Media Jukebox Visualization Component SDK
(last updated April 2, 2002)

This is preliminary documentation and subject to change.

Introduction

This SDK contains everything you need to create your own visualization components for Media Jukebox.  A visualization component can stand alone, or be combined with other components to form the visualizations that are displayed during Media Jukebox playback.

Writing a component

You should be able to open up the sample(s), and create your own components without much trouble. First of all, implement GetRegistrationInfo function, then you just need to create a new CVisualizationComponent derived class and fill in the Load/Save/Draw functions with your own code.  Then, add that component to the GetComponentInfo(...) and CreateComponent(...) functions.  To try your visualizations, just copy the .dll to [Media Jukebox]\Visualizations, open Media Jukebox, goto Settings->Plug-in Manager and click Add Plug-in button. MJ will automatically add the components to the "Insert" menu in the Visualization Studio. 

What the SDK can do for me...

• You can use both the Windows GDI or raw memory access to do your painting
• Saving and loading is wrapped into a simple interface where you just set and get properties
• Several tools are provided for things like loading/displaying pictures and drawing gradients
• Direct memory access painting is made easier by a high-speed buffer-wrapper class
• You always have access to the current spectrum and wave data as well as other info about the currently playing song

Some Considerations

Here are just a few things to remember when writing components:

• The example plug-in was made with Microsoft Visual Studio 6.
• You must link to the library MJVisLib.lib and include the header file MJVisLib.h
• Note the .def file for the dll.  You need that to make sure the function names don't get mangled.
• Make sure you give each new component it's own GUID in the GetComponentInfo(...) function

Support

If you have questions or concerns not addressed by this SDK, or just have suggestions for making the SDK more understandable, please visit our developer's forum