XBMC Skinning Manual

General Information
XBMC includes a new GUI library written from scratch. This library allows you to skin/change everything you see in XBMC, from the images, the sizes and positions of all controls, colours, fonts, and text, through to altering navigation and even adding new functionality. The skin system is quite complex, and this portion of the manual is dedicated to providing in depth information on how it all works, along with tips to make the experience a little more pleasant. If you are just getting started with skinning XBMC, then it is suggested that the best way to learn is by modifying one of the many existing skins that are available. The default skin, Project Mayhem 3, includes almost all the various tricks and features that make the XBMC skinning engine so powerful, so is an ideal place to start. You may wish to start by having a look through the tutorial section on skinning XBMC as well as the "Skinning XBMC" article, and try modifying a window or two by adding a button, or altering the textures or layout.

Anatomy of a Skin
XBMC skins are packaged up and located in the skin/ folder off the main XBMC folder. This is the folder where all skins are placed and listed. By default there's only one called “Project Mayhem III”, by Chokemaniac which is the default skin. Any additional skins you create, ordownload from places such as [www.xboxskins].net can be placed here for XBMC to auto-detect them and allow you to load them up from within the Appearance Settings. It is suggested that if you want to make your own skin, then starting by copying an existing skins files over into a new folder (let's say skin/myskin) is a good place to start. You can then edit each of the files as you become more familiar with the skinning system. Each skin folder contains several subdirectorys, and one file:
 * myskin/font
 * This subdirectory contains all fonts used by the skin. you can add/replace fonts here


 * myskin/media
 * This subdirectory contains all the media files (.png/.gif/.jpg...) You can replace/edit these as you like.


 * myskin/skin.xml
 * This contains the information that XBMC uses to find the other files that XBMC requires to describe it's skin. It also contains credits information, and versioning information.


 * myskin/PAL
 * This is a resolution-specific directory. XBMC can run in multiple resolutions, and thus can use different files for some resolutions (as there is a big difference between NTSC at 720x480 pixels and 1080i at 1920x1080 pixels!) See here for the order in which it looks for skin files.

Skin Themes
All the basic media files for a skin should be compressed into the Textures.xpr file, and placed in the media/ folder. You can use the tool XBMCTex for this. All the images that make up the default skin theme should be in the Textures.xpr file.

In addition to this, XBMC allows other .xpr files in the media/ folder, each one representing a different theme for your skin. For instance, you could tint all your main textures a red colour, and create a new theme package Red.xpr. This gives users more choice in the look of a particular skin, and only the textures change when you change themes – the layout stays the same. If the user has selected a theme, then when a control requires a texture, XBMC will first look in the .xpr file for the texture. It will fall back to the Textures.xpr file if .xpr doesn't contain the image. This means that the theme .xpr files need only contain the changed textures – all other textures will fallback to using Textures.xpr as usual.

A suggested method of creating a theme is as follows:

Please note that for none xbox platforms there is no need to compress your theme aside from obvious portability reasons of course.
 * 1) Run XBMCTex.exe on the folder containing the default texture files, to generate Textures.xpr as you would normally do.
 * 2) Identify the textures you wish to have themed and copy them to a separate folder.
 * 3) Create a separate folder for each theme outside of your normal skin work area, and place the altered copies of each of the textures in them.
 * 4) Run XBMCTex.exe on each of the theme folders created in step 3 to create the themed .xpr files (note you can use the -output switch with XBMCTex.exe to name the theme appropriately).
 * 5) Place Textures.xpr and each of the theme .xpr files in the media/ folder of your skin. XBMC will automatically pick them up.

The Window XML Files
The other xml files each define the skin for a single window. They all have the same basic layout, allowing you to place different controls on the window, and define how navigation should operate. A list of all window .xml files and what they represent may be found in Apendix I: List of Windows.

The important thing to remember is that each window has a unique identifying number (id). This is how XBMC identifies the window from within the source code.

Furthermore, many of the controls within each window should have a unique id as well, unless they're just used as images or labels where navigation is unimportant and XBMC does not need to be able to identify them uniquely. The window id's are all listed in the Apendix I: List of Windows. The structure of the window .xml files can be found below in the Window Structure.

= Skin.xml =

= Windows =

Window Structure
= Controls = Controls are the substance of your skin. They define everything from buttons, to text labels, to visualization placement. This portion of the manual will explain each and every control in detail.

Console Control
used to display the last few items added to the video database.

= Conditional_Visibility = XBMC's skinning engine versatility is based apon the fact that the skinner can display and hide portions of the skin using a variety of conditional statements that can be combined to create very user friendly UI implimentations. For further information of available variable and how they can be applied.

= Animating Your Skin = The XBMC skinning engine supports animations of any control allowing them to rotate, slide, fade or any combination there-of. Combining animations with conditional statements ensure your skin will have stunning effects that appear as professional as a 1st party product.

= Fonts = XBMC allows you to customize which fonts are displayed onscreen in the User Interface.

= Apendix I: List of Windows =

= Apendix II: List of Boolean Conditions =

= Apendix III: List of Info Labels =

= Apendix IV: List of Built In Functions =