[SOLVED] How to Add Game Save Icons/Thumbnails?

If you need any help with XBMC4XBOX, such as installing or using the software, please post it in here.
Post Reply
Coldly-Indifferent
Posts: 454
Joined: Thu Mar 19, 2015 4:01 am
Has thanked: 80 times
Been thanked: 59 times

[SOLVED] How to Add Game Save Icons/Thumbnails?

Post by Coldly-Indifferent »

I've been adding my own default.tbn icons for games etc and installing others to XBMC4Xbox for a long time but what I've realised I don't know how to do is get it to display icons for the actual game saves

I did a quick search here and and the wiki on thumbnails I've used as reference for this sort of thing and there doesn't appear to be anything about it. All recent XBMC4Xbox versions even include Q:\drive > UserData > Thumbnails > Game Save folder but for as long as I've used the dash this has always been empty.

I would have thought it would scan and use the same game save UDATA > TitleImage.xbx and SaveImage.xbx icon files that UnleashX does but obviously not.

So how do you do it and if I have to harvest or create and install the game save image files myself what format and file size is best?
Coldly-Indifferent
Posts: 454
Joined: Thu Mar 19, 2015 4:01 am
Has thanked: 80 times
Been thanked: 59 times

[SOLUTION] How to Add Game Save Icons/Thumbnails?

Post by Coldly-Indifferent »

A bit late but I have finally worked out what the problem was.

It was due to me using a old version of XBMC. I do this for a very good reason, I won't bore you with the details but it is connected with the 'improvements' made since to the otherwise excellent File Manager operation.

The cause of the game save icons not displaying was simply that this old version of XBMC did not generate a Q drive > UserData > Thumbnails > GameSaves folder by default. I'd tried creating a "Game Saves" folder (ie. as it is written in the Program > Games side menu) in Thumbnails myself and when that hadn't worked thought it would require a more complex solution.

Silly me - if I'd checked the more recent XBMC versions I have I would have found they display the game save icons properly because they do generate a game save thumbnail folder and others which my older XBMC version doesn't. The mistake made was simply not using the correct form for naming the folder. This should have been "GameSaves".

Once I'd realised that I just added a new correctly named source folder to Thumbnails, restarted XBMC and I now have all my game saves icons displaying correctly.
Coldly-Indifferent
Posts: 454
Joined: Thu Mar 19, 2015 4:01 am
Has thanked: 80 times
Been thanked: 59 times

Re: [SOLVED] How to Add Game Save Icons/Thumbnails?

Post by Coldly-Indifferent »

A slight amendment to the post above.

Whilst all Xbox game saves icons are picked up a lot of the apps, homebrew games and emulators which also created game save folders in UDATA do not.

For whatever reason rather than use the TitleImage.xbx that most UDATA folder entries generate XBMC appears to use only the SaveImage.xbx for these purposes. As many of the UDATA items don't actually created a SaveImage.xbx you're still left with the generic skin game save icon for those cases.

It is a simple matter to create a SaveImage.xbx from most of these icon-less game saves just by copying and renaming the existing TitleImage.xbx and then copying it back in. But I've come across an issue with this and that is the SaveImage.xbx file size.

The typical size for all Xbox games is 10KB and the same or slightly larger, up to 25KB, for the TitleImage.xbx. That's the largest file size for an original Xbox game I've seen. But there are some homebrew games with a TitleImage.xbx as large as 250MB. I have found that when converting their use to a SaveImage.xbx XBMC does not pick them up as game save thumbnails ie. there appears to be some upper file size limit in play.

The Xbox Image Converter Tool only creates a 10KB XBX from a JPG original (or visa versa) but the quality can be horrible unless you use a graphics program to reduce the original to 128x128 before that conversion to XBX. I think the XBXTools program allows the creation of larger size XBX files from JPGs but can't do the reverse.

In both cases you really need a game save JPG original of decent quality to work from and in some of these cases there isn't one available. You can DIY and then convert your creation to XBX, so there is a solution, but then you will still have the matter of the maximum allowed SaveImage.xbx file size to resolve.

It must be >25KB and <250KB but does anyone here know exactly?
FlamesOfHell666
Posts: 12
Joined: Tue Mar 07, 2017 9:25 pm
Has thanked: 4 times

Re: [SOLVED] How to Add Game Save Icons/Thumbnails?

Post by FlamesOfHell666 »

These forums seem dead. What older xbmc are you using and were you ever on old xbox-scene before they died?

I'm looking for more OG Xbox stuff myself.
Coldly-Indifferent
Posts: 454
Joined: Thu Mar 19, 2015 4:01 am
Has thanked: 80 times
Been thanked: 59 times

Re: [SOLVED] How to Add Game Save Icons/Thumbnails?

Post by Coldly-Indifferent »

The XBMC version was, I think, v9.02 which was released some time late 2008 (October?)

I use the latest XBMC now more often but I still have that one as another app because I prefer using its File Manager for any copying and file moves etc. The more recent XBMC version's copying progress bar/status issues I mentioned still irks me. I also like it because I can use most of the XBMC skins I have with it too some of which don't work on the current v3 series.
Post Reply