neXgen Dashboard 16.02.04 Build BETA 2 Review by neo-dilly
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Disclaimer: This review is based on my personal opinion and no one else's. I will not be biased by saying this dash is better than any other dash.
Layout/Skins
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The skin that came with neXgen at the moment is very basic. 3d meshes at the moment capable of basic color overlays. Colors used fit well except some color clashing in the Games, Apps, Emulators, Skins, Minigames menus. The orb needs to be looked at and the soundtrack text needs to be truncated after so many characters so it doesnt clash with the text, some system info text clumped together so its unreadable. The sounds that are used are good, but need to be different as they are the same as the M$ Dash sounds, also the use of sounds in the dash is buggy, sounds are missed in the main menu when scrolling too fast and sounds are not used everywhere in the dash. With the lua scripting engine that is used in neXgen you can do quite a lot with the skins, but not all functions of the lua scripting language have been put in yet.
Configuration
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In this build they have (mostly) moved from nexgen.cfg to nexgen.xml. The new nexgen.xml makes configuring neXgen so much easier. With the IP addresses configurable and passwords changeable it makes FTP easier. Options to enable/disable Xenium support and more. The only snags is that the nexgen.cfg is still being used for certain functions and the configuration error in the neXgen.xml which is provided.
FTP/HTTP Server
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You can now configure the IP to be using with your Xbox and DHCP support has been added which makes FTPing with neXgen easier. The FTP server is still buggy though, 5-6 mb per second average transfer rate. Only things that bring it down is the (confusing to some people) drive names, such as EXTENDED, STORAGE etc and also the memory leak in neXgen which makes the FTP run like rubbish when transferring large files (after a while). The HTTP server is great, its functional, shows quite a bit of data about your xbox, allows you to Open/Close Tray, Shutdown/Reboot your Xbox. The only problem with the HTTP server is that it is a little bit slow (Im not too bothered about that).
Functionality
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Annoying memory leak which eventually dries up your Xboxs RAM and causes it to crash. Allows you to configure Xbox A/V settings. Clock configuration doesnt work yet. Launches xbes correctly. The auto xbe listing function works well but there is no alphabetical order. Background music plays great but the randomization of tracks needs to be worked on. Also default settings need to be added if there is a configuration error which locks it up. A good near constant 50 fps throughout the dash (Im PAL). New info added to the games menu which makes it slower
![Sad :(](https://forums.xboxscene.org/Smileys/xs/sad.gif)
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Cool stuff to mention
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They have included a cool 3d pong mini-game, which plays well. The great thing is that you can write your own mini-games as it is written in the LUA scripting language.
Conclusion
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Nice dashboard which is early in development. Simple but still buggy. Can be used as your default dashboard, using it as your default dash is NOT RECCOMENDED for newbies.
Overall Score: 5/10
neo-dilly
Team Xboxopensource (this is not biased in anyway shape or form) <