This is what I got:

xPopupPaintingMode ".image"
xPopupEntryPaintingMode ".image"
xPopupActiveEntryImage popup_selected.png
xPopupActiveEntryImageLeftEdge 3
xPopupActiveEntryImageRightEdge 3
xPopupEntryImage popup_normal.png
xPopupEntryImageLeftEdge 3
xPopupEntryImageRightEdge 3
xPopupTitleImage popup_top.png
xPopupBottomImage popup_bottom.png
xPopupSeparatorImage popup_seperator.png

only the only two images that work are entry and active entry. I cannot get the title, separator, or bottom ones to work. I have searched for themes using xPopup 2.0.3 and finding none. I find plenty of examples for xPopup 1.x.x, but they are different. Trying to rewrite all my themes to use xModules if avail just to be consistent. Have Austerity using xLabel, xDesk, xTaskbar, xTray... but the latest xPopup is not being friendly...

You just need the appropriate PaintingMode lines for those xPaintTextures. (And based on your settings NO xPopupPaintingMode.)
Read the xPaintTexture Docs!

I was looking for some example. Using my xTaskbar as a reference, there was only taskbar images and taskbar button images. I had no idea i needed separate paint modes for separator and title and bottom. I thought they would be covered by entries... I cannot honestly say I read the entire help file, but I did a search for 'mode' and followed all the hits... I only saw EntryMode. I only put the xPopupPaintingMode in hoping it would work. I realized it had no impact on the ones that worked - entries - but was for a background image that was for the whole block, not each entry, but I left it there as I figured it would not hurt... and I was getting desperate. None of the themes I downloaded used this. I was hoping for some example of xPopup2 somewhere as a template of sorts... I found themes as new as last month using the old popup2 or xpopup1.3.x... I will try adding those and continue on translating Austerity.

OK so now I have this:

xPopupEntryPaintingMode .image
xPopupTitlePaintingMode .image
xPopupBottomPaintingMode .image
xPopupSeparatorPaintingMode .image
xPopupArrowPaintingMode .image
xPopupMinWidth 130
xPopupMaxWidth 180

xPopupActiveEntryImage popup_selected.png
xPopupActiveEntryImageLeftEdge 3
xPopupActiveEntryImageRightEdge 3
xPopupEntryImage popup_normal.png
xPopupEntryImageLeftEdge 3
xPopupEntryImageRightEdge 3
xPopupTitleImage popup_top.png
xPopupBottomImage popup_bottom.png
xPopupSeparatorImage popup_seperator.png
xPopupArrowImage popup_arrowB1.png
xPopupActiveArrowImage popup_arrowB2.png


but the top and bottom still do not work. the arrows and separator do though. Any idea?

I found it:

xPopupTopBorder 12
xPopupBottomBorder 3


set these to the heights of the top and bottom images I want used.

I was translating another theme to xpopup and I noticed the text is not as crisp. When I set the selected color to 000000 with popup2.dll it is very black, but with xpopup2 it is not quite black, like they decided to soften it and blend it with its surrounding colors - similar to how ms paint in windows 98 would truly put the black text over the image without changing it, but in windows xp mspaint blends it, without a setting I can find to turn it off...

And the other thing is, in this theme the arrow was just there, not image, a triangle made with the colors of the image used for selected entries. how can I get xpopup to make a arrow that is neither text nor an image, like the default arrow from popup2?

fontsmoothing, that is how I make the text crisper, disable font smoothing - but I cannot find anything on the arrow that pertains to what I want, an arrow that is neither text nor external image...

I can't remember how popup2 did the folder arrow, but with xPopup you need either an image (xPaintTexture) or text (xPaintText) (for example the font wingding or webdings).

If you enabled the arrow but did not give it an image it just made an image , a triangle pointed to the right, with the top and back edge being based on colors at that location in the entry image and the bottom edge being a little brighter. The triangle was just a lined image, hollow, as the inside was transparent. Basically Popup2.dll had a default image. xPopup2 does not have a default image then.

Here's what I did to get arrows:

The character "8" in the Marlett font is a smaller right-facing arrow.
Use the CharMap accessory to see some more.