[FM 20] [MOD] CUSTOM CLUB BANNERS AND FAN ADBOARDS FOR MATCH ENGINE [RELEASE]

[strangerthankindness]

 

Tired of looking at the same old generic stadiums and FM ads during nearly every match? Hoping to add a little variety and diversity to your match-game experience? Wanting to give each stadium its own club color and culture? This mod turns FM’s generic adboards into club-specific colors, flags, and banners, giving each stadium its own flair and feel and adding some much-needed individuality to the 3D match-game engine. One of the biggest complaints of the FM gaming system is how little diversity is shown in each club stadium, and how gamers can’t really adapt or change those stadiums. While this mod doesn’t adjust the physical structure of the stadiums, it at least adds some flavor  to each match experience. NOTE: it DOES NOT mimic contemporary advertising adboards around a stadium. Please look for rabcp's excellent Adboard Patch for that. This is a fantasy mod that just gives each stadium a look mirrored around each team's fan culture and colors.

Fiorentina, video adboard

Inter Miami, custom video adboard example

DOWNLOAD LINK!! FM20 

FULL VERSION (WITH CUSTOM VIDEO ADS) 1.37GB

http://www.mediafire.com/file/j50kuoa3jm0htie/file

LO-FI VERSION (NO CUSTOM VIDEO ADBOARDS) - ONLY USES DEFAULT SI ADS THAT COME WITH GAME) 738MB

http://www.mediafire.com/file/a8aawlwqupv4fuw/file

I've included two versions, one that includes custom video adboards (total: 1.37GB), and one that uses only the default video adboards supplied by SI (total: 738MB). This smaller "lofi" version is useful for those who either find it difficult to access the video adboard locations, or to get them to work at all, or for those who don't have enough graphics power to properly display them, or for those who simply don't want to download the larger file. 

 

INSTRUCTIONS!

1. Extract the contents of the CLUB_BANNERS_ADBOARDS.zip file. You don't need special software for that as it's a .zip file.

2. Place the first "ads" folder (the one that has only the fm.xml file inside it) inside your FM20 user data folder, that by default is found at:
Library/Application Support/Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2020

3. Place the large "pictures/ads" folder inside your FM "graphics" folder located here:
Library/Application Support/Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2020/graphics
If you already have a pictures folder, just place the large "ads" folder within it, so as not to erase whatever else is in your pictures folder, like logos, flags, city pics, etc.
If you don’t have a graphics folder, please create one, in all small caps. (Capitalization throws off the routing system).

Full route should now be:

Library/Application Support/Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2020/graphics/pictures/ads

4. If you've downloaded the full version with the video ads: Place the "simatchviewer_uncompressed" folder (this contains the video ads) into the "data" folder within your Steam installation folder (which is not located in the area of the first two folders), but is found in this pathway:
steam > steamapps > common > Football Manager 2020 > data

Full route should now be: 

steam > steamapps > common > Football Manager 2020 > data>simatchviewer_uncompressed

(There is an existing fmf file there with the same name: just leave it).

 

5. You'll also notice another folder, with a file called bidstack_enabled.xml. This basically prevents the game from constantly loading and displaying random video ads if you're online. Place that in 

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Sports Interactive\Football Manager2020 \Preferences\version 3

or for Mac: Library/Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2020/Preferences/version 3

5. Please restart FM20 entirely. If you just refresh the cache, the game may still not realize there is an entirely new place to find its graphics. Only when FM20 is restarted will it find and read the new ads xml file, and also discover the video ads.

6. Go in-game to the Preferences > Interface screen; click on "Clear Cache". And then return to the same screen and click "Reload Skin". This tells the game that hey, there's new visuals to load, otherwise it may reuse older ones. 

ENJOY! Issues? 

Remember to restart the game after first installing

Remember to clear cache and reload skin

Pay attention to where you're placing the files. 

This mod was originally created for FM14, then updated and released for FM15, FM16, and FM18. All versions work with newer versions of the game, but each update has new teams added, graphics updated and refreshed, etc. Hopefully this version will work with future releases as well. All thanks to rabcp, jeffroberts, and others for allowing me to use their custom video adboards in this mod. Most graphics created by myself, using images of team scarves, ultras photography, tifos and banners, and various PES/FIFA mods (thanks to those creators). As mentioned before, this mod has no basis in advertising reality or in mimicking the ads you'd see at a stadium; rather, it highlights the colors, flags, and banners of supporter culture, and hopes to at least enliven each stadium. Views best with TV or Behind Goal angle, with camera at lowest point.

FM 2020 Mod Stats: 11, 209 images for roughly 800 clubs. (FM19: 9,841 images for about 700 clubs). All clubs from the top leagues in Europe plus Argentina, Brazil, USA, Mexico, Japan. Now with more South American, Central American, Japanese, USA, Russian, Scandinavian, Indian clubs. Includes 48 national teams for the first time! 

See the posts below for a breakdown of what's in this pack, along with tips on how to modify it for your own images and needs. Enjoy!! 

 Vissel Kobe: w/video adboard (custom)

 Brazil, National Team example, w/custom video adboard

 Atletico Tucuman (Argentina), static adboards around the stadium example

 Santos Laguna (Mexico), static adboards around the stadium example

Olympiakos, generic FM video adboards (what you'd see using the Lo-Fi DL version)

 

Edited August 27, 2020 by strangerthankindness

[steff91]

link?

[strangerthankindness]

WHAT'S IN THE PACK? 

 

Over 800 clubs, including in...

England: EPL/Championship/League 1/League 2/assorted others

France: Ligue 1/Ligue 2 Italy: Serie A/Serie B/assorted others

Spain: La Liga Santander/La Liga Smartbank Germany: Bundesliga, Bundesliga2

Holland: Eredivisie & more  Portugal: Liga Nos & more Turkey: Superlig 

Russia: multiple teams  Greece: multiple teams

Europe: 100+ other Champions League/Europa League-level usual suspects 

Argentina: SuperLiga & multiple lower-division teams

Brazil: Serie A and multiple lower-division teams

South America: over 40 other Copa Libertadores-level usual suspects

USA: MLS & over 40 lower-division teams

Mexico: LigaMx and multiple lower-division teams 

Central America: over 20 other CONCACAF Champions League-level usual suspects

Japan: J-League & assorted J2 teams Australia: Hyundai A-League teams

India: most I-Hero League teams South Korea/China/Iran: misc. top clubs

LAFC

Perugia

Brighton & Hove

 

NEW FOR FM20! Banners for teams in...

Argentine Superliga

Brazilian Serie A & comprehensive coverage of Serie B

J-League (Japan) 

Nearly 60 USA Clubs

National Teams! (Americas and top European teams currently) 

Indian I Hero League

 

Swedish Superliga, example of team without ads but w/generic league ads

 

V-Varen Nagasaki, static adboards around stadium example, J2 League

 

Bengalure, Indian I-Hero League

 

Holland National Team w/generic FM video adboards

 

El Paso Locomotive (lower-league US team), static adboards around pitch

 

Guanz. Evergrande, Chinese Superleague, static adboards around pitch

 

Atromitos (Greece), behind-the-goal view, static adboards

 

Independiente (Argentina), static adboards around pitch

 

Ajax Amsterdam, custom Champions League video adboards example

Edited August 28, 2020 by strangerthankindness

[strangerthankindness]

RESERVED FOR TIPS ON HOW TO MODIFY/USE THE XML FILE

The biggest changes people would like to make have revolves around whether they'd prefer to have video adboards around the pitch, or to have static fan banners around it.  Some clubs with high reputation and large stadiums, in 'very developed' nations as the editor says, are hard-coded into the game to ALWAYS display video adboards, so we can't change those, but many others can be switched around. You can do this either by adjusting the xml file to make a club always display video ads (or not), or to set the league/competition it's playing in to always display video ads (or not). See these notes to adjust it accordingly; this section is near the end of the xml file....

For clubs:

Another work-around would be to code your stadium to always display digital video adboards along the side, so you'd have actual ads running along the pitch and supporter banners on top. That is somewhat easier to do, and would just mean find the section of the xml file that lists...
            <record id="2386" led_force_flag="false" concatenate_next="true"/>

and change the record ID to your club, and the first 'false' to 'true,' which I think would automatically tell the game that your team's stadium should always display video adboards. 

To make sure it does NOT display video ads, just change the 'true' to 'false,' so you have a false-false situation. However, if your team moves to a new, bigger stadium, and becomes wildly successful, you may not be able to adjust it.

It's actually easier to change an entire league and competition to show video adboards along the pitch. Say you'd like Mexico's LigaMX to always have video ads, or to change the Austrian Bundesliga to only have particular clubs, but not all, display them. To do that, find the section just above that false/true club list, which lists competitions instead, like this....

<!-- All Turkish SuperLig matches have to use LED -->
    <record id="130286" led_force_flag="true"/>

copy and paste that line, and put in the record ID# for the competition you'd like to adjust. Use either 'true', to always show video ads no matter how big/small the clubs in it are, or 'false.' 

With these changes, and with any changes you make to the xml file, you'll need to then RESTART the game; only when restarting does the game "read" the xml file, and know where to find images and what to do with them. If you just keep playing it won't realize you've made any adjustments. Then clear cache and reload skin in the preferences, as always.

For more nerdy detail about how to add your own images to the game, or to add a club that is not in there, or to add even more images to a particular club, etc, see these posts I wrote for my FM18 version.....

 

 

Thanks! One other small warning: you can open the xml file with most text editors, but some may be too basic to save the changes correctly. Also, one missing ">" or "line—" will make the entire file unreadable. (Trust me, I know). Always make a back-up of the existing one before you do, just in case. 

Edited August 28, 2020 by strangerthankindness

[strangerthankindness]

RESERVED FOR OTHER TROUBLE-SHOOTING AND INFO ON ANY UPDATES

[Toronto Blizzard]

This is more amazing work - I've been looking at your posts in trying to create some of my own adboards and they've been incredibly helpful.  Forgive me if you've already covered this somewhere else, but have you ever figured out how to position static adboards (actual ads around the pitch vs supporters' banners behind)?

[strangerthankindness]

29 minutes ago, Toronto Blizzard said:

This is more amazing work - I've been looking at your posts in trying to create some of my own adboards and they've been incredibly helpful.  Forgive me if you've already covered this somewhere else, but have you ever figured out how to position static adboards (actual ads around the pitch vs supporters' banners behind)?

Hi TB - thanks for the kind words. There is definitely a way to do it on a stadium-by-stadium basis; you could create test images that would display a 1-60 or whatever, to see where each landed in the stadium, and then go from there. Unfortunately each stadium layout is different, so Image #34 for one club may land on the right-hand upper level for one stadium, and in the front middle row of another stadium. You could probably do it for a particular club or two if you had the time, but to do it for a large number of stadiums would be too time-consuming, for me anyway. That said, I think that rabcp tried something similar for his adboard mod, either here or on sortitout, so looking through his posts may lead you to some suggestions. 

Another work-around would be to code your stadium to always display digital video adboards along the side, so you'd have actual ads running along the pitch and supporter banners on top. That is somewhat easier to do, and would just mean find the section of the xml file that lists...
            <record id="2386" led_force_flag="false" concatenate_next="true"/>

 

and change the record ID to your club, and the first 'false' to 'true,' which I think would automatically tell the game that your team's stadium should always display video adboards. Or, you could just change the entire league your team is in to always display video, which would be the section that's just above it, like this....
    
          <!-- All Turkish SuperLig matches have to use LED -->
    <record id="130286" led_force_flag="true"/>

with the record ID# matching the competition that your team is playing in. Hope that is somewhat useful for you.

[wkdsoul]

So if I was looking to merge rags pack and yours better to start with the low res and filter his vids into,the folder and xml?

[strangerthankindness]

44 minutes ago, wkdsoul said:

So if I was looking to merge rags pack and yours better to start with the low res and filter his vids into,the folder and xml?

Hey wkdsoul, exactly. Just DL the 'Lo-Fi' version without video ads, then keep his video pack in your simatchviewer_uncompressed folder. You'll need to then manipulate the xml files accordingly, of course. For my lo-fi xml file, I kept the code that labels' the #'s associated with the video ads, but took out the codes that associated the teams or leagues with those #'s, if that makes sense, so that the game would just fill it with the generic video ads provided in-game. However as you've probably noticed, a lot of Italian teams come with particular ads in the default simatch viewer, so I did keep those in and wrote in the pathways for the game to find them. And for the EFL leagues I wrote in the pathways to the default EFL video ads that also come with the game.

Your best bet may be to use my xml code for the Lo-Fi version, then just copy and paste rabcp's code for his video ads in each sections, adding the ID's of the video ads to the individual teams, or to the leagues, if that makes sense.

His code may also identify more leagues that require video adboards for all teams in the competition ("true") than mine do, so keep an eye out for that and adjust to your preferences. I only forced some of the major leagues in very developed nations to play video ads at all times: EPL, Championship, Serie A, Ligue 1, Bundesliga, MLS, UEFA Champions League, etc.  I still kind the look of teams in tiny 5-10k stadiums in Portugal or Holland that have only static ads, but that's my own preference.

 

[wkdsoul]

Yeah. No worries 

[Toronto Blizzard]

13 hours ago, strangerthankindness said:

Hi TB - thanks for the kind words. There is definitely a way to do it on a stadium-by-stadium basis; you could create test images that would display a 1-60 or whatever, to see where each landed in the stadium, and then go from there. Unfortunately each stadium layout is different, so Image #34 for one club may land on the right-hand upper level for one stadium, and in the front middle row of another stadium. You could probably do it for a particular club or two if you had the time, but to do it for a large number of stadiums would be too time-consuming, for me anyway. That said, I think that rabcp tried something similar for his adboard mod, either here or on sortitout, so looking through his posts may lead you to some suggestions. 

Another work-around would be to code your stadium to always display digital video adboards along the side, so you'd have actual ads running along the pitch and supporter banners on top. That is somewhat easier to do, and would just mean find the section of the xml file that lists...
            <record id="2386" led_force_flag="false" concatenate_next="true"/>

 

and change the record ID to your club, and the first 'false' to 'true,' which I think would automatically tell the game that your team's stadium should always display video adboards. Or, you could just change the entire league your team is in to always display video, which would be the section that's just above it, like this....
    
          <!-- All Turkish SuperLig matches have to use LED -->
    <record id="130286" led_force_flag="true"/>

with the record ID# matching the competition that your team is playing in. Hope that is somewhat useful for you.

Thanks for taking the time to respond, Strangerthankindness!

I agree that forcing videoboards on the league would be the easiest thing, but then I would want to create club/league specific videoboards, and I don't think my skills are up to the task!  :-)  ...though I haven't looked into it.

As for your other suggested approach, I will try mapping the adboards onto a stadium to see where they fall.  Luckily, most stadiums I'm interested in are around 5k capacity, so it wouldn't be that bad.

A couple of questions for you, though:

1. I'd read somewhere else that the order of operations for filling the stadium with adboards is: club --> competition --> generic.  Is this correct?  

2. If so, would there be a way to set up the XML that assigned club/competition/generic to different "slots", or would I have to assign all adboards I wanted to display under "clubs"?  I think putting all images under clubs would work, but if I have a competition adboard in there and the team gets relegated or plays in a cup you would have conflicting adboards, if that makes sense.

[DamienQilBormliz]

Thank you for this update @strangerthankindness!!!! 
Have been playing with your mod since FM18, feels good to see some refreshing adboards.

 

Thanks a lot for sharing  Appreciated! 

[drumgoreckibass]

hey everyone! I've been trying to install club banners & adboards for FM20 for over a week, already reviewed all my procedures several times and it doesn't work totally. adboards are fine and working but banners are never shown. any help? Thanks.

[latrell]

really loving these banners with fm21 really wish you had some Maradona banners for boca juniors hopefully if you make any updates they can be in there 

[seagull84]

do these work with FM21 as per instructions in the original post?

[latrell]

3 minutes ago, seagull84 said:

do these work with FM21 as per instructions in the original post?

yeah they work fine for me best mod out there imo it has changed the game for me ever since the mod was released  

[kad38]

does it work with FM 21 ??

[MrGizMo]

9 hours ago, kad38 said:

does it work with FM 21 ??

One post above you

[Nuggett]

I can't get the team specific ads to show-up on the upper level.  Not sure if something is overwriting what I installed.

I have attached a couple of screenshots (LAFC, Orlando and Man U).  I am using FM20.

[cancerman123]

Mispelling for Crotone's ads

"Sky ti porta alo stadio" should be "Sky ti porta ALLO stadio", with two L's

[cancerman123]

Tokyo FC in the J-League looks kinda lacking... I mean, they came up second-place and still they have only a few custom banners compared to Kashiwa...

[RBKalle]

Doesn't seem to work on my FM21...

Dynamic adboards are black around the pitch and there are no banners on the stands.

I suspect Step 2 is the problem... What's the user data folder? The one in Username/Sports Interactive/FM2021? Or the one in Username/AppData etc?

[Oatesy]

On 09/12/2020 at 18:23, RBKalle said:

Doesn't seem to work on my FM21...

Dynamic adboards are black around the pitch and there are no banners on the stands.

I suspect Step 2 is the problem... What's the user data folder? The one in Username/Sports Interactive/FM2021? Or the one in Username/AppData etc?

The instructions at that part also confused me trying to install this on FM20 today. I first put it in the Username/AppData directory but it didn't work. Putting the 'ads' folder into the standard directory where you put stuff like kitpacks/facepacks and other editor data (C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2020) has got everything working. Thanks @strangerthankindness

[kad38]

Le 09/12/2020 à 19:23, RBKalle a dit :

Doesn't seem to work on my FM21...

Dynamic adboards are black around the pitch and there are no banners on the stands.

I suspect Step 2 is the problem... What's the user data folder? The one in Username/Sports Interactive/FM2021? Or the one in Username/AppData etc?

 

you play in high low medium graphics setting?

[RBKalle]

Il 12/12/2020 in 20:12 , Oatesy ha scritto:

The instructions at that part also confused me trying to install this on FM20 today. I first put it in the Username/AppData directory but it didn't work. Putting the 'ads' folder into the standard directory where you put stuff like kitpacks/facepacks and other editor data (C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2020) has got everything working. Thanks @strangerthankindness

I've tried to copy the "ads" folder with the .xml file in Username\..\Football Manager 2021\graphics and the other "ads" folder (with all the pics) is in the \pictures subfolder.

Still doesn't work.

14 ore fa, kad38 ha scritto:

 

you play in high low medium graphics setting?

High

[Oatesy]

10 hours ago, RBKalle said:

I've tried to copy the "ads" folder with the .xml file in Username\..\Football Manager 2021\graphics and the other "ads" folder (with all the pics) is in the \pictures subfolder.

Still doesn't work.

Wrong directory. Go back one. If it's gonna work on FM21, the ads folder with the .xml file would have to be in the main Football Manager 2021 folder like mine is on 2020.

 

 

The one with all the pictures should be correct in \graphics\pictures. That's also where mine is.

Edited December 14, 2020 by Oatesy

[RBKalle]

Il 14/12/2020 in 20:35 , Oatesy ha scritto:

Wrong directory. Go back one. If it's gonna work on FM21, the ads folder with the .xml file would have to be in the main Football Manager 2021 folder like mine is on 2020.

 

 

 

The one with all the pictures should be correct in \graphics\pictures. That's also where mine is.

Thank you!

Now it works!

[seagull84]

Has this stopped working for anyone else with the new patch.

The video ads work but nothing else.

[giglet13]

FM21 is first time i've used this and works great, i've been able to add some banners to other clubs too following guidance provided so that's also been brilliant. One question i have is around Finals/Neutral Venue games. At present these take the banners of whoever is allocated the home team and use 100% of their banners - feels a bit of a shame but can understand how this might be unavoidable.

Any ideas/workarounds to say - add 'wembley' (usually neutral venue) to have certain banners/remove banners? That way at least its none instead of only the home side?

[Borax]

On 29/12/2020 at 13:12, giglet13 said:

FM21 is first time i've used this and works great, i've been able to add some banners to other clubs too following guidance provided so that's also been brilliant. One question i have is around Finals/Neutral Venue games. At present these take the banners of whoever is allocated the home team and use 100% of their banners - feels a bit of a shame but can understand how this might be unavoidable.

Any ideas/workarounds to say - add 'wembley' (usually neutral venue) to have certain banners/remove banners? That way at least its none instead of only the home side?

Hi, I want to add some banners etc for my Borehamwood FC save on FM21, you mention that you have been able to do this, could provide some instructions so I can add them in?

Thanks

[giglet13]

2 hours ago, Borax said:

Hi, I want to add some banners etc for my Borehamwood FC save on FM21, you mention that you have been able to do this, could provide some instructions so I can add them in?

Thanks

If you follow the links from the link https://sortitoutsi.net/content/51652/club-banners-adboards-for-fm20  there are some instructions, step by step, provided by the creator. I just followed these and it worked a charm - creating the banners themselves is something you need to do on photoshop (or equivalent) and then it's just creating the file paths and adding some lines of code as the instructions guide through. My created club Wakefield FC looking strong:

 

Found the link in comments so sharing here to save you searching  

 

Edited January 10, 2021 by giglet13
Found more info

[VexRed]

Can I ask a random question?

Will this prevent the 'moving' advertising boards?  I've been scouring the internet trying to find a way to disable them, from the comments above I think they may be 'dynamic adboards'  (I don't mind it being real / targeted advertising with bidstack, but the fact they move is really distracting). The moving adboards might be the video ones, but they also rotate around the outside of the pitch far too regularly.  I play using the 2D match engine as that is my preferred camera view.

I find myself watching the adboards and not the game, totally ruined FMT21 for me so far, I just can't sit through a match and enjoy it in any way. I recently bought the new version and I have to be honest except for the player / squad updates I think that imo FMT21 is inferior in EVERY way (from a UI perspective) - except for the DB updates I wish I'd stuck with FMT20, but couldn't resist the opportunity to sign Moukoko and find out the big deal behind the 'greatest wonderkid of all time'.

Side note: the UI was brighter and easier to read in FMT20 as well, but I can get around this with custom Skins, I still prefer the FM20 default interface, but the skin I am using is at least playable - the default skin was horrendous - too dark, no clear distinction between each panel - white and purple in FMT20 was replaced by black and... slightly different black...  for FMT21 :-P )

Any assistance / advice much appreciated.

Thanks,

Vex

Lifelong Portsmouth supporter, currently managing Man Utd so I can sign some 'good' players before 2029/30 season in-game :-D