Introduction

Copyright 2001 Chris Egerter
Version 1.0 Released August 27, 2001
Trial Version (Register here)

Introduction:

Thank you for trying out the Dance Floor Visualizer. This visualizer is designed to give you a great visual experience using advanced graphics techniques while sucking up as much processing power as possible. This is the unregistered version, which means some of the options are unavailable in the configuration screen.

Requirements:

- 3D card capable of projective textures, rendering to a texture, and hardware transformation and lighting (at least GeForce 1 Class hardware)
- DirectX 8 runtime (from www.microsoft.com/directx)
- DirectX 8 compatible video card drivers
- Fast processor! (700 mhz or greater)
- Winamp(surprise!), some music, mouse, monitor, keyboard, computer, electricity, eyes, brain...

Configuration:

There is a combo box to select the Direct3D device. Only 3D acceleration through the Direct3D HAL driver is supported. If you have more than one 3D card connected you can choose which one you want to use. If you are using the primary device, you can also check the "Run In a Window" checkbox.

Configuration Options:
Always on top: If this option is checked the plugin window will remain on top of other windows even when winamp isn't the active window.

Run In a Window: If this option is checked the plugin will render in a window instead of full screen. To work properly your desktop bit depth should be 16 or 32 bit and the 32 bit color option checked if the desktop is 32.

32 Bit Color: If this option is checked the plugin will use 32 bit color rendering. This is not supported by all cards any will fail if it only supports 16 bit color. Using 32 bit color gives you much smoother looking flares.

Enable Flares: If this option is checked the plugin will show pulsating flares with pretty colors.

Enable Shadows: If this option is checked the plugin will draw shadows from the objects. If you card doesn't support rendering to a texture you can turn this off and you might get it to run.

Automatically Cycle Textures: If this option is checked, the visualizer will cycle through all the projected textures. Leaving it off enables you to leave your favourite scene on for a long period of time.

Texture Time: This controls how long each texture lasts before showing the next one. It is only used if the cycle textures option is turned on. A value of 60 is equal to one second.

Default Scene: Here you can choose which texture will be the first one shown. With the cycle scenes option turned off this allows you to show your favorite texture each time you start the plugin.

Number of Objects: Here you can choose how many 3D objects are in the room. Up to 255 objects are possible (only use that many if you're crazy).

Stretch Factor: This will let you stretch the balls to the music. This only works when the Use Girlies option is turned off (stretching the girls would look stupid)

Use Girlies: If this option is checked you see dancing girls instead of metallic balls.

Upwards Bounce: This controls how high the objects jump up if they are touching the ground and a beat is detected.

Sideways Bounce: This controls how far the objects fly sideways if they are touching the ground and a beat is detected.

Show Song Title: If this option is checked the song title will be displayed at the top of the plugin window.

Show Custom String: If this option is checked the custom string will be displayed at the bottom of the plugin window. This allows you to leave personalized messages on your screen (for example "Out to Lunch") and use the plugin as a screensaver while you're gone or the world's coolest post-it note.

Font Scale: This lets you change how big the song title and custom text are. By default this is set to 0.5.

Load Preset: This lets you load in a preset from disk. Presets are saved in the \winamp\plugins directory and have the extension *.dfp (dance floor preset). There are some presets included with the plugin and you can make your own.

Save Preset: This lets you save the current settings in a preset file.

Controls:

Pressing the up or down arrow keys will scroll through the playlist. Hitting enter after highlighting a song in the playlist will begin playing the song. If you don't hit enter after a few seconds the playlist will disappear. You can also use left and right arrow keys to move around in a song.

Most of the the normal keyboard shortcuts for Winamp work while the plugin is active.

Customizing:

You can use a paint program to modify the textures used by this plugin. You can change the projected textures to anything you like. The textures are found in the \winamp\plugins\dancefloor folder.

Troubleshooting:

Common problems:

Problem 1) Visualizer isn't listed
Solutions:

1) Press Ctrl-K. Click on "Plugins" from the list. Change the visualizer plugin directory to your \winamp\plugins directory. Press the flush plug-in name cache button.

2) Make sure you have DirectX 8 installed properly. You should have a d3d8.dll in \windows\system.

3) If there are other DLL's that are referenced by mine and aren't present on your computer, the plugin will not be listed. Get the dependency walker utility from http://www.dependencywalker.com/. Load my plugin dll into it and the utility will show you what dll's your system is missing.

Problem 2) Visualizer window is empty.
Solution: Winamp will not tell the plugin to render anything unless there is a song playing or some kind of sound input. Get some music playing before you start the plugin.

Problem 3) Visualizer crashes without showing anything.
Solution: This can be caused by a number of things. Make sure you have a 3D card that meets the requirements of the plugin. You also need DirectX8 installed. You may need to configure the plugin before starting it to change the default settings.

Uninstalling:

If you can't get the plugin to work or just don't like it (you crazy) here is a list of files you can delete to remove the plugin from your system.

\winamp\plugins\vis_dancefloor.dll
\winamp\plugins\*.dfp
\winamp\plugins\dancefloor\*.*
\winamp\plugins\dancehelp\*.*

Contacting the Author:

If you need technical support or have any suggestions for improvements or new plugins, send email to Chris at plugins@home.com.

Visit my winamp plugins page for support and more plugins. (www.3dengine.ca/winamp)

You can also visit my home page for my 3D engine that you can use to build your own plugins. (www.3dengine.ca)

Credits:

3D engine: Power Render (www.powerrender.com)
Girl model by John Turner
Original girl base texture by SelfLove