Winamp 2.9, Winamp3, and the future

[Nullsoft]

To our beloved developers,


we'd like to inform you of our new (or somewhat recently updated) development
plans for Winamp. It's important to note that our primary goals (to provide
the best media playback experience and functionality) have not changed.

The New Plan[tm]!

Currently we provide Winamp 2.81 and Winamp3 for our users. Both programs
provide some really excellent features and functionality, and a lot of those
benefits do not overlap between the two products.

We intend to combine everything our users like about Winamp 2.81 and Winamp3
into one version of Winamp.

Step 1: Winamp 2.9 (next week)

Winamp 2.9 will be built on Winamp 2.x, and include new features such as video
support and a media library. Winamp 2.9 will also provide some new APIs for
tighter plug-in integration. We will even be releasing portable device plug-ins
as examples.

Step 1.5: release lots of updates to Winamp 2.9x, to fix bugs and add minor improvements.

Step 2: Winamp "5" (this summer)

(The "5" is just a working title, and may or may not be used.. The (slightly amusing) thought is that Winamp 2 + Winamp3 = Winamp 5; but not everybody around is sold on that idea. We'll see.)

This version will integrate Winamp3 skin and script support into the Winamp 2.x platform.
This will allow users who do not wish to have complex freeform skins to use
classic Winamp skin(s), with the full performance of Winamp 2.x.
Those who wish to use more advanced Winamp3 skins can do so as well.
The integration will be seamless.

Initially this version of Winamp will not support Wasabi components.
That may or may not change as we go forward,
we have yet to see how worthwhile that will be.
We have and will be extending Winamp 2.x's plug-in architecture greatly to
allow much of the same functionality that can be accomplished with Wasabi).

We also plan on adding CD ripping and burning capability for this release.

We are aiming to release this version sometime (read: towards the end of) this
summer (2003).

Step 3: ???

Step 4: Profit!

(don't worry about steps 3 and 4, they are just a lame Southpark reference)

To just sum things up: plan going forward:

• Winamp 2.9, March 2003
  - Adds video and library and new APIs for better plug-in integration to Winamp 2.x
• Winamp "5" (title unknown), Late Summer 2003
  - Adds Winamp3 skin support, CD ripping, CD burning.
  - Fully supports Winamp "classic" and Winamp3 skins
  - Fully supports Winamp "classic" plug-ins
  - Does not initially support Winamp3 (Wasabi) components.

For developer questions, please ask in this forum.
For press inquires, please contact Ann Burkart <mailto:[email protected]>.


-Nullsoft

P.S. Steve _REALLY_ is an evil robot. Really. Of course, this remark annoys him. Because it is TRUE

[steve]

With as many views as this, why are you people afraid to respond or ask questions?

-s

[cybaix]

Originally posted by steve
With as many views as this, why are you people afraid to respond or ask questions?

-s

I have a question.. will 2.9 have working dual monitor support when its out of beta? Because currently it doesnt work. Also with plugins can it be possible to add dual monitor support for them too (IE allowing full screen on the second monitor and not the first).

[-[WonderBlood]-]

Does this mean there will be no Winamp3 release in future???
I don't like the idea, that there will no .wac support in Winamp "5"

[steve]

we've recieved a few reports of this multimon issue. we'll investigate.

[steve]

wonderblood, winamp 5 is very focused on making sure that the client is as fast and solid as possible. as wasabi matures further, we'll decide to bring in more and more of the feature set into the winamp 5 client... currently, the skin engine is the most mature so that's where we're starting...

-s

[-[WonderBlood]-]

okay, thx steve, we'll see but what about winamp3, will it developed on?

[dj_rigo]

i hope that in the future winamp3 will be back in a stable form. go brennan!

[thepyr0x]

Um, will the ML in 2.9 actually *WORK*? By that I mean we still (as of 488, I haven't checked this in 498 but it looks like it's there too) can't delete entries all the time; and sometimes we can't even modify them. I'd rather have to wait for Winamp 2.9 to load the song info every time you add it than not have my ML updating itself automatically (like, when you change an ID3 tag but it doesn't change in the PL...) or even manually (when you specifically hit reload info)

[jarsonic]

thepyr0x: why don't you try it? It works great.

- `jarsonic

[Paparazzi]

Originally posted by jarsonic
thepyr0x: why don't you try it? It works great.
- `jarsonic

What??? Is it out??? I've gone there for 2 weeks now and have not found it!

I sure hope there'll be Win95 support Got that OS at work and the folks there refuse to give us anything new!

Cheerios

[D&B]

Re: Winamp 2.9, Winamp3, and the future

Originally posted by Nullsoft

We also plan on adding CD ripping and burning capability for this release.

First off, 2.9 kicks ass. Excellent work Nullsoft! I love it!

Anyway, I would love well done burning/ripping in winamp. While I am confident it would be hard to mess up the burning aspect, but it would be hard to do the ripping component perfect.

For example, do you know what codec you are going to use? Is it gonna be set, or can you choose? I encode only with LAME.

[Japie_17]

Memory Usage

As we all know, Winamp 3 uses a lot more resources than WinAmp 2.xx does. Can you tell me how much more memory Winamp "5" uses, when one wants to use freeform skins?

[PJay Tycy]

I think this cd-ripping will not be for those who currently use EAC+LAME or similar programs. I think it's gonna be for those who want a cd ripped in less than 10 minutes and don't care that much about the quality.
If it supports external encoders (eg: LAME), that's one step, but I certainly doubt the ripper will be as good as EAC (read each bit at least twice, if they don't mach, read the bit up to 32 times, to decide wheter it's a 1 or a 0).

[-[WonderBlood]-]

where the hell can I get Winamp 2.9 ???
here: http://www.nullsoft.com/cookie