Backup Manager Customization

It seems that there is still a large amount of people that are unaware that backup managers can be customized visually. With the recent releases and popularity of programs to make and install custom coldboot files, this seems like as good a time as any to let those people know that all the most popular backup managers can be tailored to your visual tastes as well. Some themes even include sound!

Whether you use Gaia, Multiman, Rogero, Open Manager or something else you can replace the image files to make the backup manager look how ever you like!

-With Multiman this is (usually) as simple as installing a pkg file and changing the theme from the file manager section within Multiman itself.
-With Open Manager (wuepe edition) you can change the theme by copying a theme to a flash drive, inserting the flash drive in your PS3 and starting Open Manager. A theme editor/creator can be found HERE for making your own themes.
-With Gaia and Rogero Managers you can ftp the theme over to your PS3 or use a file manager such as Multiman or Comgenie to replace the original theme files.
More detailed instructions can be found in the 2nd post of this thread.

Below is a sample of some of the themes that have been created for backup managers such as Gaia, Rogero and Multiman:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cErMlMzEIoA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1vEMwUXvP4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32N2l0NF0pI


Here are a few of the places where you can find (or submit your own) themes for the various backup managers:
SpiffyPS3 Theme Depository - Gaia, Rogero, Multiman themes and coldboot files
ElOtroLado - Open Manager themes (Spanish site)
PS3News - Multiman themes
As well as here on PSgroove of course.

Changing the theme with MultiMAN

MultiMAN is the easiest to add a new theme to out of all the backup managers for PS3 due to the built in theme support Dean has added.

If the theme you have downloaded is a .pkg file:
1. Download the theme and unzip the archive if necessary.
2. Move the .pkg file to a USB drive and then plug it into your PS3
3. Load up MultiMAN on your PS3
4. Press L1 until you get to the file manager mode in MultiMAN
5. Select THEMES from the top of the screen (as shown in the attached image)
6. Select your theme from the right column and open the folder
7. Highlight the theme.mmt file and press X - MultiMAN should then say "applying new theme"
8. Enjoy your new theme!

If the theme you have downloaded is NOT a .pkg file:
1. Download the theme and unzip the archive if necessary.
2. Move the theme folder to a USB drive and plug the USB drive into your PS3
3. Load up MultiMAN on your PS3
4. Press L1 until you get to the file manager mode in MultiMAN
5. Select THEMES from the top of the screen (as shown in the attached image)
6. Navigate to the USB drive containing your theme using the left hand column
7. Select your theme and press O on the controller to copy the folder over to your PS3 (make sure the right hand column is still showing /dev_hdd0/game/BLES80608/USRDIR/themes)
8. In the right hand column open the folder you just copied over. Then highlight the theme.mmt file and press X - MultiMAN should then say "applying new theme"
8. Enjoy your new theme!


Changing the theme with Rogero Manager

The file structure is as follows:
/dev_hdd0/game/ROGE12345/ICON0.PNG - (XMB icon)
/dev_hdd0/game/ROGE12345/PIC1.PNG - (XMB Background Image)
/dev_hdd0/game/ROGE12345/USRDIR/NOBG.PNG - (Game Background if no game image is available)
/dev_hdd0/game/ROGE12345/USRDIR/PICBG.PNG - (Rogero Background)

Installation:
1. Download the theme and unzip the archive if necessary.
2. Launch an FTP program on your PS3 such as OpenPS3FTP or Blackbox
3. Connect to your PS3 from your computer via an FTP program such as FileZilla.
4. Navigate to "/dev_hdd0/game/ROGE12345/" then replace ICON0.PNG and PIC1.PNG with the files of the same name from the theme you just downloaded.
5. Navigate to "/dev_hdd0/game/ROGE12345/USRDIR/" then replace the PICBG.PNG and NOBG.PNG files
6. Exit your FTP programs and check out your new theme!
-Alternatively, you could also transfer the files to a USB drive after unzipping and tranfer them to your PS3 using multiman or comgenie file manager.


Changing the theme with Gaia Manager

In Gaia Manager version 2.X the images (BGG.PNG, BGH.PNG and HIGHLIGHT.PNG) are inside the EBOOT.BIN file.
However, you can still use custom themes in the same way as in version 1.X
Gaia will detect and use those images instead of the default ones inside the EBOOT.BIN file.

The file structure is as follows:
/dev_hdd0/game/GAIA01985/ICON0.PNG - (XMB icon)
/dev_hdd0/game/GAIA01985/PIC1.PNG - (XMB Background Image)
/dev_hdd0/game/GAIA01985/USRDIR/BGG.PNG - (Background in Games View)
/dev_hdd0/game/GAIA01985/USRDIR/BGH.PNG - (Background in Homebrew View)
/dev_hdd0/game/GAIA01985/USRDIR/HIGHLIGHT.PNG - (selection bar)

Installation:
1. Download the theme and unzip the archive if necessary.
2. Launch Gaia Manager and activate the "FTP Server" option (or use a program such as OpenPS3FTP or Blackbox)
3. Connect to your PS3 from your computer via an FTP program such as FileZilla.
4. Navigate to "/dev_hdd0/game/GAIA01985/" then replace ICON0.PNG and PIC1.PNG with the files of the same name from the theme you just downloaded.
5. Navigate to "/dev_hdd0/game/GAIA01985/USRDIR/" then replace the BGG.PNG, BGH.PNG and HIGHLIGHT.PNG files
6. Exit your FTP programs and check out your new theme!
-Alternatively, you could also transfer the files to a USB drive after unzipping and tranfer them to your PS3 using multiman or comgenie file manager.

Thanks for the tutorial. I am looking for a guide to create my own themes for multiMAN but haven't been able to find one. If you know of one to get me started, please let me know. I have never tried anything like this before, but I really want to get involved. Thanks in advance.

That's some nice piece of information..
thanks mate..