For several FMs now your Press Officer & Personal Assistant have been Regen's with a hidden UID making it seemingly impossible to replace their images.

A few years back FMfan.ru boxed together all the hand-made regen images and created a config that auto-applied those to regens. I have taken that config and applied it to a base file of 15000 png files that are all numbered for easy reference to enable you to figure out with image goes to which UID by cross-referencing against the config file.

It still involves a bit of work, so you'll still need to be patient, but finally there is a way to replace those images.

1) Download & unzip file
2) Place in My Docs/Sports Interactive/FM20/graphics/faces (Mac = HD/users/user/Library/application support/sports interactive/fm2020/graphics)
3) Then in the game go to Preferences > Interface and untick "Use caching" and tick "Reload skin when confirming" - Apply
4) Take a look at your Inbox and see if you have any messages from your Press Officer & Personal Assistant - hopefully they now have a Black image with a number....Make a note of this number
5) Within the UID Finder folder there is a config - open this in TextEdit and Search (ctrl-f) for the numbers you made a note of - BEWARE there may be several entries using the same image depending on the size of Database you have loaded.
6) Save your chosen image as the Regen number you found in the config and create your own "Regen Staff" folder with accompanying config file using a config creator or just copying and editing an existing one.
7) Reload skin - ctrl-r ...and hopefully it should work

As you can tell from the above - this is a bit tricky, so it's one for the die-hard gfx mod fans, but hope this helps.

BIG thanks to FMfan.ru for giving me the idea and to all the amazing graphic creators out there who make the game so good!
Comments
deboim
11 years ago
1 hour ago
1
Has anyone figured out if it's possible to change the default names of the press officer and personal assistant?


someone can answer this question? i need it too... thanks
Vawkes
7 years ago
2 weeks ago
89
This is just the sort of thing I was looking for. Not being able to change female regen faces has always bugged me.

Is there a pack of faces available to use instead of the black number? Thanks.
gholliday87
16 years ago
1 month ago
76
Premium
Followed the steps, my press officer has changed, my personal assistant hasn't?
ArnDaddy
14 years ago
2 days ago
158
Premium
Great pack, thanks a lot.
ArnDaddy
14 years ago
2 days ago
158
Premium
Does this work with journalists too?
Vasamm
10 years ago
3 days ago
4
Thank you so much! Little bit of work (over 60 results in the config), but in the end it worked perfectly
Carsie
14 years ago
18 hours ago
300
Premium
Hi i need advice I've made my own config file both ways for 4 people PA, PLO, Press and PO but nothing with my own config file but as soon as i added the config from regen UID finder their added but the faces are also on some of the players as well

<record from="1915426187" to="graphics/pictures/person/1915426187/portrait"/>
&
<record from="10876" to="graphics/pictures/person/1912426188/portrait"/>
&
<record from="10876" to="graphics/pictures/person/10876/portrait"/>



Rich B
17 years ago
1 week ago
241
Premium
Has anyone got anymore of the cut out faces for adding to my games? These are superb but I am now seeing these same faces more than my own family haha. A few new ones would be awesome

Many thanks in advance
Seminar
12 years ago
3 weeks ago
8
Everything works ! But be prepared for the fact that you may have more than 100 matches for each person. You will have to make more than 100 copy photos with different ID!
jeremydk1
6 years ago
18 hours ago
202
rowan is it possible to have your config.xml file of your staff regens? I can't create it ?
aqs123
12 years ago
5 months ago
33
hi all, can someone who has this working share their config file or give a screenshot. Cos i have now gone through all 50 different ID's for my PA but none of them seem to work, so i assume there's something wrong with my config file. thanks in advance
TopToffee
17 years ago
2 days ago
16
Premium
For those who have a lot of iterations of the same image being used (I had 72 of each in my game)...

Once you've found the number for the image you're trying to change (not the UID), copy ALL the lines of the Regen UID finder config file (NB, just the lines relating to individual files, don't need all the extraneous xml stuff) and paste them into Excel (so you'll have a single column a few thousand entries long).

Then in the second column paste the following:

=MID((LEFT(A1,FIND("t",A1)-1)),FIND("""",(LEFT(A1,FIND("t",A1)-1)))+1,FIND("""",(LEFT(A1,FIND("t",A1)-1)),FIND("""",(LEFT(A1,FIND("t",A1)-1)))+1)-FIND("""",(LEFT(A1,FIND("t",A1)-1)))-1)

This should extract from the full string just the image number. Then you can turn the data into a table and easily filter by this value to get all iterations of that specific image being used in the game without having to trawl through.
Piotr Dytkowski
3 years ago
3 years ago
4
I am sorry but i don't get this... Could you tell me how to do it? I opened a file in notepad and found my number... But then what...?
trace
9 years ago
1 month ago
11
For those who have a lot of iterations of the same image being used (I had 72 of each in my game)...

Once you've found the number for the image you're trying to change (not the UID), copy ALL the lines of the Regen UID finder config file (NB, just the lines relating to individual files, don't need all the extraneous xml stuff) and paste them into Excel (so you'll have a single column a few thousand entries long).

Then in the second column paste the following:

=MID((LEFT(A1,FIND("t",A1)-1)),FIND("""",(LEFT(A1,FIND("t",A1)-1)))+1,FIND("""",(LEFT(A1,FIND("t",A1)-1)),FIND("""",(LEFT(A1,FIND("t",A1)-1)))+1)-FIND("""",(LEFT(A1,FIND("t",A1)-1)))-1)

This should extract from the full string just the image number. Then you can turn the data into a table and easily filter by this value to get all iterations of that specific image being used in the game without having to trawl through.



dont quite get this either...tried the Excel instructions but i feel like the image number should be entered somewhere in the string to be pasted in the second column.
trace
9 years ago
1 month ago
11
kinda got the faces now i guess...got both Press Officer & PA...ok so when i get the black square showing the Presser & PA numbers...the pic i want to use should be renamed with that number...not the long 191...number. i just copied the XML file in the UID Finder folder to my regen staff folder no editing necessary. i suspect the face i chose to use for each will show up in the game more than one since XML file has multiple regen using the same image, but it was getting frustrating to find just your PA & presser...

question is...does this work for FM Touch too...off to try
trace
9 years ago
1 month ago
11
so i found that while the Press Officer and Personal Assistant got changed by me coping the whole config.xml file and changing only a few entry to the UID, it removes the faces of players i have created. i guess i will need to try the process of copy each line to a new xml file, that will have to stay until my pc is upgraded. Doesn't work when i create the xml using FMXML.
Rafy23
10 years ago
2 weeks ago
33
This is not working on FM21, any solutions? @Rowan
Rowan
16 years ago
1 week ago
1,970
This is not working on FM21, any solutions? @Rowan


Sorry I haven't been playing the Beta enough for the regen staff to annoy me yet πŸ˜‰

Will take a look at this when the game is officially released so we can get access the FMEditor as well. However this was always a very un-elegant and time-consuming solution, so can't make any promises it will work this time round 😒
wigotronikas
15 years ago
1 week ago
5
shit i am already stuck in 2nd step :/ i copied that zip folder to faces location but my personal assist still in black siluate and no numbers :/ (my players and staff face pack works fine so i don't know where is the problem) have no idea what i am doing wrong... btw i tried tu put that folder in different folders still not working :/


ooooh never mind, just now i saw that its fm20 not fm21 πŸ™‚ need a coffee πŸ˜€
Marius Austad
6 years ago
4 months ago
11
Anyone know to get this to work with FM21?
murrayg
15 years ago
1 year ago
438
The UIDs are different, it still works if the UID range is correct. I did some trial and error with the numbers (using an excel file I already have for generating config files for my created club facepack) and my PA had the UID 2000096457 and my Press Officer 2000083681. I don't know what range is needed for the config file to always work, but I had to play around a bit to get both of them, which were done in separate attempts. Try the config file linked below, it may work, or your staff may be in a different range...
Config file
ducc
11 years ago
2 weeks ago
1,395
Murrayg's above file did not work for me, so I went a bit further by increasing the number of UIDs in the config. It worked. I don't know what the correct range for UIDs is, so just replaced all the UIDs in the original config with numbers 2000000000 and higher. The rows in this config are also sorted by the image name, so its easier to narrow down the correct hidden UID.

New Regen UID Finder Config
KingMario85
15 years ago
1 week ago
54
It's working on FM21. Just download the file and follow the instructions Rowan provided, and replace the Config with the one murrayg created (am sure ducc's also works, but I tried with murrayg's first and it's working for me). It also works for journalists as well which is pretty cool!

Thanks guys for the amazing work! Your efforts make the game so much more enjoyable.... really appreciated!
Oliver Ilievski
12 years ago
1 month ago
6
I have only black square instead of image
pablovester
3 years ago
3 weeks ago
123
I have only black square instead of image


Thanks the whole point. The image 11 belongs to a certain ID, check the config file and change that '11' image for the face image of your choosing.
Akinluyì
5 years ago
3 months ago
3
The UIDs are different, it still works if the UID range is correct. I did some trial and error with the numbers (using an excel file I already have for generating config files for my created club facepack) and my PA had the UID 2000096457 and my Press Officer 2000083681. I don't know what range is needed for the config file to always work, but I had to play around a bit to get both of them, which were done in separate attempts. Try the config file linked below, it may work, or your staff may be in a different range...
Config file
Smekky
3 years ago
1 year ago
3
Hello! I found out how to do this the 'quick' way. There is a bit of a compromise, but it sure beats copying and pasting numbers onto images 72 different times.

First, follow the instructions above up until question four. Make note of the number that appears instead of your the regen face.

For example, my press officer had an image with '1396' while my personal assistant had '300'.

Go into the 'Regen UID Finder' in the graphics/faces folder and replace the images with your PO / PA number with whatever image you like. So for me, I replaced images '300' and '1396' with the face that I wanted.

After that, delete (or better yet, move them somewhere else) all images inside the folder aside from the edited ones. What was left of my folder was the .config file (which I did not touch), a ds_store file and the two custom images. If you don't delete the other images, all regens in game will be black boxes with a number in them. We don't want that, obviously.

...And that should work! Test it out by reloading the skin.

Compromises:

1. If you want to add another face onto another regen, here are the steps: copy all previous pictures (which is why I recommended to just move them somehwere else, and yeah - all 15,000 of them. My hardrive was sulking the whole way) back into the graphics/pictures folder to identify the faces you need (make sure you don't overwrite any existing faces). Go in game, reload skin, make a note of the face you want to edit, overwrite the image number with whatever picture, delete the other unedited images, and finally reload the skin.

It's a bit hard, but better than manual labour.


2. Your computer does most of the hard work. πŸ˜‰


Finally, thanks @Rowan for this mod! If anyone needs me to clarify anything, ask.
Smekky
3 years ago
1 year ago
3
For those who have a lot of iterations of the same image being used (I had 72 of each in my game)...

Once you've found the number for the image you're trying to change (not the UID), copy ALL the lines of the Regen UID finder config file (NB, just the lines relating to individual files, don't need all the extraneous xml stuff) and paste them into Excel (so you'll have a single column a few thousand entries long).

Then in the second column paste the following:

=MID((LEFT(A1,FIND("t",A1)-1)),FIND("""",(LEFT(A1,FIND("t",A1)-1)))+1,FIND("""",(LEFT(A1,FIND("t",A1)-1)),FIND("""",(LEFT(A1,FIND("t",A1)-1)))+1)-FIND("""",(LEFT(A1,FIND("t",A1)-1)))-1)

This should extract from the full string just the image number. Then you can turn the data into a table and easily filter by this value to get all iterations of that specific image being used in the game without having to trawl through.


Btw, to those who didn't understand how this was supposed to work:

1. Copy all the lines in the config. (e.g. <record from="1" to="graphics/pictures/person/1915386801/portrait"/> )
2. Paste in excel (cell A1).
3. Next to it (Cell B1), copy/paste the formula TopToffee provided. Duplicate this so it covers all the entries on the left.
4. Now, format it as a table.
5. Then use the filter function to organise (e.g. my number was '1' and the long number next to it is the thing I'm supposedand start copying onto pictures).
John Nicolette
6 years ago
2 weeks ago
11
Premium
dont quite get this either...tried the Excel instructions but i feel like the image number should be entered somewhere in the string to be pasted in the second column.


What I found that was easier when trying to use this on FM19: I went into the config file and at first I did what everyone does, find each UID and write them down. I noted that the PA, 1875 by the black box number almost always followed a control-f find that showed 11875. Then I started looking at the UID numbers and with my handy calculator found out, at least for the Db I'm using (don't know if it differs based on FM20 or how it may work on FM21), there are 14,256 UID between each iteration of 1875. SO, all I did was go into a new excel sheet, started a column labeled 1875 in cell A1, put in the first UID in cell A2, then in the cell below:

=A2+14256

then just dragged and dropped for the 71 other UID. When I got to my last one it showed exactly the last UID in the Config that was associated with 1875. At least now I have a sheet with all the UID for each regen I want to change. Now I just have to figure out how to make 72 unique copied photos 😒
John Nicolette
6 years ago
2 weeks ago
11
Premium
Hello! I found out how to do this the 'quick' way. There is a bit of a compromise, but it sure beats copying and pasting numbers onto images 72 different times.

First, follow the instructions above up until question four. Make note of the number that appears instead of your the regen face.

For example, my press officer had an image with '1396' while my personal assistant had '300'.

Go into the 'Regen UID Finder' in the graphics/faces folder and replace the images with your PO / PA number with whatever image you like. So for me, I replaced images '300' and '1396' with the face that I wanted.

After that, delete (or better yet, move them somewhere else) all images inside the folder aside from the edited ones. What was left of my folder was the .config file (which I did not touch), a ds_store file and the two custom images. If you don't delete the other images, all regens in game will be black boxes with a number in them. We don't want that, obviously.

...And that should work! Test it out by reloading the skin.

Compromises:

1. If you want to add another face onto another regen, here are the steps: copy all previous pictures (which is why I recommended to just move them somehwere else, and yeah - all 15,000 of them. My hardrive was sulking the whole way) back into the graphics/pictures folder to identify the faces you need (make sure you don't overwrite any existing faces). Go in game, reload skin, make a note of the face you want to edit, overwrite the image number with whatever picture, delete the other unedited images, and finally reload the skin.

It's a bit hard, but better than manual labour.


2. Your computer does most of the hard work. πŸ˜‰


Finally, thanks @Rowan for this mod! If anyone needs me to clarify anything, ask.



Yes this did work for me then I found out harshly that the regens other than the few I changed were all black boxes. This should work on FM19 (my version) and I assume FM20. I may resort to this when I go crazy trying to rename individually 72 PAs and 72 press officials. Also thanks for your clarification on the excel trick. I may set that up as another tab for the future.

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