Retro music visualisations inspired by Cthugha and the Atari Video Music for foobar2000 and Winamp / WACUP
The sound is drawn into an image that burns, flows and mirrors itself from frame to frame: Cthugha's "audio seeded image processing", was rebuilt effect for effect from the original programs. And the first music visualiser for the home, Atari's Video Music C240 from 1977, comes back as a simulation of its circuit.
Default UI and Columns UI · 64 and 32 bit · fullscreen on one or more monitors · free · also as a Winamp / WACUP plug-in
Download the latest version · foobar2000 component page
Two Fomalhaut panels on top of the layout.
| Mode | Based on |
|---|---|
| Cthugha 5.3 DOS (320 × 200) | Cthugha 5.3 for DOS (1995), with all extras: palettes, pictures and translation tables |
| Cthugha98 (640 × 480) | Cthugha98 0.6a for Windows (1998), including its particle scenes and all 3D views of the 3dfx version |
| Cthugha-L (flexible) | Cthugha-L 1.4 for Linux (2000), adapts to the panel size, has new 3D displays |
| Cthugha-4-Winamp (640 × 480) | The Cthugha plug-in for Winamp (and ModPlug) (1998): beat-driven, 3D title intro, song title text |
| Atari Video Music C240 (4:3) | The Atari Video Music C240 (1977): diamonds, holes and rings in the colours of the music, with its front panel |
| Mix | All of the above in turn, with a short fade between them |
Each panel remembers its own mode, so several panels can run different modes side by side. Every mode can be shown through an optional CRT filter (RGB monitor or TV).
The DOS version at its original 320 × 200: mirrored and kaleidoscope displays with the Cthugha 5.3 palettes and
pictures.
Cthugha98 at 640 × 480: flames and waves, the particle scenes (top middle) and translation tables.
The optional 3dfx view of Cthugha98: the image as a turning height field, rebuilt in software.
Cthugha-L fills any panel size: its mirrored displays, palettes from the Linux version and the 3D displays (bottom
right).
The Winamp plug-in: flames and waves change with the beat; at the start of each song turning 3D letters spell the
title (right).
Hole, Ring and Solid in different grids, as on a TV set; the front panel slides in at the bottom (top left, bottom
right).
Not an imitation of its picture but a simulation of the device: the analogue input stage with the component values of the schematic and the logic of its custom chip after the patent. Left and right channel each draw a diamond; its size follows the loudness, its colour the pitch.
- Move the mouse to the bottom of the picture: the front panel slides in. Press the buttons and turn the knobs (drag or mouse wheel) as on the device: Solid, Hole, Ring or Auto; 1 to 5 shapes across and 1 to 8 down; Auto scan rate; gain, colour and contour per channel.
- The same controls are in the right-click menu and in the preferences. Reset to the manual's settings sets the controls as recommended in the owner's manual.
- Shown as on a TV set by default (CRT filter TV).
Thanks to Robert J. Brown for being a pioneer in music visualisation. He made this possible for home consumers in 1977!
- foobar2000 2.0 or newer, 64-bit or 32-bit
- or Winamp 5.x / WACUP, 32-bit (the 64-bit WACUP does not load third-party plug-ins yet)
- Windows 10 or 11
- Download
foo_fomalhaut-<version>.fb2k-componentfrom the releases. - Double-click it, or use Preferences → Components → Install…, and restart foobar2000.
- Add the panel:
- Default UI: View → Layout → Enable layout editing, right-click an area, Add New UI Element → Visualisation → Fomalhaut.
- Columns UI: Preferences → Columns UI → Layout, add Fomalhaut (category Visualisations).
- Right-click the panel and choose a mode under Mode. Play music and enjoy.
The same modes as a visualisation plug-in for Winamp and WACUP (32-bit).
- Download
vis_fomalhaut-1.1.0.zipfrom the release 1.1.0. - Close Winamp / WACUP and copy
vis_fomalhaut.dllinto its Plugins folder. - Preferences → Plug-ins → Visualisation: select Fomalhaut, choose the mode under Plug-in module and press Start (or Ctrl+Shift+K).
- Portable WACUP: allow third-party plug-ins first under Preferences → Advanced → Portable Mode.
- To start the visualisation together with the player, tick Run the plug-in(s) on start-up in the Visualisation menu.
- The window sits in the skin like MilkDrop. Keys and the right-click menu work as in foobar2000; keys Fomalhaut does not use (Z, X, C, V, B, arrows …) go to the player. The last mode chosen in the menu is remembered.
- Settings: Configure in the Winamp preferences or Preferences… in the right-click menu – the same pages as in foobar2000 on tabs.
- Winamp passes only short pieces of the sound to a visualisation (576 values, about 60 times a second). Fomalhaut joins them into a continuous stream and fills small gaps, so the Atari Video Music and Cthugha98 partly see repeated sound. In foobar2000 every mode gets the full sound.
| Action | Effect |
|---|---|
| Click, Space | Next effect |
| Middle click, F11 | Fullscreen on/off (Esc leaves) |
| Right click | Menu: next / previous effect, lock, fullscreen, presets, mode, CRT filter, options |
| f / w / d / p | Next flame / wave / display / palette |
| t, ! | Colour table (Cthugha-4-Winamp: translation), translation table |
| s | FFT palette flashing (DOS) / scope or analyzer (Cthugha-4-Winamp) |
| h | Wave scale (Cthugha-4-Winamp) |
| L | Lock: no automatic effect changes |
| i | Save the running effect as a preset |
| ? or F1 | Show the keys |
Like Cthugha's CTHUGHA.INI, saved presets come up in the automatic changes — in 2 of 3 changes by default, or
never or always.
The main page and the subpages "Modes" and "Atari Video Music".
Preferences → Visualisations → Fomalhaut:
- Automatic input level (on by default): the originals listened to a sound card set to a lively level; today's quieter music is raised to a similar level, silence stays silence. If the picture gets too 'loud' switch it off.
- Effect names, pictures, song title (first seconds of each song or always; title format and position).
- Per mode: the 3dfx view of Cthugha98, output height and flashlight of Cthugha-L, palettes, title text and 3D intro of Cthugha-4-Winamp, the modes in the mix, presets.
Preferences → Visualisations → Fomalhaut → Modes, for each mode:
- Original (default): exactly as the original program changed effects.
- After beats: after a number of bass beats, with adjustable beat detection. Note: does not work well for all styles.
- After seconds: every few seconds while music plays.
- New song: additionally a new effect at the start of each song.
- CRT: off, RGB monitor (sharp) or TV (soft colours). Default: TV for Atari Video Music, off for the others.
Preferences → Visualisations → Fomalhaut → Atari Video Music: the buttons and knobs of the front panel, and whether the front panel slides in. Each panel keeps its own buttons and knobs; the preferences show and change the panel used last, and new panels start with its settings.
- Rebuilt from the originals themselves: the published C source of Cthugha 5.3 and Cthugha-L, and the program code of Cthugha98 and of the Winamp plug-in. Formula for formula, with the same tables, colours and random sequence of each original.
- Original picture sizes and frame rates: 320 × 200 at 70 Hz for DOS, 640 × 480 for Cthugha98 and the Winamp plug-in, 25 frames per second for Cthugha-L.
- Sound as the originals heard it: 8-bit samples from the same number of frames; the Winamp mode gets Winamp's 576-value waveform and spectrum.
- The original effect changes: random scene lengths, loud peaks, music returning after a pause, beats.
- All extras: 32 palettes and 12 pictures of Cthugha 5.3, 169 palettes and the pictures of Cthugha-L, 73 palettes, the 3D letters and the title picture of the Winamp plug-in, translation tables of all versions.
- The texts shown during silence, in the original 8 × 14 VGA font.
- Quirks that are part of an effect stay as they were.
- Atari Video Music: rebuilt from US patent 4,081,829, the schematic and the owner's manual – the picture is built line by line like the device's 262 lines at 60 Hz, the loudness is taken for each line when it is drawn (hence the trembling edges). Size, colours and the rainbow inside the shapes were calibrated against recordings of a real device. One deliberate difference: with mono sources Hole and Ring stay visible (on the device they went black when the music got loud).
Where an original had a bug that spoiled an effect, Fomalhaut shows what the effect was (most probably) meant to look like:
- Cthugha 5.3 DOS: "Downwards" did not mirror; both kaleidoscopes left a stripe; the rotated displays showed parts of the image without any waves; the built-in palettes were only partly converted to VGA colours; large pictures were cut off at the top left; with one picture palette the waves were invisible.
- Cthugha98: the kaleidoscope did not mirror; the 90° displays never showed the waves or filled only part of the screen; Rings of Fire drew nothing at small sizes; translations and pictures were distorted on the split displays.
- Cthugha-L: tall pictures were shifted, Zick Zack cleared too much, tables without a header were ignored, and for a moment two translations could mix.
- Cthugha-4-Winamp: two waves read beyond the sound data; Fire works and School of fish could crash; the 3D intro ran endlessly when nothing played.
- All modes: a preset no longer comes twice in a row; reads and writes outside the image are prevented everywhere.
- Cthugha © 1993–1998 Kevin "Zaph" Burfitt, Torps Productions
- Cthugha-L © 1995–1998 Harald Deischinger
- Cthugha-4-Winamp © 1998 Krunoslav Pisacic (beat detection by Justin Frankel, Nullsoft)
- Extras of Cthugha 5.3: palettes and pictures by Torps Productions; "Images and Colors" vol. 1 © 1989, 1993–1994 Dmitry Altukhov (Dreamwalker / ORBiS TERTiUS); "chromatic" palette by Todd Hedenstrom; translation table generators by Ofer Faigon
- Atari Video Music C240 (1977) by Atari, Inc., designed by Robert J. Brown (US patent 4,081,829)
Fomalhaut is based on the ideas and algorithms of Cthugha, used under the Cthugha source license (free for non-commercial use, with credit). It is free and not affiliated with the authors of Cthugha or of the Winamp plug-in. Atari and Video Music are trademarks of their respective owners; Fomalhaut's Atari mode is an independent simulation, not affiliated with or endorsed by them. BTW: Fomalhaut is the home star of Cthugha in H. P. Lovecraft's mythology.
Copyright (c) 2026 Audio Lens. All rights reserved. Fomalhaut is free of charge; the unmodified packages may be passed on, as long as no fee is charged for them. See LICENSE.txt. This repository contains documentation and releases only; the source code is not published.
The licenses of Cthugha, Cthugha-L and Cthugha-4-Winamp and of the foobar2000 SDK, pfc, libPPUI, the Columns UI SDK and WTL are in THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.txt.
...there is more to come.