

- Winamp Visualizations Pack how to#
- Winamp Visualizations Pack mac os x#
- Winamp Visualizations Pack update#
- Winamp Visualizations Pack code#
Examples include themes and packages for the Atom editor and extensions for Hyperterm (seriously, just check out the Hyperterm demo video).
Winamp Visualizations Pack code#
For those who don’t know, Electron is a project which bundles Node.js and Chromium (the browser engine behind Chrome) into a single package, which means we can now create native desktop applications using all our familiar web technologies! Electron has seen huge adoption, with major projects such as the Atom and VS Code editors being built on top of it.Ī huge draw for the Electron platform is the fact that, since apps are built with common web technologies - HTML, CSS, JavaScript - they become very easily “hackable” or user-extensible. I ditched the project as nonviable until earlier this year when I started to investigate Electron. I built a working prototype this way, but it performed poorly with severe latency and heavy CPU usage and was not at all user friendly. My early experimentation involved a node-based server which would read raw sound card data and then stream this data over a websocket to a browser. would be simple to create visualizations for.was not tied to any particular player or platform.

What I really wanted to build was a general audio visualizer which While this was a nice experiment, it was rather limited. I wrote a browser-based audio visualizer which hinted at some of the creative possibilities and simplicity of writing visualizations in JavaScript. But I was already familiar with JavaScript, and nothing could be simpler than writing some code and then running it in a browser.

I’ve learned some JavaScript and discovered the HTML Canvas element! Previously I had never got into computer graphics because of the relatively high barrier to entry (perceived, at least). Screenshot from Geiss for Winamp JavaScript and Canvasįast forward to 2014.
Winamp Visualizations Pack how to#
Since then I’ve had a fascination with audio visualizations and creative coding in general, but up until recently, I had no clue about how to create them myself. Whenever I had Winamp playing (which was most of the time), I had a visualization window open pumping out some crazy, trippy visuals. The popularity of Winamp spawned a whole ecosystem of skins and plugins, including some incredible visualization plugins such as those made by Ryan Geiss: Geiss and Milkdrop. It’s changed since then, so I’m not if it is still any good. Small, simple, extensible and (at least in the beginning) without bloat. For those of you who are not old enough to remember, Winamp was basically the perfect audio player. To enjoy the sweet sounds of Fatboy Slim, Beatie Boys and Eagle Eye Cherry, I of course used Winamp. With the help of Napster and Limewire, I was building up my illicit mp3 collection. If you are interested in my ramblings on the background and future direction of this project, read on… Origins
Winamp Visualizations Pack update#
If you are not using Windows and know how to, feel free to have a go at building from source and send me feedback so I can update the docs. If you want to check out the project itself, go to the SKQW website.
Winamp Visualizations Pack mac os x#
It is currently in alpha and a compiled binary only exists for Windows, but I’m hoping that - if there is interest - I can push the project forward and improve stability, features and of course bring full support to Mac OS X and Linux.
