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

[MidnightOpal 34]

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 34]

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 34]

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 10]

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 16]

Thankyou for the hardwork, nice skin!

[ikz 0]

is it possible to switch from the white to black load up screen?

[fidofidder 0]

Phenomenal skin, exactly what I'd been looking for.

On 5/1/2024 at 6:10 AM, ikz said:

is it possible to switch from the white to black load up screen?

You just need to enable Alternative Splash Screen in the settings, and it'll use the black screen.

[caio1007 0]

Is it possible to insert an avatar into your theme? And with this link pattern? thanks.

 

 

[ZombeeRitual 0]

This is the best skin so far. I changed my boot animation to a remastered version of the original Xbox boot animation, and it goes so well with this skin. I hope you can figure out how to eventually add the scrolling sounds to the skin, that would be sweet.

[wesamorim 0]

On 1/16/2024 at 4:13 AM, MidnightOpal said:

Algumas ótimas notícias!

Eu finalmente consegui dar um polimento nessa skin, então se você estava morrendo de vontade de usá-la, mas foi desencorajado pelo estado WIP Alpha em que ela foi lançada, agora você pode sem muitos problemas! Ela foi costurada com a skin verde do 69davimz porque tem menus de cor verde, mas combina muito bem com essa skin.

A grande atualização é que o fundo do painel por trás dos jogos e aplicativos finalmente se move e, na maior parte, faz um loop perfeito!
Não foi uma tarefa fácil, pois o processo para fazer isso acontecer envolveu adicionar tediosamente os novos quadros individualmente e verificá-los para garantir que suas posições correspondessem, juntamente com a configuração do modo de tamanho para Stretch e certos quadros tendo sua opacidade definida como 0 ou 1. Felizmente, a skin verde que mencionei antes estabeleceu a base para fazer isso, então segui o padrão deles para fazer a sequência.

Deixe-me dar algumas ideias de quanto teve que ser feito para fazer o fundo parecer convincente:
- Quantos quadros há exatamente? 229 arquivos PNG individuais, em comparação com 75 da skin verde.
- Quantos quadros-chave no XuiTool após os retoques finais? 462 deles.
- Qual foi a duração do videoclipe original que extraí via FFMPEG para obter esses 229 quadros? 10 segundos.
- Tamanho dos quadros, já que essa skin provavelmente será vista em uma tela de 1080P? 480 x 270, o mesmo tamanho da skin verde.

A essa altura, acho que podemos entender por que eles usaram um vídeo VJ em loop como sua escolha de plano de fundo e talvez por que a resolução de 640 x 480 funcionou quando sobrescrevi os arquivos originais de 75 quadros, mas não funcionou bem com 229 quadros. Embora o resultado final não seja de forma alguma perfeito, pois provavelmente há uma parte da sequência que eu posso ter perdido ou a qualidade da animação sendo sacrificada pelo número de quadros, é bom o suficiente para ainda permitir que você evoque aquela nostalgia do Xbox OG ao usar esta skin no seu 360 e escolher o próximo jogo Xbox Classic para jogar ou qualquer outra coisa que lhe agrade.

Também modifiquei a tela inicial novamente usando o logotipo do Xbox original no lugar do beta e ajustando as barras de carregamento novamente para que se movessem mais suavemente. Eu diria que, no que diz respeito às telas de carregamento, é o mais convincente possível. Optei por não usar efeitos sonoros personalizados porque os sons que procurei para o Xbox original não eram bons o suficiente, pois não apenas combinavam com a tela de carregamento, mas também não irritavam depois de ouvi-los muitas vezes. À esquerda está a Tela inicial alternativa desabilitada , à direita está a Tela inicial alternativa habilitada .

Ainda há mais trabalho a ser feito, como tornar a GUI mais parecida com o Xbox clássico em vez do Xbone usando sua skin e possivelmente adicionar mais SFXs personalizados, como os sons de movimento. Não parece provável no momento que fontes personalizadas possam ser feitas, pois abrir coisas como segoeui_r.ttf no meu PC faz com que meu próprio Windows me diga que não são um arquivo de fonte válido, mas talvez no futuro eu encontre outra skin que as use ou alguma documentação dela seja feita/encontrada, pois as fontes com aparência Y2K também são o que tornou o OG tão amado em sua estética.

Dito isso, atualizei o primeiro post do tópico com a nova versão disponível. Vá baixá-lo lá e comemore que o Duke retornou!

Se você também gostaria de usar esta skin como um modelo para seus próprios frames, dada a quantidade enorme deles e keyframes colocados, você é mais do que bem-vindo.
Quanto a um tutorial que mencionei anteriormente sobre como fazer um para papéis de parede animados, ele está um pouco incompleto, pois mais testes precisam ser feitos em relação à quantidade variada de frames e seus tamanhos. Vou postar este comando que usei para FFMPEG para que você possa ajustá-lo para o que funcionar com você.

 Você também pode fazer isso no Mac ou Linux se não estiver no Windows, mas ainda precisará estar lá para colocá-los todos juntos em sequência no programa XuiTool se alterações tiverem que ser feitas.
 
Eu também uso o Bulk Rename Utility (Windows) para que os números dos quadros pareçam mais adequados. Destaque os quadros 001-099 e simplesmente coloque 0 em Replace (3) e habilite First ou então você terá uma bagunça desorganizada em suas mãos. Então faça o processo novamente com 01-09 . Você pode então sobrescrever os quadros na pasta VideoLayer com os seus e então compilar sua própria skin com eles depois de terminar de fazer seus próprios toques.

Agradecimentos especiais a 69davimz pela skin verde e pelo trabalho de base definido nas animações de quadros.

Nice

[cogray86 0]

What happened to the file? Can't be downloaded now.

Edited August 25, 2024 by cogray86
Nevermind... I wasn't signed in....

[tarokid 0]

can you upload version 1 of this theme with the static background i want to put my own background however it seems the new version is hardcoded for an animated one and i cant replace it i even changed the background in the files and in the videolayer folder

[xalfie 0]

this theme is so far one of the best. Good job !

[freeday23 0]

I really like this skin – it truly brings me back! It gave me that nostalgic feeling I haven’t felt in a long time, and for that alone, thank you. You’ve done a great job recreating the classic Xbox vibe.

However, the skin does have a few issues I noticed during testing:

• The background sound sometimes disappears, and I have to restart Aurora to make it come back.

• Some of the game cover images show up, but many remain blank or don’t display at all.

Just thought I’d point that out in case it helps with future improvements. Still, I’m really impressed by what you've built so far. Looking forward to updates – and thanks again for sharing this with the community!