Trying to create cyberfaces for MLB 2K12...what am I doing wrong?

[Mr_E_Mann]

So I decided to finally try my hand at creating some cyberfaces for MLB 2K12. After spending countless hours over the past week (and pulling my hair out in the process) just trying to get the player head files to open properly in Blender, I figured I'd ask the experts here what I'm doing wrong. Here's what I've done so far....

 

-I installed the latest version of Blender, plus the script files that allow me to open the N2KM files that are exported by the NBA2KModTool

-I then realized that those script files are apparently not compatible with the newest version of Blender, so I reverted to an older version (2.69)

-After opening an N2KM head file in Blender and attempting to apply a face texture to the model, the texture was not applied properly. I discovered (after much research) that a Cyber Face Converter program is needed to convert the IFF files into CFF files that can then be opened in Blender. I also found that this converter program only works in 32 bit operating systems, so I had to go through all the trouble of creating a 32-bit virtual machine on my computer

-I ran the cyber face converter program on my virtual machine and created a CFF file from an existing player head IFF model.

-I attempted to open my CFF file in Blender and discovered, after placing the necessary Blender script files in the appropriate folder, that these scripts are only compatible with an even older version of Blender, so I reverted yet again to version 2.49.

-After jumping through all of those hoops, I finally managed to open up my CFF file in Blender, only to find that there is absolutely nothing there. There is no head model whatsoever, and obviously no options to edit anything there either. I noticed that the CFF file that was created by the converter program is much smaller than the original IFF file (only 50.5 KB), so I'm guessing it wasn't converted properly, but I cannot figure out why. 

 

I did manage to create some pretty nice looking face textures with Photoshop (which also required me to install a plugin to allow Photoshop to be able to open DDS files), but as of yet, I have not been able to properly apply them to my player faces in Blender. I'd hate to think that I wasted all of this time (probably at least 15 hours worth of headaches), only to end up no closer than I was before to being able to create player faces. I see that there are still people on here posting faces for download, so obviously others have figured out how to do it. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Mr_E_Mann]

Never mind...I realized that I had downloaded the wrong version of the cyber face converter. I've got the right one now, and it seems to be working as intended. Once I get some more experience under my belt, I will upload some of my work to share.

[bctrackboi11]

Do you mind posting the link the the cyberface converter?

[Mr_E_Mann]

I'm actually not sure if I'm allowed to post that link, as it's hosted on another modding community's website. But it's called MLB 2K10 Cyber Faces Converter 2.2. Make sure you grab that one, as the ones made for the NBA games will not work.

 

Alas, I think I'm going to have to give up on my cyberface editing endeavors, as I'm still having issues that I can't find any answers for. The face textures that I edit only seem to be applied to the close-up views of the player. The views from further away still show the original textures for the cyberface that I used as a template. It's weird, and I've found no mention of this anywhere. I encountered the same phenomenon when I attempted to edit a stadium texture as well -- it looked correct in a close up view, but then changed to the original texture in every other view. The plugin that I installed for Photoshop doesn't actually allow me to save files in DDS format, only open them, and I suspect that might be part of the problem. I've had to save them in PNG format and then use an online DDS conversion program to convert them back into DDS format (DXT5, 512x512) so that I can import them back into the Mod Tool. If anyone has encountered this issue before and knows how to resolve it, I'd appreciate any help. Thanks.

[picklebrad]

You have to make sure that when you save the .dds file for the texture that it's dxt 5 with alpha, mip maps created automatically and the "Kaiser" option selected. It takes a while to save but it yields the best results. Sounds like you are truly passionate about doing this with all of the steps you took. Let me know or JED in a PM of you have any more questions. There is a .dds file plugin for Photoshop. These are where you will find all of the save options I am speaking of.

[Kccitystar]

6 hours ago, Mr_E_Mann said:

I'm actually not sure if I'm allowed to post that link, as it's hosted on another modding community's website. But it's called MLB 2K10 Cyber Faces Converter 2.2. Make sure you grab that one, as the ones made for the NBA games will not work.

 

Alas, I think I'm going to have to give up on my cyberface editing endeavors, as I'm still having issues that I can't find any answers for. The face textures that I edit only seem to be applied to the close-up views of the player. The views from further away still show the original textures for the cyberface that I used as a template. It's weird, and I've found no mention of this anywhere. I encountered the same phenomenon when I attempted to edit a stadium texture as well -- it looked correct in a close up view, but then changed to the original texture in every other view. The plugin that I installed for Photoshop doesn't actually allow me to save files in DDS format, only open them, and I suspect that might be part of the problem. I've had to save them in PNG format and then use an online DDS conversion program to convert them back into DDS format (DXT5, 512x512) so that I can import them back into the Mod Tool. If anyone has encountered this issue before and knows how to resolve it, I'd appreciate any help. Thanks.

1) You can

2) Sounds like when you save your textures it doesn’t generate new mipmaps, and just keeps the older ones instead. Use the NVIDIA Legacy Texture Tools.

[Mr_E_Mann]

I had downloaded and installed the Nvidia Legacy Texture Tools, but it didn't look like they were compatible with my version of Photoshop. Whenever I tried to save a file as DDS, I got a window that popped up with all sorts of settings, but no apparent save button anywhere. It turned out that the save button was hidden beneath the Windows taskbar at the bottom of my screen. The only way that I was able to find the save button was by moving the taskbar out of the way. Seems like they could have found a better place to put that button than at the extreme bottom corner of a window that can't be resized.

 

 

[Kccitystar]

There’s a tutorial I posted for working with portraits that describes the best settings for working with DXT5 format files that may point you in the right direction

[Mr_E_Mann]

Thanks for all your help. I'm going to try saving some texture files using the suggested settings and will see how they turn out. The link for the Cyber Face Converter is:

https://www.moddingway.com/file/3307.html

[Mr_E_Mann]

OK, so my save options don't actually include an option to save in DXT5 format specifically. It lists an option for BC3 (a.k.a. DXT4 or DXT5), which it states is RGBA 8 bpp interpolated alpha. But when I save in that format, and try loading it into the Mod Tool, I get an error stating that I'm trying to import a DXT10 format, and not a DXT5. And if I continue with the import, the texture just looks like static. Do I need to upgrade my version of Photoshop. I'm using CC 2015.

[Mr_E_Mann]

Ok, so I was able to get my texture files into the proper DDS format using an online DDS converter program. I've also done some head-shaping in Blender, but I'm still learning. Here is a sample of what I've managed to do so far (feedback is appreciated):

 

Hanser Alberto:

 

Trey Mancini:

 

Adalberto Mondesi:

 

Christian Walker:

[bctrackboi11]

Those look pretty darn good. I think I'm gonna teach myself some stuff and jump into it too. 

[LetsGoFish2015]

Good job.  Can you help me out to learn too?

[LetsGoFish2015]

On ‎5‎/‎31‎/‎2020 at 10:29 PM, bctrackboi11 said:

Those look pretty darn good. I think I'm gonna teach myself some stuff and jump into it too. 

Good job.  Can you help me out to learn too?

[Jim825]

52 minutes ago, LetsGoFish2015 said:

Good job.  Can you help me out to learn too?

 

You asked the same question yesterday.

 

Stop bumping your posts.  It's against site rules. and you know it.  You have been warned about this before.  

[LetsGoFish2015]

It was an honest mistake.  I didn't realize I bumped myself.  I have certain disabilities that hinder my focus a bit. I know what mistakes I have made before, and I would never knowingly harm anyone else. Can you please accept my apology, and rescind my warning points?

[Yankee4Life]

38 minutes ago, LetsGoFish2015 said:

It was an honest mistake.  I didn't realize I bumped myself.  I have certain disabilities that hinder my focus a bit. I know what mistakes I have made before, and I would never knowingly harm anyone else. Can you please accept my apology, and rescind my warning points?

 

If Jim does this or not that is up to him but to me your excuse of not realizing that you bumped yourself in this thread when no one else replied between your two posts is hard to believe. I mean, if you had asked this question and then there were a few responses between your two posts I can see it. But you were back-to-back here. I am sorry you have disabilities but you have bumped topics before.

 

As I recall didn't you once tell Jim about creating the new Yankee Stadium when it first opened up?

 

One last thing. Any responses to this use a PM. This guy has a thread for a completely different reason than this.

[Jim825]

2 hours ago, LetsGoFish2015 said:

It was an honest mistake.  I didn't realize I bumped myself.  I have certain disabilities that hinder my focus a bit. I know what mistakes I have made before, and I would never knowingly harm anyone else. Can you please accept my apology, and rescind my warning points?

I'm a reasonable guy and will give you the benefit of the doubt this time.  I have revoked my warning and rescinded the points.

[LetsGoFish2015]

Thanks bud

[Mr_E_Mann]

To be honest, I know that there are far more qualified people here who could offer advice on how to create faces for MLB 2K12, as I'm still relatively new. For me, the trickiest part was figuring out what I needed to install on my computer. There are all sorts of tutorials on how to use Photoshop and Blender to modify the face textures and head shapes (most of them geared towards the NBA 2K games), but there didn't seem to be a comprehensive list anywhere as to what tools are required for MLB 2K12 specifically. So the first post in this thread should help you get started at least, as I pretty much listed everything that I needed to get started. Hopefully that helps.

 

I've actually been hard at work at it over the past couple of weeks, spending countless hours to create 25 new cyberfaces so far, although as I learn more and more about the craft, I keep reworking and improving upon those faces. I may post a new thread to show photos of my works in progress, and of course once I feel I have some of these ready to share, I will upload them to the site. I have downloaded a number of cyberfaces from others on here over the years, and it will be nice to be able to contribute as well.

[Gochoz]

Hi there, i guess i'm having the same problems that Mr.E says, i can't find an actuall mlb 2k12 tutorial to give you the right direction on what you need and how to do it in order to make it works, i have a pretty decent dds of The Kid because i can't find anywhere a Ken Griffey CF and honestly i don't believe it,..so if it some help over there, just let it know, because i need it.

In order to prove what i'm saying, here's the files, these are some of the examples that i wanna make as a CF, but i can't find the way to make it through from Photoshop work, i really don't know how to work on blender yet, if someone can give me a hand i would be gratefull.

Griffey Face3.dds Griffey Face.dds Griffey Face2.dds