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foo_nowbar

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

Core Features

• Dual UI Support: Works seamlessly with both Default UI (DUI) and Columns UI (CUI)
• Album Artwork Display: Shows album art with square/rounded corners and optional margin
• Online Artwork: Fetches artwork from online sources via foo_artwork when local/embedded artwork is unavailable
• Track Information: Displays track info across up to 3 configurable display lines with customizable Title Formatting (default: Line 1 title, Line 2 artist, Line 3 optional format or rating stars); supports real-time dynamic updates for %playback_time%, %bitrate% (VBR), and external stream metadata
• Selection Mode: Switch between Prioritize Now Playing Mode (shows active playback, falls back to selected track when stopped) and Follow Selection (always follows the selected playlist item)
• DPI Aware: Properly scales on high-DPI displays with adaptive sizing and space compression

Playback Controls

• Play/Pause: Central play button to toggle playback
• Stop: Optional stop button (hidden by default) - stops playback
• Stop After Current: Optional toggle button (hidden by default) - stops playback after the current track finishes; accent color when active
• Previous/Next: Navigate between tracks
• Shuffle: Toggle shuffle mode with visual indicator (accent color when active; bi-directionally synchronized with MiniPlayer)
• Repeat: Cycle through repeat modes: Off -> All -> Track (accent color when active; bi-directionally synchronized with MiniPlayer)
• Seek Bar: Interactive progress bar for seeking within tracks
  • Pill-shaped or rectangular style (configurable)
  • Elapsed and remaining time display
  • Hover tooltip showing timestamp at cursor position
  • In Spectrum mode, a thin progress bar at the top edge replaces the seekbar with hover enlargement and timestamp tooltip

Volume Control

• Volume Slider: Click or drag to adjust volume (perceptual loudness mapping matching foobar2000's default curve)
• Volume Number: Optional inline numeric volume readout (0 when muted, 1-100) displayed directly next to the volume slider or icon; matches secondary font/color and replaces hover tooltip
• Mute Toggle & Memory: Click volume icon to mute/unmute; unmuting restores the exact previous volume level
• Independent Visibility: Volume icon and volume bar can be toggled independently (hiding the bar docks the icon to the right edge and reclaims panel width)
• Mouse Wheel Support: Scroll over panel to adjust volume

Special Buttons

• Heart/Mood Button: Toggle to "like" a track
  • Configurable tag: %FEEDBACK%, %2003_LOVED%, %LFM_LOVED%, %SMP_LOVED%, or %MOOD%
  • Red when mood is set, gray when empty
  • Can be hidden via preferences
• Track Rating Stars: Interactive 5-star rating element
  • Click any star (1-5) to set rating; click the currently active star to clear rating (sets to unrated / <not set>)
  • Integrates with foo_playcount via context menu commands
  • Flexible placement: panel center (playback controls row) or Line 3 (track info area)
  • Can be hidden via preferences
• MiniPlayer Launch: Quick access button to launch or reveal the MiniPlayer
  • Requires foo_traycontrols
  • Hidden by default
• Super Button: Quick access menu with autoplaylist queries and playback options
  • Autoplaylist queries: Never played, Recently played (last 5 days), Unrated, Rated 3-5/4/5, Loved tracks, Recently added, Same artist/title as selected
  • Infinite Playback: Toggle to automatically add similar tracks when the playlist ends (genre-based matching from media library)
  • Playback Preview: Submenu to auto-skip after a portion of each track (Off / 35% / 50% / 60 seconds)
  • Skip Low Rating: Submenu to toggle and set rating threshold (Off / 1 / <= 2 / <= 3) directly from menu
  • Selection Mode: Submenu to switch between Prioritize Now Playing Mode and Follow Selection
  • Settings: Quick link to open Now Bar preferences
• Up to 12 Custom Buttons: Fully configurable action buttons
  • Buttons 1-6: Visible on panel, configurable via Preferences
  • Buttons 7-12: Hidden, keyboard shortcuts only, configurable via config file
  • Actions: Open URL, Run executable, Foobar2k Action (main menu or context menu), Open folder, or Output Device (opens popup menu listing all audio output devices to switch active output on click)
  • 3D Button Style: Adds a raised, pad-like appearance with gradient and shadow; buttons animate when pressed for tactile feedback (enabled by default)
  • State feedback: Foobar2k Action buttons show accent color when the command is checked/active (e.g., toggle commands)
  • Custom icon glyph: Unicode symbol support (enter character directly or use U+XXXX notation), custom font family selection, and adjustable glyph size percentage (50%-120%, default 80%)
  • Custom tooltip label per button
  • 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 (New / Rename / Delete / Export / Import)
  • Config file location: <foobar2000_profile>\foo_nowbar_data\custom_buttons.conf (supports action = output_device)

Visualization Modes

• Spectrum Visualizer: Full-width spectrum analyzer behind playback buttons
  • Configurable bar width (Thin / Normal / Wide), height (Low: 20% / Normal: 33% / High: 50% of panel height), and style (Bars / Curve / Dominoes)
  • Color Modes: Adaptive (samples dominant album art color with HSL contrast normalization; falls back to theme accent), Solid (custom color), Gradient (custom two-color vertical gradient), Frequency (built-in frequency spectrum colors)
  • Opacity Slider: Adjustable opacity from 0% to 100% (default: 75%)
  • Smooth Hover Dimming: Bars smoothly dim via exponential easing when hovering over playback controls for button clarity
  • Playback Time Display: Toggleable top-right elapsed/total time readout (Show / Hidden)
  • Thin progress bar at top edge replaces the seekbar; enlarges on hover with top-layer timestamp tooltip for seeking
  • 30 FPS default, optional 60 FPS mode
• Waveform Progress Bar: SoundCloud-style pre-computed waveform replaces the seekbar
  • Waveform Styles: Style 1 (discrete vertical bars) and Style 2 (continuous two-tone centered envelope with primary accent outer peaks, lighter core tint, and baseline across silence)
  • Waveform Widths: Thin (1px), Wide (2px), and Wide (4K) (3px) density options (Style 1)
  • Sweep Reveal Animation: Left-to-right sweep reveal on track change (~250ms for cached tracks, progressive real-time reveal as audio decodes)
  • RMS-based computation with played/unplayed color distinction
  • Waveform data cached to disk across sessions (wavecache.db) with CUE and subsong support
  • Full seeking support with time tooltip on hover

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) or CUI colour manager (CUI)
• 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
• Seek/Volume Bar Style: Pill-shaped or rectangular
• Seekbar Visibility: Show or completely hide the seekbar/waveform/spectrum
• Seekbar Length Mode:
  • Fixed (default): Seekbar spans from heart/shuffle button to super/repeat button, length remains constant
  • Scaling: Dynamically extends the seekbar as panel width increases, filling 70% of the available gap on each side
• Seekbar Horizontal Position: Fine-tuning slider (-100 to +100 px offset) for seekbar horizontal alignment
• Volume Control Visibility: Show or completely hide the volume icon and volume slider independently
• Volume Number: Toggle numeric volume readout (Disabled / Enabled)
• Play Icon Style: Style 1 (Normal: accent circle with dark icon / Inverted: accent circle with white icon) / Style 2 (Rectangular outline, no accent circle) / Style 3 (Solid rectangle, no accent circle)
• Hover Circles: Optional hover effect on buttons
• Hover Enlarge Effect: Playback controls enlarge 15% on hover
• Custom Fonts: Select custom fonts for the three info lines on the left and time display, with full formatting support (colors, underline, etc.)
• 10 Custom Colors: Button accent, play/pause accent, progress accent, volume accent, hover color, spectrum color (with primary and secondary gradient swatches), waveform played/unplayed colors, progress track color, volume track color (each independently toggleable between custom and theme-derived)
• 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
• Cover Artwork: Toggle artwork visibility; optional margin around artwork
• Online Artwork: Fetch artwork from online sources when local art is unavailable (requires foo_artwork)

Playback Features

• Selection Mode: Switch between Prioritize Now Playing Mode (displays active playback; falls back to selection when stopped) and Follow Selection (track info, artwork, rating stars, and mood icon always track selected item in active playlist or library)
• Skip Low Rating: Automatically skip tracks with low ratings during playback (configurable threshold 1-3 stars; requires foo_playcount). After 10 consecutive skips, the feature temporarily pauses to allow the next track to play, preventing infinite loops; toggleable from Preferences or Super Button menu
• Infinite Playback: Automatically add genre-matched tracks from the media library when the playlist ends (15 tracks at a time)
• Playback Preview: Auto-skip after a portion of each track for quick browsing (Off / 35% / 50% / 60 seconds)

Installation

1. For installed version of foobar2000 with file associations: Double-click the foo_nowbar*.fb2k-component file to install.
   For portable version: Open foobar2000, go to Preferences → Components, click Install..., select the foo_nowbar*.fb2k-component file, and click OK.
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 → Tools → Now Bar OR Super Icon → Settings

General Tab

Setting	Options	Description
Line 1 Format	Title Formatting	Default: %title%
Line 2 Format	Title Formatting	Default: %artist%
Line 3 Format	Title Formatting	Default: blank; can display title format or rating stars
Rating Stars	Show (panel center) / Hidden / Line 3 (replaces third line title format)	Toggle rating stars visibility and position
Mood Tag	FEEDBACK / 2003_LOVED / LFM_LOVED / SMP_LOVED / MOOD	Which tag the heart button reads/writes
Skip Low Rating	Disabled / Enabled	Auto-skip low-rated tracks during playback
Rating Threshold	1 / 2 / 3	Skip tracks rated at or below this threshold
Visualization	Disabled / Spectrum / Waveform	Visualization mode selector
60 FPS	Checkbox	Run spectrum at 60fps instead of 30fps
Playback Time	Show / Hidden	Toggle top-right time readout in Spectrum mode (default: Show)
Spectrum Style	Bars / Curve / Dominoes	Spectrum visual style
Spectrum Width	Thin / Normal / Wide	Spectrum bar width (grayed out in Curve style)
Spectrum Height	Low / Normal / High	Spectrum display height
Waveform Style	1 / 2	Waveform style: 1 (Bottom bars) or 2 (Centered envelope)
Waveform Width	Thin / Wide / Wide (4K)	Waveform bar density (Style 1 only; grayed out in Style 2)

Appearance Tab

Setting	Options	Description
Theme Mode	Auto / Dark / Light / Custom	Controls panel color scheme
Cover Artwork	Yes / No	Show or hide album artwork
Cover Margin	Yes / No	Add margin around artwork
Cover Style	Square / Rounded	Toggle album cover corner style
Background Style	Solid / Artwork Colors / Blurred Artwork	Panel background appearance
Bar Style	Pill-shaped / Rectangular	Seek and volume bar shape
Seekbar	On / Off	Show or hide the seekbar
Seekbar Length	Fixed / Scaling	Toggle seekbar length mode
Seekbar Position	Slider (-100 to +100)	Adjust seekbar horizontal offset in pixels
Smooth Animations	Enabled / Disabled	Smooth animated transitions
3D Buttons	Enabled / Disabled	Toggle 3D style for custom buttons
Volume Number	Disabled / Enabled	Display inline volume number (0-100) next to volume bar or icon
Online Artwork	Checkbox	Fetch online artwork (requires foo_artwork)

Icons Tab

Setting	Options	Description
Mood Icon	Show / Hidden	Toggle heart button visibility
Shuffle Icon	Show / Hidden	Toggle shuffle button visibility
Repeat Icon	Show / Hidden	Toggle repeat button visibility
Stop Button	Show / Hidden	Toggle stop button visibility
Stop After Current	Show / Hidden	Toggle stop-after-current button visibility
Super Button	Show / Hidden	Toggle Super menu button visibility
MiniPlayer Icon	Show / Hidden	Toggle MiniPlayer button visibility
Hover Circles	Show / Hide	Show circular hover effect on buttons
Alternate Icons	Style 1 / 2 / 3	Toggle play/pause icon style
Play Icon Style	Normal / Inverted	Normal: accent bg + dark icon; Inverted: accent bg + white icon
Auto-hide C-buttons	Yes / No	Custom buttons fade out during active playback
Volume Icon	Show / Hide	Toggle volume icon visibility
Volume Bar	Show / Hide	Toggle volume bar visibility

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); shows accent color when the command is active
• Open Folder: Opens the directory containing the currently selected track
• Output Device: Opens a popup menu listing all available audio output devices (ASIO, WASAPI, DirectSound, Null Output, etc.) to switch foobar2000's output device directly on click (no path required)

Each button also supports:

• Font: Select font family from presets (Segoe UI, Segoe MDL2 Assets, Segoe Fluent Icons, Segoe UI Symbol, Material Icons Outlined, Material Icons, Wingdings, Webdings) or enter any installed font name
• Custom Icon: Unicode symbol support - enter characters directly or use U+XXXX notation. For example, select Segoe UI font and paste 🎶 directly, or select Segoe Fluent Icons font and enter U+E8D6
• Glyph Size: Adjust icon glyph size percentage (presets: 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, 90%, 100%, 120%; default: 80%)
• Tooltip Label: Custom text shown on hover (defaults to "Button #N")
• Automatic fallback to numbered square icons when custom icon is missing

Fonts & Colors Tab

Fonts

• Left Line 1-3: Font for the left info area (supports colors, underline, etc.)
• Time Display: Font for elapsed/remaining time

Colors

Each color has a checkbox: unchecked uses theme colors from DUI/CUI, checked uses a custom color.

Color	Default (theme)	Description
Button Accent	DUI Highlight / CUI highlight	Active state for Shuffle, Repeat, etc.
Play/Pause Accent	DUI Highlight / CUI highlight	Play button background circle
Progress Accent	DUI Highlight / CUI highlight	Progress bar fill
Progress Track	Theme-derived	Progress bar unfilled portion
Hover Color	DUI Selection / CUI selection	Button hover circle
Spectrum Color	Adaptive / Solid / Gradient / Frequency	Visualizer bars; includes color mode dropdown, opacity slider (0-100%), and dual swatches for gradient mode
Waveform Color	DUI Highlight / CUI highlight	Waveform played portion
Waveform Unplayed	DUI Text / CUI text	Waveform unplayed portion
Volume Accent	DUI Highlight / CUI highlight	Volume bar fill
Volume Track	Theme-derived	Volume bar unfilled portion

Keyboard Shortcuts

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

1. Go to Preferences → Keyboard Shortcuts
2. Find commands under File → 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
├── artwork_bridge.cpp           # Runtime bridge to foo_artwork for online artwork
├── artwork_bridge.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)
Stop After Current	Toggle stop-after-current (optional, hidden by default; accent color when active)
Previous/Next	Navigate tracks
Shuffle	Toggle shuffle mode (accent color when active; synced with MiniPlayer)
Repeat	Cycle repeat modes: Off -> All -> Track (accent color when active; synced with MiniPlayer)
Rating Stars	Click star (1-5) to set rating; click active star to clear rating (sets to unrated)
Super Button	Open menu: autoplaylists, infinite playback, preview, skip low rating, selection mode, settings
Seek Bar	Click or drag to seek within track (tooltip shows timestamp)
Thin Progress Bar	Hover and click or drag along top edge to seek in Spectrum mode (tooltip shows timestamp)
Volume Icon	Click to mute/unmute (restores previous volume on unmute)
Volume Bar	Click or drag to adjust volume
Volume Number	Displays numeric volume level (0-100) next to volume bar or icon (optional)
Mouse Wheel	Scroll over panel to adjust volume (tooltip shows dB when volume number is disabled)
Heart Icon	Toggle mood tag for current track (red when set)
MiniPlayer Icon	Launch or reveal MiniPlayer
Custom Buttons	Execute configured action (URL, program, foobar2k command, folder, or output device menu); accent color when active
Artwork	Double-click to view in album art viewer
Track Info	Double-click to highlight playing track in playlist

Dependencies

• foobar2000 SDK
• Columns UI SDK
• foo_playcount (optional, for rating stars and skip low rating)
• foo_traycontrols (optional, for MiniPlayer functionality)
• foo_artwork (optional, for online artwork)

License

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

Support Development

If you find these components useful, consider supporting development:

Platform	Payment Methods
Ko-fi	Cards, PayPal

Your support helps cover development time and enables new features. Thank you! 🙏

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支持开发

如果您觉得这些组件有用，请考虑支持开发：

平台	支付方式
Ko-fi	银行卡、PayPal

您的支持有助于支付开发时间并实现新功能。谢谢！🙏

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Feature Requests: Paid feature requests are available for supporters. Contact me on Discord to discuss.

功能请求： 为支持者提供付费功能请求。请在 Discord 上联系我 进行讨论。