projectM 0.99 review

projectM is a XMMS visualization plugin which uses 3D hardware accelerated iterative image based rendering. projectM is basically

License: GPL (GNU General Public License) File size: 0K Developer: Pete Sperl and Carmelo Piccione

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projectM is a XMMS visualization plugin which uses 3D hardware accelerated iterative image based rendering.

projectM is basically a reimplementation of Milkdrop under OpenGL. projectM already does some things Milkdrop does not (like infinite custom shapes/waves).

projectM should run anywhere where OpenGL is available (Linux, BSD, Mac OS X, and Windows verified). Please port me to your music player.

Requirements:
XMMS
SDL 1.3 branch

Installation:

[1] Install SDL 1.3 branch

(Un)fortunately there is a special feature in a development branch of SDL dubbed "branch_1_3_x" that projectM requires to handle different texture sizes and window resizing. This code is under CVS at SDL's sourceforge site, and has not been thoroughly tested. However, the developers have found it stable enough to merit installation. We provide a source tarball of a recent CVS version on our website (http://xmms-projectm.sourceforge.net).

Once you have downloaded the tarball SDL-1.3.0.tar.gz do the following:

As usual, run

sh> ./configure

followed by

sh> make

and as root

sh> make install

NOTE: this will install SDL in /usr/local, so when you compile projectM make sure that it finds SDL-1.3 and
not SDL-1.2 (which is likely in /usr with most distributions). Hopefully the configure script will verify this
automatically for you. To force SDL into /usr, type

./configure --prefix=/usr

followed by typical make and make install.

[2] Install projectM

Then run

sh> ./configure

followed by

sh> make

and as root

sh> make install

This will install projectM into XMMS's Visualization plugin directory. projectM's configuration files, including the default packaged presets are in /etc/projectM.

Enable projectM by loading XMMS and pressing CTRL-v. This will bring up the vis plugin menu. Highlight projectM in the list (if it's not there something went wrong during installation), and click the enable button. Sit back and enjoy the trippy visuals...

What's New in This Release:
A correction was made in internal rendering of coordinate spaces.
XMMS plugins now close properly via window decorations.
The mouse cursor is now hidden on full screen.
Menu resizing is smarter.
Numerous compilation bugs were fixed.