PING: FOF Graphics Gurus (Info for FOF9)

[Ben E Lou]

It may be that this isn't usable info until the release, but just in case, the details for logos and player pics are here: customization [Front Office Football Nine Documentation]

Originally Posted by Online Manual

Team Logos

When the game creates teams for a new universe, it creates a logo for each team. Those logos are based on a series of alphabets found in the alpha1.bmp file. This file, along with other artwork for the game, can be found in a folder called artwork in the game's installation folder.
While this file and others in the artwork folder can be changed, they are designed in a very specific format. The game will look for graphics in specific places within these files, and that can not be changed. The alphabet files are in an obvious format with a set number of alphabets. Each letter in each alphabet may vary in size, and that information can not be changed.



However, the game will run with custom logos. There are two ways to create a custom logo. One is to use the Team Logo option on the Team Menu. This will load the current logo for a team in a slightly different format than the one used to create logos for new universes. You can then adjust the sliders to change the primary and secondary color for the team.
You can also upload your own image for the logo. The game requires 150×150 bitmap (.bmp) files for logos. When finished, you can set that logo as the new logo for your team and it will be used within the game.
You can also simply change the logo by replacing the logo files in your saved game. Once a new universe is started, logos can be found in the following folder: C:\\Users\Your_Profile_Name\AppData\Local\Solecismic Software\Front Office Football Nine\saved_games\Your_Universe_Name\logos.



There are two files for each team within that folder. Both are 150×150 bitmap (.bmp) files. One is the primary logo for a team and the other is a black-and-white version for display on the schedule when a team lost a particular game. Each team has a two-digit identifier, beginning with 00 in a league. Find the team logo file you want to replace and simply replace it with the logo you want to use.



Logos reserve the color magenta RGB(255, 0, 255) as a transparent color. That color cannot be displayed in a logo. If you want magenta in your logo, use a slightly different color. RGB(255, 1, 255) would work.



If a bitmap is more than 150×150, the game will only use the upper-left area of that bitmap. If smaller, the result is unpredictable. If the file is not a Windows Bitmap file, the game will not find it.

Player Portraits

Front Office Football Nine does not create player portraits or use FaceGen or a similar product. For player images, the game uses a bitmap representing the state, province or country (if not in the United States or Canada) of player's city of birth. Those can be found in the artwork/flags folder off of the installation folder. Those bitmaps can be replaced and the game will use them.



There's an additional level of customization available for players and staff members. On a player card or a staff card within the game, you will see a Universe ID. That number is unique within a universe.
You can create a 150×150 bitmap for use with any individual player, though this will only work within one universe. The Universe ID can be used as a file name. For instance, if you want to create a custom bitmap for a player with the Universe ID 1465, create a 150×150 bitmap called 1465.bmp. Place that file in the following folder: C:\\Users\Your_Profile_Name\AppData\Local\Solecismic Software\Front Office Football Nine\saved_games\Your_Universe_Name\portraits.



You can do the same for staff members, only name the file slightly differently. For instance, if your staff member has a Universe ID of 413, create a file called s413.bmp for the portraits folder. Players and staff members each must have their own custom bitmaps - the game does not attempt to copy them if a player becomes a coach later on.



As with the team logos, player images reserve the color magenta RGB(255, 0, 255) as a transparent color. That color cannot be displayed in a portrait. If you want magenta in your player portrait, use a slightly different color. RGB(255, 1, 255) would work.



The default player file that comes with the game includes Universe IDs for use with a new universe. That way, it's a lot easier to import a set of player portraits once you have a new universe set up. There's no way to control the allocation of Universe IDs for new players once a new universe is established, but they are sequential and do not change once a player is created.



If a bitmap is more than 150×150, the game will only use the upper-left area of that bitmap. If smaller, the result is unpredictable. If the file is not a Windows Bitmap file, the game will not find it.

[sovereignstar v2]

Can someone with the game let me know how these work? I can make sure there is a basic NFL set available at launch.

[NawlinsFan]

Thanks Ben, diving in to it now to see what can be done. No way to convince Jim to use .png files?

[Jops]

Interesting if anyone plays Football Manager there are a couple of face generating tools that allow you to generate pictures assigned to an ID...

I wonder if some tweaking would work here

[Cole]

I'm happy to see the FOF UI get a big upgrade and also happy that separate photos can be used for player photos - that's awesome for immersion.

But, I'm hopeful there's a way to make the default player card photo the team logo/helmet file, as opposed to the image of the state/province of birth ... The few screens I've seen with it, it looks kind of odd ... and I also don't really think football fans make a strong correlation between a player and his birth state ...

[QuikSand]

i don't mean this as a slight, but i sense a degree of the sunk cost fallacy at work with the hometown/mapping stuff in every FOF game

the developer went to great trouble, as i recall, to develop the small town database for TCY... and its continued use somehow makes that investment feel more merited, I'm sure...even if the end effect even now is befuddlement at best (thus far the information seems to be fully ingorable even for angle-shooters like me, it's not sortable for some sort of house rules system or whatnot, it's apparently just about valueless)

[Cole]

Originally Posted by Jops

Interesting if anyone plays Football Manager there are a couple of face generating tools that allow you to generate pictures assigned to an ID...

I wonder if some tweaking would work here

Newgan Facepack for FM is an amazing program that has tens of thousands of super realistic player photos that would be great for FOF.

Getting them to work in FOF would take some work, as I'm almost certain it doesn't create BMPs or 150 x 150 ... but at least potential for some great player photos ...

[HansMellman]

If anyone is familiar with Javascript or a way to manipulate a tool like this then there is also the ZenGM FacesJS created by DumbMatter of BasketballGM, FootballGM and ZenGM Hockey fame too - I know plenty of people use this utility for their online games. Not sure if it could be used to generate a database of faces that could then somehow be assigned to players.

GitHub - zengm-games/facesjs: A JavaScript library for generating vector-based cartoon faces

[Cole]

Originally Posted by HansMellman

If anyone is familiar with Javascript or a way to manipulate a tool like this then there is also the ZenGM FacesJS created by DumbMatter of BasketballGM, FootballGM and ZenGM Hockey fame too - I know plenty of people use this utility for their online games. Not sure if it could be used to generate a database of faces that could then somehow be assigned to players.

GitHub - zengm-games/facesjs: A JavaScript library for generating vector-based cartoon faces

Funny you mention that, as I think the state flags for players is kind of silly so I’d been thinking of using faces.js to create player packs for my FOF9 league. I’m not a programmer so the rudimentary way I had come uo with was to screenshot the output, import the screen into a photo editor and re-save as a 150 x 150 BMP. A bit time intensive to do 100s of them, but it’s an option.

I was curious if it could be streamlined, so I emailed the creator to ask. It’s far beyond my knowledge level, but here was his reply for what it’s worth:

Technically yes it's possible, but it'd require some programming to do. If I was doing it, I'd write a script that uses https://playwright.dev/ to generate a faces.js face and then screenshot it and save it in whatever image format you want. Then put it in a loop and run as many times as you want.

[HansMellman]

Originally Posted by Cole

Funny you mention that, as I think the state flags for players is kind of silly so I’d been thinking of using faces.js to create player packs for my FOF9 league. I’m not a programmer so the rudimentary way I had come uo with was to screenshot the output, import the screen into a photo editor and re-save as a 150 x 150 BMP. A bit time intensive to do 100s of them, but it’s an option.

I was curious if it could be streamlined, so I emailed the creator to ask. It’s far beyond my knowledge level, but here was his reply for what it’s worth:

Technically yes it's possible, but it'd require some programming to do. If I was doing it, I'd write a script that uses https://playwright.dev/ to generate a faces.js face and then screenshot it and save it in whatever image format you want. Then put it in a loop and run as many times as you want.

Damn man, I've had to learn Python because of this game......now I'm gonna have to learn Javascript?!!

[sovereignstar v2]

Realistic NFL Helmet Logos -- to be released on game launch (yes, they will be bitmaps and transparent )

[Cole]

Does the game support png or bmp ? Thought it was bmp but these files are listed as png ?

[sovereignstar v2]

Originally Posted by Cole

Does the game support png or bmp ? Thought it was bmp but these files are listed as png ?

Bitmap, hence the note in parentheses in my post

[Cole]

Originally Posted by sovereignstar v2

Bitmap, hence the note in parentheses in my post

Sorry, glossed over that !

[Sweed]

Great work on both the helmets and logos Sov.
Thanks for sharing.

[Cole]

I'm putting together a fictional facepack for FOF9 with faces.js faces.

I've found a converting program that doesn't make the process too arduous. I've got 225 player pictures and 50 coach pictures done so far. I'm aiming to have 1,000 to 1,200+ player photos and 200+ coach photos before release.

If anyone has access to the game and can DM me their email address, I\d love to send some test files to make sure they show OK before I make hundreds.

I tried to add some as attachments to this post, but get an error message whether I try to upload bmps or zip files.

[HansMellman]

Originally Posted by Cole

I'm putting together a fictional facepack for FOF9 with faces.js faces.

I've found a converting program that doesn't make the process too arduous. I've got 225 player pictures and 50 coach pictures done so far. I'm aiming to have 1,000 to 1,200+ player photos and 200+ coach photos before release.

If anyone has access to the game and can DM me their email address, I\d love to send some test files to make sure they show OK before I make hundreds.

I tried to add some as attachments to this post, but get an error message whether I try to upload bmps or zip files.

I don't have game access so can't help with that part but I'd love to know your process for doing this if you'd be willing to divulge any information.

[Cole]

Originally Posted by HansMellman

I don't have game access so can't help with that part but I'd love to know your process for doing this if you'd be willing to divulge any information.

Absolutely.

I’m using :

faces.js editor

I get the output, screenshot it with my phone, crop it so it’s just the headshot.

Then once I’ve got a batch of them, I use the tool on freeconvert.com

This allows me to adjust them from jpg to bmp and resize them to 150 x 150 at the same time. I paid for a $9.99 package for the month which lets me do this faster and easier than the “free” software would.

Once I download the zip files I’m going to separate and label them.

I’ve been using the “fatness” and “body size” filters on faces.js to make more realistic sized player photos … ie. OL and DL will have “fatter” player photos than WR, RB, CB etc .

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by HansMellman

Damn man, I've had to learn Python because of this game......now I'm gonna have to learn Javascript?!!

hahaha

[beatle]

Very nice helmets!

[coachcbj]

Originally Posted by Cole

Absolutely.

I’m using :

faces.js editor

I get the output, screenshot it with my phone, crop it so it’s just the headshot.

Then once I’ve got a batch of them, I use the tool on freeconvert.com

This allows me to adjust them from jpg to bmp and resize them to 150 x 150 at the same time. I paid for a $9.99 package for the month which lets me do this faster and easier than the “free” software would.

Once I download the zip files I’m going to separate and label them.

I’ve been using the “fatness” and “body size” filters on faces.js to make more realistic looking player photos … ie. OL and DL will have “fatter” player photos than WR, RB, CB etc .

I was thinking of doing the same thing. I just hate how cartoony the faces are. I wish they were a little more realistic like Wolverine Studios. I might take those faces and hairstyles from Wolverstudies and use a photo editor to create combinations of coaches and players. It is just time-consuming. With my schedule, I can do about 100 a day.

[Cole]

Originally Posted by coachcbj

I was thinking of doing the same thing. I just hate how cartoony the faces are. I wish they were a little more realistic like Wolverine Studios. I might take those faces and hairstyles from Wolverstudies and use a photo editor to create combinations of coaches and players. It is just time-consuming. With my schedule, I can do about 100 a day.

While more realistic, I've always found the ones from Wolverine to be repetitive (unless it's changed in the most recent game).

Also, they don't have any big body models, so a guy that is supposed to weigh 330 lbs looks no different than a 175 lbs WR. The ZenGM thing may be a bit cartoony, but I like that I can create models that actually LOOK like lineman.

Also, being able to generate a face at the click of a button is nice. I'd be interested in your work too, but it also sounds very time consuming.

After 2 days and maybe 4 hours total working on it, I've already got 640 player faces ready to go.

(u

[coachcbj]

Originally Posted by Cole

While more realistic, I've always found the ones from Wolverine to be repetitive (unless it's changed in the most recent game).

Also, they don't have any big body models, so a guy that is supposed to weigh 330 lbs looks no different than a 175 lbs WR. The ZenGM thing may be a bit cartoony, but I like that I can create models that actually LOOK like lineman.

Also, being able to generate a face at the click of a button is nice. I'd be interested in your work too, but it also sounds very time consuming.

After 2 days and maybe 4 hours total working on it, I've already got 640 player faces ready to go.

(u

Is there a way to turn on some options but not other with the ZenGM Editor? Like If I want all three hats and "none" to be an option but NOT headbands so I can create coaches, can you do that? Right, I feel like the only options are everything, nothing, or ONE THING. No option for some things but not other (in a single category). Maybe I am missing something. Thank you for any info

[Cole]

Originally Posted by coachcbj

Is there a way to turn on some options but not other with the ZenGM Editor? Like If I want all three hats and "none" to be an option but NOT headbands so I can create coaches, can you do that? Right, I feel like the only options are everything, nothing, or ONE THING. No option for some things but not other (in a single category). Maybe I am missing something. Thank you for any info

I don’t believe so. I think the easiest thing in this case is if you want coaches with certain accessories, just make however many you want with each accessory. It’s also not too time consuming to simply remove/replace an accessory if you liked everything else about the output.

I would do that when it generated face mask on some players.

[inbar]

Originally Posted by sovereignstar v2

Realistic NFL Helmet Logos -- to be released on game launch (yes, they will be bitmaps and transparent )

What program did you use to create those helmets? They look fantastic.

[sovereignstar v2]

There's no magic. I found transparent images on one of the major helmet makers website. All I have to do is resize and plop onto a magenta background.

[NawlinsFan]

Asking any play testor if allowed to answer. Looking at the pages shown on Steam on page 5, league leaders, the list displays a "logo" sliver along with the name. What is the origin of this sliver? Can I assume it is pulled from the team logo or do you know if it is supplied separately?

I ask because if it is pulling from logos then the team logos need to be in a specific format/scheme. If separate then these are additional files that would be needed in game. Helmets may not work.

Asking for a friend.

[coachcbj]

Originally Posted by NawlinsFan

Asking any play testor if allowed to answer. Looking at the pages shown on Steam on page 5, league leaders, the list displays a "logo" sliver along with the name. What is the origin of this sliver? Can I assume it is pulled from the team logo or do you know if it is supplied separately?

I ask because if it is pulling from logos then the team logos need to be in a specific format/scheme. If separate then these are additional files that would be needed in game. Helmets may not work.

Asking for a friend.

I cannot confirm or deny but to me, it looks like it is just the middle 1/3 portion (maybe 50x150) of the team logo. Assuming it automatically takes the middle portion of team logos, no additional logo is needed. Only because I did not see anything in the documentation about needing another logo. Just the BW versions for losses on certain screens. All speculation though.

[NawlinsFan]

Originally Posted by coachcbj

I cannot confirm or deny but to me, it looks like it is just the middle 1/3 portion (maybe 50x150) of the team logo. Assuming it automatically takes the middle portion of team logos, no additional logo is needed. Only because I did not see anything in the documentation about needing another logo. Just the BW versions for losses on certain screens. All speculation though.

Yeah, looks like that to me as well. If it does then a helmet logo may not align properly. It looks similar to what Ben has on his IHOF site. This may require a different approach.

[coachcbj]

Can anyone testing the game give a list of what other element BMP files will be customizable in the game? If allowed to speak on this, will it be similar to FOF8 where we can edit backgrounds, headers, position, jersey numbers, the scoreboard, weather icons, tv icons, etc?

Will these be in BMP format and editable like the previous versions of FOF?

Thank you

[sovereignstar v2]

NDA definitely seems to have muzzled anyone that could provide us some of the feedback we are desiring

[sovereignstar v2]

And agree the sliver logos are an issue. Preferably those would be coded differently and point to a separate/unique logo. Anytime logos are automatically resized/cropped by the game they are not going to look ideal.

[NawlinsFan]

Originally Posted by sovereignstar v2

And agree the sliver logos are an issue. Preferably those would be coded differently and point to a separate/unique logo. Anytime logos are automatically resized/cropped by the game they are not going to look ideal.

Agreed. In a perfect world the slivers would be a separate file which would make this much easier. I feel though that Jim likely just does a pull from the logo and uses that for the sliver file. Maybe I'm wrong.

I went back and looked at the logos I have done. I assumed that the sliver would be pulled from a 50 pixel block in the center of the 150 pixel file. With that the helmets files don't work as the team logo on them are all by cut off. A logo file using the "transparent" background are Ok but the best for the slivers was having a logo with a "colored" background. Only thing here is it looks a bit awkward on the screen page without a border but with a border the sliver doesn't have a top and bottom border if it is created as noted above.

Yeah, I know, I have spent to much time on this already. Need the game to sort through it.

[NawlinsFan]

Originally Posted by sovereignstar v2

NDA definitely seems to have muzzled anyone that could provide us some of the feedback we are desiring

I would think questions like this are fine to address with the game pending on Steam.

[dave1927p]

hopefully jim comes here to assist with this. Would be great to have these things day 1 on release.

To have the helmets as the player photo and the logos for the teams would be fantastic. Not sure if that'll be possible.

[Senator]

Will the “Not the Steelers” logo be available ?

[Cole]

Originally Posted by dave1927p

hopefully jim comes here to assist with this. Would be great to have these things day 1 on release.

To have the helmets as the player photo and the logos for the teams would be fantastic. Not sure if that'll be possible.

I mean, for it to be automated, probably not based on what we’ve read .. but with a little bit of legwork every season you’d be able to do this, just by using the player universe ID and multiple copies of the team helmet to replace every one.

I know he’s busy with the game, but it’s too bad Jim doesn’t stop in for a few minutes each day to answer some of these queries. Im refreshing this forum and the Steam discussion multiple times a day just fiending for more info 😂

[sovereignstar v2]

Unfortunately, the transparent logos look like hot garbage. I'll revisit if something other than magenta bitmaps are possible in the future.

[NawlinsFan]

I'm working some of my sets but getting this:

Shows the original followed by the team screen and then the logo change screen. ???