pick6's TrueTurf v5.1 (hi-quality field texture & template)

[pick6]

Some screenshots first:

4 images: (1) Madden's default turf, (2) pick6's TrueTurf NFL, (3) TrueTurf NCAA, & (4) TrueTurf NCAA wide hashes

overhead 4shots.gif (1.38 MiB) Viewed 2836 times

Madden's default turf & pick6's TrueTurf (using same replay at same moment in time). Madden sees both as in-bounds!

sideline.gif (863.78 KiB) Viewed 2836 times

More advanced turf variant, with clouding effect, custom yard numbers, and correct 2 foot hash lines. (Default Madden's hash lines are too long)




More advanced grass variant, with bordered yard numbers, and also using wider distance between hashes for NCAA fields.




N.B. EVEN MORE ADVANCED FIELD SCREENSHOTS IN MY NCAA 17 FieldBuilder thread!
(Ohio State, LSU, Tenn)


Q: What is TrueTurf?

A: This is a completely new approach to field textures that involved creating a brand-new field from scratch, based on the exact dimensions of an NFL field. It features the following:

• uses official specifications for lengths and widths of lines for a more realistic effect;
• uses a higher dimension texture which enables all lines to be made of full white pixels while also remaining proportionally correct. This means that absolutely no lines are then blurred in-game, giving very sharp and realistic lines.
• creates an accurate perimeter and player area, with official specs used for broken yellow lines and broken white lines;
• accurately aligns the white sidelines with where Madden deems to be “out-of-bounds”;
• places the yard numbers in the correct position with correct height;
• ensures both halves of the field are accurately lined up against each other;
• the field texture can be used “as-is” for folks who just want to play, but it also contains a multi-layered template for folks who want to create their own variations;
• also contains an accurate college template (based on the exact dimensions of the NCAA field), with multiple sideline variations, correct NCAA placement of numbers, and correctly-placed and unstretched 25-yard conference logo's (all FBS conferences);
• designed for newbies as well as for more experienced modders!!

If you just want to test it out right now, you can download my generic turf and grass .tpf's here:
TrueTurf v5 NFL samples.zip (9MB)
Please note, the turf field will work in all turf stadiums except Baltimore, and the grass field will work in all grass stadiums except Miami, Cleveland, and Oakland.


However, the full project also contains NFL and NCAA templates, and comes in 2 flavors:
TrueTurf v5.1 (Paint.NET templates) is 34MB
TrueTurf v5.1 (Photoshop templates) is 60MB
Both flavors contain the exact same files, just in different formats.
v5 release notes HERE
v5.1 release notes HERE

NEWBIES: if you don't know which flavor you need, take the Paint.NET version, as this tutorial is geared towards that. But both contain the exact same files, just in different formats.


There's a huge amount of stuff I need to go through, so I've decided to put this in Q&A form for ease of reading. I'm going to divide it into 5 sections ranging from the very basic stuff for newbies, to the more complicated stuff for the more experienced. Each section is in a separate post and the whole thing takes up the first 6 posts, so please read the Q&A's carefully before asking questions!


SECTION 1: Using TrueTurf in-game (clickable link, takes you to next post)
1.1 How do I get this field in-game?
1.2 Is it compatible with the FF/FI XIV mod and Heisman 11/14 mods?
1.3 Will the TrueTurf .tpf work for grass stadiums too?
1.4 Will it work for my custom-created team's turf stadium?
1.5 Is there midfield and endzone field art included too?
1.6 You've got more than one version of TrueTurf in your .zip file, so which should I use?
1.7 OK, I'm confused! Is "TrueTurf" for turf or grass?
1.8 How come your generic NFL turf and grass don't work for Baltimore, Cleveland, Miami or Oakland?
1.8.5 Your grass works fine for me, but I can't get the turf to work! [NEW]
1.9 I've loaded your TrueTurf alongside the Heisman mod, and it's not working. What gives?
1.10 Have you any plans to make a MUDDY grass version?
1.11 I've noticed that your NCAA field has the numbers moved out further (correctly) but you've left the narrower NFL hash marks in. What gives? [EDIT: fixed!]
1.12 Your file sizes seem a bit big for field textures; won't that slow my computer down?
1.13 Awesome! Can you make me a field for my favorite team, the […]?
1.14 Why do I sometimes get a gap between the endzone and the goal-line in-game? [NEW]

SECTION 2: Creating your own variations
2.1 "Well, I can forget this section; I'll never be able to create something as good as yours. You're most likely a graphic artist or something...
2.2 OK then, I'm a newbie with absolutely no experience. Where do I start?
2.3 How do I start making my own variations?
2.4 OK, let's pick up the pace here a bit dude. How did you make your turf's "black rubber" effect?
2.5 Sweet! What about your snow?
2.6 OK, boring. What about the grass, dude? WHAT ABOUT THE GRASS?!
2.6.5 What about grass for rainy weather?
2.7 Awesome! But what's the deal with that weird gray color in the player area?
2.8 How do I change the background color of the numbers AND retain the edge smoothing? (or create a background color for my own number font?)
2.9 How do I change the colors of the 25-yard conference logo's?
2.10 I like your painted-on NFL shield on the 25-yard line, but why does the old shield sometimes appear on top in-game?
2.11 Any more ideas?
2.12 How should I save it?
2.13 What else do I need to know?
2.14 How do I convert the finished .png into a .tpf for TexMod?
2.15 I've made some sweet fields with your template (or I've made some sweet additions to the template itself); can I upload them here?
2.16 I don't use Paint.NET, I prefer to use Photoshop / PaintShop Pro / Gimp etc. Can I upload my projects in their formats?

SECTION 3: Further development
3.1 I'd like to have a go at making some grass for this project. What guidelines should I follow?
3.2 What are “ghost lines” and why are they such a pain in the ass?
3.2.5 What's your "wide hash" demo game?
3.3 Will you (pick6) continue to work on this project yourself?
3.4 What's your FieldBuilder framework? [NEW]


SECTION 4: Misc
4.1 Will any of this be included in the FF/FI XIV mod or Heisman 14 mod?
4.2 Can I put this in .dat-form?
4.3 You make a big deal of your 2513x2154 dimensions; how did you choose those?
4.3.5 What are the visible differences between a "cleaned-up" .dat-based version and your original TrueTurf?
4.4 What about that weird warping you mentioned earlier?
4.5 What's the deal with the name “TrueTurf”?
4.6 Why do you always put your name in front of your stuff and refer to it as “pick6's Logo Mod” or “pick6's TrueTurf” or whatever?

SECTION 5: Resources
Links to NFL & NCAA rule books, and conference logo's used.

[pick6]

SECTION 1: Using TrueTurf in-game

1.1 How do I get this field in-game?
This field texture requires the program TexMod to work.
Download TexMod HERE and then read the start of the tutorial HERE on how to load the .tpf in TexMod.

1.2 Is it compatible with the FF/FI XIV mod and Heisman 11/14 mods?
Yes, it works fully with both. Please note my TrueTurf is not part of either of those projects, so please don't hassle either of the mod teams for help!

1.3 Will the TrueTurf .tpf work for grass stadiums too?
Yes! Just make sure you load the GRASS .tpf, and load it in a grass stadium.

1.4 Will it work for my custom-created team's turf stadium?
Yes. It will work for both “Grassy Turf” and “Artificial Turf”. (Grassy Turf is what is used in all the NFL stadiums in Madden 08, while Artificial Turf is only found as an option for custom created stadiums. Basically, Grassy Turf adds more texture to the look, while Artificial looks like carpet and a bit unnatural!)

1.5 Is there midfield and endzone field art included too?
No, that's beyond the scope of this project. However, any midfields and endzones that are already present in-game will remain unchanged and visible.

1.6 You've got more than one version of TrueTurf in your .zip file, so which should I use?
I've included a few examples to give you an idea what you can do quickly and easily with the template. Load whichever one you want, and you can even load a turf, grass, AND snowy .tpf all at the same time if you wish! If you load two dry turfs or two grasses though, only the first one will be visible. Therefore, if you have any other .tpf's you also wish to load, just make sure the TrueTurf is at the top of the list.

Included are:
* TrueTurf v3 NFL: generic dry TURF field, non team-specific. This means no team colors around the 20-yard lines or numbers, and uses generic font numbers. Can be used as a default NFL turf field without any modification. (V3 has some minor fixes and improvements.)
* TrueTurf v3 NFL (grass): generic dry GRASS field, non team-specific. Different from above, with mown-effect on field, and tarpaulin in player area. Can be used as a default NFL grass field without any modification.
* TrueTurf v3 NFL (snow): sample snowy turf field (different to previous release).
* TrueTurf v3 NCAA: sample dry TURF field, now with team-colored numbers, as well as border variation and 25-yard conference logo.
* TrueTurf v3 NCAA (grass): sample dry GRASS field, with further variations.

1.7 OK, I'm confused! Is "TrueTurf" for turf or grass?
Both. I don't want to call it "TrueGrass" because some folks may not realize we're talking about the same template! Therefore, "TrueTurf" on its own means either the template, or the turf field. On the other hand, "TrueTurf (grass variant)" is just a grass field.

1.8 How come your generic NFL turf and grass don't work for Baltimore, Cleveland, Miami or Oakland?
Those stadiums use different field textures to all the others, so TexMod needs different memory addresses for those to work correctly. However, I've included a text file in the full project .zip that lists the appropriate memory addresses if you wish to make them yourself.

1.8.5 Your grass works fine for me, but I can't get the turf to work! [NEW]
A couple of people have reported that their turf uses a different address (which I've listed in the "field addresses ReadMe.txt" file that came with the templates). But if you jump to this post, you'll find the turf.tpf with alternate address that I made for Eros.

1.9 I've loaded your TrueTurf alongside the Heisman mod, and it's not working. What gives?
First, my TrueTurf needs to be loaded first in TexMod (at the very top of the list) or else it may get overwritten by a Heisman field. Second, bear in mind that my regular TrueTurf only replaces the turf field in Madden, and the TrueTurf (grass variant) only replaces the grass field. It's possible that some of the Heisman stadiums were initially grass but were replaced with a turf image (or vice versa). Madden would still see those as “grass stadiums” however, so you would need to create a .tpf that uses a different memory address. Please refer to the text file in the full project .zip that lists the appropriate memory addresses.

1.10 Have you any plans to make a MUDDY grass version?
I have no plans to make a separate muddy field, but read Section 2.6.5 (What about grass for rainy weather?) which explains how to get a great-looking "soggy" grass in-game!

1.11 I've noticed that your NCAA field has the numbers moved out further (correctly) but you've left the narrower NFL hash marks in. What gives? [EDIT: fixed!]
The quick answer is to just chalk it up to “limitations imposed by Madden”. The long answer is to read thoroughly Section 3.2 (What are “ghost lines” and why are they such a pain in the ass?), and then read the solution at my "wide hash" demo game.

1.12 Your file sizes seem a bit big for field textures; won't that slow my computer down?
You're correct that they are bigger than the default Madden textures, which I was also concerned about in the beginning. However, my lower-spec 2008 laptop doesn't register any slowdown with these textures at all! If necessary though, there are ways to make the file size much much smaller that don't involve re-sizing down, thus retaining the correct dimensions (which is crucial). I'll cover this later, but meantime I've put together a tutorial here HERE that covers how to optimize Madden for a slower computer.

1.13 Awesome! Can you make me a field for my favorite team, the […]?
Emmm..... No. There really would be no point in any of this at all if I were to do that! Please keep on reading; you'll find out how to do that all by yourself, and I promise that you'll enjoy playing on your own field much much more than playing on mine!

1.14 Why do I sometimes get a gap between the endzone and the goal-line in-game? [NEW]
See these threads for an explanation: Custom endzone fix? and Use of endzone2 = bug! (TEZ2)

[continued in next post...]

[pick6]

SECTION 2: Creating your own variations

2.1 "Well, I can forget this section; I'll never be able to create something as good as yours. You're most likely a graphic artist or something...
NOOOOOO!!!! WRONG WRONG WRONG!!! I am most definitely NOT a graphic artist and hardly had any experience of art programs until I started modding here. One year ago the only program I knew how to use was an ancient program for Windows 95. I had never used the .png format, and I had no idea how layers worked in a project file. I never in a million years thought I would be able to create something like this, let alone publish it to the internet. This project is specifically designed to get new people into modding, including newbies who have absolutely no experience at all. OK?

2.2 OK then, I'm a newbie with absolutely no experience. Where do I start?
Start by reading my tutorial called pick6's toolbag & methods (a graphics guide for newbies!)
Most important, you'll need Paint.NET which you can download HERE. Then open one of my templates from the .zip file and start messing around with it. Just go crazy with it as you won't break anything! Most important, familiarize yourself with the idea of layers (press F7 to see the "Layers" window). Check and uncheck the different layers to see what happens. Move a layer up or down to see what happens. It'll take a little while to get used to it, but I guarantee it's much easier than you imagine.

2.3 How do I start making my own variations?
The easiest addition is by adding team colors around the 20 yard line. Bear in mind that for some teams the colored lines go under the hashes (like Indianapolis), some teams have the lines go over the hashes (Buffalo), and some go all the way around the hashes (Minnesota).

2.4 OK, let's pick up the pace here a bit dude. How did you make your turf's "black rubber" effect?
I used Paint.NET built-in "Clouds". Start by unchecking the existing grass and turf layers so they are not visible, and then create a new (blank) layer just above them. In the Colors toolbar (F5), set the primary color to 78, 104, 46 (R,G,B), and the secondary color to 82, 112, 48. Then click on Effects / Render / Clouds. Set the "Scale" to 50, and "Roughness" to “0.90”. If you don't like what you see, click the "Re-seed" button to draw it again. Experiment with darker/lighter colors. (TIP: I write down all the values as I go along, so I don't forget them. You'll find you make a nice one just by accident, but later have no idea what values you used!)

2.5 Sweet! What about your snow?
Exact same idea. Again, create a new layer (but this time at the very top of all the layers).
Primary color: 255, 255, 255
Secondary color: 255, 255, 255 (but also set the “Transparency - Alpha” value to 64)
Click on Effects / Render / Clouds. Scale 900, Roughness 0.90

Try to avoid large amounts of snow close to the 50 yard line or it will look weird in-game when matched up with the other half-field. Also, avoid snow around the midfield logo area, as the logo will appear on top of the snow in-game. Experiment with lowering the opacity (transparency) by clicking on the "Properties" button on the Layers toolbar. Maybe even multiple layers of snow with different scale/roughness/transparency values?

2.6 OK, boring. What about the grass, dude? WHAT ABOUT THE GRASS?!
Create a new blank layer above the existing grass layer.

In colors window, set primary color to: 106, 127, 54
Set secondary color to: 82, 112, 48
Go to Effects, then Render, then Clouds.
Set scale to 50 and Roughness to 0.70 and click OK.

Click on the "shading" layer, and check the box too.
Using the Magic Wand tool, select all EXCEPT the orange (the blank space).
Click on your new grass layer, and go to Adjustments, then "Brightness / Contrast". Set brightness to 6.

Click on Edit, and "Invert Selection" (or press CTRL I) and JUST the orange area will be selected.
Adjust Brightness to -4, and Contrast to 7.
Press Enter to deselect.
Uncheck "shading" layer box.


2.6.5 What about grass for rainy weather?
First, I never liked Madden's default "muddy" grass. In real-life, not every field looks as muddy as that when it rains. Also, it makes the midfield logo look as if it's on a painted board laid on top of the field! That is, the grass looks too muddy while the midfield logo looks too clean.

However, I found that if you use your (unaltered) dry grass field along with the memory address for the muddy field, it looks like this in-game:

soggy grass.gif (687.17 KiB) Viewed 2835 times

Above: TrueTurf dry grass, and TrueTurf soggy grass.
I like to call this "soggy grass" as it looks wet, but not muddy. (To be clear, that is the exact same field .png being used above, but Madden puts the "sogginess" on top in-game.)

The memory address for this is 0x7E44EA00. You don't actually need to log it yourself, but if you want to look at the original, bear in mind that the muddy grass texture is partially transparent, so you may not think you've got the right one at first. (You don't actually need the texture anyway, just the memory address assigned to it!)

2.7 Awesome! But what's the deal with that weird gray color in the player area?
In real-life, NFL grass fields use a rubber tarpaulin in the player area to stop it getting all muddied up, and the yellow and white lines are painted directly onto the tarp. (Our tarp should therefore go right to the outer edges of the yellow lines). Unfortunately, Madden still puts its "individual strands of grass" texture on top of the tarp, so it doesn't totally look like rubber up-close. What you could do is play around with shading or clouding on the tarp to make it stand out more.

I've also now divided up the yellow lines into 2 layers; those in the tarp area, and those on the rest of the grass. For my grass variant .tpf, I dropped the opacity (transparency) of the yellow lines on the "rest of grass" area down to 192 (which means 75% visible). This helps make the tarp yellow stand out a little better, as real-life grass doesn't hold the paint as good as the rubber tarp.

2.8 How do I change the background color of the numbers AND retain the edge smoothing? (or create a background color for my own number font?)
Ah! Now here's the good stuff!

To change the background color of the existing numbers (AND STILL RETAIN THE EDGE SMOOTHING):
Go to "Adjustments", then "Levels".
Double-click on the “Input Black Point” color block, and then click on "Define Custom Colors".
Enter the RGB values for the current color (which is 37, 43, 66), and click OK.
Repeat for “Output Black Point” with your new color's RGB values.
Test new color with Color Picker tool to make sure it's correct.
[If sometimes it gives a color that is slightly off, click Undo, then Adjustments, Levels, and "Reset" button. Instead of clicking on the "Input Black Point", uncheck the G and B boxes, and enter in the input and output R values manually. Repeat for G and B.]

To create a background color for NEW numbers that you've created yourself:
You'll need the plugin pack for Paint.NET called BoltBaitPack which you can get HERE. (Unzip the files and place in your C:/Program Files/Paint.NET/Effects folder.)
Then go to Effects, Object, Outline Object. (NOT the same effect as "Outline Selection", which gives jagged edges!)
Set Radius to 2, Strength to 5, and "Outline Color" RGB values to your own.
Edge smoothing is still retained, although corners will now be rounded. I therefore manually fill in the pixels on the corners to make them sharp 90 degree corners again.
You may need to move all the arrows down slightly also (further away from the number next to it). Different teams have different approaches; Oakland doesn't seem to move them at all (so colored sections almost touch), while Dallas moves them quite far away. I moved my arrows down 3 pixels.

2.9 How do I change the colors of the 25-yard conference logo's?
DON'T just color-fill the image as it will look very jagged! For best results, I always work on larger sized images, and then re-size down. This allows for a certain amount of sloppiness in my work, which will then disappear completely when I re-size down. If I was to start with a smaller image, then my sloppiness would be more visible!

Open one of the enclosed conference logo templates (such as “SEC template.pdn”). Select an area (of one color) that you wish to change. You can use the Color Picker tool to help here (press K to select it) which will fill in the values from a picked color. Go to Adjustments / Levels, click on the “Input Black Point” color block and manually enter the RGB values for your old color. Repeat for “Output Black Point” with your new color's RGB values.

When you're finished, save the .pdn project under a new name, and then go to Image / Resize. Refer to the filenames of the included sample logo's for the correct dimensions. When done, rotate the logo by clicking on Image / Rotate 90° Clockwise. Click on Edit / Select All. Go to the TrueTurf template and click Edit / “Paste in to New Layer” (or CTRL+SHIFT+V).

2.10 I like your painted-on NFL shield on the 25-yard line, but why does the old shield sometimes appear on top in-game?
First, I decided to paint my own NFL shield directly onto the field as Madden's placement for this logo is off in both directions. Second, some teams (like the Panthers) have a different logo here, so I thought it would be worthwhile including midpoint markers. When the old logo appears in certain stadiums, that's because Madden is super-imposing its own shield on top. You can very easily get around this by including a “blanker” for that texture instead. Just log that shield in TexMod to get the memory address (differs per stadium), and then add a line in your .def file that points to a blank png. The only downside of course is that my NFL shield won't always face the same sideline (the TV cameras), but I prefer it because it blends in much better with the rest of the field.

2.11 Any more ideas?
My college TrueTurf template allows for many more variations in the boundary, so make sure you play around with that too. Please note not all boundary layers are intended to work together. Some variations require one layer unchecked.

2.12 How should I save it?
ALWAYS save it first as a "Paint.NET (*.pdn)" file to preserve the separate layers. Then save it again as a .png file. You will be asked what "Bit Depth" settings you want to use for saving. For the dry turf, clicking on "Auto-detect" or “24-bit” will preserve the color depth and will make a file size of around 4MB. I've been saving like this without any problems whatsoever in-game, so I suggest you do this too unless you have a good reason to change. If you really must, saving as 8-bit will lower the file size to around 1MB, but will lose many of the shading colors of the clouding effect. For the snowy turf, saving as 8-bit will lower the file size to around 3MB (from 9MB), but again, it shouldn't be necessary. Finally, if you want to make a dry "TrueTurf Lite" that's only around 100KB, you can forget about the clouding layer altogether and just use a single colored green layer as the base. Madden will still add some turf texture on top (the individual strands of turf), but it may look more like carpet depending on your settings. Great to use while you're creating your field though, especially for the increased speed of loading and saving the pdn.

2.13 What else do I need to know?
Don't be tempted to "fix" anything that may look like it's not properly lined up. Madden has a really weird warping thing going on when it displays the field, effectively stretching AND compressing it repeatedly from left to right. (This may just be a TexMod side-effect though). Rest assured, I started by using a gridiron set up to the exact specs of real-life, and then set about carefully compensating for this in-game. The right sideline therefore actually needs to be slightly narrower than the left sideline so that it matches up in-game. Similar thing for the location of the numbers, hash marks, and the broken white and yellow limit lines. [If you really must know more, jump to Section 4.4 (What about that weird warping?) but it's definitely not for newbies!]

2.14 How do I convert the finished .png into a .tpf for TexMod?
That's beyond the scope of this article. Please refer to the TexMod tutorial HERE.

2.15 I've made some sweet fields with your template (or I've made some sweet additions to the template itself); can I upload them here?
Absolutely! Anything you've made that advances the cause, please do upload here. On top of that, if you've used any other effects in the process, please give details of what you used and how you used it so that others can learn from it. If updating midfields and endzones is your thing, why not include an updated field along with them next time! I don't mind if you create your own complete stadium .tpf's using my field template, as long as the knowledge is always shared. (You can release those .tpf's in your own thread of course though!)

2.16 I don't use Paint.NET, I prefer to use Photoshop / PaintShop Pro / Gimp etc. Can I upload my projects in their formats?
Of course, but where possible, please try to include a .pdn version too. That way both myself and others can keep up with your developments! (And for the record, I've already tried those programs and do not wish to switch thanks! )

[continued in next post...]

[pick6]

SECTION 3: Further development

3.1 I'd like to have a go at making some grass for this project. What guidelines should I follow?
Ideally, I'd prefer if folks don't use the existing Madden grass as their starting point for this reason: I've already found out that much of EA's graphic work here is sloppy and quickly put together, so I'd like us to make BETTER grass ourselves from scratch; better than what the so-called "pro's" at EA did. That's what I'd love to see! I've already said I'm no graphic artist, so this part is more challenging to me. It may even need more advanced effects from Photoshop or such, but I reckon it could be done. My thinking so far is that we might be able to get more realistic results from multiple layers of clouding. I haven't tried it yet myself, but I wanted to see what would happen if I made a clouded layer with the secondary color transparent, and the "Scale" set to a high value (so there's lots of gaps in between). In theory you should be able to do multiple layers like this with darker/lighter shades of clouding to give more variation across the field.

However, I've no objection if someone does use the existing Madden grass as their starting point, as long as it ends up as a single layer of green grass with nothing else on it. (I did actually try to tweak the existing Madden grass myself but found it to be more complicated than to just start afresh!)


3.2 What are “ghost lines” and why are they such a pain in the ass?
EDIT: This section is quite out of date now, and ideally needs an overhaul to bring it up-to-date. Instead I've decided to give a quick summary of developments, and leave the rest of it unchanged. It was slydways who discovered the solution, which involves inserting the field texture into a slot usually used for endzones, which like the midfield logo, is "above" the ghost lines. In this way the ghost lines are obscured. My "wide hash demo game" shows the end result. It's worth stating though that the ghost lines do NOT determine where the ball is to be placed, or where out-of-bounds lies! As slydways has said, their function seems to be solely visual; without them the field lines in the distance blur away to nothing, so the ghost lines are there to ensure sharp lines are visible further back. Anyway, here is the original text of this section:

Man, I really hate those. It's my own term I use to describe the very thin white lines Madden imposes on all it's fields. Usually you can't see them as they're hidden inside the white yard lines of the field texture itself. But if you remove the field texture and replace it with a block of a single color, this is what you see:

ghost lines test.jpg (230.48 KiB) Viewed 2835 times

I've also blacked out the texture that contains the individual strands of turf, so to be clear, the above image does not contain any field markings whatsoever. It's just 2 blocks of black, yet the ghost lines are clearly visible. (I initially thought they may be some sort of boundary markers in-game, but the short lines at the sidelines don't line up with the pylons so that can't be the reason!)

It's worth noting that in the example above, the Patriots midfield logo has also been blacked out but somehow obscures the ghost lines too, which is what we want!!! This happens for NFL teams (logo's in .dat-form) as well as my custom-created teams (logo's in 8-bit CustomArt .bmp form).

Anyway, in real-life the lines at the hash marks are 2 feet long but Madden incorrectly uses longer 3ft lines. When I first made my markings to the 2ft specifications, Madden's ghost lines extended out visibly beyond that and looked pretty bad:

ghost lines nfl.jpg (250.34 KiB) Viewed 2835 times

Notice how the ghost lines become more visible further back, until all we're seeing at the goalline is just the ghost lines themselves.

For college it gets even worse though. When I moved the hashes further out toward the sideline, I got accurate 2ft lines per NCAA specs, as well as 3ft ghost lines per EA specs:

ghost lines ncaa.jpg (260.68 KiB) Viewed 2835 times

Notice how the ghost lines virtually disappear in the foreground, but are very distracting in the distance. They actually don't look too bad for evening kickoff's, but are at their worst at 1pm (as above). They also look much worse from lower down than from above.

After trying many different variations, I decided I had no choice but to stick with Madden's specs to hide the ghost lines (which means the longer 3ft lines) for both NFL and NCAA fields.

[END OF ORIGINAL TEXT]

EDIT: As I've already said, this issue has now been resolved and the first post contains updated screenshots of both NFL & NCAA fields with the ghost lines removed: (CLICK THE THUMBNAILS TO ENLARGE)


Shorter “official spec” 2ft lines at hashes and sidelines, plus wider NCAA placement. Completely accurate and playable fields...

And here is what a TrueTurf NFL field looks like with the ghost lines removed (with correct 2ft hash lines):


TO PLAY ON THESE FIELDS YOURSELF, GO TO MY "wide hash" demo game (no ghost lines)


3.2.5 What's your "wide hash" demo game?
See the screenshot and link directly above!

3.3 Will you (pick6) continue to work on this project yourself?
No, I've finished everything that I wanted to include in this project, and have actually taken it much further than I originally intended. I had hoped in the beginning that other folks would continue to add to it by sharing their own layers here, so I must admit that I'm extremely disappointed that no-one else has added or shared a single thing in all this time! I spent a huge amount of time setting this up with the sole goal of encouraging others to get into modding quickly and easily, and yet no-one else seems to want to continue that goal. I therefore don't see any point in continuing to maintain this myself any longer.

3.4 What's your FieldBuilder framework? [NEW]
Using TrueTurf on its own will enable you to get fields in-game that are much better than default Madden. However, to use correct 2ft hash marks for NFL fields, or wide hash marks for NCAA fields, certain changes must be made first. FieldBuilder is a way to unlock this potential, and get completely true and accurate fields (and endzones), without any warping or other Madden-imposed glitches. See HERE for more info.

[continued in next post...]

[pick6]

SECTION 4: Misc

4.1 Will any of this be included in the FF/FI XIV mod or Heisman 14 mod?
No; I've been working on this independently and am not involved with either mod. I wanted this to be a project to encourage others to get into modding, but when I started I had no idea how easy or hard it would be to do, or how long it might take. I therefore wanted to pick away at it at my own pace until it was finished, and avoid getting into deadlines (which would be my downfall for sure!).

For what it's worth, I think both mod teams are up to their eyes anyway, and so the timing of my release is unlikely to be of use to either. But I suggest you start by making your own college fields with my TrueTurf template and go from there. The Heisman mod team may be happy to take any new fields that they haven't already got done, but please bear in mind that it may be too late for this year's release. Also, please don't go asking them to do it themselves as they've done more than enough as it is!! Finally, the FF/FI mod is .dat-based anyway.

4.2 Can I put this in .dat-form?
Of course; feel free to do whatever you wish with it. However, if that means re-sizing it to 1024x1024, then all I ask is that you don't use the name TrueTurf!! This turf is only “true” and really accurate when the dimensions 2513x2154 are used. Re-sizing it to 1024x1024 will make all the lines look blurry and less accurate, and therefore won't look as good as my original texture (see images below). It's still an improvement over Madden's default turf as location/placement is preserved though, so I'm guessing many people won't care about the trade-off. However, it's still “UnTrueTurf”.

I'd much rather you dat-guys could see if you could get it in .dat-form with the original dimensions preserved instead; I'd be so thrilled with that, and wouldn't care whether it's 8-bit or 24-bit!! For any other dimensions though, please don't use the “TrueTurf” tag, and that's my only real request! My reason is that TexMod is shown to be a real advantage here rather than a limitation; calling the 1024 version “True” implies that there's no benefit at all from using TexMod here. There is, and it's huge.

PRESS CTRL AND MINUS (-) TO ZOOM OUT TO SEE YELLOW LINES

TrueTurf v UnTrueTurf.gif (963.55 KiB) Viewed 2835 times

TrueTurf (at 2513x2154) v ''UnTrueTurf'' (resized to 1024x1024)


4.3 You make a big deal of your 2513x2154 dimensions; how did you choose those?
This project started life solely as a way to align the painted sidelines with where Madden sees "out-of-bounds". While Madden's grass isn't too bad, its turf is way off, and most noticeably on the right sideline (when facing an endzone). Baltimore's turf is by far the worst though, as the colored lines at the 20yd line actually go out over the white paint of the sideline, and yet are still deemed to be in-bounds! Check out this hideous screenshot of really lazy, sub-standard work by EA:

BAL sideline.gif (800.4 KiB) Viewed 2835 times

The pylons actually define what's out-of-bounds and what's in-bounds, and the location of the white paint has no effect.

Anyway, Madden's default turf is stored as a 1024x1024 texture, but is stretched out in-game to other dimensions (like many textures in Madden). When I investigated the dimensions of a real field, I found that the Madden field is actually based on real-life proportions, even though it doesn't look so! Since a real field is 160 feet wide (across the goalline) x 360 feet long, half a field would therefore be 160 ft x 180 ft. I measured the length and width of Madden's field markings in pixels, and determined that the whole texture would need to be re-sized to 1194x1024 to avoid any in-game stretching. I was then able to get the sidelines positioned more accurately by adjusting them slightly. I was happy with this for quite a while, until I wondered if it was possible to make all the other lines look correct too? Since Madden's turf lines are blurred and fuzzy, what would I need to do to make them sharp? I found that real-life lines are 24 inches long x 4 inches thick, so in order to look sharp in-game, they should be 6 times as long as they are wide. If I was to make those lines 12 pixels x 2 pixels then all the lines could be re-drawn, and would be solid white pixels. The whole field then needed to be re-sized to approx 1675x1436 and manually re-touched, but with mixed results. The lines did look sharp and proportionally-correct, but unfortunately the sidelines were now off in-game, and I found it impossible to get them lined up with the pylons perfectly with these dimensions. So I had no choice but to try with larger lines of 18 pixels x 3 pixels, and go with a larger field again. Hence 2513x2154.

The point to all of this is that I didn't just choose these dimensions randomly. There's bound to be some TexMod haters who say “Oh yeah, well if you re-size it to a million pixels or whatever for TexMod, then of course it's gonna look better!” The quality of the texture here has not been achieved just by making it bigger. These are actually the smallest dimensions possible that maintain the proportions of the field correctly, while using solid white pixels for all lines, while aligning the sidelines with out-of-bounds.

For anyone who's interested, in my TrueTurf, 1 yard = 27 pixels. Therefore, 1 foot = 9 pixels, and 4 inches = 3 pixels.

4.3.5 What are the visible differences between a "cleaned-up" .dat-based version and your original TrueTurf?
Read this post HERE for full details. Please bear in mind that if someone says "I can't tell any differences", it doesn't mean there aren't any! The only thing you can take from a statement like that is that the speaker is not a reliable source for comparisons!

4.4 What about that weird warping you mentioned earlier?
Man, you like your punishment! If you really want to see what's going on, here's a test field with a red grid superimposed. This test field has the field markings with everything laid out to official specs, so if you were to flip just the painted area, it would not appear to move. With the red grid on top, look carefully along the join at the 50-yard line starting at the far left. Notice the how the grid lines start wider apart, then get narrower until they meet at the left sideline, then start to get wider again until around midway, then get narrower again until they meet again at the right sideline, then start to get wider again beyond the right sideline. What's even weirder is that the stretching at the very left of the screen is always the same amount as the stretching at the very right of the screen, even though it's the exact same 2 parts of the field joining up!! For reference only; not much else to be gained from this!

TrueTurf GRID TEST.zip

(31.06 KiB) Downloaded 265 times

4.5 What's the deal with the name “TrueTurf”?
Well, the child in me always loved the idea of having a field with it's own brand name, like AstroTurf or FieldTurf. How cool would that be!! When I realized I could make this field to the exact dimensions of a real life field, I realized the importance of giving it a name. What I didn't want to see was someone re-sizing it to 1024x1024, sticking it in a .dat and then saying “here is pick6's TrueTurf in .dat-form”. Once it's re-sized down, it will no longer be accurate, and therefore ceases to be “TrueTurf” in my mind. Therefore, the name refers to the dimensions 2513x2154 more than anything. BTW, I always thought the brand name “FieldTurf” (without a space) looked stoopid and “FedExField” is even worse!! But now that I've made my own one, I get a real kick from the fact that it's called “TrueTurf” (without a space)!

4.6 Why do you always put your name in front of your stuff and refer to it as “pick6's Logo Mod” or “pick6's TrueTurf” or whatever?
I used to always sneer whenever I'd hear pop stars or football stars refer to themselves in the 3rd person and still find it ridiculous. Talk about big-headed! But I'm aware that it's starting to look like I'm doing it now myself, and I get a real good laugh from that! pick6 likes to put his name in front of his work so that hopefully his body of work can stand for itself. Please note that pick6 likes his name to begin with a lower-case “p”. Please note that pick6 is laughing his head off right now!!

4.7 Do you talk out loud when you're writing up all these questions?
Emmm.... is this a real question or is that just me talking? Not quite sure anymore...

[continued in next post...]

[pick6]

SECTION 5: Resources

Field dimensions:
NFL rule book: https://www.nfl.info/download/2012Media ... 20Book.pdf
NCAA rule book: http://www.ncaapublications.com/product ... s/FR14.pdf

Logo's:
AAC: http://theamerican.org/custompages/file ... 13_web.pdf
ACC: Couldn't find official “style guide” pdf that contained on-field logo (with letters touching). Made my own png instead that's not 100% perfect, but is pretty good for this usage.
BIG 12: http://naterohr.com/wp-content/uploads/ ... arwile.pdf
BIG TEN: http://ucomm.unl.edu/ucomm/ucomm/resour ... elines.pdf
PAC-12: http://compliance.pac-12.org/thetools/1213hbv1.pdf
SEC: Couldn't find official “style guide” pdf, and many inaccurate images on the web. Instead, made my own png that is very accurate and included.

C-USA: http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/c-u ... elines.pdf
MAC: http://www.mac-sports.com/Portals/20/MA ... 137415.pdf
MWC: http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/wyo ... -guide.pdf
SUN BELT: http://www.sunbeltsports.org/portals/0/ ... 0Guide.pdf

Please note the links are really for future reference only; templates are included in the .zip file.


And we're done! The first 6 posts are now fully finished. Thanks for listening!

[lionsfan]

Wow amazing work Pick6, I can't wait to check this out!

And great in-depth tutorial!

Hopefully I will get around to making a few missing field turfs for the Add-On with your templates before the release.

[Rixster67r]

Man........Those fields look really crisp.......excellent work

[Austinmario13]

Have you asked calhoupe to make a cheast engine for the college field? Is there a way we can make super bowl sidelines?

[Bagel]

Great work pick6!

Can someone with Paint.NET go in with this plugin and save it as a .PSD? I'm on a Mac and can't run Paint.NET. I would love to get my hands on these templates.