Yankee Stadium Classic Update Now Available

[paulw]

Well, this is about as good as we could get it from the limitations of what we could work with. I'm now fairly happy with it. Thanks for the comments and suggestions on improving version 1. The facade with transparency is a huge improvement and I hope the minimal attempt at varying the height of the outfield wall helps some. My favorite - I love making buildings - are the new ones in right in front of the Bronx County Building. This will be the last release of this ballpark as I am now going into modding hibernation (i.e. I picked up Tiger Woods 2006 today and some great dvds). Also it's time to hunker down for the playoffs - my favorite time of the year.

Here's a last screenshot:

My goal this summer was to get the two ballparks in the game that I can't believe EA left out - Ebbets and Yankee. Nothing like Mickey Mantle, Carl Erskine and friends and a beautiful autumn day in New York City.

[mflv]

Please forgive me for bringing this up because I couldn't care less about it and barely noticed it unless you're really looking. I'm only mentioning it in case you weren't aware of it because it is so petty and insignificant compared to the great work you have done that it isn't worth mentioning. Is that enough groveling? Okay so here it is. To the left of the 7UP tower over the right field fence is a sign that says Earl Theatre. The word Theatre is backwards. You can only even see it while exploring in replay. Probably not even worth bringing up. Thank you for this magnificent stadium. I actually remember going to the Polo Grounds as a kid and seeing Yankee Stadium from where I was sitting. Take care and thanks again. And sorry for even bringing this up.

[MarkB]

Excellent work, Paul!

[Sean O]

A note on the image I posted in the preview thread that showed the entire park sunk to its original level. Paul and I agreed that it caused too many problems, primarily because the sunken pieces would not match up exactly, and so there were hundreds of little areas where you could see the sky. Since it really affected the quality of the park, we decided against it. At some point in the future I would love to give it another go and make everything super-exact, but it's extraordinarily difficult to accomplish. However, It may be worth it.

Right now baseball is physically disgusting to me, so I could work on this tomorrow, or I could never work on anything again. I really can't tell.

[paulw]

Okay so here it is. To the left of the 7UP tower over the right field fence is a sign that says Earl Theatre.

mflv - Now that's my kind of attention to detail. Thanks for noticing this. There's one of three reasons for this:

a. I purposely did this because I'm quirky

b. I inadvertently did this

c. It REALLY was this way

(The answer is C)

Anyhow, thanks very much for the kind words about Yankee. MarkB thanks very much also. It was a lot of fun and hope you guys enjoy playing in it.

Sean - Something very *BAD* must have happened in real world baseball tonight . Can't wait to watch the news. In the words of Abe Bartlett Giamati - "It's made to break your heart".

[paulw]

Two oops in my last post. I forgot the end of the quote about Theatre being spelled backward. Also it was A. Bartlett Giamati not Abe (duh)!

[Sidewinder]

Great work Paul and SeanO! Thanks so much!

Hey, FYI I was playing a game in Classic Yankee(latest release) and hit a bomb to dead center. It bounced on the ground right at the foot of the monuments and continued through the monuments and bounced off the wall ricocheting toward LF. It really deked the CFer. Hehe I think I got an inside the park HR off of it, if I remember right.

I remember that the monuments had no collision detection and it proved to be true.

[Sean O]

To answer SW's comment in the download area, Yankee Stadium always, always had 3 decks. The main seating bowl (mainly the club and upper decks) used to stop well before the foul lines, but there were always three decks.

Dropping the park is going to be extremely difficult, so for now this is as good as it's going to get.

[Jeeper]

Thanks Paul!

[Sean O]

hey all-

Just an update. I spent the last few hours moving literally every single vertex in the park to lower the park and erase all of the bleeding, but now unfortunately it's crashing the game. I'm hoping to fix whatever the issue is and then get back to modding the rest of the park.

Just wanted to let everyone know.

[NYYKing]

question:

whenever a left hander bats, the black thing covering the batters eye would disappear. Any idea why? I'm using the batters eye camera for batting and pitching if it makes any difference.

[Sean O]

What Paul did for the screen was harvest 4 vertices from nearby the center field area, but unfortunately it disappears very easily. I'm messing with it now (the crashing was due to a corrupted dynasty, nothing wrong with the park).

I'm currently trying to fix the bleachers and it is SO FREAKING HARD. I'm pulling my hair out trying to figure out how to get everything acceptable, and ugh. It's not fun. Assuming I don't run screaming from the room while doing it, it should be possible.

edit:

ok, the bleachers, for the most part, are done. Let me repeat, the bleachers, for the most part, are done.

As you can see here (thanks Andrew):

The bleachers in the current, EA / Post '88 version have that huge open area in left field for monument park. What I've done is drag everything forward, so that it sits flush with the wall, as you can see here:

So the seating will follow the sloping wall, while the corners are at their accurate heights for most of Yankee Stadium's existence.

This was a serious, serious amount of work, more than I can properly explain to anyone who hasn't tried to do it, but I hope the results speak for themselves. As of now there will not be any crowd out in that area (when I lowered the park the crowd made the move, however), though I may be able to put people in certain places if I get motivated.

As for now, it hasn't been properly textured, so you can see that the center field area just looks wonky. It'll look better upon release. I should also mention that as of now the front of the bleachers is level with the top of the wall, which obviously doesn't make any sense. From here i'm going to sink it down 3', so the angles will look much less extreme. I'm also hoping Paul can take a break from Tiger Woods and add the see-through fencing to the park, but that remains to be seen.

(From the pre-bleacher change, showing the sunken park)

So I'm going to be a ***** here and beg for comments, since I want to know that if I'm spending all this time going crosseyed making these changes that people at least will get some pleasure from it. So let me know, I'll appreciate it.

Thank you.

[five]

I want to know that if I'm spending all this time going crosseyed making these changes that people at least will get some pleasure from it. So let me know, I'll appreciate it.

Thank you.

First, don't mod for the community, mod for yourself. If it's important to you then go for it.

Second, you're a perfectionist like me, I bet it irritates you more than it does any of us. So if you have the time and patience, go for it, if not, don't worry about it.

Third, don't worry about us while putting it out there. If it take 2 months then so be it. Just take your time at your own pace. If it's not fun for you, then maybe it's time to put it on the backburner for awhile.

[Sean O]

Here's another image from playing at Classic Yankee, more will come later:

[RRodkey]

I, for one, am enjoying the work you're doing to this stadium as well as the Ebbetts Field mods. I've been taking your Ebbetts (and now the classic Yankee) and making various versions of them with texture modifications.

I play half my games now in those parks. Please keep up the good work. This continues to breathe new life into this program. Thanks for sharing this with the community.

P.S. - Is there any way you could add light standards all the way around Ebbetts (instead of just on top of the one area?) I'd like to make a night version.

[Sean O]

I'll answer for Paul, because he's on mod-hiatus since Tiger Woods 2006 just came out.

At this point, I think Paul considers it pretty much completed. He spends a lot, and I mean a lot, of time getting the outside panoramas to look perfect, so that's why he typically released day versions that take advantage of that. Plus, my guess is that he (or we, depending on what happens, I guess) will move onto other new projects rather than modifying old ones. There are still a lot of parks that need changing, so that's at least where my efforts will go to.

[paulw]

So I'm going to be a ***** here and beg for comments, since I want to know that if I'm spending all this time going crosseyed making these changes that people at least will get some pleasure from it.

Holy CR*P Shawn! You've been doing a lot of work. If you want any graphic help on this just send me an email. Now I've got two distractions - downloaded Total Classics (finally) and love it and still like just kicking back and playing some computer golf with Tiger Woods. You've got my email address.

Remember my philosophy on this - do it *FIRST* for your own pleasure and if others like it that's the icing on the cake.

[Sean O]

Final version is completed and uploaded, just awaiting approval. If you want info, I've posted screenshots in the MVP 2005 previews thread.

Otherwise, enjoy!

[Sean O]

Hey All-

So, I'm about to upload the final, final version of the park. I've fixed all the walls of the stadium to mimic the transparent fence of the real one (except in the center field section, so the black wall creates a proper background for the batter), fixed the hole in the center field seating, and added the blue-colored wall in right field. I also lowered the seating just a bit in left field to have fans behind the transparent wall. Oh, and of course, I also fixed the fence heights.

It should be uploaded soon, and I hope everyone downloads it since it is an improvement.

[Sandlot]

Great. Thanks. :)