Alienware AlienFX Winamp Plugin Tutorial
December 2, 2010 by: Anthony DamascoGet Plugin:
http://adf.ly/45WDl
Plugin Author:
copyright 2008 Benjamin Thaut (http://3d.benjamin-thaut.de)
IMPORTANT THINGS TO KNOW:
1. It takes a lot of patience to get this to work, In some cases the light kit will turn off and stay off until you either do a soft reset or full reboot .
*Advice from the Author of the plugin: You might want to include, that if the AlienFX device gets completely stuck, you need to power down the laptop. Remove all batteries, unplug the power and wait a few seconds. This will completely reset the AlienFX device and get it back to working. Happend to me a few times while writing the plugin. – Ingrater *
2. If your light kit turns turns off and stops responding, close winamp (and close it in the tray as well), right click on the alien FX icon in the tray, click “go dark”. This will disable the hardware. Then right click on the icon in the tray again and hit “enable”. Your light kit should boot up again and you can try messing with winamp again.
3. Your alienFX command center settings but be set to standard. If it’s on advance your lights will freeze up after a few seconds of running the plugin. I think it has something to do with time events. I’m not 100% why it happens, however I know that when set to standard is when I’ve had the most success with this.
4. If your lights fail to turn back on with step two, reboot your machine. If after a reboot your lights are still off, let your machine fully boot. The Command center should detect that your hardware is disabled and it will tell you to reboot again. Once you reboot you should be back in business.
5. When your finished with the plugin and you close winamp the colors on the light kit will either be dark or frozen to which ever color it last blinked to. In order to restore the colors follow step 2.
INSTALL
=======
copy the libgcc_s_dw2-1.dll to your root Winamp directory (typically C:\Program Files\Winamp
copy the vis_winamp-alienfx-plugin.dll to the Winamp\Plugins directory
copy the alienfx_vis_config.xml to your appdata\Winamp\Plugins directory (C:\Users\Your Username\appdata\Roaming\Winamp\Plugins for Vista and 7).
Note that the appdata folder is a hidden folder. You must enable hidden files and folders in order to find it!
My Settings
=======
Sound Energy Factor:
1-4: 2.04
5-8: 1.80
9-12: 1.40
13-16: 1.52
17-20: 1.40
21-24: 0.76
25-28: 1.00
39-32: 1.16
Energy Variance Factor:
1-4: 0.00
5-8: 48.80
9-12: 48.80
13-16: 48.80
17-20: 48.80
21-24: 48.80
25-28: 48.80
39-32: 48.80
Absolute Variance: 0.00
Relative Variance: 0.16
Zones:
Left and Right Speakers Bands:
1, 2, 3, 4
Random Color
Keyboard Bands:
17,18,19,20,25,26,27,28,29,30, 31,32
Random Color
Logo Bands
21,22,23,24
Random Color
I find that this setup works best with metal and techno, I haven’t tested it with any other music. Feel free to tweek it.
Thanks for creating a video tutorial howto setup the my winamp plugin.
You might want to include, that if the AlienFX device gets completely stuck, you need to power down the laptop. Remove all batteries, unplug the power and wait a few seconds. This will completely reset the AlienFX device and get it back to working. Happend to me a few times while writing the plugin.
Kind Regards
Ingrater
@Ingrater Thanks man, I’ll include that in the tutorial. Also thanks for building the plugin!
love it, well done! ofcourse to those who understand less, a already complete settings file would be awesome!
i have the M15x and i did everything u did but winamp keeps freezing up everytime i turn the visulations on and click on options what should i do?
@dusty
Check out the support forum for the plugin.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/419484-alienfx-pidgin-winamp-plugin.html
post your problem on there and get help from the engineers that created it.
what would be the 3rd party source
Thanks a Lot
both of u Anthony and Ingrater
It just made my alienware more awesome…..
@Tarun
your welcome!
Hey Don’t do this it fucking froze my whole keyboard now its only showing 1 part red and it says that it cannot detect keyboard
WARNING DO NOT DO
@fuckyou Sorry that you are having trouble, I hope that you read my post thoroughly and saw what the creator of the plugin said. In case you missed it, I will post it here.
You might want to include, that if the AlienFX device gets completely stuck, you need to power down the laptop. Remove all batteries, unplug the power and wait a few seconds. This will completely reset the AlienFX device and get it back to working. Happend to me a few times while writing the plugin. – Ingrater
i have a m17x r3 i can’t get it to work, i keep getting this message when i try to even load the plugin “Alienware Device not found. plugin not active!” is there a version of winamp i need to use?
also i took a look the xml file, this is what it looks like:
i have a m17x r3 i can’t get it to work, i keep getting this message when i try to even load the plugin “Alienware Device not found. plugin not active!” is there a version of winamp i need to use?
also i took a look the xml file, this is what it looks like:
”
“
i would use version 4.7 it works the best
thanks man! just installed winamp on my m15x and worked right away! keep up the good work!
always man
where did you get 4.7 version?
i have a m17x r3 i can’t get it to work, i keep getting this message when i try to even load the plugin “Alienware Device not found. plugin not active!” is there a version use different wimap didnt work… help please
hey i installed everything followed all instructions.. made zones it works but sometimes
it doesnt work keep freezing … tried disable and enable even reboot my computer…
still same problem.. keeps freezing after couple secs…
i tried disable advance setting on command centre still the same.. it wonly work coupld seconds..
please help! thnx
I ran into the same problem. Advanced Settings need to be set to standard. 3rd party needs to be enabled on alien FX software and even then it might freeze everyone once in a while, The creator of the plugin posted a thread on this forum http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/419484-alienfx-pidgin-winamp-plugin.html there is a ton of information on here, I would ask around on here.
Bro,
Is it possible for you to email me the .atx for Command Center ? I am newbies and don’t know how to make the zones in Command Center.
Cheers.
Thanks.
is there any version compatible with m14x?
thnks man ur great, i’ve test it it works excellent, greetings from méxico
thanks man, very helpful!!!
Hey pal
Your link doesnt seem to work
Casper
dont work on m14x : /
I tried on my m14x…and it gives an error ‘alienware device not found. Plugin not active’..any remedy for that??
Thanks to you and Integrater! This is a magnificent piece of work!
well… were do i download the plugin? it gives me 404 error when i click on the link for it
Hi Anthony,
I’m from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and I need your help!
I am not able to start the AlienFX Winamp Plugin. This with the following error: “Device not found Alienware. Plugin not active!” How can I solve this problem? Thank you for your attention!
Marcio Ribeiro, come suck my dick and i might help you.
it works on m14x you all asshole!!! perfect
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v482/Bolas/PluginFail.jpg[/IMG]
i have alienware m17x r3. i did everything according to the instructions…but still it does not work. it says alienware device not found!!!!
is ingrater plugin not for m17x r3? does it support m17x r3???
-thanx for any help
For Those with M17X R3 and it’s not worked.. you should read this and follow whatever it says in this forum.. http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/419484-alienfx-pidgin-winamp-plugin-48.html#post6937571
i do follow the steps and i got mine working, here’s my proof http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtVuXzy7MQI
I’m sorry i mean http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/419484-alienfx-pidgin-winamp-plugin-74.html#post6937571 ( PAGE 74 )
Hey,
I guess this plugin is not developed for the M14x, it says “Alienware Device not found/ No Alienware FX device found. Plugin will not work”
Anthony, do you have any plug-in that is compatible with the M14x. Thanks
I cannot find the Winamp folder on my hard drive. I take it it’s not already there, so what do I have to do to get it there?
It works fine for m14x.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpBXOz899VY
I have a brand new m14x and i am wanting to try this out.
I just want to know if there is any danger in using this plugin. I mean i am aware of the freeze issue and to fix it just reset it or tell it to go dark. But i just want to make sure there is no danger of it causing any damage to the Lights themselves, or any risk of messing with the firmware of the laptop.
Did you do this on your m14x?
I tried on my m14x but it doesn’t work.
It says Alienware device not detected.
You have to enable 3rd party in the alienFX settings, it’s a pain because it doesn’t always work.
Is there a way to make the ‘random color lighting’ change colors slower?
To all those having the “Alienware device not detected”, you need to follow the instructions in this tutorial:
http://3d.benjamin-thaut.de/?p=19
This is from Ingrater’s website.
It should show you how to create an xml file with your AlienFX device ID, once I did what the tutorial says that error was gone, then you’ll just need to configure the lights..
I still get the alienware device not found on my M17xR3. followed the link and instructions from benjamin’s site and cant get it to work. Any advice?
I keep getting these error messages. Yes 2 of them not the alien device not detected
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e63/big_jon07/winampfuckup.png