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[paul1970]

Thanks to Ryan Geiss recently open-sourcing Milkdrop 2 I've been able to have a go at integrating it with MC.
It's still in a state that I'd call a beta because it hasn't been run on very many different systems (and I expect to hear about some problems when it does) but I think it's stable enough that people shouldn't have too many problems with it. I haven't written an install script yet (that's for the next beta) so installation is manual but there aren't very many steps - you just need Admin privs.
Please have a look at the Readme file which contains instructions for installation and makes clear what limitations and changes I have made from the original Winamp implementation.
The plugin is in this zip.

Thanks to Matt Ashland and glynor for help and support.

Please post feedback (good and bad), problems reports and suggestions for improvement to this thread.

[kensn]

Can't wait to get home to check this out!!!! I was just looking again at the Milkdrop SDK this weekend.

Thanks for the work, will definitly provide feedback and provide any testing needed to help ya out (3 different HTPCs and a laptop.

Well done,
Ken

[Castius]

Very cool!!
So far so good instruction where easy to follow and worked great.
Nothing bad to report so far.

Windows 7 64bit
nvidia Quadro 4800

Thanks!

[Fabricio]

Please help me.

In INSTALLATION, I do not understand "cd" in:

5. Use 'cd' to set the current directory to the 'Milkdrop2' folder created in step 2.

I do not speak English.

Hugs,

Fabrício, from Brazil.

[StFeder]

Cool Running fine here. I once had a problem with the window background after detaching the visualization. The background was white instead of black. But I wasn't able to reproduce this.

Thanks for sharing your work !!

Windows 64bit
Intel HD Graphics 3000
NVS 4200M

[StFeder]

Please help me.
[...]
Fabrício, from Brazil.

Here you get it step by step

• Find your drive letter to which MC is installed.
• If it is "C" the type "C:" and hit [enter] at your keyboard
• type "cd .." and hit [enter]
• repeat typing "cd .." till the in front of your cursor only C:\> appears.
• you now should know the complete path to the milkdrop visualization. It MIGHT be Program Files (x86)\Media Center\Visualizations\Milkdrop2. Look carefully, there shouldn't be a typo in the step
• write "cd " followed by the complete path of your visualization, eg. "cd Program Files (x86)\Media Center\Visualizations\Milkdrop2" and hit enter then.
• you can now continue with step 6 of readme.txt

Greetings

[marko]

A quick registry edit and all working nicely full screen @ 1920 x 1080 on the HTPC running MC19 Beta.

Nice surprise, thank you.

[Matt]

I love it!

Nice work

[Fabricio]

Here you get it step by step

• Find your drive letter to which MC is installed.
• If it is "C" the type "C:" and hit [enter] at your keyboard
• type "cd .." and hit [enter]
• repeat typing "cd .." till the in front of your cursor only C:\> appears.
• you now should know the complete path to the milkdrop visualization. It MIGHT be Program Files (x86)\Media Center\Visualizations\Milkdrop2. Look carefully, there shouldn't be a typo in the step
• write "cd " followed by the complete path of your visualization, eg. "cd Program Files (x86)\Media Center\Visualizations\Milkdrop2" and hit enter then.
• you can now continue with step 6 of readme.txt

Greetings

Perfect.

Thank you for the explanation.

paul1970, excellent plugin. Thanks ..

Fabrício, from Brazil.

[MrC]

A quick registry edit and all working nicely full screen @ 1920 x 1080 on the HTPC running MC19 Beta.

Ehem...

[zxsix]

MC version 18
Windows 8 x64
ATI Radeon HD 6400 graphics cards.
Got a popup error "MILKDROP ERROR" "Error compiling ps_2_0 warp shader:"

I had never had winamp/milkdrop installed before.
Downloaded and installed that.
Restarted MC and now mikdrop runs without error.

Very nice surprise seeing this plugin today!  Thanks!

[Temeryx]

Very cool, thank you for doing this.  I do have a little problem though.  If I play a song in theater view with milkdrop set for the display view the keyboard cursor keys and my remote get locked into controlling the seek function of the track, and I have to click with the mouse to get control back of menu navigation.

I'm not sure if this is the same issue "Keystrokes now work without having to click the window first."  You mentioned in the readme for version 0.2

Thanks

[zxsix]

Press 2 to display song artist and title.
Press 3 to see time remaining.
When I restart, those are not visible.
Any way to save it so that these are displayed by default with no need to press 2 and 3?

[MrC]

Very cool, thank you for doing this.  I do have a little problem though.  If I play a song in theater view with milkdrop set for the display view the keyboard cursor keys and my remote get locked into controlling the seek function of the track, and I have to click with the mouse to get control back of menu navigation.

I'm not sure if this is the same issue "Keystrokes now work without having to click the window first."  You mentioned in the readme for version 0.2

Try holding down the Control key as you use Milkdrop keystrokes.

[glynor]

Replied via PM

Not sure why it is secret, but I want to know too.

I'll try this out this weekend.

[MrC]

PM Sent.

[MrC]

Nice work Paul1970.

...but the Milkdrop plugin only processes 576 (strange number!)

Isn't this also the number of PAL video scan lines?  Coincidence?

[kensn]

Spectacular!! Now to go find all my favorite presets...

All working here. Nvidia 650 on I7.

This is why I made my Inactivity plugin http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=65985.0 - Automatically jump to Display View when no user input is detected for a configured time, and then to jump back to previous view if any input was detected....

Ken

[Temeryx]

Try holding down the Control key as you use Milkdrop keystrokes.

Thanks MrC, but maybe I didn't explain it very well.  Soon as I select play or add on a song I can no longer move around the menu in theater view with my remote until I click on the screen with the mouse.  Makes it a little difficult on my HTPC 

[jelyon]

Running Win 7 Home Premium on a Dell Zino.
Install seemed to go just fine.
Milkdrop shows up in the display view, but when I select it, it just goes back to the default album cover view.

Is it possible it doesn't like the video card?

[kensn]

Milkdrop shows up in the display view, but when I select it, it just goes back to the default album cover view.

I don't think it is finding the path to the plugin.

"Install Path"\J River\Media Center 18\Visualizations\milkdrop2
In this folder there should be another Milkdrop2 folder and 3 files(milk2.ini, milk2_adapters.txt, and vis_milk2.dll)


"Install Path"\J River\Media Center 18\Visualizations\milkdrop2\milkdrop2
should have 4 subfolders: data, docs, presets and textures.


It depends how you unzip them...

I had mine messed up..


Ken

[jelyon]

hm...I've had it both ways, 1 and 2 Milkdrop2 directories, still no joy.

It's possible I've found an entirely new way to screw it up. 

[kensn]

hm...I've had it both ways, 1 and 2 Milkdrop2 directories, still no joy.

It's possible I've found an entirely new way to screw it up. 

Try restarting Media Center... or a reboot..

[marko]

Not sure why it is secret, but I want to know too.

I was just trying to keep the thread less noisy.  Thinking about it though, it's possible that the steps will be handy for anyone who is not running v18 and would like to try this out. I registered the dll in the v19 installation directory, and the required registry entries were added to v18, and so the plugin was not an available choice in v19.

Please Google "Registry Editing Precautions" before following the steps below.
Do not hold me responsible if you stuff it up

I'm not sure why, but despite saying successful, .reg files were not importing to the registry. Hives worked though...

Close MC (and server if used)
Replace xx in the steps below with your current MC major version number.

Do the whole "regsvr32" thing in MCxx's viz folder.
Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JRiver\Media Center xx\Plugins\Display\
If that does not exist, it will be because you are running 64 bit Windows, in which case, go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\JRiver\Media Center xx\Plugins\Display\

Right click on "Display" and add a new key called MilkDrop2.
Select this new key, then go up to "File > Import", in the dialogue, change the type to 'hive' and import the file in the zip archive attached to this post. (you must be logged in to see attachments).

Restart MC and the job should be done.

-marko.

[paul1970]

zxsix: That's interesting. Sounds like there's something I need to distribute & install. I'll investigate. As far as I can tell Milkdrop never has saved the state of those bits of text, but I'll add that to the list of things to do for a future version.

Temeryx: Got you. I'll investigate that.

kensn: That sounds like a clever idea and a good way to fix the problem Temeryx has found. I might steal it.   Thanks!

MrC: Regarding the scanlines you're right. There might be a link, but I'm not sure what it is!

jelyon: It's possible it doesn't like your card, but in that case I'm surprised you're not seeing any error dialogs. What card do you have? But it might be that it's not installed properly. I think the instructions are not ideal. I'll make some new install instructions tonight and include some screenshots to make them clearer. I really need to make a proper installation script though so I'll get on to that as a priority.

I'm pleased it's (mostly) working for people. There's some clever code in there (not mine!) and some of those presets sure are pretty.

[Matt]

My guess is that the magic number 576 is because that's the size of an MP3 frame, and the Winamp SDK was pretty MP3-specific when it was first created.

[InflatableMouse]

I'm supposed to see something amazing right?

I had to manually add it to the registry. It shows in MC and I can select it, except display view just stays black.

Any ideas?

[kensn]

I'm supposed to see something amazing right?

It did that to me a few times. I have 18 and 19 installed. I am not sure exactly what I did to get it to displayu, but one of the things I did was stop 19 server when running 18. Others were rebooting and restarting 18.


Ken

[paul1970]

I'm supposed to see something amazing right?

I had to manually add it to the registry. It shows in MC and I can select it, except display view just stays black.

There is something wrong with what I'm doing for registration I think, but I'm not sure if it's affecting everyone(?). I'll have to try and figure out what that is. I'm sorry you had trouble with that. The display just staying black isn't something I've seen, but I've obviously not had access to MC19 or taken account of it.
I would say it's one of three things:
1. The registration hasn't been done properly.
2. There's stuff going on with 19 that I don't understand (assuming you have 19 in your system)
3. Milkdrop just won't play with your hardware (it would have to be pretty darn old though).

I'm going to address issues with #1 anyway. #2 I can't do much about until 19 is released. It's possible to discount #3 if you're prepared to download Winamp and try out the original plugin in (but I understand that's a bit of a ball-ache), but I think you should see message boxes telling you that's the case if it really is the problem.

[InflatableMouse]

Thanks Paul, appreciate your efforts.

When I play some song, switch display view to something else and then back to milkdrop, another windows opens called PPD and MC19 crashes.

I'm on Windows 8 (64-bit, obviously). Hardware isn't new, but it ain't exactly old either (i7 2600k, GTX580, all latest drivers, no betas).

[paul1970]

That's interesting information. I'm assuming that the window caption is 'PDD' and not 'PPD'? Is your Display View detached? I've just found out that that causes the whole thing to go very wrong since I didn't account for it at all due to not realising you could do that! Coping with a detached view will be fixed in the next build. If I do what you describe when the Display View is either docked or full-screen then it works fine for me. If your view is not detached then maybe it's something different that 19 does and I've not been able to test with that's causing things to go runny. I've not been able to test with Windows 8 either but I can't see how that could cause a problem.

[jelyon]

OK. I have to admit it.

I. Am an idiot. I don't know why I kept reading "plugins directory" in the readme. Took a second (failed) install and regedit on a second box to figure it out.

I should be larted.

OTOH, I can tell you that on the second box (Dell XPS 27 AIO), I got this error: Error compiling ps_2_0 warp shader:

And on this page: http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?t=317932

It recommended, among other things, updating DirectX, which I did. (I did not update video drivers or mess with milkdrop settings - only DirectX update).

I now have milkdroppy goodness on both boxes.

[kensn]

FYI...  I am running 19 under Win7 and used it in a detached window just fine...

Ken

[HTPC4ME]

ive been using sound spectrum for yrs (gforce,whitecap)  really liking this milkdrop... Great work!

one suggestion... i noticed on all sound spectrum visualizations, that the letter H brings up the help menu/info, also when downloading Geiss Screensaver he uses H as well.
Maybe Letter H could be used to bring up the help for your version as well, so that all visualizations use the same help key letter. (less programming/remembering for the users when in theaterview mode)

[paul1970]

jelyon: I will try and get to the bottom of the DX issues. Glad you got it working. I don't think you're an idiot; the instructions are a bit crummy.

kensn: Now you've confused me because when I run it undocked (win7 64) you see a window you shouldn't see and then it falls over.

xtacbyme: Glad it's working. Originally it was 'F1' but I just moved all of the function keys onto the digits. I can make it work with 'H' as well as long as that's not a key that MC is interested in.

Will look at issues ASAP but probably starting at the weekend.

[kensn]

kensn: Now you've confused me because when I run it undocked (win7 64) you see a window you shouldn't see and then it falls over.

 I will run it some more tonight and post screen shots of what mine does. I am running dual monitors. I am really excited to help with this, I have missed MilkDrop.....

Ken

[paul1970]

Well thanks for any and all help. From anyone!

[kensn]

Here is my Detached window. I can have it fullscreen on my second monitor also...


If I change anything in the Milkdrop settings they don't seem to be saved. Is there a way to do this?
Ken

[6233638]

After making the registry changes marko suggested, I got this working, but settings don't seem to be getting saved, so I can't change the fonts and it's locked to 30fps.

Any ideas?

[Ekpen]

I was just trying to keep the thread less noisy.  Thinking about it though, it's possible that the steps will be handy for anyone who is not running v18 and would like to try this out. I registered the dll in the v19 installation directory, and the required registry entries were added to v18, and so the plugin was not an available choice in v19.

...

I followed your guide. I was able to have  milkdrop2 to show up. But nothing  happens when I play music. I am using MC18.212, win 8 pro 64 bit.
I also have some glitches. Via the Windows explorer, I can go to the Milkdrop2 folder (program Files (x86) etc. On getting to DOS prompt, if I "CD"  it does not let me go to the folder. If I issue a regsvr32 command, I get "Paths" not found.
But via GUI, I am able to get to the folders.
I hope an update will include an installer that will help register the dll.
Thanks.
Ekpen.

[InflatableMouse]

That's interesting information. I'm assuming that the window caption is 'PDD' and not 'PPD'? Is your Display View detached? I've just found out that that causes the whole thing to go very wrong since I didn't account for it at all due to not realising you could do that! Coping with a detached view will be fixed in the next build. If I do what you describe when the Display View is either docked or full-screen then it works fine for me. If your view is not detached then maybe it's something different that 19 does and I've not been able to test with that's causing things to go runny. I've not been able to test with Windows 8 either but I can't see how that could cause a problem.

I got it to work. I had to adjust the permissions on the Visualizations folder. Windows 8 has restricted access to OS and related folders and since the Visualizations folder is located under Program Files, it inherits the restrictions.

By default, creator_owner doesn't have full permissions and authenticated users have only read. I gave those 2 modify.

Detached window also works fine.

[glynor]

Just FYI... This security restriction is there for a pretty solid reason.  Allowing modify access to the entire %Program Files% directory trees for all authenticated users is generally a Very Bad Idea.  There are two main reasons:

1. %Program Files% directories are a trusted location.  Any exe located there can be used to escalate permissions.  Allowing modify access for all authenticated users to these directories is tantamount to reverting to Windows XP level security (everyone's an admin), because they can drop an arbitrary exe in the Program Files directory with a flag set in the manifest, which does a privilege escalation, and they got root.  This type of exploit is common in all of the script kiddie "PWN" tools.

2. It allows non-trusted user activity (such as malware you got by visiting a site who's ad network had been hacked - a dreadfully common occurrence) to replace executables and libraries in the Program Files directory, rendering any security software you might have a liar.  This is essentially the first thing most modern worms and trojans do when they get on your system.

So, better hope that every single plugin and application on that box is completely locked-down and immune to remote code execution attacks (or the box is offline), both of which seem unlikely if you are trying to run this particular old thing on it.   

I'd recommend that if you need to do this for a particular old application, you either:

1. Install to a non-standard location.
2. Or, alternatively, modify the permissions for ONLY the individual files for which you need modify access rights.

[InflatableMouse]

Plugins and visualizations shouldn't be there at all, they should be in a user profile/roaming, at least somewhere out of the program files folder.

I only made the change to get it to work. I didn't think about it but I don't hope people reading that are now setting these permissions ... that wasn't the idea behind it, unless they really know what they are doing.

[Ekpen]

Plugins and visualizations shouldn't be there at all, they should be in a user profile/roaming, at least somewhere out of the program files folder.

I only made the change to get it to work. I didn't think about it but I don't hope people reading that are now setting these permissions ... that wasn't the idea behind it, unless they really know what they are doing.

Hi:
I set my Visualizations permission level to admin, yet I can not get it to run. Unable to register the dll.
I would love to use Milkdrop, but can not enjoy it right now. I can see it listed, but does nothing.
I have no issues with other visualizations setting. I have several types  there, all work except Milkdrop.

Ekpen.

[InflatableMouse]

Hi:
I set my Visualizations permission level to admin, yet I can not get it to run. Unable to register the dll.
I would love to use Milkdrop, but can not enjoy it right now. I can see it listed, but does nothing.
I have no issues with other visualizations setting. I have several types  there, all work except Milkdrop.

Ekpen.

Please re-read Glynor's post. I only posted what I did for Paul to possibly help him improve. You really should not change permissions on or under Program Files. Especially now that it didn't help, I suggest you revert the changes back to default.

Did you try Marko's solution? Maybe you can check the registry and compare it with what he posted.

[Fabricio]

How to uninstall (delete)?

[Ekpen]

Please re-read Glynor's post. I only posted what I did for Paul to possibly help him improve. You really should not change permissions on or under Program Files. Especially now that it didn't help, I suggest you revert the changes back to default.

Did you try Marko's solution? Maybe you can check the registry and compare it with what he posted.

:

Greetings:
It was Marko's post that gave me some progress. I played with permission levels for a while. The levels have been restored back to what it should.

Now this is the latest:

The readme file included by Paul with item #1 seems to have prevented me  from getting to the milkdrop2 folder. The zip was copied there, henceforth no matter what I did, it just will not let me in to the sub folder. I  knew g-force and other vis products worked as designed or intended. I then reverted to  my old way of installing, by deleting the zip from the visualization sub folder, deleted the milkdrop2 it created, from another area on my PC unzip to the vis , right under this folder. Milkdrop2 folders were created.
In MC, I could see the milkdrop2 , but not selectable. After I re-installed it, it was selectable. It has a check mark .
I will stop briefly at this point to report the error I got. Now here is a recap of the PC in question:

It is an Acer 9800, Intel Duo processor 2.0 GHZ. It has 4 gig of memory and it has a Nvidia Geforce GO-7600. Driver is the latest as of 2009. I installed or re-installed the driver.

I then tried to register the dll. The error I received was: vis_milk2.dll loaded.. Call to DLRegister Server failed. Error code 0X80004005.
I tried to re register several several times, but failed at times pointing to  invalid path.
Then I noticed I got a check mark on milkdrop2. I played some tracks. The milkdrop2 gave me a black screen. Another error came up : Milkdrop error: error compiling PS_2.0 warp shadows.

On loading the milkdrop2, it also reported PS version= 0x300. After this error, I tried again to reinstall my Nvidia Geforce GO 7600. It says Graphic driver "buggy".

I do not know where the problem lies as of now. It is pointing to an old Nvidia driver on the 7600 card.
I feel I have to report this, just in case someone in the forum is experiencing same issues with same Nvidia driver and card.

This install is on an old PC that will be replaced . I built an HTPC with 24 gig of memory with Gigabyte X58A UD5 mobo. It developed some glitches, I did not want to put up with. I immediately shipped it to Gigabyte. According to Gigabyte, the mobo issues are fixed. memory  on board are now accessible. Out of 24 gig of memory it only sees and use 16 gig). Hopefully, the mobo will be here Tuesday, then I will finalize the setup of MC 18 >?,  and install the milkdrop2 program.
The new HTPC will be using 2 Nvidia gtx 9800 x2 (QUAD) setup.

Thanks to all for the suggestion and help interfacing Milkdrop with this old notebook.
Ekpen.

[jdizzy623]

Thanks much for this!

I then tried to register the dll. The error I received was: vis_milk2.dll loaded.. Call to DLRegister Server failed. Error code 0X80004005.

I also had to manually add to registry as I was getting an error when using CMD.
Thanks to Marco for instructions on adding through regedit.

Running MC 18 and Windows 8.

BTW, how does one get to the settings?

(I checked the directory and found 'milk2.txt' which seems to be the settings file and thought possibly I might be able to use a settings file from another instance I have of Milkdrop that runs under another program. But, that file is called 'setting.xml'..... hmm...)

After using MilkDrop,  I have noticed that when in Theater View and using Milkdrop, when I exit out of Milkdrop I have lost focus and my remote does not work anymore. I can use a mouse to move around, but the remote will do nothing from this point. Maybe isolated to my system?
I also use GForce and found that if I enter Display View with GForce running, then change viz to Milkdrop, and then change back to GForce prior to exiting, that all is well and the remote continues to work.... strangeness..

@paul1970

BTW, I am using this and lovin it!
You da man

[kensn]

FYI...

Installed to another HTPC of mine.. Had to load latest DirectX 3D to get rid of error messages...

Ken

[Ekpen]

FYI...

Installed to another HTPC of mine.. Had to load latest DirectX 3D to get rid of error messages...

Ken

Greetings:
Any details agout the DirectX 3D? I think I have buggy Go 7600 Nvidia GPU. That is what it is reporting on this old PC.
Thanks.
Ekpen.