Skinning suggestions and improvements thread

[OG.L]

best skin i played on was vitroes or something lie that on fm10

[Orange2000]

Yes, Vitorios is the Best! I`m doing some skin like Vitorios2. I like Menubar panel from there. So, waiting for the RIGHT patch i`ve made some successful porting from 2010 version of Vitorios in Fm2011 with Seven skin as a base skin.

Also i Make many customizations.

but some work is needed...

[radestock]

This thread is about improvements to the skinning side of the game, not for pointing out your favourite skin. Please keep this on topic.

[manumanic]

Another way that FM could improve is to have live commentry on the game tha is being played, like in the real football matches and on FIFA... I think this would improve FM loads cos it would feel and seem more realistic..

[ajaj]

I've tried 10+ skins, the default skin is the best one. BUT, it's tooooooooooo bright, especially on LED monitors (I've reduced brightness, contrast...everything to a very low level).

fm2011 dark is not bright but black desktop or background is very bad for eyes according to studies.

I think a light coloured skin with "Singular .EX" texture might be better.

btw, the font is too small. I tried to adjust it from skins.fmf, but didn't work. It'll be nice if we are allowed to change it in preference; or just make it bigger in default skin, since not many gamers are still using 800x600.

[radestock]

So the light skin is too light and the dark skin is too dark? I've not read any studies where dark backgrounds are bad for your eyes, it's normally the opposite staring at brighter screen for long periods that people claim hurts their eyes. In reality studies have only really pointed towards a lack of contrast between text and background as causing actual eye strain as the eye difficultly focusing on text when it's not overly different from the background.

Football Manager runs at a minimum of 1024x768. You'll also find the majority of people still run at 1024x768 in windowed mode even on larger screens. I know I run a 1920x1080 monitor and still run FM at 1024x768 in windowed mode. It's actually not overly common for people to run fullscreen on a larger screen or on a HDTV for instance.

[evilmatt]

Is there a guide, or even just the XSD to the skin XML format anywhere? I think it would be a very useful resource.

I've been trying to get the old motivation on teamtalk panel mod working again, and don't seem to be getting anywhere - the panels show up fine, but it seems like there's no data being fed to it. Some sort of guide to the XML format would possibly be helpful in working out where I'm going wrong.

[radestock]

Nope, no guides. I've asked a few times over the years for at least some sort of reference for the XML but there's never been one forthcoming. I think it was planned when SI moved from Championship Manager to Football Manager and they overhauled things but it never came into fruition. The skinning side of things seems to be well down the list of priorities and never seems to get seen to.

[Ter]

This is probably a good time to suggest things so that I can bring them up in our feature meetings which will be happening soon.

[grade]

Thanks for the heads up.

Preview screen - a screen that appears after the fixture of the day screen and before selecting the team playing, where it show where the match is going to be played,with a photo of the stadium going to be played and on top of that screen the logos of the match. Here shows the top 3 players of both team, my team and the opposition to those who actually use opp. instructions and those that don't. Some more info about where the match is going to played to add biut more realism and fun.

Organise the screen better to make the game simple to find stuff and go to the screen with minimum of clicks will make the game a bit faster.

Also another issue is overload of information a user gets. The solution is either making subscriptions more detail to select what we want to get news, like the jobs of vacant managers positions be able to set which division I want to hear from. Another I would like is in the news showing fixtures of the leagues that are selected, but I'm not currently managing a club in. Like managing Man United, I would like to see fixtures of results of top portuguese division is one of the examples .

The idea is making the game, simpler (retaining the complexity of football), faster and fun.

That is for now for the skin.

[TomDixon77]

A screen preview tool would be nice, ter. Especially for stuff that doesn't turn up too often.

[TomDixon77]

Oh, and try to make it even halfway possible to tinker with new interface features (the calendar bar and sections tabstrip are prime culprits of this sort of thing).

Also, these, which I posted a while back:

The ability to know what xml files are being used on any given screen, and a bit more flexibilty with what resources we can use where (access to a team's right side background logo or competition logos on match screens, for instance)

[saftmfc]

hey lads

any of you looking for a future project?

i would love someone to have a go at a skin based round the new

sky online score centre

http://live.skysports.com/ScoreCentre/live.html

anyone else think so?

[kingjericho]

This is probably a good time to suggest things so that I can bring them up in our feature meetings which will be happening soon.

I have some suggestions:

1- Numbered tactical sliders (and in training schedules) should come incorporated with the game. This was done by one of the members here, and all the credit goes to him, but this should already come with the game.

2- Option to change the attribute colors in the default skin(s), i.e. two or three sets of colors with each skin

3- More realistic faces and hairs for newgens. I mean, there aren't many bald 15 year olds out there, but in the game I'm always getting bald kids and others who have alrady lost half their hair. Also, there doesn't seem to be any notable differences between the look of a 16 YO newgen and a 45 YO. They all look the same.

[radestock]

Can't think of anything new other that what's I'd mentioned already.

[radestock]

Actually, not sure if I've mentioned this but it would be good to have access to ALL the classes FM uses.

At the moment there seems to be a select few but it would be damn useful if the base classes (like 'button') were all the classes folder. Classes are the easiest way to make global changes to things and yet they're fairly useless to skinners at the moment.

Oh and if that SIOS reference documents actually happen it'd be amazing.

[grade]

Just remember another one.

Put the names of the players in tactics screen and on the match screen few pixels bigger. Not that much, but 3 or 4 bigger, so that wouldn't force so much the eyes to focus on tiny letters.

[Ter]

This is more to do with the skinning system rather than specifics about the UI design. Last chance for any ideas for next version.

[radestock]

Some sort of ability to animate things would be great. Not stupid spinning logos etc. I mean, if it were possible for menus to slide out when a button is press, of fade in/out etc. It would just add that little bit more class to things.

Perhaps some sort of rotation setting for images (e.g. rotation="30")

Text, really need to be able to use other fonts in skins without them looking terrible.

[dw420]

More editable 3d match stuff...

Info on the stuff that are already editable...

Intelligent pitch texture usage...currently there is a lot of mirroring going on...without reason eg. corner area textures

Referee kits/ medic kits

Managers should show in 3d match

Benches should have more variations...they all look like 1950s -1970s benches

Allow for people to customise the pitch lines...as it stands only the semicircles and spots [penalty spot etc] are editable. No paint job should look 100% perfect since its on grass...

Better basic 3d kit textures..

Better 3d ball textures...

[ignavus]

1. An ID index : For show all existing ID's in xml..

Has this been included yet?

[b.paterson]

My Request is to introduce the ability to create and manage our own custom views when we staff search (similar to player search and shortlist sections).

If this is not possible then can we have a panel editor program so editing is easier for people that don't know how to modify the .xml files.

Regards

[oakesypvfc]

I dont know whether this is the right place to ask, but does anyone know of a guide anywhere to help make skins from scratch?

[iamweesel]

I'd have rather posted a new thread but since this thread exists, here's my idea/request. A skin based on the FIFA Manager game series. Frankly, the skin and the graphical representations are the only worthwhile thing in that game and in my opinion that skin looks fantastic. An FM skin based on that would be sensual. Here are some Screenshots

Cheers.

[FMtillidie]

A Skin Editor application, for us none coders who can easily convert their PSDs into skins.

For instance, you import your PSD into it, and can use the editor to locate where the buttons are and the screens that they take you to. For certain graphics i.e Player tabs there could be a list of the graphics and you simply drag your graphic ontop of each one to replace them.

agree with this,

[mark wyer]

I think a sky sports style skin or maybe a MOTD skin would be great but i have no idea on how to start or go about it

[radestock]

We're not going to get anything like that for licensing reasons. If you're talking about someone making one then this is for official game improvements implemented by SI rather than 3rd party stuff.

[Louwen]

agree with this,

Seconded. (thirded?)

[kingjericho]

An option to disable the attribute polygon and put the player's face in the center of that space. And obviously numbered tactical sliders.

[phnompenhandy]

I'm not sure if this is a skin issue or not; if it is, here's my suggestion:

Something annoys me that occurred in FM11 and still occurs in FM 12 with default and bkgd skin that I use. When playing a match, if I click on the drop=down menu to change tactics with shouts, the menu often gets stuck until the changes are made. It means for a minute or two the menu is obscuring half the pitch. What to do to make the drop-down go away with a click while it's processing the change?

[claytonsgold]

I'd like to see a complete beginners guide to skinning, I've downloaded loads over the years mainly from Tomdixon77(many thanks to him and everyone else) and would like to give something back. But there is NO walk though for beginners on how to use the resource archive and make a skin form scratch.

Sorry about the double post.

[minneapolisjon]

The ability to customize the 3D match graphics would be fantastic.

For example:

The ability to set your stadiums default seat color to something other than the standard assigned

Options for choosing your stadium's pitch "cut pattern"

Ability to customize the actual stadium based upon a variety of different sets

- such as the open corners at Wolves and West Ham

- The leveling of select decks on each individual side of the pitch

- putting words into the seating pattern, i.e. the club's name

These things always gut me, espically when the game strives for realism in everything, and then I see yellow seats at Perilli Stadium for my beloved Burton Albion, when it's actually black seats with the yellow "Burton Albion." Even if it's just an option to customize these in the editor, at least the community can create some fantastic works with that

(There's a shocker, a background GFX guy wanting to be able to adjust the 3D stadium)

Just my thoughts,

minneapolisJon

[Lii]

Now we can give a club a kit used only in a competition, say ECL, by editor. I would like that we are able to assign a picture to that kit in config.xml. At this time, we can only set home, away and third kits.

[Gimpy]

I reckon the ability to add in tabs like a web browser would be a game changer. Would be so useful to be able to open a couple of screens at once

[radestock]

Love that idea.

Can imagine it'd mean a massive revamp though - FM is still very linear in design at the moment.

[Stephanie McMahon's Secret Lover]

Would like to see the dark skin for the full game with the "instant result" button

[radestock]

Just deleted a couple of posts regarding the name of a skin. Please keep this thread on topic and free of clutter so genuine suggestions do not get lost. Thanks.

[Mons]

To ensure that finalised graphic packs don't get lost down the page and are easily accessible for new users, I think it would be a good idea to have a sub-forum for downloads (like is currently the case in the Editors Hideaway forum). The main forum would then be a place in which WIPs are posted and requests for assistance are made. Ideally, posting in the download sub-forum should not be possible and threads could only be moved therein by the mods, when they are notified that a pack is ready for downloading.

[radestock]

That's not what this forum is about. We are a help forum, not a repository for people looking for downloads. The sort of thing you're talking about is the domain of 3rd party fansites. Obviously we do allow people to showcase their work (even this initially only used to be for skins) but that is really extending our purpose beyond what it's supposed to be - hence the ban on requests for download links etc.

[Mons]

That's not what this forum is about. We are a help forum, not a repository for people looking for downloads. The sort of thing you're talking about is the domain of 3rd party fansites. Obviously we do allow people to showcase their work (even this initially only used to be for skins) but that is really extending our purpose beyond what it's supposed to be - hence the ban on requests for download links etc.

Fair enough, understood.

[Elrethiel]

Not sure if this goes here, but in future releases it would be great if we could get:

1. Multiple monitor support, especially in match, that way I could have the game on one screen and all the stats on the second one.

2. support for player faces in other places than their profile. I relate much easier to a face than a name, specially foreign ones, so if I could have faces in the team line ups, and even in the match report snippets it would be awesome.

3. more variety in regen faces, if OLT's pack has shown something is that regen's don't have to look bland and that this issue can be solved by adding more variety to hairstyles and facial hair.

Thanks, and please let me know if this suggestions should be in a different post instead.

[TomDixon77]

One thing I'd like to see is when SI change something in the layout (the tabs menu and action strip that was introduced in FM13, for instance) it isn't done in such a way as to force everyone to use that layout, so all you get are skins with different graphics.

[gmbrann]

Is it possible to make a skin where the filters doesnt go away during team-selection?

[Torwin]

Would there be a chance to make a skin with the graphical skill bars rather than numbers? I was always using that option, and I cannot seem to find it in FM 14 anymore...

[Hunter T]

I was just checking some posts in the Tacticw forume and i came across this:

so, i had an idea about a retro/vintage skin!

Since i have no idea how to do it, is there anyone who can and wiiling to try one?

Better yet, is there a retro/vintage skin already by any chance?

[kingjericho]

I think when you click the "reload skin" button in the preferences screen, after the skin is reloaded the game shouldn't exit the preferences screen. Because usually I reload to update the logos/faces packs, and then I have to go to the preferences again to tick the box to use cache.

[jdawson6]

Is this a normal delay on getting base skins where the backgrounds work? I know some skin makers have found a way but I'd really like to have a less complicated option like we had last year.

[gico86]

I'm probably dreaming, but I would like to see a big graphic revolution, something like the classic Ultimate Soccer Manager

[EvertonblokesMobile]

Hi guys,

I dont know if this is possible, but can you do a skin that makes the tactics screen look and play like FM14?

Im really struggling with the current layout.

Cheers

[El Presidente]

"Instant result button" skin for FM15 would be great.