SkinSpace

Classic Windows Media Player skins and visualizers for VLC (skins2). VLC's own visualizers run right inside the skin screen. Unofficial fan project.

INCLUDED SKINS

Skin            Status           Files (dist/)
-------------   --------------   ------------------------------------------
Headspace       finished (v1.0)  Headspace.vlt      (1x, 549x394)
9SeriesDefault  in design        (WMP9 default "Corona", 859x468)
<more>          planned          Headspace-2x.vlt   (2x, pixel look)
                                 Headspace-3x.vlt   (3x, pixel look)

QUICK START

Requirements: VLC 3.0.x (tested: 3.0.23, Windows).

Option 1 -- starter bat (recommended, no admin needed):

skins/headspace/Start-Headspace.bat   (2x skin, EQ + goom visualizer enabled)

Option 2 -- command line:

"C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe" -I skins ^
    --skins2-last="C:\...\dist\Headspace-2x.vlt"

Option 3 -- install into VLC: copy the .vlt to C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\skins\ and select it in VLC: Tools > Preferences > Interface > "Use custom skin" (restart required).

Playlist note: by default the skin shows VLC's playlist root nodes ("Playlist"/"Media Library") as rows. With --no-media-library (see the starter bats) the list is clean, just like the original.

WARNING 1: "Open skin..." (context menu) can crash VLC (reproduced on 3.0.23). Workaround: restart VLC via the starter bat / --skins2-last.

WARNING 2: If VLC will not start after a crash, clear the folder %APPDATA%\vlc\crashdump -- a left-over crash dump blocks every start (known VLC 3.0.x behavior).

CONTROLS

Element                       Function
---------------------------   --------------------------------------------
Forehead left / right         Minimize / Close
Forehead center               Previous | Play | Stop | Next
                              and the "sun" = Open media
(during playback)             Pause button appears over Play
Chin left (bars icon)         Equalizer drawer (left ear) open/close
Chin right (list icon)        Playlist drawer (right ear) open/close
Chin center (bracket icon)    Preferences
Seekbar                       Seek via click / drag
Head                          Drag the window
Drag & drop                   Drop media onto the window -- videos and
                              visualizers show up in the head screen

Equalizer drawer:

• 10 band sliders + Volume: take effect immediately during playback and are saved for the next session.
• VLC's equalizer filter is off by default; the starter bats enable it on launch (like the original, where the EQ was always active). Alternatively click the "reset" link once (on; LED lit = active), click again = off.
• The "Volume" label doubles as the mute indicator: it reads "Volume" normally and shows a struck-through label while muted. Click it to mute/unmute.
• "reset" link = equalizer on/off. A true gain reset is technically not possible in the VLC skin system (the engine offers no reset command).
• "Preamp" slider (originally Balance): controls the EQ pre-amp (+/-20 dB, live). VLC skins cannot bind Balance -- so it was repurposed and relabeled.

Playlist drawer:

• Per-row checkboxes and the scrollbar with arrows are rebuilt original artwork. VLC has no per-item state (the boxes are always "on") and no arrow scrolling (scroll with the mouse wheel or drag the thumb). Rows can be Ctrl/Shift-click multi-selected (highlighted). The drawer's bottom strip holds the playlist tools: bin (remove selected), sort (A-Z), shuffle toggle and loop toggle (both states are shown). Free drag-reordering is not possible (engine limit).
• The bottom right shows the current track time ("00:04 / 00:30"). A duration column per row is not possible: VLC only hands the skin the title strings.

VISUALIZERS (goom / projectM in the head screen)

VLC's own visualizers run inside the skin screen. The standard starter bat enables goom by default; manual option:

--audio-visual=goom            (goom: ships with VLC, works reliably via CLI)

• VLC also ships projectM and glSpectrum, but VLC's audio-visual option validation silently drops these two when set on the command line or in the vlcrc -- they can only be picked at runtime via VLC's own menu ("Audio > Visualizations"). Default is none (no visualizer).
• The visualizer cannot be switched from within the skin -- VLC offers no visualizer actions to skins. The original Headspace had a "WhiteCap Viz" chooser at the top of the screen; reproducible as pure artwork if wanted.
• projectM presets (.milk) can be configured in VLC; the upcoming VLC pack will ship a small curated selection.
• In development: "Bitmancer Visualizer Pack" -- custom retro and modern visualizers (100% own code).
• Screen fit: the screen recess in the artwork is round, but skins2 renders video into a rectangular child window on top of the skin. The <Video> control therefore sits on the recess's full bounding box -- only then does VLC keep the player window's geometry stable (a smaller control + manual moving makes the window jump). The starter bat launches tools/vout_mask.ps1, which (a) clips the player window to the recess shape (alpha mask of head.png) and (b) trims the ~78 px of that box lying outside the head artwork (the two screen corners, which the video control otherwise forces opaque black) out of the skin window's region -- re-applied in a tight loop because skins2 rebuilds its region on every repaint. Result: edge-to-edge, no black, no colour patchwork, no jumping. vid_bkgd.png (generated by tools/make_vid_bkgd.ps1) is the recess-shaped black idle screen. DPI-aware; follows layouts and new vouts. Starting VLC directly with --skins2-last bypasses the watchdog (square / black-tipped corners).

INSTALLER & PACKS (work in progress)

An Inno Setup installer with its own package manager is planned: English UI (German strings included), uninstall/repair supported. Design and implementation plan live under docs/.

Packs (individually selectable):

[x] VLC pack        Headspace skins 1x/2x/3x, curated projectM presets,
                    VLC detection + version warning, optional portable
                    MilkDrop 3; sets skins2-last in the vlcrc (with backup)

[ ] WMP pack        Original .wmz from the WMP Goodies archives + original
                    WMP visualizers (Alchemy, Battery & co.; admin rights
                    required). Experimental: WMP visualizers in the VLC
                    screen (feasibility spike: GO for GDI viz)

[ ] Winamp pack     MilkDrop 2 (community fix) + AVS for Winamp/WACUP;
                    MilkDrop 3 standalone for everyone

[x] Bitmancer pack  Custom visualizers (own code, safe to redistribute;
                    retro DLLs + modern presets) -- in development

Engine features: manifest with mandatory SHA256 for all downloads, mirror chains, BYO picker when sources are dead (hash match only), journal with uninstall/repair/resume, vlcrc editor with backup/restore. CLI:

Install-<Project>.ps1 [-Packs vlc,wmp,winamp] [-DryRun] [-OfflinePath <dir>] [-Resume]

Recommended: VLC >= 3.0.24 (security fix in the skins2 loader); tested on 3.0.23.

KNOWN DEVIATIONS FROM THE ORIGINAL (technical limits, documented)

• No "disabled" button artwork (skins2 only knows up/hover/down states).
• Ear drawers open without slide animation (no motion animation support).
• The cursor does not switch to a hand cursor (not provided by the skin system).
• The "reset" link toggles the EQ instead of zeroing gains.
• Balance cannot be bound in VLC skins -- the slider was repurposed into a working pre-amp (label adjusted).
• Visualizer selection/name is not possible inside the skin (see above).
• Playlist checkboxes are decorative, the arrows do not scroll; no per-row duration (see Controls).
• Download progress in the seekbar (original artwork) is omitted.

REPO LAYOUT (multi-skin)

SkinSpace/
|
+-- skins/
|   +-- headspace/              skin #1 (more will live next to it)
|       +-- theme/              build sources: XML fragments, images, fonts
|       +-- variants/           staged 2x/3x variants (generated)
|       +-- originals/          original raw files (WMZ, bitmaps, previews)
|       +-- Start-Headspace.bat
|
+-- tools/                      shared build chain (-Skin <name>)
+-- dist/                       finished .vlt files for all skins
+-- research/, docs/            project knowledge & docs
+-- README.md, RESUME.md

Adding a new skin:

1. Create skins/<name>/ (with theme/ and originals/)
2. Put the original assets into originals/extracted/
3. Adjust the XML fragments/images in theme/
4. Run the chain with -Skin <name> (see below)

BUILD CHAIN (for the curious)

Original (.wmz / bitmaps)
      |
      v
tools/make_*.ps1      -->  skins/<name>/theme/  (PNG32 + fragments)
      |
      v
tools/build_theme.ps1 -->  theme.xml (with built-in validation)
      |
      v
tools/pack.ps1        -->  dist/<Skin>.vlt  -->  VLC 3.0.x (skins2)
      |
      +-- tools/build_variants.ps1  -->  dist/<Skin>-2x.vlt / -3x.vlt

Calls (default skin: headspace):

tools/make_original_assets.ps1 -Skin headspace   # BMP -> PNG32 (+ bitmaps.xml)
tools/make_extra_assets.ps1 -Skin headspace      # LED/fill/link/playlist artwork
tools/make_track_assets.ps1 -Skin headspace      # slider tracks from original tiles
tools/build_theme.ps1 -Skin headspace -Scale 1   # theme.xml + validation
tools/pack.ps1 -Skin headspace                   # -> dist/Headspace.vlt
tools/build_variants.ps1 -Skin headspace         # -> dist/Headspace-2x/-3x.vlt

Test suites (click-free): tools/tests/run_task5.ps1, run_task6.ps1

Detailed docs: research/ (reverse engineering, mapping, spike results) and docs/ (specs + plans, incl. distribution/installer).

CREDITS & NOTES

• Original skin "Headspace" (c) 2000/2001 Microsoft Corporation -- official WMP skin. Assets from the Internet Archive backup of the Microsoft skin collection (archive.org/details/windowsmediaplayerskinscollection). All rights to the original belong to Microsoft.
• "VLC" is a trademark of the VideoLAN organization. This project is unofficial and not affiliated with VideoLAN or Microsoft.
• Non-commercial fan project, use at your own risk.

---

Have fun -- and remember: this project lives from the originals. Thanks, Microsoft, 2000/01.