Football Manager 2022 Light Skin

Install Instructions

When you extract the file you have downloaded you should have a folder called light22 and a readme text file.

Now copy the folder into your skins folder within your User Data Location, by default is:

For Windows:

C:\Users\[Your Windows Username]\Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2022\

For Mac:

Users\[Your Mac Username]\Library\Application Support\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2022\

Redistribution Terms

You are free to post this content to your website provided:

1. It is not sold or behind a paywall.

2. You don't advertise it as being exclusive to your website.

3. My username and blog address are included: http://michaeltmurrayuk.blogspot.co.uk/

4. If linking to my work then please provide a link to the download page rather than the download link as the download link may change.

If you have any questions then the best place to ask them is in the Skinning Hideout at the Official SIGames Forums where I can be found most days.

How To Stop the Blurring Effect when Processing

FM2016 introduced a new feature where when the main screen isn't the focus of the screen it blurs out, however if you don't like this effect it is simple enough to disable it, to do this simply browse to the following locations within the Base Skin you are using:

NOTE: For FM22 there are now two locations, so you may need to edit them both to disable the blurring.

\graphics\boxes\dialog\background

\graphics\boxes\bordered\blurred

Inside each location will be a paper xml file open them and locate this line:

<boolean id="blurred" value="true"/>

and change it to read:

<boolean id="blurred" value="false"/>

How To Enable Background Changes

Whilst the FM22 Default Skin supports background changes there are some issues with the transparency of some screens, so I have again included some improved background support in the Base Skin.

To Adjust the Transparency of Screens

This year I have again reworked how to tweak the transparency of the files, so this year it is instead done through editing the xml files rather than messing around with graphics which should make things easier and give you some better control.

The main file you need to edit is the client object browser xml file found in the panels\client_object folder for the skin.

In that file there are three bits of code you are interested in and I am going to work bottom up;

The main line you need to edit is the content box this forms the header and the main area of the skin, however it doesn't cover the sidebar and this code should be located on Line #56:

<widget class="inner_contrast_box" appearance="boxes/custom/interface/content/paper" transparency="1.0"> <!-- content -->

The second bit of code is for the background pattern, this pattern covers the top left and top right parts of the screen, whilst for the Light Skin it also the graphic used for the sidebar and this code should be located on Line #43:

<widget class="picture" file="boxes/custom/interface/background pattern/paper" id="BgPa" transparency="1.0"> <!-- pattern -->

The final bit of code in this file is the overlay I have added, this file covers the entire background including the sidebar and is for when you need an overlay to also cover the sidebar, and this code should be located on Line #30:

<widget class="picture" file="boxes/bordered/solid/paper" red_replacement="bg" transparency="0.0"> <!-- overlay -->

On each of those lines you'll notice this bit of code transparency="X.X" this code controls how transparent the graphic is - 1.0 means you have a solid graphic (well as solid as the actual graphic is) and 0.0 means it is entirely transparent - so by default I have set the content and pattern files to solid so they show as the graphic appears, whilst the extra overlay is set to transparent as it isn't needed by default.

All you need to do is adjust these values to suit, then save the file and reload the skin and repeat until you are happy.

Whilst another screen you may want to edit is the inbox which has it's own content graphic, so to edit this you need to edit the inbox item xml file found in the panels\human folder and in that file locate this line (#8):

<container class="main_contrast_box" red_replacement="inbox_content_background" transparency="1.0">

And again adjust the transparency to suit.

Those above options should cover the main areas, for other areas it is just a case of finding the file and line of code that controls the graphic in question and adding the transparency code.

How To Edit the Fonts

The font settings are now controlled by the various files located inside the fonts folder. For the base skins I have included all the default font files to save you having to go look for them. To edit the fonts its just a case of changing the various variables declared in the fontxml files, whilst to change the actual font you copy the font you want to use to the font folder and then update the font names in the fontxml files to match your new font.

Whilst FM22 also uses the fontxml file format, the format of the files is the same and you can open them with the same program you use to read normal xml files, you'll just need to right click on the first file and select the open with option in Windows first to associate the files with the program you wish to use. NOTE: The game will not read them if you change them back to plain xml files.

How To Edit the Skin Colours

The colour settings are controlled by the light22 settings xml file located inside the settings folder.

Re-colouring items for the Light Skin is largely the same as for the normal Base Skins, however I have adopted parts of the Template System I used with FM20 which should make it easier to change various items as I've linked some more bits together and added several custom colours that allow you to check more colours directly from the settings file (though I didn't get a chance to convert all the colours over to the Template system so you'll still need to delve into the panel files to alter some things).

For the majority of users changing the colours is the same as normal - locate the item you want to change in the settings file and change the value part to match the new colour you want to use, the main difference is that it is now important where in the file certain items are located, but if you are just recolouring items then this shouldn't really matter.

Full details on how to use the Template System for the Light Skin can be found here.

For your changes to take affect

If you have made any changes to the base skins (colours, fonts, graphics) to get your changes to show you’ll need to go into the Preferences -> Interface Menu and untick Use caching to decrease page loading times if it is ticked and then tick Reload skin when confirming changes in Preferences then click confirm and your changes should be applied, if you have previously ticked and unticked the required boxes a Reload Skin button should appear in the bottom left corner, if this button appears you can click that if the Confirm Button is greyed out.