[Skin] Original Xbox theme for Aurora v0.7b.2

[MidnightOpal 16]

Here's a skin for Aurora that I'm surprised hasn't ever been requested, especially given the Xbox 360's backwards compatibility with Xbox Classic games.
Further improvements will be looked into towards the foreseeable future.

Collaborations are welcome!

Current version: v1.1

Previews

 

Recommended cover layouts to use for your enjoyment with this skin:
* Ribbon

* Stand Up

What's included:
- Looping Ambience BGM (It's not random like the OG Xbox so you'll hear the same BGM on loop every 5 minutes, but it should be unnoticeable enough to not ruin the immersion.)

- Animated & looping background
- Custom SFX (Currently has a few SFX for basic button presses & game transitions. Special thanks to jveda & their AuroraNXE skin for the sound references)
- Custom wallpapers (Based off the colors from UnleashX, put them in your Backgrounds folder at Xbox360\System\**Wherever Aurora is**\User\Backgrounds & choose from one of them in the Background option from the B button menu. They will not display on this particular theme but it's a trade-off.)
- Windows XP style Aurora boot screen tweaked by me  (IMO, it meshes very nicely with the skin as a startup.)

To-Do List:
* Replace the static wallpaper with video background (Animated frames can be done but I don't seem to have good luck with them as they always seem to crash at some point. These two skins made by @TRK_UNIT suggest that video backgrounds are possible to implement) Done!
* Try to add more sounds to make it more authentic
* Modify the UI to make it feel more like the OG Xbox such as the fonts & color scheme

* Fix any issue or bugs present in the theme (Currently Animations are not working & accessing it will bring up the corrupted background texture )

Click on the attached file below to download it.

 

Original Xbox theme v1.1 for Aurora v0.7b.2.zip

[MidnightOpal 16]

Some good news.

Looks like it's actually doable to have an animated wallpaper for Aurora, as this Green skin made by 69davimz  shows it can happen. I tested it myself & it plays nice on the Xbox 360 as opposed to my other WIP builds which either give me a black screen after the splash screen goes away or it loads Aurora but the console freezes or crashes.

When comparing the differences between my skin & the Green one, I saw a size difference in our animated frames. Mine was 1280 x 720 while the other skin is 480 x 270 which wouldn't be noticed in the Aurora program due to being scaled to fit at full screen, it's only when looking internally that the small size is seen. I also noticed they have more frames (75) in sequence.

So I don't believe the number of frames are a cause of problems as I had less of them (51 via the Xbox 360 Toolset program) than the Green skin. It remains to be seen if a certain number of them will actually crash Aurora, but for now it looks like the 360 can handle 75 frames on repeat in the background.

Regarding the size of frames, I already mentioned how it plays nice with 480 x 270. However, I thought it could be a little bigger so I replaced the frames in the green skin with mine at 640 x 480 resolution & then compiled the Green skin again to test it with my modifications. Once Aurora loaded with that modified skin chosen, the background moved in motion and looped on repeat! With no crashes or hiccups! The only trade-off seems to be that Aurora's own animation effects will not work. It could just be the result of how the skin was originally made, but at the very least there's no corrupted menu when configuring it.

The increase in frame resolution at 640 x 480 works nice enough with the console to not crash it! I'll have to test it again sometime & see if 1280 x 720 really is just too much to handle.

Open these images in new tabs & look at them back & forth. You can see it as proof that animated backgrounds can be done. Once I find out which XUR file & the parts in them that have the frames go in sequence to make an animated background, I'll create an easy to follow tutorial much like I did with custom BGMs.

No updated release yet to throw in, but know that progress is being made & one item on the To-Do list may be scratched off (or two if I'm lucky!)

[MidnightOpal 16]

Some very great news!

I have managed to finally put some polish into this skin so if you've been dying to use it but were put off by the WIP Alpha state it was released in, now you can without much trouble! It has been stitched up with 69davimz's green skin cause it has green colored menus, but it goes very well with this skin.

The big update is that the dashboard background behind the games & applications finally moves and, for the most part, seamlessly loops!
It was not an easy feat as the process for making it happen involved tediously adding the new frames individually & checking them to make sure that their positions matched along with setting their size mode to Stretch & certain frames having their opacity set to 0 or 1. Thankfully the green skin I mentioned earlier set the groundwork on getting it done so I followed their pattern to make the sequence.

Let me give you some ideas of how much had to be done to make the background look convincing:
- How many frames are there exactly? 229 individual PNG files, compared to 75 from the green skin.
- How many keyframes on XuiTool after the finishing touches? 462 of them.
- How long was the original video clip I extracted from via FFMPEG to get those 229 frames? 10 seconds.
- Size of the frames since this skin will likely be seen on a 1080P screen? 480 x 270, the same size as the green skin's.

By this point I think we may understand why they used a looping VJ video as their choice of background & perhaps why the 640 x 480 resolution worked when I overwrote the original 75 frame files but did not work well with 229 frames. While the end result is by no means perfect as there's likely one part of the sequence I might've missed or the animation quality being sacrificed for the number of frames, it is good enough to still let you evoke that nostalgia of the OG Xbox when using this skin on your 360 & picking the next Xbox Classic game to play or whatever else catches your fancy.

I've also modified the splash screen again by using the OG Xbox logo in place of the beta one & tweaking the loading bars again so that they moved more smoothly. I'd say as far as loading screens go it's about as convincing as it can get. I opted out of custom SFX because the sounds I searched for the OG Xbox weren't good enough in that they not only blend with the loading screen, but also wouldn't get on the nerves after hearing them many times. Left is Alternative Splash Screen disabled, Right is Alternative Splash Screen enabled.

There's still more work to be done like making the GUI more like the classic Xbox instead of the Xbone wearing its skin & possibly adding more custom SFXs like the movement sounds. It does not seem likely at the moment that custom fonts can be done as opening the likes of segoeui_r.ttf on my PC makes my own Windows let me know they're not a valid font file, but perhaps in the future I will find another skin that uses them or some documentation of it is made/found as the Y2K-looking fonts are also what made the OG so beloved in its aesthetic.

All of that being said, I have updated the first post of the thread with the new version available. Go download it there & rejoice that the Duke has returned!

If you would also like to use this skin as a template for your own frames given the massive amount of them & keyframes put in, you are more than welcome to.
As for a tutorial I mentioned earlier about making one for animated wallpapers, it's a bit incomplete as more testing needs to be done regarding the various amount of frames & their sizes. I'll post this command I used for FFMPEG that you can adjust it to whatever works with you.

Quote

ffmpeg -ss 00:00 -to 00:10 -i "YOUR_VIDEO_FILE" -vf scale=480x270 -r 24 %03d.png

 You can also do it on Mac or Linux if you're not on Windows, but you're still gonna need to be on there to put them all together in sequence to the XuiTool program if changes have to be made.
 
I also use the Bulk Rename Utility (Windows) so that the frame numbers look more proper. Highlight frames 001-099 & simply put in 0 at Replace (3) & enable First or else you're gonna have an unsorted mess on your hands. Then do the process again with 01-09. You can then overwrite the frames in the VideoLayer folder with yours & then compile your own skin with them after you finished making your own touches.

Special thanks to 69davimz for their green skin & the groundwork set on frame animations.

[xboxgamer26 0]

good skin!

 

[golephish 0]

THANK YOU this is exactly what I wanted. I am not sure how to change the backgrounds as when  I include them in the aura folder they don't show up. the icons are great, that XP style loading screen, this is a great theme with sound!

[TRK_UNIT 5]

On 1/13/2024 at 4:12 AM, MidnightOpal said:

Here's a skin for Aurora that I'm surprised hasn't ever been requested, especially given the Xbox 360's backwards compatibility with Xbox Classic games.
Further improvements will be looked into towards the foreseeable future.

Collaborations are welcome!

Current version: v1.1

Previews

 

Recommended cover layouts to use for your enjoyment with this skin:
* Ribbon

* Stand Up

What's included:
- Looping Ambience BGM (It's not random like the OG Xbox so you'll hear the same BGM on loop every 5 minutes, but it should be unnoticeable enough to not ruin the immersion.)

- Animated & looping background
- Custom SFX (Currently has a few SFX for basic button presses & game transitions. Special thanks to jveda & their AuroraNXE skin for the sound references)
- Custom wallpapers (Based off the colors from UnleashX, put them in your Backgrounds folder at Xbox360\System\**Wherever Aurora is**\User\Backgrounds & choose from one of them in the Background option from the B button menu. They will not display on this particular theme but it's a trade-off.)
- Windows XP style Aurora boot screen tweaked by me  (IMO, it meshes very nicely with the skin as a startup.)

To-Do List:
* Replace the static wallpaper with video background (Animated frames can be done but I don't seem to have good luck with them as they always seem to crash at some point. These two skins made by @TRK_UNIT suggest that video backgrounds are possible to implement) Done!
* Try to add more sounds to make it more authentic
* Modify the UI to make it feel more like the OG Xbox such as the fonts & color scheme

* Fix any issue or bugs present in the theme (Currently Animations are not working & accessing it will bring up the corrupted background texture )

Click on the attached file below to download it.

 

Original Xbox theme v1.1 for Aurora v0.7b.2.zip 82.07 MB · 297 downloads

Ah yes I said to myself that this skin told me something and as for the video yes it's possible but very very very very buggy but not sure am there it's on another skin that I made

[Xian07 15]

Thankyou for the hardwork, nice skin!