HOW-TO:Modify dirty regions

Dirty regions is an advanced setting and interface rendering method that can help speed up the GUI in XBMC and decrease the demand on your CPU and GPU. Dirty regions has no effect during video playback unless there are GUI elements (on screen buttons) visible. Using dirty regions requires XBMC v11 (Eden) or higher.

Steps
If you don't already have an advancedsettings.xml file, it's very simple to make. XBMC uses this file for advanced settings and features that normal users shouldn't modify without first knowing what they do, as well as for experimental features.

Example 1

 * advancedsettings.xml

History
XBMC started as a project for the original XBOX where things were very different. After the move to desktops and embedded environments, many of the legacy procedures remained. One of these procedures, and a long-time thorn in XBMC’s side has long been its rendering model in which where every frame is rendered by the GPU in its entirety, typically at 60fps. As you can imagine, this is incredibly intensive and very unfriendly to low-power platforms. This is where dirty-region rendering comes in. Thanks to the work of Tobias and Jonathan (jmarshall), XBMC now has the ability to only render what has changed.

For more information see: Working with dirty regions