Wiimote-reactive Milkdrop visuals

[Flexi]

by private request, a reupload of the Miilkdrop dll + documentation and preset pack

[ShadowHarlequin]

cool, i cant afford any hardware at the moment though :P lookng into using a gamepad with this instead for the moment which might work

[Flexi]

yes you can control any variable. you can either use the raw force values or roll/pitch(+yaw with the infrared bar) + some button press status.

i bought a usb BT dongle for my PC but not all are working with the wiimotes. It's all written in the Miilkdrop readme. check it out

[ShadowHarlequin]

can you get an attatchment usb or otherwise that will give my laptop bluetooth capability? it has a switch on the front but its real stiff and theres no software installed for it so i guess my model doesnt have bluetooth

also i cant find a dl link for the software, the download page isnt there any more
[edit, scrolled down on the page and got it :P]

what parameters can you control with the wiimote? could you control any variable?

[liam9519]

ah cheers

[Flexi]

right, but the 0.1.0 downloads works...

http://rapidshare.com/files/133826115/vis_miilk.dll

simply replace this file - that's all it needs for the IR support

[liam9519]

Is it just me or is the 0.2.0 link not working? Really would like to try it out!

Keep up the good work!
liam

[carmatic]

like, what i think could use some work is like, when the wiimote is moved, the bass waveform is identical and repeating, which looks kind of unnatural, that is why i was thinking of using the white noise... or if the sound variables can be reconnected back to the sound input, but not directly, like if the wiimote actually controls some kind of DSP using its movements, and the resulting processed sound is fed into the sound variables... that way you get a good waveform, plus you get a good response from the wiimote too

which sound variables are controlled by which wiimote variable?

[Abydos]

I love you.
I'm buying a 1080 hd projector soon and just happened to stumble acroos this, I'm going to have soooo much more fun now, cheers!

[carmatic]

like, how difficult is it to make the wiimotes control some kind of 'noise generator' like i described above? the noise will then be fed into the visualization and processed as if it is the music...
in addition to amplifying certain frequencies depending on acceleration, maybe the x-axis wiimote acceleration can change the phase of the affected frequencies as well, the y-axis wiimote acceleration can change the y-axis offset of the waveform, and z-axis acceleration can change the bandwidth of the processing, so you can have direct control over the waveform using the wiimotes...you can 'roll' the waveform around by moving the wiimote side to side, you can 'push' the waveform up and down, and you can create different interference patterns by moving the wiimote forwards or backwards... this potentially makes unmodified milkdrop presets much much much more useful, and we can use all 5542 of them

[Flexi]

hehe i didn't know this formula has a well known name, but in fact i used it in quite alot presets (all the ones, that take advance of the elastic spring and some more)

rewarding is definetly the way to go, when you want to get serious with it. (i just got 48 points on the wii sports sandbag)
If i find something cool, i will post it here! but don't you wait on me, my creativity is unpredictable

[carmatic]

yaay just had a go with milkdrop, it was as simple as plug and play on my xp x64, plug my belkin dongle in, wait for windows to install the drivers, sync the wiimote, and when i started the test program it recognized it straight away... makes me sleep easy at night when stuff like that happens

anyway, i have an idea... if there is a way to control the sensitivity of milkdrop's sound reactivity using the wiimote, you could 'reward' the participant with a large reaction on the visuals if they get it right, dance dance revolution-style...
or how about 'transforming' the input of the wiimotes to different frequencies of audio, like long sweeps (large constant acceleration) create high frequency sounds and sudden jerks (large change in acceleration) cause pulses of bass... make it so that when the wiimotes are still, there will be constant white noise, and as the wiimotes feel acceleration, the tone of the sound changes... this can either be fed into the visuals as it is, or mixed with the audio stream for some 'relevance' to the visuals

i dont know how relevant this is, but when i was browsing wikipedia i came across http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_response_function and somehow it reminded me of this thread, can anyone think of anything?

[indaVizz]

i see. that feature is supported already. normally (for the wii milkdrop) bass, bass_att and other sound preset vars are a function of wiimote acceleration, angles and buttons, so that when you don't move, these vars are 0, regardless of the music played in winamp. then winamp + miilkdrop is just a graphical engine.

but if you press certain wiimote key combo (left (A) + left (1)), those vars are reconnected back to sound analysis for the music played in winamp, so an unmodified preset behaves as in the original milkdrop. but the wii-specific vars are still available (wii_l_f etc.), so you could write a preset that does exactly what you described -- use sound vars and waveforms for subtle reaction and wii-only vars for not-so-subtle reaction.

... i could also have each preset decide whether sound vars source should be winamp sound or wiimotes, by having it define fWiiAnalyzeSound=1 (default 0).

[carmatic]

yeah, but i guess what im thinking of was more in terms of the versatility of the setup, imagine where the wiimotes are chained to a booth which the public have access to, that kind of thing

one thing i am pretty sure of is that in an interactive setting, the number of presets can be much much much lower because people dont get bored when they are playing with the visuals... which is a good thing i guess, since you have to account for both the original sound response of milkdrop as well as the wiimote input, more variables, complexity, and work for each preset
what combination of sound reactivity and wiimote control is totally up to the presets of course, but it can be presented as wiimote-focused or sound-focused.. to be sound focused can be, for example, the wiimotes can control the position of some points on the screen, and the sound waveform can then be centered on these points... if the waveforms fade slowly, it would be as if you are holding sound-reactive flames on-screen
i havent had time to set up all that bluetooth stuff on my computer yet, but im guessing that a serious wiimote-focused preset can have absolutely no sound input at all, and the functions which affect the waveform and fade are entirely derived from the speed, acceleration, etc etc of the wiimote input, or if there is sound reactivity, it is subtle and sublime stuff like the colour of the background or something... the kind of thing that would be used if there is going to be a dedicated performer on the booth

[indaVizz]

you're right on both counts.

but there's something else besides being the star of the show: i'm totally convinced that people don't want to see any "artificial intelligence" in a live performance. if the computer does something in reaction to sound, or does something randomly, people will not know if it's you the performer doing that or is it the computer, and they'll hate the confusion.

from their perspective, if the visuals totally match the mood of the song and the beat, we (the audience) want to be sure that's because you (the performer) are good and you gave your best. and if they don't, we'll know that you suck. but we don't want the computer to help you in any way.

that's my theory anyhow. i think that's not different from singing (don't you hate lip syncing) or playing a guitar live or dancing with fire or whatever -- it's about people and the way they connect through art.