FM19 Skinning & Graphics Information

[michaeltmurrayuk]

With most of you now downloading the freshly released FM2019 pre-release beta, this thread will contain important information and details of any changes regarding skinning and graphics in FM2019.

Full guides and base skins will follow sometime this weekend after I have had a chance to see what has changed from the backend.

If you need technical help then first please check out either the dedicated FM2019 FAQs page on the forum or the FM2019 Pre-Release Bugs Forum.

If it is a skinning related issue then please check out the previously pinned threads for FM2018 as most of the information in them will still apply,

Pre-Release Beta Information

How to Locate Your User Data Location
How To Change Your User Data Location

What Files Can I Transfer Over from FM2018

How To Extract the Fmf FIles
Contents and Location of the FMF files

Adjusting the Sidebar within the Game
How To Change the Colour of the 3D Match Ball

Game Not Reading Custom Graphics

[michaeltmurrayuk]

Pre-Release Beta Information

With the Pre-Release Beta now available for those of you who pre-ordered from select digital retailers first remember that this is a Beta version of the game and as such is still being worked which means the game will be patched on the official release date and may get several patches between now and then and these patches may break and require the updating of third party content during the beta stage so I would recommend if you don't want to deal with the fuss of re-downloading mods during the beta period that you wait until after the official release when we should have a more stable version of the game.

I would also strongly advise against editing the actual fmf files included with the game or using mods that modified these during the beta as they will be wiped on the release of any patches.

However it should still be safe to download and install kits, logos and face-packs as these generally are not affected by the patching of the game.

Finally if you come across any bugs with the skins or just dislike some of the changes to the Interface then I'd recommend raising your issues in the Bugs Forum as the game is still being worked and this is your best chances to get any issues sorted out before the full release.

[michaeltmurrayuk]

How to Locate Your User Data Location

Your User Data Location is where the game saves your user generated content such as save games, shortlists and tactics it is also the location you place nearly all third party content into (skins, logos, kits etc...)

Depending on your choice of OS your default location will be found in the below places:

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

Mac:
/Users/[Your Mac Username]/Documents/Sports Interactive/

Linux:
/home/documents/Sports Interactive/

Then inside those folders will be a Football Manager folder for each version of FM you have played on that computer so just select the folder that corresponds to the version you are playing.

NOTE: These folders are created on the first run so you will need to have run the game once to generate them.

[michaeltmurrayuk]

How To Change Your User Data Location

Like with the last few versions you are no longer able to adjust your 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 User Data 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.

- Locate the version of Football Manager you are using 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 User Data Location to be G:\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2019

You would add the following text to the dialogue box:

--user_data_location="G:\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2019"

So your Launch Options box should look something like this for Football Manager 2019:

Note that this folder location needs to already exist on your hard drive before setting the launch option, then when you next launch Football Manager the game will automatically generate the needed subfolders (such as games and skins). There also shouldn't be any problem with setting both your Full and Touch Mode Saving Locations to the same location, which should save you having to duplicate any custom graphics you have downloaded.

You should also be able to set it to the same location as you used in last year to save you having to copy over custom graphics (though I'd backup any saved games to make sure you don't overwrite them).

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. Also the BETA versions aren't creating the graphics folder so before you add any graphics you'll need to create this folder yourself.

To reset your Saving Location to the default position you just need to delete the command line and on your next restart of FM18 the game will go back to using the default location. (Again you'll need to manually copy over any existing files from your old custom location to the default location for them to be read by the game).

[michaeltmurrayuk]

What Files Can I Transfer Over from FM2018

3D Kits, 2D Kits, Trophies, Logos, Faces.

From a quick look it doesn't look like any of these have changed so you should be free to reuse these from FM18.
 

Skins

As always skins are not cross compatible with different versions, as such you'll need to wait for the skin maker to release a new version of their skin for FM19.

Mods

This will depend on the mod, some might work in FM19 if the underlying code hasn't changed for FM19 however you'd need to test them to see if they work.

3D Match Items

It doesn't look like there has been any major changes here so you should be able to transfer over pitch textures, 3D balls and 2D balls from FM18.

Edited October 21, 2018 by michaeltmurrayuk
Added 3D Match Items

[michaeltmurrayuk]

How To Extract the Fmf FIles

To extract the game files you need to use the Football Manager 2019 Resource Archiver Tool

The Resource Tool can be located in the following location within Steam:

Open Steam -> Library -> Tools -> Football Manager 2019 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 was a User Guide included with the FM17 version of the tool which can be accessed from within this location inside your Steam Folder: \SteamApps\common\Football Manager 2017 Resource Archiver\

Note that the Football Manager 2019 Resource Archiver should be able to read and extract both the Football Manager 2019 and Football Manager Touch 2019 fmf files.

Edited November 1, 2018 by michaeltmurrayuk
FM19 Tool out

[michaeltmurrayuk]

How To Change the Colour of the 3D Match Ball

Like in the last few versions we can now recolour the 3D Match Ball from within the game.

If you go to the Preferences -> Interface -> Skin Colours screen.

At the bottom are options for the Standard Ball Colour and Winter Ball Colour.

To change the colours just click the colour bar and a colour picker will popup, select your new colour and click ok.

To undo your changes just click the 'Restore Default Colours' option.

Couple of things to note:

- This will only affect the currently selected skin.

- Whilst it won't affect a match in progress it will apply to your next match without having to exit FM.

[michaeltmurrayuk]

Adjusting the Sidebar within the Game

There have been a few changes to the Sidebar this year:

- You can now re-order the items in the list by dragging them.

- To reset the order go to the Preferences -> Interface Screen and under the General options there is a 'Sidebar Buttons' option and to reset just click the reset button next to it.

- If you right click on the items you now get a menu with a list of linked screens you can directly navigate to.

- To set the sidebar to icons only this can also be done from the Preferences -> Interface Screen, under the General options tick the 'Sidebar icons-only' option.

[michaeltmurrayuk]

Contents and Location of the FMF files

Like with FM18 the location of various fmf files has slightly changed from older versions, however the locations seem to be the same as for FM18.

Main FMF Files

The main fmf files which are the ones you'll generally need to edit for skinning can now be found in the following location:
\Steam\steamapps\common\Football Manager 2018\data\game\

New FMF Files

Like with FM18 Football Manager 2019 has packed some more of the game files into fmf packages and has also moved some other stuff around.

The new fmf files are located in the following location:
\Steam\steamapps\common\Football Manager 2018\data\

Which contains the following files:

fmf file	File Contents
shared	Language files. FM19 - Now Contains the actual font files, but you shouldn't need to edit these.
sigraphics	3D shaders and configs - nothing user editable, but does contain some background information people might find interesting.
sigraphics-pc	FM19 - DirectX shader info, no need to touch.
fmgameextras	Contains some panel files - dialogs for workshop, cloud stuff, though most skins shouldn't need to edit any of these files.
resource archiver	Contains files for the resource tool, not really needed.
simatchviewer	Contains 3d jsb & sia files but you cannot edit these. Also has ads config file and sound files.
simatchviewer_uncompressed	FM19 - now just contains the video ads.
simatchviewer-pc	Contains animation files, textures, 2d ads, 3d ball (mesh folder), default 3d kits (textures folder), pitch (textures folder). This is where pretty much all of the old editable 3D stuff is now located.
sitoolkit	Contains widget skins which are important as contain skin graphics, other stuff is generic xml files most you shouldn't really need to edit. If skinning you'll want to extract this file to get at the skin files.
sitoolkit_uncompressed	FM19 - now just contains so unused font xml files, can safely ignore.

The ones I have bolded are the more important ones that are worth extracting depending on what you are doing, I've also highlighted the changes in FM19 which are fairly minor.

For the xml files once you have extracted them you can just treat them as normal and merge them back into the standard files which are now located in the fmf files in the following location:
\Steam\steamapps\common\Football Manager 2018\data\game

Edited October 21, 2018 by michaeltmurrayuk
Added FM19 changes to fmf contents

[michaeltmurrayuk]

Game Not Reading Custom Graphics

Sometimes after patching the game will revert to using the default cached files to solve this problem from the Preferences -> Interface menu make sure the skin cache is turned off and reload your skin and then exit and reload FM and that should refresh your game files.

If that doesn't work then follow the instructions here to manually delete your cache files.