#Windows media player 9 visualizations how to#
#Windows media player 9 visualizations install#
#Windows media player 9 visualizations windows#

Vista and XP currently have a combined 86% market share of all Operating Systems. These statistics where gathered from here.

#Windows media player 9 visualizations windows#

So still, “Why DirectX 9?” Well, as of the time this article was originally written (), the previous months' reports from show that Windows XP still has about 62% Operating System market share. DirectX 10 doesn't require you to do anything special when you “lose” the device.

#Windows media player 9 visualizations how to#

This project provides a sample of how to handle this issue with DirectX 9. I know it sounds complicated, but it really isn't that difficult. If the return value is D3DERR_DEVICENOTRESET, you need to release all objects in the default object pool (objects that exist in the GPU), call OnLostDevice() on things like fonts and sprites, call Reset() on the device, recreate all of your objects that you need in the default pool, and then call OnResetDevice() on objects like fonts and sprites. With DirectX 9, to recover after you lose the device, you start by calling TestCooperativeLevel() on the device object. When a user does certain things like change the screen resolution in DirectX 9, you essentially 'lose' your DirectX device object because the hardware configuration changed. No wonder DirectX 10 can only work with Windows Vista!Īnother significant benefit of using DirectX 10 is the fact that you don't have delete objects that exist in the GPU when a user does something like change the screen resolution. Windows XP uses a simpler graphics pipeline that doesn't allow room for the features of DirectX 10 and DXGI. GPUSpectogram creates a bitmap spectogram without associating the rendered bitmap to a window handle. The GPUSpectogram project included with the DirectX 10 SDK shows an example of a windowless DirectX 10 device. DXGI basically facilitates the use of the graphics processor without tying the DirectX device directly to a window. DirectX 10 contains Microsoft's reorganization of the graphics pipeline for Windows Vista. While it's true that DirectX 10 make a few things simpler, DirectX 10 is basically DirectX 9 with a little reorganization. Follow the directions carefully because the little details make a big difference. A good overview of how to get started can be found here. If you want to make your own visualization from scratch, you can use the WMP SDK which is part of the Windows Platform SDK. You'll need to run ' regsvr32 WM3DSpectrum.dll' from an Administrator privileged command prompt to register WM3DSpectrum.dll on Vista. When building on Windows Vista, Visual Studio will unsuccessfully try to register WM3DSpectrum.dll as part of the build process. I have the paths to the Windows SDK configured in the project file, so those paths should not have to be changed if you have installed the SDK in the default location.

The DirectX includes and libraries should be in their appropriate search paths. Your graphics card should support the DirectX shader model 3 (vs_3_0 and ps_3_0). To build the project, you will need the DirectX 9.0c SDK and the Windows Platform SDK version 6.1.

#Windows media player 9 visualizations install#

The attached installer should install everything else for you. If you just want to install the binaries, you will need to make sure the DirectX 9.0c redistributables and Windows Media Player 11 are installed on your system.

It's tested only on Vista Home Premium, but it should work on XP as long as you have Windows Media Player 11 and the DirectX 9.0c redistributables installed. This project uses DirectX 9.0c to do the 3D rendering, and integrates with Windows Media Player. This interactive 3D spectrum analyzer not only provides an audio visualization that is appealing to the eye, it also shows some details of how sounds change over time to help us understand more about how audio works. As a techie and an audio/music enthusiast, I like to see the technical details of everything, even my music. When you are listening to your favorite song, a little visual entertainment just makes your favorite song even more enjoyable.