Multiple Output Plugin and I are proud to present its v1.5 facelift.

Judging from the change log below due care and effort has been put in fine-tunning this release, in order to restore the bad publicity that has built-up over time for its incompatibility issues with 3rd party plugins.

This version fixes major compatibility issues with most output plugins reported to me and in Winamp’s Official Forums (still one pending, VolumeLogic, but I have already contacted their support staff, as the incompatibility is on the other party’s behalf) some of them being the ever popular AndrewLabs ATSurround Processor and SqrSoft Advanced Crossfading output plugins.

The core output plugin loading and menu populating procedure has been recoded from scratch, to a more reliable version that takes into account only the output plugins loaded by Winamp.

Also numerous hotkey fixes that nobody has ever reported (seems nobody uses the hotkey feature) and some code clean-up.
Change Log - Build 1.5

• New method of loading output plugins
• Added compatibility with AndrewLabs ATSurround Processor output plugin and SqrSoft Advanced Crossfading output plugin
• When no output plugin is selected ‘Multiple Output Plugin’ searches first for DirectSound and then for waveOut output plugins
• Fixed DSP/Effect menu item not updating correctly in extraordinary situations
• Fixed hotkey registration of plugins with the same name description, when two or more instances of an output plugin are loaded
• Hotkeys will register correctly irrespective of other output plugin version changes
• Cleaned-up the code
• Until further notice VolumeLogic v1.31 should be used in the following dataflow situation:
  [Winamp] > [VolumeLogic] > [Multiple Output Plugin] > [DirectSound or any other output plugin]

This fine release is up for grabs here and it is a must update.

I have long awaited for this update, since it has been more than 6 months since I last worked on this plugin.

Although there have been incompatibility reports of other 3rd party output plugins when used in concert with this plugin, the code is pretty solid only to prove instability in other plugins. Since no other instability feedback has been received, there are no bug-fixes in this update, only a couple of new features.

Anyway the main objective of this post is to address the modifications made to this version, so here we go:

• First of all, I decided to lift the multiple instance limitation as the main cause of clash in hotkey registration can be avoided or overcomed. By utilising Winamp’s multi-user support or defining a different configuration file for each winamp instance, it is possible to avoid assigning the same hotkey in two Winamp instances.
  

  Usefull Winamp command-line parameters:

  The /M3UDIR=”" switch directs Winamp to a specific file path from where to load/save the current playlist. Note: default playlist file: winamp.m3u

  The /CLASS=”" switch uniquely identifies the instance of Winamp, so that you can play and enqueue files to one particular instance when multiple ones are open. You can use any names you want (limited to about 60 characters). Note: using the /CLASS switch could potentially break some third party programs and plugins that communicate with Winamp.

  The /CONFIG=”" switch specifies a custom Winamp configuration file (default: winamp.ini) from where it can load specific settings for a Winamp instance. Used when Winamp uses shared-user configuration files (old behaviour).

  The /INIDIR=”" switch specifies where to store configuration files. This parameter can be used for Winamp versions 5.11+ when multi-user support was implemented for Winamp and configuration files can be saved in every user’s respective “Application Data” folder. Plugins that support this feature will also save their configuration in the respective path.

  Examples provided here.

• The other addition to this version that I wanted to implement for so long, was the ability to access the DSP/Effect plugin configuration directly from the Output > Preferences menu. Note: Only the active DSP/Effect module can be configured from the menu, since this is an output plugin and cannot handle DSP/Effect plugins as well.