Tips and guides

Creating a custom category

This is a step-by-step guide to adding a custom category. Up to 16 custom categories are available.

Go to Skin Settings > Home > Category Menu
Click "Add more categories"
Click "Category 1-4" to activate custom category 1-4, "Category 5-8" to activate custom category 5-8, "Category 9-12" to activate custom category 9-12 or "Category 13-16" to activate custom category 13-16
Choose between adding a custom category from one of your Favourites or from a built in skin preset.
"Path":
- If you have chosen adding a custom category from a Favourite, a dialog will open up with all your favourites. You can add almost any item within Kodi to your Favourites using the context menu.
- If you have chosen adding a custom category from a built in skin preset, the presets dialog will open up. This allows you to choose any item in the sections or to enter a custom action yourself (bottom left item).
"Name":
Enter a name for your custom category. If no name is entered, "Custom X" (where X is the custom category number) will be used.
- If navigation buttons are disabled, it's recommended to use 11 characters or less for best results.
- If navigation buttons are enabled, it's recommended to use 10 characters or less for best results.
You can choose a category icon from any location on your system.
You can choose a widget. Adding a widget brings up a dialog:
- Movies, tv shows, music videos or albums will display recently added and in progress/featured items from your library.
- Add-ons will display random add-ons.
- Games will display all game add-ons.
- Playlist (movies, episodes or music) will display recently added and featured items from your selected playlist (useful when the custom category is a playlist from your favourites).
- In Cinemas / Upcoming Movies, Top Rated Movies / Top Rated TV Shows, Trending Movies / TV Shows will use the add-on script.extendedinfo to fill the widgets.
- Custom (script.skinshortcuts required) will bring up a dialog to choose a custom top widget and a custom bottom widget. You can choose either one, as both are not required. You can set the name and choose aspect (poster, wide or square) individually for both widgets.
You can choose between 3 background options for your custom category.
- "Single image" will open up a dialog, where you can choose any image on your system as background for your custom category.
- "Multi image" will open up a dialog, where you can choose any folder with images on your system as multi backgrounds for your custom category.
- "Fanart" will open up a dialog, where you can choose one of the built in fanart options as background for your custom category. The button below will display the chosen background option and the image to the left will display the image(s).

Adding, removing and editing submenus

This is a step-by-step guide to adding, removing or editing submenus. You can add up to 7 submenus for each category.

Go to Skin Settings > Home > Category Submenu.
All of your enabled categories are displayed here: Music / Videos / Movies / TV Shows / Add-ons / Pictures / General / System / Live TV / Weather / Custom Category 1-16
Clicking any of them allows you to add, remove or edit the submenus.
To remove an existing hardcoded submenu from the Music / Videos / Movies / TV Shows / Add-ons / Pictures / General / System / Live TV / Weather categories:
Enabling Button 1 and leaving everything else blank, will disable the existing submenu 1 for the chosen category and so on. Do this for all the submenu items you wish to remove.
To edit any submenu item for a category:
Enabling Button 1 and entering all the necessary information, will replace submenu 1 for the chosen category and so on. Do this for all the submenu items you wish to edit.
1. Click Button 1 to 7 to edit the submenu item you wish.
2. Choose between editing a submenu item using one of your Favourites, a built in skin preset, a script or an add-on.
3. "Path":
  - If you have chosen editing a submenu item using one of your Favourites, a dialog will open up with all your favourites. You can add almost any item within Kodi to your Favourites using the context menu.
  - If you have chosen editing a submenu item using a built in skin preset, the presets dialog will open up. This allows you to choose any item in the sections or to enter a custom action yourself (bottom left item).
  - If you have chosen editing a submenu item using a script, a dialog will open up where you can select one of the scripts.
  - If you have chosen editing a submenu item using an add-on, a dialog will open up where you can select one of the add-ons.
4. "Label" allows you to enter the name of the submenu.
To add a submenu item for any category:
You can add additional submenus to a category with less than 7 submenu items: eg. if a category has 4 submenus, you can enable Button 5, 6 and 7 to add 3 additional custom submenus.
1. Click Button 1 to 7 to add the submenu item you wish.
2. Choose between adding a submenu item from one of your Favourites, a built in skin preset, a script or an add-on.
3. "Path":
  - If you have chosen adding a submenu item from a Favourite, a dialog will open up with all your favourites. You can add almost any item within Kodi to your Favourites using the context menu.
  - If you have chosen adding a submenu item from a built in skin preset, the presets dialog will open up. This allows you to choose any item in the sections or to enter a custom action yourself (bottom left item).
  - If you have chosen adding a submenu item from a script, a dialog will open up where you can select one of the scripts.
  - If you have chosen adding a submenu item from an add-on, a dialog will open up where you can select one of the add-ons.
4. "Label" allows you to enter the name of the submenu.

Proper naming of files

Rapier reads all file names.
If you use some of the below tags in the file name, additional media flags are displayed automatically.

"bluray" / "blu-ray" / "bdrip" / "brrip" / "bdremux" / "bd25" / "bd50": displays a Blu-ray logo
"web-dl" / "web-download" / "webrip": displays a web-dl logo
".3d." / "hsbs" / "sbs" / "half-sbs": displays a 3D logo The stereoscopic mode can also be automatically detected by Kodi, so you might see this logo without the tags in the file name.
"hddvd" / "hd-dvd": displays a HD-DVD logo
"dvd" / "dvdrip": displays a DVD logo The DVD logo will also be displayed if the file extension is: .img / .ifo / .vob
"hdtv": displays a HD TV logo
"sdtv" / "pdtv": displays a SD TV logo
"vhs": displays a VHS logo
".atmos": if your file contains either TrueHD or E-AC3 (Dolby Digital Plus) audio, a Dolby Atmos logo will display
"dtsx" / "dts-x": if your file contains DTS-HD Master Audio, a DTS:X logo will display
"dtses" / "dts-es": if your file contains DTS Audio, a DTS-ES logo will display
".unrated": displays an "Unrated" media flag
"Missingvideo" or "missingvideo" will grey out a missing movie or episode. See below for details.

Using the missing movie or episode feature

You can add the missing movies for a movie set and missing episodes for tv shows.
They will be greyed out in the listing, so it's easy to see which ones are missing.

What is required for missing movies:

Use any video file in any format (the smaller size, the better).
Create a movie folder for the missing movie (like you normally do for movies)
Name the file anything and add "Missingvideo" or "missingvideo" anywhere in the filename.
- Eg. "Star.Wars.The.Rise.of.Skywalker.2019.missingvideo.mp4"
Scrape the movie into your library and you're done.

What is required for episodes:

Use any video file in any format (the smaller size, the better).
Place the file in your tv show folder and give it the appropiate episode number and name.
Add "Missingvideo" or "missingvideo" anywhere in the filename.
- Eg. "Simpsons.S20E18.missingvideo.mp4"
Scrape the episode into your library and you're done.

Missing tv show clear logos in the home screen TV Shows Today widget

Go to Skin Settings -> Add-ons -> Artwork Downloader -> Download Presets - TV Shows -> Click the Clear Logo button and wait for the script to finish.
This should add all clear logos for the tv shows to your library.
You can do this with clear art as well if you wish.

Missing Upcoming TV Shows widget

If you don't see the Upcoming TV Shows widget on the home screen, you probably need to enable it in the Tv Show - Next Aired add-on settings.

Go to Add-ons > My Add-ons > Program Add-ons > TV Show - Next Aired > Settings
ENABLE the setting "Show all tv shows for home screen (needs skin support)"
Restart Kodi

ExtendedInfo for movie/tv show cast/crew members

To activate ExtendedInfo (using script.extendedinfo) for movie/tv show cast members, press down from the selected cast member in the video information window.
You can click any director/writer throughout the skin to activate ExtendedInfo.

Mouse / touch device support

Mouse and touch devices are indeed supported by this skin.
To make the most of your experience, make sure these skin settings are set:

Skin Settings > General > Hide dialog close buttons > DISABLED
Skin Settings > General > Hide top options menu bar (only show when selected) > DISABLED
Skin Settings > General > Hide top bar when idle > DISABLED
Skin Settings > Home > Show navigation buttons > ENABLED

Low powered devices

Rapier can be a bit rough on lower powered devices. Especially entering libraries for the first time after launch can take a while.
Several skin settings have been made to improve performance:

Skin Settings > General > Enable low CPU power mode
When enabled, you can choose between these two options:
1. Disable animations only. Selecting this option will disable selected animations.
2. Disable animations and CPU demanding skin settings. Selecting this option will disable selected animations AND these CPU demanding skin settings:
  - Video playing in the background
  - Play trailers in a window
  - Music CD art
  - Animated backgrounds and fanart (both music and video)
  - Music visualization and artist fanart in the background (when playing music)
  - Fanart slideshow using script.artistslideshow (when playing music)
Skin Settings > Views
Here you can disable all view types you don't use in all windows and sections of Kodi.
TIP: Disabling every single view type you don't use will significantly speed up load times when entering windows and libraries.