Football Manager 2016 - Skinning/Graphics Information *Please Read*

[michaeltmurrayuk]

If you are new to Football Manager 2016 then please have a read of this thread first as it will cover some of the skinning and graphics related changes in FM2016.

I also suggest especially if you are new to Football Manager (or skinning/adding graphics) that you also have a look at the other stickied threads as they contain more detailed information that may be of use.

There is also an FAQ thread in the Bugs Forum that should be your first port of call for any technical issues: Football Manager 2016 Frequently Asked Questions

How to change your Saving Location

How To Locate Your Default Saving Location

Changes to Graphics

How to Make the Sidebar Icon Only

How to Extract the fmf files

Create-a-Club Mode Graphics

fmf format Graphics from older versions not working

I Am Unable to Change the Player Attribute Colours

How to Stop the Blurring Effect

How To Recolour The Star Ratings

My Game is Crashing With Custom Skins in Patch 16.2

[michaeltmurrayuk]

Football Manager 2016: How to change your Saving Location

The first thing you may have noticed is that you are no longer able to adjust your Saving Location (User Data Location) from within the Preferences Menu.

This feature was removed because it was apparently causing confusion among users, however it is still possible to adjust your Saving Location if you don't want it in the default location, however you now need to add a command line to the game launch options.

(NOTE: You only need to follow the below instructions if you want to move the location, these instructions aren't needed if you are just wanting to add content to the default location).

To do this follow the instructions below:

- Go into Steam -> Library -> Games view.

- Located Football Manager 2016 and right-click on the game.

- Select 'Properties'

- Click 'Set Launch Options...'

- Copy the following into the dialogue box: --user_data_location="<path>"

- In the <path> section, enter the exact path you wish the folder to be generated (ie D:\Users\ etc)

So for example if you wanted your Saving Location to be S:\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2016

You would add the following text to the dialogue box:

--user_data_location="S:\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2016"

So your Launch Options box should look something like this:

Note that this folder location needs to already exist on your hard drive before setting the launch option, then when you next launch FM2016 the game will automatically generate the needed subfolders (such as graphics, games and skins).

If done correctly the contents of your custom User Data Location should look something like this after having run the game with the launch option set:

Also note that if you have any already created anything in game with the default location set (such as save games, shortlists, or tactics) you will need to manually copy the items over to your new location.

To reset your Saving Location to the default position you just need to delete the command line and on your next restart of FM16 the game will go back to using the default location. (Again you'll need to maunaly copy over any existing files from your old custom location to the default location for them to be read by the game).

Link to Thread for Discussion

[michaeltmurrayuk]

Football Manager 2016: How To Locate Your Default Saving Location

With the removal of the Saving Location feature from the preferences menu it is no longer possible to locate your Saving Location from within the game.

However depending on the OS you are using your default Saving Location will be located in one of these folders:

Windows

C:\Users\[Your Windows Username]\Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2016\

Mac

/Users/[Your Mac Username]/Documents/Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2016/

Linux

/home/documents/Sports Interactive/FM2016/

Your Saving Location is where the game stores any user generated files, this can be files generated by the game such as Save Games (though you can still customize your save game location from the save game menus in game), saved shortlists, tactics or custom views, or it will be where you put any custom graphics you have downloaded such as skins, kits or logos.

Whilst the process to change and locate your Saving Location has changed for FM16 the subfolders (such as graphics and skins) that you put user generated content into hasn't changed and as such you should follow the same procedures as in previous versions.

[michaeltmurrayuk]

Football Manager 2016: Changes to Graphics

From first glance there doesn't appear to be any changes to the customizable graphics so kits, logos, flags and faces from FM15 should still work with FM16.

One thing that may not work correctly straight away are shirt back templates as you might have noticed the graphics on the tactics screen have changed as have the shirt backs on the formation screen.

As always skins from FM15 will not work on FM16. Other skin related mods will depend on the mod and on whether the underlying code has changed in FM16 or not, though details on them will likely have to wait until the full release as code may still change between now and full release.

Whilst some eagle eyed people may have noticed that the trophy graphics are now linked to competition ids and as such can be customized with each competition having it's own trophy image. These are done in exactly the same way as the logos with a guide on how to do it located here: [FM16 Guide] How to Create and Add Trophy Images

[michaeltmurrayuk]

Football Manager 2016: How to Make the Sidebar Icon Only

In FM16 you can now make the sidebar show icons only by adjusting a setting in the preferences menu instead of having to edit the xml files.

From the Preferences -> Interface menu on the left side under General Settings is an option 'Sidebar icons-only' if you tick that the sidebar will display icons only no matter your screen resolution.

[michaeltmurrayuk]

Football Manager 2016: How to Extract the fmf files

To extract the fmf files for Football Manager 2016 you need to use the FM16 version of the Resource Archiver Tool.

This needs to be download separately through Steam. It can be found in the Tools section within Steam. To get to it do the following;

Open Steam -> Library -> Tools -> Football Manager 2016 Resource Archiver. And then double click or right click and select Install Game.

The initial run may require to install direct X files.

If you do not know how to use the Resource Archiver Tool then there is a User Guide included with it that can be accessed from within this location inside your Steam Folder: \SteamApps\common\Football Manager 2016 Resource Archiver\

[michaeltmurrayuk]

Football Manager 2016: Create-a-Club Mode Graphics

In the new Create-a-Club mode it seems by design it is not possible to assign custom logos or kits (2D or 3D) to your created club via the xml files, the only way to set these is at the start of the game when you create the club, for kits you are left using the default kit graphics, however you can use a custom logo if you select this option when creating your club.

The custom logo needs to be in png format, for dimensions the default logos are 180x180 pixels, however at the moment there appears to be some problems with the logo being resized for the small logos, so you might want to make the canvas size of your logo 250x180 pixels which may remove any resizing problems for the moment.

[michaeltmurrayuk]

Football Manager 2016: fmf format Graphics from older versions not working

If you have transferred over some graphics from a previous version that are in the fmf format and they don't load, you may need to convert the files so they can be read by FM16.

To do this you will first need to extract the graphics using the Resource Tool from a previous version.

Once you have done that you can either transfer over the extracted graphics and treat them as normal, or once the FM2016 Resource Tool has been released you can use that to repackage them into an fmf file that can be read by FM16.

[michaeltmurrayuk]

Football Manager 2016: I Am Unable to Change the Player Attribute Colours

If you have changed the player attribute colours (or other colours) and they are not being read by the game then you might need to reset the colours using the ingame Skin Colours Option as these values might be overriding your custom colours.

To do this from within the game you need to go to the Preferences -> Interface -> Skin Colours screen and in the bottom left corner select 'Restore Default Colours' this will then cause the game to re-read the colour values from the xml files and should then apply your custom colours.

(Alternatively you can just set the colours in the Skin Colours Screen and not need to edit the xml file manually for the colours listed on this screen.

[michaeltmurrayuk]

Football Manager 2016: How to Stop the Blurring Effect

A new feature added to Football Manager 2016 is a blurring affect in the background when you have a popup/confirmation box wanting your attention.

However if you don't like this it is easy enough to disable for instructions on how to do that please see this thread:

[h=1][FM16][GUIDE] How To Stop the Blurring Effect[/h]

[michaeltmurrayuk]

Football Manager 2016: How To Recolour The Star Ratings

FM2016 has changed how you go about recolouring the star ratings used on the reputation and scout report screens for example.

The colours are now controlled by the xml files not the graphics, for full instructions on how to recolour the stars in FM2016 and for some example colours please see this thread:

[h=1][FM16][GUIDE] How To Recolour the Star Ratings[/h]

[michaeltmurrayuk]

Football Manager 2016: My Game is Crashing With Custom Skins in Patch 16.2

If after updating to patch 16.2 your game is crashing with a custom skin when you try to continue the game, then the problem is likely caused by your skin using a pre-patched 'game processing panel.xml' file.

To fix this problem:

- End users first check that you are using the most up-to-date version of the skin you are using as skin makers should have had enough time to update their skins for patch 16.2 by now.

If the skin you are using hasn't been updated yet and don't want to wait for the skinner to release an updated version of the skin then you can just delete the 'game processing panel.xml' file located in the panels\game folder for the skin you are using (or if the skin has altered this file then you might want to follow the instructions below to alter the problem line yourself).

Then in preferences turn off the skin cache if it is on and reload your skin and the game should stop crashing.

- For skinners you will need to redo any changes you made to the default 'game processing panel.xml' file in the file that was updated by the patch (note the updated file is located in the main panels.fmf file not one found in the updates folder), though you really should be checking and updating all of your xml files for any changes made in the patch.

Looks like the following line has been changed from:

<record id="widget_properties" class="calendar_detailed_event_panel" file="game/calendar dropdown event panel" show_no_events_label="false" width="200">

To:

<record id="widget_properties" class="calendar_popup_day_panel" file="game/calendar dropdown day panel" show_no_events_label="false" width="200">

If you are still having a problem with any custom skin crashing in the latest patch then post in the thread for that skin.

If you are having a problem with the game crashing using all skins or the default skins then open a thread in the bugs forum.