2013-08-24 18:06 , edited 2013-08-25 01:45 by Hollandje

Betterbattlelog makes everything easier to see on here ;) http://i.imgur.com/XYqAYIM.png [i.imgur.com]Hi everyone and thank you for reading this post!In this post I want to touch on the subject custom dog tags, particularly on the idea from the community of using custom dog tags in game. I will include a TL;DR (Too long, didn't read) version in the bottom of this post.For the people that don't know me yet, i'm hollandje, known for making custom dog tags in the community. I've been seeing many posts about a mechanism that allows players to create their own dog tags and actually wear them in game. I, as someone who is working with dog tags and knows a lot about the process of making one, want to clarify why this is not to almost impossible._________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________So first I will explain the idea from the community:The community wants to be able to create their custom dog tags by getting an image from the internet and uplouding it in a (sort off) machine that creates a ready to use dog tag._________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Here are some of my arguments why this is not possible explained:Every dog tag we have seen in Battlefield 3 and 4 have their own way of damage. Some have a scratch in the bottom of the tag, some to the right and some to the left. Also every tag get's a different look on the shadows.Examples: http://battlelog-cdn.battlefield.com/cdnprefix/353c91caa8ea292/public/profile/bf3/stats/dogtags/la/xp5_a_05_true_combat_efficiency.png [battlelog-cdn.battlefield.com]Notice the damage on tag, we see some greyish lines on the tag comming out from the border of the tag. also the shadow of the bull is created with some sort of of a texture/pattern overlay. http://battlelog-cdn.battlefield.com/cdnprefix/353c91caa8ea292/public/profile/bf3/stats/dogtags/la/xp2_destroyer.png [battlelog-cdn.battlefield.com]Notice how the damage is suddenly darker from color, this indicates that the tag is way more damaged, the damage is deeper in the tag. This effect is created with some editing in a bevel and emboss option. The logo on this tag is more made with a color overlay and use of bevel and emboss. It's being looked at differently.Conclusion:Every kind of damage needs to be looked at different. Some need a deep carving and some a light scratch. Shadows and logo's are looked at differently._________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The dog tags ingame are ofcourse drawn and edited by an artist. Most of the people that would use this "machine" will get an image from the internet which will result in something like this: http://i.imgur.com/rkuHpCT.png [i.imgur.com]If the people will get an outlined photo of the image or draw it by themselves it will result in this look: http://i.imgur.com/ml5j9qx.png [i.imgur.com]This ofcourse doesn't get the job done and this is already a very easy example. I work with some more advanced images and all these images need a different way of blending by themselves. Ofcourse you can add a certain blending but that won't look good on all the tags. Every image/drawing needs his own way of blending, to make it look realistic.Conclusion:The system/machine won't be able to use plain images, it will look weird. In order to get a real looking dog tag you'll need to draw it or find an outline of the image._________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________On all the dog tags are the letters unique. none of them are identical because they are all drawn. By making a font the freshness will be lost and the tags will look text wise the same._________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Many images are copyrighted to a certain person. When you use this image ingame DICE will get a copyright strike and has to pay the user or has to delete the whole tag from its register. This will most likely happen so often that they would need to hire a employee that is constantly looking if the images aren't copyrighted and that would make them lose money._________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________This won't come as a suprise. Some community members will abuse the machine by making offensive dog tags. A good reference is Call Of Duty Black Ops 2, they let you create your own emblem ingame which often leads to... you know the typical kind of stuff which has to do with the private parts of both men and woman. Also are Images such as the Swastika logo used for fun, which is very offensive to some people. Also text can be a big problem. It's forbidden to use a specific line on battlelog: "I'm part of the". This is offensive to some people because of the reference to WO II and the holocaust._________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I hope this clears some things up why we can't have custom dog tags ingame. I hope my english wasn't that bad, if so, i'm sorry.Have a nice day!Hollandje._________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________- Every dog tag is different in the form of damage, to keep the game and looks fresh.- A dog tag isn't made with an image on the internet, it's drawn and edited by an artist.- There is no font used to create the text on the dog tags, every letter is unique.- There will be a lot of copyright strikes from image owners.- The system will be abused to create offensive logo's, images and text.