Library for integrating Processing sketches with GNU Rocket.
double time_varying_parameter = moonlander.getValue("my_parameter");
Moonlander is a library for integrating Processing with GNU Rocket, which allows you to easily control time-based variables in your sketches.
If you don’t know what GNU Rocket is, read about it here. In short, GNU Rocket is a sync-tracker, a tool mainly used for synchronizing music and visuals in demoscene productions. It can be used to control basically anything that can be presented by a floating point value and varies with time; cameras, colors, coordinates, you name it. Rocket with Moonlander doesn’t necessarily require a music track, so it can be utilized as a general control tool for any parameters that change over time (e.g. data visualizations, animations, whatever you can imagine…).
Download the latest release from the releases page. Extract the library into the libraries folder of your Processing sketchbook (<Your Processing folder>/libraries/Moonlander) and restart Processing. The library should be then visible in menu (Sketch > Import library) – if it’s there, you’re ready to try the example below!
If you encounter any problems, see more info at Processing Wiki.
First of all, you need Processing, JDK and Ant installed.
Edit variables sketchbook.location and classpath.local.location in resources/build.properties. By default, the build process only works on Macs – for other platforms you must edit the mentioned variables for build to succeed (this is clumsy and should be replaced with better solution later on, but suffices for now).
Build the library with ant -f resources/build.xml – the build process also automatically installs the library into Processing’s library folder, so it will be immediately usable after you restart Processing (this must be only done after the first build). You are then ready to try the example below!
Initialize the library, call Moonlander.start() at the end of setup(), call Moonlander.update() for every frame and you’re done. You can query current value of any track by calling Moonlander.getValue(String trackName).
If GNU Rocket is running at it’s default address and port (localhost:1338), Moonlander attaches itself to it. If connection cannot be made, the data is loaded from a file called syncdata.rocket in your sketch’s folder. In general, the following workflow applies:
syncdata.rocket and place it in your sketch’s folder. When Rocket isn’t running, this is the file Moonlander by default tries to load your syncdata from.Example of usage:
import moonlander.library.*;
// Minim must be imported when using Moonlander with soundtrack.
import ddf.minim.*;
Moonlander moonlander;
void setup() {
// Parameters: PApplet, filename (file should be in sketch's folder),
// beats per minute, rows per beat
moonlander = Moonlander.initWithSoundtrack(this, "filename.mp3", 120, 4);
// .. other initialization code ...
moonlander.start();
}
void draw() {
// Handles communication with Rocket
moonlander.update();
// Get current value of a track
double value = moonlander.getValue("my_track");
// Use it somehow
background((int)value);
}
If you want to run Moonlander without a music track, replace line moonlander = Moonlander.initWithSoundTrack(this, "filename.mp3", 120, 4); with moonlander = new Moonlander(this, new TimeController(4));, where the integer parameter passed to TimeController means “rows per second”.
These examples are distributed in the release package so you can easily try them. You can find the examples by navigating to path <Your Processing folder>/libraries/Moonlander/examples. However, if you just want to check the code, here are the direct quick links to related .pde-files:
Moonlander is mainly operated through it’s main class Moonlander. Normally (I’d say 99,9% of cases) you only need this class to use the library. However, if you wan’t to do something fancy, like build your own controller, you need to dig a little deeper.
Moonlander initWithSoundtrack(PApplet applet, String filename, int beatsPerMinute, int rowsPerBeat)
Shortcut for initializing Moonlander with music playback. This effectively loads soundtrack from given file and constructs a new MinimController for it. filename is the soundtrack filename (should be in sketch’s folder or under data/), beatsPerMinute is bpm of the soundtrack and rowsPerBeat tells Rocket how many rows correspond to one beat (sync precision).
void Moonlander.changeLogLevel(Level logLevel)
Change Moonalander´s logging level. All levels from java.utils.logging.Level are supported - Level.FINEST naturally outputs most data. All logging data is output into stderr (visible on Processing’s console).
Moonlander.start(String host, int port, String filepath)
Starts Moonlander. Some version of Moonlander.start must be called before fetching values. Either connects to Rocket running at host:port or loads syncdata from filepath under sketch’s path.
Moonlander.start()
Shortcut for Moonlander.start("localhost", 1338, "syncdata.rocket")
Moonlander.getValue(String name)
Return double value of given track.
Moonlander.getIntValue(String name)
Shortcut for running (int)Moonlander.getValue(...).
Moonlander.getCurrentTime()
Returns current playback time in seconds.
Moonlander.getCurrentRow()
Returns current (fractional) row.
Want to contribute? As usual, submit a patch by opening a pull request.
Before sending your patch away, please make sure that old tests pass and write tests for new code if necessary. This project uses JUnit for automated testing because testing Processing libraries by hand is very painful. Run tests with ant tests.run which builds the library and runs all the tests.
Note that the amount of unit tests should be kept at minimum and parts that would require way too much mocking (like socket connections) should not be unit tested. Use unit tests only for those parts of code that are running “behind the scenes” and thus hard to test and debug in Processing (e.g. not easily testable by poking the public API).