The Right Stuff

Recently I had problems getting my favorite Winamp visualization WhiteCap working. I suspect it got stuck after updating Winamp to version 5.2 some months ago. I usually start visualizations only when a beamer is connected to the machine and therefore noticed the flaw just yet.

Winamp just didn't like loading the plugin, i.e. WhiteCap didn't show up in the list of available visualizations. A reinstall of the plugin didn't help. Today I took the time to debug the error in a Virtual PC instance and found the source of the problem. First I thought there's something wrong with my Winamp installation. A comparison of the VPC binaries against the ones installed on my "real" machine showed no differences. As I prefer to use the user-specific settings feature introduced in Winamp 5.2, it was time to take a look at the Winamp profile located in C:\Documents and Settings\<User Name>\Application Data\Winamp\. A strange little file named winamp.pic sits there and looks just like a list of available plugins.

CDDBControlWinamp.dll	!
CDDBUIWinamp.dll	!
enc_aacplus.dll	!
enc_lame.dll	!
enc_wma.dll	!
lame_enc.dll	!
libmp4v2.dll	!
ml_audioscrobbler.dll	!
read_file.dll	!
vis_ctrlfreak.dll	ControlFreak v2.50
vis_WhiteCap.dll	!
vms_desktop.dll	!
wmahelp.dll	!

The WhiteCap plugin (vis_WhiteCap.dll) is listed there, so Winamp seems to know about the plugin. Unfortunately, the file format is documented nowhere (at least I couldn't find it). But as the ControlFreak plugin is annotated with a name instead of an exclamation mark, I decided to give a little edit a try. I replaced the exclamation mark after the WhiteCap entry with "WhiteCap".

CDDBControlWinamp.dll	!
CDDBUIWinamp.dll	!
enc_aacplus.dll	!
enc_lame.dll	!
enc_wma.dll	!
lame_enc.dll	!
libmp4v2.dll	!
ml_audioscrobbler.dll	!
read_file.dll	!
vis_ctrlfreak.dll	ControlFreak v2.50
vis_WhiteCap.dll	WhiteCap
vms_desktop.dll	!
wmahelp.dll	!

After restarting Winamp the WhiteCap visualization worked like a charm again! Phew!

Now playing: Space Night Vol. 6 - Thievery Corporation - It takes a thief (Version 2)