FOF2k4: is there a utility for this?

[cthomer5000]

Do any of the utilites out there allow you to view the coaching attributes in one easy worksheet like TCY helper does?

If not, something like that would be a nice utility. It's a little tough sorting through the coaches as it is now.

[stevew]

I think that Gstelmacks draft viewer extractor thingy does this. Not 100% sure tho.

[cthomer5000]

Originally Posted by stevew

I think that Gstelmacks draft viewer extractor thingy does this. Not 100% sure tho.

yes.. it does. thanks!

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by cthomer5000

yes.. it does. thanks!

You're welcome. Staff hiring is both easier (in single player) and much more difficult (in multiplayer). In my office league we're all going after the same coaches and scouts much more consistently now...

[azjoe_02]

gstelmack or anyone that can help, once you use the extractor and it says finished, where is the data???

[cthomer5000]

Originally Posted by azjoe_02

gstelmack or anyone that can help, once you use the extractor and it says finished, where is the data???

in a text file in the extractor directory (wherever you have the program installed)

[azjoe_02]

Thanks, I found it. But I am getting a bunch of zeros after the player names and for the scouts I get zeros and "unknowns" after the name. What am I doing wrong????

[azjoe_02]

Bump....

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by azjoe_02

Thanks, I found it. But I am getting a bunch of zeros after the player names and for the scouts I get zeros and "unknowns" after the name. What am I doing wrong????

Extractor works by taking a screenshot of the Player Report (or Staff Report) window and running a not-very-robust OCR algorithm on it to pull the data out. There are two common causes of it failing:

1) There is some other window blocking all or part of the window it's grabbing data from. Make sure you don't cover it up, and even putting the cursor over it can mess it up. I usually make sure the report window for the starting player/staff member is in the lower-right corner of my screen, Extractor is in the upper-left, click go, and walk away from my machine until it completes.

2) Your video card does something funky with its colors. I know what the base colors are that FOF uses and check for values close to those in the pixels, but some people have still reported issues when they are in 16-bit color on the desktop. Try 32-bit, and make sure you aren't using some very unusual color scheme.

#1 is the most common issue, #2 happens occasionally.

[azjoe_02]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

Extractor works by taking a screenshot of the Player Report (or Staff Report) window and running a not-very-robust OCR algorithm on it to pull the data out. There are two common causes of it failing:

1) There is some other window blocking all or part of the window it's grabbing data from. Make sure you don't cover it up, and even putting the cursor over it can mess it up. I usually make sure the report window for the starting player/staff member is in the lower-right corner of my screen, Extractor is in the upper-left, click go, and walk away from my machine until it completes.

2) Your video card does something funky with its colors. I know what the base colors are that FOF uses and check for values close to those in the pixels, but some people have still reported issues when they are in 16-bit color on the desktop. Try 32-bit, and make sure you aren't using some very unusual color scheme.

#1 is the most common issue, #2 happens occasionally.

Thanks for the response....but I tried it again and get the same things. I make sure that everything is minimized except FOF and the extractor. Nothing overlapping, no cursors on top. I made sure that I am in 32 bit for the colors and still the same thing.

Is there anything else that I could be doing wrong? I really want this to work.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by azjoe_02

Thanks for the response....but I tried it again and get the same things. I make sure that everything is minimized except FOF and the extractor. Nothing overlapping, no cursors on top. I made sure that I am in 32 bit for the colors and still the same thing.

Is there anything else that I could be doing wrong? I really want this to work.

Do you have the first player in the list opened up on the screen? Meaning, sort your roster, then click on the first player so his card is opened up, then run the extractor.


Todd

[azjoe_02]

Yes, I sort it by position (for the roster screen) and then click to open up the first QB. Make sure it isn't overlapped by anything and then start the extractor. It goes through all the players and then after it is finished, I open the text file. All friggin zeros!

[MizzouRah]

Hmmmm.... assuming you have FOF installed in the default directory?

gstelmack will get you going when he gets back on.


Todd

[gstelmack]

You can take a screenshot of your screen right before you'd click the "extract" button and e-mail it to me. I used to have a debugging feature in there that would grab just the bits it needed and save it off for you to send me, but I pulled it a couple of versions ago as no one was needing it (and it needed GDI+, which was a separate download for people). Anyway, from the screenshot I can usually tell what's wrong. Worse comes to worse, I have a little test app that I can paste the screenshot into and actually run the debugger against it.

[azjoe_02]

Greg, email sent. Thanks.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by azjoe_02

Greg, email sent. Thanks.

Got it, reply sent. It reminded me of the THIRD common cause for people having problems:

3) Turning on ClearType or Font Smoothing blurs the fonts. My OCR algorithm can't deal with these. Turn them off before running Extractor.

[azjoe_02]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

Got it, reply sent. It reminded me of the THIRD common cause for people having problems:

3) Turning on ClearType or Font Smoothing blurs the fonts. My OCR algorithm can't deal with these. Turn them off before running Extractor.

Bingo! That did it! Thanks a lot Greg! This will make things easier.
Is there a way to line everything up?

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by azjoe_02

Is there a way to line everything up?

I'm not sure I understand the question. Line what up? It's a CSV file designed to be imported into a spreadsheet program (or the Draft Analyzer).

[azjoe_02]

How do you import it into a spreadsheet?

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by azjoe_02

How do you import it into a spreadsheet?

Most spreadsheet programs (Excel, OpenOffice) can just open a CSV file. They have either a Text File option that includes a .csv extension, or when you open a Text file it opens another dialog asking you how to find the fields (delimited with a character, fixed-width, etc). You can actually print a roster screen from FOF2k4 to a file and open it in a spreadsheet by specifying "fixed-width" for how to interpret the fields, and then setting the column dividers.

[azjoe_02]

Duh. *smacks head*
I can't believe that I didn't think of that.

Thanks again...