How to Create VXP Watch Face

Several smartwatch users have requested us to come up with a tutorial on how to create a personalized VXP watch face. So in this tutorial, we are going to share step by step instructions on how to create an analog VXP watch face.

Creating a VXP watch face is not that difficult; however, you need to have little patience and proper setup.

To create your own VXP face, you have to download and install the below-listed programs on your Windows computer.

Download VXP Watch Face Maker Programs

• MRE SDK (Download | Mirror)
• ADS 1.2 (Download | Mirror)
• HxD Hex Editor (Download)
• Notepad++ (Download)
• Visual Basic 2008 or later (Download)

Apart from the above programs, you need to have Adobe Photoshop installed on your computer to edit the image files.

Also, download the Resources.zip file, which contains all the necessary files to get you started to create a VXP watch face.

Once all the programs and files are downloaded and installed, we can start to create a watch face for MediaTek Smartwatch.

Things to Remember

1. All the images must be in .png format.
2. All the images must be 240x240 pixels in resolution, except for the preview image, which should be 150x150 pixels resolution.
3. Image file size should be 30 KB – 35 KB to avoid problems with the watch face when installing on Smartwatch. You can compress the images online using TinyPNG, Shortpixel, and OptimizePNG.

Below are the required images to create a watch face. All the images are included in the Resources zip package for reference.

1. clock_bg.png – Watchface  background image (240×240 pixels)
2. hand.png – Hour hand (240×240 pixels)
3. minute.png – Minute hand (240×240 pixels)
4. second.png – Second hand (240×240 pixels)
5. preview.png – Preview image of the watch face (150×150 pixels)

Once you have all the above-required images edited according to your preference, you can proceed with the below instructions to create a VXP watch face using these images.

How to Create VXP Watch Face [MediaTek Watch Face]

1. First of all, open the MRELauncher.exe program on your computer.
2. Once the program loads, click on the Create MRE App Project icon to create a new project.
3. Now, the MRE SDK Wizard window should open. Enter the details as described below:
   • In the Name field, enter the name that you would like to call your watch face. In our case, let’s name our watch face, Ferrari.
   • Now for the Location, choose your Desktop folder.
   • Under MRE App Version, choose MRE SDK 2.0.
   • Make sure the MRE App Style is MRE Application Project(*.vxp).
   • Under Resolution, choose 176×220.
   • Now, under the MRE App description, in the Development info, enter your name (ex: Cool Watch Faces), and in the App Name, enter the same name as you have entered in the Name field (In our case Ferrari).

   

4. Once you have entered all the above-required information in the MRE SDK Wizard window, click on Finish.
5. Now, a folder with the name of your watch face will be created on your Desktop. In our case, the Ferrari folder is created on the Desktop.
6. Go back to the MRE Launcher program and click on Open project icon and navigate to the Ferrari folder and open Ferrari.vcproj file.
7. Open the watch face folder (Ferrari) and go to config -> Default.
8. Now, extract the Resources.zip file on your Desktop and open the extracted folder.
9. Now, select pic (folder), configtbl.bin and WATCH_res.lst and copy the selected items to the folder which you have opened in Step #7 (Ferrari -> config -> Default).
10. Replace the images in the pic folder with your image files to create your VXP watch face.
11. Now rename WATCH_res.lst with your watch face name. In our case, we have to rename it as Ferrari_res.lst.
12. Once renamed, open Ferrari_res.lst file using Notepad++ and change the path for the files to your PC equivalent. You can copy the path from the Windows Explorer window by navigating to Ferrari -> config -> Default.
13. Once the path for the resources is set in the Ferrari_res.lst file, save it and close Notepad++.
14. Now, go back to the MRE Launcher and click on the Settings icon.
15. Package Info Settings window should open. Go to the Resource tab and enable the “Transfer image file to Mediatek format.” option and save the settings.
16. Now, click on the Options icon in MRE Launcher.
17. Once the Options window loads, click on the Advance button.
18. Now delete –g from the Compiler Options and save the settings.
19. Finally, click on the Make (Hammer icon) button.
20. Now, the MRE Launcher program should build your VXP Watch Face using the resources you provided. Wait until you see Make Successful message.
21. Now, close the MRE Launcher program from the system tray.
22. Open the watch face folder (Ferrari), and you’ll see a new folder arm created. Open the arm folder and copy the Default.vxp file to a New Folder.
23. Now, copy the preview image to the New Folder from the watch face folder (Ferrari) -> config -> pic -> preview.png.
24. Go back to the Resources folder and copy the WATCH.xml file to your New Folder.
25. Now, you should have three files in your New Folder – Default.vxp, preview.png, and WATCH.xml.
26. Rename all the three files to the name of your watch face. Here, for our tutorial, we’ll rename them as Ferrari.vxp, Ferrari.png, and Ferrari.xml.
27. Now, open the HxD Hex Editor program and open Ferrari.vxp from the New Folder.
28. Now, press Ctrl+R or click on Search -> Replace.
29. The search and replace window should open. Click on the Hex-values tab.
30. In the Search for field type 32 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 and in the Replace with field type 34 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 and click on Replace all.
31. Now, click on the Save icon to save the file.
32. Now, we have to edit the Ferrari.xml file to match the watch face file names and watch face name. So, open the Ferrari.xml file with Notepad++ and change the <appname>, <receiver_id>, <vxpname>, and <iconname> tag values as shown below.
    • In the <appname> tag, replace WATCH NAME with Ferrari.
    • In the <receiver_id> tag, replace watch with Ferrari.
    • In the <vxpname> tag, replace WATCHNAME.vxp with Ferrari.vxp.
    • In the <iconname> tag, replace WATCHNAME with Ferrari.
33. Once you have edited the Ferrari.xml file, save it.

That’s it. You have all the three files that a VXP watch face require – Ferrari.vxp, Ferrari.png, and Ferrari.xml file. You can delete the Ferrari.vxp.bak file.

Now, to install your VXP face on MediaTek Smartwatch, follow the complete step by step tutorial here.

We hope that the instructions were easy to follow, and if you face any issues, then don’t forget to post them in the comment section below.

Also, don’t forget to share this tutorial with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and other social media platforms.