retired_bigmamayo

Not as an option on the screen itself, because any FM06 release is in text lock and we can't change or add any text. I've checked and there is no existing text we that we can use either.

However, you can have it as a command line option: --always_reload_skin=1

So all you need to do is go to the Preferences screen and press "Confirm". It doesn't turn off the skin caching, so do that separately.

Oh, and obviously you'll have to wait for 6.0.2

retired_vpoorni

Was wondering why the clean file wasn't working when I tested it

Also is there anyway to stop the game creating cache files, its still creating them everytime I load the game up, even though I have the cache off, or does the game actually use the cache files whilst its on, and rebuilds them when you change skins?

retired_alyssalee03

ive downloaded the ultimate skin and have extracted it in the skins folder but it still is not appearing in the preferences for skins.
any help on this would be much appreciated.

retired_brokenangel2003

Since you're currently picking up suggestions for various aspects of the skins again, I think it's time to raise skin cache issues again. Obviously none of these can be addressed for any subsequent patch of FM06, but you've got plenty of time to think about them for FM07

First, the ability to force a reload of the current skin is essential, as it was for FM05 really. This should reload from the original graphics files, rebuilding the cache if necessary, without the need to go through the current standard process. As most players will be aware the current standard process is: change graphics files, change skin to unwanted skin in preferences, change back to preferred skin, wonder where new files went, remember the damn skin cache, turn off skin cache, change back to unwanted skin, change skin again, forget to turn skin cache back on for several days until you finally realise why the game's taking 5 minutes to start. </rant>

Second, should the cache files be split into two? At present it seems to hold both skin graphics, which are obviously skin-specific, and game graphics (kits, logos etc) which are clearly common to all skins. It seems wasteful to duplicate this additional data.

Third, cache files ought to be written to the right place. SI conform to MS standards on where to put user-created files for almost everything, from savegames to tactics and shortlists, but not for cache files which are written into the installation tree. They should be written to a location which is guaranteed to be user-writable, probably "\documents and settings\all users\application data". This will become more critical for compatibility with future versions of Windows, where user access policy looks likely to be less rational than at present :p

The last two are minor points, I know, but the first one is really quite important. Please do something about it for FM07.

retired_dumplyne

Been moved to documents folder for 6.0.2.

retired_bigmamayo

If you use the --always_reload skin command line option (=1) with 6.0.2 you can force reload the skin by going to the preferences screen and clicking "Confirm" (ie skip the skin changing step).

No. The cache doesn't contain the actual graphics, it contains information regarding the skin and the graphics it uses. Without the cache it has to scan all the resources to gather this information - this is what is time consuming. Also, duplicatoin doesn't matter - they're not big files, and the reason for their existence is to speed up the startup time.

Yes, good point. At the moment --always_reload_skin isn't linked in any way to the skin cache setting. Perhaps it should be, or at the very least, override it temporarily for the individual skin reloading.

Indeed. As edward_woodward says, the cache was moved to "My Documents/Sports Interactive/Football manager 2006/" folder for 6.0.2 - where, to be honest, it should have been from the beginning. Technically the cache should probably be in "Documents and Settings/username/Application Data/Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2006/" or some such location because strictly speaking it's not really user data. We thought it made sense to not spread them around too much at present (though we may change this).

Edit: Finally got around to updating the SIbase articles covering these areas - INFO: FM2006 Skin Cache System (Notes for authors) and INFO: FM2006 Command Line Options.