Visualisation Plug-ins
Introduction to Visualisation plug-ins
Visualization plug-ins generates animated imagery based on the music currently being played. The imagery is usually generated and rendered in real time and synchronized with the music as it is played.
Visualization techniques range from simple ones (e.g., a simulation of an oscilloscope display) to elaborate ones, which often include a plurality of composited effects. The changes in the music's loudness and frequency spectrum are among the properties used as input to the visualization.
Helium Music Manager has support for the most common visualization plug-in formats:
Winamp 2 and 5 Visualization plug-ins
Sonique plug-ins
Windows Media Player plug-ins
Using Visualisation plug-ins in Helium Music Manager
To start a Visualization plug-in in Helium Music Manager, follow these steps:
Select View | Visualization Plug-ins from the main menu.
Select the Visualization plug-in type to use from the three first entries: Winamp, Sonique and Windows Media Player.
When a new Visualization plug-in type is changed, Helium Music Manager will locate all available Visualization plug-ins of this type from disc and display them under the menu entry (the name will vary depending on the selected plug-in type) directly under Available Plugins.Select the Visualization plug-in you would like to start from the menu entry directly located under Available Plugins by clicking the plug-in name.
Some Visualization plug-ins (Winamp only) may contain several modules, these modules are variations of the plug-in. The specific modules will be listed as sub-menu entries under the plug-in name entry.
Note:
You can start/stop the selected Visualization plug-in by clicking the Start/Stop Visualization Plugin menu entry.
You can configure the selected Visualization plug-in by clicking the Configure Active Plugin menu entry.
Visualization plug-ins often saves their settings to a configuration file, stored in the same folder as the plug-in DLL file. This may cause trouble on Windows Vista systems with UAC activated. To solve this, either inactivate UAC or start Helium Music Manager as a administrator if you experience problems with the plug-ins.
Installing new Visualization plug-ins to Helium Music Manager
There are thousands of Visualization plug-ins available on the Internet. You can download many plug-ins from Winamp Plug-ins site for additional plug-ins. as well as on other pages on the Internet. Installing Visualization plug-ins to Helium Music Manager is simple, it's most of the time only a simple file copy operation.
Plug-ins are developed by 3rd party persons/companies and not all are working well on all computers. Plug-ins often use low-tech programming directly against a Video card, which may result in instability on some computers.
Installing a downloaded Winamp Visualization plug-in
If the plug-in comes with a installer (the most does), execute this installer to install the plug-in to your Winamp folder.
If the plug-in doesn't come with a installer, install the plug-in as described.
Copy the files which the plug-in installed into Winamp's plug-in folder (often vis_*.dll and sometimes a subfolder with data) to Helium Music Managers Visualization plug-ins folder: <program files>\Intermedia Software\HeliumXXXX\Plugins.
Select a different Visualization plug-in type than Winamp from the Visualizations menu (see above) and then select the Winamp type again to refresh the list with Winamp Visualization plug-ins.
If everything went well, you will now see your newly installed plug-in under the Winamp Plugins menu entry.
Note:
The plug-ins folder for Winamp Visualization plug-ins in Helium Music Manager is always the subfolder Plugins, located directly under the folder where you have your Helium Music Manager EXE file.
Installing a downloaded Sonique Visualization plug-in
If the plug-in comes with a installer (the most does), execute this installer to install the plug-in to the following folder:
<program files>\Intermedia Software\HeliumXXXX\SPlugins.If the plug-in doesn't come with a installer, install the plug-in as described and manually copy any neccesary files to folder: <program files>\Intermedia Software\HeliumXXXX\SPlugins.
Select a different Visualization plug-in type than Sonique from the Visualizations menu (see above) and then select the Sonique type again to refresh the list with Winamp Visualization plug-ins.
If everything went well, you will now see your newly installed plug-in under the Sonique Plugins menu entry.
Note:
The plug-ins folder for Sonique Visualization plug-ins in Helium Music Manager is always the subfolder SPlugins, located directly under the folder where you have your Helium Music Manager EXE file.
Installing a downloaded Windows Media Player plug-in
Windows Media Player plug-ins requires no specific installation to be used with Helium Music Manager. (A restart of Helium Music Manager may be needed though).
Resources
Winamp Visualization plug-ins can be downloaded from: http://classic.winamp.com/plugins/browse/1
Sonique Visualization plug-ins can be downloaded from: http://support.xmplay.com/file.php?cat_id=6
A List of working Winamp Visualization Plug-ins
Below follows a list of 3rd party Visualization plug-ins that have been
tested successfully with Helium Music Manager as well as details of how
to install them. Please note that different plug-ins work well/doesn't
work on different system setups.
All plug-ins should be default installed to <winamp>\plugins with
their installers.
With your Plugins folder, it means Helium Music Managers Winamp Visualization
plug-ins folder, as described above.
Twisted Pixel
URL: http://www.visolu.com/TwistedPixel/
Installation: Copy vis_tp.dll, TwistedPixel and TwistedPixel SDK folders to your Plugins folder.Geiss 4.23
URL: http://www.winamp.com/plugins/details/3089
Installation: Copy vis_geis.dll to your Plugins folder.Acidspunk 2.13
URL: http://www.winamp.com/plugins/details/19079
Installation: Copy Acidspunk2.dll to your Plugins folder.Climax 1.1
URL http://www.winamp.com/plugins/details/8454
Installation: Copy vis_climax.dll, CLIMAX PALETTES and CLIMAX PRESETS folders to your Plugins folder.AVS v2.81d
URL: Comes with Winamp 5.51+, www.winamp.com
Installation: Copy vis_avs.dll and the AVS folder to your Plugins folder.Milkdrop 2.0c
URL: Comes with Winamp 5.51+, www.winamp.com
Installation: Copy vis_milk2.dll and the Milkdrop2 folder to your Plugins folder.Jet 1.1
URL: http://www.winamp.com/plugins/details/41930
Installation: Copy vis_jet.dll to your Plugins folder.Tripex 3.12
URL: http://www.winamp.com/plugins/details/146172
Installation: Copy vis-tx3.dll to your Plugins folder.R4 1.20
URL: http://www.winamp.com/plugins/details/138849
Installation: Copy vis_r4.dll to your Plugins folder.R2
URL: http://www.winamp.com/plugins/details/73063
Installation: Copy vis_r2*.* to your Plugins folder.Geiss 2
URL: http://www.winamp.com/plugins/details/134393
Installation: Copy vms_desktop.dll and vis_geiss2.dll to your Plugins folder.Eonic 2
URL: http://www.winamp.com/plugins/details/83833
Installation: Copy vis_eonic2.dll and the Eonic2 folder to your Plugins folder.Beat Harness
URL: http://www.winamp.com/plugins/details/143842
Installation: Copy the vis_BeatHarness.dll and BeatHarness folder to your Plugins folder.Mirage 1.01
URL: http://www.visualprojects.net/
Installation: Copy vis_Mirage.dll to your Plugins folder.Sexy Attached Spectrum Analyzers
URL: http://www.winamp.com/plugins/details/3277
Installation: Copy vis_satan.dll, vis_satan.ini and vis_satan,dat to your Plugins folder.Classic Spectrum Analyser
URL: http://www.winamp.com/plugins/details/165966
Installation: Copy vis_classic.dll and vis_classic.ini to your Plugins folder.