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[BenJeremy]

Media X Menu (MXM) is a program selector system for the Xbox.

It can be run from hard drive or on DVD compilations, and was intended to surpass Complex's MenuX system (and most agree, it does!)

Music, more skinning options, and even a screen saver!


What's new?

Beta 0.9c
* Added the ability to navigate using the thumbsticks
* Fixed the PersistDisplay() issue. Loading screens now display.
* WMV is now a supported format! The videos will loop, and sound is disabled
 in this release by default. I'll add parameters to change those (sound does
 work) shortly. WMV files can be used ANYWHERE an image file is used.
 Thanks go out to Syn3rgy @ the xboxhacker.net forums for knocking down the
 remaining barriers on this feature.
* Moving away from ini files. XML will be the new standard (faster loading)
 To make things easier, I've included a converter, to modify existing files to
 the new format.
* Disable for auto-config - Set Main->AllowAutoConfig to No (or Off/false)
* Main->MoveDelay - Time between pressing down/up and the menu changing selections in Repeat mode.
* Main->RepeatDelay - Time between holding down/up and the program repeating the move.
* Main->LoadSkin parameter to select a specific skin (Based on directory name)
* Main->ExitApp allows you to specify a dashboard other than the 'default' one, such
 as "C:\evoxdash.xbe" when using the dashboard sequence. This solves a problem
 when using MXM as your default dashboard application.
* Well, a lot of work, but I've sped things up a bit (well, not really sped up, as
 much as shuffled things around) and added a nice fade in to a moving sky and MXM logo
 just before hitting the title screen.
* Smooth transitions now occur between menu states
* the slight "stutter" from the music when MXM starts up is now fixed.



NOTE: This release includes a Windows-based converter to make the transition from ini file format to xml as painless as possible.

As usual, you can find out about it by checking out the MXMReadMe.txt file, which has been posted to alt.binaries.cd.image.xbox, alt.binaries.xbox, and alt.binaries.games.xbox newsgroups in usenet.                                    

[Hal9000]

If only I could find it for download.
If anyone can help please pm me

Thanks                                    

[davidtbaron]

Yeah me to xbins doesnt have it yet also thanks again ben jeremy for helping me out with the colors the other day im making great progress and would love the new update  of menu x 9c

[email protected]
[email protected]                                    

[Weavus]

The newsgroups have it                                    

[BenJeremy]

If anybody has feedback, please post it.... If I don't get bug reports, I can't fix them! Likewise, suggestions are also welcome.

Also suggestions on what a Windows-based configuration program should do for you. I'm developing a tool to edit MXM.xml and MXM_Entry.xml files.

After I get that roughly out of the way, I'll be jumping back into the highly-configurable skinning options so Weavus can work his magic.

                                   

[Weavus]

Main->MoveDelay
Main->RepeatDelay

What are the defaults for these values? Are they values in milliseconds?

I take it I add them to mxm.xml like so:

<Main>
.
.
<AllowAutoConfig>no</AllowAutoConfig>
.
<MoveDelay>100</MoveDelay>
<RepeatDelay>500</RepeatDelay>
</Main>                                    

[Weavus]

Main->LoadSkin parameter to select a specific skin (Based on directory name)

Would I just put Weavus (My skin has an xml file called MXM_skin.xml in a dir called Weavus under SkinXMLs) here or the full dir path? I couldnt get either to work in my short time testing.                                    

[Weavus]

There seems to be a bit of a stutter between the new Loading sky/logo and the title screen. Perhaps a nice transition like between title/main would be better.

Up/Down is still way too fast on the pad. Perhaps slowing it down quite a bit and putting a faster up/down on the triggers (ala mame, snesx etc) would be the best way to fix it.                                    

[Weavus]

I think we are going to need the ability to turn off the amittedly nice new loading sky/logo as it looks out of place when you are using nested MXM's. I.E. having one as a main menu and sub ones for categories. I like the fact it displays quickly but would rather have the title screen while I wait for a sub MXM to load.                                    

[BenJeremy]

QUOTE (Weavus @ Dec 9 2002, 06:37 PM)

Main->MoveDelay Main->RepeatDelay What are the defaults for these values? Are they values in milliseconds? I take it I add them to mxm.xml like so: <Main> . . <AllowAutoConfig>no</AllowAutoConfig> . <MoveDelay>100</MoveDelay> <RepeatDelay>500</RepeatDelay> </Main>

                                    The defaults are 220milliseconds each.

You are correct in adding the config items.

QUOTE

Main->LoadSkin parameter to select a specific skin (Based on directory name) Would I just put Weavus (My skin has an xml file called MXM_skin.xml in a dir called Weavus under SkinXMLs) here or the full dir path? I couldnt get either to work in my short time testing.

All skin directories need to be immediately under MXM. The "SkinXMLs" was just thrown in there so people wouldn't have to run the converter, they could just copy those files over to the skin directories... sorry for the confusion. Next time I'll put that sort of thing in it's own rar files.

QUOTE

There seems to be a bit of a stutter between the new Loading sky/logo and the title screen. Perhaps a nice transition like between title/main would be better.

Well, I've noticed an occasional "flash" - I'm not sure entirely what's happening there. I had a ton of problems adding the transition effects for the other parts for some reason, too. I ended up having to learn about texture operations pretty quickly

QUOTE

Up/Down is still way too fast on the pad. Perhaps slowing it down quite a bit and putting a faster up/down on the triggers (ala mame, snesx etc) would be the best way to fix it.

Yes, I'm going to synchronize the d-pad with the same method I use onthe sticks, so the delays will be consistent.

QUOTE

I think we are going to need the ability to turn off the amittedly nice new loading sky/logo as it looks out of place when you are using nested MXM's. I.E. having one as a main menu and sub ones for categories. I like the fact it displays quickly but would rather have the title screen while I wait for a sub MXM to load.

What I might do, when I get it working, is have the initialization screen (which is what's happening when it's displayed) disabled when it loads with parameters... which is how I might handle using multiple MXM.xml files. I'm still tweaking that particular issue in my head.

The title screen is a bit difficult to throw up, since a lot has to happen before we can even get to that stage (including loading & parsing MXM.xml, looking for skins, loading and parsing the MXM_Skin.xml, and loading the associated image). It's much faster now (a few seconds) and believe it or now, image loading is actually QUICKER when using WMV videos. I'll play around a bit more with it.

I might also make an optional "fade to black and back" transition between states (actually, there's probably a whole slew of transitions I could add now).

Thanks for the report. Your feedback is definitely making this a better application.

[davidtbaron]

Help im going nuts here any help finding 9c

DELTED. Sorry Bro. But I cant allow you to post your email here for legal reasons.

i dont know how to use the news groups only the xbins ftp                                    

This post has been edited by LumbraX: Dec 10 2002, 02:55 AM

[LumbraX]

I wrote a FAQ on how to use News-Groups called "What is alt.binaries.cd.image.xbox?". Go look in the FAQ section of the Xbox-Scene forums and it will tell you how to use and access news-groups.      

[Courier5]

Benjeremy - How about for the windows configuration app - add a preview type setup (like the evox skinners)  That will show what the program will look like when it boots up.  Would be a big help in doing custom layouts and save some burn time.

Once again, great program...wish I had the programming skills to help.                                    

[BenJeremy]

QUOTE (Courier5 @ Dec 9 2002, 10:22 PM)

Benjeremy - How about for the windows configuration app - add a preview type setup (like the evox skinners)  That will show what the program will look like when it boots up.  Would be a big help in doing custom layouts and save some burn time. Once again, great program...wish I had the programming skills to help.

                                    Well, the skinning thing is down the list aways.... my first priority is a Windows-based "hand-holder" for configuring game entries and setting up everything to create a DVD or to transfer to the hard drive.

But I have thought about the skinning thing. The skins will soon have a LOT more flexibility. Skinners will have the option of putting up multiple images per game, help, and other elements.                                    

[BenJeremy]

NOTE:

Apparently, in the "auto-config" mode, the system will find dashupdate.xbe before it locates default.xbe, as I discovered tonight. I had replaced those files with harmless ones from the menux release...

The only thing you might be able to do is to delete the dashupdate.xbe and update.xbe files. I will test out a few things and get back here within 24 hours.


This problem should only be present in the auto-config mode. Sorry for the inconvenience (hopefully, I'm the only person who's done this   )