Guide: Faces, Kits etc across multiple FM versions

[VinnyChilds]

(I posted this in a non-FM forum a while ago, really should have posted it here too, and haven't seen a similar post on it...)

A few of you may find this useful if you use face/badge/hair packs etc. and run multiple versions.

Rather than use up large chunks of hard drive space for each version (my facepack currently sits at 7Gb, the metallic logos at 4Gb), you can create symbolic links to these files and use the same pack for all versions. As the player/club id remains the same across all versions of the game, the only 'issue' is that you'll always see the latest version you added.

The process:

Create a 'Graphics' folder somewhere. This is the 'holding folder' for your packs. I put mine in "\Documents\Sports Interactive", outside of each game version's subfolder. Place your packs into this folder, thusly:

Make sure your game version folder has a graphics subfolder (e.g. "E:\Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2015\graphics"). If it doesn't, create it. You get an error if the folder to write to doesn't exist.

Open cmd.exe in administator mode. Add the link to the facepack like so:

mklink /J "E:\Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2015\graphics\faces" "E:\Documents\Sports Interactive\Graphics\MEGAPACK"

The first path is the 'virtual folder' you're creating, the second is the source of this folder. Your paths will be different obviously.

Repeat this process for the subfolders of the badge pack if you're using those, e.g.:

mklink /J "E:\Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2015\graphics\pictures\flags" "E:\Documents\Sports Interactive\Graphics\Metallic Logo Pack\flags"

Do the same for the "logos" and "trophies" folders. I created the "pictures" subfolder myself - again, you get an error if the folder to write to doesn't exist.

Hairpacks are slightly different as they have to be written to the Steam folder. So the command would be:

mklink /J "E:\Games\Steam\SteamApps\common\Football Manager 2015\data\facegen\hair\olt hairpack" "E:\Documents\Sports Interactive\Graphics\Hairpack\olt hairpack"

If you're using the optional "OLT Hair Pack Default Replacements" (to add shirts), you need to follow the instructions in the mod's readme.txt and overwrite the original files.

Do the usual Clear Cache > Reload Skin On Confirm to make sure it takes. I just did a fresh install of '13 (which I hardly ever played and didn't modify) to confirm all this and it worked as expected. Holidayed until April and checked the youth intakes, all got lovely new barnets. All metallic badges and faces worked fine from the start.

If you want more info on creating symbolic links, check out this article: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16226/complete-guide-to-symbolic-links-symlinks-on-windows-or-linux/

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Hope someone finds this useful.

[MBarbaric]

Or, you just go to preferences and select folder you have all the graphics in. i.e. Documents/Sports Interactive/Football manager 2014