Football Manager 2021 Touch Base Skins

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 FM21 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"/>

The Default FMT21 skin somewhat supports background images this year however the fade effect and the transparent titlebar cause some issues, so I have included my Background Support Mod within the Base Skins again this year.

To Adjust the Overlay Strength

If you browse to the boxes\custom\background folder inside the graphics folder for the Base skin you installed you'll notice several graphic files these are numbered by the level of opacity - 0 is fully transparent and 100 is fully solid. For the default file I have copied over the default fade graphic so not cause issues for people who don't use background images.

To adjust the overlay strength first make copies (or at least rename) the existing paper and paper@2x files so you can revert back to this if you need to.

Next make two copies of the file with the transparency you want and rename one to paper and the other to paper@2x. (The @2x file is used for zoom modes and higher resolutions and it's a good idea to set this file even if you don't need it to stop the game defaulting to a different file that may affect you level of transparency).

To get the game to read your changes make sure the skin cache is off and reload your skin and the changes should apply, it is then just a case of picking a level that suits you.

If you want to adjust the overlay strength then just follow these instructions with one of the other files until you are happy with the level of transparency.

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.

Like with FM20 FM21 also uses the fontxml file format, however 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.

The colour settings for each skin are controlled by the <skin name> settings xml file located inside the settings folder.

For the base skins I have copied in the relevant coding for you to change the various colours used by the skin – you just need to open the <skin name> settings xml file and locate the relevant line for the colour setting you wish to change – the colour names and comments should explain what the majority of the colours control.

The colours are declared in RGB values, that range from 0-255 where Red=255 Green=255 Blue=255 is white and Red=0 Green=0 Blue=0 is black.

To locate the RGB value of a colour you want to use you can either use a image editing program to obtain the RGB Value of the colour or type rgb values into google and it will bring up several websites that list the RGB Values for various colours.

Note that whilst this file contains most of the text colour settings, some items are hardcoded, others are determined by the individual xml files and some others are set by the xml files in the fonts folder.

Also if you have the Skin Cache on you can change some of the colours directly through the game from the Preferences -> Interface-> Skin Colours screen

FM20 made some changes to how the Skin Colours work and a full guide will follow, the main things are a change to how the RGB values are declared, and the order the colours appear in the file is now important, but for the purposes of the Base Skins nothing has really changed as you should just be adjusting existing values rather than adding new ones or moving existing ones.

Like with the font colours these are now controlled via the files found in the settings folder, and are changed in the same way as the font colours.

For the base skins I have copied in the relevant coding for you to change the various colours used by the skin – you just need to open the <skin name> settings xml file and locate the relevant line for the colour setting you wish to change – the colour names and comments should explain what the majority of the colours control.

FM20 made some changes to how the Skin Colours work and a full guide will follow, the main things are a change to how the RGB values are declared, and the order the colours appear in the file is now important, but for the purposes of the Base Skins nothing has really changed as you should just be adjusting existing values rather than adding new ones or moving existing ones.

Football Manager 2021 Touch includes a more touch friendly version of the default skin, converting the Base Skins over to a Touchscreen friendly version if fairly simple.

First in the skin_config xml file find these two lines:

<flags id="parent" value="fmc" />

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

And change them to read

<flags id="parent" value="fmc tablet" />

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

Next open up the settings file for the version of the Base Touch Skin you are using and locate this line near the top:

<set_global name="ui.is_fmt_pc_skin">

And change it to read:

<set_global name="ui.is_fmt_tablet_skin">

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.