tutorial How to use XuiTool to mod/make Aurora themes.

[S0DA 6]

Required:

XZP Tool 

A method to extract and repackage themes http://dwl.xbox-scene.com/xbox360pc/skinners/XZP_Tool_v1.0.rar

XDK
Microsoft Xbox 360 SDK to edit (XBOX360 SDK 21256.3.exe is out there but I wont link it)

A theme to edit
default.xzp skin

XML Extensions
AuroraElements (XUI Extensions) - http://phoenix.xboxunity.net/downloads/AuroraElements (XUI Extensions).rar
 

Useful tools:

Xbox360 network access
xbdm.xex plugin

If you want to use the cover editor tool
CFEditDll.xex in Aurora/Plugins
 

 

This guide was mainly for myself on how to getting the basics working as the videos I watched had people who used notepad and gave no documentation, this isn't an advanced tutorial and is only on how to setup xuitool for editing themes.


Install the XDK (XBOX360 SDK 21256.3.exe)

once installed you will need to extract AuroraElements (XUI Extensions) into a workable location to be able to edit Aurora themes
I use C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Xbox 360 SDK\bin\win32

load up the Xbox UI Authoring Tool either via start menu or directly from C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Xbox 360 SDK\bin\win32\XuiTool.exe

now we need to load the AuroraElements.xml extensions so we have the ability to open & edit Aurora's theme cut files.

Open Xbox UI Authoring Tool

Click [Tools] > [Options...]

in the options window menu click the [General] tab
then under XML Extensions click the [Change...] button

in the XML Extensions window click [Add...] and navigate to where you extracted AuroraElements (XUI Extensions) to
in my example it's located in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Xbox 360 SDK\bin\win32\AuroraElements (XUI Extensions)\
and select AuroraElements.xml and [Open] once selected click [OK] now close & reopen Xbox UI Authoring Tool

we should now be able to open and edit a theme to use as a baseline to edit.

in this example I will use Auroras Default.xzp
located on your xbox360 Aurora/Skins/Default.xzp paste this file somewhere on your desktop for extraction.

load up XZP Tool v1.0 now you can either drag and drop Default.xzp onto the tool or click open and locate the theme file


extract it to a location of your choice (desktop is easier for locating and re packaging as that seems to be the default location with no ability to save a different folder)

inside the extracted theme locate "Aurora_Skin.xur" and open it with the Xbox UI Authoring Tool this is usually the biggest xur and holds all the theme information for almost all the scenes the other cut files use.


if you plan on major theme changes (colors etc) edit this file it's a huge and repetitive undertaking so for now we will just save it as a xui to load other xur files and see visuals based on this.

Now in order to view other xur files we need to load "Aurora_Skin.xui" but this file doesn't exist (yet)

so either with our edited "Aurora_Skin.xur" or default 

inside Xbox UI Authoring Tool click [File] > [Save as] and rename from Aurora_Skin.xur to Aurora_Skin.xui

 

Quote

if we want to save our edited xur files for theme changes we will need to Export Binary, I'll cover this further down in the tutorial

now we have our skin file saved as a xui click [File] > [Load Skin...]

and in the Choose Skin File window select "Aurora_Skin.xui" that we just exported.

when we load any XUR from the theme folders we want to edit in the future it will be using the main "Aurora_Skin.xui" to show us a semi working theme.

Remember : if we ever want to save any edits we make to a xur we must Export Binary

Here is a very basic example
First off the XuiTool has a similar editing method to how Flash used to work so if you had experience with Macromedia flash Xuitool will feel very similar.

In this example I'll detail how to add something to the wallpaper scene/layer:

open Aurora_Main.xur from the extracted theme directory at the top is the xur scene.

think of it like a folder structure but the layers are important and the higher the layer for more to the front of the scene that item will be.

under [XuiCanvas] click [Aurora] then [ApplicationLayer] and scroll to the bottom and click [Wallpaper]

The arrows on the right side do this and these are XuiElement groups

So to add a new image inside the [Wallpaper] group, I'll click the image tool button, this will make a XuiElement which I can make by clicking inside the scene, it will have a default id of "XuiImage1"
this can be changed and I usually rename so I can keep track of items,

I named mine ribbon.

When we draw a box it will be a empty element in the xur scene to load a image click the ellipsis button  [...] navigate to the image you want to load.

be sure it's in the extracted theme folder anything outside of the theme folder will cause issues, I placed my image inside the /images/Background folder inside the extracted theme directory.

load the image with [open]

After you have loaded the image you can easily change the side, align it etc, it's that easy!

I won't cover animations but you can add looping animations inside a xuielement group such as a background and easily make "video" background if you wanted to.

If i wanted to add text I could easily click the text tool button make a text XuiElement default is named XuiText1 you can change where in the layer the text will show.
so as my example I'll move it down one so it shows under the ribbon image I have added

you can give the text element an ID
add text, change the color give the text a drop shadow if needed (make sure its enabled in text style)
Point Size is how big you want the text to be.

You can also edit text already on the theme you are editing 

once we have finished and we want to save changes we have made on Aurora_Main.xur we will need to [File] > [Export Binary]

be sure you are saving it as the correct xur you are editing!
once you replace the file UI Tool will ask you to reload click yes if you plan on continuing to edit for now we can close Xbox UI Authoring Tool for this tutorial.
 

lets rename the skin to be able to identify it when it's on our xbox360

open "skin.meta" in notepad and make the changes. It's a simple json file.

once saved we are ready to repackage our newly edited theme!

You may want to remove Aurora_Skin.xui and delete anything no longer being used like old images.
 

Open XZP Tool v1.0 Click [Build] > [XZP] > [Version 1]



then locate the theme base folder click [OK]


It will ask you to name your new theme
I called this one Default-green.xzp
paste the new theme into your Aurora/Skins/ folder on your xbox 360

open the skin in Aurora, restart to apply it and check out the work you have done.

[FIRSTYsx 0]

how can i put music in skin?

[FIRSTYsx 0]

I meant, could you make a tutorial on how to put any song on the default skin? the old tutorials don't work for me.🙏