foo_nowbar

A foobar2000 component that provides a "Now Playing" control panel for both Default UI and Columns UI.

Features

Core Features

• Dual UI Support: Works seamlessly with both Default UI (DUI) and Columns UI (CUI)
• Album Artwork Display: Shows album art edge-to-edge
• Track Information: Displays track info with customizable Title Formatting (default: title and artist)
• DPI Aware: Properly scales on high-DPI displays with adaptive sizing

Playback Controls

• Play/Pause: Central play button to toggle playback
• Stop: Optional stop button (hidden by default) - stops playback
• Previous/Next: Navigate between tracks
• Shuffle: Toggle shuffle mode with visual indicator (blue when active)
• Repeat: Cycle through repeat modes: Off → All → Track (blue when active)
• Seek Bar: Interactive progress bar for seeking within tracks
  • Pill-shaped or rectangular style (configurable)
  • Elapsed and remaining time display

Volume Control

• Volume Slider: Click or drag to adjust volume
• Mute Toggle: Click volume icon to mute/unmute
• Mouse Wheel Support: Scroll to adjust volume

Special Buttons

• Heart/Mood Button: Toggle to "like" a track (modifies MOOD tag)
  • Red when mood is set, gray when empty
  • Can be hidden via preferences
• MiniPlayer Launch: Quick access button to launch the MiniPlayer
  • Requires foo_traycontrols
  • Blue when active, can be hidden via preferences
• Super Button: Quick access to autoplaylists via popup menu
  • Preset autoplaylist queries: Never played, Recently played, Unrated, Rated 3-5/4/5, Loved tracks, Recently added, Same artist/title as selected
• Up to 12 Custom Buttons: Fully configurable action buttons
  • Buttons 1-6: Visible on panel, configurable via Preferences or config file
  • Buttons 7-12: Hidden, keyboard shortcuts only (config file only)
  • Open URL, Run executable, or Execute foobar2000 menu commands (main menu or context menu)
  • Custom PNG/ICO/SVG icon support per button (SVG requires foo_svg_services)
  • Adaptive layout: 2-row (buttons 1-3, 4-6) at larger heights, single row at smaller heights
  • Auto-hide during playback (optional, with smooth 300ms fade animation)
  • URL/Executable actions use selected track for title formatting (not playing track)
  • Configuration profiles for saving/loading button sets
  • Config file location: <foobar2000_profile>\foo_nowbar_data\custom_buttons.conf

Theming & Appearance

• Theme Modes:
  • Auto: Follows foobar2000's theme automatically
  • Dark: Forces dark mode
  • Light: Forces light mode
  • Custom: Syncs with DUI color scheme (DUI only)
• Seek/Volume Bar Style: Pill-shaped or rectangular
• Hover Circles: Optional hover effect on buttons
• Hover Enlarge Effect: Playback controls enlarge 15% on hover
• Alternate Icons: Alternative play/pause/stop icon style (outline vs filled)
• Custom Fonts: Select custom fonts for track title and artist
• Smooth Animations: Toggle for animated transitions (disabled by default for performance)
  • When enabled: custom button auto-hide fade, background crossfade
  • When disabled: instant transitions for better performance
• Glass Effect: Windows 11 acrylic backdrop blur behind the panel (semi-transparent background)
• Background Style:
• Solid: Standard solid color background
• Artwork Colors: Dynamic gradient extracted from album art's dominant colors
• Blurred Artwork: Album art blurred as ambient background

Installation

1. Copy foo_nowbar.dll to your foobar2000 components folder
2. Restart foobar2000
3. Add the panel:
   • Default UI: View → Layout → Add panel → "Now Bar Control Panel"
   • Columns UI: Add "Now Bar Control Panel" panel to your layout

Preferences

Access preferences via: File → Preferences → Display → Now Bar

General Tab

Display Format

Customize the two lines of track information using foobar2000's Title Formatting syntax:

Setting	Default	Description
Line 1	%title%	First line of track info (e.g., %title% · %artist%)
Line 2	%artist%	Second line of track info (e.g., %codec% | %bitrate% kbps)

Appearance Settings

Setting	Options	Description
Theme Mode	Auto / Dark / Light / Custom	Controls panel color scheme
Smooth Animations	Disabled / Enabled	Smooth animated transitions (may impact performance)
Seek/Volume Bar Style	Pill-shaped / Rectangular	Bar appearance
Mood Icon	Show / Hidden	Toggle heart button visibility
MiniPlayer Icon	Show / Hidden	Toggle MiniPlayer button visibility
Hover Circles	Yes / No	Show circular hover effect on buttons
Alternate Icons	Enabled / Disabled	Use outline-style play/pause/stop icons
Auto-hide C-buttons	Yes / No	Custom buttons fade out during active playback
Glass Effect (Win11)	Disabled / Enabled	Windows 11 acrylic backdrop blur effect
Background Style	Solid / Artwork Colors / Blurred Artwork	Panel background appearance

Custom Button Tab

Configuration Profile

• Configuration name: Select between saved button configurations
• [...] menu: New, Rename, Delete, Export, Import options for profiles

Button Configuration

Configure up to 6 visible custom buttons (7-12 via config file only):

• None: Button disabled
• Open URL: Opens a URL in the default browser (supports Title Formatting, uses selected track)
• Run Executable: Launches an external program (supports Title Formatting, uses selected track)
• Foobar2k Action: Executes a foobar2000 menu command (e.g., Playback/Stop or context menu File Operations/Move to/MP3)

Each button also supports:

• Custom Icon (PNG/ICO/SVG): Optional custom icon image path
• Automatic fallback to numbered square icons when custom icon is missing

Fonts Tab

• Select custom fonts for track title and artist display
• Reset to default fonts option

Keyboard Shortcuts

All 12 custom button actions can be triggered via keyboard shortcuts:

1. Go to Preferences → Keyboard Shortcuts
2. Find commands under Playback → Now Bar:
   • Custom Button 1 through Custom Button 12
3. Assign any keyboard shortcut to trigger the corresponding button's action

Building from Source

Prerequisites

• Visual Studio 2022 (v143 toolset)
• foobar2000 SDK
• Columns UI SDK
• Windows 10 SDK

Build Commands

64-bit Release:

msbuild foo_nowbar.vcxproj /p:Configuration=Release /p:Platform=x64 /p:PlatformToolset=v143 /v:minimal

32-bit Release:

msbuild foo_nowbar.vcxproj /p:Configuration=Release /p:Platform=Win32 /p:PlatformToolset=v143 /v:minimal

Note: Ensure all SDK libraries (foobar2000_SDK, pfc, columns_ui_sdk) are built with matching runtime library settings (/MT for static).

Project Structure

foo_nowbar/
├── core/
│   ├── control_panel_core.cpp   # Core rendering and interaction logic
│   ├── control_panel_core.h     # Core class, layout metrics, and hit regions
│   ├── playback_state.cpp       # Playback state tracking and callbacks
│   └── playback_state.h         # Playback state structures
├── ui/
│   ├── control_panel_cui.cpp    # Columns UI wrapper
│   ├── control_panel_cui.h
│   ├── control_panel_dui.cpp    # Default UI wrapper
│   └── control_panel_dui.h
├── preferences.cpp              # Preferences page implementation
├── preferences.h                # Preferences declarations
├── preferences.rc               # Preferences dialog resources
├── resource.h                   # Resource IDs
├── component.cpp                # Component initialization
├── component_client.cpp         # foobar2000 component client
├── mainmenu_commands.cpp        # Main menu commands for keyboard shortcuts
├── guids.h                      # Component GUIDs
├── pch.h / pch.cpp              # Precompiled headers
└── version.h                    # Version information

Controls Reference

Element	Action
Play/Pause	Click to toggle playback
Stop	Stop playback (optional, hidden by default)
Previous/Next	Navigate tracks
Shuffle	Toggle shuffle mode (blue when active)
Repeat	Cycle repeat modes: Off → All → Track (blue when active)
Super Button	Open autoplaylist menu with preset queries
Seek Bar	Click or drag to seek within track (tooltip shows timestamp)
Volume Icon	Click to mute/unmute
Volume Bar	Click or drag to adjust volume (perceptual loudness mapping)
Mouse Wheel	Scroll over panel to adjust volume
Heart Icon	Toggle MOOD tag for current track (red when set)
MiniPlayer Icon	Launch/toggle MiniPlayer (blue when active)
Custom Buttons	Execute configured action (URL / Executable / foobar2000 command)
Artwork	Click to view in album art viewer

Customization

Layout metrics can be modified in control_panel_core.h:

struct LayoutMetrics {
    int panel_height = 80;
    int artwork_size = 128;      // Maximum album art size
    int artwork_margin = 8;      // Margin around artwork
    int button_size = 38;        // Control button size
    int play_button_size = 48;   // Play button size (larger)
    int seekbar_height = 9;      // Seek/volume bar thickness
    int volume_width = 192;      // Volume bar width
    int spacing = 16;            // Element spacing
    int text_height = 30;        // Text line height
};

Dependencies

• foobar2000 SDK
• Columns UI SDK
• foo_traycontrols (optional, for MiniPlayer functionality)

License

This component is provided as-is for personal use with foobar2000.