Open ModPlug Player

[sunshine]

Some settings have been added to setup window, and most of them are functional. When I find free time, I update the ModPlug Player constantly.
I also got the domain http://www.modplugplayer.org and it will be opened in a few months. I am planning to release first alpha version in a few months.

[Saga Musix]

I suggest you don't spend effort on designing any settings pages before you actually need them. As mentioned before, most of the audio related settings don't make any sense in a modern audio player. You can expect to be able to output floating-point audio pretty much anywhere, and you certainly don't need to specify a number of buffers to keep with any modern cross-platform audio library. The only settings that really make sense are the device itself, sampling rate (which should default to 48 kHz because that's what every audio hardware is running at these days), buffer length and maybe number of channels (stereo/quad, if someone wants mono they can use the stereo separation slider).

Personal opinion: I wouldn't use a pure module-only player in 2020. In fact, I switched away from ModPlug Player to Winamp in 2005 or 2006 and eventually to XMPlay in 2007, I think. Being able to play both modules and streamed formats without having to switch software is just extremely convenient. If I were you, I'd try to at least support all common streamed music formats (MP3, Vorbis, Opus, FLAC) as well.

[sunshine]

Thanks a lot for your precious suggestions Saga Musix. I do the things you mentioned on your first paragraph, I am taking note.

I am developing ModPlug Player for nostalgic reasons, and I want to make it live forever I can't open its source codes for a few years, because of my spectrum analyzer codes, I am planning to use it on some VST plugins that I will develop commercially, but I am planning to open its source codes a few years later, and every contribution will be welcomed. If you accept that time, it may be a part of the ModPlug software, but if you still don't want that time, it will be a separated project.

I have a plan to develop a multi-platform player like WinAmp, and it will be able to use WinAmp's modern skins (or I may consider something else for legal things). Because I want ModPlug Player much more than WinAmp, I wanted to develop ModPlug Player firstly.

[sunshine]

By the way, I am planning to support MIDI formats (*.mid, *.rmi), UADE formats (by integrating uade123 library to ModPlug Player for old game musics), and perhaps cmf and adlib formats. For MIDI formats, I am planning to use FluidSynth library. I will add Sound-Font selection page to settings window. I may improve Sound-Font selection system in the future.
I may also support Roland MT-32 emulation.

Since I am planning to develop also a media player like WinAmp in the future in addition to ModPlug Player, I don't plan to support streamed music formats in ModPlug Player.

[manx]

Well, if you are going to support all kinds of file formats and backends anyway, I think choosing a name of one particular playback engine as the name for the whole player is a rather bad choice.

Also, if the source code is not public, calling it "Open" is misleading, in my opinion.

[sunshine]

Its name is not "Open ModPlug Player". Its name is "ModPlug Player". I may not support MIDI, cmf, etc., I don't have a plan for these formats currently. I may support these plugins by input plugins, and name of "ModPlug Player" may remain meaningful. Making it open source will take a few years, just because of my spectrum analyzer. Perhaps I may simplify the spectrum analyzer and make it open source in a short time. My current spectrum analyzer is very parametric and it is suitable to use in VST plugins.

[sunshine]

You are right manx, perhaps I sohuld support only ModPlug formats, because its name and design are Modplug Player's name and design. I may support other formats on a different player, but ModPlug Player should remain as ModPlug Player.

[sunshine]

https://youtu.be/PvI360eGGn0

A short video of the current state. I will also add falling and raising animations for spectrum analyzer on next months.

[sunshine]

• Sound Card setup window has been updated according to Saga Musix' comments.
• About window has been added. Rotating and zooming ModPlug Player logo animation also has been added.
• Player buttons are functional.

I consider to make button light border colors selectable also. After then adding spectrum analyzer falling and raising animations, I am planning to make a web site for ModPlug Player, and its address will be http://www.modplugplayer.org

Saga Musix, manx and everybody else, please write all your comments to make this player better.

[sunshine]

Development of ModPlug Player 2.0 still continues. Many things will be parametric. Its web site and first beta version will be released in 2022.

[mabersold]

Is it multi-platform?

[sunshine]

Yes, there will be Linux, macOS and Windows versions. Starting from first beta version it will be multi-platform.

[GeorgeDoesStuff]

Where is the website? I can't seem to be able to access it.

[sunshine]

I haven't prepared the website yet. I will prepare it after then releasing the ModPlug Player.
I developed some new technologies for ModPlug Player, and I am planning to release it using GPL license but I don't have enough knowledge related to GPL.
After then learning how to patent new technologies using GPL, I am planning to release ModPlug Player as open source.

[Saga Musix]

If you patent something and then release it under the GPL, you effectively give anyone the right to do with that patent whatever they want (as long as they do it under the GPL at least). And that of course completely disregards that software as such cannot be patented in the EU for example (Turkey seems to be very similar regarding patentability of software and mathematical methods / algorithms); and that there is probably nothing novel left worth patenting in an audio player these days anyway, especially one that intends to be a clone of an existing piece of software.