FM18 has made a couple of changes to
how the 3D stuff works which has lead to some confusion on how to
replace the pitch textures.
This is a quick guide that explains how to replace the pitch textures.
1.
Locating the Default Textures
NOTE: You only need to follow
this part if you are wanting to create your own pitch textures as it's
easier to edit the existing files instead of creating fresh ones, if
you have downloaded a texture pack from the internet then just ignore
this part and skip to section 2.
One of the main changes FM18 has made to the 3D graphics is that they
are now packed into fmf files, so to get to them you need to extract
them first, (if you don't know how to extract them then
read this guide).
The textures you need are located in the
'simatchviewer-pc'
fmf file which is found in the
\steamapps\common\Football Manager 2018\data\ folder of where
you installed FM18.
You can either extract the full contents of this fmf file or you can
just extract the contents of the textures\pitch folder as this is the
only folder we are interested in.
2.
Installing your Custom Textures
Once you have downloaded or extracted the default files (if you are
creating your own) browse to your User Data Location which by default
is:
\Documents\Sports
Interactive\Football Manager 2018
Inside this folder you now need to create a new folder called
'textures'.
Next open your new textures folder and create another new folder this
time called
'pitch'.
Now open the pitch folder and this is where you need to place your
pitch graphics.
If you have extracted the default files to edit yourself then copy the
files called
detail_grass_1
through to
detail_grass_7
into this folder as these are the files that FM18 uses for the pitch.
The other files in this folder aren't important as you shouldn't need
to edit them, whilst as far as I can tell the files in the various
weather sub-folders aren't used by FM18 so you can ignore them. Though
the game does still use the files in the clay, gravel, sand and
synthetic folders for the rare occasions when you use one of those
pitch types so you can copy those folders over as well if you want.
(Note that the mixed type still uses the general grass files).
If you have downloaded a texture pack from the internet what you need
to do depends on what version of FM the texture pack was made for.
If you have downloaded a FM18 texture pack then you should just need to
extract the contents of the download and place the detail_grass dds
files into the pitch folder as the pack creator should have already
given them the correct names.
If you have downloaded a pack made for a previous version then you will
need to modify it. First extract the files and depending on the pack
you'll likely have several sub-folders with a grass file inside each
folder. What you need to do is copy the grass file directly to the
pitch folder and then rename it.
For FM18 your files need to be named
'detail_grass_1',
'detail_grass_2'
through to
'detail_grass_7'.
Unfortunately I don't have the full details of when each pitch type is
used, but as best as I can tell they seem to reflect the condition of
the pitch with 'detail_grass_1' being used for perfect pitches,
'detail_grass_2' being used for slightly worse condition pitches etc.
In England at least pitches 1, 2 and 4 seem to be the ones being used
most commonly.
If done correctly your pitch folder should look something like this:
3. Editing
the Pitch Patterns.
The other thing you can do is edit the pitch patterns used by the game.
However it isn't possible to assign patterns to certain teams nor can
you create new patterns all you can do is edit or replace the existing
patterns.
To edit the patterns when extracting the pitch files you should have a 'patterns'
folder inside the pitch folder, all you need to do is copy this folder
and it's contents into the pitch folder you created above and if done
correctly it should look like my above screenshot.
4.
Finishing Up.
Now that you have installed your custom pitch files load up the game
and your new pitches should now be used by the game.
If they aren't showing then from the Preferences -> Interface Screen
turn off the skin cache, confirm your changes and then exit and restart
FM to get it to reload the textures.
If that doesn't work check what pitch type your stadium uses as if you
aren't using a grass pitch the files for the other types will override
them, and have a check of the other matches to see if any of them are
being used. If none are showing then go back through the guide as you
have made a mistake somewhere.
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