Introducing SimpleX, a simple UnleashX skin.

[si_kabayan]

After reading the UnleashX manual, I thought why not learn to create a skin?

And here it is; introducing SimpleX, a simple UnleashX skin.

This skin was created with CRT TV in mind, and not yet tried on LCD TV so don't know how the results.

Just clone its repo or download from its release page.

 

EDIT:

The Skin folder can be directly dropped into UnleashX's Skins folder.

But, the Config.xml need a bit of editing as it's uses E:\Applications and E:\Dashboards as its paths.

Adjust it to your ogxbox paths, which is usually E:\Apps and E:\Dash. A simple find and replace will do.

 

SimpleX_Applications_Dashboards.7z SimpleX_Apps_Dash.7z

Edited January 6, 2023 by si_kabayan

[amak79]

I will try it. Thanks.

3 hours ago, si_kabayan said:

But, the Config.xml need a bit of editing as it's uses E:\Applications and E:\Dashboards as its paths.

Adjust it to your ogxbox paths, which is usually E:\Apps and E:\Dash. A simple find and replace will do.

Couldn't you add additional <Path> elements for applications and dashboards so you don't need to release two versions?

<List Text="Applications" Sort="On" DelayLoad="True">
  <Path>E:\Apps</Path>
  <Path>F:\Apps</Path>
  <Path>G:\Apps</Path>
  <Path>E:\Applications</Path>
  <Path>F:\Applications</Path>
  <Path>G:\Applications</Path>
</List>

 

Edited January 6, 2023 by amak79

[KaosEngineer]

A skin doesn't modify UnleashX's config.xml file. It only sets how the information displayed by the dashboard looks to the user.  

 

It is up to the user to edit config.xml to set what directories are used to populate the menus and which items and their order are to be included in the menu.

[si_kabayan]

3 hours ago, amak79 said:

I will try it. Thanks.

Couldn't you add additional <Path> elements for applications and dashboards so you don't need to release two versions?

<List Text="Applications" Sort="On" DelayLoad="True">
  <Path>E:\Apps</Path>
  <Path>F:\Apps</Path>
  <Path>G:\Apps</Path>
  <Path>E:\Applications</Path>
  <Path>F:\Applications</Path>
  <Path>G:\Applications</Path>
</List>

 

It has a menu to reset UnleashX configuration by extract an archive contains default config and skin. Need an exact full path for this.

Edited January 7, 2023 by si_kabayan

[amak79]

57 minutes ago, KaosEngineer said:

A skin doesn't modify UnleashX's config.xml file. It only sets how the information displayed by the dashboard looks to the user.  

 

It is up to the user to edit config.xml to set what directories are used to populate the menus and which items and their order are to be included in the menu.

I understand that but the skin archive provides an Unleash Config.xml file when it really shouldn't. But since it does I thought it could be adapted so there doesn't need to be two versions.

Edited January 7, 2023 by amak79

[HDShadow]

The skin.xml is only able to modify things like how many main menu items are displayed at a time, text colour, text background, whether they rotate and, most importantly the positioning.

The actual main menu names, as KE ^^^ says, are all determined by the Config.xml not the skin.xml. However you can introduce additional text information as part of the Source skin.xml entries and/or, of course, graphics overlays.

Your skin can be used by any UnleashX user as is, they don't need to mess around with or replace their Config.xml. It just won't display exactly as in your demo because not all the items in the menu will be available, their customised names or in the same order.

There's nothing wrong with that modfied Config.xml with its inclusion of additional menu options and names it is just you don't need to use it.

Good work, I like the skin, particularly its relative simplicity.

If it was me I'd find a better way of displaying things like app icons rather than stretching them vertically just to fit the Xbox case dimensions.  I always use square icons as they work with all dashboards and if you want them to fit in a rectangular border it is simple just to add top and bottom borders or extensions to fill the rectangular space.       

Edited January 7, 2023 by HDShadow

[si_kabayan]

v0.2: Added Grid and SMPTE Color Bars skins to test or calibrate CRT's colors or geometry.

 

[yonato]

Great skin. I've been playing around a bit with it. Do you also have issues with the Xbox running out of memory while scrolling through the list of games?

[HDShadow]

That sort of problem seems to affect UnleashX particularly; it could be something else but the trouble is usually caused by some unwritten maximum total icon file size cache limit. It seems to kick in between 900MB  - 100MB total. Roughly about 200 <50KB icons and what happens is not just that icons do not display, the menu items themselves go missing from the menus.

So if you have installed a lot of games, emulators and apps and/or they have a lot of large custom sized icons that could be what you're experiencing. 

This is why I've always kept my custom icon size down to 256x256 and used various other 'tricks' to reduce the icon file size to <50KB.

That might mean using JPG rather than PNG but with PNG you can 'optimise' it using graphics programs settings to reduce the file size eg. using 8 bit palette only rather than standard 24 bit R G B sometimes making the file smaller than a JPG.  

[yonato]

Hmm, I see. I was using rather "high resolution" jpegs of about 80 KB each. Although total game count is less than 100. I guess I could try compressing images further, but if I want to eventually have 300+ games on it, I don't know how it's going to behave or if that's a viable path.

[HDShadow]

You could test the theory of that being the problem by temporarily removing 25 to 30 of the largest file size icons you've installed and seeing if doing that reduces the effect you're seeing. It is less work than uninstalling them all, reducing their size and reinstalling them and, as said, it could be something else.

I remember doing a new softmod a few years ago (UnleashX dash install) and being surprised just how 'zippy' navigating through the UnleashX menus was using this new uncluttered HDD compared to my primary Xbox. That has about sixty games, a couple of dozen apps, and I'd guess a total of at least fifty emulators and homebrew games plus CD music rips installed, most with my own custom (<50KB) icons.  

[yonato]

Sounds like a good idea. I'm considering whether to go with UnleashX or UIX Ultra LIte once I get my modchip installed and have Cerbios up and running.

[si_kabayan]

On 2/8/2024 at 5:24 PM, yonato said:

Great skin. I've been playing around a bit with it. Do you also have issues with the Xbox running out of memory while scrolling through the list of games?

Yep, it's known issue with UnleashX.
I'm using covers from Rocky5's Xbos Artwork Installer (Xbox Artwork Installer/System/scripts/Artwork/NTSC/GAME_TITLE/_resources/artwork/poster.jpg) which quite small, but the bug still there.

Games cover: https://mega.nz/file/MFQ1FQRS#4UuPVZfqLfjWqJ4iRATFyhfhNwYcsjxh2nG9tGJnJiE

Edited April 11, 2024 by si_kabayan
Add link to games cover.