PlayStation 3 Theme (P3T)
Description
Themes can be created by Sony's official PlayStation 3 theme creator software or by theme compilers from third-party developers.
System software version 1.90 allows users to change the background of the XMB to display any image saved on the console's hard disk drive.
Firmware 2.00 added the ability to select the background color of the XMB (from the same choice as the PSP), and the brightness of the color. The same update also added extra font choices, and the ability to use custom themes that change the icons, wallpaper, color, font, and, in some cases, the click sound effects.
With the release of firmware 3.00, a 'sparkle' effect has been added to the default theme and night time black theme has the current month color as a basis, instead of white.
A Dynamic Themes feature was added in software version 3.00 which allows the user to use animated themes. These themes may feature animated backgrounds which change throughout the day or respond to user input
- FW 2.00:
- Ability to modify the PlayStation 3 XMB Home Menu icons or background design by using a theme compiler
- [Colour], [Background] and [Font] have been added as options under [Theme Settings].
- Ability to select [Brightness] as an option under [Theme Settings] > [Background].
- FW 3.00:
- Support for new Dynamic Custom Themes.
- The default theme has been changed to an updated version of the 'Original' waves theme (the original theme has been renamed 'Classic').
- XMB icons now change colour along with the theme depending on the time of day.
- Installation
- From USB (and CF/SD/MS memorycards): /PS3/THEME/*.p3t
- From disc (or fake disc): Infos on Creating Discs
- From PS3 INTERNET browser & SEN STORE
- From FW
- From Games
- From PKG (with EDATA)
- Manually by copying the *.p3t inside the /dev_hdd0/theme folder
Theme Contents
Theme Scene (.XML)
Code Sample
Variations
- Reduced infotable
This is the minimal tested by me --Sandungas 14:05, 11 February 2013 (MSK) if you find some item of this table is not needed please delete the line
Code Sample
- Localized info
This texts replaces the "Theme Name" in the <infotable> with different languages for each region, the languages are the same ones used in Content_Information_Files#Languages and are only displayed when the XMB is configured in the same language
When the theme doesnt contains <localizedinfo> the default "theme Name" from <infotable> is used , for this reason is preferable to dont include <localizedinfo> (are not needed, and the name of the theme doesnt need to be translated in most cases)
Code Sample
Themeicon and Authoricon (.PNG)
Theme Preview (.PNG)
XMB Icons (.PNG)
- Notes
icon_default_v and icon_default_v are used when the theme don t have newest icons needed by XMB (or not build with). E.g. when installing a theme made in 2008 in a firmware released in 2013
Notification window (.PNG)
Mouse Pointers (.PNG)
Sound effects as PlayStation Compressed Sound File.
-Total sound data under 256 KB.
- Stereo Sounds
Code Sample
Background (.JPG .RAF)
- The background image (in themes without a .raf background)
-Max size of an image (JPEG normal format): 2MB. -One theme file can contain at most 24 background images.
Static and slideshow Themes (JPG)
Contain the background(s) of the theme.
You can have different background for SD (640x480) or HD (1920x1080) resolutions.
Can be compiled into RAF directly (.DDS can be used also).
- Animated background
On the background image used: You can have more than one, each time you boot back to XMB, a new background will be display. In that case it ll look like this: (here it s 2 static JPEG background, SD or HD according to monitor resolution, 4 anim with different dynamic background)
Code Sample
Animated and 3D Themes (RAF)
RAF (rich appearance format) is considered an "image format", themes can contain a raf file that is used as the background of the theme. This same format is used for the coldboot.raf animation when PS3 boots.
It must comply with these restrictions :
-Textures size max: 15 mb -Geometry & script size max: 1mb -Actor size max: 1.20mb -Actor number max: 128 -Cameras: 1 -Lights: 2 (ambient + point) -Scripts: 1 -Models: 64 (with 8 animations each model)
- Object, skelleton, animation, lights
DAE (digital asset exchange) is an XML file that contains COLLADA content. COLLADA is an open standard created by sony for interactive 3D applications. Is used to export and import files from 3-D authoring applications (Maya, SoftImage, and 3ds max) in .dae format https://collada.org/
There is a collada plugin for [Blender] (link is at bottom of page). Both blender and the collada plugin are free and open source projects
- Script
.js (playstation javascript derivate, also known as PSJS)
- Textures
JPEG, DDS
XMB color schemes
The XMB's default background color changes depending on the current month of the year, and it changes brightness depending on the time of day. Major color changes occur on the three days before the 15th and 24th of each month, while the color gradually changes between those dates.
Date | Jan 15 | Jan 24 | Feb 15 | Feb 24 | Mar 15 | Mar 24 | Apr 15 | Apr 24 | May 15 | May 24 | Jun 15 | Jun 24 | Jul 15 | Jul 24 | Aug 15 | Aug 24 | Sep 15 | Sep 24 | Oct 15 | Oct 24 | Nov 15 | Nov 24 | Dec 15 | Dec 24 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Color |
Time | 00 | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Value |
Color of the option menu (and XMB waves when there are no background image) can be selected among the 12 (original per month or per default if none valid value) displayed on Theme Settings/Color (see color table below):
Color Sample | Color Selection | Month |
---|---|---|
1 | January | |
2 | February | |
3 | March | |
4 | April | |
5 | May | |
6 | June | |
7 | July | |
8 | August | |
9 | September | |
10 | October | |
11 | November | |
12 | December |
Tutorials & Tools Links
official:
- Theme Settings manual:
http://manuals.playstation.net/document/en/ps3/current/settings/themesettings.html
- How do I create my own theme for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system?
http://us.playstation.com/support/answer/index.htm?a_id=1205
- Playstation 3 custom theme guidelines v2.00 (official p3tcompiler.exe with a sample theme). This toolset doesnt contains the raf compilers !
Others:
- Resources&tools, tutorials (Slide Show etc..): http://www.ps3-themes.com/
- MFW : PS3MFW_Builder
- Rich Apparence Maker http://r.a.m.games-hack.fr/index.php guide http://r.a.m.games-hack.fr/doc/Rich%20Appearance%20Maker%20-%20Quick%20Start%20Guide.pdf
- "Playstation 3 Theme Builder" and "Xross Media Simulator" http://www.lili-chan.com/
- Interesting info about Animations/3D support in themes http://www.ps3hax.net/showthread.php?t=28426
- See also: QGL page
- DDS tools
- GIMP plug-in (not mandatory to use DDS for Slide Show Pro if picture compiled directly to RAF) http://code.google.com/p/gimp-dds/
- NVIDIA DDS Plug-in for Adobe Photoshop https://developer.nvidia.com/nvidia-texture-tools-adobe-photoshop
- NVIDIA DDS Plug-in for 3ds Max https://developer.nvidia.com/content/3ds-max-dds-plugin-1008271100
- NVIDIA DDS Thumbnail Viewer for windows explorer https://developer.nvidia.com/sites/default/files/akamai/tools/files/DDS_viewer.exe
- NVIDIA Legacy Texture Tools (includes a command line converter) https://developer.nvidia.com/sites/default/files/akamai/tools/files/DDS_Utilities_8.31.1127.1645.exe
- DAE tools
- COLLADA plugin for Blender http://colladablender.illusoft.com/ http://sourceforge.net/projects/colladablender/
- Imageviewer with lot of supported formats http://www.irfanview.com/