Uniform Updates for PS2 NCAA games

[Harry97]

Has anyone made changes to PLCM.csv within GAMEDATA.DAT?

@h4wduk3n I know you asked about my camera codes, I showed you some of what I can do with those screenshots of Stanford Stadium. But I've been meaning to do some testing to PLCM.csv to see if I can mod the camera angles without having to use my Cheat Engine hacks.

In the first screenshot and in the last 2 screenshots, those are Cheat Engine edits that move the camera around at the playcall screen. (I screenshoted those right after I called a play) So I can create those custom camera views at the playcall screen which is pretty neat. I'm not sure if JD or anyone on the NCAA NEXT team has managed to figure that out. But I'm guessing that my screenshots were the first time anyone ever saw that. Now, after seeing that, you guys might have started to try to get that yourself. If you haven't gotten it yet, I can help. If no one can figure this out, I am happy to share these mods with ya'll, but here's the problem : although I can do that via cheat engine, it can be a little glitchy because every time you hit the playcall screen, the camera automatically changes, the playcall screen camera angles cycle through 8 different default camera angles, so the values don't produce the same custom camera angles every time since it automatically switches to a new default camera every time. (that's what I want to hack in PLCM.csv) To get a consistent custom camera angle at the playcall screen, first I have to freeze another value that cycles through the playcall screen cameras so it stays on the same one, and then, oddly, the same value that I use to actually change the camera angle at the playcall screen also causes "instant replays" to glitch out lol. (So freezing that value inside cheat engine isn't really an option)

So basically to avoid glitching out instant replays, I have to pretty much wait until I hit the playcall screen before changing it to the custom camera angle with a cheat engine hotkey and I have too many hotkeys as it is. That's not a satisfactory process for me from a presentation standpoint, as I really need the custom playcall screen camera angles to happen automatically as you hit the playcall screen. Otherwise replays will glitch out and in addition it could case crashes with multiple codes "locked" in cheat engine in order to achieve this. So that's why I want to start hacking PLCM.csv so we can get these custom playcall screen camera angles running smoothly.

What I want to do is streamline these custom playcall screen camera angles through PLCM.csv so it automatically goes to a custom playcall screen camera angle every time you hit the playcall screen. Now, here's another thing that I figured out which you can tell from one of the screenshots. Notice in the first screenshot, if you look closely, you can see that the sideline players are visible while at the playcall screen. (by default they are not there, only their shadows appear, which is a well known NCAA 06 glitch) I've hacked this, and it not only allows sideline players to be visible while at the playcall screen, but it also causes the entire crowd to animate while at the playcall screen instead of being frozen. I can even get them to cheer and stop cheering with another hack while at the playcall screen. And as you can imagine, it looks amazing.

But that's not all. There's another hack I'm working on, which it's a very difficult one and I may need JD's help on this, which is to make it so that all the players, referees, coaches and players appear on the field (and animate) when you are at the playcall screen. I can report that I have "stumbled upon" getting all the players, referees, and coaches to appear at the playcall screen, and they animate, so you see them standing there on the field in the huddle as you are choosing plays, but it's much more tricky than just getting the sidelines players to appear. It's a very difficult hack but I'm working on it. But this is something that JD may be able to help me figure out if we work on this together, if I were to for example, send him one of my save states with all the players appearing on the field at the playcall screen. But I doubt he'd be able to get them to appear, because the process that I used to got them to appear is very unique, involved, and "random". I will post a screenshot to show the players there on the field in the huddle at the playcall screen.

Short of figuring out a way to get all the players to consistently appear on the field at the playcall screen, then I would need to to create custom views that show only the crowd, or sidelines and the crowd, perhaps by editing PLCM.csv (if possible) so it doesn't glitch out instant replays. Because I don't like how the default playscreen cameras show the field with missing players.

The first thing we need to do is thoroughly test PLCM.csv. If no one will join me on this, then I'll have to do it on my own. But @h4wduk3n this is your opportunity to work with me on something that we both are passionate about and motivated to make happen. I know you want my camera codes, and I'm looking for someone who is passionate about camera hacks to work with me on PLCM.csv. And we can help each other. Now, with my advice, you may have looked into PLCM.csv on your own. But do let me know if you have, because in addition to the playcall screen hacks, I also have demo cam hacks and regular camera hacks in cheat engine. But I'm hoping that I won't need to share them because we'll be able to do more to hack the camera through PLCM.csv. Depending on what we can figure out through PLCM.csv, I am happy to release my camera codes. Keep in mind though that a lot of them are glitchy and can only do certain things. One thing I haven't figured out, for example, with the cameras is how to make it so (on the regular cameras, not the demo cam) that the camera doesn't "flip" around when there's a change of possession. I want to implement a true "defense" camera angle, a camera that stays behind the defense the entire play. I haven't been able to find that elusive code yet. I wonder if it's in PLCM.csv.

So while I have some very cool camera hacks through cheat engine, I'm still not satisfied with the situation as I have it. There's several things that I am still trying to figure out. What I really am looking for is for a few good men, i.e. a dedicated team that will work with me to hack the camera angles further. Through PLCM.csv first, and then perhaps we can take it into Cheat Engine for the more advanced stuff. I wanna find out what we can accomplish through PLCM.csv first, then I can show you in more detail what I am able to do with my CE camera codes.

If you guys figure out some camera hacks on your own, through PLCM.csv or through CE, let me know because otherwise I'm gonna start hacking it myself. I'm fine with doing that, but then you wouldn't have been a part of the journey to figure this stuff out. Before I get into that, I'm asking anyone, namely h4wduk3n to work with me on this and we can make discoveries as a team. And if you guys on the discord server are already looking into camera hacks through PLCM.csv, via motivation from seeing my screenshots then let me know because I have a lot more advanced camera related stuff that I'm working on in Cheat Engine that I can share and we can all experience everything as a team in a fun way. But first we need to test PLCM.csv thoroughly. Which I'll do on my own if I don't get any help, but I would like to work with you on this h4wduk3n and anyone else interested. Because, to JD's point earlier, about working together, it would be a lot more fun and satisfying to help each other out and have a team dedicated to camera hacks.

[Harry97]

Here are some photos of what I'm talking about in the above post. Getting more players to appear at the playcall screen.

This one shows the normal sideline players appearing :

lesssidelineplayers.jpg (205.7 KiB) Viewed 1993 times

This one shows more players on the sideline, plus the chain gang :

moresidelineplayers.jpg (210.57 KiB) Viewed 1993 times

And this one shows the sideline players, the coach, the chain gang, the refs, the ball and the players huddling :

coachrefsandplayersonfield.jpg (185.17 KiB) Viewed 1993 times

This is something that I do not know how to reproduce on a consistent basis, but I managed to get it like this through trial and error. The coolest is when I can get all the players, the coach, the refs, the chain gang and the players on the field in the huddle to appear as I am choosing plays. My goal is to figure out how to get it like that every time. This is a very difficult hack and I only stumbled upon it while testing other codes, fortunately I made save states with the players appearing at the playcall screen. I am showing you these screenshots to show what is possible and the kind of progress I've been making.

[Harry97]

Ball Spotted

coachrefs2.jpg (184.47 KiB) Viewed 1991 times

Flipped Side (No coaches displayed)

otherside.jpg (161.47 KiB) Viewed 1991 times

[Harry97]

Teams Huddling on field at playcall screen:

qbkneelinhuddle.jpg (143.36 KiB) Viewed 1991 times

rev.jpg (168.38 KiB) Viewed 1991 times

[Harry97]

UPDATE : I put in a long session last night into the early morning hours trying to hack the playcall screen in cheat engine to get all the players, coaches, refs, chain gang etc to appear on the field when you are choosing plays at the playcall screen as I showed in those screenshots. Well I am happy to report that I GOT IT!

With this hack, when I am choosing plays, you can see players in the huddle, coaches pacing the sidelines, etc so everything in the stadium and on the field is now visible while you are at the playcall screen and animates while you are calling plays. This hack really enhances the presentation of the game.

I feel like with this hack that i'm making the game look like the developers at EA intended. This was something that for me needed to be addressed. If you think about it, the way it is, not only in NCAA 06, but in NCAA 2005, and in NCAA 07-11 on PS2, with no players, coaches, refs, etc appearing on the field while calling plays doesn't give the impression of a finished product. The more I thought about this problem, the more I thought this is something that EA really should have addressed. Well I managed to put the finishing touches on NCAA 06 for them, by hacking everyone onto the field at the playcall screen. You're welcome EA, all these years later, I did what you should have done, I've given NCAA 06 the presentation upgrades it deserves. This was something I just had to figure out, and I just couldn't "move on" until I got it done.

With this hack, the stadium looks full and vibrant, and there's a sense of visual continuity from when a play ends to calling plays, to when they break the huddle, and you can really get some panoramic shots of the stadium like you see in football broadcasts while you are at the playcall screen. It makes a huge difference to be able to see the players, refs, coaches etc when calling plays.

I'm still ironing out some of the minor details about it how the hack works, so it's still a work in progress, but I'm very pleased with where I have it now. It's basically a bunch of codes that change when you enter the playcall screen, causing the players, coaches, refs etc to disappear, and then the values change back after you call the plays. If you freeze (lock) these values before you enter the playcall screen in cheat engine, they stay on the field instead of disappearing when you enter the play choosing screen. And it all seems to work pretty smoothly fo the most part, one slight issue I'm trying to iron out is the referee spotting the ball which sometimes can be a tad glitchy. Sometimes they spot the ball before you reach the playcall screen, so I think that's part of what I'm trying to work out. In that screenshot that shows the ref tossing the ball to the other ref, getting that to happen every time seems to be a bit tricky. And some work needs to be done with the cheerleaders as well. But overall, it looks way better and I'm very pleased with how I have it. The end result may not be perfect, but it's pretty darn close to how I imagined it would look. Seeing my modded NCAA 06 come together with all my cheat engine codes is a true joy that is difficult to describe.

I'm going to have to think about how I can bring this hack and my other mods to ya'll so you can experience this for yourself. I have to do a lot of "code reorganization" and the tricky part is that most of these codes are not static, so they change addresses depending on which teams you choose and which stadium you are in. So to play with different teams or in a new stadiums, I have to re-find all these addresses through offsets within several "groups" of codes. Someway somehow, I would like to devise a way to share these mods, maybe I can work with the NCAA NEXT group on that when I get everything sorted out.

It's been quite an adventure getting NCAA 06 how I have it, it's such satisfying work for someone like me who is so passionate about college football and getting NCAA 06 to depict the sport in the best and most complete way possible. And while the screenshots give you a sense of where I'm at with all of this, seeing it in motion is really what will take you into my world of college football. When we see what college football has become, if you long for the days of college football in its golden era, to really see college football in all its glory, that's what I've been working at achieving through my modded and thoroughly hacked NCAA 06. To bring the sport to you in a vibrant and wholly immersive and satisfying way.

And I couldn't do all this alone. This forum has been instrumental and incredibly helpful in what I've been able to achieve. Guys like JD and minotauri have been huge inspirations for me, to motivate me to achieve these kind of hacks so I have something real and valuable to bring to the table when we do our collaborations. This is what it's all about. Making NCAA 06 be as good as it can possibly be. I've always taken the approach of coming at modding from different and unique angles, ways to mod this game that maybe no one would have thought about or tried to do. Who would have dreamed 8 years ago when I started this topic that we would end up with these kind of improvements?

I just take things one step at a time, and build off my previous work. And it's gotten me to a point that I'm very happy with. But there's so much more to still figure out and work on. (playbooks, .DAT editing, etc) Every accomplishment reminds me to continue to think outside the box and take the approach that anything's possible. When you look at what minotauri is trying to do getting 127 teams working in Dynasty, and what JD is doing with playbooks, what h4wduk3n has done with textures and uniforms. We all bring something different to the table, we are all of a piece of the puzzle that has taken NCAA 06 to greater heights than anyone could have possibly thought was possible. But if we truly work together and show a real willingness to help each other out as we move forward, there's no reason why we all can't experience the best of the best when it comes to NCAA 06. That's what I want more than anything. Achieving my dreams is one thing, but being a part of the greater collaboration and having all this work come together in the most glorious way possible is my ultimate goal.

[Harry97]

OK so I did some testing trying to make "camera" changes through PLCM.csv within GAMEDATA.DAT.

It turns out that editing PLCM.csv doesn't seem to do anything to the playcall screen camera angles that I managed to hack through Cheat Engine. I'm wondering if maybe I can hex edit those "default" values through the disc directly, by searching for the original values that get changed through my CE codes, so I wouldn't have to "switch" to custom camera angles in-game like I have to do now from the default angles, which allow me to produce those screenshots of custom camera angles. It does seem that custom GAMEDATA.DATs (from the later PS2 NCAAs imported into NCAA 06) do have subtle changes on the camera angles (and camera behavior) which would be due to each play (PLYL) having specific "camera info" data. But there doesn't seem to be anything that I can find (at least in GAMEDATA.DAT) that affects the camera angles themselves or the playcall screen camera angles. But again I've hacked a lot of this in Cheat Engine, I just wonder if JD or minotauri may have found any additional camera related parameters in other DATs like League.DAT. I know there's that PDAD.csv in TEMPLATE.DAT, which maybe I'll take another look at.

As I explained, I'm trying to get it so I can customize the playcall screen cameras via .DAT editing (if possible) or by hex editing the disc directly so I don't have to use my cheat engine codes for that every time I reach the playcall screen. As doing it this way, while cool, is not ideal, is glitchy because the cameras cycle after every play, and these codes can cause crashes. I'm guessing that up to this point, neither minotauri, JD or anyone else has been able to figure out how to make "permanent" (non-Cheat Engine) changes to the playcall screen camera angles, which is what I'm trying to figure out, because then I wouldn't need codes and hotkeys in-game to produce those kind of screenshots.

But if no one can figure out how to do that outside of cheat engine, and if people want my Cheat Engine codes to be able to do this themselves, I can definitely share them with the community. Maybe if I share them, someone can trace my codes and possibly figure out how to hack the playcall screen camera angles through the .DAT or by hex editing the disc if I can't figure that out myself.

I also have a ton of other camera codes, that enhance the demo camera and add some interesting features to the regular cameras, this is still of course a WIP and I am still searching for more. I'm trying to hack the cutscenes presently. But I have a lot to offer here, that maybe JD or minotauri or others would be interested in. If you guys don't know how to do what I've shown in those screenshots, either in cheat engine or outside of cheat engine, then this is something that we could all work together on. Of course I can try to figure it out on my own, but the more people on board and looking into this kind of stuff the better.

[minotauri]

I havent looked too much into this find, and we havent found a lot on camera stuff. I know h4wduk3n had explored it a bit in the past.

My main thing I'd like to do that is somewhat related is to see if we can get the night games to show up a little brighter.

[nobuko24]

Hi, I'm trying to import some uniforms from NCAA 09 into NCAA 06. The uniforms I wish to import are smaller sized files than the ones I am replacing, so the process h4wduk3n and StingRay68 discuessed earlier in this thread should work.

Using DFR even when I extract a copy of a compressed file from the UNIFORM.DAT (for example; File00050 - Comp. Size = 166406 - Decomp. Size = 375912) and then re-insert this file into the the same slot I am left with a smaller sized UNIFORM.DAT file, which causes errors when adding back into the iso (I am using apache for this).

I have used DFR before to replace music files in the game (in that case I had to resize the smaller asf files using a HEX editor before I imported them so that they matched the file size of the files being replaced). I was assuming this would be a similar process but even after reading through this thread I am still confused.

I seen posts mention uncompressing the uniform files but I am unsure if I need to do this or what programs to use. If anyone could provide advice on the programs to use and quick steps to follow for just replacing uniforms from NCAA 06 with smaller file sized unforms from NCAA 09 it would be really appreciated.

[minotauri]

Hi, I'm trying to import some uniforms from NCAA 09 into NCAA 06. The uniforms I wish to import are smaller sized files than the ones I am replacing, so the process h4wduk3n and StingRay68 discuessed earlier in this thread should work.

Using DFR even when I extract a copy of a compressed file from the UNIFORM.DAT (for example; File00050 - Comp. Size = 166406 - Decomp. Size = 375912) and then re-insert this file into the the same slot I am left with a smaller sized UNIFORM.DAT file, which causes errors when adding back into the iso (I am using apache for this).

I have used DFR before to replace music files in the game (in that case I had to resize the smaller asf files using a HEX editor before I imported them so that they matched the file size of the files being replaced). I was assuming this would be a similar process but even after reading through this thread I am still confused.

I seen posts mention uncompressing the uniform files but I am unsure if I need to do this or what programs to use. If anyone could provide advice on the programs to use and quick steps to follow for just replacing uniforms from NCAA 06 with smaller file sized unforms from NCAA 09 it would be really appreciated.

First off, PCSX2 emulator makes the ability to swap uniform appearances much easier now! Check our NCAANEXT mod for examples.

Secondly, if the uniform files are the same template, which I believe they are, you can just import directly into UNIFORM.DAT w/o compression. The key to all of this is to DELETE the QKL files when you go to make a new game image ISO. That should let you do this w/o bugs.

[Harry97]

I havent looked too much into this find, and we havent found a lot on camera stuff. I know h4wduk3n had explored it a bit in the past.

The camera work is my specialty. But as I explained I've only been able to do what I've done through cheat engine which can get very messy and hard to keep track of. What I was trying to do, and something maybe you or JD could help me with is to try and trace the camera codes I've found to either the ELF file or somewhere else on the disc so I can make the changes permanent. I have done significant work to the game engine through cheat engine, but the codes I found change depending on which teams you select and which stadium you select. So it's not something that can easily be shared. However, that said, there are some of my codes that are relatively simple enough to find every time if I explain it to you.

Being able to edit the camera angles while at the playcall screen is very cool, but it requires manual intervention every time you reach the play call screen, so it's not exactly practical when playing a game. I wanna make all the stuff I found automatic by tracing my codes to either the ELF or to some file in the DAT. I've been impressed with what JD been able to do with the OT modifications, for example, but that doesn't mean it'll be the same for the camera codes. I was hoping to find a file in one of the DATs that edits the default camera values, but thus far it has been elusive.

My main thing I'd like to do that is somewhat related is to see if we can get the night games to show up a little brighter.

As you can see from my screenshots, I sort of did the opposite. I made night games darker through codes I found, particularly the crowd area darker, as you can see, which creates like a spotlight effect on the field with the crowd in relative darkness. That adds a lot to the presentation of night games because it gives night games that classic immersive presentation college football used to have decades ago. Unlike the camera codes that I'm trying to make permanent, I don't really need to make the "lighting" codes permanent because I like being able to change the brightness of the field and the crowd on the fly. With my lighting codes, you can adjust the luminosity and brightness on the fly so this means you can manually adjust the "time of day" through the match to some extent. In Madden PS2/OX they made it so that the time of day automatically changes as the game goes on. So evening games start off as evening in the 1st quarter, then when the 2nd quarter starts it's darker, by the 2nd half it's full night. In afternoon games in Madden PS2/OX, it starts out during the day but then by the 2nd half shadows get longer as the sun goes down.

I would like to implement something like this in NCAA 06. I did find some codes that adjust shadow angles but getting it all to progress naturally throughout a game would require something more. I would like to be able to play an afternoon game but by the 3rd quarter it's evening then by the 4th quarter it's night. Through my lighting codes I can do that manually to some extent like when it comes to turning evening games into night in the 2nd half, but I haven't really looked into turning afternoon games into evening as the game goes on.

As you know, I also have codes that change the crowd colors, if you look closely you can see the crowd in that Stanford stadium is mostly red. I also showed other scenes at the coin toss of the crowd in pink and green just to show what can be done through cheat engine. What I wonder is anyone on the NEXT team have been able to do this yourself, make the entire crowd a certain color. I explained how to make *some* of the crowd models a certain color with the TCRP value which is tied to which teams are playing, but that only affects a portion of the crowd. To make the entire crowd the same color as I did is more difficult and the only way I've been able to do it is to hack it in cheat engine. But it's tricky this way because these codes change depending on which teams are playing and which stadiums are playing.

I was wondering if by now you know how to make the entire crowd one color by editing a file somewhere in the DATs. If you haven't, then that's something I can show you how to do through Cheat Engine and make then we can research how to make the crowd color (the entire crowd) permanent somehow.