Savefile Reading Guide

Download the picture pack

Download the main picture pack and unpack it inside your FM documents folder.

Install NG_Regens Manager 26v2

Grab the build for your OS. On Windows and Linux you just run the downloaded file — there is nothing to install. On Mac you will probably need to allow it through Gatekeeper the first time.

Initial Setup Wizard

1. Language & FM version

   The Initial Setup Wizard opens on first launch. Pick your language, theme and FM version. If you play FM24 and FM26 in parallel, choose one here and add the other later from Settings.

   

2. FM Documents folder

   Next, point the wizard at your FM Documents folder. It is usually detected for you; if not, pick it manually. It is the folder containing the editor data, filters, games and graphics subfolders.

   

3. Picture folder

   Now pick the NG_Regens picture folder. If you unpacked it to the suggested FM Documents folder/graphics/NG_Regens it is detected automatically. The wizard expects the folder named NG_Regens, with the ethnicity subfolders (Afroamerican, Afrocaribbean and the rest) directly inside it.

   

4. Migrate old profiles

   If you used an earlier version — the old 25 release, or 26 with memory reading — an optional screen offers to migrate your savegame profiles. It copies the profiles you select, so you can always go back.

   

5. Create a profile

   Setup is done, so go straight to assigning pictures. Click Generate in the left menu to open your savegame profiles. Each save needs its own profile to hold the data unique to it — one save, one profile — and you can keep as many as you like.

   You have none yet, so click Add profile at the bottom. Name it anything; naming it after the club you manage makes it easy to recognise later. Press Create.

   

6. Generate & Activate

   With the profile created, press Generate & Activate to produce the pictures. Football Manager does not need to be running, though it can be.

   

7. Generate Wizard

   The Generate Wizard opens. Choose Load from a save file to bring everything in automatically. You can use Assign pictures manually later to change individual portraits.

   

8. Load a savegame

   Click browse and pick the save you want to scan. Your savegame folder is usually detected; otherwise it is FM Documents folder/games. Wait for the save to load fully, then press Next.

   

9. Scan results

   The scan runs and shows you what it found. Click Next for the final step.

   

10. Generate config

    The software writes the configuration file that FM reads. A green confirmation means you are done and can close the wizard and the software. Reload your FM24 skin, or restart FM26.

    

11. Graphics settings

    If you previously used a bundle replacement method, set your FM Graphics settings back to the defaults shown below. If you have never used another newgen replacement, they are already correct.

    

12. Repeat each season

    Football Manager generates new players every season, so repeat this scan to give them faces too. There is nothing extra to configure on a repeat run: the software keeps the faces you already have and only assigns new ones to players it has not seen before.

Why some faces look wrong

If a newgen has an obviously wrong picture — a white face on an African player, a male portrait on a woman — the cause is almost always FM recycling a player ID.

An Italian newgen with ID 123456 appears at an Italian club, and generating the config gives him an Italian face. He goes unsigned, is released on a free and eventually retires. At the next youth intake a Nigerian newgen turns up somewhere with ID 123456. He is a completely different player, but ID 123456 is still mapped to that Italian picture, so he inherits the Italian face.