We're all making uniforms/caps/logos, right? Let's make a database.

[CHCfan]

Let's say you want to create a league but fear setting everything up -- team names, logos, and so on -- it can take forever, potentially killing your enthusiasm for getting the league actually started.

What if there was a website where you could pick and choose from a large selection of jersey/cap/main logos, complete with colors chosen and graphics completed. Simply find the ones you want to quickly populate your league -- all the way down to the minors if the collection grows enough -- with fully decked-out uniforms and logos.

(I, myself, have neither a website or webspace to coordinate this; jsut throwing the idea out there. It would be so easy for anyone, not just expert modders, to continually be adding on. I myself have probably 15ish fictional/inspired team sets ready.)

Please, let's get some feedback here. I don't mean to brag, but I'm really excited by the possibilities here. I'll post some more ideas, as I think of them . . .

[stellar]

It sounds like a good idea, but won't the jerseys be an issue? I thought that when you save a league, it can't remember the jersey type, meaning that if a team has pinstripes, you have to manually fix the jerseys to correct them.

Maybe that was just Icy's file?

[PadresFan]

CHCfan - I think you might be on to something here. There are a number of approaches one could take, and each has their pluses and minuses...

1. Photobucket Approach. Someone could set up a photobucket space much like users like Cephasjames have done where you have the three main files for each team. (Jersey, cap, main logo). How do you capture colors though?

2a. Website Approach - A website like mine could have a seperate page with single links for each team submitted. This link will download a .zip file including all of the necessary files for that team. Same question about the colors... At any rate, I don't like this approach as it would be too many individual links to manage, which takes me to 2b..

2b. Website Approach - A website like mine could maintain a single .zip archive containing folders for each team submitted by users...

If we can come up with an easy to manage system, I'm game for hosting...

Al

[Luis_Rivera]

As a person who would be interested in getting logos easier, I like the photobucket approach.

My suggestion is get like 3-5 of you to volunteer to be "admins" for a photobucket account where all 3 of you would have access to the username/password. Being an "admin" would only require that you guys collect the files from people via email or whatever method is easiest for you and post them on the photobucket site. Then you could just link to the photobucket site in your sig.

[CHCfan]

Originally Posted by PadresFan

CHCfan - I think you might be on to something here. There are a number of approaches one could take, and each has their pluses and minuses...

1. Photobucket Approach. Someone could set up a photobucket space much like users like Cephasjames have done where you have the three main files for each team. (Jersey, cap, main logo). How do you capture colors though?

2a. Website Approach - A website like mine could have a seperate page with single links for each team submitted. This link will download a .zip file including all of the necessary files for that team. Same question about the colors... At any rate, I don't like this approach as it would be too many individual links to manage, which takes me to 2b..

2b. Website Approach - A website like mine could maintain a single .zip archive containing folders for each team submitted by users...

If we can come up with an easy to manage system, I'm game for hosting...

Al

Those are all good ideas, PadresFan. With Photobucket, I believe, it automatically shows previews of all the files, which would be a plus, but it may be a bit hard to navigate, especially since 3 files are required per team.

I think the previews are the most important thing to have in the collection, with the organizaton of everything a close second. Ideally, I think each submission would include a .zip of the three files, and a jpeg preview.


Stellar - that's a good point. I'd love to see a patch fix this, i.e. the files could be changed to be named:

jerseys_logo_teamname_nickname_color1_color1_color 3_jerseytype.png

Otherwise, it may just be a inconvenience needed to be put up with.

[jdettbarn]

How about a Flickr group?

They've got an easy bulk upload tool, tagging, group-only search and free accounts can upload 100MB per month. Not sure about downloading bandwidth, but I'm sure we won't overwhelm Yahoo.

I created a group here, if you want to test it out:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/313567@N24/

I threw up my Buffalo Wings logo to test it out...

What do you guys think?

[jdettbarn]

Dola- Looks like a bunch of posts since I started work on mine!

Anyway, check out Flickr too.

[MidKnight]

I believe if you go into the saved game folder for the league and into the jerseys folder after you've assigned logos, text, etc., you can grab the jersey it generates and just use that - - it should keep the uniform "style" intact. Meaning, it'll keep all the pinstripes, etc...not 100% positive, but fairly confident.

In any case, I've been making tons of fictional logos/uniforms/caps lately, and would definitely be willing to contribute to a database.

[CHCfan]

Originally Posted by MidKnight

I believe if you go into the saved game folder for the league and into the jerseys folder after you've assigned logos, text, etc., you can grab the jersey it generates and just use that - - it should keep the uniform "style" intact. Meaning, it'll keep all the pinstripes, etc...not 100% positive, but fairly confident.

In any case, I've been making tons of fictional logos/uniforms/caps lately, and would definitely be willing to contribute to a database.

I'll test that a bit later, but I don't believe it's true. The file is simply an image file, containing no non-image info other than the filename, which does not support a jerseytype designation.

[CHCfan]

Originally Posted by jdettbarn

How about a Flickr group?

They've got an easy bulk upload tool, tagging, group-only search and free accounts can upload 100MB per month. Not sure about downloading bandwidth, but I'm sure we won't overwhelm Yahoo.

I created a group here, if you want to test it out:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/313567@N24/

I threw up my Buffalo Wings logo to test it out...

What do you guys think?

dola, when of my favorite fictional logos I've made is also called the Buffalo Wings. Great minds think alike

[CHCfan]

Originally Posted by jdettbarn

How about a Flickr group?

They've got an easy bulk upload tool, tagging, group-only search and free accounts can upload 100MB per month. Not sure about downloading bandwidth, but I'm sure we won't overwhelm Yahoo.

I created a group here, if you want to test it out:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/313567@N24/

I threw up my Buffalo Wings logo to test it out...

What do you guys think?

another post

jdettbarn, does flickr name the files for you -- that wings logo was named 435473230_6d9fc5066d.jpg -- that may be a problem. A lot of the convenience, IMO, is that the logos can be very easily imported into a league without having to name all the logos to match team names and jersey colors.

On a similar note, does photobucket do this too?

Keep the ideas coming everyone.

[MidKnight]

Originally Posted by CHCfan

I'll test that a bit later, but I don't believe it's true. The file is simply an image file, containing no non-image info other than the filename, which does not support a jerseytype designation.

True, but if you, say, use a jersey with pinstripes and add in the logo on the uni, etc. the game creates a PNG file of the uniform (with all the details on it, including stipes). If named properly and placed in the right folder, the game should pick it up when a team in any league is named the same as the other. It will read it as a Custom Jersey (not as any particular template), but it will have all the details of whatever template you used to create it...I'll go check it out now to be certain.

[MidKnight]

Or I'm totally wrong...whoops! Sorry about that, I could have sworn I got that to work at one point, but it looks like I didn't. In that case, specifying the jersey types would indeed be nice.

[CHCfan]

Originally Posted by MidKnight

True, but if you, say, use a jersey with pinstripes and add in the logo on the uni, etc. the game creates a PNG file of the uniform (with all the details on it, including stipes). If named properly and placed in the right folder, the game should pick it up when a team in any league is named the same as the other. It will read it as a Custom Jersey (not as any particular template), but it will have all the details of whatever template you used to create it...I'll go check it out now to be certain.

Very interesting. Just looked in the "saved games/league.lg/jerseys" folder and, sure enough, it does save it with the jersey type.

All of my work had been focused on the universal folder (where the game looks when creating a league), those ones don't reflect the changes that are made (obviously). So, I stand corrected, and happily so, thanks, Midknight

[CHCfan]

Originally Posted by MidKnight

Or I'm totally wrong...whoops! Sorry about that, I could have sworn I got that to work at one point, but it looks like I didn't. In that case, specifying the jersey types would indeed be nice.

Originally Posted by CHCfan

Very interesting. Just looked in the "saved games/league.lg/jerseys" folder and, sure enough, it does save it with the jersey type.

All of my work had been focused on the universal folder (where the game looks when creating a league), those ones don't reflect the changes that are made (obviously). So, I stand corrected, and happily so, thanks, Midknight

lol , we're gonna have to give this a closer look - we just convinced eachother the other was right!

[MidKnight]

Originally Posted by CHCfan

Very interesting. Just looked in the "saved games/league.lg/jerseys" folder and, sure enough, it does save it with the jersey type.

All of my work had been focused on the universal folder (where the game looks when creating a league), those ones don't reflect the changes that are made (obviously). So, I stand corrected, and happily so, thanks, Midknight

Unfortunately, I just realized I don't know how to get the game to automatically use one of those generated PNG's. I thought I had a way at one point, but it looks like I might have been mistaken. If anyone could figure it out, or if anyone in the know could give some input (ping: battists?), it would be much appreciated...

[CHCfan]

Here's what I'm going to try: putting this attached image into the universal folder and seeing what the game thinks of that . . .

Is this what you've tried?

[MidKnight]

Originally Posted by CHCfan

Here's what I'm going to try: putting this attached image into the universal folder and seeing what the game thinks of that . . .

Is this what you've tried?

Yeah. The game automatically grabs anything named "jerseys_logo_TEAMNAME", but doesn't grab the fully made jersey file ("jerseys_TEAMNAME"). Fortunately, I just found a workaround. You can paste the fully-made file into a saved game's jersey folder and overwrite anything in there. It will use that jersey with the correct color scheme even if the jersey colors are set differently in game. As long as you don't "regenerate" the jersey in-game, it'll work.

A bit of a workaround, since you now need to essentially copy a folder over to any newly created games, but at least it still allows you to use templates with everything all set up. Sure beats messing with DAT files like in 2006, and should tide everyone over until a patch.

Edit: I'll clarify for everyone since there's so many different files we're referencing, heh. I made a league in which Im getting all my uniform templates done called Uniform League.lg. I've been trying to duplicate my Boise Jets setup when I create a new template game (Test League.lg). I went into Uniform League.lg/jerseys and grabbed "jerseys_logo_Boise_Jets.png" and added the hex color code. I copied it into the universal folders (data/jerseys). Did the same for the cap ("caps_logo_Boise_Jets_202C48_202C48.png") and logo ("Boise_Jets_374C7D_FFFFFF.png"). Logos are still hidden away under Uniform League.lg/news/html/images.

After all that was copied into universal folders, I made the new game (Test League). Boise Jets had everything set up, but the incorrect uniform. To fix this, I went into Uniform League.lg/jerseys and grabbed "jerseys_Boise_Jets.png" which is the attached file.

I copied it into Test League.lg/jerseys, and when I started it up again it worked fine. Basically, you can put it in a league's jersey folder and it'll work, just not the universal one. Sounds damn confusing, but isn't so bad...just an extra step of copying files.

[PadresFan]

LOL... I have a Buffalo Wings too!

[CHCfan]

Here's what I just tried: I put the attached Baron's jersey file (a complete jersey, not just a chest logo) in my universal "jerseys" folder. Like you said, Midknight, the game didn't find it when I created a Birmingham Barons team. I then clicked the "Find" button in the jersey (not the jersey logo) window and found the attached file. It loaded it perfectly, just as you would want it. The game, I noticed, then copied this file into the league-specific "jerseys" folder.

In other words, this can be done, but it isn't intuitively handled by the game (yet).