[mythtv] [mythtv-commits] Ticket #2307: Add "libvisual" support to MythMusic

[Peter Stokes]

On 9/3/06, Isaac Richards <ijr at case.edu> wrote:
> On Sunday 03 September 2006 10:34 pm, Steven Adeff wrote:
> > On 9/3/06, MythTV <mythtv at cvs.mythtv.org> wrote:
> > > #2307: Add "libvisual" support to MythMusic
> > > -------------------------------------------+-----------------------------
> > >--- Reporter:  mythtv at dadeos.freeserve.co.uk  |        Owner:  ijr
> > >      Type:  enhancement                    |       Status:  closed
> > >  Priority:  minor                          |    Milestone:  unknown
> > > Component:  mythmusic                      |      Version:
> > >  Severity:  medium                         |   Resolution:  invalid
> > > -------------------------------------------+-----------------------------
> > >--- Changes (by ijr):
> > >
> > >   * status:  new => closed
> > >   * resolution:  => invalid
> > >
> > > Comment:
> > >
> > >  Discussions belong on the mailing lists, not trac.
> >
> > Isaac, rather confused. He attached a patch, tells what he intends to
> > accomplish. I replied to it through the -dev list.
>
> Read the second sentence of the ticket.  'This version isn't ready for
> inclusion in SVN yet.'  That means it shouldn't be in trac, really.
> Mailing
> lists are much better for discussion of stuff like this.  Trac's not so
> hot.

I must apologise for incorrect usage of Trac. I was in two minds as to how
to submit this. On the one hand, like I said, I don't feel that this patch
is ready for inclusion in SVN at this time, on the other hand, I wasn't sure
about adding patches/attachments to mailing list posts...

The rationale behind the "This version isn't ready for inclusion in SVN
yet." statement is that the libvisual library allows for enumeration of a
number of music visualisation plugins where as the patch implements a single
MythMusic visualisation plugin to libvisual wrapper. It really requires the
ability to provide additional parameters to MythMusic visualisation plugins
in order to allow for the specification of the desired libvisual plugin to
be employed. Alternatively the code could be written to pick the first
libvisual plugin or perhaps one at random but personally I'd only be
interested in being able to specify which libvisual plugin is employed,
possibly with the ability to have multiple instances of the MythMusic
"LibVisual" plugin each  instance configured with a different libvisual
plugin.

> > I just don't want to see this fall to the wayside for some random
> > reason, obviously if you have a good reason I'll be ok with it, I just
> > think this would be great for MythMusic.
>
> Personally, I don't really see the attraction of adding another dependency
> that doesn't add anything to myth that couldn't be done with the existing
> vis
> architecture.  I evaluated libvisual a couple years ago and decided it
> wasn't
> worth the effort.
>
> Isaac

As for the 'attraction' of adding a dependency on the libvisual library I
must confess I don't feel particularly strongly either way. I think that
MythMusic is a fantastic part of the MythTV system, I exclusively use MythTV
for all my TV needs and can't imagine switching back. However, I hope it's
not too controversial a position to suggest that there is unlikely to be a
large number of people developing music visualisation plugins exclusively
for MythMusic. Therefore libvisual seems to me like a reasonable way of
offering a diverse range of visualisation plugins for minimal development
effort. I do not have any particular knowledge of the code involved (as
highlighted in my "disclaimer") but a quick polling of various websites
seems to suggest that libvisual is becoming more widely adopted?

My reasoning for working on this patch/functionality was that I like the
Goom plugin but my MythTV system (combined backend/frontend) struggles a
little with it running at full screen (it's not exactly the fastest PC on
the planet but I felt that a dual-processor AthlonMP +2800 with 2GB of RAM
should probably be able to handle fullscreen music visualisation plugins). I
discovered the ProjectM visualisation plugin on the internet and noticed
that it uses OpenGL as a rendering mechanism, so I wondered if this would
offer improved performance. I also noticed
that libvisual support is listed in the MythMusic "Feature Wishlist" on the
Wiki.

I am reluctant to make changes to the MythMusic visualisation plugin
architecture (in order to add parameter support or some form of dynamic
enumeration) if such changes are unlikely to be supported. If there is
support for such functionality I'd be happy to look into it and would be
grateful of any guidance as to how it should work.

Peter