MLB 17 Visual Improvements (Wishlist)

[WMoore75]

As we all know the SCEA team made some amazing improvements visually to MLB 16 The Show. They have many masterminds on their team making The Show one of the greatest franchises there is today. I am creating this thread in hopes of making their job a little easier when it comes down to brainstorming for things to make the game look even better than it already does.

Feel free to leave any ideas, pictures, and/or opinions that you think will improve and should be included in next years edition of MLB The Show.

Here's a list of mine:
- Of course PBR the grass/turf (I remember them saying they were working on it but couldn't get it in this years game)
- We all know that you guys have stated that it's hard to make the players' faces look more realistic, a nice make-up for that would be updated body models, at least make them more realistic with more options.
- More equipment updates, maybe tie the shoelaces when scanning them instead of tucking them into the shoe.
- For some reason in many of the stadiums most of the steps have no rails. not really important but it just makes the stadium look kind of funny.
- add more graphic overlays for when a home run is hit, stolen base, strikeout, etc.
- create 3 jersey templates (standard, pullover, and vests)
- improve uniform slots (some teams have the same pants/hats for their alternate uniforms yet they take 2 slots for example HOME and H-ALTERNATE for the reds have the same pants/hat) or does that not fix the uniform slot issue?

[RCMacc44]

Re: MLB 17 Visual Improvements (Wishlist)

Last year they focused on the field with PBR...

Next year I would be ecstatic to see new player models and PBR applied to uniforms and players skin.
And of course more hair and body types as well as a reworking of the uniforms to make them move more realistically.

[breakfastcat]

Re: MLB 17 Visual Improvements (Wishlist)

I really hope 17 is the year we finally get new player models with better looking cloth physics, but I don't want to get my hopes up yet again. At the very least I'd like to have more varied body types, the 3 current ones don't really fit all players. For example there's no way to have a guy that is somewhat chubby(ex. Juan Uribe, Kendrys Morales), he either has to have a normal build or look straight up obese.

I hope the grass gets gets improved next year as well. I can't quite put my finger on it but for some reason the grass doesn't look convincing to me, especially when compared to the grass in FIFA. It just looks like a semi low-res texture when viewed from a distance. If they can get this down, the stadiums will look absolutely perfect as far as I'm concerned.

Actual functioning LED boards would be nice (showing a player's name when they are announced, rotating ads, etc), although that's pretty low on my priorities.

[physicx]

Re: MLB 17 Visual Improvements (Wishlist)

Something that's kind of bothered me lately is the size of the ball when it's in play. Like when it's in a player's glove or hand, it looks normal sized, but once it's in play, the thing turns to a white dot and looks almost the size of a player's head. No clue why that happens but maybe they can look into it.

Also, as a catcher in real life, boy do the animations bother me. They're pretty clunky e.g. when a catcher calls for a high pitch and they warp back into their primary stance. Considering this is the player you are looking at the most when pitching, it's important to get a catcher's motions right behind the plate. Looking at the bench coach for pitches, primary and secondary (throw-down) stances, showing decoy signs when a runner's on 2nd base, framing pitches, the glove actually closing when the ball hits it, stuttering when throwing back to the pitcher if they disagree with the umpire's call, dropping to their knees or looking like they're in pain when they take a foul ball to an unprotected area. All sorts of things you could do with the catcher. And add more equipment! Gimme some Nike and Mizuno gear

[bobzyauncle]

Re: MLB 17 Visual Improvements (Wishlist)

Removing the quick aninmated run in when the outfielder throws to an infielder and it is the end pf the play and they run in a speeded up way, looks weird.

Texture of the walls, they mostly look the same everywhere in eah ground thus look bland. Things like marks, creases should be easy to incorporate.

The dirt.

Umpires clothing (especially the shoes, look like clogs

Frostbite engine may fix most of this I hope.

[NBAGreen]

Re: MLB 17 Visual Improvements (Wishlist)

I hope that they add the option to add the ball trail for all balls destined for the outfield. Line drives where the ball doesn't rise above the top of the screen during a day game at Wrigley are not visible.

[NBAGreen]

Re: MLB 17 Visual Improvements (Wishlist)

I hope the grass gets gets improved next year as well. I can't quite put my finger on it but for some reason the grass doesn't look convincing to me, especially when compared to the grass in FIFA. It just looks like a semi low-res texture when viewed from a distance. If they can get this down, the stadiums will look absolutely perfect as far as I'm concerned.

The grass in FIFA defined next gen in my mind. Having played it for years on Xbox 360 the next gen version was an incredible step up. Player interaction (sliding, running) causes changes to the grass. Some common camera angles of the field in MLB the Show look like the semi low-res textures of the lawn that FIFA had in its last gen iterations.

[TarHeelPhenom]

Re: MLB 17 Visual Improvements (Wishlist)

I would say add more fan variety in the stands. I promise you i see that same brother at every game lol.

[breakfastcat]

Re: MLB 17 Visual Improvements (Wishlist)

Frostbite engine may fix most of this I hope.

Frostbite was created by EA, there's no chance The Show will ever use Frostbite.

[johnnyg83]

Re: MLB 17 Visual Improvements (Wishlist)

1. Better grass
2. Better environs outside the stadium

That's it ! Best baseball game ever!

[McPizza]

Re: MLB 17 Visual Improvements (Wishlist)

Fantastic game...but there is one thing visually that has bothered me for years. When you create a player who is either taller than average...or shorter than average...they always grow or shrink to the exact same height as everyone else during cut scenes. I would love for the SCEA team to fix this.

just one other thing...it's hard to see the ball coming off the bat while playing RTTS infield this year. This has never been a problem before...hope it improves next year.

[Ghost Of The Year]

Re: MLB 17 Visual Improvements (Wishlist)

Hair. I have great expectations in this department. Though it may only be a little thing, this could really do a lot to distinguish each CAP even further. The real players SCEA puts in, I never really feel I'm looking at the same player over & over, with just a different name, for the most part. But when It comes to me personally creating a player, my abilities are limited & I really think this could be a great 'unequalizer'. lol

[NEOPARADIGM]

Re: MLB 17 Visual Improvements (Wishlist)

I'd like:

1. For them to put some effort into crowd distribution. Crowds should have some nice dynamics to them according to weather, day, opponent, time of year, and team performance, and should distribute somewhat accurately. Currently it's like there's four different crowd-types: full, mostly-full, sold-out-lower-deck-with-empty-upper-deck, and mostly-empty, and what determines which one you get I haven't even figured out. I'm 14 1/2 games out of first playing the 16 1/2 games out White Sox for a MON, TUE, WED series and all three games sold out. I hear an announced crowd of 22,000-something and yet the game still looked like a sellout because all the empty seats are in the upper deck. Playing as a 2-9 team in April, rainy & cold conditions, against the Twins, on a Tuesday afternoon, by all logic should be friggin' empty, but the game is sold out. It just doesn't make any sense half the time.

2. Cutscenes of fielders after an out should signal with their hands how many outs there are (wiggling their index finger or putting up the bull-horns).

3. User-controlled pitchers should check the runners (the animation, I mean) on their own. No pitchers simply ignore a runner on 2nd, for instance; they always turn and look at him for a second. It should just be part of all stretch animations by default. (To be clear on this I'm not saying the pticher should literally check the runners all the time or by themselves, forcing the camera view to change, I'm just talking about the pitcher's head.)

4. That open-hand release-point they gave all the pitchers should be embarrassing; I can't believe a dev said it was intentional. Not to be a complete jerk about it but, like, do you watch baseball? Virtually every single broadcast features stop-motion camera work showing what a pitcher's hand looks like at the release-point; I mean they literally freeze the replay at that moment. This is consistent across many broadcasts (I have the MLB package). How they turn around and decide a "high five" is what pitcher-releases should look like is just ... smh.

5. Like physicx said, as many new catcher animations as possible. For those of us who pitch from behind-the-pitcher cams, that stuff is huge, we're watching it all game long. Also more catcher gear and allow the ability to customize catcher headgear (playing with white cages all year for a team that wears midnight blue cages irl, like, not a big deal but c'mon man).

6. Dirtier dirt stains and darker, deeper grass stains on uniforms. They're pretty ok as they are but no one will be complaining if they're enhanced a bit.

I'd be stoked for those upgrades.

Cheers.

[brrmikey]

Re: MLB 17 Visual Improvements (Wishlist)

Not focusing on the good...that list is way too long. Just my short list of things I would love to see changed:

I really don't have a problem with the graphics overall, they are pretty stellar. My only gripe would be the step back that was taken in the hair/beard department, IMO.

What really annoys me as an offline only, me vs the cpu only player is the inability to turn off all the notifications and various icons. This might sound trivial, but it annoys the heck out of me and takes away some of the realism. I even turned on a cpu vs cpu game while i was eating one day and these icons, notifications were still appearing (if i'm doing something wrong, please let me know)...I at least used to be able to count on watching a cpu vs cpu game and get that true mlb broadcast, clean screen visual experience, but that is not the case.

These are the notifications/ icons I would love to be able to turn off/remove/adjust:
- The xp points notification
- The manager tips that pop up (this even comes up for the cpu when i play them?)
- The defensive shift icon (why does this come up when i use auto shift)
- The 'L1 to tag up' notification (why does this come up when i use auto baserunning)
- The baserunning diamond is way too big this year. I wish I could turn it off. And why is this present when I throw a pickoff attempt to the baserunner...i don't think this happened before
- I wish I could turn off the baserunner window. At times the baserunner(s) trot gives away a homer that is not a no doubter...the commentary is great regarding this, but the trot of the baserunners give this away

Another thing...I think this fits in the 'visual' department. For broadcast, i think all animations should play out. The cut off animations (catcher throw back to pitcher, pickoff throw back to pitcher) some batter walkups, etc. need to be addressed.

One last thing. The games needs to run at 60 fps..I would even take it down to 720p if i had to to get this. The framerate drops in cutscenes, some replays, and graphical transitions (i.e. logos flashing onscreen before replays) needs to be addressed. i thought it was my tv, then i popped in the last of us the other day for the first time (previously mlb the show was the only game that stayed in the ps4) and that seemed to be 60fps and it was very smooth.

Love the game. Just my 'visual' improvement wishlist.

Thanks.

[strawberryshortcake]

Re: MLB 17 Visual Improvements (Wishlist)

Both of these are legacy concerns that are evident in the game that I would like to see truly addressed:

(1) Pitching motion/follow through
(2) Throwing motion

(3) Please remove the "finger spread" when throwing the ball (this is a specific issue to MLB16; never seen before in the series).
Not a legacy issue, but for whatever reason, the development team decided to do something weird to the fingers when throwing the ball for each and every single person on the field (pitchers, catchers, fielders). No one in real life actually throws the ball by spreading their fingers apart.

The following is not a legacy issue but would be nice to have.
(4) How about team uniforms during the Allstar game.


Pitching motion
Pitching is a violent body action. It involves a great deal of energy expenditure from the entire body. The follow through of the arm ... whips with an incredible amount of force as well as the upper torso and leg kicks.

MLB the Show's pitching motions lacks physical exertion necessary to pitch a real baseball. Anytime something fast happens in the real world, motion blur accompanies the movement. The Show's pitching mechanic is very clean and clinical; there is no motion blur at all.

Spoiler

Here's a example to illustrate the concern in digital format ("solution" to the problem in the video below):

Spoiler

Developments might want to know what the solution might be. So here's the youtube video (from 0:33 to 0:55 mark; animation "hold" technique. Hold the keyframes longer at certain points and speed up the in between frames. This makes things much more realistic.

<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_HMEM97DZF4" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="560"></iframe>

Disregard the character model. Focus on the pitching motion.

Analogous to MLB the Show's pitchers.


More in line with a real pitcher. Notice the violent action (and motion blur) of the arms/follow through

Throwing motion
Fielder's throwing motion also needs improvements. Throwing a baseball requires the fielder to rear back with his throwing arm including throwing shoulder/torso, and leading the throw forward with the opposite shoulder/torso. Rearing back builds up the potential energy that allows the ball to travel when the potential energy gets converted to kinetic energy.

MLB the Show fielder's leads their throws with the same shoulder/torso as their throwing arms, ultimately resulting in a very unnatural throwing motion, resulting in very little build up of potential energy to throw the ball.

EDIT: In the world of 3D animation, the 12 principles of animation includes proper "arcs". As it stands now, the "arc" is missing in throwing motions.

Spoiler

<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/I1_tZ9LhJD4" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="560"></iframe>

Fingers Spread

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LP-zMMCMeA

No one is actually able to throw the ball the way the players' fingers are currently animated. Spreading all five fingers does not physically allow one to throw the ball properly. The thumb, forefinger and middle finger initial keyframe/in between frames are fine, and should stay like that throughout the entire motion. But once you start posing the ring and pinky fingers in a spread out fashion, that's no longer realistic.

<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3LP-zMMCMeA" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="560"></iframe>


Team Uniform during the all star game (Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2015; Playstation 3)