tHc Dash skinning 101
Note: This tutorial is not for tHc lite.


APPLYING A DOWNLOADED SKIN


TOOLS:
XapEditor and WinXip and any FTP client (flashfxp)


Ok, so the first thing you'd want to know is where all of the pics you can change are. It's really not important but if your like me you HAVE to know
Here's the list.


Default: Cellwall.xbx,dvdstop.xbx,dvdstopw.xbx,Gamehilite_01.xbx, xbox logo.xbx,xboxlogo128.xbx,xboxlogo64.xbx,xboxlogow
and xboxbg.xbx can be added.

DVD: dvd_button.xbx, DVD_paneltex.xbx

Jkeyboard: keyboard_alpha.xbx

keyboard: keyboard_alpha.xbx

mainmenu5: cellwall2.xbx, clock_bgpanel.xbx, orbcellwall.xbx,xbox4.xbx

memory2: MU_gauge1.xbx,MUgaugeHL.xbx, panel8.xbx

memory_files2: MemMetaBacking.xbx,MemMetaBacking2.xbx, memoryunit128.xbx,ModeBacking.xbx,MU_gauge1.xbx,MUgaugeHL.xbx, NamePanel_backing.xbx, soundtracksave3.xbx, soundtracksave64.xbx, XboxliveAccount128.xbx, XboxliveAccount64.xbx, XboxliveGameTitleOrb128.xbx

Message: dvd_button.xbx, DVD_paneltex.xbx, panel8.xbx, speaker_logo.xbx, speaker_logo2.xbx, status_gauge.xbx

music2: cd_opacity.xbx, outline.xbx, panel4.xbx, steel.xbx

music_copy3: cd_opacity.xbx,orbcellwall.xbx, outline.xbx, panel_soundtracks.xbx

Music_PlayEdit2: cd_opacity.xbx, Morbcellwall.xbx, outline.xbx, panel9.xbx, plate2b.xbx, steel.xbx, tracklist_lines.xbx, xboxlogo2.xbx

settings3: outline.xbx,settings_home_bgpanel.xbx, Sourbcewall.xbx

settings_adoc: error loading!

Settings_Clock: 1orbcellwall.xbx, clock_bgpanel.xbx

settings_language: 2Sorbcellwall.xbx, language_backgroundpanel.xbx, outline.xbx

settings_list: 3Sorbcellwall.xbx, settings_3buttons_panel.xbx, settings_3buttons_panel2.xbx, settings_4buttons_panel.xbx

settings_panel: 4Sorbcellwall.xbx, clock_bgpanel.xbx

settings_parental: 5Sorbcellwall.xbx, PC_panel.xbx

settings_timezone: 5Sorbcellwall.xbx, language_backgroundpanel.xbx, outline.xbx

settings_video: 7Sorbcellwall.xbx, video_bgpanel.xbx


That's all of them. So, you say, "well I don't want to have to edit each one of them!" Well, you don't. If you want a new looking skin but aren't up to edit each xbx individually you don't have to.
There are three main xbx files that make up the way the dash looks. The orbcellwall.xbx, xboxlogo.xbx, and the xboxbg.xbx.
xboxbg.xbx is what's used as the background of the tHc dash. the xboxlogo.xbx is the inside of the parent.(the big circle with the tabs coming out) and orbcellwall.xbx is the lines in the background.
If you change xboxlogo.xbx and xboxbg.xbx, you have basically a new tHc dash skin.

So, now that you know what and where everything is, you don't. There are .xap files inside of .xip files. Notice how tHc doesn't have a background image to start with? One of the xap files has to be edited to make the dash see a background file. You'll need to open winxip to extract the default.xap out of default.xip. Once you've extracted the default.xap you'll need to edit it with the text editor in XapEditor. Open up default.xap, copy "DEF theBackground Background" into the search box and hit enter.
It should bring you to these lines

DEF theBackground Background
{
skycolor 0 0 0
}

You'll need to add
"backdrop ImageTexture { url "xboxbg.xbx" }" right below skycolor 0 0 0 so it lookse like


DEF theBackground Background
{
skycolor 0 0 0
backdrop ImageTexture { url "xboxbg.xbx" }
}

If backdrop ImageTexture { url "xboxbg.xbx" } needs to be tabbed to be lined up under skycolor 0 0 0 do it.

Save the edited default.xap and insert it back into default.xip.



The hard part is basically over!!! Now depending on the skin and dash version you might have to do a little more, you might have to do a little less.
You'll just be updating xbx files from here on. Some skins bunch their xbx files up because as you may have noticed some get used over and over again.
The good skins will have each xip that needs to be edited as it's own folder with the xbx files that need to be inserted into the coresponding xip file.
So the default.xip folder would have a Cellwall.xbx,dvdstop.xbx,dvdstopw.xbx,Gamehilite_01.xbx, xbox logo.xbx,xboxlogo128.xbx,xboxlogo64.xbx,xboxlogow
and xboxbg.xbx. That's if all of the xbx files were edited. Most of the times most of the files are not edited so they wont be in the folder.

In a default default.xip, xboxbg.xbx wont be present. Just right click on an open line in winxip and insert it in. For the other files do the same. It will ask if you want to overwrite the file, just click yes.
Once each and every edited xbx file is injected over the old xbx save the xip. Once all of the xip files have been edited and saved it's time to resign the tHcdash.xbe.

The Xbox dash does not have to be named xboxdash.xbe to be resigned properly*** After it's been resigned you can name it what ever your heart desires too.
In winxip click on File and click on Resign MS Dashboard...
A new window will pop up asking what xbe to resign and where to point for the xip files to resign with it.
Hit the Browse icon(looks like [ ... ] and browse to the thcdash.xbe renamed to xboxdash.xbx and click it as the xbe to resign. A list of files will pop up with the "NO" cirlce around them.
Hit the second Browse icon and browse to the folder where all of the folders containing the xip files you just edited are and hit ok.
The "No" circle should change to a check mark over every file. Just hit Resign and that's it!
You'll need to FTP just the tHcdash.xbe and tHc_Dash_v1x.xxxxxxxx folder. Rename the tHcdash.xbe to what ever name is needed for the xbox to point to it.

Load up tHc and you should see your new skin.




MAKING NEW IMAGES FOR A SKIN (XBX FILES FROM SCRATCH)

TOOLS:
MSPaint(or any art program) Bundler.exe, Fastxbx2dds2img, WinXip


The fun part of skinning... Making your own. First things first. The screen out put is 640x480 but, the xboxbg.xbx needs to be sized 1024x512.
All the .xbx files are different sizes. I suggest you use a program that will let you paste over an image. To make sure you're getting the right size image save the .xbx as an image and use that as a template.

Now comes time for Fastxbx2dds2img. When you first download Fastxbx2dds2img it IS NOT ready for use! You must download Bundler.exe and put it in the tools folder inside Fastxbx2dds2img.
On top of that, you must unregister and reregister kixforms.dll. This is easy enought from any dos promt.(cmd)
type in regsvr32 -u kixforms.dll to unregister the .dll.
then type regsvr32 kixforms.dll to reregister the .dll.

Now your Fastxbx2dds2img is ready for use. Atleast it should be. If it isn't don't ask me I don't know what the problem is. Try redownloading Bundler or something.
In order to use Fastxbx2dds2img the file type has to be in it's matching folder inside Fastxbx2dds2img.
Like the xbx you want to convert has to be in the xbx folder, otherwise you wont be able to see it.
Select the option you want to preform. You should see a green bar go across the bottom of the app., and it should say complete when it's finished.

Now hopefully you have all your pics saved as xbx and are ready to put them into the .xip files.
Open up Winxip and select the .xip you want to update. Just go down the list and right click an open area. Hit insert and navagate to the xbx you want to update and hit ok.
Once all of the .xbx files are updated in the xip hit save and move onto the next .xip file.
After all of the .xip files are edited hit resign. Follow the steps above to resign the dash and it's done.



EDITING THE COLORS OF THE DASH

TOOL:
Haxbe


This is what is going to set off the dash. Usuing the standard colors looks great for the most part,
but in order for the dash to have the extra kick you might need to match some colors in your background or lighten some stuff up.
Hexbe is a good tool that make it easy for you to edit the almost all the colors of the dash.
One thing you will notice is Hexbe brings up the standard coloring of the green dash. It will not update the colors just useing the .xbe.
Save your Projects! Otherwise you'll regret it later.
Because it would be impossible to make it anymore clear as to what color is applied to where I'll post a link to
http://kanaberra.nerim.net/kbox/photo/hexbe.htm
Don't thank me, thank Kanaberra for it.
If you can't figure out what you need to change in order to get the dash to look the way you want with that, please leave the skinning to someone like GLiTcH!

Once you've gotten the coloring the way you want just save your work. Thats it just Ftp the xbe back to C and it should be the way you wanted.



SWITCHING YOUR SKIN WITHOUT THE USE OF A PC

TOOL:
boXplorer

This is for people who already have multiple skins resigned and ready for use on their xbox.
An easy way to update your skin is keep them in E: or F: then use boXplorer to overwrite the xboxdash.xbe and the .xip files needed for the skin.
It's not as easy as picking a skin in evox but it works.
NOTE! If you use two different dash colors like Blue and Red you have to rename the tHc_Dash_v1?.10027100 to mimic the dash you're switching to. Otherwise you'll get an error 21.

BIG THX for the hard work to generate a detailled & complete tut like that, it's all in there

good tut m8 well done
question...what part of the dash will this file change......Gamehilite_01.xbx

ta

yes, thanks for taking the time to disect all the processes, people like me appreciate it.

i just want to add when resigning the dash and when the circles change to all check marks, the file "settings_adoc" would not show up for me and would have to be manually added.

you just need to hit "add" button at the bottom and point to the tHc_Dash_v1x.xxxxxxxx folder.

I have tried several times to install a new skin to my tHC dash. Examples: Matriculation skins, PIDs Purple Lighting, and mAEs.
I am using the v1b.10027100 dash with the 12-27-03 patch. It was mentioned in Kanaberra's tut that you need to use an original.xbe in order to be able to skin your dash not the one that came with v1x. In this tut you mention that you can simply rename your .xbe to xboxdash.xbe. So I am a little confused. I have tried to use my own original .xbe but it will not resign, it actually will not patch with 4720 either because of a file size error. When I treid to use the thc.xbe that came with my v1b, it could not be patched with the 4720 by fuckdb. I have the v1b installed currently and configured the menus and settings to my liking. As well as patched for G support and it resigned fine. But it would be nice to be able to use a new skin. Any suggestions would be helpful.

Thanks for all the great work you guys have all done with this dash. I think it is hands down the best dash mod yet!

Why has this post NOT been pinned? Are the guys on these boards idiots. This would help out so many people, if they would just read it. Thank you Odb718!

yeah - Xbox-Savage is right - Voltaic did a kick ass job with WinXip - it'll resign the xbe regardless of name

pinned

Thanks you two. I read that the dash HAD to be named that way so thats what I did and that's why I put it in there like that. Consider it edited.
And JbOnE stay on man! and everyone JbOnE needs to be highlited for a big thanks so everyone thank him in a pm.... and ask for the final too... he'll give it to ya lol j/k dont pm him

just wondering if anybody has made a tut on inserting textures into the menu (like the "adamantium" skin by aston. I've seen it done a few times and I've tried it mysef (unsuccessfully). I'm also wondering how to change the opacity when Hexbe says it's disabled. I know there's a way to make items look completely solid, but I cant figure it out.

Whoa! Overload! Okay, so what the heck do you have to do to use the skins from www.allxboxskins.com? I got the halo skin and it looks soo cool. It came with two files.
halo2-lite.xbp
skin.xip

Now I know what to do with the skin.xip, but what about the other? When I put them both in the thcdata folder the font colors change, the Haol background comes in, but the orb and mesh are still green? I'm using the green lite v1.2. Can someone please help in simple retard terms?

An .xbp file is an Hexbe project.
You're skinning for Lite and this tutorial was made for the original.

All you need to do is download Hexbe from www.xboxdash.net, insert the project in it's projects folder, and patch the .xbe file you're running for lite.
After that you have to Ftp it over to your xbox and you'll see the difference.

Hope that helps some.

You are awsome. Thank you soo much. I wish www.allxboxskins would say this somewhere.

I just dont understand anything

what do i have to edit, and where are those files ??
and where do i have to put the edited ones?



i downloaded orange pleasure skin, but dont know how to apply it and dont understand anything on this tutorial, could somebody please tell me what should i do in steps?

tnx in advance

Looking at the post now I see that maybe I didn't explain everything so a person who used the autoinstaller and has never FTP'd to his xbox could do it....
Then again, that same eprson probably could never do it anyhow.

eberth, did you unzip the files for that skin??
Did you recogniz any of the names on that long list in the tut???
Where they are actually depends on how you used the auto installer to put tHc onto your xbox. If you said put the stuff onto C:... well then guess where it's at!!

so i just have to put all the files in c?

If that's where you run tHc from.
Make sure you're not running tHc Lite.

The files you need to edit will be in a folder called tHc_Dash_v1?.10027100
the ? = the letter of the color of the dash. My blue dash would read tHc_Dash_v1B.10027100

well here's a crazy question. what do i do when i AM running light?

don't use lite.
But I'm thinking about making a tutorial for it

for those of you who wish to use lite!!!

OK. I want to have a background in my tHc LITE dashboard - so I delet "cellwall.bmp" (I work with BMP2XIP) and make an new background called "background.bmp"(or so - I will look it up on my private PC). I tried the resolutions 1024x768, 800x600, 640x480 but tHc LITE can't show the background and there are instead a lot of colorful pixels.

What I have to do?

And by the way: Who can you take a snapshot of your tHc LITE dashboard.

tHx

k-os-x

sorry my bad

LOL
I dont think that qualifies as your bad.

Oh and k-os-x, try hitting the two trigger buttons and white for a snapshot.

Yeah thanks for the tut, whithout people like you us noobs would be grabbing our ankles. Thanks for the awesome tutorial!

Thanks a lot for the tutorial. It cleared up a bunch of stuff.

But i have a question. I download a skin called PIDPurpledash and the directions didn't make since prior to me finding you tut. But there is something that i have no idea how to do.

2. apply Green-NoCellWall-Orbs 1012a700.exe (read the THC.nfo first) patch

There it is. Can you tell me What that is and where i can find it(if you can). Your tut was already a big help and but i didn't see anything relating to this. Please help, big noob here.

I dont think you need that patch mate

it is only if you got the original m$ dash

i have the feeling this is gonna sound stupid, but where can i get bundler.exe?

thanks!

You're gonna have to google that one up.
Either that or jump on our IRC channel and someone can hook ya up.