glava: A C repository from ypraw

GLava is an OpenGL audio spectrum visualizer. Its primary use case is for desktop windows or backgrounds. Displayed to the left is the radial shader module, and here is a demonstration video. Development is active, and reporting issues is encouranged.

Compiling:

$ git clone https://github.com/wacossusca34/glava
$ cd glava
$ CFLAGS="-march=native" make
$ sudo make install
$ glava

You can pass BUILD=debug to the makefile for debug builds of both glad and glava, and you can manually specify install targets with INSTALL=..., possible arguments are unix for FHS compliant Linux and BSD distros, osx for Mac OSX, and standalone which allows you to run GLava in the build directory.

Requirements:

X11 (Xext, Xcomposite, & Xrender)
PulseAudio
Linux or BSD

Additional compile time requirements:

GCC (this program uses GNU C features)

Optional requirements:

GLFW 3.1+ (optional, enable with ENABLE_GLFW=1)

Ubuntu/Debian users: the following command ensures you have all the needed packages and headers to compile GLava:

sudo apt-get install libpulse0 libpulse-dev libxext6 libxext-dev libxcomposite-dev make gcc

Fedora users: the following command ensures you have all the needed packages and headers to compile GLava:

sudo dnf install libXcomposite-devel pulseaudio-libs-devel libX11-devel libXext-devel libXrender-devel
sudo dnf group install 'C Development Tools and Libraries'

Installation

Some distributions have a package for glava. If your distribution is not listed please use the compilation instructions above.

Arch Linux glava package, or glava-git AUR package
NixOS package
openSUSE package

Configuration

GLava will start by looking for an entry point in the user configuration folder (~/.config/glava/rc.glsl*), and will fall back to loading from the shader installation folder (/etc/xdg/glava*). The entry point will specify a module to load and should set global configuration variables. Configuration for specific modules can be done in their respective .glsl files, which the module itself will include.

You should start by running glava --copy-config. This will copy over default configuration files and create symlinks to modules in your user config folder. GLava will either load system configuration files or the user provided ones, so it's not advised to copy these files selectively.

To embed GLava in your desktop (for EWMH compliant window managers), run it with the --desktop flag and then position it accordingly with #request setgeometry x y width height in your rc.glsl.

* On an XDG compliant Linux or BSD system.

Desktop window compatibility

GLava aims to be compatible with most EWMH compliant window managers. Below is a list of common window managers and issues specific to them for trying to get GLava to behave as a desktop window or widget:

WM	!	Details
Mutter (GNOME, Budgie)		`"native"` (default) opacity should be used
KWin (KDE)		"Show Desktop" temporarily hides GLava
Openbox (LXDE or standalone)		No issues
Xfwm (XFCE)		No issues
Fluxbox		No issues
IceWM		No issues
Bspwm		No issues
Herbstluftwm		`hc rule windowtype~'_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DESKTOP' manage=off` can be used to unmanage desktop windows
Unity		No issues
AwesomeWM		Defaults to unmanaged
i3 (and i3-gaps)		Defaults to unmanaged
EXWM		EXWM does not have a desktop, and forces window decorations
Enlightenment		Needs testing
Xmonad		Needs testing
Any non EWMH-compliant WM		Window types and hints will not work if the window manager does not support the EWMH standards.

Note that some WMs listed without issues have specific overrides when using the --desktop flag. See shaders/env_*.glsl files for details.

Reading from MPD's FIFO output

Add the following to your ~/.config/mpd.conf:

audio_output {
    type                    "fifo"
    name                    "glava_fifo"
    path                    "/tmp/mpd.fifo"
    format                  "22050:16:2"
}

Note the 22050 sample rate -- this is the reccommended setting for GLava. Restart MPD (if nessecary) and start GLava with glava --audio=fifo.

Licensing

GLava is licensed under the terms of the GPLv3, with the exemption of khrplatform.h, which is licensed under the terms in its header. GLava includes some (heavily modified) source code that originated from cava, which was initially provided under the MIT license. The source files that originated from cava are the following:

[cava]/input/fifo.c -> [glava]/fifo.c
[cava]/input/fifo.h -> [glava]/fifo.h
[cava]/input/pulse.c -> [glava]/pulse_input.c
[cava]/input/pulse.h -> [glava]/pulse_input.h

The below copyright notice applies for the original versions of these files:

The modified files are relicensed under the terms of the GPLv3. The MIT license is included for your convience and to satisfy the requirements of the original license, although it no longer applies to any code in this repository. You will find the original copyright notice and MIT license in the LICENSE_ORIGINAL file.

The below copyright applies for the modifications to the files listed above, and the remaining sources in the repository:

ypraw/glava

Installation

Configuration

Desktop window compatibility

Reading from MPD's FIFO output

Licensing