What is Visualization Mega SDK?

[Rovastar]

MEGA SDK is Nullsoft framework for writing Visualizations written by Ryan Geiss at Nullsoft.

From Ryan's website:

Version 1.02 of the Visualization MEGA SDK (VMS; formerly referred to as just the 'dx8 plugin framework' that I was working on) is here. It is, in short, a codebase for rapidly creating robust and feature-rich DX8-based visualization plug-ins of your own. Anyone who hasn't written a plugin can use this and actually have a shot at it; it'll eliminate months of annoying development and bug hunting. And anyone who HAS written a plugin should really appreciate this, knowing what a pain it is (to jam all this stuff in there) and how much time it takes. Until now!


NOw v1.05b

For now download it here
http://www.nullsoft.com/free/vms/

[Seenik]

I am not clear from the existing post if this is updated to work with WA5 and if anyone has been able to create a plugin for to their own specs. Appreciate any hints or tips if you have!

[Seenik]

Does anyond know if I can use the Directx 9 SDK or where I can get the DirectX 8 SDK if not. The Microsoft page referred to only has the 9 and a bunch of updates. I am new to this! (sure you can tell)...

[saivert]

The DX9 SDK will probably work with VMS if you change some pieces of the VMS code. Just try to compile it and fix all those compiler-erros.

[TheBlock]

Hi

I've made a plugin with this SDK, it worked fine with winamp 5 but not with directx 9.
It compiled fine with the DX9 SDK but would not show up as a valid plugin in the visualisation menu.

The VMS is extremely well made and takes away a lot of the pain of using DirectX, unfortunately if the DX9 issue goes unfixed no plug-in can really be released using it. Please check it out, it'd be a waste of a very useful piece of kit.

Just in case anyone is curious the plug-in i made uses musical data to seed a visual "game of life" (see cellular automata).
A grid of tiles is formed and each tile affects and is affected by neighbouring tiles. Dependent on the rules of the game chaotic tiled paterns appear on the screen due to volume, freq, etc.
Hopefully i'll finish it someday. lost the source code in a HDD crash grr.

Laters

Block

[saivert]

Is it not a symbol in the DirectX 9 SDK that you can define to make it compile in DirectX 8 mode? I know you can use the older versions of DirectX even if you have a newer SDK. There should be some docs on it. You really don't have any use for DirectX 9 if you don't want to use the new features.

@TheBlock: Upload your source code to a webserver or something and you have a backup instantly.

The VMS runs just fine on WInamp 5. But I think you should update it so it supports the drawer of the default Modern Skin. Milkdrop also uses VMS, and the source code for MilkDrop is released. I guess you can check it out for more info.

[mglez86]

hey, i was unable to download the compiled dll, vis_ExPlugin.dll, any ideas of what to do? it gives me a warning saying i can't download it. thanks.

[mglez86]

Hi, i installed the version of april 2007, and it won't run, anyone know what's going on, i went trough the steps of "setting up the build enviroment" three times, and still gives me these errors:(please help)

c:\ejemplo\pluginplay\dxcontext.h(30) : fatal error C1083: Cannot open include file: 'd3dx8.h': No such file or directory
support.cpp
c:\ejemplo\pluginplay\support.h(26) : fatal error C1083: Cannot open include file: 'd3dx8.h': No such file or directory
config.cpp
c:\ejemplo\pluginplay\dxcontext.h(30) : fatal error C1083: Cannot open include file: 'd3dx8.h': No such file or directory
config2.cpp
c:\ejemplo\pluginplay\dxcontext.h(30) : fatal error C1083: Cannot open include file: 'd3dx8.h': No such file or directory
desktop_mode.cpp
c:\ejemplo\pluginplay\dxcontext.h(30) : fatal error C1083: Cannot open include file: 'd3dx8.h': No such file or directory
dxcontext.cpp
c:\ejemplo\pluginplay\dxcontext.h(30) : fatal error C1083: Cannot open include file: 'd3dx8.h': No such file or directory
pluginshell.cpp
c:\ejemplo\pluginplay\dxcontext.h(30) : fatal error C1083: Cannot open include file: 'd3dx8.h': No such file or directory
vis.cpp
c:\ejemplo\pluginplay\dxcontext.h(30) : fatal error C1083: Cannot open include file: 'd3dx8.h': No such file or directory
Error executing cl.exe.