Thursday, December 01, 2005

VDF Software First Release

The Vertigo Dance Floor software team has released version 0.1 of their DDF software!

"The software expands on MIT's code to allow users to:
-connect to the board remotely
-create a "playlist" of visualizations and scrolling text
-run the server on a linux box

It provides a client-server architecture for control of the dance floor. The server code is written in C and C++ while the client code is written in Java. Documents on how to extend these modules are included. At this time the code is by no means error proof, and the documentation is not complete, but these issues will be resolved with
time. Enjoy!"

The software was written by Michael Lanyon, Eric Tipton, Garrett Eardley, Cheryl Simon, and Yuyang Chen for a software engineering class supervised by Dr. Ron Cytron. They can be contacted at ddf436@cec.wustl.edu.

Download the software


Wash U Disco Dance Floor v0.1 Release Notes

Server:
The MIT DDF code has been incorporated into a server. The usb cables are plugged directly into the server box. The server allows one client connection, which controls the board. When nothing is connected, it runs an idle pattern.

The server code has been tested most thoroughly on Fedora Core 4. However, it should run on other linux versions, as well as Mac OS X.

Client:
We have provided a java client with corresponding GUI that creates a playlist of .ddf animations and scrolling text. You can do the following:

-Save and load playlists
-Run playlists in normal, repeat or random mode
-Operate in 3 different modes: normal, repeat and random
-Play .ddf files for a specified or random amount of time
-Play scrolling text for a specified or random amount of time with specified or random foreground and background colors
-Static images and games will be working in a future release.

Utilites:
DDFMaker:
This java program creates .ddf files from a series of images.

DDFConnection.java:
Provides an easy java wrapper around tcp socket information, for creation of your own client programs.

6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Just for kicks, I tried to get everything setup on one of my linux boxes. I got most of it working... (the server side part) The only thing I needed to do was get the uuid-dev package. I didnt try the client side (yet).

What if someone wants to use your software, but only wants one computer to control everything? Maybe version .2 could incorporate just a single computer setup?

The software looks very good though. More info/documentation would be awesome!

December 02, 2005 12:24 AM  
Blogger Brandon said...

There's no need for two machines, as the client and server can run on the same machine and communicate over the local Ethernet loopback. We've done this before; it works just fine.

Having the server and client separate enables a lot more flexibility - eventually we'd like to integrate a small computer into the floor with wireless, and use a laptop roaming the floor to control it.

December 02, 2005 1:15 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

lol. I should have known that... Good old 127.0.0.1

December 02, 2005 7:50 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

We have recieved a few questions about running the client software on Linux, I'm not sure what the exact problem could be, but I've heard that java can have installation problems in Linux. Be sure you have a sound installation when attempting to run the code. We have tested on Fedora 2 and Fedora 4 and both work.

December 08, 2005 8:30 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

So I downloaded the software to a folder. I have been unable to find the .exe file. i was expecting to just click and go. You know,like if you install lightjockey to operate dmx,you just install and run and it puts an icon on the desktop. AmI missing something?

February 16, 2006 1:32 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

hello everybody

first of all amazing project

what ist the recommended spec. of the linux box ?

September 14, 2006 9:36 AM  

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