KVR Audio

mistertoast · Post by **mistertoast** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 12:03 am

>>but there aren't any errors! you just need to know how to use libraries!

Oh come on. I disagree. If you don't include the libraries you need to compile, YOU NEED A README FILE that says what you need to do to get it running.

I understand libraries. I've been programming since I was a kid. 1978, I think.

What I don't understand is how the docs got to be so lame. I've seen better internal docs not meant for outside consumption. VST has been around for awhile. You'd think they'd be tired enough of complaints to get it right.

At the very least, there should be an up-to-date page on their website that says...How to compile under [whatever].

Or there should be a readme that says, the drawtest example requires the following files which must be downloaded get them here: blah.com. Copy them here: directory.

I just don't think there's any excuse for putting out an example that fails to compile when the poor newbie is trying to figure it all out.

mistertoast · Post by **mistertoast** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 12:06 am

>>In OSX it'll compile just like that, but since windows does not have native png support, they expect you to know how to include the needed (open source) libraries zlib and pnglib.

I'd be fine if the lame-ass docs said something like that. That way I know I'm on the right path.

So from what I'm hearing, if I get those two libs in the right place, it'll compile fine? If so, great. Because I'm not enthused about getting started when I don't know how severe the runaround is going to be. THAT's what I don't like about a project or solution that fails to compile--not knowing how far down the gopher hole goes.

aciddose · Post by **aciddose** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 1:57 am

it goes extremely far if you follow it. the idea of libraries like vstgui is, you plug the hole with a board and pretend it doesnt exist.

vstgui isnt all that great, or complex. you can roll your own without too much effort. depends upon what you want though. for closed source, free projects, i could offer to work togeather with someone to produce a good library. we might be able to release it open source if it works good, bsd or something. i dont have a mac to test my stuff on so, somebody interested in simmilar projects only on the mac side would be cool to work with. i get the idea you're more aiming for commercial stuff though?

mistertoast · Post by **mistertoast** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 3:23 am

>>i get the idea you're more aiming for commercial stuff though?

I have a hard time believing there is a commercial market. As far as I can tell, there are 10 people on KvR that buy things and a whole bunch of people that want cool free stuff.

Borogove · Post by **Borogove** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 3:31 am

So, mistertoast, can I put you down for a $20 pledge towards the "send Borogove to Hamburg with a baseball bat" fund?

mistertoast · Post by **mistertoast** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 3:42 am

>>So, mistertoast, can I put you down for a $20 pledge towards the "send Borogove to Hamburg with a baseball bat" fund?

If you're willing to spike the bat with nails, yes.

Borogove · Post by **Borogove** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 5:51 am

Excellent.

All of which is just an amusing way of saying, yes, the VST spec/SDK docs are ridiculously bad, and in the last 5 years, the only thing Steinberg has done to improve it is, uh, rev the spec incompatibly to 2.4. And yet we still develop for it. Well. I don't. But I would.

OldSkoolMark · Post by **OldSkoolMark** » Mon Nov 20, 2006 3:35 pm

FWIW, I just build surrounddelay using the .vcproj supplied. Other than a few warnings, the build was smooth, and the .dll valid. This is with an untweaked 2.4 distribution

sante · Post by **sante** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 10:23 pm

actually make love would result in this:

medusa-s6% make love
make: *** No rule to make target 'love'. Stop.

learjeff · Post by **learjeff** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 3:35 pm

There's more than one implementation of 'make', sante. I think you're quoting the GNU version. The one Arakula refers to was the standard one on UNIX distributions for decades, IIRC. To no end of nerd joy. Another one was:

% touch shag_carpet
% make shag_carpet
shag_carpet is up to date.

Objective proof of the fallibility of computers.

dj_rejo · Post by **dj_rejo** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 10:31 pm

learjeff wrote:OK, after following the rest of the instructions for installing PSDK, the OLE and related problems went away.

Little question: where can I find those instructions?

mistertoast · Post by **mistertoast** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 10:55 pm

If you're talking about PSDK for Microsoft VC Express, just run Express and the front page (the thing that looks like a web page) should have a link to follow for instructions.

dj_rejo · Post by **dj_rejo** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 11:29 am

That's it, thanks!

keyman_sam · Post by **keyman_sam** » Fri Jan 17, 2014 6:20 pm

In case someone else is in the same shoes as I was yesterday (same as OP). Some steps might be missed out. I just had to figure out as I went along...

I got the surrounddelay to compile (win32). Here's how:

In summary:
1). Get zlib and libpng. Compile libpng and get the .lib or .dll output. This is what you need to get surrounddelay working.
2). Open surrounddelay and in the library add libpng.lib or whatever the output of the previous one is. Look for include directories and include the directory where the png.h file is.

Details:
Go to http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/libpng.html and unzip the library. Put it in the /lib directory of your vstgui/lib folder. IMPORTANT: Rename the folder as 'libpng' because the path the linker will be looking for the source code is ../libpng.

Go to http://www.zlib.net/ , unzip it and put it in vstgui/lib.

Now, open the visual studio project of libpng, and build it. It might say missing file zlib.c or whatever. Configure visual studio solution properties -> C++/General->Additional include directories and include the zlib files. In VC++ directories add the directory to the 'source directories' tab.

Now, compile libpng. It'll produce the .lib and .dll output (configured in solution configuration manager).

Open surrounddelay project, include this library name and the source files directory (all in solution C++/linker options).

Bah..sorry too lazy to explain further. The main idea is - get the libpng library output (.lib or .dll) have the source files ready, and link them in surrounddelay project. If something here is wrong, please feel free to correct me. It might help others.

aciddose · Post by **aciddose** » Fri Jan 17, 2014 6:38 pm

They've cured this issue in the VSTGUI4x versions by using functions provided by the OS for decoding.

Not surprisingly though, eight years later I still can't recommend using VSTGUI over rolling your own. Using it for anything serious requires so many modifications and eventually some of their design decisions will limit what you can accomplish without completely replacing large chunks of the library.

I can recommend that if you do use VSTGUI, definitely use the latest version. With all its limitations and things I would do differently, 4x actually begins to work quite reliably with minimal effort.

Help me get started with VSTGUI