INSTEAD OF RE-WRITING ALL OF THIS, I'VE INCLUDED DETAILED V5 RELEASE NOTES HERE. IF YOU'RE NEW TO ALL OF THIS, PLEASE READ THIS FIRST POST FULLY BEFORE CONTINUING TO READ ABOUT ABOUT V5.
For v5 screenshots, check out the first post of my NCAA 17 (FieldBuilder) thread.
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OK, please note this is a NOT a playable mod as such, but a "framework" for CREATING high-quality stuff.
It ties-in my "wide hash" (2ft hash) work with my TrueTurf, midfield and goalpost templates, and adds multiple possibilities and combinations. Although it does require use of Dat File Replacer, Madden DB Editor, and TexMod, it has been designed to be as easy to use as possible! Personally, I feel it is my best upload yet, simply due to the possibilities it creates.
To put it simply, this is a .dat-based framework for .tpf-based graphics.
Why .dat-based framework? Because certain things must be altered in the .dats before the highest quality possible can be utilized.
Why .tpf-based graphics? Because there are many limitations with .dat-based graphics, which make them more complicated to create well, yet still give lower-quality results.
In this FieldBuilder, I use the .dat-based components solely as "placeholders", to be overlayed with higher-quality .tpf versions. Therefore, it does not matter in the least how these .dat-based components look, but I have made them visually descriptive to make the whole thing easier to use.
To use this, you just replace your FIELDART.dat with mine, then make 4 simple changes in your roster, and build your .tpf as usual. That final .tpf can contain textures created with my TrueTurf v5 field template, as well as my "Better Midfields" and "Better Goalposts" templates.
Your newly-created .tpf will then feature the following:
- a field with accurate 2ft hash lines for both NFL & NCAA (no ghost lines), with no in-game stretching or goal-line warping. It does not need any pre-squashing or compensation of any sort to look the same in-game as it does when you make it. No other method gives a field as realistic or accurate as this!
- The midfield logo can be made using one of 7 different size types, including that used by the CIN leaping tiger in my "Better Midfields" template. Also included are square-shaped 40yd to 40yd lines (SF) , rectangular 35yd to 35yd lines (East Carolina Pirates), massive sideline to sideline / 25yd to 25yd lines (TAMC Lions), and the whole field (for baseball markings).
- Endzone1 needs to always be painted directly onto the field texture, giving real-life proportions without any stretching or pre-squashing. Endzone2 (if present) will mirror these real-life dimensions, and two variations of placeholder have been included (for beginners or advanced).
- If endzone2 is NOT present, that slot can be used for correctly-placed and higher-quality 25yd logos instead. Four variations of 25yd NFL shield placement are included, plus eight variations of NCAA conference logo placement.
WHAT ALL THIS MEANS IS: just about any combination of NFL or NCAA field you can think of! But if it's not there, it can be easily added to, or built-upon, and I strongly encourage folks to do so!
It is also compatible with the FF and Heisman mods, allowing you to make your own changes to individual stadiums while still running the rest of the mod as usual. See end of this post.
To explain it all fully, I need to start off slow. So to begin with, here are some screenshots plus descriptions:
- SEA overhead.jpg (441.56 KiB) Viewed 2046 times
- Clemson overhead.jpg (468.63 KiB) Viewed 2046 times
(Uniforms, crowd, and wall wrap from the Heisman mod. Everything on the field of play is my own.)
- LSU v4.jpg (219.8 KiB) Viewed 2046 times
EDIT: THIS IS NOW POSSIBLE IN v5!
(Jump to this later post HERE for more info, or see my NCAA 17 FieldBuilder thread for multiple screenshots, including the now FULLY CORRECT LSU field using the newer FieldBuilder v5!)
The key to all of this is where the .dat-based components are stored, but it's not necessary to understand HOW it works to just use it. See HERE for more detailed explanation. However, it is CRUCIAL that the changes are made in your roster to reflect this, or it will not work correctly.
Before I get too technical, I'd like to give an example of what the 4 roster changes would look like, and after that explain them more fully.
- TEZ1 must be set to 84. Always! This points to my field texture placeholder.
- TEZ2 must be set to 0. ALWAYS! Or else the field texture will appear warped. See HERE for more info.
- TMFL should be set to 101-107 for any of the seven different midfield sizes. 101 is the smallest, 107 is the largest.
- ST35 can be set to 0 for blank.
It can be set to 1 or 2 for endzone2 (i.e. two variations of endzone2).
It can be set to 3-6 for variations of NFL shield placement.
It can be set to 7-14 for variations of NCAA conference logo placement.
STOP! YOU'RE CONFUSING ME!! WHAT VALUES SHOULD I SET FOR TMFL AND ST35?
Start off by setting TMFL to 103 and then you can use my "Better Midfields" template.
Set ST35 to 0 (blank), and you can come back to that later. Or if you need to use endzone2, set ST35 to 1. Forget about everything else for now!
OK, so going back to the screenshot examples above,
Seahawks would need:
TEZ1=84
TEZ2=0
TMFL=102
ST35=0
Not too complicated, eh?
Clemson would be:
TEZ1=84
TEZ2=0
TMFL=103
ST35=8 (or 7 if you want to invert the stadium layout as in the Heisman mod)
LSU would be:
TEZ1=84
TEZ2=0
TMFL=103
ST35=1 (or 2 if you want a smoother join around the endzone)
OK, still not too complicated! Hopefully you've noticed that the first 2 parts never EVER change, the third part (midfield) won't change too often, and it's really only the 4th part that changes regularly.
HERE'S THE FULL BREAKDOWN OF WHAT VALUE GIVES WHAT EFFECT:
TMFL
101 - Madden's default midfield size is too small, and doesn't touch the 45 yd lines. This is a slightly larger "small" size, extending just past 45 yd lines. Greater accuracy for many small midfields.
102 - 43 yd line to 43 yd line.
103 - size of CIN leaping tiger as used in my "Better Midfields" template. Perfect for most NFL & NCAA teams.
104 - 40yd line to 40 yd line (SF)
105 - 35yd line to 35 yd line. Ideal for East Carolina Pirates. Rectangular (dimensions should be 2:1)
106 - Sideline to sideline, & beyond the 25yd lines (Texas A&M Commerce Lions). MASSIVE!
107 - Extends 10yds past sidelines, and 13yds past endlines, covering whole field. Ideal for baseball markings. Dimensions should be 2:1
N.B. Sizes 105 & 107 are rectangular-shaped, and so those widths should be twice their heights. The others are all square-shaped.
ST35
0 - blank. use when neither endzone2 or 25yd logo are present.
1 - endzone2 type1 (basic)
2 - endzone2 type2 (advanced)
3 - NFL 5 L
4 - NFL 5 R
5 - NFL 6 L
6 - NFL 6 R
7 - NCAA 25 LR
8 - NCAA 25 RL
9 - NCAA 25 LL
10 - NCAA 25 RR
11 - NCAA 20 LR
12 - NCAA 20 RL
13 - NCAA 20 LL
14 - NCAA 20 RR
STOP!! WHAT DO ALL THOSE NFL/NCAA NUMBERS AND LETTERS MEAN?
First of all, it's important to understand that for this project I refer to the 25yd logos as if STANDING IN THE ENDZONE LOOKING UPFIELD. [Strictly speaking, this is not how the TMdl data refers to the logos, as that describes their placement as if facing into the endzone. For this project though, it makes more sense to me to describe the logo placement from the SAME orientation of the field texture.]
So, the first letter refers to the logo NEAREST to you (on this side of midfield), and the second letter refers to the logo furthest from you (on the far side of midfield).
LR therefore means a logo placement near to you on the left, as well as far from you on the right. On the other hand, RL means "near right & far left". LL means both are on the left side etc.
The numbers refer to yard placement. For NCAA, they refer to the yard line on which the logo is placed. While most college teams place the logo on the 25yd line, some are placed on the 20yd line instead (UCF), so I've included those placements too.
For NFL, the number refers to yards in from the sideline. I've found that NFL teams don't place the NFL shield in the same location: some are 5yds from the sideline (centered between the sideline and yard numbers), and some are 6yds in. The most common though appears to be 5 R (ST35=4) [There doesn't seem to be any consistency here; I've found turf and grass teams that use both placements, as well as those that share fields with college teams and those that don't. It's REALLY not important though; I've just included these variations 'cos it was easy to do, and just in case I discover a pattern in the future!]
HOW TO GET STARTED:
1) If you've got any mods installed (such as FF or Heisman), I recommend you temporarily move all files to another folder. You can merge them later once you've got the hang of this!
2) Thererfore, move all loose files from your "Documents\Madden NFL 08" folder to a new folder, leaving only madden.ini and MATCHUP.DATE where they are.
3) Download this: pick6's FieldBuilder v5.zip
LONG-TIME USERS: PLEASE ALSO READ VERY IMPORTANT NOTES REGARDING v5 HERE
4) Place my FIELDART.dat in your "Documents\Madden NFL 08" folder.
5) Place my "demo roster" in your "Rosters" folder.
6) Run Madden (without TexMod), and load that roster.
7) Explore the .dat-based placeholders which will help visually explain what's going on.
The first 14 teams (Bears-49ers) have ST35 set from 1-14.
Select Bears as home team and go into preview mode to view field. View endzone2 type1 (black).
Return to main menu (important!), and re-select Bengals as home team. View endzone2 type2 (blue).
Repeat for other teams to see NFL shield and NCAA logo placement variations.
Also notice different size of midfield area. The first 6 teams have TMFL set from 101-106. The Dolphins, 49ers, and Raiders have TMFL set to 107 (for baseball markings).
Refer to the included .xls spreadsheets that highlight the altered values.
HOW TO USE MY CLEMSON & LSU TPF'S:
This is really for advanced users. You'll need to follow the instructions further down under COMPATIBILITY WITH FF AND HEISMAN MODS.
READY TO MAKE YOUR OWN ROSTER CHANGES?
1) Open your roster in Madden DB Editor, and export the TEAM and STAD tables as .csv files.
2) Open those in Excel (or if you don't have that, download the free OpenOffice, and use the included "Calc" spreadsheet instead).
3) In the TEAM table, set TEZ1 to 84 always (which will contain the field texture). Set TEZ2 to 0 always (or warping will occur).
4) Set the TMFL value (column AK) to 101-107 for the seven different midfield sizes included.
5) I recommend highlighting your changes in color so you don't get lost, and saving as an .xls first to preserve that color info. THEN save that as a .csv file.
6) In the STAD table, the ST35 value (column S) will point to either endzone2 OR the 25yd logo. First, set ALL OTHER teams to 0 to have no 25yd logo, or set to 4 to give the most common placement of NFL shield. Then set YOUR team to a value from 0 to 14 for desired effect. Save as .xls to preserve color-changes, then save as .csv
7) Import these two .csv files back into your roster, and save under a new name.
8) Load that roster in Madden (without TexMod) and check that the desired placeholders are correct.
FINALLY, MAKE YOUR OWN TPF!
The beauty of using placeholders is that the TexMod memory addresses don't change much! In fact, there are only 6 in total:
0x5D8F4982 - field (all variations: grass/turf, NFL/NCAA)
0x4AE4AE75 - midfield (all 7 sizes)
0x21C60892 - endzone2 type1 (basic)
0xB048F46E - endzone2 type2 (advanced)
0x43B1D00E - nfl shield (all 4 placements)
0x90AF1482 - ncaa conference (all 12 placements)
The first two (field and midfield) never change, regardless of the size of midfield area. You only ever need one address at a time from the last group, and those addresses never change either (regardless of logo placement).
If you want to add your own goal-post padding, then log that address as usual (they will differ for each team).
EDIT: Alternatively, set all team's TGPT value to 0 (col BG), and then you only need to use one memory address: 0xFDC0F333
I've included a "useful textures" folder that contains some stuff you can use to start off with, including my chains, down marker, gatorade, net, coin toss (footballidiot.com), and some blankers for removing the fan flags (optional). It also contains a .def file with the above memory addresses, but remember to alter the lines of the .def file so they actually point to your OWN files, such as "my raiders midfield.png", and don't forget the file extension (the .png part).
IMPORTANT TIPS ABOUT TEXTURE DIMENSIONS:
MIDFIELDS:
For the larger midfield sizes, you will need to experiment with different dimensions. For midfield size 105 (ECU), it would need to be 768x384 to retain the same amount of detail (256 pixels per 10 yards). I haven't tried anything with sizes 106 and 107 yet, but I'd probably start off with 1024x1024. Don't be afraid to try larger sizes and see what happens. Don't forget that my TrueTurf is 2513x2154 but I haven't broken anything yet!
Also bear in mind that TexMod will accept unusual dimensions just fine, so if your massive "sideline-to-sideline" midfield is 986x986 or 1057x1057, then just use that and be happy! ENDZONES:
I'm gonna start with the separate endzone2 texture first: this follows the EXACT proportions of a real-life endzone, and ideally should be created 1440x264. However, the painted-on endzone1 area on the field texture is 1 pixel off both horizontally and vertically (1441x263). I think this is due to the way TexMod displays textures, but it's not worth getting into further. For convenience sake, I recommend just using 1441x263 for ALL your endzones, and you can save it exactly as-is for separate endzone2, or paste it directly onto the field for endzone1.
[For a better endzone2 join line, read the info on the endzone2 type2 placeholder in-game (the blue endzone). If you don't understand it, just stick to endzone2 type1 (the black endzone).]
NFL LOGO:
Option 1: Simplest way is to just use my NFL shield placeholder (64x64) AS-IS and forget about the overlay;
Option 2: Use an overlay if you want to add fading or yard line effects, or get more detail in (such as 128x128).
NCAA LOGO: (IMPORTANT!)
This uses a square-shaped placeholder (64x64) that is stretched in-game to cover a rectangular (and much larger) area of 10.111yd x 8.5yd. Therefore, you should make your logo 256x215 so that it will look correct and un-stretched in-game.
COMPATIBILITY WITH FF AND HEISMAN MODS:
If you want to use along with the FF or Heisman mods, you will need to make a couple of extra tweaks.
Some background info for ADVANCED users:
Spoiler:
To use along with the Heisman mod, just use my FIELDART.dat as-is, but you will need to make a couple of extra tweaks in your roster:
- First, you must set the TTYP value (column AX) to 7. This changes the "team type" from CustomArt-based (5) to .dat-based (Europe).
- You also need to change the TLGL value ("team logo", column AL) to point to a .dat-based logo. This means a team logo needs to be created and inserted into the UIS_LIB_TEAM_LOGOS.dat. I used elguapo's eXpanded .dat for this (which gives many more slots to use), and have included it with placholders for CLEM & LSU already inserted. Set the TLGL to 325 and 326 respectively. I also included a spreadsheet that shows where all the NCAA teams would go when ordered alphabetically. Most are grayed out, meaning I have not filled those slots, but two are highlighted in yellow, which shows the 2 teams I have made basic main logo placeholders for (and included). That spreadsheet shows what TLGL value and corresponding .dat files should be used. I used rezland's template and elguapo's .dds CustomArt method to insert them, and I made them twice as big at 256x256.
- Also, check the CTHT field (column BF). This refers to CustomArt helmet: if it's at 1, it needs to be set to 0, and a new helmet will need to be created in .tpf form.
- Finally, load either my CLEM or LSU .tpf first in TexMod (at the top of the list), and then the usual Heisman .tpf's below it, INCLUDING the Heisman CLEM or LSU stadium tpf. My tpf just makes changes to everything on the field of play, so the Heisman CLEM/LSU stadium tpf is also needed for everything else!
Also, please remember that these steps are for your own personal use only: if you wish to upload any modified versions of anything from either mod, you will need to seek permission first. I am not involved with either mod and so have no input there. Don't forget to download calhoupe's awesome NCAA scripts from HERE so that you can make full use of the wider hash marks!
To use along with any other custom-created team, follow the same steps as for the Heisman mod.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Regarding the larger midfield sizes, there may be some limitations with the outer-edge pixels but (1) there is enough info here for folks to tweak it further themselves, and (2) I simply want to move on to other things. I did however finish out my CenturyLink Field (with lots of little extras!), and have uploaded that HERE as a demo.
I should point out though that I HAVE NO INTENTION TO MAKE THIS FULLY .DAT-BASED, as that would totally defeat the purpose of this project!
As ever though, you are welcome to re-use and re-upload anything that I have created myself, including any aspect of this, in part or in whole, in whatever format you like.As I've said before, I could not have put this together without the shared knowledge of many others on this forum, including elguapo, slydways, StingRay68, the Heisman mod team, isten, and calhoupe, as well as the skills of the programmers who created all those awesome editors. And building on all of that combined knowledge is the most fulfilling part for me, as to me it really feels like a group collaboration. Thanks guys!
I understand your concern that you might mess something up, but if we all felt like that, none of us would have ever achieved ANYTHING here!
Since I started on here, I've always tried to do the best that I could possibly do. Doesn't matter if it would only turn out average: if that was the BEST that I could possibly do, then I'd be happy with it. But what I found was that not only did I start to achieve those goals, but I actually started to SURPASS them. And then started to surpass them REGULARLY.
The rest is up to you...
