With Mac OS X Tiger Apple introduced a convenient way to create your own graphical effects: The Quartz Composer. With iVisualize it is finally possible to run these in iTunes, have them react to your music, and display a lot of song information. iVisualize comes with 5 visualizations. You can download more or create your own, explains developer Christoph Vogelbusch.
iVisualize 1.5 requirements:
Mac OS X 10.4.4 (Tiger)
iTunes 4.7
New in iVisualize 1.5:
• mouse and keyboard interaction support
• high resolution full screen
• much less CPU usage
• iVisualize is now stereo all inputs are available for the left and right channel
• updated BeComposed
• new and more sophisticated clips (including album art transitions)
• new template
• update notification
• fixed elapsed time problems (thank you Apple)
• other minor bug fixes
Included visualizations:
• Drift (default) from Jim McKay http://www.pidog.com
• BeComposed from Édouard Puginier http://www.tazintosh.com
• Cities of the future 2.0 from Roger Bolton http://www.eskatonia.com
• iVestream from PCheese http://www.pcheese.net
• Musical Gears from Christoph Vogelbusch
iVisualize is freeware. Gallery of visualizations here.
More info and download link (Mac OS X-only) here.
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Related articles:
iVisualize 1.0 freeware released; iTunes visualizations via Mac OS X Tiger’s Quartz Composer – April 17, 2006
Quartz Composer, which is a fantastically capable application, is also fantastically difficult to use for most people. Perhaps that’s the reason for it being in the Developer kit, and not in the standard install of Mac OS X.
That being said, I think Apple would do well to release a version of Q. C. “for the masses”. Kind of like PhotoBooth for your mind.
Fascinating that this should come out a day after another product using Quartz Composer for music as well (i.e. plasq’s Rax software.)
Who’s got something lined up for tomorrow?
this is great, love it – i love the look of front row but obviously cant use it whilst working (it blacks out second screen and disables cursur) now ive got loverly rotating cd on front row style background – not the most demanding of the graphics but i cant justify using up all my memory on gimmicks lol, GET THIS NOW – up there with imote as great itunes add ons
Andy, check your RAM and CPU usage with the iTunes visualizer on. What a Resource Hog! But … if you have the visualizer going, chances are you aren’t trying to do anything else with your computer anyway.
It would be nice if the visualizations didn’t require the full screen or a non-interactive computer. Ya click the mouse and it fades away – like a screen saver. Replace the borders on windows with random graphics, create non-square, borderless “frames”, use it in full-screen as wall paper … fun! Except that it would still suck up 40% of a G5.
Not very impressive, and the Psychedelic Project is a blatant G-Force ripoff. Andy O’Meara needn’t worry yet.