I would like to share with you my newgen replacement pack. The pack currently consists of:
175,000 male player pictures across 60 different ethnicity categories
18000 female player pictures - this base pack is still under development, not every nation/ethnicity is covered yet.
18000 staff pictures for both male and female.
You can have a preview of my pictures and (almost all) ethnicity categories here:
MALE PICTURE SHOWCASE
FEMALE PICTURE SHOWCASE
For FM26, you can get the pack in two versions:
a) Single Bundle File (NG_Regens Lite Experience)
This is a single bundle file that you can place in your FM26 folder. It's easy to install and use, but it's significantly limited in what it can do, how many faces it includes, and what methods are used to assign faces to newgens.
b) Full Experience with Custom Software
I recommend the full experience with my custom software. It supports more than 15 times the number of pictures, categories, and assignment methods.
FULL VERSION for Mac and LINUX/SteamDeck(FM26 AND FM24)
I have a completely new version for you that reads information directly from Savefiles and requires no SIP deactivation and no sudo. It is in early testing stage, but I still think it is better for you to go directly that way now as the experience is THAT much better. Another major difference: You do not need to have the game running in the background. You still can, but it is no longer required.
Follow the guide here:
FM26/FM24 MAC/STEAMDECK/LINUX GUIDE
FULL VERSION FOR WINDOWS(FM26 AND FM24)
On Windows at this point in time you actually have a choice between two different versions. The one that reads information directly from a running FM instance and the new one that reads all information from a savefile. As of April I think it safe to switch my recomendation. I now recommend you start with the Savereader method. Only if for some reason it doesnt work for you should fallback to the memory reader.
Try this first: FM26/FM24 WINDOWS SAVEFILE READER METHOD GUIDE
If you have problems, try this instead: FM26/FM24 WINDOWS MEMORY READER METHOD GUIDE
If you can open the page from your phone, but not from your pc, then it is your Windows Antivirus/WebFilter - You can try to whitelist *.ngregens.org somewhere in its settings. As another workaround you can try to set your Windows DNS Settings to use Google DNS 8.8.8.8 or Cloudflare DNS 1.1.1.1. You can find (not mine) guide on how to do that on your Windows machine here
THE BUNDLE REPLACEMENT METHOD:
If you're on Windows, I strongly recommend using the full experience of the pack with my custom software. However, if your platform isn't supported yet or you don't want to deal with the software I've created, I have a bundle file for you to use with the bundle replacement method. Just keep in mind that this bundle represents only about 5-10% of the full experience (it's not me limiting you to force software adoption - this is simply how the bundle method works).
1. Download the updated bundle file from here: https://download.ngregens.org/ui-newgen-portraits_assets_all.bundle
2. Go to your FM26 install directory. By default, it should be \Steam\steamapps\common\Football Manager 26\fm_Data\StreamingAssets\aa\StandaloneWindows64\
3. Make a backup of the ui-newgen-portraits_assets_all.bundle file in case you want to revert to default faces.
4. Copy the file you downloaded in step 1 into the FM26 folder, replacing the original file.
5. Start FM26, go to the Preferences screen, and select "Detailed" in the top menu. Then select "Audio & Visual" in the left menu and check the "Use pre-generated pictures of players (and staff) rather than dynamically-generated images" option (as shown in the screenshot).
6. Restart the game.
To revert (or migrate to my full-featured experience with the custom software), uncheck the "Use pre-generated pictures of players (and staff) rather than dynamically-generated images" option and copy the original bundle (that you backed up in step 3) back into the FM26 directory.
If you are interested in FM24 version with shortlist export method for both Windows and Mac you can still download and use the old 25 version of the software below.
This is project costs me 100-200e monthly to develop and support, so your donations are greatly appreciated!
Stay tuned!
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BELOW IS THE OLD SHORTLIST EXPORT METHOD FOR FM23 AND BELOW FOR ALL PLATFORMS:
Due to how diverse the pack is, I had to create my own expanded folder system to accomodate all 55 categories, so the pack requires a custom NG_Regens Manager 25 software
Installation guide:
1 - Get the main NG_Regens facepack here
2 - Copy the NG_Regens folder into your FM Graphics folder. It would be the same folder where you have put the original newgan facepack or where you put real facepacks. In my case that would be “Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2024\graphics\faces\”
3. Download the NG_Regens Manager 25: Mac
4. Watch the NG_Regens Manager 25 guide on Youtube
If you need a detailed video guide on shortlist export process you can find it here
Deepdive into new version 1.2 features
I will redo all three current Youtube videos into one, but this is a time consuming process, so bear with me.
F.A.Q.
Q: Why did you create a new folder structure? / How can I unpack your pack into the old NewGAN "Italmed/YugoGreek..." folders?
A:
First off, huge shoutout to the original NewGAN team—they did an amazing job, and their work is still being used by thousands of people today. Even my project builds on the filters and views they created, so big respect to them. Seriously, none of this would be possible without their foundation.
That said, the original NewGAN pack came out about five years ago, and it was built using the tools and structure available at the time. It only has 14 categories for the entire world. A lot of care went into the big football nations, but unfortunately, many other countries kind of got lumped together in ways that don’t really make sense.
Let’s do a little experiment: I could show you a few images from my pack, each from a different category. In the old NewGAN setup, all of those would’ve ended up in the same group—meaning a player from one of those countries could randomly get any of those faces.
Notice the difference? That’s why it’s just not possible to repackage my set back into the old structure without losing all the nuance (or simply creating a mess).
Discussion: NG_Regens Newgen Megapack with Women's Football Pack 2 - FM26, FM24 and below
389 comments have been posted so far.
And one more questions, the main reason when you changed the method in FM24 (shortlist and export) to using current method in FM26 is that FM26 doesnt support export list as FM24 did. So in the future, if FM26 support export feature, we can use your app normally as FM24
So realistically the flow would be:
Disable SIP
Run the scanner
Re-enable SIP
Not sure how many users would actually be willing to do that, thats why I havent invested my time in Mac adoption yet...
You can google fmrte macos-unable-to-open-process to get more infos.
As you see in the article there is a workaround, but Im not sure how many players would actually want to go that way (which I can fully understand).
So I kind of just sit here with my fingers crossed for SI to provide some kind of alternative solution for newgens with one of the hotfixes...
@Goldfinger24 6250 regen players on a game start? that doesnt seem too low to me... Are you sure those other players on your U20 are regens? At the start of the game many players there are real players who dont have photos... If you want to troubleshoot further please get in touch with me on Discord (invite is in the main menu of the software in bottom left), tag @NG_Regens in fm26-graphics-skins channel and I will get back to you eventually.
If you see nothing suspicious in your AV, then please get in touch with on Discord, invite in the main menu of the software, tag @NG_Regens in one of the graphics-skins channels
When i hit the Start Memory Scan button, the NG_Regens Manager 26 program just shuts down. Do you have any solution? Thanks
Sounds complicated, but with a script it is very easy to achieve, ask Claude or ChatGPT, both are free and should write you python on a free account, you just need to make sure you tell it exactly what you need with examples
I have it coded in my software, but Im not sure what it will do with OG Newgan file... I guess you can ask any AI to write you a python script, that would be the fastest way probably
Perhaps you can help me. I’ve imported a lengthy save from FM24 into FM26, and I want to use the same regen faces from the Newgan so my players look the same as they did. I’ve copied over the Newgan face pack with the same config I used in FM24, but the player faces don’t appear in FM26. I’ve confirmed that the IDs for the regens are all the same. The only way I’ve been able to get a face to show up is by renaming the regen picture file and updating the line in the config to use the regen’s ID number; for example, renaming "Central European15472" to the regen’s ID so the config line looks like <record from="2002095055" to="graphics/pictures/person/r-2002095055/portrait"/>. Is there a way to get the pictures to show up without having to rename every file? Does FM26 no longer accept picture filenames like "Central European15472"?
Thanks for any help.
Male staff 897 and 6 female staff
If you are on Steam then make sure your FW or Defender are not blocking the app from accessing the servers. If nothing helps ping me up on Discord, invite is in the main menu bottom left.
Regarding the config editing - the answer is yes, but make sure you read the "Advanced Users" remark on the News screen of the software. Alternatively you can use "Assign pictures manually" mode from the generation wizard.
I have a couple of questions I was hoping to get help with:
Is it possible to include non-clickable staff, like journalists and personal assistants, in the logic and generate images for them too?
If I edit the config file to link a specific image to a specific player, and then later update it using preserve, will it keep my edits?
But as you say it only affects loading. You might try to experiment with skin caching if it speeds things up.