JakdMan

4th May 2013 20:13 UTC

Modernizing AVS!!!
After playing around with AVS viz a while ago I immediately saw the potential as a more dynamic visualizer. However the fact that to this day it STILL runs on the cpu is, well .... abysmal in my book.

After searching a few threads here it seems the reasons people have stuck with include the 'vast variety' AVS offers means '3d graphix cards wont help' :mad: Then we go to see that, 'oh actually pixel shaders would help if not do the trick' :hang:

My point:
Those threads seem to have been quite old ranging from 2000 to 2003. It is 2013 and it seems still you need to own a Roadrunner, or at least a server CPU to run the thing at actual modern resolutions in full screen (which should be the point in most cases) we shouldn't have to play tricks with up to VGS res to make the thing run at consistent frame-rates in a windowed mode, and it would seem the only real reason AVS has stayed the same CPU cannibalizer is because there isn't much to be gained by the visualizer market (read: niche)

Is it really too much to ask that we bring together the programmer/ engineers necessary to break down and rebuild our beloved AVS to take advantage of modern day hardware and principals. If money is an issue I'm sure as a community we could work something out, between a kickstarter and paypal. Especially considering it's not impossible, and more people have the hardware required now as opposed to 9 years ago.

Thoughts, quarrels please.

P.S.: I am a visual lover hence why I feel the need to mention this :p

Warrior of the Light

4th May 2013 23:22 UTC

Money isn't the issue, AVS is open source. It's just that nobody who's capable of this is interested enough to do this.

InCUbuS-94

4th May 2013 23:24 UTC

You do realize that AVS is open source for some years now, you can easily build your personal AVS as you see fit, well if you have the necessary knowledge that is.

JakdMan

5th May 2013 02:22 UTC

Well perhaps something can be done about that. There has to be a way to bring this to the attention of someone who is somewhat capable. There is still a community here at least.

DrO

5th May 2013 16:54 UTC

no one cares (not to be able to do what you're wanting), it's always been quirky, it needs a lot (time and effort) to make it not-CIPU dependent aka likely to break even more than it already is and money is an affecting factor as no one who can codes typically wants to put in a load of effort for effectively zero reward.

it'd probably be simpler to just start from scratch than trying to move AVS over to what you're wanting and really if you want something that isn't CPU dependent, you're better off using Milkdrop as AVS will undoubtedly remain CPU-bound as that's just how it is (and officially, no one cares about AVS either, and really it should be removed from the Winamp installer and spin it off into a separate installer due to the issues it has on newer OSes, etc for those who do still want to use it (which isn't too many seeing as Milkdrop has been the default vis plug-in for years now).

InCUbuS-94

5th May 2013 20:10 UTC

Agreed.

In my opinion, the latest AVS that Justin released (the Cockos Happy one) doesn't really add or fix anything that is relevant, you know, changing the syntax of codes won't bring the community back. It's really hard to find someone who has time and will to do that.

JakdMan

5th May 2013 22:37 UTC

Well darn. That's lame :(

And here I was hoping things weren't as dead as far as viz go. Perhaps it'll be a pet project if I ever learn to code

DrO

5th May 2013 22:56 UTC

visualisations were niche in the peak times (a decade ago) so it's no wonder things are as is now after all that time when there were only a few people who actually coded them compared to preset authors, etc. and yes it's lame but that's just how it has gone and more so with any sort of plug-ins for Winamp.

ravermeister

6th May 2013 08:46 UTC

and by the way, there is some developement in the visual business:

http://www.vsxu.com/ - advanced tool, with a long time community
http://projectm.sourceforge.net/ - the open source project that supports .milk files

and I'm sure there is even more out there.
by the way, it would be great if projectM would run on winamp, but don't know
if it is possible as it uses openGL I think

DrO

6th May 2013 09:52 UTC

maybe i should have been clearer, there's no development in general in the free plug-in market. point proved with projectM where they've gone to other platforms and are rightly charging for the product - do that with Winamp plug-ins and you get accused of being money grabbing and no one buys it (ironic eh?).

there were a number of OpenGL vis plug-ins around 2000 so that has zero to do with getting projectM in Winamp - it's just that no one cares - though the source code is there so there's nothing stopping you doing it. but i doubt that'll happen as just there aren't many people who want and can code, who will make Winamp plug-ins because there is little to no financial return and that's just what drives everyone nowadays.