FM2014 - Steam Workshop Guides and Information

This thread will try to contain all the pertinent infomation with regards to the skinning and graphics aspects of the Steam Workshop for FM 14.

It is currently a work in progress and will be added to in the future as more information and details arise.

If you have any questions or feedback about the Workshop then please use this thread in the Editors Forum: Official Steam Workshop Feedback Thread

There is also an FAQ on the main Football Manager Website Here

A list of known issues are here: Known issues - Workshop 14.1.2 - PLEASE READ

If you encounter any other bugs or problems when using the Workshop then please report them in the bugs forum

Below are a couple of guides to get you started in using the Steam Workshop

Downloading and Installing Skins

How To Download and Install Skins via Steam.

How to Download and Install Skins through Football Manager 2014

Downloading and Installing other Graphics

How To Download and Install Graphics via Steam.

How to Download and Install Graphics through Football Manager 2014

Uploading Skins and Graphics to the Workshop

How to Upload Skins and Graphics to the Steam Workshop

Troubleshooting

The Steam Workshop isn't loading or is taking a long time to load

What is the steam_workshop folder in my Saving Location and why does it take up so much room

How To Download and Install Skins via Steam.

First you need to subscribe to the file you want to download, this can be done in several ways.

- Through the Steam Website - Football Manager 2014 Workshop Page

- Through the Steam Client - Goto your Library -> Football Manager 2014 -> Click Browse the Workshop option.

- Once you are on the Workshop page (and logged into your Steam Account) browse the selection until you find what you want.

- Select the file you want to see more information about it and then click the green subscribe button.

- Steam should now download the file if you are logged into the Client.

Now you need to load Football Manager 2014.

- From the Football Manager Main Screen select the Downloads option (or if you are already within a save game select Downloads from the FM Menu).

- Once the Store has loaded select the 'Steam Workshop' option in the top right tab. [Depending on how many custom graphics you already have loaded it might take a little while to load, just be patient]

- Now if it's not already selected click on the 'Subscribed' tab.

- The 'Subscribed' tab shows all of the Workshop files you have subscribed to via Steam.

- Now select the Skin you want to use.

- On the right will be a description of the Skin and various options.

- First you will need to select the 'Install' button to install the skin.

- Once that has been done click the 'Change the Skin' button and the game should now apply your skin. If the change skin button isn't showing that means you are in the wrong FM mode and will need to exit your save game to the main menu to apply the skin.

How to Download and Install Skins through Football Manager 2014

- With Football Manager loaded you can either access the Workshop through the Downloads option on the Main Screen or select Downloads from the FM Menu if you are already within a save game.

- Once the Store has loaded select the 'Steam Workshop' option in the top right tab. [Depending on how many custom graphics you already have loaded it might take a little while to load, just be patient]

- Now Click on the 'Download add-ons directly from Steam' button.

- The Steam Overlay should now open and take you to the Football Manager 2014 Workshop page.

- Browse the Workshop until you find a skin you like. (There is a filter down the bottom right that you can use to display skins only)

- Select the file you want to see more information about it and then click the green subscribe button if you want to download the skin.

- Steam should now download the file.

- You can add more files if you like, once finished close the Steam Overlay.

- Steam should now take you back to Football Manager 2014.

- Now if it's not already selected click on the 'Subscribed' tab.

- The 'Subscribed' tab shows all of the Workshop files you have subscribed to via Steam.

- Now select the Skin you want to use.

- On the right will be a description of the Skin and various options.

- First you will need to select the 'Install' button to install the skin.

- Once that has been done click the 'Change the Skin' button and the game should now apply your skin. If the change skin button isn't showing that means you are in the wrong FM mode and will need to exit to the main menu to apply the skin.

How To Download and Install Graphics via Steam.

First you need to subscribe to the file you want to download, this can be done in several ways.

- Through the Steam Website - Football Manager 2014 Workshop Page

- Through the Steam Client - Goto your Library -> Football Manager 2014 -> Click Browse the Workshop option.

- Once you are on the Workshop page (and logged into your Steam Account) browse the selection until you find what you want.

- Select the file you want to see more information about and then click the green subscribe button to download the file.

- Steam should now download the file if you are logged into the Client.

Now you need to load Football Manager 2014.

- From the Football Manager Main Screen select the Downloads option (or if you are already within a save game select Downloads from the FM Menu).

- Once the Store has loaded select the 'Steam Workshop' option in the top right tab. [Depending on how many custom graphics you already have loaded it might take a little while to load, just be patient]

- Now if it's not already selected click on the 'Subscribed' tab.

- The 'Subscribed' tab shows all of the Workshop files you have subscribed to via Steam.

- Now select the graphic(s) you want to use.

- On the right will be a description of the graphics and various options.

- First you will need to select the 'Install' button to install the graphics.

- If you have downloaded more than one pack then click install on each of them.

- Once you have installed all the graphics you downloaded close the in-game Workshop.

- Goto Preferences then go to the Interface tab and on the bottom left make sure the 'Use caching to decrease page loading times' option is unticked and the 'Reload skin when confirming changes in Preferences' option is ticked (you can put these back once the graphics are showing) and then click the Reload Skin button at the bottom right and your added graphics should now display.

How to Download and Install Graphics through Football Manager 2014

- With Football Manager loaded you can either access the Workshop through the Downloads option on the Main Screen or select Downloads from the FM Menu if you are already within a save game.

- Once the Store has loaded select the 'Steam Workshop' option in the top right tab. [Depending on how many custom graphics you already have loaded it might take a little while to load, just be patient]

- Now Click on the 'Download add-ons directly from Steam' button.

- The Steam Overlay should now open and take you to the Football Manager 2014 Workshop page.

- Browse the Workshop until you find a skin you like. (There is a filter down the bottom right that you can use to display skins only)

- Select the file you want to see more information about it and then click the green subscribe button if you want to download the skin.

- Steam should now download the file.

- You can add more files if you like, once finished close the Steam Overlay.

- Steam should now take you back to Football Manager 2014.

- Now if it's not already selected click on the 'Subscribed' tab.

- The 'Subscribed' tab shows all of the Workshop files you have subscribed to via Steam.

- Now select the graphic(s) you want to use.

- On the right will be a description of the graphics and various options.

- First you will need to select the 'Install' button to install the graphics.

- If you have downloaded more than one pack then click install on each of them.

- Once you have installed all the graphics you downloaded close the in-game Workshop.

- Goto Preferences then go to the Interface tab and on the bottom left make sure the 'Use caching to decrease page loading times' option is unticked and the 'Reload skin when confirming changes in Preferences' option is ticked (you can put these back once the graphics are showing) and then click the Reload Skin button at the bottom right and your added graphics should now display.

How to Upload Skins and Graphics to the Steam Workshop.

- First make sure that the graphics you have made are your own work and if you have used anyone else's work make sure you have got their permission to include their work.

- Second check to make sure that the files you are planning to upload work in game, and for graphics make sure they have been correctly read and copied by the game into the Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2014\steam_workshop folder.

- Third make sure you have enabled the Cloud Storage feature for Football Manager 2014 in Steam. You can do this by right clicking on the Football Manager 2014 icon in your steam library and selecting properties. Then go to the Updates tab and make sure the Steam Cloud option is ticked. (Note that this won't affect your save games as cloud storage of them is a different option).

- Now load Football Manager and access the Workshop either through the Downloads option on the Main Screen or select Downloads from the FM Menu if you are already within a save game.

- Once the Store has loaded select the 'Steam Workshop' option in the top right tab. [Depending on how many custom graphics you already have loaded it might take a little while to load, just be patient].

- Now select the 'in-game' tab, this screen lists all of the content that can be presently uploaded to the Steam Workshop.

- Select the file you wish to upload.

- Click the 'Change Preview...' button to give your graphic a preview image (268x268 pixels seems to be the default size for the preview image).

- Next name your file and give it a short description.

- Now choose who you want the file visible to, public will make it available for everyone to view, friends only will limit it to just people in your steam friends list, whilst hidden will keep it private (though admin people can still see it), hidden is a good option to use if you are testing a file or if you want to add more detailed information in steam before making it public.

- Once you are happy click Publish and Steam will upload the file to the Steam Workshop.

Advanced Settings

Once your file has been uploaded to the Steam Workshop you can change more options by visiting your Workshop page in Steam.

You can find your Workshop page by:

- Hovering over your Username at the top of the Steam program and selecting the Content option, then select the Workshop tab.

- Or from the Library -> Football Manager 2014 page, select Browse The Workshop and down the right will be an option called 'Your Workshop Files'

There are variouws things you can do from the Steam Workshop page, change the title or description, add more preview images and when updating the files add a changelog to let people know what you have updated.

The Steam Workshop isn't loading or is taking a long time to load

When you enter the Steam Workshop via Football Manager it scans the files in your Saving Location to see if any have changed since the last time you accessed the Workshop, if you have lots of user created graphics it can take awhile for the game to read these files.

A work around for this is to rename your graphics folder located in your Saving Location to something else (i.e. call it graphics2) this will stop the game from trying to read your graphics.

By Default your Saving Location is Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2014 (the exact located can be obtained in game from the Preferences Screen.)

Further to this all graphics apart from the adboards seem to work fine with the graphics folder called something else, so if you are planning on accessing the workshop often you can leave the graphics folder renamed. If you are planning on using adboards then you will need to copy them to a new folder called graphics.

However if you are planning on uploading your own graphics to the Steam Workshop they will need to be in the folder called graphics for the game to read them to upload.

What is the steam_workshop folder in my Saving Location and why does it take up so much room

When you access the Steam Workshop in game, the game scans the contents of your Saving Location for files that could be uploaded to the Workshop, once it has done this it copies various graphic files into a new folder called steam_workshop (kits, logos, faces) and reformats them to make them compatiable with the Workshop.

If you don't plan on uploading these files to the Workshop and/or are running low on hard drive space it is possible to stop the game from copying your graphics into the steam_workshop folder.

First follow the instructions in the above post to stop the Workshop from scanning your files.

Once you have done that just delete the contents of the steam_workshop folder located in your Saving Location. (Note if you have previously downloaded graphics through the Workshop you'll need to redownload them as this is where the game stores downloaded graphics aswell).