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[Rodstorm]

Hi guys,

Is there anyway to edit a current mxm skin and add features to it?
For example can I load someones skin up and add a feature to it like displaying the background song being played and the artist to a skin that doesnt already have this on it?
If so is there an editing tool that is used and what is it or is it just a menu.mxl edit, if so do I just copy and paste the relevant lines from a skin that has what I want to a skin that doesnt??

Lastly fonts, is it possible to change the font size on an already made skin using some sort of editor?
For some reason people make a great skin and then it looks crap because only half the games name is displayed because the wrong font size has been used.

No I cant do better, you guys that make the skins do a great job but some skins just need a bit of tweaking.

I dont really think there is any skin that covers everything, I guess what "everything" is is determined by the individual thats why I'd like to edit an existing skin to do everything I want it to do but being a dumb bugger I cant make my own skins.

Thanks for any help given

[geniusalz]

If all you want to do is add text, open up the skin.xml file, and copy/modify one of these:

---start code
<LayoutElement Type="Text" Source="varname goes here*" Font="blah">
<Pos x="1" y="1" w="100" h="20">
To make it higher, change the h value, and add the following two lines
<Scaling x="false" y="true"/>
<Proportional>True</Proportional>
</LayoutElement>
---end code

*look in the skinning doc for more variables you can use

[Rodstorm]

Thanks for the reply mate but how do I add a feature like displaying the song name and artist being played on an existing mxm skin that doesnt have this feature?

Is it more than just a text edit thing?

Thanks again for your help

[geniusalz]

Don't think you can display artist, but for songname use the variable "CurrentSong"

Again, to add it to a skin, you just copy paste one of the text objects in the MXM_Skin.xml, and change the position to where you want it to be.

[Rodstorm]

Thanks mate, will give it a go and see how I go.
What I'am trying to do and the point to all this is I'am using the new GeoRetav1 skin and want to delete the mxm version number info that is shown on the skin, remove it totally and in that same place display the song name that is currently being played as global music on mxm.
So this is what I'am trying to do, I've just got to now go and do it
Thanks again for your help

[Rodstorm]

Yes I've seen artist name's before on skins but not sure how to do it.
I'am going to try and find a skin that has both artist and song name in it and then find the lines in the GeoRatav1 xml file that display the mxm version and edit them to show the song name and artist that is mentioned in the other skin instead.
This way I wont have to worry about the text postiton because it will already be where I want it, I just have to figure out what lines to put in to show what I want to see.
See its that easy

[geniusalz]

Those skins were screenshotted from very organized ppl's xboxen who liked to name every song "Artist - Title"

So its just title, and depends on what you have named the songs using your xbox soundtrack manager

[Rodstorm]

Well I got it all to go, no you dont have to have the soundtrack and song names together as one to get both to display.
I took your advice and used the "currentsong" command and cut and paste it over where the kernel version was displayed on the skin I was using.
Underneath that was the current mxm version displayed on the same skin so I just cut and paste over that to show the song artist by using " CurrentSoundtrack" instead of "currentsong" and hey it all worked.
Instead of looking at the kernel version and the mxm version on the skin I now instead have displayed the current global song being played and the artisist who sings it......much better

But I'am still stuck on something, I had to move some stuff around the skin by changing the L T W H values, I have very little idea what they are and how the numbers associated to them equal a position on my screen.
How do you know where to put something or rather how do you know what numbers to use as values to put something where you want it?
There a bit like plotting co ordinates I guess but how do you know where all the plots are, is there a grid somewhere that shows the co ordinates on it?

Geez I hope all that made some sense, I know what I mean but its hard to explain.

I have no .xml knowledge at all so I'am pretty much making this up as I go along

Thanks again for everyones help its been great

[geniusalz]

Positioning is pretty easy.
Open the background picture in MS paint.
Move your mouse pointer to where you want the top-left corner to be.
In the status bar (in the View menu, check Status bar), you will see the X and Y values needed in the form: X, Y
Put those into the XML as L and T
L is left (x in paint), T is top (y in paint)