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Ritmolux

Install the foobar2000 component

An audio-reactive visualizer that draws to whatever foobar2000 is playing. Version 0.115.0.

Unlike the standalone app, this one does not capture your PC’s audio - it reads the samples foobar2000 is already decoding, so there is nothing to permit and nothing to route.

This is an early build. It is not code-signed.

  1. What it needs
  • foobar2000 v2, 64-bit. Check Help -> About; if it does not say 64-bit, this component will not install. There is no 32-bit build.
  • Windows 10 version 1903 or later.
  • A DirectX 12 capable GPU. Integrated graphics are fine - roughly any Intel or AMD chip from 2015 on.

Built against the foobar2000 SDK release @SDK_VERSION@.

  1. Install it
  1. In foobar2000: File -> Preferences -> Components.
  2. Click “Install…” and pick foo_ritmolux.fb2k-component (the other file in this folder). You can also drag that file onto the Components list.
  3. Click Apply. foobar2000 will ask to restart - let it.

After the restart, “Ritmolux 0.115.0” appears in the Components list. If the version there does not match this file, an older copy is still installed - remove it from the same screen first.

To uninstall: the same Components screen, select it, Remove, Apply, restart.

  1. Open it

Two ways, and you can use both at once:

  • View -> Ritmolux opens it as its own window.
  • Or dock it into the layout: right-click an empty part of the foobar2000 window, choose Layout -> Enable layout editing mode, right-click a panel, then Replace UI Element (or Split) and pick “Ritmolux” under Playback visualisation. Turn layout editing back off when you are done.

Press Space with the visualizer focused to cycle scenes, or right-click it for the menu:

  • Preset lists every preset that loaded, with a mark on the one showing. Pick one and it dissolves across. Your choice is remembered across restarts, by name.
  • Reload presets re-reads the folder below, so a file you just dropped in shows up without restarting foobar2000.
  • Open presets folder puts you in that folder in Explorer.
  • Next scene is the same step Space takes.

Only one of them renders at a time - whichever you opened last claims the engine, and the other goes inert until you close it. That is deliberate: one GPU session, not one per panel.

  1. Where it keeps its files
%APPDATA%\Ritmolux\

Paste that into the Explorer address bar - or use Open presets folder in the right-click menu, which lands in the presets subfolder directly. It holds an editable copy of the presets and a diagnostics log. This folder is SHARED with the standalone app - if you have both, they read the same preset library, and a preset you edit shows up in both.

To add a preset: drop its .toml into the presets subfolder, then right-click the visualizer and choose Reload presets. A file the engine cannot parse simply does not appear in the Preset list.

Deleting the folder resets it; it is recreated on the next launch.

  1. If it does not work

  • Nothing in the Components list after restarting: you are almost certainly on 32-bit foobar2000. See section 1.

  • A DOCKED PANEL is black and never moves: this one is a known defect in this build, not a broken install. Play a track and let it change to the next one - the panel usually comes to life at a track boundary and stays alive from then on. Nothing appears in the Console when this happens, so an empty log is not a clue. Please tell us if you hit it; how often it happens is the part we cannot measure from here.

  • The POP-OUT window is black and never moves: that one really is the engine failing to start. Open View -> Console (foobar2000’s own log) and look for lines starting with “foo_ritmolux:”.

  • It draws, but never reacts to the music: playback has to be running - the visuals idle when nothing is playing.

  • You cannot remove the panel while editing the layout: right-click gives you our menu instead of foobar2000’s, which is a known defect too. Use Preferences -> Display -> Default User Interface and remove it from the layout tree there.

  1. What to send back

Five things, however roughly:

  • Did it install, and does the Components list show version 0.115.0?
  • Does it react to playback, in the pop-out window and as a docked panel?
  • Was the docked panel black at first, and did a track change fix it?
  • Does it survive a track change and pressing Space a few times?
  • What graphics card do you have, and any “foo_ritmolux:” lines from the Console.

Thank you - this build exists to find out what breaks.

Built from a8ce055 at version 0.115.0. This site tracks main and is not versioned per release.