Matrix Games Forums

The "Victory at Forbes Field" thread got me in the mood to customize some stadium screens for my league. Unfortunately, we need images at 1024x768 resolution for them to look good in-game. Anything less and you get a pixelated mess.

What you can find on the net however, are plenty of 640x480 images that you can use. I've been messing around with Dodger Stadium, and while I'm not 100% happy with the results, I am encouraged by the possibilities.

First and foremost, as mentioned by another user in the other thread, Shaun needs to give us the ability to resize some of the PSPNcast boxes if we are to get very creative. As it stands now, there is only so much you can do, as you can see by the attached images. This is still a work in progress, but I feel like I am zeroing in on a format I like...

Second Sample...

Third Sample...

The customization I'd like to see (having played around with this a lot) is the ability to change the locations of the PSPNcast boxes on a park-by-park basis.

For example, if my picture of Dodger Stadium has all of the grass in the bottom half of the picture, and nothing but sky in the upper half of the picture, I'm going to want the PSPNcast boxes positioned in the upper half of the picture.

If my picture of Yankee Stadium as a lot of foul territory, and is looking 'down' from a height so that the outfield wall is at the top of the picture and spans the entire picture side-to-side, I want the PSPNcast boxes positioned in the bottom half of the picture, in foul territory or obscuring the grandstands.

The problem last time I tried to do this was that the location of the PSPNcast boxes is global, and not part of the park definition file.

Yeah, those are more reasons I got frustrated with the 1024x768 images and decided to go the easier route and use smaller images.

I'd love to get real photos of the old parks, but the existing ones have the perspectives wrong for PureSim. What we're left with is the "Norman Rockwell" version, like this pic of Forbes Field:

Ok, I've settled on a format I like. I'd like to be able to be more creative, but this will have to do for now. Again, the reason I'm doing this is becuase it's hard to find 1024x768 images for all the stadiums in the MLB, especially when you are trying to get the high, above home plate perspective.

Basically, I'm using a stock PureSim 1024x768 background image as the background, pasting in a 640x480 ballpark image, and fixing the ball paths. It'll take me a while to get them all done, but if anyone wants the set when I'm finished, just drop me a line. I think it'll be nice to have the real ballpark images on the screen when playing the games.

Al

I would certainly appreciate them please.

xrjb@excite.com

It is great to see the "3rd party folks" here at PureSim/Matrix

Ok, I *finally* settled on a template that I'm happy with. I hope you guys like it.

My plan is to create a .prk file for all current stadiums, using the most correct dimensions and altitude numbers I can find, along with the best picture I can find. I'll also adjust the ball paths for each picture, so each file should be a straight import and play.

If it goes well, and people like the format, I'll look into working on some older stadiums as well.

Al

Well, I didn't want to do it, but I had to. I had to make one more tweak to the template, due to the fact that the majority of available ballpark images have more empty real estate at the top of the picture, rather than the bottom. This forced me to move the player info boxes to the top of the image if I didn't want the boxes covering up 1st and 3rd base on some images.

I like having everything at the bottom, so the eyes don't have to travel so much, but I guess I can live with it...

I like the template. I look forward to being able to download them!!!

Steve

Hey, PadsFan.

Where does one create/modify these Templates?

Thanks,
Kurt

Are they available?  They look great.

Oh man, someone found an old thread!!!! This is work I did for the last version of the game, and yes they are still available on the members download section of the Matrix website.

I decided I liked the default template for 2007, so I never went back to this format.

Kurtie - It's a bit of a pain to do, but possible if you have patience. You just need to create the .jpg image for each park (with the entire image being of the size 1024x768) and then move the other windows around in the ballpark editor.

For managing in -game, Shaun had added the option to hide everything but the scoreboard while the play is in progress..  Have you not noticed? 
 
Just try it!!! Manage a game, and go to the park.   Listen to the ambient sounds.  They repeat, but I love it.  
 
As for managing an individual game,   the joy is right here.   YOU are in the dugout, and you can make the calls in certain situations.  

ORIGINAL: KG Erwin

Listen to the ambient sounds. They repeat, but I love it.

HAHA - I just noticed last night that one where the guy goes "Woo hoo!" That is starting to drive me crazy. [:D]

Actually, it made me think about making one or two much longer ambient tracks to make it much harder to follow any sound repetitions.

Are the "XD" and "D" locations homeruns, or just long fly balls? I want homeruns to be moonshots [:D]

Long Fly balls.  The XD's are for the fields with extra deep dimensions in LC, C and RC.  I verified from Shaun that the game "automagically" adds distance to HR shots, using the XD and D markers as reference.

I just checked the Member's section for PS2007 and I don't see any files that you did.  I see two by BryanK, but none by you.  Are they goners?

It's still there, I just popped over to the member area and double-checked.  It's below BryanK's stuff and is called PadresFan104's MLB Stadium Pack