Using ai for player photos

[BaseballMan]

Originally Posted by luckymann

These are great. I've been mucking around a bit with Gary C-style Negro League caricatures. A work in progress, some better than others using ChatGPT 4.o.

The major issue with Chat as usual, is its utter lack of consistency even when given a really strict protocol to follow. As often as not in my experience it just derives things from its own parallel universe, which makes them totally inaccurate.

What you've done here inspires me to keep at it.

One question, if I may - are you getting these to work OK in-game? I tend to find mine will appear on team pages and pop-ups but then only on certain player pages and not others. That's in v25 using jpg format at 120x80 res. The ones that work, work fine and look great. But as I said they only work very selectively.

Thx

G

I noticed that it imported the photos but on the lineup screen it had the old photos.
I just imported the photo again for each player even if it showed the ai one. Seemed to work.
This was a league in progress.
Maybe it has to be done on Jan 1st?

[BaseballMan]

Originally Posted by cinemaodyssey

There are at least 2 known photos of William Johnson during his playing days. Neither look like the AI rendition. I have attached a legit photo of Johnson from the 1871 Cleveland Forest Citys team composite.

You have to remember the ai was going off of the old photo.
So yes it would be better to use a player at the age he played for that year.
But how many players have photos for every year and every team he played for?
Ai isn't gonna be exact replicas of player photos but neither are some of the HOF plaques an exact replica a player's photo.
I just like having a player in uniform than look at some old ballplayer in suit when's 25 years old.

Here's the ai version of the young Johnson you posted.
It looks close to me.

[AESP_pres]

Originally Posted by cinemaodyssey

I don't see any resemblance between the AI result and what Smith looked like in reality. There are several very good photos of him since he played for many years in the big leagues. I've attached one from 1896 (which was his best year in the majors) and in 1900.

I get where you're coming from, and I appreciate the quality of the photos you shared—having played several years, Smith definitely has more good photos available than most players from that era. That said, it's important to understand the difference in purpose between a photo and a facegen. I don’t use photos directly in-game because, for me, it doesn’t make much sense to have a static image that doesn’t age or change uniforms as a player moves through teams. The point of a facegen isn’t to be an exact copy of a single photo—it’s to create a good likeness that blends naturally into the game environment.


A photo like the one you attached is obviously realistic—it's a real snapshot in time. But when it comes to creating a facegen, you can't just drop in a photo untouched. If you do, you end up with something that looks like the clunky facegens we were making ten years ago. Even the best photo will come out different once it goes through the FG Modeller—it manipulates the image automatically, so some changes are inevitable.


I've been making facegens since the feature was added to the game, and from the beginning, photo manipulation has always been part of the process. Back then it was Photoshop, now I use tools like ChatGPT because it gives me more control in one place instead of switching between five or six different programs that don’t always give consistent results. It's really just an evolution of the same process.


That said, I do appreciate your perspective as a “photo guy.” Your work digging up images of old-time players has helped me more than once. In the end, we’re all trying to represent these players as best we can in our own way.

[BaseballMan]

Yeah most of this is for players that we don't have
great photos of or for aging or putting on different
teams.
When it comes to 2025 I will most likely use the real photos unless I have a league in which Aaron Judge signs with Dodgers. Then I would use the ai unless it actually happens.

For historical leagues,
It would be nice if ootp could use historical transactions to put a player in his correct uniform or automatically import the new photos so players would age but if you use the same photo it wouldn't matter.

[UKBaseballfan]

[QUOTE=AESP_pres;5204252]I. I don’t use photos directly in-game because, for me, it doesn’t make much sense to have a static image that doesn’t age or change uniforms as a player moves through teams."

First of all I would like to make it clear that I do not play the game so please assess any subsequent comments in that context. I find this site very appealing because it appears to bring together together many researchers.

That said is it not the case that mainly the game use focuses on playing a season within that specific year, I appreciate that it also can be used to compare the performance of teams from different eras. From that single season perspective would it not make sense to develop different yearly facepacks that would be interchangeable within the game depending on year choice. Assuming this is possible would that not address the issue of using just one image per player that would have limited relevance? The facepack database that I maintain has attempted to collate an image for every player for every year and team they play, in color wherever possible.

If this is not currently possible, surely this is a development that would enhance the reality of the game?

[BaseballMan]

1 team left to do for the 1873 season.

Playing the 1871 championship series.
Really like seeing players in their team's uniform instead of in
a suit and looking like they retired 20 years ago.

[BaseballMan]

I saw a few players that i had messed up on the naming.
I put players that played on multiple teams on the team they first played for.
Then i put them on their other teams in a multiple team folder. I included the team in the name to separate it from their opening day team.

[BaseballMan]

1874 players

[BaseballMan]

will have to redo Bob Ferguson for 1874.
Forgot i had him losing his hair in 1872.
Might be weird to go from having hair to losing hair for that time.

[BaseballMan]

1875 players

[BaseballMan]

Working on 1876.
Decided to make a home and away jersey for player photo.
Found that if i use the same prompt the jersey stays a little more consistent.
Wish the game could automatically change photo to home or away.
Maybe have it first name_LastName_Year_team id_home.

[BaseballMan]

1876 players home and away

[BaseballMan]

Found out that could have chatgpt open in multiple tabs and could make 3 players at a time iwith both home and away jerseys.
I was thinking have 3 different desktops, a laptop, surface tablet and android tablet so...... but then the image limit nip that idea.
But that would have been awesome to see how many tabs i could have on two 49" monitors, an 86" tv and 48" tv. Plus the laptop and tablets.

Still three is faster than one at a time.
I usually let the ai create while i read a book.

[BaseballMan]

Only bad thing is that creating players in different tabs makes the ai create a slightly different jersey. I could do three different teams in the tabs but i doubt i would finish them all at one time and the ai might alter the jersey when i start again. I might test that and see what happens if i close my browser and reopen it to see if i will get the same exact jersey.

If not its either one at a time or the slight jersey change.
I will probably go with the jersey slightly changing and just consider it like how we have so many different jerseys today

[BaseballMan]

1877 players