Put them all together with a dash of virtual midi port, and you get this:
Or as Jeff describes it:
Whorld is a free, open-source, live visual synthesizer for sacred geometry. It uses math to create a seamless animation of mesmerizing psychedelic images. You can VJ with it, make unique digital artwork with it, or sit back and watch it like a screensaver. The WiiWhorld project makes it possible to control the Whorld visualizer with the Nintendo Wiimote.
Jeff Mission writes to say he’s been working on a new project that couples the Wii remote with generative visuals — all built in free software. Like it, but think it could go further? It’s free, so have a go (soon, at least). Jeff writes:
Chris Korda, developer of the open-source VJ softwares Whorld and FFRend, and I have been working on a project to control real-time, generative geometric visuals with the ever-popular Nintendo Wiimote. We dubbed the project WiiWhorld.
I am pleased to announce that the first proper WiiWhorld demo video is now available online:
Swirly colors, techno, dancing, and lots of smiling faces! Anyway, I think it does a decent job of capturing people having fun playing with our little digital toy.
The video was cobbled together from about 90 minutes of party footage shot a couple months ago. We set up our rig and invited people to play around, with a minimum of instruction. It was great fun to watch people play around, figure it out, and then teach new techniques to one another.
As for the project itself, it requires a Wiimote and a bluetooth-enabled computer. All the software involved (GlovePIE, Whorld, and FFRend) is 100% free, making this (we hope) a project that others can adopt and expand in the future, at minimal cost. We hope to publish more detailed information soon, so that others can try WiiWhorld for themselves.
Please give it a look, leave comments and ratings, and pass it on!
The project is apparently brand new — and Jeff says more web content and videos and documentation and such are all coming soon.
And yes, GlovePIE, Whorld, and FFRend are all free and open-source Windows apps. (And you thought Linux had all the fun.) beatfix (aka Jeff) suggested them and got our Windows free apps round-up going:
Interestingly, while a lot of people will dismiss the 8-bit movement as “nostalgic” — implying it’s just 20-somethings pining for their Mario-playing childhoods — Paris’ inspiration was originally vintage analog synthesizers. And synthesizing graphics is his main interest:
I concentrate on creating graphics from scratch. That’s pretty much all I do. Other people like using movie clips and manipulating them, but from my point of view it’s a good exercise to see what you can do when you have to create everything from scratch. It gives you an appreciation to form and color.
The synthesis/sampling argument I think is very much related to the way electronic music is produced. I find that focusing on either one can be a good exercise — see our friend Troels sampling Coke bottles, for instance.
It’s nice stuff, but I do hope, particularly here in the US where the VJ/visualist scene has had trouble gaining broader recognition, that we start to see other styles on genres forming more coherent “scenes” in the way 8-bit has. Of course, what has happened for people like Paris is he’s found strong advocates in the musicians, which seems to be a key element (and has helped strengthen the visual work done outside chiptune music, as well).
Musicians have thousands of years of history when it comes to interfaces and instruments, but visuals are relatively new. Little wonder, then, that visualists are eager to try new interfaces to help make visuals akin to performance instruments. Or, in less lofty terms, let’s get Wii remote wagging in the club tonight.
Over on createdigitalmusic.com, we’re celebrating Game Day — basically, I’m squeezing as many game-related posts into 24 hours, because a whole bunch of tips came in at once. A couple of Wii-related controller solutions jumped out.
Wii + Flash
MoteDaemon = Flash (and Flex, and AIR) + Wii, on Mac. On Windows, look to WiiFlash.org. (I imagine it wouldn’t be hard to modify your code to use one or the other on each respective platform if you want to develop cross-platformly.
Getting hardware control in Adobe Flash requires some work: basically, you need a client-server model. The good news is, there are already two Wii-specific solutions out there.
Pretty soon, people are cooking up Minority Report demos with Flash (using Papervision for 2.5D-style 3D in Flash’s 2D world, and Open Dynamics Engine for physics):
I’d loved to see this coupled with something like Onyx for an all-Wii, all-Flash performance app. With Flex and AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime), this could be the basis for some really hard-core, full-blown apps … though you will be limited by Flash’s slower performance, at least in comparison to C/C++-based tools like Max or even Java.
Looks like Linux users are presently out of luck, unless I’m missing something (feel free to chime in if you know a cross-platform alternative).
Wii + MIDI, OpenSoundControl (OSC)
For a more app-agnostic solution, you can hook up a Wii to send MIDI or, ideally, OpenSoundControl (OSC) to apps that support it (vvvv, Max, Pd, and hopefully VJ apps soon — I’ve heard a couple of developers working on it).
On Mac, you can send both OSC and MIDI with one app, perfectly-suited to taking data from the Wii controller: OSCulator. OSCulator is a great tool for the Wii, but it also shows promise of what a hardware input hub could generally look like, with open-ended inputs controlling visuals and sound rather than pre-defined, MIDI-style keyboards and knob and faderboxes as have traditionally been used in music.
On PC, GlovePIE is an awesomely-powerful scripting tool for use with Wii and other game devices. I’ve talked about it endlessly before, but I’ll stay quiet — just go. Get it. Enjoy. In fact, with OSCulator on Mac and GlovePIE on Windows, it’s hard not to be insanely happy on either platform.
Another interesting out-of-the-box alternative, though, is the new Wiinstrument. It’s largely geared for playing back drum samples, but it’s not hard to take that metaphor and use those control changes and other MIDI messages as visual controls — especially if you think of your “drum kit” as sets of visual clips (video or other visuals).
GBA eye candy? You betcha. Pikilipita Advanced running on the GBA in screen caps … hook up a Game Cube with Game Boy Player and you’re ready to go.
Pikilipita is a wonder: the developer has created a VJ app that runs on Windows XP and GP2X (Pikix), and even Game Boy Advance cartridges (Pikilipita Advanced). The apps have been getting feature enhancements and other good news lately. Let’s start out with the GBA stuff — which you can now get pre-loaded on a real GBA cart for use on your Game Boy or GameCube with player:
I’ll do my best to release Pikilipita Advance on real cartridges before summer 2007 if at least 100 people are interested in this product.
Its price shouldn’t be higher than £25, 35€ or US$ 50. If you think you’ll buy one, please get in touch with me using the contact form below.
Update: cartridges should be ready at the end of June!
(If you want to order the carts … presuming there’s still time/availability … check out contact info on the site.)
Mobile, game-ready Linux as visualist tool: Pikix running on the open game portable from Game Park.
Pikix, the software for XP (yawn) and GP2X Linux-based game console (yay!), has also been getting new features, each dubbed with zany names that put Ubuntu to shame: Fat Dolphin, Delicious Marmot, and most recently, Cheesy Caribou, which adds features like this:
New version of the Kouky2x codec: better compression rate: files are 20% to 50% smaller than with previous codec version
USB keyboard compatibility (via cradle)
Special effects: extreme contras, negative colors, zoom, hue colorization
Video in and out points
Nothing earthshaking for your fancy-schmancy computer-based VJ app, it’s true … but can you fit your VJ rig into a space this small?
Hi, first of all I wanted to say I love the site and have been checking it daily for about a year now, as well as createdigitalmusic. I just came across a clip on youtube that really puts what I’ve seen of people abusing Wii remotes so far to shame. This seems to me to be the first case where it’s passed from the experimental to the creative-use phase. It’s freaking awesome and I’d love to know what software he’s using, perhaps a Max patch?
And the creator is none other than Daito Manabe, the awesome Japanese DJ who created the Turntable-Controlled Vibrating Chaise Longue using Ms. Pinky vinyl. (And, as I recall, he uses Pinky as a vinyl control scheme for VJing as well as music.)
It takes a turntablist to figure out clever ways of using the Wii remote that don’t reinvent the wheel. What I especially like about this is that the whole system becomes self-contained. It definitely pushes me to build a performance system around the Wii controller rather than the other way around. And he gets some nice, expressive controls in there, as well. Thanks to Lightbourne for this!
If you’re using the Wii remote for your live visuals, let us know how it’s going.
I am currently in the midst of an awesome toys storm! This week has seen the arrival of a Macbook, Crumpler Backpack and I just picked up my M3 DS Simply from the post office. With a Numark AVM02 arriving tomorrow, I’m worried that I’ll become paralysed by the sheer weight of cool techy stuff. Hence: Pocket Review!
Peter put the DS Lite and DS-Xtreme in his Digital Musician Holiday Wish List. I picked up a DS a couple of weeks ago, but thought the DS-Xtreme looked a little pricey and wanted something which would use SD or MicroSD media, as they’re the formats used by my still camera and phone.
Et volia. The Nintendo DS M3 Simply. A choice echoed by a comment made on CDM 3 days ago. AU$61 (US$48) delivered from Bamboo Gaming, it arrived in 9 days, and includes a “thumbdrive” form factor MicroSD reader, driver CD, and a cute little holder to attach to your keyring or mobile phone lanyard or nose ring or whatever it is the cool kids are doing on my lawn.
That’s all interesting, but there are loads of reviews online which could tell you what you’ll get in the box if you buy one of these things. What they don’t really get across is how simple this thing is. Following these instructions it took me less than ten minutes to go from this:
Modding my XBox to run Media Center was complicated enough that I enlisted another geek to do it for me. Getting homebrew running on the DS took less time than copying and resizing the above images.
Game consoles as visualist tools? Sign me up! Nintendo doesn’t make it easy, as usual, but it looks possible to turn the Wii and perhaps even the GameCube into homebrew gaming, interactive visual, and video devices. My Wii is now on its way, so I look forward to giving Flash a try. Best resource so far: the incomparable Mario Klingeman aka Quasimondo has a promising technique for getting control data out of the Wii controllers, which, really, is the whole point. A number of Flash developers are now making homebrew games for the Wii and Opera browser.
What about Processing and Java? The Wii Opera browser lacks a Java runtime, but many new Wii owners will have a basically useless GameCube console sitting around. That brings us to Gamecube Linux. So far, any embedded Java runtime must have been fully experimental, but there is some promise to make GameCubes into powerful video/multimedia machines on the cheap.
Anyone have other resources? (I’ll keep you posted.)
Holidays are fast approaching. Do you have enough new gear to keep your brain occupied while your body suffers though the inevitable food-coma? Peter and the CDMu gang have listed their choices for electronic musicans. So we’ve decided to follow up with some last-minute ideas for yourself or the visualist in your life. PK: I like to think of this as, rather than last-minute shopping — or, erm, after-the-fact shopping if you were looking for Hannukah — this as the Way to Cure the VJ Blues By Shopping For Yourself list. And, aside from having been raised half-Orthodox (Christmas isn’t for over a week yet!), my birthday is in January, and should also be a holiday. (Macworld stuffers?) So, without further ado…
Jaymis
VJ: Audio-Visual Art and VJ Culture
Sick of trying to explain what it is you do to random wrinklies at family gatherings? VJ, put together by the immensely talented D-Fuse gang. Pingmag interview about the book and the state of VJing here US$26.40 Update: Reviewed on We Make Money Not Art
Nintendo Wii
Ok. So with the newest console on the block sold out everywhere, this item may be a little wishful. Unless you’re willing to pay whatever the scalpersextortionistsscumbags fine chaps on ebay are currently asking, then it may be prudent to wait until the storm has passed. Of course, that doesn’t stop you from picking up a wiimote, making with the wireless midi for a while, then bringing in the console for some multiplayer boxing at a later, saner time.
Wiimote: US$61
A portable computer on the back, a DS in the holster, the roaming visualist is ready to spin live eye candy in any situation, with only an S-Video port and four drink tickets to the bar.
Yes, if you happened to catch the wireless MIDI controller here on CDMo before it hit the rest of the blogosphere, I have good news: the download for DSMIDIWiFi is available today. You can now transmit MIDI from your DS to control your computer with no hardware other than a flash cart for running homebrew apps.
And, since Collin and Tob released their source into the wild, programmers out there have a great foundation for creating other apps. That means, not only is the DS Lite a tax write-off for the working VJ, it could be a student’s digital media thesis project, too. (Heck, one piece of software provides both the project AND procrastination options, all in one, compact device …)
File this next to the ndsvisuals project, which transmits via TCP and UDP, and is specially configured for visuals, including clip triggering and ordering, live scratching, and extra visual feedback on the DS screen. Unlike DSMIDIWiFi, ndsvisuals still isn’t ready for download, but you can bet we’ll let you know when it is. And developers / hobbyist programmers, it’s worth visiting the ndsvisuals page for additional ideas and resources — the WiFi communications component was already out there and enabled both projects, for instance.
Via MIDI or UDP, it would be possible to hook up the DS to software like Processing (both MIDI and UDP) or Flash (MIDI with some work, probably better off with UDP) in addition to the traditional VJ apps. Processing + Nintendo DS sounds like an especially tasty option to me.
Lastly, if you’re looking for an easy solution for running all this homebrew goodness, the DS-X shows lots of promise. All you need now is a game to suck up the rest of your time, but I’m guessing you can figure that part out for yourself. (I suggest Mario Kart, naturally.)
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2007-Feb-12@16:20
