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[Videogamebuyer14]

Hello all.

First off, I bought the game, Brute Force I'd say a couple weeks ago.
And I've taken apart the game a bit. There was a certain interface that interested me, which was the demos menu, which I almost deleted. I've been fooling with the code for a while, and I finally got it to display new things, like Instead of Demos and Videos, it says Games and Apps, I even worked a bit on the description.
I got it to look in a fellow subdirectory, which was named, "N64", which contained nothing other than the N64 emulator for xbox.

So, when I go to load the program, it loads it, shows the green "X" w/ the M$ underneath it, and then goes back to the EvolutionX dash.

The person most able to answer this question would be Ben, but, I could be wrong. Thanks in advance to whomever has any suspicions.

[BenJeremy]

QUOTE (Videogamebuyer14 @ Jun 29 2003, 05:54 AM)

Hello all. First off, I bought the game, Brute Force I'd say a couple weeks ago. And I've taken apart the game a bit. There was a certain interface that interested me, which was the demos menu, which I almost deleted. I've been fooling with the code for a while, and I finally got it to display new things, like Instead of Demos and Videos, it says Games and Apps, I even worked a bit on the description. I got it to look in a fellow subdirectory, which was named, "N64", which contained nothing other than the N64 emulator for xbox. So, when I go to load the program, it loads it, shows the green "X" w/ the M$ underneath it, and then goes back to the EvolutionX dash. The person most able to answer this question would be Ben, but, I could be wrong. Thanks in advance to whomever has any suspicions.

OK, let me get this straight.... you basically hacked a demo menu?

Well, first off, it's a M$ program for running disc-based demos. Things will be hard coded, and certain assumptions will be made by the program.

This is why MenuX cannot be used on the hard drive.

I think the program you are using is the latest iteration of MenuX, which is now included with the XDKs (I haven't played with it yet) - binary form only.

It's much, much more than a simple patch, too... non-M$ dashboards understand how to 'trick' the Xbox kernel into loading an app from the hard drive - this requires more code. That really won't happen on an existing app with no source.

Could you post some images from the interface? 3-D objects and effects will likely be fully integrated in MXM within a couple versions... I'm sure with the upcoming enhancements, it will be short work to recreate the interface.

[Videogamebuyer14]

Uh, sure here are some backgrounds...
Ill try and get a snap of the actual interface later today or tommorow.

Edited (Original)


My own


It seems that it's similar to alot of other dashboards. It relies on external scripting to do work, and the script is much easier than .XIP. In fact, its close to XML.
I will go further and see into that I will at least try and get this to stage 2. This will be my own little project. Sorry, to have such small outlooks on things, Ben, its just I can't write a xbox app from scratch.

::EDIT::

I found a couple strings that led me to believe that this app has support for the following.

.bik, .xmv, .png, .jpg, .dds, .tga, .ppm, .bmp, .wma, and .dib.                                                      
                                                                                                                                                   
I think this might have something that may help:

One of the .xbe strings contained "D:\xboxfre-dec02\private\ui\dl\epix\obj\i386\CDX.pdb"

This might explain which XDK it was compiled with.
Thats all for now.                                                                                        

[BenJeremy]

Mind if these are borrowed for an MXM skin?

[Videogamebuyer14]

Not at all.

[BenJeremy]

I assume one of the side boxes is for an extended description.

I'm going to add word-wrap options for multi-lined text elements, which MXM does kinda-sorta support. The ability to add the descriptions has always been in there.

Maybe I'll add some simple formatting, via { } delimited tags...

[Videogamebuyer14]

It is.

However, I looked through the code, and I cant find anything reminescent of a media check or what its being run off of. I have to look a  bit more....

Mind giving me credit for the skin?

[BenJeremy]

QUOTE (Videogamebuyer14 @ Jun 29 2003, 02:24 PM)

It is. However, I looked through the code, and I cant find anything reminescent of a media check or what its being run off of. I have to look a  bit more.... Mind giving me credit for the skin?

Of course!  

[Videogamebuyer14]

I find it ironic, that the dash is called CDX.
I found a website pretaining to CDX Scripting, and its a directx wrapper, free SDK.
Perhaps, this will be easier than I thought.

http://www.cdxlib.com/main.htm

[BenJeremy]

QUOTE (Videogamebuyer14 @ Jun 29 2003, 02:34 PM)

I find it ironic, that the dash is called CDX. I found a website pretaining to CDX Scripting, and its a directx wrapper, free SDK. Perhaps, this will be easier than I thought. http://www.cdxlib.com/main.htm

Well, it's not the same thing.

CDX is, as I said, the demo system M$ includes with the latest XDKs. I'll check into it more, but I believe if you have access to 5558 (June '03 XDK), there may be good documentation there.

[Videogamebuyer14]

Oh well. I got the old one.

[BenJeremy]

Obviously, I can't repost the doco here, but it **does** support BINK video.


XDK 5433 has a version of CDX... rather complete skinning guide, but  it's strictly wallpaper skinning, like the old one.

[Videogamebuyer14]

The scripting language grabs certain areas of the background and can tint to diffrent colors. But thats off topic. Heh, just for kicks, I tried running it off of a cd, and it loaded everything. So thats good. Im going to release it as a cd dashboard. I'd love to have some help with the hdd version however.

Actually I was wrong... When you try to boot the xbe it just goes back to evox. So, I may try patching the files. If that doesnt work, then there are new signatures.

[cryptic]

BJ" is right on this you will not get this thing to boot off the harddrive i have seen  the xdk and all docs and the packages provided by MS for cdx. it's great for DVD's though much better than the orig instead of still's for previews you can use video  . xmv == xdk needed for this

[Videogamebuyer14]

If anyone finds out how to get this little app running programs off the hdd or even the cd please let me know. You will get most of the credit. Im just trying to explain the simplicity of the engine. Thanks.
- Mike