need to added it to the pack file.  For example, if you were adding the cram32.fsh and the sky0.fsh the pack file would read: eazip +a stadiumname.big cram32.fsh sky0.fsh

This may be rushed, but I hope it is easy enough to follow.  Like I said, it may or may not be the best way to do it, but it works.  If anyone has any questions feel free to ask.

Tools.rar

[mee]

19 hours ago, rroy0824 said:

Then drag the index file to nfshtool.exe

K I tried that and got this message:

NO alpha data file

Expecting 76 objects allocating 64990440 bytes of memory

Adding '0000-3.bmp'

Unsuccessful Termination

Press Enter to Exit.

 

[rroy0824]

Is that the image you edited?  If so make sure it is the same size as the orignial image.  Also make sure it is a 24 bit .bmp

If you want, pm me the file and I'll take a look for you.

[mee]

Here's is how my attempt at Alex Box stadium looks..

The crowd enjoying the game

Tiger Stadium in center field

 

The scoreboard in right.

Edited January 24, 2016 by mee

[Yankee4Life]

Would be nice if we could actually see your work

[rroy0824]

Not a bad start, but some parts look a little choppy.  If you want, send me the stadium and I can give you a little more constructive criticism.

[mee]

2 hours ago, Yankee4Life said:

Would be nice if we could actually see your work

oops. Fixed that up.

[Kurtwarnerfan]

I just wanted to let you know I have an accurate and complete NCAA 07 roster on the PS2. I spent a long time a few years back going through each NCAA team that the game included and rearranging the rosters to be accurate. It has as accurate of heights as I could get since the game doesn't allow you to edit heights and weights. I also updated the skin tone on every player and their faces and features, including stance and delivery. I went through and used Dylan Bradberrys rating calculator to fine tune each players ratings. The formula I used was to give every batting attribute a MLB equivalent rating. Since college pitching is pretty terrible compared to pro talent, I gave pitchers who would go on to the pros a MLB attribute, players with a minor league cieling the AAA attribute, and all other pitchers a AA attribute. For what I could find on the pitchers real stuff, I put in the game. The other pitchers got a combination of pitches based on their ERA. Most of the bad teams pitchers have a FB/CB combo. Like I said, college pitching is pretty raw, so I tried to give the advantage to the hitter as in real life. Then based on their MLB draft postition or not, I rated their career potential. I did the same with their fielding rates as well. It was a year long endeavour at least. The only thing is that these were for the 07 season. I played a season of dynasty with this roster just this past year ( I finally got around to it) and I was happy with the results. Low scoring games were rare, you had to be able to hit, and you couldn't rely on overrated pitching like the game of past. I was ASU so I had a good hitting advantage, Mike Leake was the only reliable pitcher on their roster, and he got hurt for 2 months, so it was a good challenge. 

Anyway, I don't know anything about modding, I picked up MVP05 for the PC a while back and am looking forward to firing it up for this season. I just wanted to offer you my rosters and ask if there is a way you can use them in this NCAA mod. I think it looks really cool. If you need help on rosters, I can help. I've updated MVP 05, 06, 07, NCAA 06-10, and NCAA College Hoops 2k8 for PS2 in my time. Let me know if there's anything I can offer to your great cause.