Need some help with customizing a few screens

[yonko]

Hi, everyone. I'm trying to customize a few things in the Base Dark skin but it is not working for some reason. I'm hoping someone would be able to help me.

Basically I'm trying to change the button on the team instructions and player instructions dialog boxes appear as the rest of the skin instead of the generic default ones. I've created a graphics folder with the appropriate button graphics and I've added lines in the code inside the appropriate files. Or at least I think I have. Here are some screenshot of what I'm talking about:

I'm talking about the buttons for "Use Offside Trap", "Get Stuck In", "Retain Possession", "Pass Into Space", etc.

This is what the code in the file looks like. I've added an appearance code, but it isn't working.

Another screen I need help editing is this one:

Here I would like to be able to customize the appearance of the boxes. It appears that is using red replacement="dark box background" code which I would like to eliminate. Plus I would like to change the blueish greyish boxes too.

Thanks in advance

[michaeltmurrayuk]

For the first one is your png file called button? or is it a paper file inside the button folder, as the location needs to link to the graphic file rather than the folder, so if your image is a paper graphic then you need to change the end of the lines to read button/paper, if that isn't the problem try moving the appearance bit of code so it is after the class and before the id part.

For the second bit the news screen is controlled by the panels\competition\competition news panel.xml' file plus the various linked files depending on what part you want to edit, there should be some threads around discussing how to edit it (also look at ones from FM16 or FM15 as it hasn't really changed much).

 

For search reference;

The team instructions are controlled by: 'panels\tactics\tactics team strategies dialog.xml'

The player instructions are controlled by; 'panels\dialogs\tactics position instructions dialog.xml'

 

[yonko]

Yes, I have paper files in the button folder just as the code says. Inside that folder there are files just like in the standard and primary buttons folders. For a moment I was thinking the problem might be because I was lacking button_selected graphics file within that folder. But after making one, it turned out that this wasn't the problem, or at least it had no effect.

It has to be something with the code within panels\tactics\tactics team strategies dialog.xml' file. I guess I will try as you suggest moving the appearance code to be between the class and id part and see what happens.

 

Regarding the other screen, what lines should I look for within panels\competition\competition news panel.xml' file? I already tried to look there because I remembered from past editions, but either I'm blind and can't see or something else.

[michaeltmurrayuk]

1 hour ago, yonko said:

Yes, I have paper files in the button folder just as the code says. Inside that folder there are files just like in the standard and primary buttons folders. For a moment I was thinking the problem might be because I was lacking button_selected graphics file within that folder. But after making one, it turned out that this wasn't the problem, or at least it had no effect.

It has to be something with the code within panels\tactics\tactics team strategies dialog.xml' file. I guess I will try as you suggest moving the appearance code to be between the class and id part and see what happens.

 

Regarding the other screen, what lines should I look for within panels\competition\competition news panel.xml' file? I already tried to look there because I remembered from past editions, but either I'm blind and can't see or something else.

For the first one you need to change your appearance lines as they are wrong (unless you are just wanting to recolour them then just follow D_LO_'s post) they need to read; buttons/custom/team instructions/normal/button/paper - you need to link to the actual graphic not just the folder.

For the news screen I don't know the exact details off the top of my head, some bits are controlled by that file directly others are controlled by the referenced files, you just need to read through the file and referenced files until you find the bit that you want to change, there should be several threads around that should point you in the general direction.

[michaeltmurrayuk]

On the plus side it did allow me to find out what files actual control the instructions, as its really not obvious that they are controlled by the dialog files with them both also being in different locations

[yonko]

11 hours ago, michaeltmurrayuk said:

For the first one you need to change your appearance lines as they are wrong (unless you are just wanting to recolour them then just follow D_LO_'s post) they need to read; buttons/custom/team instructions/normal/button/paper - you need to link to the actual graphic not just the folder.

For the news screen I don't know the exact details off the top of my head, some bits are controlled by that file directly others are controlled by the referenced files, you just need to read through the file and referenced files until you find the bit that you want to change, there should be several threads around that should point you in the general direction.

The folder is called "normal" and "button" is the png graphics file. Here is how it looks:

 

[yonko]

11 hours ago, D_LO_ said:

Re. Competition News panel the secondary panel Michael is referring to is: competition news item medium and change the container near the very top (line 4 on my edited version) This controls the background appearance of the smaller sub-story panels.

The large story is controlled by the empty container on line 45 of the default competition news panel. Add container class/appearance here.

The medium sized stories  in the middle are controlled by competition news item large either change the container info. within (or like me direct it to the medium option I first mentioned to save the work, I also resized it so it was more uniform) You have a number of options with all tbh. 

I'm sorry, I just don't understand very well what you are explaining. I'm dealing with the default original panels. I've copied over to my competition folder the following:

competition news panel.xml

competition news item large.xml

competition news item medium.xml

I don't get where these lines 4 and 45 are, what kind of container, etc to add. Can you please show me within lines of text?

Thanks

[michaeltmurrayuk]

9 hours ago, yonko said:

The folder is called "normal" and "button" is the png graphics file. Here is how it looks:

 

 

That looks right then, what exactly is it you are wanting to do? As from your screenshots it looks like it is using your rounded button graphics, if you are wanting to change the colour then it's not controlled by the colour set in the buttons xml file but by either the settings at the top of this xml file or by the colour values declared in the settings file as stated in previous posts, as the colour of the buttons depends on the status of the item.

[michaeltmurrayuk]

8 hours ago, yonko said:

I'm sorry, I just don't understand very well what you are explaining. I'm dealing with the default original panels. I've copied over to my competition folder the following:

competition news panel.xml

competition news item large.xml

competition news item medium.xml

I don't get where these lines 4 and 45 are, what kind of container, etc to add. Can you please show me within lines of text?

Thanks

If you open the xml files in a program such as notepad++ then you get line numbers down the side which you can use to find the lines mentioned.

[yonko]

What I want is the buttons for instructions to appear as the buttons at the bottom right of the dialog box. For example: buttons like "use offside trap", "pass into space", "dribble less", etc. to look like button for "cancel", "clear". I'm ok with them taking on the green color (for selected or preselected) and/or the red color (for unavailable or conflicting) the game normally assigns to them and I know I can control that coloring through the settings.xml file as stated previously. But I want these button to graphically appear as the other ones at the bottom of the dialog box. I have managed to adjust the color of the button as unselected color but the appearance is not happening for some reason. I tried moving the appearance code line as you suggested between the class and id, but it has no effect. 

If you look at the buttons for Fluidity and Crosses type, they appear (by default, without any code changes) as I want the other instructions buttons to appear, though they are different type of buttons (I think their widget class is "popup_button"). I'm wondering if you Michael can take a look at the default files for these dialog boxes (for team and player instructions) and give me an idea how can I make it work.

Last year Tom Dixon was working on his Steklo X6 project for FM16 and he posted a few screens of his work and in one of those he showed the same dialog box with the instruction buttons. He was even asking the same thing I'm asking. Here is a screenshot:

http://imgur.com/xCVxRIV

I guess I can message him directly and ask him but I'll doubt I'll get an answer as he may not be active anymore here.

 

Regarding opening the xml files, I work on MacBook laptop and don't have notepad++. Macs have a text program by default that I use to open and edit these files with, therefore I don't know the lines' numbers. However, the funny thing is that when I copied over the extracted default files over to my folder, the appearance of some of the boxes in that competition news screen changed without me editing any code. I can't provide a screenshot at the moment (I'm at work, don't have access to my laptop), but I will later when I get home.

[yonko]

Thanks D_LO_, I'll try when I get home to see what I can figure out myself.

Regarding the buttons, I'm sure it has something to do with the code and not the graphics. However, I'm thinking I may try a different appearance line of code in the xml file directing towards buttons/standard/buttons graphics and see what happens, though I have very low expectations at this point.

I'll get back here with any further questions I may have. Thanks to both of you for trying to help.

[michaeltmurrayuk]

17 hours ago, yonko said:

What I want is the buttons for instructions to appear as the buttons at the bottom right of the dialog box. For example: buttons like "use offside trap", "pass into space", "dribble less", etc. to look like button for "cancel", "clear". I'm ok with them taking on the green color (for selected or preselected) and/or the red color (for unavailable or conflicting) the game normally assigns to them and I know I can control that coloring through the settings.xml file as stated previously. But I want these button to graphically appear as the other ones at the bottom of the dialog box. I have managed to adjust the color of the button as unselected color but the appearance is not happening for some reason. I tried moving the appearance code line as you suggested between the class and id, but it has no effect. 

If you look at the buttons for Fluidity and Crosses type, they appear (by default, without any code changes) as I want the other instructions buttons to appear, though they are different type of buttons (I think their widget class is "popup_button"). I'm wondering if you Michael can take a look at the default files for these dialog boxes (for team and player instructions) and give me an idea how can I make it work.

Last year Tom Dixon was working on his Steklo X6 project for FM16 and he posted a few screens of his work and in one of those he showed the same dialog box with the instruction buttons. He was even asking the same thing I'm asking. Here is a screenshot:

http://imgur.com/xCVxRIV

I guess I can message him directly and ask him but I'll doubt I'll get an answer as he may not be active anymore here.

 

Regarding opening the xml files, I work on MacBook laptop and don't have notepad++. Macs have a text program by default that I use to open and edit these files with, therefore I don't know the lines' numbers. However, the funny thing is that when I copied over the extracted default files over to my folder, the appearance of some of the boxes in that competition news screen changed without me editing any code. I can't provide a screenshot at the moment (I'm at work, don't have access to my laptop), but I will later when I get home.

If you delete this line from the top of the file:

<colour id="unselected_colour" name="unselected instruction" />

Then the game reverts to using the default button style which should allow you to have a border on the buttons.
 

[yonko]

Ok, I'll try that and see if it works.

In the meantime here is what the competition news screen looks like now without any editing (I just copied over the extracted xml files from the default skin):

 

I'm happy with the right side where the league tables are. In the middle I'm happy with the small boxes but would like to edit the background box they sit in (is that container box?). On the left, I'm happy with the 3 big boxes at the top, but would like the rest underneath to be in boxes too. For the big box with the Sturridge's picture his image looks to sit a little lower than it should, doesn't it? Any way to adjust the height of the image within?

[yonko]

No luck with the last suggestion for the team/player tactics instructions dialog box. Here is what happened when I deleted <colour id="unselected_colour" name="unselected instruction" /> 

However, the strange thing is that when I click on the buttons to select them and then unselect them they appear as I want them to. But only then, sadly....Here is how they look: 

You can see how Shoot More/Less Often buttons look, as well as the More/Fewer Risky Passes. They started to look like this only after I selected one or the other option. If I select Shoot More Often, it changes to Green while Shoot Less Often changes to Red. When I unselect the instruction, both buttons change their appearance from the original black to this look.

[yonko]

Regarding the competition news screen, here is where I am:

The text at the top of the medium panels is a little off (where it says the name of the club the related news is about). I'm wondering what I need to change?

This is what my competition news item medium.xml file looks like:

<!-- NOTE: The property 'usoc' used on elements tells the panel to recolour them based on object colours -->
<panel>

    <layout class="arrange_vertical_attachment" layout="-1,1" offset="6" gap="0" />
    <layout class="stick_to_sides_attachment" alignment="horizontal" layout_children="true" inset="0" />

    <container class="bordered_box" appearance="boxes/bordered/no margin/paper" usoc="true">
        <layout class="arrange_vertical_attachment" alignment="bottom, extend" offset="0" gap="0" />
        <layout class="stick_to_sides_attachment" alignment="horizontal" layout_children="true" inset="0" />

        <container id="wcon">
            <layout class="arrange_vertical_attachment" alignment="top, extend" offset="0" gap="4" />
            <layout class="stick_to_sides_attachment" alignment="horizontal" layout_children="true" inset="4" />

            <!-- Main object -->
            <widget class="text" id="brif" font="title" size="small" style="bold" multiline="true" auto_size="vertical"/>

            <container>
                <layout class="arrange_horizontal_attachment" layout="86,-1" offset="0" gap="8"/>
                <layout class="stick_to_sides_attachment" alignment="vertical" inset="0" layout_children="true" />

                <!-- News image -->
                <widget class="competition_news_image_panel" id="impl" />

                <!-- News item -->
                <container>
                    <layout class="arrange_vertical_attachment" alignment="top,extend" offset="2" gap="4" />
                    <layout class="stick_to_sides_attachment" alignment="horizontal" layout_children="true" inset="0" />

                    <!-- Story title (max 2 lines of text)-->
                    <widget class="text" id="titl" style="bold" multiline="true" height="36" alignment="left, centre_y"/>
                </container>
            </container>
        </container>

        <!-- Related news -->
        <container height="40">
            <layout class="arrange_vertical_attachment" alignment="top" offset="0" gap="0" />
            <layout class="stick_to_sides_attachment" alignment="horizontal" layout_children="true" inset="5" />

            <!-- Related items, first is match link -->
            <container class="competition_news_item_panel" file="competition/competition news item title only" related_news_index="0" matR="true" height="20"/>
            <container class="competition_news_item_panel" file="competition/competition news item title only" related_news_index="1" height="20"/>
        </container>
    </container>

    <widget class="picture" file="dividers/standard/horizontal/line" scale_picture="false" />
</panel>

The highlighted red line text code for the container class is what I added to get to this look. I'm guessing I have to edit some offset code but can't figure out which one.

Also in the screen above, how do I edit the background box in the middle section (between the news and the league standings) with the events, manager to watch, etc.? Which file controls the container box?

[yonko]

Here I would like to edit the highlighted graphics boxes for date as they seem to be cut off somehow. Maybe is the slicing of the image that needs adjusting, but which one?

I would like to edit the social feed screen and make it transparent like the others. How do I do that?

[wkdsoul]

Have a read through that.

[yonko]

@michaeltmurrayuk, any help or further suggestions regarding the player/team instructions dialog box buttons? I've sent a message to TomDixon to see how he did it on his unfinished StekloX6 project last year, but he hasn't replied and probably won't as I don't think he is around the forums anymore.

[wkdsoul]

8 hours ago, yonko said:

@michaeltmurrayuk, any help or further suggestions regarding the player/team instructions dialog box buttons? I've sent a message to TomDixon to see how he did it on his unfinished StekloX6 project last year, but he hasn't replied and probably won't as I don't think he is around the forums anymore.

Did he do it for the fm15 steklo? code might be the same? 

[yonko]

6 hours ago, wkdsoul said:

Did he do it for the fm15 steklo? code might be the same? 

It was for FM16 but Tom never released the skin. It was an unfinished project, unfortunately. 

[wkdsoul]

8 minutes ago, yonko said:

It was for FM16 but Tom never released the skin. It was an unfinished project, unfortunately. 

i meant did he do the smae thing the year before http://www.footballmanagerblog.org/2015/03/steklo-x5-skin-for-football-manager-2015.html

[yonko]

No, he didn't. He was at first asking how he could do it for FM16 project but then he figured out on his own and posted the image. Check out the thread.

[wkdsoul]

16 minutes ago, yonko said:

No, he didn't. He was at first asking how he could do it for FM16 project but then he figured out on his own and posted the image. Check out the thread.

Ah ok, no worries.

[yonko]

Do you have any idea how to solve this problem with the buttons?

[michaeltmurrayuk]

On 29/11/2016 at 04:27, yonko said:

@michaeltmurrayuk, any help or further suggestions regarding the player/team instructions dialog box buttons? I've sent a message to TomDixon to see how he did it on his unfinished StekloX6 project last year, but he hasn't replied and probably won't as I don't think he is around the forums anymore.

If that didn't work then I don't think there is anyway, the only other thing you may be able to do is instead of giving the button graphic a blue border so it recolours just create it as you want and see if the styling shows through.

It's also possible TomDixon might have run into the same problem last year and never fixed it if his skin never got released, as it looks like it picks up the standard button settings some of the time so enough to get a screenshot but not enough for gameplay.

The other thing you can do is raise the issue in the bugs forum in case its a bug SI can fix where the button status isn't read when the instructions colour is removed.

[yonko]

As far as I know and looks, Tom got it working, otherwise he would've said something or he wouldn't post the screenshot. He didn't finish the skin and release it because he didn't have time to finish other bits and parts about it. He just lost interest and was preoccupied with other things.

It is a possibility that it is a bug this year and I may present it in the bugs forum. Thanks for trying to help.