Jump to content

[RELEASED] Netbook09 Skin


michaeltmurrayuk

Recommended Posts

A skin designed to work better on Netbooks and other computers who's screens are limited to a 1024x600 resolution. Skin is based on the default FM09 skin, with the most changes being the maximising of the screen content area.

I haven't made that many graphical changes, just focused on the coding for this version.

I've fixed all the screens that don't scroll and have removed as many scroll bars as possible.

The main squad screen fits upto 9 subs (20 players without scrolling):

squadw.jpg

The main header should show if you are running on a battery and patch 9.0.3 the battery icon in the top left hand corner, on the quick links and menu items I've just disabled the advisor and tutorial buttons, the main logos have been shrunk down to small logo size as there was nowhere else to fit them in, I've also made the mail button flash again when you have mail.

Player Profile Screen:

profiler.jpg

I've managed to remove all the scroll bars from the profile screen. There maybe a couple of minor issues if a player gets loads of bans and injury info, whilst the nationality and caps will sometimes overlay the face, which is better than cutting off the face (as the faces don't seem to be resizable).

The pitch screen has gone through a few changes:

pitch.jpg

The header has been reduced to the match info with just the home and squad quick links plus the manager and options menus and the date in short format.

On the actual pitch I've removed the timebar and TV view button and moved the camera to the top of the panel (that modification will be released on its own for those of you who don't need this skin but want a bigger pitch).

The TV view I've left alone apart from increasing the size of a couple of widgets to stop text being cut off.

One minor issue with the pitch is that the back arrow is covered up when the continue button displays match analysis.

I've also modified the Tactics screen inside and outside of a match:

tactics.jpg

The menus have been put inside submenus to stop them scrolling off the screen, I've also moved the Target man and play offside buttons to stop the instructions from scrolling. The player rows have also been reduced so you now fit the full team and subs onto one screen for each of the match screens.

On the snapshot screen I've increased the amount of upcoming fixtures and league positions shown as the scroll bars would be their anyway.

The Right Sided Skin sees two changes, sidebar moved to the right and the top left recoloured from gray to the clubs foreground colour:

http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/8616/rightj.jpg

INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS:

Extract the files from the zip, and place the netbook09.fmf (or the netbook09_r.fmf if using the right sided skin, if using the right sided skin in below instructions replace 'netbook09' with 'netbook09_r') and config.xml files into your skins folder, by default this is:

My Documents/Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2009/skins

Now if you can go into the preferences menu without the game crashing select the netbook09 skin in the dropdown menu, if it doesn't appear turn off the skin select always reload the skin and click confirm go back into the preferences menu and you should now be able to select the netbook09 skin. (Once the skin is loaded you can turn the cache back on and turn off always reload skin).

If you cannot get into the preferences screen there are two alternative methods to change your skin:

1. Create a desktop shortcut to FM09, right click on the shortcut -> properties, select the target box go to the end and type:

' --skin=netbook09' without the ' and remember to include the space, when you load the game using this shortcut it will select the skin referenced there 'netbook09' in this case.

2. Manually adjust one of the xml files, first you may need to enable view hidden files, then browse to:

XP: C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2009\settings

Vista: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2009\settings

Inside that folder will be a list of xml files (they may all be inside a Version 901 subfolder for some reason), now you want to scroll down until you find the 'skin.xml' file open this with notepad and you will see something like this:

<record>

<string id="valu" value="netbook09"/>

</record>

where it says netbook09 will be the name of your currently selected skin, to select the netbook09 skin type netbook09 as shown above and save the file. The game will now load with the netbook09 skin selected.

DOWNLOAD PAGE

(includes links to both left and right versions of the skin - extracted versions are available at the bottom of the page, if you want to edit the skin use those links (or extract it yourself) if you just want to use the skin use the main link)

Terms of use

This skin can be used for any purpose as long as its non-commerical (i.e. you don't charge people to use them, or don't make money directly from using them).

You are free to modify this skin or reuse the xml files for any non-commerical purpose, all I ask is you include a credit to me.

Redisribution terms:

You can post this skin anywhere on the internet provided its posted asif with credit to me and that it's not advertised as exclusive to your site or paid area. You are free to translate the skin/readme/instructions into another language if you want.

---

If I've missed anything or there are any problems let me know.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks :thup: I've updated it and the time should now display during extra time, let me know if there's any problem with the display of injury time during extra time or with the display of pens, as they are not very easy to test.

And if anyone has noticed any other problems feel free to point them out :thup:

Link to post
Share on other sites

Guys, what resolution should I set the game to? I am able to get to the Preferences page with AsTray running in the background and was able to enable the skin that way. However, everything is still scrolling vertically when I have it set to 1024x768. Also, I am unable to get the game to open without AsTray running in the background, unless I have the "-windowed -small_screen" extensions in the shortcut target. Am I stuck with the window mode? Please say it ain't so!!!

Link to post
Share on other sites

To enable full screen mode you need to have a screen resolution of 1024x768 or greater. If you are running the game in 1024x768 then there shouldn't be any ingame scroll bars (well nearly none)

If you are running at 1024x600 you'll still need to use the " --windowed --small_screen" commands to load the game, if you maxmise the window and autohide the taskbar then this skin should remove the scroll bars.

EDIT: I take it your using AsTray to set the screen resolution above the screens native size, if you are doing this there is no way to remove the scrolling as your screen isn't physically big enough for the resolution.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I downloaded the updated extra time clock earlier. However when I went to play a match I got that XML Error and the game closed. I rolled back to the previous version you uploaded and it worked. Not sure whether it was just my comp playing up or whether it was because of the extra time clock update in the new skin.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I wasn't expecting people to run the skin in larger resolutions, but it should now be fixed :thup:(version 1.3 should be up) and has hopefully not broken the injury time display. (Everything should now stay in position, with just the teambar areas stretching to match your resolution now).

Link to post
Share on other sites

Yes the links are updated, to make sure you get the right one check in the readme file and it should say v1.3 (it may not say 1.3 in game as I may have forgotten to update the version number in the xml file, but the readme is correct and the modification/creation time for the fmf file should be 11/03/09 21:25 for v1.3)

Link to post
Share on other sites

is there any way to get this to run full screen? my text goes blurry in windowed mode for some reason :( i tried the command, --fullscreen_width=1024 --fullscreen_height=600 but it just starts in 1024x768

Link to post
Share on other sites

Incredible. Just what I needed. Now I have FM in everything that can run it... Made things a little more manageable, which is all I ever wanted anyway. Thanks!

I found something. Interacting with players from other teams (sometimes) have the ability to scroll down not on screen. I tried it with Kranjcar and I couldn't scroll down to choose my options. However, when i did it for Crouch, I was able to.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Sorry about the double but it wont work help!.

when i double click on the game nothing is happens it just wont start.

the fm.exe appears on task manager/processes but it wont work.

please help!.

You may need to add the --small_screen --windowed command to the fm.exe shortcut.

First if you don't already have a desktop shortcut to the fm.exe create one, then right click on the shortcut and select properties.

In the box that pops up select the shortcut tab and the third line down should be a target box select the line next to it, that has the location of the game in it and scroll to the end and add this to the end of the line:

" --small_screen --windowed" (don't include the " but include the first space)

So the target box should look like this:

"D:\Games\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2009\fm.exe" --small_screen --windowed

(The actual location of the fm.exe may vary depending on where you installed the game and whether you are using steam or not).

If you can also add the --skin=netbook09 command to the line as well if you cannot get into the preferences screen. (the skin command will tell the game to load with the netbook skin already loaded)

If you add the skin command the target line should look something like this:

"D:\Games\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2009\fm.exe" --small_screen --windowed --skin=netbook09

If you are using the rightsided skin use this:

"D:\Games\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2009\fm.exe" --small_screen --windowed --skin=netbook09_r

Again the bit within the quote marks may be different depending on where you install FM, its the bit after \fm.exe" that you need to add to the end of the target line.

When you load FM09, maximise the window as that should resize the window so it is no longer cut off, you can also move or auto-hide the windows taskbar to give yourself some extra space.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Do you mean that the scroll bar didn't appear when it should (so you couldn't get access to all the options) or that the scroll bar appeared but the game wouldn't let you scroll using your mouse wheel?

Hm, I never tried scrolling with my mouse wheel. Whenever I used to do it, I always click the up/down arrows. But to further explain what was happening, the up arrow becomes super-imposed on top of the down arrow so that it becomes impossible to press the down arrow scroll, no matter where I put the mouse.

I tried using the mouse wheel for scrolling but it wasn't working. I tried it interacting with Vagner Love but because of the tons of information displayed, the scroll bar wasn't even displaying at all...

Link to post
Share on other sites

Dear michaeltmurrayuk,

Great work. Many thanks.

Just one small question. Wheneever I click the "Preference" menu, the game crashes. Is that suppose to happen?

I've a Lenovo S10 and started the game using the following command:

"D:\Games\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2009\fm.exe" --small_screen --windowed --skin=netbook09

Many thanks again.

Tacca03

Link to post
Share on other sites

It appears to happen to a few people - whats the max resolution supported by the Lenovo S10? - I'm assuming it crashes as when you go into the preferences screen the game tries to get a list of resolutions and if it cannot find any 1024x768 or greater ones it crashes.

Unfortantley removing the resolution coding leaves you unable to click confirm on the preferences screen.

One possible solution if possible is to add a custom resolution through the display driver or a third party program of 1024x768 or greater, so the game should then read that you have a viable resolution and hopefully not crash.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I totally agree. I think it's unfair for SI to ignore the netbook customers when they comprise a huge portion of the market. A game such as FM is ideal for netbook users as it isn't graphically intensive. Why eliminate the choice from them?

Link to post
Share on other sites

Ok new version is up (HERE - same link, just make sure it says v1.4 in the preferences menu.)

Version 1.4 Changes:

- Re-enabled squad info table at bottom of squad page (needed to register players in Spain)

- Reduced row heights in squad view, to reclaim some space.

- Moved Searchbox clear button.

- Tweaked position of scroll bar in the tree menu for the right sided skin.

Screenshot:

samplee.jpg

I couldn't fix the player interaction issue as it doesn't happen in my game, if anyone is still getting this problem and can recreate it at will, if they have a save game they can upload I can see if I can fix it.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
  • SI Staff

Hi michaeltmurrayuk,

I just wanted to say, great work on this skin.

I've tried it on an HP-Mini and a Samsung NC10 to good effect.

Although I can't promise anything at this stage, suffice to say we are looking at FM on netbooks now at SI, and possibility of supporting them in the future.

Thanks again, and keep up the good work.

Cheers

Grant

ps i'll also look into the preferences crash.

Link to post
Share on other sites

No problem, the main problems are the crashing preferences screen and the fact that the full_screen command line command doesn't work when trying to set a 1024x600 resolution. The ability to get the game into full screen mode would free up an extra 60pixels for the height.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...