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Menu Background Changes in Xonfluence

Xonfluence Changing Menu Background (Main & Sub-Menu Bars)


This next article is going to show you how to change the menu background in the Xonfluence skin for both the main and the sub-menu.  This is a request from a member on the Ares Forum who was looking to change colors of the background on the menu and sub-menu bar.  As you may already know in Aeon Nox Silvo you are able to just go into the settings and manipulate the colors quite easily; however, in Xonfluence we have a few changes to make.  This article is going to take you through how to change the basic color of the background on the menu bars; yet it will also help you customize the menu bars.



What’s Required?


Before we jump into trying to make the changes to the menu bar we are going to want to figure out what tools we will need to make the changes.  Don’t worry this isn’t going to get crazy and there is a good chance you already have all you need.  However, if you don’t it’s ok because I am going to give you links to websites to download the needed programs.



Paint.net


You can use any image editing software; however, I like paint.net very much.  It is a very light program and gives you much of the functionality you get with Adobe Photoshop.  If you do not have paint.net you can download it here for free and if you visit their forum you can get many great add-ons to increase your functionality as well.



Gimp


Gimp is another very popular image editing software and again is a free program.  For more information or to download Gimp click here.




Kodi Texture Tool


Now that we have the editing software taken care of we can move on to Kodi Texture Tool.  This is a tool that allows you to compile and decompile  xbt files.  This holds all the images for your specific theme inside the skin.  Xonfluence, as an example, has 4 default themes and when you navigate to the folder you will see all the files (gray, kryptonite, and zik).


If you haven’t already you are going to need to download and install the Kodi Texture Tool here.  Once you have installed and launch the program you will see the following screen.


menu background


***It is important to note Texture Tool cannot use a path with spaces in it.***


I am trying to save you the headache of having to rename the folder without spaces.  Trust me I found out the hard way and it caused me an extra step.



How to Use Kodi Texture Tool


We have all the tools we need to start working on our menu background colors so now it is time to start.  Once you open the Kodi Texture Tool you will use the top section which is for decompiling.


First: Select the input button to find the xbt file.


–You are going to want to navigate to home/addons/skin.xonfluence/media/textures.xbt


Next: You will need to select where you want to decompile the file to.  I typically just create a folder on my desktop and work off the folder as I am constantly in and out of it when I am working on my build.


Finally:  Hit start and let the system do its thing.  It may take a few minutes to decompile all the images in the folder so have a little patience.




Changing Menu Background


Now that your file is completely decompiled you can begin searching through the images in this folder.  As I mentioned, every image you see in Kodi’s UI (User Interface) is right in this folder.  This means any changes you make in this folder will go live in Kodi once you compile and update the textures.xbt file.


We are going to take a look at changing the color for both the main and sub menu inside xonfluence.



Main Menu Bar


The Main Menu bar is listed as homeback.png and you will see a small black rectangle.  If you just want to change the menu bar to another solid color you can open up paint.net, gimp, or whatever image software you use.  Once you have the program open you just want to make sure to paint over the black and change the color.


As you can see I changed the homeback.png file to a light blue for this example.


menu background


Next you just need to save the file and from here you can move on to the next change you want to make.  If you wanted to use a special background or custom picture you may do so by saving your image as homeback.png.  It is worth noting the dimensions for this image are only 16×64.



Sub-Menu Bar


Now that we are happy with the color for the main menu bar we are going to want to take a look at the sub menu.  We are going to return to the decompiled textures.xbt file and locate the homesubnf.png file.  This is going to be the image you need to adjust to change the color of the sub-menu bar.  Once again this can be changed to anything and I just suggest leaving the same dimensions; in this case 128 x 64.


submenu background color


Here you can see I used the same color for this example so you can match them; however you can set this to anything.





Compile Folder


After you have made all the changes you plan to you are going to want to compile the folder and turn it back into an xbt file.  To do this you want to open the Kodi Texture Tool again.  Yet this time you are going to work on the bottom section to compile.


First thing you need to do is to select the input folder.  This is going to be the folder you’ve been working in with all your images.  After this you are going to need to choose the output folder the place you want to save the file.  Remember no spaces in the file path here and you’ll be all set.  Third just click start and again wait because it will take a few minutes to compile.


Finally you can move the textures.xbt file back to your Kodi folder and open your build.  If you followed these instructions when you open your Kodi program it should be showing you the new menu bars.



Conclusions


I thank you for taking the time to read this tutorial and I hope it gave you a stronger grasp on backgrounds.  This is just the beginning of taking a look at small changes you can make your build look great.  This tutorial should compliment the one where we looked at changing text color.  If you haven’t read it take a look here.  If you have any questions it is best to visit us at http://ares-project.uk for more assistance.  We have a whole section dedicated to Builder’s Help & Support and this is the best place for us to talk about your needs.  We thank you again for being a part of our community and stay tuned more will be on the horizon.

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