Modding Progress

[CarolusXCI]

Question: what is inside the SYNC file? Updated courts, uniforms and what else? Anims and cyberfaces as well?

[Dee4Three]

Question: what is inside the SYNC file? Updated courts, uniforms and what else? Anims and cyberfaces as well?

I think the default roster itself is in there (Like the official 2k roster, and the injury free roster).

Correct me if Im wrong anyone.

[©roke]

Question: what is inside the SYNC file? Updated courts, uniforms and what else? Anims and cyberfaces as well?

I think the default roster itself is in there (Like the official 2k roster, and the injury free roster).

Correct me if Im wrong anyone.

Last year it was basically a container for everything that 2k updated through the season

[TBM]

Question: what is inside the SYNC file? Updated courts, uniforms and what else? Anims and cyberfaces as well?

I think the default roster itself is in there (Like the official 2k roster, and the injury free roster).

Correct me if Im wrong anyone.

I'm correcting you. You're wrong.

The SYNC file has the most current roster file, as well as any art updates that aren't done through patch. Starting with 2K15, and especially in 2K16, art files can be sent over the 2K servers, meaning every time you opened the game, new shoes, jerseys, and courts were downloaded (which is why sometimes in 2K16, you'd get a message in the bottom left of the screen telling you to go to the main menu to download said updates). The sync file even had priority over the external file plugin, which is why we couldn't edit Derrick Rose and the Clippers court for most of the lifespan of the last game.

[seanbarkley]

No way man look at how far weve come in just 9 days lool. the sky's the limit for us

I'm not optimistic man, the experience tells me that the sync file is a b1tch. No matter what you mod, if the same file is inside sync it will de overwriten.

I had the experience with shoes last year and the only way to make them work was turning off the internet, removing sync file, and editing the original shoe global. Sadly the only way to enjoy a modded file which is inside sync is deleting sync and playing the game offline.

If we just could get a method to extract files from sync (updated unis, rosters, shoes) and insert them in the game folder would be awesome, anyways I don't give an F for online so I wouldn't miss it at all...

Question for Mauro: If we select the only-read property in sync file would that avoid the game from overwrite it theorically or not?

[Dee4Three]

Question: what is inside the SYNC file? Updated courts, uniforms and what else? Anims and cyberfaces as well?

I think the default roster itself is in there (Like the official 2k roster, and the injury free roster).

Correct me if Im wrong anyone.

I'm correcting you. You're wrong.

The SYNC file has the most current roster file, as well as any art updates that aren't done through patch. Starting with 2K15, and especially in 2K16, art files can be sent over the 2K servers, meaning every time you opened the game, new shoes, jerseys, and courts were downloaded (which is why sometimes in 2K16, you'd get a message in the bottom left of the screen telling you to go to the main menu to download said updates). The sync file even had priority over the external file plugin, which is why we couldn't edit Derrick Rose and the Clippers court for most of the lifespan of the last game.

Oh okay. You know more about this stuff.

Still crossing my fingers.

[Culture Games]

Remember when sports game franchises didn't actively sabotage modding?





Don't give up guys!

[TBM]

This has absolutely nothing to do with sabotaging modders. The rosters are encrypted because now they're connected to Steam more closely, and the sync file is for the benefit of most people who play the game because the devs can push out updates at a whim, without needing to go through any channels to push patches through. There is no conspiracy.

[TGsoGood]

Cant we just save the original sync file that we have now and use it to overwrite any newer version that gets released?

[Dee4Three]

Cant we just save the original sync file that we have now and use it to overwrite any newer version that gets released?

I was thinking that as well, but wouldn't that mean we would lose some patch benefits?

Honestly, if using the original makes us be able to mod more, I would rather do that. I think the game plays well.

[CarolusXCI]

Cant we just save the original sync file that we have now and use it to overwrite any newer version that gets released?

I was thinking that as well, but wouldn't that mean we would lose some patch benefits?

Honestly, if using the original makes us be able to mod more, I would rather do that. I think the game plays well.

Yea, that's what I thought as well.

Anyway, I just tried to rename the SYNC.BIN file to SYNC123.BIN. Probably some of you already tried it but I didn't know what would happen.

The game starts and takes a little while to show the main menu. Then if you take a look at the folder, a new SYNC.BIN file is created. I don't think my internet connection is able to download 900 mb worth of stuff in 1 or 2 minutes. So this data has to be stored somewhere, right?

The game takes the data from somewhere and creates a new SYNC.BIN file if you removed the original one (or renamed). So, where does this data come from?

[seanbarkley]

This has absolutely nothing to do with sabotaging modders. The rosters are encrypted because now they're connected to Steam more closely, and the sync file is for the benefit of most people who play the game because the devs can push out updates at a whim, without needing to go through any channels to push patches through. There is no conspiracy.

That's your opinion and I respect it, but I don't share it. There're a lot of games out there with regular updates and stuff that are perfectly moddable without the need of something like this. What they can do with this file is let the modders do their work in some fields, but don't allow the possibility of a game in which a UBR can be developed.

If this were possible console games would be really worse, and they aren't going to allow it being consoles their main income source. And finally, for me the most important: you don't have a game that players can update at will, so they are obliged to buy next year one, even if it's just an iteration with updated rosters.

As I've said this is my opinion.

Cant we just save the original sync file that we have now and use it to overwrite any newer version that gets released?

I was thinking that as well, but wouldn't that mean we would lose some patch benefits?

Honestly, if using the original makes us be able to mod more, I would rather do that. I think the game plays well.

Definitelly staying with the original one would allow much more mods and customizations, but having to turn internet off to play the game may not be very popular.

Last year Mauro could extract files inside the sync file, so maybe in the case of staying with the original sync file we can replace some game files for more updated ones (like rosters, faces, stadiums...) extracting them for the updated sync file and adding them to the modded folder. What would really be a challenge tho is making the game recognize new files from sync file (like shoes or uniforms) instead of replacing existing ones.

[TBM]

This has absolutely nothing to do with sabotaging modders. The rosters are encrypted because now they're connected to Steam more closely, and the sync file is for the benefit of most people who play the game because the devs can push out updates at a whim, without needing to go through any channels to push patches through. There is no conspiracy.

That's your opinion and I respect it, but I don't share it. There're a lot of games out there with regular updates and stuff that are perfectly moddable without the need of something like this. What they can do with this file is let the modders do their work in some fields, but don't allow the possibility of a game in which a UBR can be developed.

If this were possible console games would be really worse, and they aren't going to allow it being consoles their main income source. And finally, for me the most important: you don't have a game that players can update at will, so they are obliged to buy next year one, even if it's just an iteration with updated rosters.

As I've said this is my opinion.

I have no doubt that 2K aren't actively trying to make modding easier, but as Andrew has explained, if they wanted to stop modding, they'd send him a cease and desist and it would stop most modding right there.

[TGsoGood]

We could try to unpack and (re)pack the sync.bin file. If successful we could add and remove whatever we choose.

[Andrew]

The ties to a digital platform (ie Steam) definitely complicate matters with encrypted files, but we just have to do the best we can.

[seanbarkley]

We could try to unpack and (re)pack the sync.bin file. If successful we could add and remove whatever we choose.

We've tried last year a lot man. Mauro was able to extract files from sync but not in the proper way (files that were supposed to be inside .iff files were scattered when extracted, not inside their .iff container); and repack... was simply impossible in consequence.

[buzzy]

I have no doubt that 2K aren't actively trying to make modding easier, but as Andrew has explained, if they wanted to stop modding, they'd send him a cease and desist and it would stop most modding right there.

I'm just talking out of my ass here, but you could still actively try to slow down modding without having to file a cease and desist and deal with the PR hit that comes with it.

[Culture Games]

I have no doubt that 2K aren't actively trying to make modding easier, but as Andrew has explained, if they wanted to stop modding, they'd send him a cease and desist and it would stop most modding right there.

I'm just talking out of my ass here, but you could still actively try to slow down modding without having to file a cease and desist and deal with the PR hit that comes with it.

Correct, my take exactly.

[Culture Games]

The ties to a digital platform (ie Steam) definitely complicate matters with encrypted files, but we just have to do the best we can.

I love your avatar, that is classic!

[Andrew]

I'm just talking out of my ass here, but you could still actively try to slow down modding without having to file a cease and desist and deal with the PR hit that comes with it.

I suppose they could, but seeing as how over 95% of the userbase is on console, it wouldn't really be a huge PR hit; just an outraged niche of fans. It would also mean going out of their way to do those things, so to me it's less likely than the fact the PC version went from a port of one generation of the game to another, resulting in file format changes, and also a need to tie the game to a digital distribution platform due to the presence of microtransactions.

My understanding is that there are devs at Visual Concepts (beyond the ones we know) who think that modding is pretty cool, so if there are any efforts to curb modding, the directive is coming from higher up, not the people directly working on the game. That's still an if, though. It's worth noting that a couple of things about modding have gotten easier, and that 2K modding has never been as easy as NBA Live modding was back in the day. It may have seemed that way with RED MC, but a lot went into working things out to create RED MC in the first place, compared to Live's rosters that could be edited with any software that could open DBF files (which includes DB Commander, DBF Viewer, Microsoft Excel, and OpenOffice's spreadsheet program).

Of course, we've discussed this situation at length before, and it's always come down to us having to agree to disagree. The bottom line is, regardless of what's actually happening here from 2K's end, this is the situation we have to work with. I think our energies are best used working out what we can do with the cards we've been dealt than arguing about 2K's supposed motives. If we look back at the discussion that's taken place so far in this thread, and some of the work that's been released and previewed, I'd say the community has done a fine job of that so far, within the first couple of weeks of the game being out.

I love your avatar, that is classic!

Thanks! Found a video-to-gif converter online, and may have become a little obsessed with it.

[PeacemanNOT]

Where's Vlad and Leftos when you need them...

[TGsoGood]

So where were we.... Whats left to do again? What are we trying to accomplish

[TBM]

3D editing and a roster editor/adding teams.

[JBulls]

Where's Vlad and Leftos when you need them...

working for 2k .

[matmat66]

Hi guys. Just need guidance. What tool can I use to be able to use a jersey number that the team has already retired? Been trying to give Charles Barkley the No. 34 jersey in Phoenix but I cannot do it through in game editing. There is no player in the roster with this jersey number. Thanks in advance.