HOW-TO create/make a skin for XBMC

i know there has been an xbmc skin editor in the works. but currently that project is put on ice and has been so for a couple of months. so i wouldn't count on anything usable from that project during the next six months or so. and to release an editor now wouldn't be fair to previous skin competition contestants. right?

this is the document that got me started on skinning
http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs....rev=1.3

you don't need to create textrues.xpr, you can just put your images into the media directory.

and like everyone has been saying, download an existing skin and look at what's it's doing.

i used xbox media exprerience to learn.

xbmc isn't hard to skin, but it takes a pretty long time.

if you plan on releasing your skin you should build a textures.xpr for the zip/rar you distro. for testing it's usually quicker to use the images directly.

hi, i really like to try and create my own skin.

i've looked at the xml files and structure and downloaded a couple of xml readers, but i can't see how you go about actually writing a page. do you really have to write it all or are there programs that will let you drag and drop images etc.

also how do i view an existing skin on my pc whenever i open an xml file i just get the text.

can someone please help because this is driving me crazy.

hi robomonkey,

great - the more skinners the better.

currently, the skinning process is as you assume - you write the xml files and produce the images. there is no way (currently) of viewing the skin on the pc, so it is a slow process at first (until you get used to the system when it gets a lot faster).

there has been rumours about skinning apps, but none have yet to materialise.

i suggest you grab the default skin (project mayhem) and work on changing things (images, layout etc.) around to your liking.

cheers,
jonathan

ok ta, i shall try to persevere with it

hi!

how do people make these skins? i'm anxiously waiting to start making my own, but i'm still wondering which is the best way to get my hands dirty.

i dont seem to find any comprehensive skinning tool anywhere. this skin editor seems like a nice project but is still in it's early stages.

are there any tutorials for making a custom skin? i didnt find any.

or is the only way to go to start educating oneself from other people's skins?

thanks

ooops!  

right after posting the above, i found this thread which more or less answers my questions.

any further ideas or comments or most welcome however.

maybe a pinned thread introducing newbie-skinners the present situation would be in order?

thanks

looking through the forums and the web page of the xbmc project i found no help on how to make a skin for the xbmc.

all i got was to look through the project mayhem and self figure out how to do things.
i find this methode waste of time, is just like everybody should invent the wheel again just if they want to use it.

there must be description lying around at the xbmc guys, how the skin scripting should be configured and what they should contain, and which files should be made.
i don't thing the mayhem guys just figured out this by them self, what to include where and how.

i'm pretty sure this description exists, the program (xbmc) have to be programmed to read the skin files in certain manner, well!

so, why just publish this document. i'm not afraid to dig into the .xml files, with the doc. in my hand. i don't need fancy skin editor to work with, sure it would be nice, but not necessary.
in my daily i make programs that uses .xml and other setup files.

regards,
the iceman.

check skinning.txt in the xbmc homedir. this, along with the skin files in cvs, and the source code, is the only documentation we have.

basically, each window has it's own .xml file which is read in. each window has it's own id, described in guilib/key.h in the source code (see cvs). each control within a window will have a unique id as well, and these are described in the source code for that particular window (not a particularly good system, i know).

the xml files contain the descriptions of each control on that particular window. there is a global file (references.xml) that contains the default settings to use for each control, to save you having to fill in each and every tag for each control.

anything else you want to know?

basically, everyone (including chokeman who maintains the project mayhem skin) learnt by following the available skin files.

cheers,
jonathan