2D Stadiums

Hi everyone,

I don't normally post here, so I apologise if this is the wrong section.

I'm still playing 2D and have always wanted to have a proper stadium environment for 2D again (last time was in FM17 or something). Today I finally figured out how to do it, but I'm really bad at graphic design.

I tried to create the BayArena for Bayer 04 Leverkusen (see attached). I know it looks like shit, but I hope there are more people interested in 2D stadiums and maybe that could be another thing besides faces, jerseys, logos etc. here at sortitoutsi?

It also doesn't seem to be known in the FM community that it's possible to change this. Maybe I'm wrong, but I've found many people asking about this over the last few years.

In the simatchviewer-pc.fmf I found the match_background.dds. If you add this to Football Manager 2024 → art → shared_textures → match_background.dds, you can add a background to the 2D engine that can be used to create a stadium.

I'm not an expert, but I think with the help of a config.xml it would even be possible to have the right 2D stadium for each club (theoretically)?

EDIT: Is someone able to provide the 2D stadium from FM17 (see attached FM 17 2D Stadium)? That would already be nice for now 🙂 

this is amazing would be fantastic to get this for all clubs i would play in 2d again for sure. 

Starting to look nicer

If someone would like to try, just copy & paste the attached art folder into your Football Manager 2024 folder. Then in 2D mode zoom out to the max! 

The attached BayArena is made for the pitch size of the BayArena. So in case you try it with another stadium, it might not perfectly match the ads on the sides & bottom and the coaching benches on top.

I play on a Macbook and have tested various screen resolutions. I think it would look the same, if you play on a larger monitor. But I am not a pro in this, so would be interesting to hear from others.

Thank you for the comment @Latrell yard man. Good to hear that I am not the only one interested in this. As I play with Leverkusen I am already happy to have the BayArena, but I would also like to create more stadiums. 

Next I will try to figure out, if several stadiums can be added with a config file. If not, then it is probably also not a big problem. Because if I change the match background.dds in the art folder, it will directly also adjust in FM24. 

Hi imagineTK ,

That's fantastic ! Very interested on your work.

I only play in 2D too and  i miss the old 2D engine .

Hope a config file will work, it will be a major update. 

hi im intrested in one of olt trafford? not sure how i can do this tho?

looks good!

Awesome work this mate, quick question, i cant seem to see the attached art folder you are referring to to put this into my game. I play on a 55inch 4K Gaming TV so would be interested to see how it looks.

@Brommers9219

I have attached it now 🙂 I would also be very interested to hear how it looks on your Gaming TV. There is three stadiums: the match background is the large BayArena for max zoom. Then there is the BayArena small, which I used if I only zoom out to the coaching bench. The default stadium I currently use when I play away games. 

I'm still experimenting and will invest more time next week and also want to create more stadiums. Since I'm playing on a 13" MacBook, I'm now using a "smaller" BayArena. So I'm not zooming out in 2D to the maximum as in my first screenshot, but only to the point where the coach's bench exceeds the edge of the screen (I hope it's clear what I mean - see above in my screenshot. The first thing you see on top is the coaching bench). This makes the player icons a little bigger, which is better for my old eyes 😉

Does anyone have an idea how to use the different background with a config file? Currently I am renaming the stadium background I want to have before every match (depending on home or away). It is doable, but a little bit annoying.

Hardest part is finding a good image to use. Something with fans looks better to me. This is my current choice as a generic background, it's far from perfect.

Anyway, thanks for showing this was possible. 

I've attached the original image and then the cropped version that I'm currently using. It's specific to my windowed resolution though so it'll look stretched on your end. All I've done is use Paint.NET, resized and saved the image as a DirectDraw Surface (.dds). For me I have to use B5G6B5 Linear or it wouldn't work in-game.

WONDERFUL!

someone that is able to create match background of Reale Arena - real sociedad stadium for me? or just give to me istructions to make it?

thanks a lot

I just checked a 2d home match of Sociedad. There is a green area around the ads, which makes it difficult to create a stadium as there is not much space (see Sociaded screenshot). Do you have the same? Do you know how to remove it?

This is what I do: I use the attached match_background pitch file and add left & right stadium images with 182 x 1800 pixels and on the bottom 2516 x 53 pixels. The top I leave blank, because I watch 2D with a zoom which has the coaching bench at the top. So I would not see a stadium stand anyway (see Union Berlin screenshot attached - I also attached this stadium as match background.dds)

Then I convert the file to a DDS file here: https://convertio.co/. Afterwards you can use it in the folder: Football Manager 2024 → art → shared textures. It needs to be named match_background.dds

I updated my personal skin in the last days, so I did not create any other stadium so far (except for the attached Union Berlin as this was my next match today). But as it was already mentioned here - the hardest part is finding good images. 

These areas around the ads in some stadiums don't make it easy unfortunately. I just tried Bayern, but there is not much space. If anyone knows how these areas can be deleted, that would be great.

For those interested - this is what I created for my after-winter-update save

https://www.mediafire.com/file/31hv2yxw034ez3s/art.zip/file

Just copy & paste the art folder into your Football Manager 2024 folder and pick any match background.dds from the stadium folder and copy & paste it into the shared textures folder. It will show in game directly 

Hi boys , that's a nice topic !! do you know if there is the same on FM23 ? 

How can we make the 2d ball smaller ? That will be great 😀 

Thanks 

@imagineTK Good job 👍

I ask you or anyone else who can help me..
I'd like to eliminate these two textures for the fields

replacing them with other textures already present in the game, such as that of the Bay Arena or perhaps create a custom one myself, but I have no idea if this is possible, you know if it is possible to just "replace" these two textures with the others present in the game?

Have no idea if this is the right thread to ask this but am going to ask anyway. Playing with West Ham and have always played in 2D mode. The only thing that annoys me is that for some reason the outer boundary of the London Stadium in 2D view is just black.

When I play Villa away for example there outer boundary is claret and looks so much better. Does anyone know of a way I can change this outer boundary colour to be claret, like it is in real life…I must be able to somehow surely??

I saw earlier in the thread instructions on how to add an image left and right to a pitch PNG, but I have no idea how to do that. Any chance anyone has created a PL Version like the Bundesliga one that was attached above…or could give very detailed step by step instructions on how to make one for West Ham.

No idea about the outer boundary in black or grey. It's also annoying me, but haven't found a solution. Seems like some stadiums have these (it's always the same teams), but I did not find a solution how to remove these (checked all FM folders and everywhere in the editor).

This is why I only created BayArena in the end and one for my Leverkusen away matches (which also works if there is a black boundary in some stadium). I wanted to create a stadium for many clubs, but I couldn't find a way to get rid of the outer boundary.

Mine are optimized for a zoom setting which has the coaching benches on top of the window. You can find my BayArena file in the attachments. 

Just put it into art → shared_textures folder. It always needs to be named match_background.dds

Home match in BayArena

Away match in stadium with outer boundary

Anyone still (or again) on FM24 2D mode? With the new image model from ChatGTP it is pretty easy to generate nice stadium backgrounds.

I just tried it today for the first time and I am pretty happy. So maybe realistic stadiums now in 2D FM24? 😉 

This is my prompt, feel free to use/improve it:

German (original)

Erstelle einen FM24 Match Background für den Signal Iduna Park in Dortmund aus einer exakt senkrechten Top-down-Perspektive. Das Bild soll die gleichen Proportionen wie ein Football-Manager-24-Spielhintergrund haben: Das Spielfeld muss sehr groß sein und etwa 80 bis 85 Prozent der Bildfläche einnehmen. Der Rasen bleibt mittig, rechteckig, symmetrisch und klar ausgerichtet. Die Werbebanden bilden direkt den Rand um das Spielfeld. Die Tribünen beginnen erst außerhalb der Werbebanden und sind nur als schmaler äußerer Rand sichtbar, nicht als großer Stadionbereich. Keine UI-Elemente, kein Spielstand, keine Buttons, keine Spieler, keine Marker. Links hinter dem Tor befindet sich die Dortmunder Heimkurve mit gelb-schwarzen Fans, Fahnen und Schals. Alle anderen Tribünenbereiche zeigen sitzende Dortmund-Fans ohne Fahnen. Keine Auswärtsfans. Die Heimkurve darf sichtbar und lebendig sein, aber identisch groß und breit wie die gegenüberliegende Tribüne. Achte besonders darauf, dass die Tribünen nur bis knapp hinter die Werbebanden reichen und das Spielfeld klar dominiert. Das Stadion soll als Signal Iduna Park erkennbar sein, mit gelb-schwarzer Farbgebung, gelben Dachträgern und passenden BVB-/Signal-Iduna-Park-Elementen. Realistischer FM24-kompatibler Stil, scharfe Linien, sauberer Rasen, hohe Detailgenauigkeit, 16:9 Format.

English translation

Create an FM24 match background for Signal Iduna Park in Dortmund from a perfectly vertical top-down perspective. The image should have the same proportions as a Football Manager 24 match background: the pitch must be very large and take up around 80 to 85 percent of the image. The grass must remain centered, rectangular, symmetrical, and clearly aligned. The advertising boards should form the direct border around the pitch. The stands should begin only outside the advertising boards and should be visible only as a narrow outer edge, not as a large stadium area. No UI elements, no scoreboard, no buttons, no players, no markers. On the left side behind the goal, there should be the Dortmund home end with yellow-and-black fans, flags, and scarves. All other stand areas should show seated Dortmund fans without flags. No away fans. The home end should look visible and lively, but it must be identical in size and width to the opposite stand. Pay special attention that the stands extend only slightly beyond the advertising boards and that the pitch clearly dominates the image. The stadium should be recognizable as Signal Iduna Park, with yellow-and-black colors, yellow roof supports, and suitable BVB / Signal Iduna Park elements. Realistic FM24-compatible style, sharp lines, clean grass, high level of detail, 16:9 format.

I really like your stadiums, and I still play in 2D; it's impossible for me to switch to 3D. I recently started using ChatGPT, but I create all my stadiums myself. Creating my first real stadium, the PSG stadium, took me a long time. It's not finished yet, but here's the result so far. Sorry for my English; I'm French and I use Google Translate. 

Hi, do you still work on this or was it to keep for personal use?

I was looking for a Sampdoria (Luigi Ferraris Stadium) one but other than this thread, I cant seem to find any other creators of the 2d stadiums. 

Great work on what ive seen from some of the images 🙂 

Okay, so I practiced by building Sampdoria's stadium. My goal was to do this it's incredible

, but I didn't succeed because in the game you can't place the pitch wherever you want.

In-game I managed to do this 

That still looks great 😀 Shame about the first image as that looks perfect. 

How can I add this to my game please? 

Cheers

I don't know how to send a DDS file, so I'm sending you the PNG. https://postimg.cc/cg8hB7yv

Download the PNG file and then convert it to DDS here: https://convertio.co/fr/png-dds/

Vous pourrez ensuite l'utiliser dans le dossier : Football Manager 2024 → art → shared textures

Thanks very much. Done that 🙂 

Cant get this to show in game unfortunately. Followed the instructions but doesn't work. Any idea what could be the issue please?

Did you place the file like this?

The Sampdoria stadium photo should be named "match_background".

I have yes. Its just black all around it. Im using a skin, would that effect it?

I have yes. Its just black all around it. Im using a skin, would that effect it?

I have a skin too, and it works.
My screen resolution is 1920x1080, what about yours?

And double-check that the Sampdoria file is a DDS file and not a PNG.

Its 1920x1200. Yes its 100% a DDS file.