[manaox2]

I may just be excited that I've finally found a way to do this, but in the off chance that anyone is still using foobar2000 and interested in having pretty colored pixels move to their music on their PC, here is how I got milkdrop and other nullsoft visualizations working with foobar2000 seamlessly. Its a truly great thing to have for a windows based htpc and is part of many htpc packages like XBMC. Now you can have the sound quality and the visualization together.

If you haven't heard of milkdrop before, it is a highly capable visualization with literally hundreds of different presets out there for it. I really missed this visualizer when I switched from Winamp to foobar2000 for better quality and less bloat years ago and works well with multiple monitors. I've tested this myself on XP pro and Windows7 64.

First, you need to download the foo_vis_shpeck wrapper plugin and extract it to your foobar2000/components directory in your program files (C:\Program Files or C:\Program Files(x86) if you have 64 bit).

Download here: http://yirkha.fud.cz/progs/foobar2000/foo_vis_shpeck-0.3.7.zip

Second, you need to download the dummy Winamp directory from here and extract it wherever you like (I put it in the foobar2000 program directory). You may need to download 7zip extractor to extract the files.

Download latest here: http://www.mediafire.com/?ybv4a39yrp4l15m

Now start foobar2000 and enter preferences. Configure Shpeck under the visualization section by setting the directory you extracted your winamp dummy dir to and then select Milkdrop in the list of available plugins and click configure. I set my default to fullscreen, set my fullscreen settings to my desktop resolution, and, since I have a faster video card and cpu, I upped the mesh size under more settings to 96x72 (completely optional, but looks amazing). I also set a keyboard shortcut to my M key to start the visualization while in preferences.

If you want to see the options in the visualizer, you can push the F1 key to see a list.

Credit goes to Yirkha on Hydrogen audio forums for creating the shpeck plugin and Nullsoft for making the visualizations available freely.

 

[Roller]

I would like to know which version of Winamp are you taking the installer folder from, as well as versions for Milkdrop and AVS.
 
Winamp versions newer than 5.58 have a broken manifest file, at least when preparing an install folder to be used in shpeck. I'm running a very stable 5.56 install with Milkdrop 2.2, AVS2.82 and the Nullsoft 2.10 visualizers. Winamp folders of versions 5.57 and newer have broken AVS and Nullsoft visualizers, even if Milkdrop works (which is the high point of its visualizers anyway).
 
I personally find that using a 5.56 install works best as it has access to all plugins, and if newer Milkdrop presets are desired, one just needs to grab them from a newer install and drop them on the presets folder.
 
Mesh size of 64x48 is a far better option, considering that there are many users with less powerful computers, and even 64x48 is too much for netbooks, for instance.
 
Also, Milkdrop's main settings can't be changed when the plugin is running, but when the plugin is running, there is access to a different set of options that allow direct control of what's being displayed, rather than plugin system settings.
 
EDIT: I just noticed that the link you posted with the Winamp install for usage on foobar was uploaded by me on Hydrogenaudio

 

[manaox2]

Haha, thanks for the link!
 
My old Pentium M laptop with the Radeon 9000 mobility (hacked a little though) from 2003 uses 64x48. It works well enough, but yeah a netbook today should stick with the default for maximum compatibility. My core i7 PC with a Radeon 5850 runs happily with 128x96 even, but I keep it at 96x72 to keep it as smooth as possible as the quality difference isn't that noticeable after that it seems.

 

[Roller]

Ideally, Milkdrop should run at a minimum of 30fps. While it's best to run it at 60fps, certain preset packages are made specific for certain fps range, namely 30-40 and pure 50-60, as they do look better if running faster or slower, depending on which presets are being displayed.
 
Still, I'd recommend against people using any form of antialiasing, as it affects overlay elements as well, and that's quite a performance hit. From my experience, Milkdrop should run acceptably at native resolution (assuming it's a LCD) with stock settings and look quite well. Depending on each system's performance, one could increase one step on the mesh size in the event of the performance being rock solid or acceptably stable to see if graphics can be improved while maintaining smooth motion, or if the performance is suffering, increasing the canvas stretch gives very significant performance boosts.
 
All things considered, it's a very good implementation of Winamp's visualization plugins, even if it still has a few flaws, which should be all fixed when the new version of shpeck is released, whenever it might be. Fingers crossed that it will be soon

 

[caracara08]

thanks!
 

 

[manaox2]

Just wanted to post that martin's presets for milkdrop are extremely amazing.

 

[LingLing1337]

Haven't read through this method so I can't be sure if I used the same method, but I have been using F2k+Milkdrop2 for quite a while now with good results. It definitely IS possible.

 

[Roller]

Quote:

Haven't read through this method so I can't be sure if I used the same method, but I have been using F2k+Milkdrop2 for quite a while now with good results. It definitely IS possible.

As far as I'm aware, there are only 2 methods available to run Milkdrop on foobar2000, two bridge plugins, one being shpeck (the most popular one) and another bridge plugin that I can't remember the name, but it's not just for visualization plugins but for all Winamp compatible plugins.

 

[wind016]

I'm having problems using two screens. Dualhead options don't seem to do anything even though I select 'span both screens'

 

[Roller]

Quote:

I'm having problems using two screens. Dualhead options don't seem to do anything even though I select 'span both screens'

Have you turned the Fake Fullscreen mode option on? It seems to help on some cases. But keep in mind that not every Milkdrop feature is working at 100%. I'm still trying to find out why it has different behaviors depending on whether Milkdrop runs through shpeck or when running natively on Winamp.

 

[manaox2]

Quote:

Haven't read through this method so I can't be sure if I used the same method, but I have been using F2k+Milkdrop2 for quite a while now with good results. It definitely IS possible.

There used to be foo_vis_bacon back with foobar 0.8 but was obsoleted by the last three major updates (0.9 and 1.0 and 1.1) of foobar released. Then there was foo_vis_projectM which never really seemed to go anywhere or work properly. Most skins that use Milkdrop 2 use this method, so if you got a pack from deviantart or somewhere, its probably foo_vis_shpeck.

 

[Roller]

Quote:

As far as I'm aware, there are only 2 methods available to run Milkdrop on foobar2000, two bridge plugins, one being shpeck (the most popular one) and another bridge plugin that I can't remember the name, but it's not just for visualization plugins but for all Winamp compatible plugins.

It's worth to mention that I'm talking about 1.x, not older 0.9.x/0.8.x.

 

[music_man]

tried completely maxing out a cray at work. omg! it is freeakin amazing. it was using 70% cpu power on a 80 grand machine lol. my i7 cannot do it. i had the highest mesh and fps going. i was amazed at what i saw.

 

[Roller]

Milkdrop is amazing, no doubt there, but it can be very taxing on a system, specially if you turn all bells and whistles on both Milkdrop and GPU graphical settings.

 

[LingLing1337]

Quote:

tried completely maxing out a cray at work. omg! it is freeakin amazing. it was using 70% cpu power on a 80 grand machine lol. my i7 cannot do it. i had the highest mesh and fps going. i was amazed at what i saw.

?????
 
I have mine "maxed out", but it doesn't use all of my CPU/GPU (i3-540/GTX470). Highest mesh but 30 fps, which is what my screen can display. It probably does look pretty cool with unlimited FPS tho.