VZX Player News

[h2]Getting Support[/h2]

[h3]Important! If you experience bugs/problems:[/h3]
With every new release there are going to be some hiccups. We have tried our best to test thoroughly but there is always something.

We would like to try to help you fix any issues. Please contact us at [email protected] or via our discord server. In 95% of cases bugs affect others too so investigating is worth it. Using the review system to write a negative review is not very good for you since it makes it difficult for us to get back to you - many people ignore Steam notifications.

[h3]What you can do right now about problems[/h3]

• Several previous releases are now available with version numbers in "betas" in the Steam settings so you can still run "what worked before" until we have helped you fix the problems in the new release.
  

Now on to the new stuff...

"Space Rings" from "Voyages" DLC pack

[h2]New visual pack: "Voyages"[/h2]

This visual pack has more design elements than any one before. We hope you will enjoy it.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1812940

[h3]Visuals included[/h3]

• MMI: Inspired by the gateway scene in the movie 2001.
  
• Ecumenopolis: An abstract landscape, a vast habitat in space.
  
• Ethereal Space Station: Is it really there?
  
• Neuron Torus: Sparkling neurons.
  
• Space Rings: An instalment of Rings.
  
• Torus Spectrum: Spectrum analyzing stacks of hexagonal tori.
  
• Meta Swarm: A nebula made out of Meta Balls.
  

We have created a bundle so you can get a discount:

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/15307/VZX_Player_Complete/

[h2]Name change[/h2]
VSXu is now VZX and we have a new web site at: https://www.vzx-visualizer.com

Please bear with us while we update all nooks and crannies in our Steam pages, there will be a mix of VSXu and VZX for a whille.

[h2]VZX Player 0.9.3 Release Notes[/h2]

• Bug fix which caused colors to turn pink when Hue slider was pushed to the very right.
  
• New crash reporting backend which anonymously collects crashes so we can pinpoint where they are and fix them promptly
  

Hope you like the new release.

[h3]What are we working on?[/h3]
In parallel with this visual pack we have been working on finalizing VZX Creative which is a combined product containing both Pro Player and Artiste. The store page for that is live on Steam but there is still some work left to do.

[h3]Discord Server[/h3]

As always, you are welcome to join, this link redirects to our discord server:

http://vovoid.info

Take care!

[h2]Getting Support[/h2]

[h3]Important! If you experience bugs/problems:[/h3]
With every new release there are going to be some hiccups. We have tried our best to test thoroughly and have had an extensive public beta, but there is always something.

We would like to try to help you fix any issues. Please contact us at [email protected] or via our discord server. In 95% of cases bugs affect others too so investigating is worth it. Using the review system to write a negative review is not very good for you since it makes it difficult for us to get back to you - many people ignore Steam notifications.

[h3]What you can do right now about problems[/h3]

• The previous major release (v0.9.0) is available as "previous_version" in "betas" in the Steam settings for VSXu so you can still run "what worked before" until we have helped you fix the problems in the new release.
  

Japanese language support! Many thanks to 香月 a.k.a. DJ/VJ LogiQ!

[h2]New in this version[/h2]

• Bug fix: Tweak values would not save and duplicates of certain values would be saved (but not used)
  
• Japanese language support by 香月 a.k.a. DJ/VJ LogiQ
• Error dialogs would display text as a bunch of question marks making them useless.
  
• Much better error message when audio backend communication does not work; the most common culprit being a non-standard/thirdparty firewall.
  
• Detection of trying to launch two instances of player which causes problems with port bindings for the audio backend
  
• Bug fixes in font engine causing certain characters to not render properly (not a visible bug because there were workarounds in place, but an improvement enabling the Japanese translation and future projects)
  

New Luna Design, get the desktop wallpaper in our discord!

[h2]Getting Support[/h2]

[h3]Important! If you experience bugs/problems:[/h3]
With every new release there are going to be some hiccups. We have tried our best to test thoroughly and have had an extensive public beta, but there is always something.

We would like to try to help you fix any issues. Please contact us at [email protected] or via our discord server. In 95% of cases bugs affect others too so investigating is worth it. Using the review system to write a negative review is not very good for you since it makes it difficult for us to get back to you - many people ignore Steam notifications.

[h3]What you can do right now about problems[/h3]

• The previous release is available as "previous_version" in "betas" in the Steam settings for VSXu so you can still run "what worked before" until we have helped you fix the problems in the new release.
  

Now on to the new stuff...

[h2]VSXu Player 0.9.1 Release Notes[/h2]

[h3]The New Audio Engine[/h3]
Main point is stability and fixing crashes and audio errors people were having when using the WASAPI backend. Here's the complete list:

• Entirely new audio backend which solves "no sound" driver issues which manifested as multiple crashes right when starting VSXu Player when one has certain peripherals connected.
  
• Seems to fix the “Unknown HRESULT” issue when recording audio which happened to quite a few users.
  
• API Selection now moved inside the player, no need to restart it to switch between audio APIs.
  
• WASAPI: Audio reporting rate has increased from 42Hz to 100Hz which makes a big difference on monitors that can do more than 60 Hz
  
• WASAPI backend used to downsample/resample the audio which caused issues with the frequency response. DirectSound and ASIO might still use this resampling, which will possibly be addressed in a future update.
  
• The new audio backend is implemented as 3 EXE files - one per API type. They communicate back to the player over UDP packets via localhost. This shouldn’t need any port openings in the Windows Firewall but you will see the open ports in some port monitoring software.
  

[h3]Design Improvements[/h3]

• Luna has been redesigned
  

[h3]Font rendering engine[/h3]

• While it should not be visible, the font rendering system is totally new. This improves performance quite a bit and does not rely on old OpenGL API calls.
  

[h3]Performance improvements[/h3]

• GUI drawer was rendered even though not visible
  

[h2]Improvements to Visualizations[/h2]
Generally, the updated visuals have been given (more) color customizations (tweaks). Full list as follows:

[h3]Classics pack[/h3]

• Plane Worlds: New granular color handling.
  
• Techno Stripes: You can now set line thickness.
  
• Glowstick Hyperspace: Added full color tweak support.
  
• Kaleidoscope: Judging from the community screenshots, this one is quite popular. It's gotten a larger overhaul with improved gamma correction, bloom and better color tweaks.
  

[h3]Particle Bliss pack[/h3]

• Anemone: Now limiting particle size in the visual so it doesn't get too intense.
  
• Exploding Star: Reduced default FX level somewhat. Less jumpy in 120 FPS. Added color support.
  
• Exploding Star Slow: Color support
  

[h3]Spectrums & Oscilloscopes pack[/h3]

• Space Spectrum: The particle fountain in the middle now follows the color of the round spectrum.
  
• 3D Oscilloscope: Default FX level reduced a bit. Feedback color can now be changed.
  
• Polar Oscilloscope Wave: More color tweaking supported.
  

[h3]Networks pack[/h3]

• Cyber Dive: Secondary color can be changed.
  
• Spectrum Flight: Proper color selection instead of separated sliders.
  
• Spectrum Pool: Full color selection support added.
  
• Three Body: Full color selection support added.
  
• Dream Pool: Full color selection support added.
  

Hope you like the new release.
Next we are going to be working on a new visual pack as well as Artiste and the Pro Player.
As always, if you have questions/feeeback you are welcome to join our discord server which is redirected to from http://vovoid.info.

Take care!

Got some fresh stickers in the mail today, so It's time again for a giveaway - we will give those who have bought the "Networks" DLC pack the option to get 2 free stickers, sent anywhere in the world! Here's an action shot of the stickers on the back of a laptop:



To apply, simply forward the Steam purchase receipt e-mail from Steam to us to: [email protected]

We'll look at the date of the e-mail and simply pick the first.

If you are successful, we'll reply and we'll sort out the shipping adress.

If you don't win, you can still buy the stickers anytime. See the #swag channel in our discord (Discord server is at http://discord.gg/gD6reEb )

Please note that by giving us your home address you agree to share your personal information with us. We will delete the e-mails and adresses as soon as we can to comply with the GDPR law.

"Cyber Dive" - from the "Networks" Visual pack


[h2]New DLC Pack: "Networks"[/h2]

Contains 7 new visuals.

• Cyber Dive: Dive into a stream of glowing circuit boards.
  
• Spectrum Flight: Get a sense of flying above the sound waves.
  
• Spectrum Pool: A multi colored wave pool.
  
• Hyperspace Orb: Lightning storm in space.
  
• Three Body: An art installation in space - 3 energy spheres exhanging energy.
  
• Dream Pool: Space flowers dripping glowing nectar into a pool
  
• Gem World: Glittering gemstones set in sphere formations floating around glimmering to the music.
  

Get it here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1332400/VSXu__Networks/


[h2]VSXu Player Improvements[/h2]

[h3]New Localizations[/h3]
VSXu Player has been translated into:

• German
• French
• Swedish

We would really like more translations.

If you want to help out, please contact any of the devs in the discord, or send mail to [email protected]!


[h3]Mouse wheel support[/h3]
You can now change FX level, Time and Speed with the mouse wheel. While an arrow is missing here, time is also possible to change, but not with shift key modifier.


[h3]Close buttons on dialogs[/h3]
Settings and Tweak bars now have close "X" buttons to make mouse navigation better.



[h3]Exit query[/h3]
When hitting ESC or closing from full screen mode with X button in the top right corner, you now get an exit prompt. Before one could accidentally hit ESC which was a problem.



[h3]Audio device names[/h3]
Audio device names now list the "sub name" under the primary name.



[h3]No sound detected help text[/h3]
You can now turn off the "No sound detected" warning in the settings bar. It's mostly intended for new users, and sometimes one wants to just view a visual without sound.



[h3]Color spectrum on standalone hue sliders[/h3]
Color spectrum on individual Hue sliders in the tweak settings:


The Hue slider had a gray background in the previous version.


[h2]New visuals added to existing packs[/h2]
Four new spectrums have been added to the "Spectrums and Oscilloscopes" DLC pack. Here's a screenshot from one of them:


Note that only one of them has customizable color, this is because they use a new gradient generator which isn't easy to manipulate.

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• An audio subsystem related crash (an unhandled exception) has been fixed. The error message will now be displayed in red if such an error is triggered.
  
• Errors in audio subsystem will now show up in red in the player.
  

[h2]Possible / known bugs[/h2]

• If a visual looks weird it could be because its tweak values have been loaded in a weird way. We tried to sort this out but could not see a pattern to it. If this happens to you, go to the tweak bar [T] and press the "Reset" button. Should only be needed once. If you have any insight into under what circumstances this would happen, please let us know!
  
  
• During testing we saw a rare bug where memory usage would increase a lot. This was possibly fixed, but regardless, being so hard to reproduce it could also not be fixed.
  
  If you experience this (memory usage above 2GB, normal memory usage with all visuals from all packs loaded is 900MB), please forward us your log files to [email protected]. Thanks!
  

[h2]Access to the previous version of the player[/h2]
It is always possible that we have made a mistake in development which can take a while to sort out. Starting with this release, you can access the previous version of VSXu which hopefully works, until we have sorted out the bugs. To do so, go to properties and select "betas" tab, and activate the beta branch "previous version".

[h2]What's next?[/h2]
Our intention is to shift development focus to VSXu Artiste - our visuals editor. We hope to be able to get it up to speed and release it on Steam in the near future (as soon as it's good enough).

If you are not familiar with VSXu Artiste, it's a node-based programming language for creating graphics. You can play around with an old version if you download it from www.vsxu.com. However that version is quite old, and there is a lot of new things in the currently unreleased version.

While there is a lot to be said about this topic, one thing that Artiste creators want is the ability to play back their visuals with the player and that has been rather tricky in the past. So we are going to try to create a way to do that inside Artiste - a player mode if you will. The old player can then be retired.

As always, we're available in our discord for chat and questions!