PS3 Using string viewer plugin to create new XMB items.

[DeViL303]

As there seems to be no real use for string viewer plugin, I was messing around with ideas for other uses. None of these are really that useful currently, but maybe there is some idea here that can leads to something useful.


1: Mini "game" aka interactive screensaver

2. Button tester for only 6 buttons

3. Color changing screen saver

4. Fake System Check

To test these you just need to add an item like this to any XMBML

<View id="screensaver">
<Attributes>
<Table key="screensaver">
<Pair key="icon_rsc"><>trophy_tex_capsule</></Pair>
<Pair key="title"><>Animation Tester</></Pair>
<Pair key="info"><>String Viewer Plugin RCO Mod</></Pair>
<Pair key="module_name"><>strviewer_plugin</></Pair>
<Pair key="module_action"><></></Pair>
</Table>
</Attributes>
<Items>
<Item class="type:x-xmb/module-action" key="screensaver" attr="screensaver"/>
</Items>
</View>

Files attached for testing these if anyone is interested. Just put the XML into /dev_blind/vsh/resource/explore/xmb/ and put one of the rcos onto flash as /dev_blind/vsh/resource/strviewer_plugin.rco (rename)

 

[Berion]

Why are You using such strange constructs?

<Pair key="module_action"><></></Pair>

It is the same as:

<Pair key="module_action" />

At least in normal XML parsers. It is somehow mandatory on PS3? And why even putting there completely empty "clamps" like:

<></>

Just I'm curious if it is just an syntax errors, placeholders or some strange rules which user must follow.

 

[DeViL303]

Aldo discovered that we can remove the "String" string from the tags, so <String>xxxxxxxx</String> can be replaced by <>xxxxxxxxx</>, I have not tried removing them completely but I doubt it will work.

After that I figured out none of the XMBML tags really matter, you only need the first letter of each one, it allows us to optimize the xmls a lot.

So this

<Pair key="module_name"><String>strviewer_plugin</String></Pair>

Is the same as this

<P="module_name"><>strviewer_plugin</></P>

 

[LuanTeles]

Aldo discovered that we can remove the "String" string from the tags, so <String>xxxxxxxx</String> can be replaced by <>xxxxxxxxx</>, I have not tried removing them completely but I doubt it will work.

After that I figured out none of the XMBML tags really matter, you only need the first letter of each one, it allows us to optimize the xmls a lot.

So this

<Pair key="module_name"><String>strviewer_plugin</String></Pair>

Is the same as this

<P="module_name"><>strviewer_plugin</></P>

Actually
<Pair key="module_action"><></></Pair>

is not needed since its empty

By the way, does summarizing tag names help save vsh memory? I know when we open big xmls, some XMB items don't load anymore, but when I check vsh memory through webMAN MOD there is plenty of unused ram, so why the XMB breaks?

I fixed almost all those problems here by placing the folders in xmls different from their content, but my what's new items will be eventually broken, needing to hard reboot the system, i don't know why XMB reload and Soft reboot does not fix it.

 

[DeViL303]

By the way, does summarizing tag names help save vsh memory? I know when we open big xmls, some XMB items don't load anymore, but when I check vsh memory through webMAN MOD there is plenty of unused ram, so why the XMB breaks?

I do not think so, it seems to be more about the icons. Not sure why it happens really. I guess there is some limit there. TBH we are doing fairly well, the XMB was only designed to load a few hundred items.

I've noticed when you browse too many menus in one session that the icons stop loading alright. But this issue never really shows up in normal use so I do not worry about it really. For example with Ultimate Toolbox it only shows up if you try browse thousands of items in one go when making a video or something.

You can help mitigate this issue by making it so the main items for sub categories read from small xmls, with the actual src content reading from another xml. This is why Ultimate Toolbox is done like that, so when you enter the main menu its only loading a bunch of ~1KB xmls, the larger xmls are only loaded when you enter each item. This way extra items are not loaded when they are not needed.

 

[pinky]

interesting finds, my friend. I especially like the minigame thing. I have no mods on my system right now, but alphabetizing on evilnat 4.88.

 

[LuanTeles]

I do not think so, it seems to be more about the icons. Not sure why it happens really. I guess there is some limit there. TBH we are doing fairly well, the XMB was only designed to load a few hundred items.

I've noticed when you browse too many menus in one session that the icons stop loading alright. But this issue never really shows up in normal use so I do not worry about it really. For example with Ultimate Toolbox it only shows up if you try browse thousands of items in one go when making a video or something.

You can help mitigate this issue by making it so the main items for sub categories read from small xmls, with the actual src content reading from another xml. This is why Ultimate Toolbox is done like that, so when you enter the main menu its only loading a bunch of ~1KB xmls, the larger xmls are only loaded when you enter each item. This way extra items are not loaded when they are not needed.

View attachment 33852

Yeap i'm using it pretty much the same as you,the main item with the sub categories and then another xml with it's content, it fixed a lot of spin icon issues I had before ( it took me a while to figure this out), but if I open an item with more than 20 items or entering in multiple simple folders the What's New images no longer loads they show the default blue blackground , well this is a minor problem but it buggs me.

I think i need to reduce the What's new ram usage too, when i toggle the performance bar it shows a high usage mostly because i'm using flash content + music, i was trying the background music with your patched sprx and rco, it also breaks the what's new if the coldboot music has more than 28MB.