Feedback and Questions After a Long OOTP Absence

[Charlie Hough]

It has been more than 4 years since I retired from the forums and from OOTP Baseball, but I recently purchased OOTP 21 to experience the current version of the game and see how the 3D graphics have been coming along.

As a longtime advocate for 3D graphics and someone who was disappointed in the initial effort, I'm happy to say that the game has finally delivered what I had hoped to see.

We finally have a simulation that provides a truly great visual experience to complement the rest of the game. While there are still some occasional oddities or glitches with fielding errors or balls hit to the wall, the improved 3D graphics and animation make managing games so much more exciting and fun.

Great job by everyone who has been involved in developing the 3D graphics over the years!

Next, I have two questions. I have only managed a handful of games so far, but I have encountered a couple of unusual things with 3D ballparks and the player uniforms on the field.

1. I am running a fictional historical league, and I modified the ballparks for each team to use the default minor league 3D ballpark model. However, in each game so far, OOTP 21 is using a modern-day, full-size stadium instead. It's the same stadium each time. I have checked all the teams' settings, and they all show the minor league 3D ballpark. But that's not what is used in actual gameplay.

Is there a setting that is overriding each team's 3D ballpark and using this default park instead? How do I fix this?

2. Teams are wearing their white home uniforms and grey road uniforms as they should be for my league, but the ballcaps seem a bit strange. The ballcaps show the correct color for the front of the ballcaps, but the backs of the caps are all white in 3D gameplay.

I am using the standard ballcap setting in each team's uniform settings, but I am also using my own custom ballcap images, which are based on caps from the early 1900s. Caps from that template are not as tall as modern ballcaps, but I don't think the game uses those custom images in the actual 3D graphics. It probably defaults to the team's other cap colors and settings.

Shouldn't the caps be all one color if that's what the settings indicate, or are my custom ballcaps possibly causing this issue. Is there a way to fix this problem as well?

[luckymann]

Welcome back!

I can't answer the second question, but the first one I think I know the answer to.

In TEAM>SETTINGS>EDIT BALLPARK, go to the PICTURES & CO-ORDINATES tab.

You'll see an option for 3D Model. You need to click this and choose the .obj file for the model you want to use. If there is no .obj file then the program uses the default stadium, as it seems it is doing now.

I suggest you go onto the mods board and into the 3D forum, there are a bunch of really good smaller parks there with .obj files you can use.

Hope that helps.

G

[Charlie Hough]

Thanks, that seems to have fixed the first problem. But it seems odd that you can choose the 3D model and set it in the ballpark editor, but the game doesn't use that model for the pictures and coordinates unless you also manually load the .OBJ file in the other tab. It doesn't make much sense to require that it be loaded in two different areas. Hopefully that can be addressed in the next version.

[luckymann]

Originally Posted by Charlie Hough

Thanks, that seems to have fixed the first problem. But it seems odd that you can choose the 3D model and set it in the ballpark editor, but the game doesn't use it that model for the pictures and coordinates unless you also manually load the .OBJ file in the other tab. It doesn't make much sense to require that it be loaded in two different areas. Hopefully that can be addressed in the next version.

It's the inconsistency that causes the confusion and that should perhaps be addressed. Some load automatically, others don't. It may be a function of a lot of the stadia having been created by mods, but that's just a guess.

[Déjà Bru]

I was just thinking about you the other day, Charlie Hough. You were the first person with whom I conversed in these forums, thousands of posts ago. (Back then, I was 1998 Yankees.)

[Déjà Bru]

Regarding the second question, I am using historical custom ballcaps and jerseys in my 3D ballpark and I have noticed no issues as you describe. I have noticed, however, that sometimes a player or two will be wearing what looks like "last year's hat"; i.e., his in-game image has not updated yet to the current uniform. To correct that, I recommend the two settings below. If these don't work, however, then I am afraid you will need to look at the composition of your custom ballcaps.

[Wrathchild]

Originally Posted by luckymann

Welcome back!

I can't answer the second question, but the first one I think I know the answer to.

In TEAM>SETTINGS>EDIT BALLPARK, go to the PICTURES & CO-ORDINATES tab.

I don't seem to have the ability to edit a ballpark. Is that because I'm playing a historical league?

[Charlie Hough]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

I was just thinking about you the other day, Charlie Hough. You were the first person with whom I conversed in these forums, thousands of posts ago. (Back then, I was 1998 Yankees.)

Wow, I'm amazed that you would remember such a thing. But I suppose it's a nice reflection on the community here. As I've been checking out the forums over the past few days, it's definitely good to see many of the old faithful still around.

[Charlie Hough]

Originally Posted by Wrathchild

I don't seem to have the ability to edit a ballpark. Is that because I'm playing a historical league?

I believe you have the ability to edit ballparks in any mode, unless it requires being in commissioner mode. But maybe someone else can clarify this for you.

Here is the manual section on this topic: https://manuals.ootpdevelopments.com...allpark_editor

[zappa1]

I also have the ballcap glitch thing going. Have had it for a few years now. I made a note in the bugs report a few times about it but never was even acknowledged about it as to why or how to fix it. Solid one color hats look like some kind of kaleidoscope of 2 or 3 colors. You can really see it from behind the mound view in 3D on the pitcher.

[Wrathchild]

Originally Posted by Charlie Hough

I believe you have the ability to edit ballparks in any mode, unless it requires being in commissioner mode. But maybe someone else can clarify this for you.

Here is the manual section on this topic: https://manuals.ootpdevelopments.com...allpark_editor

Ah, I was looking for it under my own team settings, not under the league. It looks like everything I have is generic, including images. Anybody know where I could get a good set of dead ball era files to use?

[Charlie Hough]

Originally Posted by Wrathchild

Ah, I was looking for it under my own team settings, not under the league. It looks like everything I have is generic, including images. Anybody know where I could get a good set of dead ball era files to use?

Depending on what you need, go to the OOTP Mods section of these forums. There are separate sub-forums for logos and graphics, 3D ballparks, and other topics. There are many great historical mods that should help you.

[Charlie Hough]

As for my issue with ballcaps rendering with different front and back colors, I will post a screenshot of this later today. But it sounds like others may be seeing the same thing.

[Charlie Hough]

Here is a screenshot showing my issue with all the ballcaps in my league showing the correct color on the front but white on the back. This is while using custom ballcaps for all teams, and all the custom cap are one solid color. Another weird anomaly here is that the red letter that is supposed to be on the right side of the pitcher's jersey is on the left. But normally it correctly appears on the right during gameplay.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/12_S...ew?usp=sharing

[zappa1]

Exactly. Yep. I've posted about this before. It's what I see, also.

[Calvert98]

Welcome back.

Agreed the 3D helps with the overall game-flow for folks like ourselves - I play-out all of my games at-bat.

And it has really improved. That said, I would like to see OOTP 22 take another step forward, especially the player models themselves.

In any event, even if you don't play-out your games, I think the 3D is sort of the front-porch of the game in media coverage etc....Even if you "Google" OOTP, I believe the main picture on the right of the screen is the in-game 3D.

-Cal

[Charlie Hough]

Originally Posted by Calvert98

That said, I would like to see OOTP 22 take another step forward, especially the player models themselves.

In any event, even if you don't play-out your games, I think the 3D is sort of the front-porch of the game in media coverage etc.

Yes, improvements to the 3D player models would be great, especially in terms of the quality of player rendering as well as differences in uniforms and equipment from different eras. But there are still a lot of bugs and issues with the 3D game play that should probably be top priority.

As I've been playing out the first season of my fictional league, I have experienced many glitches such as batted balls rocketing down the line and then behind the sides of the ballpark, coming to a stop in blackness beyond the confines of the 3D model, but then turning into triples or inside-the-park home runs in the text play-by-play.

Other strange things happen as well, such as the ball warping to certain locations or clearing the outfield wall but getting stuck in mid-air. And this is all with the default minor league 3D model in the game.

There are also basic problems such as occasional foul pop-ups having minimal arcs and defying physics, or the game suddenly skipping the rest of the animation after you choose whether a runner should try to advance a base. After you click your preferred button, the runner is suddenly either out or has taken the base or scored, and the scoreboard and box score have been updated, but there was no animation of that portion of the play.

Hopefully these and other issues will be corrected because you're right: the 3D experience is going to be the visual representation of the game in various media. If the 3D modeling has these glaring problems when people try the game, that's not going to reflect well on the product. And fans of console games will expect to see a pretty good rendering of the action.

But I'm optimistic and hopeful that the game's increasing popularity and exposure will generate the revenue necessary to fund continuous improvement to the 3D graphics.

[zappa1]

Originally Posted by Charlie Hough

Here is a screenshot showing my issue with all the ballcaps in my league showing the correct color on the front but white on the back. This is while using custom ballcaps for all teams, and all the custom cap are one solid color. Another weird anomaly here is that the red letter that is supposed to be on the right side of the pitcher's jersey is on the left. But normally it correctly appears on the right during gameplay.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/12_S...ew?usp=sharing

Some of the modded caps are the problem. The low profile ones, for sure. What you need to do is make new caps with Justafan's cap maker or the online cap maker by eriqiaffe. All the caps that have been doing this for me I have remade and they are now fine. Seems those older cap files don't work well with the new 3D environment.