Okay, I'm going to be releasing the first Beta version torrow night (barring any major setbacks.) There have been a number of reasons that this has gone slower than I had hoped, but as the attached "outtake" images show, there has been a bit of a learning curve... 813 is my favourite. (Don't worry, the actual images are much, much better now)
Some limitations of the Beta Version:
- Will not work if you have modified your nations.txt file (this is due to the fact that ethnicity data needs to be incorporated.. in the full release, I will develop a workaround for this)
- Probably will not work for Macs (I don't know for sure, but I'm pretty sure it won't)
- Won't be able to handle "custom uniforms"... for now I'm working on the generic uniforms module, but once that is done I will add the ability to map team id's onto customized uniforms
- The "recylcle faces" and "use team logos in generic uniforms" settings don't work yet, they're just decorative for now
- Same with the "team at a time" option. For now it's either Universe or player at a time
- For player at a time, you must go by Player_id, as first/last name search doesn't yet work
- In the full release, retired players will be assigned the uniform of the team for which they have the most career ab/ip. This is not yet working in the beta
- Can't install new components with the beta
- Can't lock/unlock photos with the beta
- No hair or facial hair has yet been added to the photos
Okay, so here's the good news. Here's what you CAN do with the beta once it's done:
- Create player photos for every player in your universe
- Have the ethnicity of the face reflect the player's national origin
- Have "generic" uniforms based on the background and text colors of the player's team
- Access the special "Debug" tab... ooooh
In addition, the beta version comes packed with:
- Almost 4,000 unique faces for photos
- 1,197 Caucasian
- 1,007 African
- 954 Asian
- 774 East Indian
- 66 background photos
- 5 accessories
- A distribution of the Borland Data Engine
The purpose of the Beta is two-fold. First, I want to give everyone a peek at what's been going on and a chance to enhance their gaming experience. I am also looking for bug reports, weird photos, wrong behaviour, etc.
I would ask that when reporting a wierd photo, you access the "debug" tab and write down the ethnicity and faceid fields for the player so that I can see if it's a graphical problem.