pick6's "college mod" (with Senior Bowl field)

[pick6]

Hey y'all,

This is the release thread for my updated "college mod", now with Senior Bowl field and teams. I'm very VERY happy with it!

Some quick screenshots first, and then an explanation.

full field.jpg (503.68 KiB) Viewed 2995 times

FG attempt.jpg (568.76 KiB) Viewed 2995 times

abraham.jpg (760.06 KiB) Viewed 2995 times

Ok, so this is a fully-playable Senior Bowl game, with 2 strong college teams, and LOTS of detail on the field! It looks and plays like a dream, and imo it's the best field and college game experience that I've ever released! This is kinda what I was hoping for with the original release of my "NCAA 17 (FieldBuilder)" mod a few years ago tbh. In fact, this is actually v4 of that mod, but since that name is such a mouthful, I'm going with a simpler name here.

That original mod had 10 college teams, but I never got the chance to finish some of the fields. So I removed Alabama and Florida State from that, and morphed those 2 teams into "American" and "National" respectively. Therefore, "American" and "National" now comprise of the 2017 BAMA and FLST players respectively, but I'm ok with that! It means both teams have a ton of talent, and are pretty evenly matched.

The other 8 teams remained unchanged from the previous release, and they are Baylor, Clemson, LSU, Michigan, Mississippi, Ohio State, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. You can find more info (and screenshots) on those teams in the v3 release thread HERE.

I'm just putting this Senior Bowl release out there in case anyone would like to see it, play on it, or re-use it. I won't be updating any player names, and have no plans to update any other part of this mod. This is just my base game that I play on at home all the time. Even tho the Senior Bowl uses the NFL hash marks in real-life, I still prefer to use Calhoupe's scripts to utilise the wider (NCAA) hash marks instead, as that is simply the best Madden PC experience for me.

Just to quickly mention that this mod (and Senior Bowl) uses my FieldBuilder framework underneath. I don't know what other folks have been using or developing lately cos I've been away from here for the last 5 years, but this enables 2 hi-def half-fields to be used in TexMod. I don't want to go into detail all over again here, but for more info, read my separate FieldBuilder framework thread.

If anyone wants to incorporate it into another mod, they are more than welcome, but I won't be able to help with that. All the info you'll need is posted on my other threads!

Finally, I'm gonna copy and paste the credits from the previous release again here:

THANKS TO:

• elguapo for creating the Madden NCAA framework,
• BelieverInTeal for permission to include .dat's from the Heisman 14 mod,
• RevanFan for permission to include the GAMEDATA.dat from the FF/FI XV mod,
• calhoupe for updating his NCAA Scripts and permission to include it,
• moonbax for assigning playbooks to NCAA coaches,
• 1312qohelet for permission to include his Updated Equipment & Gear .dat's, and also for tailoring individual players' likenesses and equipment,
• ycleped for updating player names and attributes (all teams), and ratings (2 of his teams included),
• Littleware for ratings (3 teams done so far),
• GeneralSilent for intro music help, feedback, and beta testing, and
• mee for out-of-the-box thinking and general help.
• Thanks also to TheRareButter for suggesting this field!

TO USE:
1) Download "pick6's college mod (Senior Bowl)" from HERE.
2) Unpack contents with 7-Zip and place the files in the relevant folders.
3) In TexMod, load "field Senior.tpf" first, and then "NCAA base.tpf" second (underneath it).

Spoiler:

"NCAA base.tpf" contains all hi-res logos, plus Senior helmets & jerseys, and ball, chains, net, digital numbers, etc.

4) Launch Madden from TexMod.
5) Load roster in-game.
6) N.B. On the stadium select screen, choose 1pm time and "CUSTOM" weather (i.e. sunny).
7) ALT-TAB out to start Calhoupe's NCAA scripts if you wish.
8) Play the game and have fun!

I will hang around for a few days to answer any questions, but then I'll be stepping back from this forum again. It's been fun for sure!

[pick6]

Download link in the first post is now working! Woo-hoo!

Please re-read that post fully, as there are some slight changes in the text.

[pick6]

I followed all the instructions but the field didn't load, instead I got this:

EA SPORTS(tm) Madden NFL 08 5_13_2023 8_44_01 PM.jpg (741.77 KiB) Viewed 2904 times

Where did I mess up?

Ok, that's a good start: that means you have the correct .dat placeholders in place, and the correct roster loaded too.

So all that's left is to load the two .tpf's in TexMod, and launch Madden from TexMod.

Let me know how you get on.

[pick6]

Hi,

I replied in the thread as this is a good question

That screenshot was with the tpfs loaded, is there some other project that the senior bowl is required to go alongside?

Hey, I think it's better if folks ask questions here (instead of by pm) so that others can read too.

But no, there is no other project that is required alongside it. You only need the placeholder .dat's, corresponding roster, and .tpf overlays that are included in my upload.

It looks like TexMod is not working correctly for you for some reason. I have to check that you're using TexMod correctly so forgive me if these seem a bit basic!

Have you used TexMod before?
Did you click on the "Run" button in TexMod?

If you still have issues, are you familiar with logging textures in TexMod? It's possible I suppose that your setup is using different memory addresses. If you log the textures, you could create a new TexMod .def file with new memory addresses.

For what it's worth, I'm using the "no cd" version of mainapp.exe

Can anyone else confirm that the .tpf's are working for them pls?

[pick6]

Looking at some of your older posts, it looks like you're familiar with TexMod already!

So, do you see either of these images?

splash screen.jpg (98.81 KiB) Viewed 2876 times

stadium select.jpg (116.55 KiB) Viewed 2876 times

The first one (splash screen) is part of the "NCAA base.tpf", while the second one (stadium select) is part of the "Field SENIOR.tpf"

Just curious if any of these images are working for you?

[TheRareButter]

Looking at some of your older posts, it looks like you're familiar with TexMod already!

So, do you see either of these images?

splash screen.jpg

stadium select.jpg

The first one (splash screen) is part of the "NCAA base.tpf", while the second one (stadium select) is part of the "Field SENIOR.tpf"

Just curious if any of these images are working for you?

Yep I see everything but the field itself. I'm experienced with texmod and followed all the steps. I'm running Texmod as an admin, hooked to no-cd mainapp, but the field just doesn't load.

[pick6]

Yep I see everything but the field itself. I'm experienced with texmod and followed all the steps.

Ok, I've deleted my advice and am gonna re-do differently.

Looking at your screenshot above, the goalpost padding, brick wall, and flag blankers are acc all missing too. However, you say that the Hancock Whitney image IS visible on the stadium select screen. All of those images are in the one "field Senior.tpf" file (the only difference is my stadium select image is in .dds form, while the others are in .png)

I'm wondering if the .tpf is somehow corrupt for you. First thing would be to try to load a different field from my college mod instead. All my tpf fields use the same memory addresses, so only load one field at at time.

So load "field OHST" and "NCAA base.tpf" for instance, and see if that works. Let me know here pls. I have other steps you could try after that too.

[pick6]

@TheRareButter, did you get it working? Seeing as you're the one who suggested this field, I'm kinda interested in knowing if you acc got to see it! No other interest here anyway. Fyi, I downloaded my own zip file and tested the .tpf in there and still no probs for me.

[pick6]

Ok I'm gonna go ahead and wrap this up now.

@TheRareButter: it's disappointing that you're not replying to my requests for more info. It's mainly disappointing seeing as you were the one who suggested I do this particular field, but it's also disappointing seeing as I've noticed you've been logged in here 3 times over the last week, incl about an hour ago.

For everyone else, I downloaded my upload and tested it thoroughly, and it works just fine. Or to put it another way, if you ever tried out the previous version of this which was called "NCAA 17 (FieldBuilder)", then you won't have any probs running the Senior Bowl field. If you do ever run into issues like TheRareButter, I suggest you re-log the images in TexMod and use whatever memory addresses you get (I'm assuming they are different for TRB).


And that's all folks! Kinda an anti-climatic ending for me, but I finally got to 1000 posts and found I was surprisingly chuffed I was now "Hall of Fame" level! On the one hand, it's a sort of validation for the stuff I've uploaded here over the years, but it's also a sort of validation for what I achieved in the real-world (i.e. the "life skills" I learnt from modding). That's not supposed to sound big-headed or anything; I just mean that I worked my butt off for others in extremely challenging (and even dangerous) circumstances, and I am only now starting to see my own self-worth.

No hard feelings or anything tho. I fully realise that this is a 16-yr old game and I knew there wasn't likely to be much interest in the Senior Bowl field anyway. I wish everyone all the best.

Peace and love and stuff

THIS

[achernar]

What a beautiful work, congrats...