MilkDrop
| Developer(s) | Ryan Geiss |
|---|---|
| Initial release | 5 November 2001 |
| Stable release |
2.25c
|
| Operating system | Windows |
| Type | Music visualization |
| License | BSD license |
| Website | http://www.geisswerks.com/milkdrop/ |
MilkDrop is a hardware-accelerated music visualization plugin for Winamp, which was originally developed by Ryan Geiss in 2001. It uses DirectX and intelligent beat detection to render iterated images which blend seamlessly. MilkDrop uses a complex system of interpolation to transition between presets gradually through time, creating a constantly changing visual experience.
MilkDrop is an environment for running presets, software which controls MilkDrop, and does not produce visualizations by itself.
Presets are saved in .milk file format, typically in a subfolder of the MilkDrop plugin directory. Creating new presets is generally referred to as authoring, or writing, making the person that wrote a preset its author. Presets are distributed on the Internet through Winamp, the Winamp forums, and through the personal webpages of MilkDrop preset authors. A preset's title also doubles as its .milk save name, and usually includes the preset author or authors' pseudonym. MilkDrop presets often have more than one author, which is generally referred to as remixing or editing. A remix or an edit will often include these terms in the preset's title.
A current .milk file is composed of four major different kinds of scriptable equations. These include per_frame and per_pixel equations, as well as custom shapes and custom waves.
Code in the per_frame section is executed once for each frame, modifying variables which affect different parameters that can be passed to other areas of code. Trigonometric functions which modify MilkDrop's internal looping time variable, systems of logic, and interaction with the audio information received from Winamp or other applicable media player's Fast Fourier transform (FFT) can be used to govern how these parameters evolve through time.
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Wikipedia