Hawk-Eye Volumetric Data Powers Football Manager’s Next-Gen Animations

• Football Manager 26 uses Hawk-Eye’s skeletal tracking data to create more realistic player movement based on real match footage.
• The game also shifts to the Unity engine, boosting animation quality and visual detail across all matches.

Sports Interactive is using skeletal tracking data from Hawk-Eye Innovations, a Sony Group company, to power lifelike animations in Football Manager 26. The data is captured by in-stadium cameras across several global football leagues.

“One of our guiding ambitions is creating the most realistic simulation of football possible. Working with Hawk-Eye is a big step closer to that. Hawk-Eye are at the cutting edge of sports technology and have been a pleasure to work with in the last couple of years. People appreciated the changes we made for FM24 but, by comparison, FM26 represents a significant step forward in the look and feel of matches in FM and we’re excited for people to experience it very soon,” said Miles Jacobson, Sports Interactive Studio Director, in a press release.

The skeletal data, captured from in-stadium cameras, is turned into animations that reflect how real players move. Sports Interactive blends this with its own motion capture to create more fluid and realistic behavior.

Alongside the tracking integration, Football Manager 26 also moves to the Unity engine for the first time. This move brings higher graphical detail and smoother visuals across both men’s and women’s matches. The game launches globally on November 4, 2025.

🌀 Tom’s Take:

Hawk-Eye is showing how powerful volumetric tracking can be. Its data can be used for improving performance and on-screen analysis as well as elevating simulations and gameplay.

Source: Hawk-Eye Innovations