Seeking Developer Help on facegens

LansdowneSt · 10-06-2021, 02:35 AM

I removed all the facegen files from my OOTP22 game and loaded only the 611 I have posted on the boards over the past few months. In this way, only the ones I had QA/QC'ed personally would show in my Random Debut game. This way I could spend the off-season just going through all the faces that were blanks. For each one that had no file I could then either load the Complete Universe face after review, redo it on the spot if it needed work, or make a note to redo it when time permitted, and play a game as I went.

But when I reloaded the game, instead of 611 .fg files in the folder there were suddenly 2,355 fg files plus the readme.txt reappearing. Most of them seemed to be from Asian leagues based on the name conventions. But other fg files rewrote ones I had already fixed plus adding others (Kershaw, Greinke, etc.) so it's definitely some MLB'ers getting dropped into the fg folder upon the game being reopened. So I'm asking the OOTP Team:

1. Why are these fg files coming into the game on their own when I load the game (again, not installing a patch or new version - just exiting out of OOTP22 entirely and reopening it)

2. Can it be stopped? Or do I have to keep my fg files off to the side and constantly delete and repaste my own into the game every time I play?

It is incredibly frustrating to make new facegens, save them into the fg folder only to have the game itself write over them the next day when I reload the game - even if it is only a random 2,000 of them. Why are you overwriting anything we put in that folder on our own?

This overwrite is likely happening to everyone but one would only know it if they refreshed the facegen in the game. Only then would they discover they've been viewing a cached version of their community-made fg but, in fact, the actual file in their folder had been overwritten back to some old default one.

Thanks for the explanation and assistance to understand this issue and the best way to avoid having fg's rewritten by game loads.

LansdowneSt · 10-06-2021, 02:37 AM

Here's a screenshot of some of the ones that keep appearing and overwriting my folder as well as the install screenshot when I load a game - it is this "install" process where the game thinks it is helping me by giving me these 2000+ facegens but is, in fact, erasing my work...

LansdowneSt · 10-06-2021, 02:41 AM

As a test, I sat down and made a Clayton Kershaw and put it in the fg folder (left top one). I then closed the game and reopened it. It installed some files upon opening and when I relooked at Kershaw.... he was still my own... but not really. It was the cached version of my self-made file. As soon as it refreshed, this old one (right/bottom) reappeared and erased my handiwork.

actionjackson · 10-06-2021, 03:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LansdowneSt

As a test, I sat down and made a Clayton Kershaw and put it in the fg folder (left top one). I then closed the game and reopened it. It installed some files upon opening and when I relooked at Kershaw.... he was still my own... but not really. It was the cached version of my self-made file. As soon as it refreshed, this old one (right/bottom) reappeared and erased my handiwork.

Don't quote me on this, but I think that happens because the game is automatically reloading the 1,744 modern facegens that come with it. My suggestion is to keep all of the facegens you have in a .zip file, and then overwrite as needed. The other thing that is of concern is that when you go to update to the next patch, the same thing will happen to you, so definitely the .zip file would help...A lot. Now, if somebody smarter comes along, and knows how to avoid this crushing loss, it would be great if they could fill us in, so we can avoid this silliness.

LansdowneSt · 10-06-2021, 06:28 PM

If they are going to force facegen files to be overwritten, it's probably best they have an option in Game Settings to allow users to set a new folder to look for fgs in lieu of the "fg_files" folder. That way, I could tell my game to only pull from the "LStfg_file folder" and the game could continue to do whatever it is doing to the "fg_files" folder. That would allow those with custom fg files to ensure theirs are uncorrupted and the people who don't get into fg's could continue on unaffected by this customization option for selecting an alternative folder for usage.

Just bugs me. All the ones I had written over were ones I did about a year ago and fortunately I had First_Last name back-ups of that work. But still... even when I overwrite the file with my own work again, players that have one of those 1700+ files are just rewritten the next day. Very frustrating.

actionjackson · 10-06-2021, 06:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LansdowneSt

If they are going to force facegen files to be overwritten, it's probably best they have an option in Game Settings to allow users to set a new folder to look for fgs in lieu of the "fg_files" folder. That way, I could tell my game to only pull from the "LStfg_file folder" and the game could continue to do whatever it is doing to the "fg_files" folder. That would allow those with custom fg files to ensure theirs are uncorrupted and the people who don't get into fg's could continue on unaffected by this customization option for selecting an alternative folder for usage.

Just bugs me. All the ones I had written over were ones I did about a year ago and fortunately I had First_Last name back-ups of that work. But still... even when I overwrite the file with my own work again, players that have one of those 1700+ files are just rewritten the next day. Very frustrating.

I agree wholeheartedly, especially with all the effort, and amazing work you've put into this. Got my game open, and taking a look to see if there's a way of setting that up.

actionjackson · 10-06-2021, 07:49 PM

I know that I use a custom injuries, and custom weather file, and I have to copy/paste them into the database folder every. damn. time. I. update. with. a. new. patch. That is small potatoes compared with what you're dealing with though. A possibility that I see worth trying, is on the Game Settings > Database > This game uses the photo folder

page. You can point it to a file that won't get updated by the game by hitting the edit button next to OOTP Baseball 21\photos, but there is no such feature for FaceGen. Lemme mess around with this in a brand new game that I don't care about, and see if I can find a workaround. I've allowed necessity to be the mother of intention many times, and I may be able to find something here. Stand by while I give it a whirl.

actionjackson · 10-06-2021, 08:20 PM

Can't figure it out. The only way around it seems to be what I do with my weather and injury files, which is a pain in the behind.

LansdowneSt · 10-06-2021, 09:40 PM

Thanks for poking at it. I'm hoping Lukas or another that scrolls through the forum will chime in. Alas, I've tested it at it is definitely not just patches or updates. If I close my sim and go to the OOTP start screen - it's fine. I can reload the game and no files are overwritten - but if I close the game completely, return to the desktop, double-click OOTP22 and open it - that's when the files reinstall and all those 2300+ files return - to include overwriting anything that has the same name as one of those 2300+ facegens. You don't notice in-game because the game has the old face in the cache - but when you refresh, it is revealed that the file you want has been replaced.

I'm not a programmer but if I were trying to reorganize the decision-making flowchart of the game on where it looks for facegens, I'd have a toggle that says "Use default folder" or "Assign custom folder" for fg's so those that curate their fg collection and don't want anything in there they don't drop in on their own can have tighter control. I'm sure all those fg's are mostly for the KBO or *** aas that's where the company is expanding to and they thought it was an opportunity to "improve" some of the MLB'ers when they added them. But given all the customization one can make in the game, it's be nice if there was a choice if we want all those files in our particular fg folder automatically or wish to be in the middle and have it be a manual process of moving things over to our custom folder.

Look forward to hearing back from the OOTP team. Maybe I'll post it on the "What I want in OOTP 23" thread

Scipio Africanus · 10-06-2021, 11:54 PM

I think it does this with uniforms and logos as well. In the past I've deleted the default uniforms and replaced them with one of the historical uniform collections and, when I start the game, it put all the default uniforms back in the folder. There appear to be certain file/folder checks that are run whenever the game is booted.

silvam14 · 10-07-2021, 05:10 PM

Do you use steam? Or the standalone?

LansdowneSt · 10-07-2021, 05:13 PM

Stand alone, not steam

LansdowneSt · 10-07-2021, 05:23 PM

Replied on the other thread but it belongs here. Here's me deleting the OOTP 22 fg files in their entirety. Then me loading the game - note the banner at the top of the loading screen. Then note the 1700 files that suddenly appeared in the fg folder.

silvam14 · 10-07-2021, 05:53 PM

I wonder if there is some "Load game data" setting that you have set

FWIW, I have steam and I'm not seeing it

LansdowneSt · 10-07-2021, 05:59 PM

The Steam vs. Stand alone difference may be enough to account for the difference. Glad it isn't affecting you. I wonder why it is just those 1,700+ files. It looks like an update supplement to the fg's that ship with the game. But it didn't just push out with the patch's first run but instead does, as was suggested, a file check every time the game loads and fills in data to many of the folders. I'm glad I always had a back-up of every fg I'd made.

silvam14 · 10-07-2021, 06:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LansdowneSt

The Steam vs. Stand alone difference may be enough to account for the difference. Glad it isn't affecting you. I wonder why it is just those 1,700+ files. It looks like an update supplement to the fg's that ship with the game. But it didn't just push out with the patch's first run but instead does, as was suggested, a file check every time the game loads and fills in data to many of the folders. I'm glad I always had a back-up of every fg I'd made.

I got those files when one of the last few patches dropped. I just don't get the auto install every time I start the game. That's just weird

LansdowneSt · 10-07-2021, 06:11 PM

Even if it were only when I got a patch downloaded, I wouldn't want the fg folder touched automatically. I'd like to assign which folder my fg's are in and then look at what they sent in to the fg_files folder when there's an update and move it over if I like it. But if it did only happen on patches, that would be easier to restore. Doing it every time I open the game is extremely annoying...

silvam14 · 10-08-2021, 09:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LansdowneSt

Even if it were only when I got a patch downloaded, I wouldn't want the fg folder touched automatically. I'd like to assign which folder my fg's are in and then look at what they sent in to the fg_files folder when there's an update and move it over if I like it. But if it did only happen on patches, that would be easier to restore. Doing it every time I open the game is extremely annoying...

Abnsolutely, I agree 100%. Nothing more frustrating than working on these facegens for hours on end only to see them get overwritten

LansdowneSt · 10-08-2021, 12:41 PM

What's interesting is that OOTP normally doesn't do that reinstall thing before it opens. It's only after I've swapped the contents of the fg_files folder. It's like it knows I did something that then triggers are reinstall of the last update and the associated fg's, logos, etc. So what does it see I've done that triggers it? There's nothing magical about the 1700 fg files I removed. One of them was the readme.txt. Maybe it sees that missing as a trigger. I'll need to keep trying to diagnose it but would love a developer to stop by and opine.

LansdowneSt · 10-09-2021, 05:59 PM

Still working on what triggers the need for the game to repopulate select facegens but I've determined that the ones it is rewriting when I load are all the 2021 active players. Really easy to tell give I am playing a Random Debut league. There is an option to check the files for logos, etc. when you load a game but I don't have that toggled on. Still trying to sort it. As I stated, it's not every load - when the files 1,700+ files are there, it seems to know that and isn't triggered to load them...

10-06-2021, 02:35 AM	#1
LansdowneSt Global Moderator Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: From Duxbury, Mass residing Baltimore Posts: 7,549	Seeking Developer Help on facegens I removed all the facegen files from my OOTP22 game and loaded only the 611 I have posted on the boards over the past few months. In this way, only the ones I had QA/QC'ed personally would show in my Random Debut game. This way I could spend the off-season just going through all the faces that were blanks. For each one that had no file I could then either load the Complete Universe face after review, redo it on the spot if it needed work, or make a note to redo it when time permitted, and play a game as I went. But when I reloaded the game, instead of 611 .fg files in the folder there were suddenly 2,355 fg files plus the readme.txt reappearing. Most of them seemed to be from Asian leagues based on the name conventions. But other fg files rewrote ones I had already fixed plus adding others (Kershaw, Greinke, etc.) so it's definitely some MLB'ers getting dropped into the fg folder upon the game being reopened. So I'm asking the OOTP Team: 1. Why are these fg files coming into the game on their own when I load the game (again, not installing a patch or new version - just exiting out of OOTP22 entirely and reopening it) 2. Can it be stopped? Or do I have to keep my fg files off to the side and constantly delete and repaste my own into the game every time I play? It is incredibly frustrating to make new facegens, save them into the fg folder only to have the game itself write over them the next day when I reload the game - even if it is only a random 2,000 of them. Why are you overwriting anything we put in that folder on our own? This overwrite is likely happening to everyone but one would only know it if they refreshed the facegen in the game. Only then would they discover they've been viewing a cached version of their community-made fg but, in fact, the actual file in their folder had been overwritten back to some old default one. Thanks for the explanation and assistance to understand this issue and the best way to avoid having fg's rewritten by game loads. __________________ Complete Universe Facegen Pack 2.0 (mine included) https://www.mediafire.com/file_premi...k_2.0.zip/file Just my Facegen Pack: https://www.mediafire.com/file_premi..._Pack.zip/file

10-06-2021, 02:37 AM	#2
LansdowneSt Global Moderator Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: From Duxbury, Mass residing Baltimore Posts: 7,549	Here's a screenshot of some of the ones that keep appearing and overwriting my folder as well as the install screenshot when I load a game - it is this "install" process where the game thinks it is helping me by giving me these 2000+ facegens but is, in fact, erasing my work... Attached Images

10-06-2021, 02:41 AM	#3
LansdowneSt Global Moderator Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: From Duxbury, Mass residing Baltimore Posts: 7,549	As a test, I sat down and made a Clayton Kershaw and put it in the fg folder (left top one). I then closed the game and reopened it. It installed some files upon opening and when I relooked at Kershaw.... he was still my own... but not really. It was the cached version of my self-made file. As soon as it refreshed, this old one (right/bottom) reappeared and erased my handiwork. Attached Images

10-07-2021, 05:10 PM	#11
silvam14 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Dedham, MA Posts: 9,953	Do you use steam? Or the standalone? __________________ Senior "Nancy Boy" of the OOTP Boards _______________________________________________

10-07-2021, 05:23 PM	#13
LansdowneSt Global Moderator Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: From Duxbury, Mass residing Baltimore Posts: 7,549	Replied on the other thread but it belongs here. Here's me deleting the OOTP 22 fg files in their entirety. Then me loading the game - note the banner at the top of the loading screen. Then note the 1700 files that suddenly appeared in the fg folder. Attached Images Last edited by LansdowneSt; 10-07-2021 at 05:43 PM.

10-06-2021, 06:28 PM	#5
LansdowneSt Global Moderator Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: From Duxbury, Mass residing Baltimore Posts: 7,549	If they are going to force facegen files to be overwritten, it's probably best they have an option in Game Settings to allow users to set a new folder to look for fgs in lieu of the "fg_files" folder. That way, I could tell my game to only pull from the "LStfg_file folder" and the game could continue to do whatever it is doing to the "fg_files" folder. That would allow those with custom fg files to ensure theirs are uncorrupted and the people who don't get into fg's could continue on unaffected by this customization option for selecting an alternative folder for usage. Just bugs me. All the ones I had written over were ones I did about a year ago and fortunately I had First_Last name back-ups of that work. But still... even when I overwrite the file with my own work again, players that have one of those 1700+ files are just rewritten the next day. Very frustrating.

10-06-2021, 07:49 PM	#7
actionjackson Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Toronto, ON Posts: 6,181	I know that I use a custom injuries, and custom weather file, and I have to copy/paste them into the database folder every. damn. time. I. update. with. a. new. patch. That is small potatoes compared with what you're dealing with though. A possibility that I see worth trying, is on the Game Settings > Database > This game uses the photo folder page. You can point it to a file that won't get updated by the game by hitting the edit button next to OOTP Baseball 21\photos, but there is no such feature for FaceGen. Lemme mess around with this in a brand new game that I don't care about, and see if I can find a workaround. I've allowed necessity to be the mother of intention many times, and I may be able to find something here. Stand by while I give it a whirl.

10-06-2021, 08:20 PM	#8
actionjackson Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Toronto, ON Posts: 6,181	Can't figure it out. The only way around it seems to be what I do with my weather and injury files, which is a pain in the behind.

10-06-2021, 09:40 PM	#9
LansdowneSt Global Moderator Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: From Duxbury, Mass residing Baltimore Posts: 7,549	Thanks for poking at it. I'm hoping Lukas or another that scrolls through the forum will chime in. Alas, I've tested it at it is definitely not just patches or updates. If I close my sim and go to the OOTP start screen - it's fine. I can reload the game and no files are overwritten - but if I close the game completely, return to the desktop, double-click OOTP22 and open it - that's when the files reinstall and all those 2300+ files return - to include overwriting anything that has the same name as one of those 2300+ facegens. You don't notice in-game because the game has the old face in the cache - but when you refresh, it is revealed that the file you want has been replaced. I'm not a programmer but if I were trying to reorganize the decision-making flowchart of the game on where it looks for facegens, I'd have a toggle that says "Use default folder" or "Assign custom folder" for fg's so those that curate their fg collection and don't want anything in there they don't drop in on their own can have tighter control. I'm sure all those fg's are mostly for the KBO or *** aas that's where the company is expanding to and they thought it was an opportunity to "improve" some of the MLB'ers when they added them. But given all the customization one can make in the game, it's be nice if there was a choice if we want all those files in our particular fg folder automatically or wish to be in the middle and have it be a manual process of moving things over to our custom folder. Look forward to hearing back from the OOTP team. Maybe I'll post it on the "What I want in OOTP 23" thread

10-06-2021, 11:54 PM	#10
Scipio Africanus Major Leagues Join Date: Jun 2019 Posts: 374	I think it does this with uniforms and logos as well. In the past I've deleted the default uniforms and replaced them with one of the historical uniform collections and, when I start the game, it put all the default uniforms back in the folder. There appear to be certain file/folder checks that are run whenever the game is booted.

10-07-2021, 05:13 PM	#12
LansdowneSt Global Moderator Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: From Duxbury, Mass residing Baltimore Posts: 7,549	Stand alone, not steam

10-07-2021, 05:53 PM	#14
silvam14 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Dedham, MA Posts: 9,953	I wonder if there is some "Load game data" setting that you have set FWIW, I have steam and I'm not seeing it __________________ Senior "Nancy Boy" of the OOTP Boards _______________________________________________

10-07-2021, 05:59 PM	#15
LansdowneSt Global Moderator Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: From Duxbury, Mass residing Baltimore Posts: 7,549	The Steam vs. Stand alone difference may be enough to account for the difference. Glad it isn't affecting you. I wonder why it is just those 1,700+ files. It looks like an update supplement to the fg's that ship with the game. But it didn't just push out with the patch's first run but instead does, as was suggested, a file check every time the game loads and fills in data to many of the folders. I'm glad I always had a back-up of every fg I'd made.

10-07-2021, 06:11 PM	#17
LansdowneSt Global Moderator Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: From Duxbury, Mass residing Baltimore Posts: 7,549	Even if it were only when I got a patch downloaded, I wouldn't want the fg folder touched automatically. I'd like to assign which folder my fg's are in and then look at what they sent in to the fg_files folder when there's an update and move it over if I like it. But if it did only happen on patches, that would be easier to restore. Doing it every time I open the game is extremely annoying...

10-08-2021, 12:41 PM	#19
LansdowneSt Global Moderator Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: From Duxbury, Mass residing Baltimore Posts: 7,549	What's interesting is that OOTP normally doesn't do that reinstall thing before it opens. It's only after I've swapped the contents of the fg_files folder. It's like it knows I did something that then triggers are reinstall of the last update and the associated fg's, logos, etc. So what does it see I've done that triggers it? There's nothing magical about the 1700 fg files I removed. One of them was the readme.txt. Maybe it sees that missing as a trigger. I'll need to keep trying to diagnose it but would love a developer to stop by and opine.

10-09-2021, 05:59 PM	#20
LansdowneSt Global Moderator Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: From Duxbury, Mass residing Baltimore Posts: 7,549	Still working on what triggers the need for the game to repopulate select facegens but I've determined that the ones it is rewriting when I load are all the 2021 active players. Really easy to tell give I am playing a Random Debut league. There is an option to check the files for logos, etc. when you load a game but I don't have that toggled on. Still trying to sort it. As I stated, it's not every load - when the files 1,700+ files are there, it seems to know that and isn't triggered to load them...