INTERACT FORUM
Windows => Plug-in Development => Topic started by: andy55 on February 04, 2004, 10:04:49 pm
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Hi there... my name is Andy O'Meara and I author two visual plugins called G-Force and WhiteCap for all the major media players out there right now (itunes, WMP, winamp, etc). G-Force in particular has seen a lot of places and players and has done really well.
I'm finally following up on periodic jriver user emails asking me to support the jriver media player and media center. the user base seems to enjoy and stand-by these products and i've noticed GF and WC would seem to be well received by a lot of the folks here (and the ppl who've been emailing me). Anyway, please drop me a line or share here any thoughts or comments you have on this.
Andy
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I just looked over the plugin API--it's class based, and that's a huge strike against JRiver (think it's any mystery why all the vis plugins are written for winamp and not WMP--winamp has a static C-based API). Contrary to what MS want folks to think, there's other Win32 IDEs out there (I use Metrowerks). Frustrating. I went thru the work of making a MS Studio-made glue DLL between WMP's class-based plugin API (similar to JRiver's) and my DLL because--well, MS compensated me for it. Anyway, unless anyone is willing to help make some glue between their API and mine, there's no way I can the support the time it's gonna take to draft, test, and refine this glue. The G-Force and WhiteCap interface is a very nice, tidy, and well-documented C API if there's any takers.
Andy
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Greetings Andy!
It's great to have you here! I used G-Force a lot in my "old days" of Winamp, it was a great vis and it is one of the things I have missed since converting to MC.
As much as I would just love to finally see some decent visualisations for MC, I doubt very highly that JRiver will compensate you for your efforts to make your vis work with MC. They have been quite clear about their intentions regarding visualisations, which pretty much boil down to "here is the SDK, it's up to you if you want visualisations". I also doubt they will change the visualisation SDK.
I created the MC XML Export plugin using the MC Interface Plugins SDK and it has been a trialling time for me and other third party developers trying to convince JRiver to better support their SDK. If you read through a few of the threads in the Plugin Development forum you will get what I mean.
It is sad, as there is a huge user base that would love to see some decent vis plugins created for MC, but like I said, don't look to JRiver for payment. I don't know how others would feel, but I would be more than happy to pay $5-10 for a good working version of some well-known visualisations. Maybe there would be enough people with the same mind-set that you could make it feasible. Maybe not.
Welcome to the Media Center community,
Scott.
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I doubt very highly that JRiver will compensate you for your efforts to make your vis work with MC.
Shoot--that's not how i ment to come off at all. I meant to say that I'm looking for support, not compensation (i just brought that up to justify that the level or work req'd for someone who doesn't know the framework and doesn't have the IDE is far from trivial, nothing more). I've been developing my stuff for years as freeware, so hopefully that's convincing evidence that I'd love to see G-Force and WhiteCap for MC for free--it's just that it's not in the realm of the possible for me to do the glue as long as they only have a .NET OOP framework.
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Shoot--that's not how i ment to come off at all.
Oh, ok :)
Well who knows - if I had some spare time in my life I'd be more than willing to help - maybe there are others here who would. I'm sure you'd get all the support you needed from the community. Please post some more details on what is required for you to get the ball rolling.
Good luck,
Scott.
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Hi Andy,
I'm with JRiver. It's great to see you even think about doing this. Thanks!
Maybe we could talk off line about what you might need. We'll try to arrange what we can.
Jim Hillegass
jimh @ jriver.com
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Hey Andy.
Glueing your APIs to an MC display plugin may be pretty easy. Why don't you email me at matt @ jriver.com (no spaces) and we can talk about it. It'd be really great to see G-Force and WhiteCap for MC :)
Our display plugins are really just a window (dressed up as a COM control). That means they'll easily work with your API if it can do any of the following:
1) draw directly to a hWnd / hDC
2) bind a surface (DirectX or otherwise) to an existing hWnd
3) return frames that we can draw (requires one extra memcpy of the data, so is less optimal)
Thanks and looking forward to hearing from you.
-Matt
JRiver, Inc.
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Any news on this?
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We're talking with Andy now. I hope we'll be able to do this.
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I just wanted to share with everyone here that Matt and the folks at JRiver have given me some great support. I expect to have a beta by the end of next week, and then I'll send over to JRiver for any final inputs and feedback. After all that, you should see it. It'd be done sooner, but I'm amidst adding significant items to the next release.
andy
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Great news!
I love the versions of your plugins for iTunes & Audion on the Macintosh!
I'm looking forward to seeing them on the big screen jukebox (powered by MC9/10)!
Brad
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I am also _really_ looking forward to this! Well done Andy & J River :)
Laffer.
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BUMP ;D
Anyone got any news?
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I'm anxious for this too but I didn't want to nag too much.. I'm sure Andy will post a message when he's got some news.. Meanwhile a message dated 02/18 on his site confirms a MC version is forthcoming but he's terribly busy lately..
http://www.55ware.com
Sidenote: I sent the Giesswerks guy a message also and received nothing. At least Andy has responded to our pleas...
Bryan
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wow - just looked at some screen shots of the vis on the wedsite. fantastic, cant wait to see these in action.
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Urm.... no pressure anyone BUT you won't let this slip out quietly will you? ie. there will be an announcement some where?
Laffer :)
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We'll announce it.
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sorry--i can't keep it in!
G-Force 2.6 has been released!!-- visti http://soundspectrum.com
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YEEEE-HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
oh boy have i been looking forward to this ...
[edit]
got it installed. Andy - darn good stuff. cant wait until im home so i can see this on the big TV.
for those who are confused try pressing 'h' which brings up a list of what key does what...
thanks again andy
pip
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Great job Andy!
I'll play with it some more tonight, but it's awesome "right outta the box".
I'm pretty sure I'll go Gold quite soon.
Thanks
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Really nice! It looks great and plays really fast. I love it!
Any chance we could get the WhiteCap vis in MC as well?
If not, no biggy, we've already been blessed by G-Force :)
Thanks,
Cascius
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Gday Andy!
Love G-Force so much I bought the Gold version for MC.
I have a query though. I use MC mainly from clients accessing the tracks via Media Server.
In this mode, it doesn't display the album cover artwork when changing tracks. The display of album cover art only works when accessing tracks locally.
Any possibility of this being changed/enhanced?
Thanks for an awesome vis plugin, something MC has been crying out for for some time.
Rob
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:D :D GREEEAAATTTT STUFF!!!! :D :D
If MC was allready the BEST media player you could find, now with G_Force thereīs no media player even close to it.
Thank you very much both teams for doing such great job, we MC lovers really appreciate it
pantxo
Spain
p.s. one more thing, nothing happens when I press H for help or any other hot key, so I still canīt fully use my g-force :-[ , any suggestions?...TY
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pantxo, before pushing one of those keys you must make sure to first click in the g-force window (i.e. viz area of MC). Otherwise the shortcuts (H...) will be processed as MC shortcuts rather than G-Force's.
Hope this makes sense,
-Cascius
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sure did, thanks a lot for your help, and I thought I tried everything :-[
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Just wanted to chime in with a hearty "thanks and kudos" to Andy and the JRiver folk for a great collaborative effort.
I'm really enjoying G-Force and MC.
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G-Force 2.6.2 is posted... http://soundspectrum.com
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I upgraded to Gold and hate it! I can't get anything done because it's too mesmerizing - I just want to sit and stare at my monitor! Seriously, it's sooooooo pretty!
Just one question - shouldn't the G-Force stop when a song or playlist finishes playing? Is there an option for this?
Thanks Andy and JRiver!!!
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Andy
I had the gold version of G-force, but now ive upgraded to 2.6.2 im back to the trial version - is that right?
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Andy
I had the gold version of G-force, but now ive upgraded to 2.6.2 im back to the trial version - is that right?
Pipsqueak,
Click on the "Once you upgrade, you can download G-Force Gold" link and there will be a field in which you enter your license code. It will give you the 2.6.2 version of Gold.
Shelly
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thanks there
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Andy.... you rock!!!! I've been waiting so long for this.
Thank you, thank you..... thank you!!!
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I'm not sure if this should be posted in a G-Force forum or not but it would be great if G-Force would figure out when MC isn't displaying any vis (e.g. MC is iconisized or viewing the media library tree) and stop chewing CPU cycles.
I think this may be related to Shelly's point.
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Any word on WhiteCap availability on MC?