Media X Menu 0.9d (beta), New Release Options

[BenJeremy]

Media X Menu is a menu system to launch applications from a DVD collection or from
a hard drive. It is intended to be very configurable and allow new "styles" to be added
in, both with simple visual changes (skins), or adding 3D effects (later) to the presentation
of the menus by re-writing the software.

It was intended to supercede Complex Menu X, which has some bugs and is lacking many
desired features that MXM now has.

* Impliments the "Simple" theme, allowing a title screen, menu screen, loading screen
and saver screen, each with configurable elements (custom backgrounds, custom bouncing
logo for the screen saver)
* Simple theme uses Skins based in subdirectories, and can use randomly selected skins
on every run of the program.
* Launches applications from the hard drive and the CD/DVD drive.
* Screen saver!
* Can play one or more music tracks, with multiple options, such as-
- Disc-specific tracks (played from subdirectory, for example)
- Can play from the XBox soundtracks the user has on his hard drive
- Can play random or in order
* Supports BMP, PNG, TGA, JPG image formats as well as WMV video files!
* All settings are done via XML file support, a format familiar to many users.
* Supports 640x480 at the moment. Sorry, just ran out of time to get the multi-res
support in.


What's new?

Beta 0.9d
* Fixed a problem that prevented Auto-config from finding the correct *.xbe file, even if
it was specified in the MXM_Entry.xml file. It will work correctly now.
* Added WMV as an Auto-config media type (It will use a file named MXM_SS.wmv in the game
directory.)


As usual, the MXMReadMe.txt file has been posted in alt.binaries.xbox, alt.binaries.cd.image.xbox, and alt.binaries.games.xbox. Those looking for more information will find it there. The MXMReadMe.txt file should also be posted on the #xbins server.

[MangoLito]

Sweet Program......

Has anyone taken the time to write a tutorial on it yet????


Dieing on learning how to use all its features faster.


Thanks,
-MangoLito

[BenJeremy]

QUOTE (MangoLito @ Dec 11 2002, 02:19 PM)

Sweet Program...... Has anyone taken the time to write a tutorial on it yet???? Dieing on learning how to use all its features faster. Thanks, -MangoLito

Well, I've expanded the MXMReadME.txt file considerably, and I'm trying to get some helper apps written to make it even easier.

Read the text file and see if it helps.

[Courier5]

Mangolite - I'm currently working on a quick tutorial (just got 0.9d, so checking for any changes) on how to understand some of the details on the program. I'm currently going through the posts to get all the questions asked and answers given, as well as, what each tag means (as of current) as described by Benjeremy

I'm currently on working with the wmv aspect and how it works. I've gotten some mpg files from ign and have used virtualdub to convert to avi, then windows encoder to wmv.

Will burn the test disk tonight and see how they work.

Benjeremy, if there is anything you would like added to the turorial, let me know.

[Weavus]

QUOTE (Courier5 @ Dec 11 2002, 06:38 PM)

Will burn the test disk tonight and see how they work.

I'd test on the hard disk if you can as burning a disk only to find out it isnt exactly as you want it is a pain.

[BenJeremy]

QUOTE (Courier5 @ Dec 11 2002, 02:38 PM)

Mangolite - I'm currently working on a quick tutorial (just got 0.9d, so checking for any changes) on how to understand some of the details on the program. I'm currently going through the posts to get all the questions asked and answers given, as well as, what each tag means (as of current) as described by Benjeremy I'm currently on working with the wmv aspect and how it works. I've gotten some mpg files from ign and have used virtualdub to convert to avi, then windows encoder to wmv. Will burn the test disk tonight and see how they work. Benjeremy, if there is anything you would like added to the turorial, let me know.

Thanks for your work on the tutorial. I'd love to see it.

...and Weavus is right. Use the HD to test the WMV stuff. I've run into problems with older encoders (output from PowerDirector). The WM8 Encoding tools work great, though.

In case anybody was wondering, the title background in the DefaultSkin is a WMV file.

[Courier5]

I'm kinda stuck on the HD upload right now. I don't have a wired lan to the Xbox, so I use a computer with a crossover to the box, then a wi-fi bridge from the computer to the server. Unfortunately the comp is down (bad processor) and I don't have a spare intel chip to throw in it.

I'm using a cd-rw and doomx as the test bed, so burn takes just a minute, so no real disadvantage there.

benjeremy, I'll send it your way this weekend.

[BenJeremy]

QUOTE (Courier5 @ Dec 11 2002, 04:42 PM)

I'm kinda stuck on the HD upload right now. I don't have a wired lan to the Xbox, so I use a computer with a crossover to the box, then a wi-fi bridge from the computer to the server. Unfortunately the comp is down (bad processor) and I don't have a spare intel chip to throw in it. I'm using a cd-rw and doomx as the test bed, so burn takes just a minute, so no real disadvantage there. benjeremy, I'll send it your way this weekend.

Cool. Yes, CD-RW is the way to go with testing, if you don't have the network up.

You should be golden if you use the WM8 tools to encode and it plays back on the PC. Power Director wanted to use WM7 and the video was fried on the Xbox playback.

[MangoLito]

I, too, will be looking forward to reading your turtorial.

Post it up when u got the baby done.


-MangoLito

[zombie28]

BenJeremy, before making any suggestions or asking questions, I would first like to thank you for making this program... It's really cool and I've been playing around with it quite a bit.

I just upgraded from version 0.9b to 0.9d.

First thing: I set up music to play ripped audio on the HD using the global setting. It worked before, but now it doesn't anymore. I'm pretty sure that it's a problem with my mxm.xml file...

CODE

<Config> <Main> <DiscTitle></DiscTitle> <DiscSubtitle></DiscSubtitle> <Theme>1</Theme> <TitleDelay>0</TitleDelay> <SaverDelay>0</SaverDelay> <MenuPath>F:\games</MenuPath> </Main> <Music> <UseMusic>on</UseMusic> <Global>on</Global> <Random>off</Random> </Music> </Config>

The new loading screen is pretty nice, but as mentioned in the 0.9c thread, it doesn't match well with customized skins. An option to turn it off or simply display the wait.jpg would be nice. The fading idea you have would be cool too. I edited the files in the Media folder to display the standard loading logo with a black background.

As other people noticed, there's now a screen that flashes when bringing up the menu. Not too great, but I can ignore it.

And I too encountered the former dashupdate problem, but I simply restored my old dash and removed all dashupdate.xbe files because I won't need them.

Anyway, thanks for the great program!

[zombie28]

ok, i fixed the audio problem. With my config, setting the TitleDelay to anything lower than 4 won't load the audio... So that flashing screen I mentioned is probably related to this, because now it's a bit longer than before.

[cyrilf]

there is a problem with the source code,
it's missing the file : XBApp_mxm.h


thanks to add it...

[BenJeremy]

QUOTE (zombie28 @ Dec 12 2002, 05:35 AM)

BenJeremy, before making any suggestions or asking questions, I would first like to thank you for making this program... It's really cool and I've been playing around with it quite a bit. I just upgraded from version 0.9b to 0.9d. First thing: I set up music to play ripped audio on the HD using the global setting. It worked before, but now it doesn't anymore. I'm pretty sure that it's a problem with my mxm.xml file... CODE <Config> <Main> <DiscTitle></DiscTitle> <DiscSubtitle></DiscSubtitle> <Theme>1</Theme> <TitleDelay>0</TitleDelay> <SaverDelay>0</SaverDelay> <MenuPath>F:\games</MenuPath> </Main> <Music> <UseMusic>on</UseMusic> <Global>on</Global> <Random>off</Random> </Music> </Config> The new loading screen is pretty nice, but as mentioned in the 0.9c thread, it doesn't match well with customized skins. An option to turn it off or simply display the wait.jpg would be nice. The fading idea you have would be cool too. I edited the files in the Media folder to display the standard loading logo with a black background. As other people noticed, there's now a screen that flashes when bringing up the menu. Not too great, but I can ignore it. And I too encountered the former dashupdate problem, but I simply restored my old dash and removed all dashupdate.xbe files because I won't need them. Anyway, thanks for the great program!

Thanks for the feedback.

I need to climb back into the music manager to clean up a few things. Luckily, I have a few days off this weekend so I'll have some time to work on it.

I should also be able to clean up the title screen issue.

[BenJeremy]

QUOTE (cyrilf @ Dec 12 2002, 06:45 AM)

there is a problem with the source code, it's missing the file : XBApp_mxm.h thanks to add it...

Sorry about that... I've added the file into my 'working' rar here, so it will be in the next release.

In the meantime, you should be able to get away with copying over the XBApp.h file from the samples\common\include directory of the XDK and renaming it. I added those into the project in case I needed to make changes.

[RDJ134]

Well just spending the last few hours playing with the menu i think i run into 3 bugs.

1st : i replaced the swirl.wmv with a 12mb panzar dragon wmv after the start up the whole movie whas green and very blocked(i trys with a smaller earlier tonight and worked fine)

2e i didnt filled in a disc title and a sub title(i tought that wouldent looked good in the panzer dragon movie)and it gived it self a name mxm menu somthing.

3th i encountered that the menu didnt showed any titels of the games but i could walk with the menu bar over it and saw on the right the pictures and a wmv after 4!! reboots the menu worked liked before.

for the rest it works like a charm like i said before i love the wmv support.

This post has been edited by RDJ134: Dec 14 2002, 01:49 AM