How to get a custom gamerpicture!

[DRMRspliffs]

I got it to work first try, just used the horizon logo. Looks really good Thanks.

Picture is 1 minute late…

[Rhyme]

@DelayedRespawns

[size=14]Rhymey,
When you use the Avatar camera to make a gamer pic it saves the files avtr_64.png and avtr_32.png to your profile. In your profile on the Xbox if you go ahead and choose the image as your personal pic (sometimes it seems to make it the image for both your public and personal pics automatically), then your profile will also generate matching pp_64.png and pp_32.png files.
Once you select the check button when it asks you “Use this as your gamer picture,” a number of relevant things occur. For one, it saves the image to Microsoft’s server fairly quickly, as in while the whirly saving animation still shows. I have tested this by having my laptop in front of my Xbox and repeatedly clicking search with my gamertag on Horizon’s gamercard viewer.
Of course before even entering the Avatar editor you must be connected to Xbox Live, so taking advantage of a glich like the one(s) you have mentioned can be problematic.
I have managed to get a few responses when trying the glich.

A fun note: pp_64 and 32 are what you have selected. The way the vision camera method works (at least - i think) is by abusing the fact it sets pp_64 and syncs to the server, and you take the MU out before it can sync to the server, which is why you see the new personal pic after you take the mu out and load the profile in horizon.

@DelayedRespawns

1a) I disconnect from Xbox Live almost immediately when clicking “accept”. I do this by simply pulling my network cable out of the back of the Xbox 360, and my cable already happens to have the port-clip broken off, so no need to fumble and waste extra milliseconds dealing with it. This action results in disconnecting from Xbox Live and an Avatar error appearing, “Can’t save your gamer picture. Please try again later.” Unfortunately this neither saves it to the server nor the USB.

Interesting, thanks for trying with that, because I have a slim and can’t try disconnecting the xbox.

@DelayedRespawns

2a) I disconnect from Xbox Live like the last time but with a second-or-so delay. This disconnects from Xbox Live (the normal dashboard notification pops up temporarily), but it still “saves”. However, when searching my gamertag on Horizon’s gamercard viewer, the gamerpics are not updated like they would be normally, so the server never got the new pic. Interestingly enough though, when taking the USB out and viewing the avtr_xx.png files through Horizon you can see they have been updated. Unfortunately, even if you replace them with custom pngs of the correct resolution and resign/rehash, etc. when you go back to the Xbox and reconnect to Xbox Live it does not appear to refresh the server-side gamerpics. In this case you will see your custom gamerpics on your dashboard, but no one, including the friends on-line, will see your new pics.

This is the one thing I had encountered while testing it with taking the MU out - the server, and my friends, all saw my old avatar pic.

@DelayedRespawns

3a) After hitting accept you wait a little longer to pull the ethernet cable, oddly enough this sometimes results in a couple of actions, which I believe might be a result of your internet speed at that instant (I have cable-internet with usually 20mbps+ down, 3-4mpbs up, and around 27ms ping, but it definitely fluctuates at times). Sometimes it saves to the server and your card, and other times it only saves to the server.
No matter when you disconnect, in my impression, you will not be able to replace the gamerpic (at least a public one) with a custom one because the avatar camera will not refresh itself once it gets an error, so your gamerpic updates only stay local. I get the sense that might be why the Xbox Vision Camera is the only way to go because the way they programmed that is different. I do not have a vision camera, but I believe the glich takes advantage of its program because it will refresh to what you replace the pp_xx.png files with once the USB reconnects.

Very much so! The vision camera pic syncs awkwardly, in that it saves to the memory unit first.

@DelayedRespawns

By the way, I have also tried a couple of variations of using the Avatar camera with this technique without disconnecting from Xbox Live and instead pulling the USB drive. In those scenarios it gets various errors depending on the timing, but the basic result is:
1b) Nothing is saved to the servers or USB with a very quick pull-out
2b) The avatar photo taken saves to the server, but not the USB. You will not see the avtr_xx.png files in your profile through Horizon unless you previously took an avatar photo to completion. If you already have the avtr_xx.png files from a previous avatar photo session, then whatever you replace them with on the USB simply become viewable only locally, as in your friends on-line will only see the avatar photo not the modded gamerpic.
3b) With a slightly longer delay the avatar photo saves a gamerpic on both the server and the USB. The result of trying to replace the avtr_xx.png files is the same as 2b.

Interesting. I find this information intriguing, as I do not have a wireless adapter, and have no idea how the wireless adapter reacts in comparison to the usb/mu being removed.

@DelayedRespawns

1q) What is the difference between the tile_xx.png and pp_xx.png files? Do the “tile” files only reflect what gamerpics you see locally on your dashboard, while the “pp” files are supposed to only be your personal gamerpic? My impression is that if you replace only the pp files in Horizon, then when you go back to the Xbox the dashboard gamerpics will not be updated to the custom pics until you actually re-select the custom pic as your personal pic in your Xbox profile. It is a bit confusing to me because I think I have noticed both changing at times after just replacing one set. I might not be remembering it correctly though. A clarification would be nice.

tile_xx is what you have selected for your ‘public’ picture, where pp_ is literally “personal picture”.

@DelayedRespawns

2q) When looking at the Horizon gamercard viewer why are there three gamerpics? That might seem stupid, but when using the avatar camera and searching my gamertag shortly after hitting accept on the Xbox, sometimes the two lower gamerpics change in the viewer and sometimes just one does. I presume one of the two lower gamerpics in the viewer is the personal picture while the other is the public one, but what about the one above by your rating and achievements. That one seems to take a long time to update. As I said above, I have prooven the lower two are on servers somewhere because updated ones can be instantly refreshed even if a USB with a profile on it has been removed without saving the gamerpics from the avatar camera.

I would like to say that it’s showing your avatar picture (as in, the one taken in avatar editor), your public picture and some other one (i would say it’s the personal one but it wouldnt be able to see that as it isn’t your friend).

@DelayedRespawns

3q) Someone in one of the custom gamerpic threads I read on the xboxmb forums said that changing a gamerpic results in that account not being able to earn achievements. Is that just speculation or can someone verify this? Also, I believe another person repsonded the achievement restiction can be removed if you recover an account. I find it difficult to believe Microsoft would bother to put such restrictions on modded gamerpics, especially just modded gamerpics on your local Xbox, unless they were paid-for gamerpics or offensive. Otherwise they are simply personal gamerpics, which should not violate any usage terms. Why would an account recovery fix the restriction anyway? Can an account or xbox be banned for having a pay-for gamerpic obtained for free through Horizon?

The theory it messes up achievements is 100% error, and they messed with something they shouldn’t have - a gpd or something - that rendered them unable to get achievements. If this ever happens, just delete your profile and re-recover.

Also I’ve never heard of someone being banned for using the custom gamerpicture method OR the gamerpicture pack creator.

@DelayedRespawns

4q) This might sound stupid, especially coming from someone with a computer graphics degree, but do “*.png” files support transparency like gifs can, etc? I never need to use png files, so I do not know. To be honest, after going through all of this, I am also a bit too lazy to google it or experiment in photoshop. If png files can support transparency, maybe Xbox Live does not. Either way a simple explanation would be appreciated.

They do support transparency. I am using transparency on one of my accounts - Rhymey - right now. I can vouch that both .png and Xbox LIVE support transparency and you should get no issues using transparency.

Also, I haven’t tested avatar pictures extensively, I just haven’t gotten around to it. I’ll set some time aside this weekend for it, the only thing i tried was saving the pic and taking the MU out. I haven’t tried it at different parts - ie, changing your avatar and taking it out or other silly things you wouldn’t expect to work.

Thank you for trying the theory out, regarldess.

[DelayedRespawns]

Rhyme,

Thank you so much for the thorough and thoughtful response. I was not sure if I had bombed your thread with so much at once. It is nice to know my efforts were appreciated. I am pretty sure I understand your techniques and the reasoning behind them, so we are both in agreement with everything. It would be cool if you do get a chance to tinker around with an alternative method like the avatar camera, but if you do not I would not blame you in the slightest. The repetition of going through testing for gliches to take advantage of can be quite tedious, and you have done quite a bit already.

Regarding my questions…
2q) - horizon gamercard viewer - I believe you are correct. The lower right one appears to be the avatar photo pic, which is a grey silouette if the player never took one. The upper gamerpic beside the rep stars is most likely the public gamerpic, and also as you suggest the lower left one is probably the personal pic, but unless you (the horizon system) are a friend it will not be different than the upper pic. However, do you happen to know how long the upper pic actually takes to update or what a user has to exactly do to trigger it to update on the servers? I know changing a hat or something in the avatar editor helps sync, but not all the time. Also, when you take an avatar photo you will notice the lower two pics update almost immediately, but not the upper pic. I have noticed my upper pic change after 1/2-1 hr, while just messing around and killing time in Halo multiplayer, but I do not know exactly when the sync occured or if I did anything special to trigger it.

Thank you as well for the clairifcation of my other questions. Regarding the transparency of pngs files, I am looking at “ryhmey” in horizon’s gamercard viewer and I see the two left pics are an anime purple-haired winking girl. The background aound her just appears to be mostly white though not transparent. Is that only because the gamerpic slot in Horizon happens to have a white background or something? I have not tried looking you up through my Xbox, so I can not verify this. Looking up Rhymey through xboxlive.com presents a white background for the whole page, so I also can not tell if the transparency is working. I am not doubting you though. I am just curious as to the effectiveness of transparency in a gamerpic, especially since it is so small.

This might be beyond Horizon, but has anyone ever heard of someone “hacking” into the server where the gamerpics are stored? Obviously Microsoft would notice a change to any of the paid gamerpics pretty quick, but I doubt they would pay attention to altered pics if someone can get in and out undetected. Just knowing the URL or IP address of the server might be useful in trying to come up with a work around to help empower the gliches in this technique. Please understand I am not condoning the hacking of Microsoft’s servers or anything like that. I am just asking if anyone has ever heard it being done.

Well, anyway good luck Rhymey if you do decide to figure an alternative out. Props to you already in any case.
TONE

[Rhyme]

@DelayedRespawns

Rhyme,

Thank you so much for the thorough and thoughtful response. I was not sure if I had bombed your thread with so much at once. It is nice to know my efforts were appreciated. I am pretty sure I understand your techniques and the reasoning behind them, so we are both in agreement with everything. It would be cool if you do get a chance to tinker around with an alternative method like the avatar camera, but if you do not I would not blame you in the slightest. The repetition of going through testing for gliches to take advantage of can be quite tedious, and you have done quite a bit already.

I’m planning on doing some more testing tomorrow (saturday). My new school semester just started so I have some work to do before I can even do anything time consuming like that

@DelayedRespawns

2q) - horizon gamercard viewer - I believe you are correct. The lower right one appears to be the avatar photo pic, which is a grey silouette if the player never took one. The upper gamerpic beside the rep stars is most likely the public gamerpic, and also as you suggest the lower left one is probably the personal pic, but unless you (the horizon system) are a friend it will not be different than the upper pic. However, do you happen to know how long the upper pic actually takes to update or what a user has to exactly do to trigger it to update on the servers? I know changing a hat or something in the avatar editor helps sync, but not all the time. Also, when you take an avatar photo you will notice the lower two pics update almost immediately, but not the upper pic. I have noticed my upper pic change after 1/2-1 hr, while just messing around and killing time in Halo multiplayer, but I do not know exactly when the sync occured or if I did anything special to trigger it.

The public picture isn’t an immediate update, i’d like to say it updates your gamercard at a certain time - perhaps every hour or so? (ie - it wasnt just the picture that didnt update, it also said my last played game was halo 3 and i was on mw3, then it all updated at once).

@DelayedRespawns

Thank you as well for the clairifcation of my other questions. Regarding the transparency of pngs files, I am looking at “ryhmey” in horizon’s gamercard viewer and I see the two left pics are an anime purple-haired winking girl. The background aound her just appears to be mostly white though not transparent. Is that only because the gamerpic slot in Horizon happens to have a white background or something? I have not tried looking you up through my Xbox, so I can not verify this. Looking up Rhymey through xboxlive.com presents a white background for the whole page, so I also can not tell if the transparency is working. I am not doubting you though. I am just curious as to the effectiveness of transparency in a gamerpic, especially since it is so small.

Seen above the guide and behind the guide at the far right, my personal picture has transparency - you can tell it’s not a black bg because it’s also transparent on the guide.

@DelayedRespawns

This might be beyond Horizon, but has anyone ever heard of someone “hacking” into the server where the gamerpics are stored? Obviously Microsoft would notice a change to any of the paid gamerpics pretty quick, but I doubt they would pay attention to altered pics if someone can get in and out undetected. Just knowing the URL or IP address of the server might be useful in trying to come up with a work around to help empower the gliches in this technique. Please understand I am not condoning the hacking of Microsoft’s servers or anything like that. I am just asking if anyone has ever heard it being done.

Gamerpictures are stored on image.xboxlive.com, meaning getting in there would be highly unlikely. However I noticed a long time ago while nosing around, that gamerpicture packs have the url of the image in the package. (Might have been the profile that has the url of the image)

So in example, http://image.xboxlive.com/global/t.465607e8/tile/0/20413 might show up in a profile/gamerpicture pack that has it. I haven’t messed around with changing where that url redirects to, but i’m sure it has some kind of security on that.

[LegendKiller]

Hope it does not get me banned, thanks!

[FreeMoDzApple]

@crook47

the swastika is a symbol of peace in many cultures the fact that they ban for that is preposterous yet again it could of been the time when they didnt let you express religion but you can now so who knows what would happen now

OT: i could have some fun with this if only i had a vision cam how much are they these days??

$60000
£50000
Euro
40000

[MMMBacon]

I’ll give it some time before I do this…don’t wanna risk another ban, just so M$ can get $65 from again.

[Dave]

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