An open-source, cross-platform reimagining of Sony's XrossMediaBar, built with modern C++23, Vulkan, and SDL2 for high performance and portable efficiency.

This project is a modern interpretation of the iconic XrossMediaBar (XMB) interface, famously used on the PlayStation 3 and other Sony devices. It is not a direct port, but a new implementation that leverages modern graphics APIs and C++ features to create a flexible and performant user interface for desktops and embedded systems.

The rendering backend is powered by AuroreEngine, a custom rendering library based on dreamrender. The entire application is built using C++23 modules for a clean and modern architecture.

Left: OpenXMB main menu & settings (pre-alpha) · Right: Dynamic XMB colour schemes adapting to time/month

• Modern Tech Stack: Built with C++23 modules, CMake, Vulkan for rendering (with MoltenVK on macOS), and SDL2 for windowing and input.
• Cross-Platform: Designed to run on SynOS (and other Ubuntu-based distros), macOS, and Windows.
• Dynamic XMB Interface: A fully navigable, PS3-style cross-media bar with smooth animations and a dynamic wave background.
• Extensible Menus: Includes menus for Settings, Photos, Music, Videos, Games, and Applications. The application menu automatically scans for .desktop files.
• Built-in Media Viewers:
  • Image viewer for common formats.
  • Text viewer.
  • FFmpeg-based video player with GPU-accelerated YUV decoding.
• Highly Configurable: Runtime behavior, colors, fonts, and more can be configured via a simple config.json file.
• Optional Modules: The build system allows enabling or disabling major features like the video player, a planned CEF-based web browser, and libretro core support.

Before you begin, ensure you have the following tools and libraries installed (versions are minimums unless stated):

• Git
• CMake 3.22+
• Ninja build system
• C++23-capable compiler:
  • Linux: Clang 17+ (Clang 19 recommended) or GCC 13+
  • macOS: Xcode 15 (Clang) + Vulkan SDK (MoltenVK)
  • Windows: MSVC 19.34+
• Vulkan 1.2 capable GPU + drivers (MoltenVK on macOS)
• Libraries (names as found on Ubuntu 24.04-like distros):
  • Vulkan headers and loader: libvulkan-dev, vulkan-validationlayers-dev
  • SDL2 core + image + mixer: libsdl2-dev, libsdl2-image-dev, libsdl2-mixer-dev
  • FFmpeg (if ENABLE_VIDEO_PLAYER=ON): libavcodec-dev libavformat-dev libavutil-dev libswscale-dev libswresample-dev
  • Freetype: libfreetype-dev
  • glm: libglm-dev
  • fmt: libfmt-dev
  • gettext (i18n): gettext
  • Optional (used by dependencies): harfbuzz, spirv-tools, pkg-config

1. Install Dependencies (via Homebrew):

   brew install cmake ninja pkg-config ffmpeg sdl2 sdl2_image sdl2_mixer gettext fmt freetype glm
   # Install the Vulkan SDK, which includes MoltenVK
   brew install vulkan-sdk

2. Build OpenXMB:

   # Clone the repository
   git clone https://github.com/phenom64/OpenXMB.git
   cd OpenXMB
   
   # Configure the project
   cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja \
     -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
     -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=clang-19 -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=clang++-19 \
     # Optionally point to a local AuroreEngine checkout:
     # -DDREAMRENDER_LOCAL=/path/to/AuroreEngine
   
   # Build the project
   cmake --build build -j $(sysctl -n hw.ncpu)
   
   # (Optional) Install the application
   # This will place the binary and assets in the specified directory.
   cmake --install build --prefix "/Applications/OpenXMB"

   The launcher script will automatically try to locate the MoltenVK_icd.json file required for Vulkan to work on macOS.

1. Install Dependencies (via APT):

   sudo apt update
   sudo apt install build-essential git cmake ninja-build pkg-config \
       libvulkan-dev vulkan-validationlayers-dev spirv-tools \
       libsdl2-dev libsdl2-image-dev libsdl2-mixer-dev \
       libavcodec-dev libavformat-dev libavutil-dev libswscale-dev libswresample-dev \
       libglm-dev libfreetype-dev gettext libfmt-dev

2. Build OpenXMB:

   # Clone the repository
   git clone https://github.com/phenom64/OpenXMB.git
   cd OpenXMB
   
   # Configure the project
   cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja \
     -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
     -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=clang-19 -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=clang++-19 \
     # Optionally point to a local AuroreEngine checkout:
     # -DDREAMRENDER_LOCAL=/path/to/AuroreEngine
   
   # Build the project
   cmake --build build -j $(nproc)
   
   # (Optional) Install the application system-wide
   sudo cmake --install build

1. Install Dependencies:

   • Visual Studio 2022: Install with the "Desktop development with C++" workload.
   • Git, CMake, Ninja: Install these tools and ensure they are in your system's PATH.
   • Vulkan SDK: Download and install from the LunarG website.
   • vcpkg: Use vcpkg to install the remaining dependencies.

   # Clone and set up vcpkg
   git clone https://github.com/microsoft/vcpkg.git
   cd vcpkg
   ./bootstrap-vcpkg.bat
   ./vcpkg integrate install
   
   # Install dependencies
   ./vcpkg install sdl2 sdl2-image sdl2-mixer ffmpeg freetype glm fmt gettext --triplet x64-windows

2. Build OpenXMB:

   # Clone the repository
   git clone https://github.com/phenom64/OpenXMB.git
   cd OpenXMB
   
   # Configure the project, replacing [path to vcpkg] with your vcpkg directory
   cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=[path to vcpkg]/scripts/buildsystems/vcpkg.cmake \
     -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
   
   # Build the project
   cmake --build build -j %NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS%
   
   # (Optional) Install the application
   cmake --install build --prefix "C:/OpenXMB"

You can customize the build using the following CMake options:

• -DENABLE_VIDEO_PLAYER=ON/OFF: Enable the FFmpeg-based video player (Default: ON)
• -DENABLE_BROWSER=ON/OFF: Enable the CEF-based browser module [ALPHA] (Default: OFF)
• -DENABLE_DISC_MEDIA=ON/OFF: Enable DVD/Blu-ray support [ALPHA] (Default: OFF)
• -DENABLE_LIBRETRO=ON/OFF: Enable the libretro core host for emulation [ALPHA] (Default: OFF)
• -DINTERFACE_FX_DEBUG=ON/OFF: Enable interface/UI graphics+text debug overlays (Default: ON)

Example: cmake -B build -DENABLE_BROWSER=ON

Recommended one-liner (Linux/macOS):

cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
  -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=clang-19 -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=clang++-19 \
  # -DDREAMRENDER_LOCAL=/path/to/AuroreEngine \
  && ninja -C build -j $(nproc)

OpenXMB is configured using the config.json file. When you first run the application using the XMS launcher script, a default config.json will be created in your working directory. You can edit this file to change settings like:

• Background colors and type (wave, color, image)
• Fonts and date/time display
• Controller settings
• Render quality (VSync, MSAA, FPS limit)

The application looks for assets (icons, sounds, fonts) in a directory specified by the XMB_ASSET_DIR environment variable. If not set, it defaults to the share/shell directory relative to the executable.

• ✅ M1: Scaffold: App compiles & runs; static XMB; JSON config.
• ✅ M2: Menus, Fonts, Icons: Fully navigable XMB with text & icons; async file menu scanning; intro text alignment polish.
• ** M3: Audio & Music:** Background music playback, visualizer, and sound effects.
• 🚧 M4: Video Player: File playback with GPU-accelerated YUV decoding; subtitle support next.
• ** M5: Libretro Overlay:** Emulation support via a libretro core host.
• ** M6: Web Browser:** Integration of a CEF-based browser.
• ** M7: Disc Media:** Support for DVD/Blu-ray playback.
• 🚧 M8: Performance Pass: Release/IPO defaults, steady-clock timing, async I/O; engine-side loader/pipeline tweaks; further descriptor/pool tuning planned.

OpenXMB uses AuroreEngine as the rendering backend. By default, the build fetches it automatically. For development or local changes, you can point CMake to a local checkout with -DDREAMRENDER_LOCAL=/path/to/AuroreEngine.

OpenXMB is distributed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 (GPLv3).
See the LICENSE file for the full text.

A significant portion of the OpenXMB base is derived from XMBShell, and this is reflected in code taken from that project.
Many thanks to its author, JCM.

All other original code is © 2025 Syndromatic Ltd and contributors, and licensed under version 3 of the GNU General Public License.
AuroreEngine components adapted from dreamrender remain under the MPL 2.0 license.

OpenXMB incorporates work from several outstanding open-source projects:

• XMBShell – significant portions of OpenXMB are derived from XMBShell, originally created by JCM.
• RetroArch – portions of the codebase are reused for media and emulation functionality.
• dreamrender – AuroreEngine, the rendering backend, is based on dreamrender.

And of course, thanks to the wider ecosystem, including:

• SDL2
• Vulkan
• FFmpeg
• Freetype
• glm
• spdlog
• i18n-cpp
• nlohmann/json
• argparse