NCAA 06/08 ANIMDATA.DAT File Comparison

[octobump]

I tried to open the files in 7zip including renaming them but they are basically all corrupted from the start.

Edit: never mind thank you for explaining.

[Harry97]

I tried to open the files in 7zip including renaming them but they are basically all corrupted from the start.

They're not corrupted. I just downloaded the first file from the post and tested it myself. After you download them, delete the 2nd .7z at the end. So they're just .7z.001 and .7z.002. Then with 7zip installed, you just right click on the .001 file and open archive in 7zip, then extract. Alternatively you can use a program called HJSplit to join the .001 and .002 files separately into a single .7z. If you're still having trouble opening / extracting them, I can upload them in full to somewhere else, but you shouldn't have any trouble extracting these.

[octobump]

Unfortunately, there is no way to fix the pursuit angle glitch in the game the first file is basically the same issues and the second and third files creates a limemen glitch where the offensive linemen face the wrong way before the snap. We tried though.

[Harry97]

Unfortunately, there is no way to fix the pursuit angle glitch in the game the first file is basically the same issues and the second and third files creates a limemen glitch where the offensive linemen face the wrong way before the snap. We tried though.

So you did get them to extract correctly.

Don't give up so quickly my friend. It's definitely possible to fix the pursuit angles glitch in NCAA 08. Figuring out exactly how to do it is the challenge. There are several ways in which this can be addressed. For example, another way to correct the pursuit angles problem in 08 is to take the roster file into Excel and mass edit player ratings, i.e. adjusting players speed, acceleration, awareness across the board until the pursuit angles problem is no longer an issue. The pursuit angles issue in NCAA 08 is due to a conflux of factors. I have every reason to believe that it is related to changes in the animations file. Not necessarily due to changes between NCAA 07's and NCAA 08's ANIMDATA.DAT, it also could be due to changes between NCAA 06's ANIMDATA.DAT and NCAA 07/08's ANIMDATA.DAT.

Just because those 3 files I prepared for you didn't fix the pursuit angles glitch doesn't mean it can't be done. Now, based on what you said, it sounds like the O-lineman facing the wrong way glitch was due to replacing either file 2 or file 4. That's very interesting.

I'll see if I can prepare some additional versions for you to test, but in the meantime I suggest you test the first file's gameplay thoroughly. If that first file isn't showing any noticeable glitches, then that's very encouraging!! It may not seem like there's many changes, but there probably are if you look closer. Pay attention to the speed of your movement of defenders. Do things like spin moves or jukes in-game and see if you notice a change in the speed and physics of those moves. Let me know if you see any difference to the speed of spin moves for example, or WR catching animations, or QB throwing animations, for example. I know these may seem unrelated to you wanting to correct the pursuit angles glitch, but it's important so I know what updates inside ANIMDATA.DAT occurred between NCAA 07 and 08.

Remember, you still haven't tested NCAA 06's ANIMDATA.DAT in NCAA 08. I noticed a change (slower defenders) in the pursuit of defenders attacking ball carriers when I used NCAA 08's ANIMDATA.DAT in NCAA 06, so I bet if I put togetehr a modded NCAA 06 ANIMDATA.DAT for NCAA 08, you would see a dramatic improvement. Just because you didn't see that in NCAA 08 with NCAA 07's ANIMDATA.DAT files doesn't mean you wouldn't with NCAA 06's. Because I would expect that NCAA 07 and NCAA 08 are probably a lot more similar than NCAA 06's. It's unclear exactly what caused the pursuit angles issue in NCAA 08. For all we know it could have been the addition of file 3 itself!! And if that's the case, then we could put NCAA 09 PS2's file 3 into NCAA 08's ANIMDATA.DAT, because the pursuit angles problem seemed to be addressed and corrected in NCAA 09 PS2. Maybe we could use files from NCAA 09 PS2's ANIMDATA.DAT to correct the issue in NCAA 08. There's all kinds of things we can try.

[octobump]

Will do. Anymore files on the way just let me know.

[Jozur]

im gonna download 08 tonight to test these animdata.dat files, but i encourage both of you guys to join the ncaa next discord, this will make great discussion over there and im sure more people in there are willing to test these files as well!

[Harry97]

im gonna download 08 tonight to test these animdata.dat files, but i encourage both of you guys to join the ncaa next discord, this will make great discussion over there and im sure more people in there are willing to test these files as well!

I'm glad you and others are looking into this and testing these files. Here's what I would suggest:

Test onlyfile3added.7z in-game and see if you notice any difference in gameplay. The other 2 files have a linemen glitch where the offensive linemen face the wrong way before the snap. This is apparently due to files 2 and 4 being added from NCAA 07's file.

You could try this : open "file3added+files2_4_7_and_8replaced" in Dat File Replacer (5.0.0). Export files 7 and 8.

Then open "onlyfile3added" in Dat File Replacer (5.0.0) import the files 7 and 8 that you exported from "file3added+files2_4_7_and_8replaced" into it. Then test that in 08. That combination of files should get around the linemen glitch and will possibly allow you to see more changes to the gameplay. Also if you can pinpoint which file causes the lineman glitch (file 2 or 4) then you can add the other one (the one that doesn't cause the lineman glitch) to it as well.

Another thing you can try is adding files from NCAA 06's ANIMDATA.DAT to it and testing that. The files I shared were from NCAA 07's ANIMDATA added into NCAA 08's ANIMDATA. You may see more changes in-game (i.e. pursuit angles improved) by using these files from NCAA 06's ANIMDATA.DAT instead of NCAA 07's. If you go into NCAA 06's ANIMDATA to find the equivalent files, all the files within the NCAA 06's ANIMDATA.DAT may not perfectly match NCAA 08's ANIMDATA.DAT inside Dat File Replacer 5.0.0, but you should be able to tell which files are which by looking at the file size and the first 15 bytes column if you compare the two ANIMDATA.DATs so you know which to export / import into NCAA 08's ANIMDATA.DAT then test that in NCAA 08. If you see any changes to the pursuit angles through this method please let us know!

[Harry97]

Note to anyone testing this trying to use NCAA 06's or NCAA 07's ANIMDATA.DAT files to try and fix the pursuit angles issue in NCAA 08.

The files I shared contained all the files in NCAA 07's ANIMDATA.DAT except file 3 because it caused a crash without file 3 from NCAA 08 ANIMDATA.DAT. My file by file comparison in the first post was between NCAA 06's and NCAA 08's ANIMDATA.DAT. But then I reworked NCAA 07's ANIMDATA.DAT to make it work in NCAA 08. I haven't gotten much feedback on this file, but you should notice some gameplay differences from the default NCAA 08 ANIMDATA.DAT. To those testing this file, let me know what changed, if you see any different (better) animations. Test random things like spins, jukes, laterals, QB throwing animations, etc.

If you are not seeing an improvement to the pursuit angles problem in NCAA 08 with the file I shared (which is essentially NCAA 07's ANIMDATA.DAT for use in NCAA 08) then the next step would probably be to do the same thing I did with NCAA 07's ANIMDATA.DAT with NCAA 06's : To rework NCAA 06's ANIMDATA.DAT to be compatible with NCAA 08.

There are some additional files that were in NCAA 08's ANIMDATA.DAT that weren't in NCAA 06's, so the easiest way to do it would be to use DFR 3 to add those NCAA 08 ANIMDATA.DAT files to the NCAA 06 ANIMDATA.DAT in the correct slot, and then keep in mind that file 3 from the NCAA 06 ANIMDATA.DAT would probably crash NCAA 08 (as it did with NCAA 07's). Then after using DFR 3 and saving, then you open it back up with DFR 5.0.0 and save it in 5.0.0 or else it will crash. (this is a crucial step, don't forget, if you try this, if you just save in DFR 3 it will crash) So that's something else I could do if needed, but I'm more focused on testing gameplay in NCAA 06 with NCAA 08's ANIMDATA.DAT files, rather than the opposite which is what you're trying to do, which is to use NCAA 06/07s ANIMDATA.DAT files to fix the pursuit angles glitch in 08.

So I'm glad to help in any way I can, but if you guys are testing NCAA 06/07s ANIMDATA.DAT files in NCAA 08, if you notice any changes from your tests, let me know. The pursuit angles animation remedy may be subtle and not the drastic change you'd expect. And another thing, and this is very important. It is my understanding that the pursuit angles issue in NCAA 08 may have more to do with certain plays in certain defensive formations.

So the ANIMDATA.DAT files from NCAA 06/07s could improve the issue somewhat, but another thing you may want to try is to replace the "defensive playbook" files as well. See, in NCAA 07 and 08, in GAMEDATA.DAT, they added specific defensive playbooks. (whereas in NCAA 06 there was only 1, the standard defensive playbook) in NCAA 07 and 08, they added specific "base" defensive playbooks, like "Balanced, 3-3-5, 4-2-5, etc". Each of these defensive playbooks are located "after" all the offensive playbooks within GAMEDATA.DAT. (whereas the "one" standard defensive playbook that every team uses in NCAA 06 is located "before" all the offensive playbooks)

It's possible that the pursuit angles issues from NCAA 08 could be solved by simply putting in GAMEDATA.DAT files from NCAA 07 into the GAMEDATA.DAT from NCAA 08 replacing some of those files. Either the stock playbooks, or the individual defensive plays, some of which probably got updates in NCAA 08 that would have caused the pursuit angles problems. It's possible that they changed the defensive schemes in NCAA 08 on some of the plays that causes the pursuit angles issues. It may only be "some" of the plays in "some" of the defensive formations that have the pursuit angle problems in NCAA 08.

So while you may see some improvements to the pursuit angles problem by using NCAA 06/07s ANIMDATA.DAT files in NCAA 08, you also may want to look at GAMEDATA.DAT and try using some NCAA 07's GAMEDATA.DAT files in NCAA 08. I doubt just putting in the full NCAA 07 GAMEDATA.DAT into NCAA 08 would work (maybe it would, you could try that first) but if that crashes, you could go into it and swap the base defensive playbooks, or swap the full list of plays, assignments, etc, or some combination of files into NCAA 08 and you may be able to get rid of the pursuit angle problems that way.

[Jozur]

Sorry for the late reply, heres some feedback on the files:
I found out that file 2 from ncaa 08 animdata causes the oline glitch.

In a small sample size (messing around in practice mode and 2 exhibition games on 5 min heisman default sliders) the only differences I noticed so far between 07 animdata in 08 vs the regular 08 animdata was that using qb avoidance would freeze your qb entirely until another player made contact with the qb, and occasionally using the cut juke (bumper juke) would sometimes give you a hop juke (right stick juke). In practice mode I did all the moves multiple times in both versions and really couldn't tell a difference between the moves (other than the cut juke thing I mentioned). Laterals also seemed the same, did not look too deep into throwing animations but they felt the same. As for the pursuit angles those felt the exact same as the original version, which makes me wonder if something else is causing the pursuit glitch (like the ratings/gamedata stuff you mentioned). I am excited to try out both the 06 and gamedata swaps, and I will surely try to get back to you with a response about those soon.

Also, have you or anyone else here experimented with UI dat swaps? A few months ago I was fooling around with the dat files in 06 and was able to get 07 menu into 06, I can't remember which UI dats I swapped though. Obviously the menu was very buggy and not very functional, these were also straight up copy and paste swaps, not the thing we are doing currently where we replace certain files inside the dat with DFR which is probably why it was barely functional. I do remember I was able to make it into the practice mode and the coin toss menu had appeared and I couldnt make it past that lol. Ill try to recreate this and document it the next time.

[Harry97]

Sorry for the late reply, heres some feedback on the files:
I found out that file 2 from ncaa 08 animdata causes the oline glitch.

In a small sample size (messing around in practice mode and 2 exhibition games on 5 min heisman default sliders) the only differences I noticed so far between 07 animdata in 08 vs the regular 08 animdata was that using qb avoidance would freeze your qb entirely until another player made contact with the qb, and occasionally using the cut juke (bumper juke) would sometimes give you a hop juke (right stick juke). In practice mode I did all the moves multiple times in both versions and really couldn't tell a difference between the moves (other than the cut juke thing I mentioned). Laterals also seemed the same, did not look too deep into throwing animations but they felt the same. As for the pursuit angles those felt the exact same as the original version, which makes me wonder if something else is causing the pursuit glitch (like the ratings/gamedata stuff you mentioned). I am excited to try out both the 06 and gamedata swaps, and I will surely try to get back to you with a response about those soon.

Good feedback. That would make sense that QB avoidance wouldn't work, as that was added in NCAA 08. If that's the case, then receiver direct, the other R-stick feature added for NCAA 08, may not work either.

I would expect to see more changes if you use the 06 ANIMDATA.DAT in 08. I know I saw a lot of changes to NCAA 06 with the 08 ANIMDATA.DAT in there, so I'd expect that the reverse is true as well. 07 and 08's ANIMDATA.DAT are probably very similar compared to 06 which would make sense.

Definitely try getting the NCAA 07 GAMEDATA.DAT into NCAA 08. NCAA 06's GAMEDATA.DAT I think would be too incompatible with NCAA 07 or 08, but NCAA 07's GAMEDATA.DAT could solve the pursuit angles problem in NCAA 08. They probably updated some of the defensive play assignments in the Master file (File 5 IIRC) for NCAA 08 which caused the pursuit angles problem. Try putting the 07 master file into 08, if that crashes it then you may need to go into the master file and perhaps swap some rows of the problematic defensive plays.

Also, have you or anyone else here experimented with UI dat swaps? A few months ago I was fooling around with the dat files in 06 and was able to get 07 menu into 06, I can't remember which UI dats I swapped though. Obviously the menu was very buggy and not very functional, these were also straight up copy and paste swaps, not the thing we are doing currently where we replace certain files inside the dat with DFR which is probably why it was barely functional. I do remember I was able to make it into the practice mode and the coin toss menu had appeared and I couldnt make it past that lol. Ill try to recreate this and document it the next time.

That's interesting lol. If you can document that further and/or get anything functional that'd be interesting. If you can swap in certain 07 menus to 06, even if not functional, at least then we'll know what file does what in-game which would be useful. Maybe if we know what file is what, we can edit the file externally and make changes to the menus without causing it to not be functional.