Change gfx in pm1/pm2 skin

[xb0xb0y]

i'd like to change a few of the graphics shown when you scroll down the home menu (and maybe some of the icons) and was wondering if it's possible, and if so how to do it, and if it's easy enough to do so.

i tried to search for info on that but didn't come up with anything useful using the keywords i thought were relevant. i did come across some posts on actually developing a whole new skin but i didn't want to get that technical.

if ppl could provide me links to info/posts, or even proper keywords that i could use in searching, it be greatly appreciated.

thanx!

[kraqh3d]

yes. just open up home.xml and take a look at the image references. by default xbmc will look for the file in the[skin-name]/media/textures.xpr file. so, if you change the filename to something new thats not in the textures.xpr file, it will look for the source image fille in the [skin-name]/media folder.

one thing you cannot change this way are the default images for various filetypes, folders, etc. the only way to change these are if you're not using a compressed skin (ie, no textures.xpr file, only alot of source image files.)

[xb0xb0y]

okay ... so i can change the images shown in the home page. and you're saying that i can't change the icons and folders in places like "my program", "my music" ... such as icons shown for "e drive", "network", "dvd drive"?

[kraqh3d]

yes and no.

xbmc looks for any file references first in the textures.xpr file. all images for a skin are defined somewhere in the xml skin files, with the exception of the default icon images. they are hardcoded filenames and cannot be changed by changing anything in the skin xml files.

so, you can change the default icons if, and only if, you have the complete source in the [skin-name]/media directory (and not just a textures.xpr file).

the list of hardcoded icon file names is in this thread:
http://www.xboxmediaplayer.de/cgi-bin....;t=9231 (http://www.xboxmediaplayer.de/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.pl?act=st;f=2;t=9231)

for the pm1 skin this is not a problem as the full source is available on cvs. im not 100% sure, but i believe pm2 is closed source as the last time i downloded the skin, it only included the textures.xpr file.

[xb0xb0y]

okay thanx ... i'll just try looking through the xml files for graphics i can change easily. i don't think i want to go and download all the uncompressed graphics at this point in time just to change a few icons. the main thing i wanted to change was the home graphics. and i think you're right about pm2, there's only source uncompressed graphcis for pm1.

one thing, do you know if there's a standard size for the graphics? or will they scale automatically? or will i have to manually scale by trial and error to equal the size they currently are at???

[kraqh3d]

everything, including images, are "controls" in the skin xml files. images can be any size, as xbmc will scale them to match the <height> and <width> tags for the control.

you may want to get your source images to be atleast the same height/width ratio so they dont look warped when they are scaled.

here's an example from home.xml

<control>
<type>image</type>
<id>103</id>
<posx>50</posx>
<posy>50</posy>
<height>500</height>
<width>650</width>
<texture>home-mymusic.png</texture>
</control>


type = image
id = 103 because it matches to id#3 in the control group
posx/posy define the x,y coordinate for the upper right corner of your image
height/width define the size
texture defines the image file to be used

take a look at skinning.txt for more information.

[xb0xb0y]

thanx kraqh3d ... appreciate the info.

i tried swapping out one of the images ... needless to say, i messed it up! :p

scaling was all wrong ... and it was stretched out of proportion!