3D OpenGL Music Visualiser

COSC3000 Computer Graphics Major Project

by Matt Young [email protected]

This is a semi real-time 3D audio visualisation using OpenGL. The visualisation consists of offline spectral data that is rendered in real-time in the form of 3D bars. A multitude of graphics techniques are used, including: quaternion camera animation, camera shake using Simplex noise under fractal Brownian motion, a skybox, and a post-processing stage that implements chromatic aberration. The application is written in a mix of C++ (for rendering) and Python (for DSP). The spectrum of bars is computed using the Fast Fourier Transform.

This is my major project in computer graphics for COSC3000, done during UQ Sem 1 2024. The code itself is based on a fork of the graphics minor project, completed earlier in the semester.

For more information, see paper/major.pdf.

Building and running

You will need the following tools/libraries:

• CMake 3.20+
• Ninja
• LLVM
• Clang
• LLD
• SDL2
• glm
• Assimp
• spdlog
• Cap'n Proto

All the above dependencies are available on the AUR or main repos for Arch Linux. If you're using another distro, you may have to compile from source to get the newer versions (especially if on Ubuntu). If you're not on Linux, you're on your own! In particular, this may be challenging to build on MacOS due to their deprecation of OpenGL.

Generate the project using:

cmake -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release # or Debug

Build (in build directory):

ninja

Run:

./musicvis ../data BandName_SongName
# for example:
./musicvis ../data LauraBrehm_PureSunlight

The application then has the following keybinds:

• ESCAPE: Quit
• F: Toggle freecam
• Right arrow: Skip current camera animation
• WASD: In freecam mode, move around
• Mouse: In freecam mode, look around

In the fish shell, use set -x ASAN_OPTIONS detect_leaks=0 to silence LeakSanitizer which has false positives under SDL2.

Importing new audio

New songs can be imported into the visualiser.

First, make a new directory in data/songs, for example, mkdir data/songs/Band_Name_Song_Name.

Your song needs to be available as a FLAC file. Copy this into data/songs/Band_Name_Song_Name/audio.flac.

Finally, you can activate the virtual environment and run the process script:

python -m venv env
source env/bin/activate.fish
pip install -r requirements.txt
./scripts/process.py Band_Name_Song_Name

This will then write the spectrum.bin file in the Cap'n Proto format.

To double check this worked, run ./scripts/decoder.py Band_Name_Song_Name. This will load the capnp message in spectrum.bin and display it.

Compiling the paper

The paper is written in Typst. In the paper directory, you can run typst compile major.typ to produce major.pdf.

Libraries used

This project makes use of the following open-source libraries:

• SDL2: zlib licence
• glm: MIT licence
• Assimp: BSD 3-Clause
• spdlog: MIT licence
• Cap'n Proto: MIT licence
• dr_flac: Public domain
• stb_image: Public domain
• camera.cpp/camera.hpp derived from Cinder Project: BSD 2-Clause
  • Upstream: https://github.com/cinder/Cinder/blob/master/src/cinder/Camera.cpp
• Simplex.h: BSD 3-Clause
  • Upstream: https://github.com/simongeilfus/SimplexNoise

Some code based on code from LearnOpenGL https://learnopengl.com/ - however, given the generic nature of the code (i.e. there is really only one way to instantiate a GL shader), I do not believe that their CC-BY-NC licence applies to this repo. The LOGL content was used as reference only.

Licence

Code I wrote, including shaders, is available under the ISC Licence (see LICENSE.txt)

The paper is available under CC-BY 4.0.

Music remains copyrighted the respective artists. The two songs shipped with this version are snippets of "Pure Sunlight" by Mr FijiWiji, Laura Brehm and AGNO3, and "Right of Passage" by Eastern Odyssey. This is copyrighted material, and if any of the artists would like it removed, please contact me and I'll do so.

The space skybox was generated by https://tools.wwwtyro.net/space-3d/index.html. That website doesn't explicitly licence it under any licence, but since you can download it, I say do with the skybox whatever you want until shown otherwise.