Camera Adjustment Tutorial

[toymenater]

Camera Adjustment Tutorial

Credit goes to Kamasutra for providing the basic camera info for the original tutorial.

Credit goes to Pared for discovering the new adjustment offsets for 2005.

The camera settings in MVP Baseball 2005 are fairly easy to adjust providing you take the time to understand how they are configured. Initially, the various values for each camera setting will not seem very intuitive, but the goal of this tutorial is to give a basic explanation of what the values are and how they work. Once you understand the basics, you can experiment by tweaking the cameras yourself.

NOTE: this tutorial assumes you are familiar with editing datafile.txt. If this is something you are unsure about, I suggest you get a copy of Snepp’s Excel file that explains how the file is formatted.

In order to adjust your cameras, you will need a decompressed version of datafile.txt, a text editor and a lot of patience. Tweaking the cameras is pretty much a trial-and-error process and this means you will do a lot of editing, loading, starting a game, checking your camera, rinse, lather, repeat, until you get what you want.

While you are working, if for some reason you find your camera setting is way off from what you expected, DON’T PANIC. Chances are you only have made a minor adjustment that skewed your camera position. If you get totally confused about your settings, go back to a known-good setup and work it a little bit at a time. Also, not that I need to say it, but BACKUP your original file before you start editing. In the end, if you stick with it, you can end up with a nice camera setting.

Editing datafile.txt

Once you have the datafile.txt open in your text editor, you can begin searching for the camera settings. All of the settings are on a line labeled something like this:

0xbed1924f 97<BattingView6RightLow>

Now the actual address and label will vary depending on the camera you are going to edit, but consider there are seven batting views and six fielding views in the game, you can figure out that the above example represents batting view #6. Batting view 1 contains eight separate lines, batting views 2-6 contain four separate lines and each fielding view contains only one line. The separate labels for the batting views are labeled RightHi, LeftLow, LeftHi and RightLow. Batting view 1 contains additional labels RightHiOffset, LeftLowOffset, LeftHiOffset and RightLow offset. I have not yet experimented with batting view #1, so this example will adjust batting view #6. Using the above example, you should be able to find the following labels in your datafile.txt:

0xbed1924f 97<BattingView6RightLow>


0xcf7ab64e 97<BattingView6RightHi>


0xf83c7e3c 97<BattingView6LeftLow>


0x615c3f4c 105<BattingView3RightLow>

Adjustment offsets

For each labeled line, there is a set of values used to configure the camera. However, in order to tweak the camera, you only need to deal with a few of the settings:

15 x-axis setting

16 y-axis setting

17 z-axis setting

41 pitch

42 heading

53 field-of-view (61 on xbox version)

54 distance relative field-of-view (62 on xbox version)

NOTE: If you are editing the datafile for the xbox, please note the FOV offsets are different. 53 and 54 do not exist in that version and if you add them instead of editing 61 & 62, the game will likely crash. Thus, you cannot directly copy in settings from a PC version's datafile. This is a change from MVP 2004.

The 3D environment

The values above are used to express a position within a 3D environment. This can be somewhat confusing, so I have included an image below that illustrates how the values are applied within a stadium.

The yellow lines represent the x, y and z axis. The x-axis runs from home plate down the right field line, the z-axis runs from home plate down the left field line and the y-axis runs straight up from home plate and perpendicular to the x and z axis.

A camera’s heading indicates the direction it is facing and is expressed as a compass direction where home plate is at 0 (zero) degrees, third base is at 90 degrees, second base is at 180 degrees and first base is at 270 degrees.

So considering the values from a label within datafile.txt, the position in space for a camera can be determined simply by measuring the value for each axis from home plate and intersecting the lines perpendicular from the axis.

Example

For this example, I will be adjusting BattingView6 using the settings in Pared's example here: http://www.mvpmods.com/index.php?name=Foru...opic&t=5569

The camera is positioned slightly behind and to the right of the mound and facing home plate.

The settings for that camera are:

x-axis: 1900.793

y-axis: 236.022

z-axis: 1720.793

pitch: -0.08

heading: -2.300

field-of-view: 13.50

distance relative field-of-view: 1

Adjust X-Axis

Using those values, we will now find the position in space for this camera. First, the x-axis value is measured 1900.793 units from home plate down the right field line. At that point on the x-axis, a perpendicular line is drawn (shown as dashed red line):

Adjust Z-Axis

Now the z-axis value is measured 1720.793 units from home plate down the left field line. At that point on the z-axis, another perpendicular line is drawn (shown as dashed blue line):

Adjust Y-Axis

At this point, we have the horizontal position on the field where the camera is located. All that is needed now is the vertical location, so from that point on the field, simply use the y-axis value and measure straight up. Using the value in this example, the y-axis is measured up 236.022 units from the point on the field (shown as dashed green line):

Adjust pitch and heading

The top of the dashed green line indicates the position of the camera. Now the only two remaining values used to position the camera are the pitch and the heading. The pitch values seem to be quite sensitive and from what I can tell, do not appear to translate directly to degrees. Thus, it is recommended that you tweak pitch values in SMALL increments or you may find your camera pointing at the ground or sky. Using the value for this example, the pitch is -0.08, or angling slightly downward.

The heading value is expressed as a compass value as explained earlier. So using the value for this example, the heading of the camera is -2.300 degrees, or angled slightly to the left of home plate.

Adjust field-of-view

The other two values, field-of-view and distance relative field-of-view act like a zoom value for the camera. Increasing the field-of-view will bring more of the field into the visible range, so the effect is similar to the camera lens zooming out. Decreasing the field-of-view will show less of the field, so the effect is similar to the lens zooming in.

Conclusion

Once you understand these values, you should be able to tweak any of the cameras within the game.

[Trues]

Excellent work.

Would you mind submitting this to the FAQ.

I think a lot of people will find this very useful.

[toymenater]

Would you mind submitting this to the FAQ.

sure no problem. should I just reference this post when submitting to the FAQ?

[Kamasutra]

Absolutly brilliant & spot on. Thanks for the extra 05 info, well done my friend! Perhaps at some point we can add the max values for each axis, I haven't narrowed those down, I'm sure they would be useful. For now doing it intuitively using this great info & with incremental adjustments as you suggested is the best way to go. This is what I did last year.

[rolie]

Excellent, I find very helpful! Kam I need some fisheyes damnit!!!!! I'm too locked up at the Ravine!

[Pared]

Awesome. Better than ever. That's a lot of work you put into that post. Much appreciated.

[kong2]

pitch & heading are given in radian measure. Value = Desired Angle / 180 * pi

[krawhitham]

thank you guys

[krawhitham]

anybody know that the full ranges for X,Y, & Z

[redsox]

Thank you very much for this tutorial. I use this all the time to edit my camera angles in my datafile. I have this page set as one of my quick-launch pages. This info. is very clear and precise. Thanks again.

[dannyt]

Can I simply copy and paste the pitch cam #6 from one datafile to another?

[xiberger]

Yes, you can.

[dannyt]

Great. What value do I have to change after I get the datafile open?

[xiberger]

The cameras for batting view #6 are stored in the following lines in the datafile.txt:

0xbed1924f 97<BattingView6RightLow>


0xcf7ab64e 97<BattingView6RightHi>


0xf83c7e3c 97<BattingView6LeftLow>


0x3611589b 97<BattingView6LeftHi>

The values you need to change are listed here:

Adjustment offsets

For each labeled line, there is a set of values used to configure the camera. However, in order to tweak the camera, you only need to deal with a few of the settings:

15 x-axis setting

16 y-axis setting

17 z-axis setting

41 pitch

42 heading

53 field-of-view (61 on xbox version)

54 distance relative field-of-view (62 on xbox version)

NOTE: If you are editing the datafile for the xbox, please note the FOV offsets are different. 53 and 54 do not exist in that version and if you add them instead of editing 61 & 62, the game will likely crash. Thus, you cannot directly copy in settings from a PC version's datafile. This is a change from MVP 2004.

I suggest you copy and paste the entire line, instead of changing all the values one by one.

[dannyt]

Thanks for your help! I understand the batting view, but I need to change the values for the "behind the pitcher" cam.

[xiberger]

Thanks for your help! I understand the batting view, but I need to change the values for the "behind the pitcher" cam.

Batting view #6 is the "behind-the-pitcher" camera. ;-)

[dannyt]

I see what you mean now. The pitching cam is labeled as batting cam6 in the datafile.

[wcrickards]

What is the difference b/w the "right low" and "right hi" camera angles?

[edgarfimbres]

hey somebody can put the tutorial in Spanish??

alguien puede poner el tutorial en español por favor??

se los agradeceria muchisimo.

quiero cambiar la camara 6/5 o 6/4 no recuerdo.

para que al momento de pitchar, se vea en fisheye, y al momento de batear se vea hitters eye.

cualquier cosa aqui estoy, gracias.

edgarfimbres@hotmail.com

[LupeFiasco]

Sorry for bump but, what is the line for editing the fielding views? Thanks

[yanka1730]

sorry but... can it does apply in xbox mod?? sorry 4 my english...

[emath2432]

Read through the first post. It mentions the differences in the Xbox version.

[seterpellers]

For MVP NCAA 06 these:

15 x-axis setting

16 y-axis setting

17 z-axis setting

41 pitch

42 heading

53 field-of-view (61 on xbox version)

54 distance relative field-of-view (62 on xbox version)

Correspond to:

13

14

15

39

40

51

52

For the three people out there who are considering adjusting the camera in MVP NCAA 06. :pardon:

[SESbb30]

i know im bumping a thread that hasnt had a reply in 2 years, but i couldnt find an answer anywhere for this. i wanted to change the fielding and batting views back to the original views, i found all the views in the original datafile.txt, but i have no clue what to copy over to the other datafile. i have some datafile experience but this is out of my league, as i said, i found the views, i just dont have any idea where the lines end.