UnleashedX Skin Creation

[KpCollins]

Looking to create some skins for Unleashed X. I've download UX Architect, I've also downloaded UnleashX_Toolbox_A5 which I think are the same thing.

 

I cannot get it to run, Windows 10 Says it needs Net Framework 1.1.4332 and Windows XP in VMWare says the same thing. Windows 10 Will install the framework but no change, Windows XP will not. Acquiring 7 at the moment

 

Could anyone help me on this? I'll figure the software out but struggling with getting it running. Any Alternatives/Methods? I can write the XML File instead right?

[HDShadow]

I've long ago given up even trying to use the specific UX skin making tools. I had UX Architect running on a WinXP laptop and it seemed to me clunky and far from intuitive.

The way I've created UX skins virtually from scratch is by using an existing skin as a base template. That's how my mostly original skins started: improving an existing one that had flaws that needed fixing or features I like missing eg. previews. It builds up from there until, eventually you end up with something better and, as said, mostly original.

About the only thing I don't do is bother with the UX music player even though that can be skinned too. Its great for playing background music but badly flawed as a music manager and IMHO not worth the effort.   

UnleashX's own PDF manual is recommended reading as it does cover skin creation, particularly ones just made using the skinning engine ie. no imported images. But even that does not cover all the sources/syntax supported. For instance there is no mention of "zindex" which is the code for layers, practically essential for any sophisticated UX skin construction.

Where do find that sort of information? Other skins; where they are more than just a random background picture and a default skin.xml they're your most useful teaching aid for building your own UX skin.

 

[KpCollins]

On 7/23/2021 at 2:24 AM, HDShadow said:

I've long ago given up even trying to use the specific UX skin making tools. I had UX Architect running on a WinXP laptop and it seemed to me clunky and far from intuitive.

The way I've created UX skins virtually from scratch is by using an existing skin as a base template. That's how my mostly original skins started: improving an existing one that had flaws that needed fixing or features I like missing eg. previews. It builds up from there until, eventually you end up with something better and, as said, mostly original.

About the only thing I don't do is bother with the UX music player even though that can be skinned too. Its great for playing background music but badly flawed as a music manager and IMHO not worth the effort.   

UnleashX's own PDF manual is recommended reading as it does cover skin creation, particularly ones just made using the skinning engine ie. no imported images. But even that does not cover all the sources/syntax supported. For instance there is no mention of "zindex" which is the code for layers, practically essential for any sophisticated UX skin construction.

Where do find that sort of information? Other skins; where they are more than just a random background picture and a default skin.xml they're your most useful teaching aid for building your own UX skin.

 

Thats fair enough, I am confident i'll be able to rip another skin to pieces and figure it out from there. infact I was just looking at that just before I checked here

 

Thanks

[Bowlsnapper]

On 7/22/2021 at 6:24 PM, HDShadow said:

I've long ago given up even trying to use the specific UX skin making tools. I had UX Architect running on a WinXP laptop and it seemed to me clunky and far from intuitive.

The way I've created UX skins virtually from scratch is by using an existing skin as a base template. That's how my mostly original skins started: improving an existing one that had flaws that needed fixing or features I like missing eg. previews. It builds up from there until, eventually you end up with something better and, as said, mostly original.

About the only thing I don't do is bother with the UX music player even though that can be skinned too. Its great for playing background music but badly flawed as a music manager and IMHO not worth the effort.   

UnleashX's own PDF manual is recommended reading as it does cover skin creation, particularly ones just made using the skinning engine ie. no imported images. But even that does not cover all the sources/syntax supported. For instance there is no mention of "zindex" which is the code for layers, practically essential for any sophisticated UX skin construction.

Where do find that sort of information? Other skins; where they are more than just a random background picture and a default skin.xml they're your most useful teaching aid for building your own UX skin.

 

Shadow, is this still how you like to do things? Starting with a template? I was looking for a bit of info about creating thumbnails/preview/videos. The term "Layering" makes sense when looking at advanced skins that I have seen.

[HDShadow]

Yes, pretty much.

TBH because my primary chipped Xbox v1.6 is waiting for me to pluck up the courage to replace the failed Xecuter chip with a Xenium I bought months ago I haven't done any Xbox UnleashX skin editing recently.

As said the layering capability isn't in the UnleashX manual and I only discovered it when I started examining and using existing UnleashX skin.xmls for my own skin templates. I asked, I think on the Xbox Scene forum, what "zindex" meant and somebody there explained.

Over the years I passed on that info on several other forums when UnleashX skinning matters came up. I may not be remembering this 100% correctly but I'm pretty sure that at least one now well known Xbox expert posted that up until then they were not aware about this UnleashX facility.  

But, as I said earlier here, for anything more than the use of just a replacement background imported image layering is an important tool. With any graphics program understanding how to use layering is pretty much essential and it is used in UnleashX in exactly the same sort of way for doing things like putting frames around a game preview or including permanent text or graphical elements.

One thing to remember is that by default everything, including game previews, are in the 1st layer over the primary background image. AFAIK there is no syntax to change that for game previews. That is why you'll likely need to create any image layers above it with a cut out window so that the preview is not hidden.

Also when you add a layer the 'Source' text elements like time/date, available drive space, temperature, game title etc etc are by default also all in the 1st layer too. But in those cases you can shift them up a layer or layers over the image you've added by using the a "zindex" entry for each 'Source' being used in the skin.xml.

Many UnleashX skins do not include X and Y scaling information in each 'Source' entry which is why with those skins you can get weird things happening to the text when you change the resolution. It is a boring job to do but one useful consequence is that you have a text size altering tool for each 'Source' which does not rely on you having the appropriate font in the required size.

For instance with one skin I edited it included an overlay with a small designated box for the Xbox's 'Nickname'. Problem is that it was not designed for anything longer than six letters in the primary font size used. I didn't want to change the font size for all the other text but by adding reduced percentage X and Y scaling info to the 'Source' 'Nickname' entry it solved the problem.    

[Rocky5]

Here is the unleashx pdf. It’s outdated if you use the newer versions of unleashx.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzRN8P835YijU1lTdVd2d2NReWc/view?usp=drivesdk&resourcekey=0-YKdysB6yI71DNDvgkzkTqw

If you want to see how things are done you can check my GitHub for the Xbox softmodding tool, all the stuff I found in in there & I used a lot of the newer features of UX.

[Bowlsnapper]

On 6/27/2024 at 7:14 PM, HDShadow said:

Yes, pretty much.

TBH because my primary chipped Xbox v1.6 is waiting for me to pluck up the courage to replace the failed Xecuter chip with a Xenium I bought months ago I haven't done any Xbox UnleashX skin editing recently.

As said the layering capability isn't in the UnleashX manual and I only discovered it when I started examining and using existing UnleashX skin.xmls for my own skin templates. I asked, I think on the Xbox Scene forum, what "zindex" meant and somebody there explained.

Over the years I passed on that info on several other forums when UnleashX skinning matters came up. I may not be remembering this 100% correctly but I'm pretty sure that at least one now well known Xbox expert posted that up until then they were not aware about this UnleashX facility.  

But, as I said earlier here, for anything more than the use of just a replacement background imported image layering is an important tool. With any graphics program understanding how to use layering is pretty much essential and it is used in UnleashX in exactly the same sort of way for doing things like putting frames around a game preview or including permanent text or graphical elements.

One thing to remember is that by default everything, including game previews, are in the 1st layer over the primary background image. AFAIK there is no syntax to change that for game previews. That is why you'll likely need to create any image layers above it with a cut out window so that the preview is not hidden.

Also when you add a layer the 'Source' text elements like time/date, available drive space, temperature, game title etc etc are by default also all in the 1st layer too. But in those cases you can shift them up a layer or layers over the image you've added by using the a "zindex" entry for each 'Source' being used in the skin.xml.

Many UnleashX skins do not include X and Y scaling information in each 'Source' entry which is why with those skins you can get weird things happening to the text when you change the resolution. It is a boring job to do but one useful consequence is that you have a text size altering tool for each 'Source' which does not rely on you having the appropriate font in the required size.

For instance with one skin I edited it included an overlay with a small designated box for the Xbox's 'Nickname'. Problem is that it was not designed for anything longer than six letters in the primary font size used. I didn't want to change the font size for all the other text but by adding reduced percentage X and Y scaling info to the 'Source' 'Nickname' entry it solved the problem.    

Thank you for the tips. That's pretty helpful!

Would you happen to know the best way to create the preview pics (Icons) and WMVs, or do you just kinda have to know what the parameters are and get used to it?

On 6/28/2024 at 6:46 AM, Rocky5 said:

Here is the unleashx pdf. It’s outdated if you use the newer versions of unleashx.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzRN8P835YijU1lTdVd2d2NReWc/view?usp=drivesdk&resourcekey=0-YKdysB6yI71DNDvgkzkTqw

If you want to see how things are done you can check my GitHub for the Xbox softmodding tool, all the stuff I found in in there & I used a lot of the newer features of UX.

I did see the PDF and it is missing a couple things (can't remember what they are off the top of my head) but some skinning appears to be covered in it. I'll check out the softmodding tool

[HDShadow]

I use 256x256 icons for UnleashX and XBMC thumbnails. Particularly because UnleashX has some upper limit icon cache issues I keep the 256x256 icons as small as possible, ideally below 50KB. So generally I swap between JPGs and 'optomised' PNGs, whichever creates the smallest file size but doesn't compromise the PQ.

You can get them very small if you reduce the colour bit depth setting but below 24-bit unless you're using the colour in monotone blocks it can look pretty ugly.

For game save icons with UnleashX you need a .XBX conversion tool. There are only two I know and one of them is pretty poor, just creating lousy PQ 128x128. The other, whose name I can't remember either, is better and creates .XBX image files of any size. That can be a good or bad thing.

I'll have to check in my Xbox tool archive for more information on that but I know it wasn't that easy to find the last time I wanted to download it.

BTW TitleImage.xbx and SaveImage.xbx can be the same/any size but it is still a good idea to minimise the file size where possible. There is also a minor problem with some games that overwrite the SaveImage.xbx each time they are saved in a different slot. You may just have to accept the poor PQ embedded .XBX being used.

TBH I rarely use the XBMX Game Saves Manager; it is a law unto itself where the Game Save Manager icons it uses come from. XBMC can't display .XBX image files which makes managing then on XBMC a pain so I simply don't bother.    

[HDShadow]

XBXTools is the program is the name of the better XBX image creation tool.

It only works with DDS (Direct Draw Surface type B4G4R4A4 aka: Linear, A4R4G4B4) originals so you have to convert your JPG, PNG or whatever to that first. It has some quirky wierdness.

When you use the "Build XBX" option if the result is an incomprehensible error message then try these 'solutions: XBXTools may need to be used as admin and works best if everything is done on the desktop or at least a single level folder. There are some file naming issues too. Keep the latter short and one word and the same as the DDS.  

To top it all once the XBX file is created you cannot actually view it on PC (at least not with any graphics software I know) so it is a good idea to pair it in a folder with the DDS file you created it from so you can identify it. As DDS files are not supported by the Xbox adding the original JPG, PNG or whatever to the same folder or using it instead of the DDS makes sense too.

The only place I know where you can find a download for XBXTools 0.1.0.0 is XboxHQ and it might just be a VIP only one too.

Don't confuse it with XBX Image Converter v3.0, also available there. That is the one which produces nasty quality 128x128 ones. That program will need to be installed on PC unlike XBXTools which is a standalone. I also seem to remember that some installs of the XBX Image Converter v3.0 are prevented because of a faulty file and whether the program works with Windows 10/11 I have no idea.