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Football Manager 2014 Base Skins


michaeltmurrayuk

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Base Skins for Football Manager 2014

[if you are still using FM2013 see this thread: Football Manager 2013 Base Skins]

As with recent Football Managers for you to make certain changes in Football Manager 2014 you need to create a new skin.

So to make things easier for people I've put up some base skins that are identical to the default skins that come with the game, so you can add new files/graphics to these without messing up the original skins, and anything that isn't located in these new skin folders will be taken from the default locations within the game.

Base 2014 Skin - This is the Default Base Skin and is identical in appearance to the Default FM2014 Skin.

***NEW Dark Base 2014 Skin - This is the Default Dark Base Skin and is identical in appearance to the Dark FM2014 Skin.***

Updated - Base FMC2014 Skin - This is the Default Base Skin for the Classic Mode and is identical in appearance to the Default FMC2014 Skin.

NOTE: TO USE THE DARK BASE SKIN YOU NEED TO HAVE INSTALLED THE OFFICAL DARK SKIN WHICH CAN BE DOWNLOAD THROUGH THE STEAM WORKSHOP INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO ARE HERE

This year I have also included to make things easier for people:

- All the files included in the Default FM2014 Skins Folder.

- The Default Fonts for the FM2014 skin.

Change Log:

Version 2.0

- Base 2014 and Base FMC2014 skins have both been updated for patch 14.2 (Dark Base skin didn't need updating).

Note that I won't be doing Base Skins for Background Changes again this year as the skins are different from previous ones, and to see the background you need to edit pretty much all of the box files rather than just a handful of files, which won't really make it a base skin.

Instructions:

When you extract the file you have have downloaded you should have one folder called base_fm2014 (or base_fmc2014 for the FMC Skin) and a readme.txt file.

Now copy the folder into your skins folder within your Saving (what used to be called the User Data) Folder, by default this is:

For the Demo:

\My Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2014 Demo\skins\

For the full game (or beta):

\My Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2014\skins\

If you cannot find your Saving folder, load up the game and go into the preferences -> Overiew Screen, on the right of the screen should be a section headed Saving, there should be a folder location listed in the box, this is the location of your Saving folder, if you browse to that location on your computer (not through FM) there should be a skins folder located within that folder, this is where you put your downloaded skins.

For example my User Data location is: S:\Sports Interactive\FM14BETA\ as shown by the below screenshot:

savinglocation.jpg

You can also change the location of your Saving folder if you wish or reset its location to default. (you’ll need to reload the game for it to take affect)

If done right your skins folder should look something like this:

skinlistfolder.jpg

And inside the base_fm2014 folder you should have the following folders:

baseskinfolder.jpg

When you load the game up if the skin cache is off any skins in the above folder should appear in the skins menu like the below image

NOTE That FMC skins will only appear when you are playing the FMC mode and normal skins will only appear when playing the normal mode: :

skinlist.jpg

If the skin cache is on you'll need to turn it off, exit the Preferences menu and re-enter it and any new skins should appear, if not tick 'Always Reload Skin on Confirm' and change skins, click confirm and go back in and your skin should appear.

To Replace Graphics

To replace the following graphics you need to copy the graphics you have made or downloaded into the correct folders within the folder for the skin you are using:

Gold Stars:

My Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2014\skins\<SKIN_NAME>\graphics\icons\stars\gold

Silver Stars:

My Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2014\skins\<SKIN_NAME>\graphics\icons\stars\silver

To get the 2D pitch icons (balls, nets, players) into the game they need to go into the following folders within your skin:

Balls:

My Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2014\skins\<SKIN_NAME>\graphics\pitch\balls\

Popups:

My Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2014\skins\<SKIN_NAME>\graphics\pitch\popup\

Nets:

My Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2014\skins\<SKIN_NAME>\graphics\pitch\nets\

Player Icons:

My Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2014\skins\<SKIN_NAME>\graphics\pitch\icons\kit\

For example if you were previously using the default FM14 skin and wanted to add some new 2D balls to the game you would add them to:

My Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2014\skins\base2014\graphics\pitch\pitch\balls\

And select the Base FM2014 skin in game, and your new ball would show on the 2D pitch.

(NOTE: this is just for the classic 2D view, the 3D view graphics are controlled by different files)

To edit the fonts

The font settings for each skin are now controlled by the <SKIN_NAME> settings.xml file located inside the settings folder.

For the Base FM2014 skin this is the ‘\base_fm2014\settings\base_fm2014 settings.xml’ file

For the Base FMC2014 skin this is the ‘\base_fmc2014\settings\base_fmc2014 settings.xml’ file

For the base skins I have copied in the relevant coding for you to change the various text settings – style, size etc, you just need to open the <SKIN_NAME> settings.xml file scroll down to the bottom of the file until you see the TEXT SETTINGS text and edit the relevant code below that line.

To change the actual font used by the game, you will first need to copy the relevant font file into the fonts folder for your skin and then change the font name in the settings file.

To edit the game colours

The colour settings for each skin are now controlled by the <SKIN_NAME> settings.xml file located inside the settings folder.

The colour settings for each skin are controlled by the <SKIN_NAME> settings.xml file located inside the settings folder.

For the Base FM2014 skin this is the ‘\base_fm2014\settings\base_fm2014 settings.xml’ file

For the Base FMC2014 skin this is the ‘\base_fmc2014\settings\base_fmc2014 settings.xml’ file

For the base skins I have copied in the relevant coding for you to change the various colours used by the skin – you just need to open the <SKIN_NAME> settings.xml file and locate the relevant line for the colour setting you wish to change – the colour names and comments should explain what the majority of the colours control.

The colours are declared in RGB values, that range from 0-255 where Red=255 Green=255 Blue=255 is white and Red=0 Green=0 Blue=0 is black.

To locate the RGB value of a colour you want to use you can either use a image editing program to obtain the RGB Value of the colour or type rgb values into google and it will bring up several websites that list the RGB Values for various colours.

To edit the Attribute Threshold

This is now done in game via the Preferences -> Interface -> Skin Colours screen.

For your changes to take affect

If you have made any changes to the base skins (colours, fonts, graphics) to get your changes to show you’ll need to go into the Preferences -> Interface Menu and untick ‘Use caching to decrease page loading times’ if it is ticked and then tick ‘Reload skin when confirming changes in Preferences’ then click confirm and your changes should be applied, if you have previousily ticked and unticked the required boxes a 'Reload Skin' button should appear in the bottom left corner, if this button appears you can click that if the Confirm Button is grayed out.

DOWNLOAD PAGE FOR FM2014 BASE SKINS

ALT DOWNLOAD PAGE

STEAM WORKSHOP PAGE

(Each link contains links to all downloads)

You are free to do what you want with these Base Skins provided:

1. You don't advertise them as being exclusive to your website.

2. At least one of the download links is free to access and download.

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Dark Base Skin is now available download links in opening post have each file.

NOTE: TO USE THE DARK BASE SKIN YOU NEED TO HAVE INSTALLED THE OFFICAL DARK SKIN WHICH CAN BE DOWNLOAD THROUGH THE STEAM WORKSHOP INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO ARE HERE

Also the FMC Base Skin has had a small update to bring it uptodate with the release version of FM2014, the normal base skin didn't need updating.

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Excellent as always, thanks. Have you been able to edit the attribute thresholds in FMC? I added in the usual attributes (copied from the 2013 base skins), but it doesn't seem to have any effect. I cleared the cache and reloaded the skins.

I'm assuming this is the only way to do it, since FMC doesn't have the option in the preferences.

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Excellent as always, thanks. Have you been able to edit the attribute thresholds in FMC? I added in the usual attributes (copied from the 2013 base skins), but it doesn't seem to have any effect. I cleared the cache and reloaded the skins.

I'm assuming this is the only way to do it, since FMC doesn't have the option in the preferences.

I haven't had a real chance to look at the FMC Mode yet, though from what I remember the threshold was editable for FMC via the xml files last year, it was the full mdoe that didn't work, so editing the files should still work.

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When I try to use the dark base skin, I just get a black screen. I have the default dark installed, which works fine. Help please.

How did you download the Base Skin.

- If directly make sure you have installed it correctly.

- If through the Steam Workshop check to make sure it downloaded the skin correctly as most of the steam community features (including workshop) have been having problems for me this weekend. If you right click -> properties on the dark_base2014 folder should contain 40 files and 3 folders with size 199kb and size on disk of 320kb. If that is wrong delete the folder and then redownload the skin directly for the moment.

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The player names in 3D-mathes seems to be very fade and almost not to see i the Base-skin, I have changes the fonts to verdana - and it works fine in other places.

In which match xml-file are the code for player names ? - thank you in advance.

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The player names in 3D-mathes seems to be very fade and almost not to see i the Base-skin, I have changes the fonts to verdana - and it works fine in other places.

In which match xml-file are the code for player names ? - thank you in advance.

The pitch fonts aren't userable editable, about the only thing you can do is change the value of the font outline, in the settings\base_fm2014 settings.xml file locate these lines:

<integer id="style" value="outlined"/>

<real id="stroke_width" value="1.0"/>

And you can adjust the stroke width to see if it makes the font any better.

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1 - Tactics screen font size isn't editable.

2 - you need to edit the 'cup stage.xml' file (you'll need to extract it from the panels.fmf of where you installed FM and put it into the panels folder of the base skin) locate this line near the top:

<flags id="layo" value="60, -1, 20, 30, 25, 30, 25, 30, 20, -1, 60" />

The two 60 numbers determine the width of the flag column increase those numbers until the abbreviations aren't cut off.

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1 - Tactics screen font size isn't editable.

2 - you need to edit the 'cup stage.xml' file (you'll need to extract it from the panels.fmf of where you installed FM and put it into the panels folder of the base skin) locate this line near the top:

<flags id="layo" value="60, -1, 20, 30, 25, 30, 25, 30, 20, -1, 60" />

The two 60 numbers determine the width of the flag column increase those numbers until the abbreviations aren't cut off.

Problem fixed, thank you :)
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The pitch fonts are userable editable, about the only thing you can do is change the value of the font outline, in the settings\base_fm2014 settings.xml file locate these lines:

<integer id="style" value="outlined"/>

<real id="stroke_width" value="1.0"/>

And you can adjust the stroke width to see if it makes the font any better.

I have adjustet the value to "8.0" and it's better, but still not like I wish - are this all I can do, continue to up this value ?

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Excellent as always, thanks. Have you been able to edit the attribute thresholds in FMC? I added in the usual attributes (copied from the 2013 base skins), but it doesn't seem to have any effect. I cleared the cache and reloaded the skins.

I'm assuming this is the only way to do it, since FMC doesn't have the option in the preferences.

Looking for something else I've come across this code that is different from the FM13 code:

<integer id="average_attribute_boundary" value="6" />

<integer id="good_attribute_boundary" value="11" />

<integer id="excellent_attribute_boundary" value="16" />

you can try pasting that into the files (it might even work in the settings.xml file).

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Hi Michael, how can I find and edit the transfer panel? Because I'd need to fix two problems:

1) to bring up the results of the player search, making the box stand still (everytime I go to transfer the box returns down, even if I raise it)

2) to change the highlighted fonts (particularly the color)

14le06.png

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  • 3 weeks later...

The pitch fonts aren't userable editable, about the only thing you can do is change the value of the font outline, in the settings\base_fm2014 settings.xml file locate these lines:

<integer id="style" value="outlined"/>

<real id="stroke_width" value="1.0"/>

And you can adjust the stroke width to see if it makes the font any better.

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The pitch fonts aren't userable editable, about the only thing you can do is change the value of the font outline, in the settings\base_fm2014 settings.xml file locate these lines:

<integer id="style" value="outlined"/>

<real id="stroke_width" value="1.0"/>

And you can adjust the stroke width to see if it makes the font any better.

Thanks mate, I'll give it a go, apparently 14.2.0 fixed some of my issues automatically with Text area problems :)

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  • 2 months later...

Is there any chance that these base skins will include the transparent graphics so that they can be used with stadium backgrounds. They work at the moment but are unplayable as the text is hard to see due to there been no background filter.

In the past the base skins came with this already set up

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  • 4 months later...

Is there any chance that you could tell me the locations of the graphics that need to opacity changing so that the base skins can be used with background images?

I don't mind changing them myself but I am unsure of the locations

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Thanks Michael. Just another quick question. I have downloaded your base skin from your website but that doesnt include anything in the graphics folder of that skin.

Would I be best extracting the base skin using the Resource Archiver or is there something that needs to be added to your base skins from your website?

One more thing, what are the fm-widgets that are in the skin.fmf file when using the Resource Archiver?

Thanks

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Base Skin(s) don't include the graphics so you'll need to extract them from the skins.fmf file installed with the game.

The fm-widgets skins are the parent skins for the skins used in game, you'll need to extract the fm13-widgets skin as that is the one that contains the graphics for the default skin (including base skin). (If you are using the FMC skin or dark skin you'll need to use the widget skin for them).

Once you have extracted the files just copy the contents of the graphics folder from the fm13-widgets skin to the base skin and then edit the graphics that you need to.

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Hi Michael, I have changed the opacity of all the graphics in the boxes folder to 40% from the fm13-widgets graphics folder and added these to the base skin that I extracted from the skin.fmf file.

I have moved this skin to the skins folder in my sports interactive folder where other skins are located but when I got to change the skin in the game this doesn't show up in the list. Is there something I need to do to get the skin to show up so I can select it for use?

Thanks

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Scrap that Michael I am having to go back and do them again as 40% opacity is too transparent and doesnt work well. I am doing them at 80% this time.

I hope you dont mind but I am using your base2014 skin that is available on your website as adding the graphics that I am editing to that skin works with background images. I am planning on editing it a bit and will post it here for you to look over if you want.

Just a quick bit of help though, I did notice that when you quit the game and the popup that appears asking if you are sure or want to save the game before quitting, this appears to be transparent also. Do you know the location of this popup so that I can avoid making it transparent? Also any other graphics that shouldn't be transparent would be good to know to if you know the locations.

I do apologise for all the questions but I am new to skinning and appreciate all the help you are providing

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That's fine that's what the Base Skins are their for.

The Graphics for the popup confirmation box should be located in: \graphics\boxes\dialog

I don't have a list of which files do/don't need editing however most of the graphics you need to edit should just be located in the following folders within the boxes folder; plain, bordered, titled, subsection.

If you want to edit the buttons they are located in the buttons folder, whilst buttons that have menus attached are in the menus folder.

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Hi Michael

I seem to have got the white base skin to be useable with background images now. I will upload this so that you can add them to your website and others can download too.

I do want to maybe customise the look of it a little bit for my own use. What I am wanting to add is the stadium pic when you go into the club information screen, and also I was hoping to use the Better than Default panels that are in the skinning thread but these look to not be working as they should and they havent been updated.

Is there anything you could do to help me at least get the stadium pic to show up? Anything else you can help with would be great.

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