You can start FM and pass it command line options to either override existing preferences or do some additional stuff. Please refer to the "HOWTO: Start the game with command line options" for detailed explanations of how to do this.
Command Line Options
--database_location=<folder>
This lets you specify a different location of the database used to start a new game than the one that was installed with the game. There is now no need to overwrite the database that came with the game when installing third party updates. There is a small limitation as to where you can put these third party updates at the moment: It must be in a folder on the same level as the save game folder, tactics folder and so on. In other words, by default on Windows, this will be in
C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2006\
In here you create a folder called "db", and in there you can create subfolders for each database collection, so for example:
C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2006\db\update1\
You would tell the game to use this database for creating new games by passing it the command line option:
--database_location=update1
You can use spaces in the folder, and if you do you need to enclose the folder in quotation marks:
--database_location="my update"
You can pass a single folder or a partial folder path (relative to <FM User Data>\db\):
IMPORTANT: You must use the forward slash (/) as path separator.
Mac: The location for this on the Mac would normally be ~/Documents/Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2006/db/ where "~" is your home folder.
Absolute paths (6.0.2 onwards only)
From Football Manager 2006 v6.0.2 (the second patch) onwards the --database_location command line option supports absolute paths. In order to use an absolute path, prefix the path you pass to the command line with a forward slash (remember the internal FM path separator is the Unix-style forward slash): "/", then the drive (on the Mac use the volume name) that contains the database you want to load.
So to use a database you have put in "C:\My Database\test update 1\", you use the command line option:
--database_location="/c:/my database/test update"
--user_data_location=<folder>
Note that this option is only supported in v6.0.2 onwards.
It works much like --database_location above, except it specifies what is the "base user data folder" for Football Manager. This "base user data folder" is where the game puts the subfolders with "games", "tactics" and so on - by default this is in "My Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2006". This command line option lets you redirect and override the location of this folder.
As mentioned it works much like --database_location except with one important difference: You must use an absolute path. In other words, it does not support relative paths.
To redirect the "base user data folder" to a folder you have created in C:\My FM Data\, pass the following command line option to the game:
--user_data_location="/c:/my fm data"
--external_ip=[0/1]
This lets you control whether or not the game will try to find your proper external IP. If you are behind a router of some sort then this must be on to display your correct internet address in the Game Status screen, otherwise it will only display you local address. It is not necessary to for the game to find the external IP, however, except for display purposes, so in case you have problems with running the game as a server (see the in-game Preferences) then you can try to turn off this external address lookup by passing FM the command line option:
--external_ip=0
This option is enabled by default.
--cpu_count=[N]
If for some reason you want to enable in-game threading even if you do not have a dual processor or hyper-threading enabled computer, you can do so by passing this command line option to FM.
--cpu_count=2
Will force FM to assume you have two processors even if you actually haven't.
--reset_preferences
This option clears all the in-game preferences (Windows: from the registry, Mac: from the disk) so that the game starts up as if it was being started for the first time. This means that unless you add command line options to regulate its fullscreen/windowed state it will start in full screen when you give it the --reset_preferences command line option.
--windowed
If you want to force the game to run in windowed mode then you pass it the --windowed command line option. If there is insufficient space available in windowed mode this will not work. A monitor that supports a maximum of 1024x768 will not have sufficient available desktop space for the game to run in the minimum required resolution of 1024x768 because the Windows taskbar takes up some space (as well as the FM window borders). In this case there is a workaround, see "--small_screen" below.
--small_screen
The minimum required and supported resolution to play FM is 1024x760. By todays standards this should be fine. However if you have an older monitor that only supports 800x600 you can force the game to accept this by passing:
--small_screen
On the command line. Otherwise the game will give you an error.
Another potential use for this is that if you want to run the game in windowed mode on a 1024x768 monitor you will also need to pass it the --small_screen command line option. The reason for this is that in windowed mode the actual available resolution is less than the minimum requirements of 1024x768 - the Windows taskbar takes up some, and the borders of the FM window also takes up some space. So to get FM running in windowed mode on a 1024x768 monitor you would need to pass:
--small_screen --windowed
--fullscreen
This is the inverse of "--windowed" and forces the game to start up in full screen.
--power_save=[0-10]
The game is reasonably clever when it comes to CPU usage, so that if it doesn't need to use CPU for any calculations it will only use the bare minimum to run. Such a situation is normally when you are not moving forward in the game world but browsing around looking for players or other teams.
Please note that there are situations the game will use as much CPU as it can even if you are not moving forward in time in the game world. If this is the case then there are matches being played in the background at the same time as you are browsing players, teams, etc.
The --power_save option to a certain extent lets you override the cpu usage:
--power_save=10
will tell the game that as much as possible it should always pause 10 ms between each cycle, in other words this means there will be 100 cycles per second. CPU usage on Windows in this scenario is generally 0-1%.
10 is the maximum value and the highest "power save" available.
0 is the minimum value and lowest value. 0 is basically "real time", meaning that the game will use as much CPU as it can possibly grab all the time.
The only real useful usage of this *might* be on laptops, but even that is probably arguable.
Please note that even if you specify a --power_save this does *not* mean that the game will never use a higher amount of CPU. All it means that generally it will try to use less than it probably would ask for normally.
IMPORTANT: Using --power_save may/will cause the game to run slower than it otherwise would, and may cause stuttering during matches.
--fullscreen_height=[N]
If you want to run in full screen on a "non-standard" resolution then you can use this option to specify what resolution you want to run. Use with care - if the resolution is incorrect or unsupported on your system the game will not start up properly.
--fullscreen_height=1050
Tells FM that the vertical resolution is 1050 pixels.
This option is particularly useful for running the game in fullscreen on wide screen monitors.
--fullscreen_width=[N]
If you want to run in full screen on a "non-standard" resolution then you can use this option to specify what resolution you want to run. Use with care - if the resolution is incorrect or unsupported on your system the game will not start up properly.
--fullscreen_width=1400
Tells FM that the vertical resolution is 1400 pixels.
This option is particularly useful for running the game in fullscreen on wide screen monitors.
--cache_skin=[0/1]
This is the sam as the in-game option "Use Skin Cache", and the "0" turns off the skin cache, telling the game to re-scan the resource files and folders every time it runs up. Might be useful to troubleshoot some systems where the game is having problems starting properly.
--skin=[skin name]
This is the same as the in-game option "Skin", and tells the game which skin to load. For example: "--skin=metallic2006" (without the quotes) tells the game to load the default FM06 skin Metallic 2006.
--play_sounds=[0/1]
Has the same functionality as the in-game "Play Sounds" option, and tells the game not play any sounds.
--small_ballls=[0/1]
This lets you specify if you want to use larger balls on the 2D match pitch. "Small balls" is what is used normally, so to override this to use larger balls specify "0".
--always_reload_skin=[0/1]
Note that this option is only supported in v6.0.2 onwards.
This command line option is mostly useful for people creating skins or other content for Football Manager. It is partly related to --cache_skin but isn't linked, so --always_reload_skin will not affect --cache_skin in any way - for any useful appliance of --always_reload_skin it needs to be used in conjunction with --cache_skin=0 so that the skin cache is turned off.
All "always reload skin" basically does is always reload the skin data when you go to the preferences screen and click "Confirm". Prior to v6.0.2 (FM05 as well FM06) when skin authors wanted to see a change they did be applied to the game they had to go to the preferences screen and change the skin to another skin, then change the skin back to the skin they were working on. Using --always_reload_skin reduces this to simply going to the preferences screen and clicking "Confirm".
