Current Visualizations in 1.6

veetid · 03-07-2006, 11:59 PM

The current new visuals in 1.6 use sonique visuals. I wanted to use an existing format that woudl give users the ability to add new visuals. The visuals run fine on just about any machine with a video card that doesn't use shared memory and lack of a GPU.

I plan to search for potentially some different sonique visuals that use less CPU and optimize my code to always respond to the close, but has anyone used sonique visuals on machines like M10000 before? Do the run within the sonique app just as slow as they do in Centrafuse?

1.5 used visuals that I wrote myself, very basic eq/meter based graphs... I know visuals are mainly eye candy, and mainly for showing off and rear screens, but I still wanted to try and implement a standard visual format and not create a new one.

Do winamp visuals run better on M10000 machines with onboard video cards or is that going to cause the same problems? I ask because of the so many potential setups, user feedback would help. If sonique visuals are too CPU intensive, then I will try winamp visual support, but if they already perform as bad on an M10000 then I will take a different path.

Do most users consider visuals very important? Were the basic visuals in 1.5 unacceptable? I could potentially make the visuals I wrote in 1.5 load like the current visualizations and create an SDK for creating new visualizations, but again this is moving away from standards that already exist, but not necessarily a bad thing.

I will have to disable full screen visuals on the main screen when the car is in motion once I go commercial to comply with most state laws. In my testing most all visuals run poor on M10000 machines, but again there are many other setups that you guys can give me feedback on.

Are they working for some peoples CarPC's? I have 4 test machines, one of which is an M10000, and the M10000 is the only one they did not work on. One is even an old 600mhz Dell and they worked on that machine, but the video was not onboard, but nothing fancy, a basic 2D 16 meg card.

I went with sonique in 1.6 because it was easier to code around than winamp, but I feel winamp will have the same problems. I cannot currently access the WMP visuals because there is little to no documentation on them. They are 3rd pary just like the EQ is in WMP and not exposed by any SDK.

Just again looking for some feedback....

I also want to give props to all the mp3car users that have helped me Beta test Centrafuse over the past year... It has come a long way and changed in many ways from our original project we started and in many ways thanks to everyone here, so Flux Media thanks you all for testing out Centrafuse and for all your feedback...

We know it's impossible to please everyone, but we are doing are best to make a powerful car application that has all features fully integrated, easy to use for the non technical user, yet power enough for power users... This is a hard thing to accomplish and we are working diligently to find that happy medium....

david

dvwjettaiii · 03-08-2006, 12:13 AM

I don't have an M10000 but I've used Sonique before and definately prefer them (visually) over any others that I've seen. I'd agree that the visuals in 1.5 we're pretty boring and would like to see sonique visuals in the latest version of Centrafuse. I'm assuming that it would be possible to download other sonique visuals and use them in centrafuse also? I'm curious to how well they work on slower machines, but I think they offer the best eye candy available.

djchicago · 03-08-2006, 12:14 AM

aaaahhh thats the problem with them. For some reason when i use the 'vis" they work but I can't get back to the Manager with out doing a Ctrl+alt+del to close the software. I running a 1g celaron with 327m ram and onboard video. Maybe that is part of the same problem. I do like the winamp "vis" and would like to have the ablilty to add more.

veetid · 03-08-2006, 12:19 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by dvwjettaiii

I don't have an M10000 but I've used Sonique before and definately prefer them (visually) over any others that I've seen. I'd agree that the visuals in 1.5 we're pretty boring and would like to see sonique visuals in the latest version of Centrafuse. I'm assuming that it would be possible to download other sonique visuals and use them in centrafuse also? I'm curious to how well they work on slower machines, but I think they offer the best eye candy available.

you should be able to download any sonique visual and place it in the visuals folder and have it work in 1.6 as is now... I just downloaded a few to put in this Beta that I found and thought used the least amount of CPU...

If anyone knows of some sonique visuals that use less CPU that will work on an M10000 please send me a PM or let me know where to get it or who the author is...

My problem is they perform very poorly, if not crash, with cheap onboard video cards, or I assume that is the case based on my testing with an M10000 and another MB I have with an onboad video card, shared memory and CPU...

If you have any video card at all they work fine, or any MB with a real onboard video card and GPU...

david

veetid · 03-08-2006, 12:20 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by djchicago

aaaahhh thats the problem with them. For some reason when i use the 'vis" they work but I can't get back to the Manager with out doing a Ctrl+alt+del to close the software. I running a 1g celaron with 327m ram and onboard video. Maybe that is part of the same problem. I do like the winamp "vis" and would like to have the ablilty to add more.

have you tried running any winamp visuals on your current setup? Do they work without any problems and if so which ones?

david

djchicago · 03-08-2006, 12:30 AM

yes they work fine no problems, Media Engine uses winamp and it works fine, I have not been able to figure it out.

Sachmet · 03-08-2006, 01:40 AM

I also have the M10000 and got stuck within full screen visuals -> had to reboot. Visuals aren't important to me, in fact I find them very distracting while driving, even in the small version. But for showing off, I like them

This version is great! My carpc is mostly used for music, because I have a factory nav on board. I tried a lot of carpc software and in my opinion, CF has the best concept for playing music. I like your work, David.

Sachmet.

solodesignz · 03-08-2006, 02:19 AM

Pent 2.4 Celeron... Visuals work fine, sometimes when I click to close it pauses for about 2-5 seconds before going back to the media screen.... But i will definitily deal with this because IMO visuals are a MUST =)

Linde · 03-08-2006, 03:30 AM

Quote:

I will have to disable full screen visuals on the main screen when the car is in motion once I go commercial to comply with most state laws

Don´t like that. Here in Sweden there is no sutch law, I think.

And if there are, isint this the users choice if he wants it running and get a fine?

I love visuals therefore I just must say it. On my SP13000 the visuals not work and when in fullscreen I must reboot.

// Daniel

Frankino · 03-08-2006, 07:12 AM

but.. it seems to me or the vis does not follow the music? by the way I liked the old freq meter...

justintime · 03-08-2006, 07:35 AM

I think Visuals will be a priority in a lot of people's mind -- I think a lot of the carputer folks are keen on 'showing off' their stuff, which is perfectly fine. (as with lots of hobbies). Another group of people like myself are mainly about enjoying the benefits from having a carputer (Music, Navi, etc.) and will pay little attention to visuals.

Like you said, it is hard to please everyone. I think it is a great idea to use pre-existing visuals (i.e. Sonique), rather than spending time trying to code your own, or code SDKs... I really think there will be a minority of people with the knowledge, time, and energy to code a new visual if an SDK was available, so might not be worthwhile. Not that it's a bad idea though, just a matter of deciding where to spend your time coding, I guess.

I hardly used the old visuals. I would definitely use them for a secondary screen (i.e. in the back) if I had one, though. It would keep others entertained, and it would not be distracting to the driver.

Cannot speak about performance, I have a fast Carputer (~2.4+ Ghz Athlon XP), and all worked fine.

shuggyboy · 03-08-2006, 08:10 AM

I am running a pentuim3 933 with 384mb ram and a ge-force4 mx440. 7"lilliput touchscreen, wi-fi, win-tv bt878, opus 150w

I was using roadrunner with the winamp milkdrop plugin, which looks superb and ran very well on my system, but was not very stable! (especialy changing from windowed into full screen)

I personally LOVE the visuals, and that was the deciding factor in installing rr over centrafuse when i first installed. (I have found rr to be too unstable, so i have converted back to centrafuse!)

I CAN run the visuals on 1.6centrafuse, but they dont run very well, (not getting the same fps i was getting on milkdrop) I have a problem, When I look at the visuals in full screen, they run ok, but i cannot get back to the menu? I thought i would just tap or double tap the screen, or the wee box that is is the bottom left hand corner?

I would love it if the milkdrop plugin worked with centrafuse.

I also have an old hauppaugue wintv pci card bt878chipset with tv and radio, The radio works fine with the external app as does the tv, but i cannot get it to work in centrafuse, when i set it up to use the bt878 and click on tv, it crashes, and comes up with an error code, (Sorry I dont have it handy) and i have to delete and re-install centrafuse, (as it keeps trying to start up in tv mode which crashes it!) (Im sure there must be a config file i could alter to save me re-installing,,,,) anyway,.,, im drolling on here, sorry,,,, I will post this in the bugs forum with the code thats coming up... ;-)

Its looking the biz,,, just wish I could get it working correctly!!! :-)

ccrobin · 03-08-2006, 09:21 AM

I have the M1000 too. I can run the small visuals (thumbnail view) OK, but if I bring them to full screen...I get stuck in visuals mode.

The visual will continue to run, and the songs will continue to play, but I cannot back out of the visuals (or even change them).

Also, I noticed the timer in the title block stops (even though the music keeps playing) and does not update when it moves to the next song.

Barren · 03-08-2006, 01:57 PM

I display the album art if I use any visualization... but 90% of the time, I have the nav up cause I love to watch it.

solodesignz · 03-08-2006, 02:17 PM

Anyone know where to get more visuals for CF ?