[Tutorial] How to create custom crowd signs - replacement and/or new file methods!

[4 Life]

So, long story short, I made a tutorial thread about giving a wrestler someone else's crowd signs, and there was some back and forth between myself, tomwearsglasses, tekken57 and Cave Waverider about all the technical stuff and got on to extracting the signs and stuff like that, and I learned a lot from that one thread by taking the information that they gave me and then did some messing around and finding stuff out. I then received a PM from another user asking me how to extract and possibly edit them just as I was figuring it out myself and then more or less wrote a tutorial for this user via PM, so I figured I may as well copy and paste it here with a little editing for everyone else to benefit from.

The first part of this tutorial will walk you through REPLACING a crowd sign - that is, opening it up, editing it, then injecting it back into the game. In the second part of this tutorial, I'll show you how to create a new file in your pac folder and how you can make those signs show up in game, instead of replacing.

To open up and edit your files, you will need:

X-Packer

Photoshop with Nvidia Texture Tools (https://developer.nvidia.com/nvidia-texture-tools-adobe-photoshop) to be able to open the .dds files and edit them

HxD, Data Editor and Custom Character Tools if making a new file rather than replacing

The crowd sign ID table by Zero Tolerance and tomwearsglasses to easily identify the values for your chosen sign (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bo_-ISy9MIpOA-e_crn_-H8n5oJ3qNmmxwCL9nL9DZw/edit?pref=2&pli=1#gid=1537882523). Alternatively, this folder of all signs in dds format, named with their values (https://mega.nz/#!xh1TESrZ!JPOK-jR2XwIOd5T-2xaFo5kXmS8GHPXsRzMapGocdKQ) - thanks to tekken57! Once downloaded and extracted, if you have the DDS tools installed into Photoshop, then you can switch the folder view to Large Icons and you will be able to see which signs correspond to which file name. In either case, find which sign you want, and note down the filename for later.

 

Let's get started. Open X-Packer and proceed as follows - make sure you back up your audience.pac:

 

1) Open audience.pac (found in the pac folder of your 2K16 installation directory) as a Pac File. Extract All.

2) Open BORD.pac as a PACH File. Extract the one file.

3) Open 0000.pac as a PACH File. Decompress All, or decompress the one you want

.

Now you have your sign(s) in pac format. You can delete the bpe. If you wanna edit one and reinject it, here's how - let's say you're working on the 00C9 file, obviously the name will be different for each file, so take "00C9" as the filename of the sign you're editing, which you should have found and noted already as discussed earlier in this post:

1) Open the 00C9.pac as a Texture Archive. Extract the dds file.

2) Open the dds file in Photoshop (after installing the Nvidia tools). The image size is 128x128 but the game stretches it. So if you want to make a custom one, then it's best to change the image width to 170, do your edits, then when you're finished, change the image width back to 128 - it'll look squashed sideways, but in game it'll look right.

3) When you finish and hit save, with the DDS tools in Photoshop you'll be asked what format you want to save it in - choose DXT1 no alpha, right at the top of the list.

4) Inject the dds back into the 00C9.pac file you extracted it from, opening it as a Texture Archive again.

If you get an error whilst trying to inject the dds back in, it means the file size has changed. In this case, create a new texture archive instead. In X-Packer, hit Ctrl+N to bring up the new texture archive menu. Click Select textures. Find and open your edited dds. Click Create Texture Archive and save it over the original one - 00C9.pac in this case. 

5) Open the 0000.pac as a PACH File. Find the value of the sign you're editing - the 00C9 in this case - and inject your edited 00C9 Texture Archive pac into itself.

6) Open BORD.pac as a PACH File and inject the 0000.pac into itself.

7) Open your audience.pac as a Pac File and inject the BORD.pac into itself.

 

That's it I've replaced Sting '91 with Wolfpac Sting in my game, so I went ahead and replaced his crowd signs with my own custom Wolfpac ones:

Make sure you backup your audience.pac file before you do this, just in case!

 

Okay, so that's how to replace. Now, let's move on to creating a new file in your pac directory and then linking the pofo of the wrestler you want to give new signs to, to the values in that file so they're then given the signs in-game. Personally I'm not overly keen on this method as in some matches the signs don't show up and others only one or two signs will show, and I've noticed that if the superstar has an entrance attire then for some reason the signs will fail to show more often than not... but overall it does work, and if you wish to try then here's how to do it:

1) To create the file, firstly follow the 3 first steps above for extracting the sign files - as many files as you need, extract them to this folder along with the BORD.pac and 0000.pac. Let's say for example that you want 4 new files to assign them all to a wrestler - you can create an entire pack of them if you'd like to, but for the sake of simple demonstration we'll stick with 4 in this case.

2) Once you've extracted the BORD.pac, 0000.pac and your 4 texture pac files from the 0000.pac, rename your four files to another value that isn't already assigned to another sign (you can check this in the dds folder I discussed earlier in the post that you should have downloaded).

If you're not familiar with hex values, refer to this image. From rows 1 to F you'll notice a bunch of two-digit codes - with row 0, all of those numbers will have a 0 in front of them (so 01, 02, 03, 0F etc). Combine any two of these codes to make up a four-digit code (for example 00C8), and then go into the folder full of the DDS signs and use the search bar in the top right hand corner to search for this value to see if there are any signs listed under this value. Here are four values for example that are free to use to get you started:

00C8

0BB8

0DAC

0FA0

3) Once you've named all your files, follow steps 1-4 above to extract the dds from one of the files you just named, edit it to your new image and inject it back in. Repeat this for all four of your signs.

4) In X-Packer, hit Ctrl+P to create a new PACH Archive and click Select files. Now use the pop-up to highlight and open all four of your files. Once opened, hit Create PACH archive and save it as 0000.pach.

5) Open BORD.pac as a PACH File and inject the new 0000.pach into itself.

6) Navigate to your WWE2K16/pac folder and find the file named audience.pac. Copy and paste it to make a copy of it, then rename it to something meaningful - for example, I was making a pack for Kevin Nash '96, so I renamed it audienceNash96.pac

7) Open this new pac file as a PC Pac File in X-Packer and inject the BORD.pac into itself.

 

So, that's the new sign file all set. Now, you need to hex-edit your pofo file to reroute to the new values inside this new pac file, then inject the pofo using Custom Character Tools. Let's assume we're changing Kevin Nash 96's signs - you might want to try him first, or at least open his pofo and see the values that I'm talking about. They're always at the same offset in every pofo file - sign values start at offset D8.

1) Browse to your Data Editor installation directory and pofo folder. Either go into the templates folder and find the pofo file you want to edit, or if you've already edited this pofo before then outside the templates folder there will be your saved edit. Open the pofo that you wish to edit with HxD - we're using Kevin Nash Outsiders slot 395 in this example.

2) Now, find offset D8 - if you click at the top of the 08 column just before the two-digit hex code to set your cursor there, you'll see "Offset: 8" at the bottom left corner of HxD's interface. If you repeatedly press your down arrow key you'll see this offset begin to change, keep going down until you reach D8 which is just below the middle portion of the column.

3) If you're at offset D8, you'll see 8 blocks of two-digit hex-codes to the right of your cursor spanning up to the end of that row. These are your sign values! Kevin's default values read as follows so you know you're reading the right values:

4D 9A 4E 9A 4F 9A 50 9A

Now, the values for his signs are actually 9A4D, 9A4E, 9A4F AND 9A50. However, when converting these to hex to write into the pofo, for the game to recognise them you have to switch the two blocks in each value around. So the sign 9A4D (or 9A 4D as it were) becomes 4D 9A - you can see that this makes up the first two blocks of the sign values as written above. So, your 00C8 file will become C8 00 and so on. When you put in the new sign values, in this case they should look like this:

C8 00 B8 0B AC 0D A0 0F

See how each couple of blocks is your filename, split in half then switched around. If you can't see this, re-read this step until you understand - it's very important to understand how this works should you wish to go and create your own filenames for your own signs in the future.

4) With the above understood, it's time to put those values in. This is very simple - with your cursor set on offset D8, simply start to punch the values in and HxD will automatically overwrite the old ones. Do not highlight anything - this will screw it up, just type and your new values will overwrite the old. No need to hit the space key between blocks, the program will jump the gaps for you. When you're done, hit save.

5) Open your edited pofo with Custom Character Tools with the game running at the main menu and inject your new pofo file. Then, to force the game to save the new information, go into the options menu and change something and apply it - I always go into the game balancing and move one of the sliders just a little before clicking apply.

That's it, now test it in game! Note that these new signs wont show up in the Creation Suite if you open the wrestler up to create a CAW (you'll just get USA signs come up in their place), but they'll show up during a match.

Edited July 24, 2016 by 4LifeBrother

[abumaster]

Nice try dude

[I CAN I WILL]

Yeah Great Try And Its Good!

[4 Life]

Guide edited to include a method to add new signs rather than replacing current ones, it's more advanced but it's worth checking

[hovathagod32]

interesting... i'll do a lot later on down the road. can't wait to do this one lol

[4 Life]

interesting... i'll do a lot later on down the road. can't wait to do this one lol

Always loved that sign, "the scoripian" sounds like an STD

[tomwearsglasses]

I dunno if it'll fit given the small image size, but my favorite WCW sign was something along the lines of 'Eric Bischoff gets high off Hulk Hogan's Spray Tan'.

[Ticaliano]

Awesome find, guys.

I've wondered why something like a simple "Create-A-Sign" feature hasn't been included in the game. Considering how lame most of the stock sign designs are, this is good news.

[Cave Waverider]

Version 2016.0.6.0 Beta of the Data Editor for WWE 2k16 is now available for download and allows you to set the crowd signs for your .pofo file.

[4 Life]

Version 2016.0.6.0 Beta of the Data Editor for WWE 2k16 is now available for download and allows you to set the crowd signs for your .pofo file.

Niiiiiiiiiiice Out of likes for today as well

[ryanbill33]

can this also be done without xpacker and if so can u give a tutorial for that

[tekken57]

Thanks for taking the time to write up a tutorial.

[4 Life]

can this also be done without xpacker and if so can u give a tutorial for that

You need something to extract pac files, pach files and texture archives and then re-inject them all, not sure if there's anything other than X-Packer that works with this game.

Edited July 5, 2016 by 4LifeBrother

[Kopmeister]

So with finding your desired sign within 0000.pac , is it a case of trial and error or do you have a method to get the one you want to edit? 

[tomwearsglasses]

So with finding your desired sign within 0000.pac , is it a case of trial and error or do you have a method to get the one you want to edit? 

You can either check the table that Zero Tolerance and I made of all the crowd signs: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bo_-ISy9MIpOA-e_crn_-H8n5oJ3qNmmxwCL9nL9DZw/edit#gid=1537882523 - the FileName Hex will match up to the pac item name.

Or download the the zip file 4LifeBrother links to in his tutorial that Tekken57 created.  That has each sign extracted with the hex value for previewing.

[TheHeartbrokenKid]

I'm getting an error saying "Texture file must be same size as original" while trying to inject the .dds file in Xpacker. I saved it as dxt1 no alpha, and set resolution to 128x128, but no luck  

[4 Life]

So with finding your desired sign within 0000.pac , is it a case of trial and error or do you have a method to get the one you want to edit? 

You can either check the table that Zero Tolerance and I made of all the crowd signs: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bo_-ISy9MIpOA-e_crn_-H8n5oJ3qNmmxwCL9nL9DZw/edit#gid=1537882523 - the FileName Hex will match up to the pac item name.

Or download the the zip file 4LifeBrother links to in his tutorial that Tekken57 created.  That has each sign extracted with the hex value for previewing.

Awesome, didn't know that table was finished now! Gonna edit the tutorial and link it up

I'm getting an error saying "Texture file must be same size as original" while trying to inject the .dds file in Xpacker. I saved it as dxt1 no alpha, and set resolution to 128x128, but no luck  

I've not had that error as of yet, have you created quite a colour-complex sign?

[TheHeartbrokenKid]

I'm getting an error saying "Texture file must be same size as original" while trying to inject the .dds file in Xpacker. I saved it as dxt1 no alpha, and set resolution to 128x128, but no luck  

I've not had that error as of yet, have you created quite a colour-complex sign?

Nope, just simple text on Paint and then converted to DDS

 

Edited July 10, 2016 by TheHeartbrokenKid

[4 Life]

I'm getting an error saying "Texture file must be same size as original" while trying to inject the .dds file in Xpacker. I saved it as dxt1 no alpha, and set resolution to 128x128, but no luck  

I've not had that error as of yet, have you created quite a colour-complex sign?

Nope, just simple text on Paint and then converted to DDS

 

Might be something going on with the conversion then, I always tend to just open up the dds with photoshop and then work on the original file and save it over itself.

[TheHeartbrokenKid]

Ok I'll try that and get back to you  

[4 Life]

Ok I'll try that and get back to you  

Yeah let us know man, should work as I've used the same method to make a tonne of crowd signs and experienced literally no issues even when copying colourful images, but you never know with these things.

[TheHeartbrokenKid]

Ok I'll try that and get back to you  

Yeah let us know man, should work as I've used the same method to make a tonne of crowd signs and experienced literally no issues even when copying colourful images, but you never know with these things.

Ok  could you please release your crowd signs as a pack, so it'll save the trouble for the rest of us specially if it has signs for modded guys

[4 Life]

Ok I'll try that and get back to you  

Yeah let us know man, should work as I've used the same method to make a tonne of crowd signs and experienced literally no issues even when copying colourful images, but you never know with these things.

Ok  could you please release your crowd signs as a pack, so it'll save the trouble for the rest of us specially if it has signs for modded guys

Well, mine are all replacements as I'm replacing the majority of the roster in my project anyway and a lot of the ones I've currently done are generic signs, but once I've done a bunch of superstar specific ones I could release a bunch of DDS files I guess  

[Hawideros]

Thanks for this tutorial! Gotta check later today if i can get this one done!  Cheers!!!

Version 2016.0.6.0 Beta of the Data Editor for WWE 2k16 is now available for download and allows you to set the crowd signs for your .pofo file.

FANTASTIC NEWS!!! Thanks Cave Waverider!!!

[Hawideros]

well....I tried the "replacing method" but no luck so far... I don't get any errors during the "work process" but the "edited" sign never seems to replace the original one. Any thoughts would be much appreciated! 

Edited July 11, 2016 by Sickboy