[Leftos] My NBA 2K12 work

A hub for everything related to NBA 2K12 modding. Releases, previews, requests, and other modding discussion belongs here.

[Leftos] My NBA 2K12 work

Postby Leftos on Thu Aug 30, 2012 5:42 am

It's been one hell of a season for me here at NLSC. From creating my first tool and my first attempt at a Superglobal, to becoming a Team Member and getting together with the people that have been running the site for years to have some fun and do a weekly podcast, it's been great.

This topic accumulates my work for 2K12 this year, so that I can clear up my signature, and get things ready for 2K13. Up until September 27 I'll be busy with my last exams for my degree, so I doubt I'll be able to bring something new to the game until October 2. I promise to try and get my tools compatible with 2K13 as soon as possible, with the help of the community of course.

Special thanks to: All the NLSC staff (Andrew, JaoSming, Pdub and the rest), Vlad Zola Jr., every person who ever made a suggestion or provided a bug report for one of my works, every donor who supported me, and of course, the whole NLSC community for their support one way or the other.


Tools

Keep My Mod
This year 2K implemented a mechanism to be able to update most game files (mostly art and sounds) silently over the web, without the need for a patch. However, any file that got updated by 2K would be used over any mods you had installed, with no easy way to circumvent this. For example, once the Raptors court got updated, any mod you had installed for that court would be ignored, and 2K's update would be used instead. Keep My Mod allowed users to select which of 2K's updates they wanted to circumvent, and allowed modders to complement their mods with Keep My Mod lists, which made the tool automatically keep the files modded, if and whenever 2K decided to update those files. Although the tool didn't get much traction by modders, it proved useful for a number of users. I've promised to add a feature to be able to remove files that 2K introduced via an Online Data update, files that weren't in the retail game in the first place, and although I haven't gotten round to that so far, I promise to have the feature in by November.

Miracle My Jersey/Stadium
Based on JaoSming's findings on how to edit the lighting of jerseys and arenas, I made a tool to automate the job, and allow all modders and users to apply different lighting profiles on jerseys and arenas, without the need to go through hex-editing each one.

Global Editor
Based on the research of JaoSming, tatlopuyo and seanjohn1414 on finding lighting values for the globals, came Global Editor. A tool similar to MMJ/S, but for the global.iff which handles the lighting, shadows and reflections for the player's skin, arena's floor, and various other stuff. It was the tool that began the Shadow Mod frenzy this year, making it possible and accessible for all users to create their own lighting profiles, and apply them to any global, instead of being stuck with a particular modder's global for the lighting effects they hex-edited into the globals. No longer were modders the only lighting masters, keeping their work a secret, but now everyone was encouraged to try their own edits and share them with the community, which gave us some amazing Shadow Mods really early in the game's lifespan, and acted as a beginning point for the amazing globals seanjohn1414 and Kool `Em have been getting out as of late.

NBA Stats Tracker
This tool began its life being just a workaround for the Team Stats bug that plagued all career modes in 2K12, but with your suggestions it ended up becoming a full-fledged basketball analysis tool, and the thesis for my Computer Engineering diploma. It's nearing the completion of the v1 feature set, and a stable release, and it's the one work I'm most proud of up to this point in my life.

For a good example on how NBA Stats Tracker can improve your 2K experience, you can read my Detroit Pistons 2012-13 Association Story, for which I used it extensively.

Roster Merge & Repair
This tool made it possible for people to combine two or more rosters and get the best out of them, without the need to manually use REDitor. For example, you could use it to get UBR's 2012-13 rookies into the latest Albys' roster, and then use the detailed information Nick's 2012 draft class had on them, giving you a great 2012-13 roster to play Association with. You could also use it, for example, to incorporate the player ratings and tendencies of a new roster into an ongoing Association, without the need to start over. It also incorporates roster repair tools, including an automatic fix for the duplicate ASA_IDs issue which caused box scores and awards to get messed up in Association and other career modes.

Schedule Randomizer
After a new roster comes out, you're always tempted to start your career anew. However, with the schedule being the same each time, you ended up playing against the same opponents in the same order, hearing the same stories and having to go through the same games again. Schedule Randomizer allows you to do exactly that, randomize all the teams' schedules, and get a new experience next time you start an Association.


Mods

Superglobal Codename Moose
One of the first superglobals to be released for NBA 2K12, it quickly grew in popularity and acted as a base and guideline for many of the superglobals that followed. It was my first attempt at a Superglobal, and quite a successful one. It's quite outdated now itself, but it's been the base for many of the latest and greatest of seanjohn1414's globals.

Improving on Redlogic's sliders
Redlogic's set of sliders was one of the best pre-patch ones, and I got his permission to apply my own tweaks on it. It didn't work so well after the patch, but if you follow the link to the thread, there's some recommendations on what sliders I used then. sevin0seven's slider set seems to be getting a lot of praise, if you're looking for a quick recommendation.


Guides

Complete Guide to an improved NBA 2K12
It was never quite complete, and it hasn't been updated in a really long time, but during its time it served as a starting point for people that wanted to mod their NBA 2K12 and get an improved experience, but were getting lost at the amount of threads in the Releases subforum. Users from other communities linked to it as well, recommending it to users new to NBA 2K12 on the PC, and how to get the most of it.

Guide to a Great 2012-13 Roster
A guide on how to use Roster Merge and REDitor to combine the Albys roster, Ultimate Base Roster and Nick's 2012 draft class to get a full 2012-13 experience.
Eleftherios "Leftos" Aslanoglou
NBA 2K AI Software Engineer
Visual Concepts Entertainment / 2K Sports

Used to be "That Tools Guy" around here during the good ol' days. Although you probably remember me as your favorite Podcast host.
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Re: [Leftos] My NBA 2K12 work

Postby Pooh on Thu Aug 30, 2012 5:56 am

And it's been great having you here my friend , looking forward to what you have in store in the future.
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Re: [Leftos] My NBA 2K12 work

Postby 123rockstar on Thu Aug 30, 2012 6:35 am

Its so awesome to have you indeed Leftos! You're da boss :D (Y)
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Re: [Leftos] My NBA 2K12 work

Postby chicagoRAW on Thu Aug 30, 2012 6:40 am

Thanks Leftos.
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Re: [Leftos] My NBA 2K12 work

Postby Jayson Silverio on Thu Aug 30, 2012 3:47 pm

Awesome stuff for 2k12 sir :applaud:
i think 2k should hire you (Y)
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