Advertising Hoardings?

Is there a guide/template anywhere on how to skin the ad hoardings? I'd like to try my hand at designing some.

Not yet, but if you have a look at the ads.fmf file you should get an idea of how to do it. The default images seem to be 1024x128.

The hoarding are in graphics/pictures/ads.

In there are folders for default, England, Spain, Netherlands and USA.

In the default folder are the fm live, sega, etc hoardings.

In the England folder is a 'football league' folder with hoardings for the football league, which are there when you play a league game.

I've replaced the default hoardings with quickly knocked up, identically named hoardings for Canon, HSBC etc, and they work fine.

Does anyone know how the game knows how to use the 'football league' folder, ie can you have a folder for the premier league or lower leagues? Or even if is it possible to have hoardings that are club specific?

Hoardings can indeed to club and competition specific which is great. I've not had a chance to suss out exactly how they work, with the location specific stuff etc, but once I have there'll be a decent guide appearing.

Hoardings can indeed to club and competition specific which is great. I've not had a chance to suss out exactly how they work, with the location specific stuff etc, but once I have there'll be a decent guide appearing.

Cushty....

It would be incredibly sad to go and photograph all the hoardings at Hailsham Town's ground, and put them in the game so it's accurate if I play them preseason, wouldn't it?

Hoardings can indeed to club and competition specific which is great. I've not had a chance to suss out exactly how they work, with the location specific stuff etc, but once I have there'll be a decent guide appearing.

With your experience in all things FM (I mean this as complimentary) you may already know this but, when I was foraging amongst the files and folders in FM09, I seem to recall I came across an XML file that mapped out the positions of the adboards around the pitch. For example, two Football Manager boards to be placed at this at that location, like either side of the goal. Now I'm not that 'up' on XML as it is but, as these adboards are named in the config, couldn't this config be used for other leagues?

Hope you understand what I mean.

Cushty....

It would be incredibly sad to go and photograph all the hoardings at Hailsham Town's ground, and put them in the game so it's accurate if I play them preseason, wouldn't it?

Not at all mate

Do it, do it now

I've been making up some ad hoardings that would be seen specifically at Bramall Lane - has anyone got any further with getting club-specific ads working yet?

My xml is not too great; I can see that it can be done, but it makes my head hurt

is it possible to replace an add with one i pacificly want? say i wanted someone with experience to change an 1 of the adboards to my website would it be possible? (excuse the spelling, wee bit drunk)

The hoarding are in graphics/pictures/ads.

In there are folders for default, England, Spain, Netherlands and USA.

In the default folder are the fm live, sega, etc hoardings.

In the England folder is a 'football league' folder with hoardings for the football league, which are there when you play a league game.

I've replaced the default hoardings with quickly knocked up, identically named hoardings for Canon, HSBC etc, and they work fine.

Does anyone know how the game knows how to use the 'football league' folder, ie can you have a folder for the premier league or lower leagues? Or even if is it possible to have hoardings that are club specific?

can you please post a screenie of this as i cannot see any hoarding images in graphics/pictures except the shirt templates

I've been making up some ad hoardings that would be seen specifically at Bramall Lane - has anyone got any further with getting club-specific ads working yet?

My xml is not too great; I can see that it can be done, but it makes my head hurt

Yes I did. It's working great. I have a different ads for each of Italian Serie A team, and one series of ads for all the team of Serie B.

But at the moment I don't succeed in doing one for the Champions League.

If you like I' can post my work.

Of course we do. Waiting for the All world Megapack. ;-) Any pictures/screenies so far?

Here some screens

Serie A (it's specific per Home Team, in this case Inter)

Here another screen for a Serie B team (Same adverts for all teams).

And this is the URL for the download:

http://files.filefront.com/advertsrar/;12509047;/fileinfo.html

Extract under Football Manager 2009 folder (the one under "My Documents"). If you already have a graphics folder there, it should ask you if you want to replace existing folder. It doesn't remove anything, it just adds another folder (named ads) inside graphics\pictures.

Have fun

Looks great. Perhaps you could post how you did them and how to make team specific ones. I would try to do some on ym own and i am sure we soon could get that Megapack going.

i agree a tut on how to edit the xml file to get your own images onto the hoardings would be fantastic

First thing to do is to find some nice pictures for the ads to add.

Then you need to redimension without loosing proportion, to fill a box of 1024x128 pixels.

Usually I reduce original dimension until I arrive to 128 pixels as height (with Microsoft Office Picture Manager), then I open the .png imagine with Paint and increase width to 1024, adding some text or replicating the logo and finally filling with color if needed. At the end I save the result in grapics\pictures\ads folder wth a name that reminds me the name of the ads and with a number to be used in .xml file.

The file to modify is fm.xml that is in ads folder (not graphics\pictures\ads, but only ads).

In this folder there is another interesting file I have to study to have some different effects.

For the moment let's forget about it.

Open fm.xml with a text editor (notepad is enough).

Lets' concentrate on the last part of the file. There are a number of records that identify the various ads.

For example let's see at this line:

<string id="148" value="pictures/ads/148-samsung"/>

It associates Id 148 to the ad of Samsung that has the following name: 148-samsung.png

Each ad has got its id.

Now let's go back where it's written the following:

<!-- the list of ad cells used for Serie B home games, afterware ads -->

<list id="33">

....

This means the following:

list id=33 identifies Italian Serie B championship (33 is the unique Id of Serie B in the DB), all that follows applies to all Serie B teams.

On another line there is written (for example), <list id="1150"> this Id identifies a team (Napoli in this case) and what follows applies only to Napoli Home matches.

Following there are 46 lines of this type:

<integer value="1000"/>

<integer value="1001"/>

<integer value="128"/>

These numbers identify the ads as we have seen before.

46 ads cover whole stadium.

Now, let's look at the beginning of the file, where the following is written:

<!-- map the italy logos so that we've got two on either side of the dugouts -->

<record id="1000">

<integer id="edge_type" value="3"/>

<integer id="edge_index" value="1"/>

</record>

<record id="1001">

<integer id="edge_type" value="3"/>

<integer id="edge_index" value="-1"/>

</record>

With this line we instruct the system to put ads with id 1000 and 1001 (in this case) on both sides of the dugouts. There are other possibilities, that I need to analyze further.

That's all.

Try to do yours, it's not difficult.

Brilliant Afterware, it kind of backed up what I was thinking and has given me much more confidence to try it out. It seems there is still a lot for us to learn as well...

For example, what do these lines mean:

<integer id="edge_type" value="3"/>

<integer id="edge_index" value="-1"/>

Thanks again!

thanks dude i was partly there

Brilliant Afterware, it kind of backed up what I was thinking and has given me much more confidence to try it out. It seems there is still a lot for us to learn as well...

For example, what do these lines mean:

<integer id="edge_type" value="3"/>

<integer id="edge_index" value="-1"/>

Thanks again!

I don't know what edge_type means, but for edge_index I have answer.

value 1 means one on the right, 2 means second on the right and so on, while -1 means one on the left, -2 means second ads on the left.

So I think that edge_type=3 means "dugout", so the relative numbers refer to the position relative to the dugout.

And indeed that's what happen with these ads.

quick question afterware -

are we able to add our own number sequences ie the first in the series of original hoardings are 091- could i make my own and add 090-

i am struggling with adding my own,

if you can help i want 2 new hoardings to appear in huddersfield towns home games - id 664

if you could make a fm.xml file for me, that way i can look at the file, and see where i was going wrong, i would be eternally grateful, the hoardings are named -dcmf and -fmportal

Nice one afterware, looking good

I tried not to add any number below the ones provided with the original file. I started with 128 and went up, but I don't know if it is possible to use any numbers.

About Huddersfield, I don't know how can I help you other than saying:

1) search for the following line

<list id="129985">

2) substitute it with

<list id="664">

provided that 664 is the code for hubbersfield

3) near the end of the file (add a line after <string id="1501" value="pictures/ads/1501-ChampLeague2"/>) insert the following

<string id="1047" value="pictures/ads/dcmf"/>

<string id="1048" value="pictures/ads/fmportal"/>

where dcmf and fmportal are the names of the images you should have put in graphics\picture\ads folder.

Let me know if you need any more help.

ok afterware i did as you said and still no hoardings.

i even just changed the image, and it still didnt show up

Hey afterware,

I copied the list of hoardings from Inter in the xml file and pasted them in for tottenham and changed the unique id from inter to tottenham, but they aint showing up for me

Any suggestions?

thanks

Have you closed FM and started again? I saw that it is not sufficient to reload the skin or remove the cache.

tried that afterware still no new hoardings

Here some screens

Serie A (it's specific per Home Team, in this case Inter)

Here another screen for a Serie B team (Same adverts for all teams).

And this is the URL for the download:

http://files.filefront.com/advertsrar/;12509047;/fileinfo.html

Extract under Football Manager 2009 folder (the one under "My Documents"). If you already have a graphics folder there, it should ask you if you want to replace existing folder. It doesn't remove anything, it just adds another folder (named ads) inside graphics\pictures.

Have fun

Can't get this working..

Can you be more specific as to where the files should be extracted to? Is it the the userdata foler? The sigfx folder?

Have you closed FM and started again? I saw that it is not sufficient to reload the skin or remove the cache.

I will try this, cheers

Can't get this working..

Can you be more specific as to where the files should be extracted to? Is it the the userdata foler? The sigfx folder?

C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2009\graphics

The "ads" folder with the xml should be in C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2009\

The "ads" folder with pics should be in C:\Documents and Settings\Danny\My Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2009\graphics\pictures

C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2009\graphics

The "ads" folder with the xml should be in C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2009\

The "ads" folder with pics should be in C:\Documents and Settings\Danny\My Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2009\graphics\pictures

Cheers all working now.

C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2009\graphics

The "ads" folder with the xml should be in C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2009\

The "ads" folder with pics should be in C:\Documents and Settings\Danny\My Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2009\graphics\pictures

Exactly

Have you closed FM and started again? I saw that it is not sufficient to reload the skin or remove the cache.

I got it working by closing FM but its strange that you have to close it when all other graphics can be reloaded with the skin.

Its looking good although Im not getting a chance to play the game much because I keep wanting to create graphic for it lol

I know the feeling!

Smashing stuff afterware, had a go at this last night for the SPL and got it working just about perfectly, but even using your xml, for some reason the Champions League only shows Sega and Si ads, must be an error I've put in somewhere but will have another bash this evening.

I know the feeling!

Smashing stuff afterware, had a go at this last night for the SPL and got it working just about perfectly, but even using your xml, for some reason the Champions League only shows Sega and Si ads, must be an error I've put in somewhere but will have another bash this evening.

No, you're right. I have the same problem with Champions League. I think it's related to the number I've assigned to the pictures, but I don't know why. I tried to change them, with no success. The Competition Id is correct, indeed only 2 ads appears during Champions League matches.

No, you're right. I have the same problem with Champions League. I think it's related to the number I've assigned to the pictures, but I don't know why. I tried to change them, with no success. The Competition Id is correct, indeed only 2 ads appears during Champions League matches.

It is a puzzle. Had a look at various other clubs in the CL and exactly the same thing happens at all the grounds and although your xml is perfect, for some reason it shows Sega and SI, pity, sad as some may think it to be it would be quite cool to have a pitch surrounded by the Heineken, Sony etc adverts for the CL. Any joy, I will let you know.

I guarantee you knew it would be something simple!! Capital letters in the xml coding!

Change "ChampLeague1" to "champleague1" and away it goes!!!

I guarantee you knew it would be something simple!! Capital letters in the xml coding!

Change "ChampLeague1" to "champleague1" and away it goes!!!

Lol the number of bugs I have when developing like this is unbelievable.

Danny dude seeing as though youve got it could you do one for me for all english leagues or at least put in bold the areas to change in the xml. i just cant figure it ive tried all different variations and still nothing

if you do this i could then put together a visual tutorial on how its done for the rest of the community

im pretty good with making tuts, working with blender, modding for another modding community, ive made quite a few.

I dont really have the time to make boards for lots of teams, which is annoying because I'd like to.

Its pretty easy though.

Heres an example of the spurs xml setup

<!--Tottenham-->

<list id="728"> This line is the unique ID of tottenham

<integer value="155"/>

<integer value="1001"/>

<integer value="157"/>

<integer value="155"/>

<integer value="157"/>

<integer value="155"/>

<integer value="154"/>

<integer value="155"/>

<integer value="157"/>

<integer value="155"/>

<integer value="154"/>

<integer value="155"/>

<integer value="157"/>

<integer value="155"/>

<integer value="154"/>

<integer value="155"/>

<integer value="157"/>

<integer value="155"/>

<integer value="154"/>

<integer value="155"/>

<integer value="157"/>

<integer value="155"/>

<integer value="154"/>

<integer value="155"/>

<integer value="157"/>

<integer value="155"/>

<integer value="154"/>

<integer value="155"/>

<integer value="157"/>

<integer value="155"/>

<integer value="154"/>

<integer value="155"/>

<integer value="157"/>

<integer value="155"/>

<integer value="154"/>

<integer value="155"/>

<integer value="157"/>

<integer value="155"/>

<integer value="154"/>

<integer value="155"/>

<integer value="157"/>

<integer value="155"/>

<integer value="157"/>

<integer value="155"/>

<integer value="157"/>

<integer value="155"/>

</list>

The other numbers refer to images I created and placed at the bottom of the fm.xml file. Shown next...

<record id="options">

<string id="91" value="pictures/ads/091-enjoy the match"/>

<string id="92" value="pictures/ads/092-football league"/>

<string id="93" value="pictures/ads/093-liga adelante"/>

<string id="94" value="pictures/ads/094-liga bbva"/>

<string id="95" value="pictures/ads/095-football league double"/>

<string id="103" value="pictures/ads/103-mls"/>

<string id="104" value="pictures/ads/104-mlsgear"/>

<string id="105" value="pictures/ads/105-mlsnet"/>

<string id="106" value="pictures/ads/106-mlsworks"/>

<string id="111" value="pictures/ads/111-canal"/>

<string id="112" value="pictures/ads/112-orange"/>

<string id="113" value="pictures/ads/113-numericable"/>

<string id="114" value="pictures/ads/114-eurosport"/>

<string id="115" value="pictures/ads/115-digital"/>

<string id="116" value="pictures/ads/116-gorenje"/>

<string id="117" value="pictures/ads/117-point p"/>

<string id="118" value="pictures/ads/118-uhlsport"/>

<list id="119">

<string value="pictures/ads/119-france televisions"/>

<string value="pictures/ads/119-france 2"/>

<string value="pictures/ads/119-france 3"/>

<string value="pictures/ads/119-france 4"/>

</list>

<string id="120" value="pictures/ads/120-fm live"/>

<string id="121" value="pictures/ads/121-warchild heroes"/>

<string id="122" value="pictures/ads/122-sigames"/>

<string id="123" value="pictures/ads/123-gamesaid"/>

<string id="124" value="pictures/ads/124-kickitout"/>

<string id="125" value="pictures/ads/125-fm"/>

<string id="126" value="pictures/ads/126-sega"/>

<string id="127" value="pictures/ads/127-si"/>

<string id="128" value="pictures/ads/128-bacardi"/>

<string id="129" value="pictures/ads/129-bancodinapoli"/>

<string id="130" value="pictures/ads/130-better"/>

<string id="131" value="pictures/ads/131-bridgestone"/>

<string id="132" value="pictures/ads/132-caffemotta"/>

<string id="133" value="pictures/ads/133-cocacola"/>

<string id="134" value="pictures/ads/134-costa-crociere"/>

<string id="135" value="pictures/ads/135-diadora"/>

<string id="137" value="pictures/ads/137-holiday_inn"/>

<string id="138" value="pictures/ads/138-indesit"/>

<string id="139" value="pictures/ads/139-lete"/>

<string id="140" value="pictures/ads/140-lg"/>

<string id="142" value="pictures/ads/142-motorola"/>

<string id="143" value="pictures/ads/143-nike"/>

<string id="144" value="pictures/ads/144-nokia"/>

<string id="145" value="pictures/ads/145-panasonic"/>

<string id="146" value="pictures/ads/146-peroni"/>

<string id="147" value="pictures/ads/147-powerade"/>

<string id="148" value="pictures/ads/148-samsung"/>

<string id="149" value="pictures/ads/149-sky"/>

<string id="150" value="pictures/ads/150-sonyericsson"/>

<string id="151" value="pictures/ads/151-tim"/>

<string id="152" value="pictures/ads/152-torrente"/>

<string id="153" value="pictures/ads/153-tttlines"/>

<string id="154" value="pictures/ads/154-thomascooksport"/>

<string id="155" value="pictures/ads/155-barclaysprem"/>

<string id="156" value="pictures/ads/156-heinekenpng"/>

<string id="157" value="pictures/ads/157-puma"/>

<string id="1000" value="pictures/ads/1000-lega-calcio"/>

<string id="1001" value="pictures/ads/1001-figc"/>

<string id="1002" value="pictures/ads/1002-napoli"/>

<string id="1003" value="pictures/ads/1003-roma"/>

<string id="1004" value="pictures/ads/1004-milan"/>

<string id="1005" value="pictures/ads/1005-inter"/>

<string id="1006" value="pictures/ads/1006-samp"/>

<string id="1007" value="pictures/ads/1007-juventus"/>

<string id="1008" value="pictures/ads/1008-atalanta"/>

<string id="1009" value="pictures/ads/1009-bologna"/>

<string id="1010" value="pictures/ads/1010-cagliari"/>

<string id="1011" value="pictures/ads/1011-lazio"/>

<string id="1012" value="pictures/ads/1012-lecce"/>

<string id="1013" value="pictures/ads/1013-genoa"/>

<string id="1014" value="pictures/ads/1014-chievo"/>

<string id="1015" value="pictures/ads/1015-fiorentina"/>

<string id="1016" value="pictures/ads/1016-reggina"/>

<string id="1017" value="pictures/ads/1017-siena"/>

<string id="1018" value="pictures/ads/1018-torino"/>

<string id="1019" value="pictures/ads/1019-udinese"/>

<string id="1020" value="pictures/ads/1020-catania"/>

<string id="1021" value="pictures/ads/1021-palermo"/>

<string id="1500" value="pictures/ads/1500-champleague1"/>

<string id="1501" value="pictures/ads/1501-champleague2"/>

Just to confuse this even further, it appears some stadia, Celtic for example, have 10 ads behind each goal, 15 on the near side and 8 on the dugout side. 43 in total.

However, most away grounds seem to have 9, 14 and 8. 40 showing.

However as afterware noted when he was doing the hard work earlier, there are 46 lines listed for other comps and clubs.

Seems a pity that the Competition coding doesn't override club files, it would have been neat to have the CL adverts in home games.

How does it work if you set up adverts for all home games in a league e.g. Serie B in Afterware's files, then set a clubs adverts for their home games individually?

Would it take the actual club ads or the ads for the league and also would I then have to set the logo for the league for each club if you catch my drift?

The club one seems to override, I'll put a screenshot or two up tomorrow evening but having an SPL list of ads and a Champions League list, the ones in the specific Celtic list are the ones that show up.

The club one seems to override, I'll put a screenshot or two up tomorrow evening but having an SPL list of ads and a Champions League list, the ones in the specific Celtic list are the ones that show up.

What happens if you only set 20 of the values for a club and the full set for the comp? Will the rest be made up of those from the comp set?

goodness.... im seeing stars just by looking at all those html stuff

ok ive tried and tried but still no success,

ive taken on your advice danny i did this to the xml file

<!-- the list of ad cells used for Huddersfield home games -->
       <list id="664">
           <integer value="149"/>
           <integer value="1047"/>
           <integer value="1048"/>
           <integer value="149"/>
           <integer value="1047"/>
           <integer value="1048"/>
           <integer value="149"/>
           <integer value="1047"/>
           <integer value="1048"/>
           <integer value="149"/>
           <integer value="1047"/>
           <integer value="1048"/>
           <integer value="149"/>
           <integer value="1047"/>
           <integer value="1048"/>
           <integer value="149"/>
           <integer value="1047"/>
           <integer value="1048"/>
           <integer value="149"/>
           <integer value="1047"/>
           <integer value="1048"/>
           <integer value="149"/>
           <integer value="1047"/>
           <integer value="1048"/>
           <integer value="149"/>
           <integer value="1047"/>
           <integer value="1048"/>
           <integer value="149"/>
           <integer value="1047"/>
           <integer value="1048"/>
           <integer value="149"/>
           <integer value="1047"/>
           <integer value="1048"/>
           <integer value="149"/>
           <integer value="1047"/>
           <integer value="1048"/>
           <integer value="149"/>
           <integer value="1047"/>
           <integer value="1048"/>
           <integer value="149"/>
           <integer value="1047"/>
           <integer value="1048"/>
           <integer value="149"/>
           <integer value="1047"/>
           <integer value="1048"/>
           <integer value="149"/>
       </list>

then i did this at the end

<string id="1021" value="pictures/ads/1047-dcmf"/>
       <string id="1021" value="pictures/ads/1048-fmportal"/>

and they still dont show up

<string id="1021" value="pictures/ads/1047-dcmf"/>
       <string id="1021" value="pictures/ads/1048-fmportal"/>

and they still dont show up

Mate you aint changed the id to match the image! Therefore it wont work.

The lines at the end should look like:

<string id="1047" value="pictures/ads/1047-dcmf"/>

<string id="1048" value="pictures/ads/1048-fmportal"/>

I guarantee you knew it would be something simple!! Capital letters in the xml coding!

Change "ChampLeague1" to "champleague1" and away it goes!!!

I will try these, when I'm at home, and I hope it works, but there are other Capitalized images (like Nokia, BRIDGESTONE) and they work. Why? :confused:

I will try these, when I'm at home, and I hope it works, but there are other Capitalized images (like Nokia, BRIDGESTONE) and they work. Why? :confused:

Nah all the other names of images in the xml file are lower case just double checked. I got the champions league boards working when I changed to lower case, but the images are not very good (sorry to say Afterware).

I wasn't able to find better images and I modified them by myself, and I know my limits

So I've learnt something new: it doesn't matter how you write down images filenames (capitalized or not), the important thing is that in the .xml file, they are written in lowercase