简体中文 | English

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foo_nowbar

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

Features

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 with customizable Title Formatting (default: title and artist)
• DPI Aware: Properly scales on high-DPI displays with adaptive sizing

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)
• Repeat: Cycle through repeat modes: Off → All → Track (accent color when active)
• 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

Volume Control

• Volume Slider: Click or drag to adjust volume (perceptual loudness mapping matching foobar2000's default curve)
• Mute Toggle: Click volume icon to mute/unmute
• Mouse Wheel Support: Scroll over panel to adjust volume
• dB Tooltip: Shows current volume level on mouse wheel scroll

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
• MiniPlayer Launch: Quick access button to launch the MiniPlayer
  • Requires foo_traycontrols
  • Accent color when active, hidden by default
• Super Button: Quick access menu with autoplaylist queries and playback options
  • Autoplaylist queries: Never played, Recently played, 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)
  • 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
  • Open URL, Run executable, Open folder, or Execute foobar2000 menu commands (main menu or context menu)
  • 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 Unicode symbol per button (enter character directly or use U+XXXX notation)
  • 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

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)
  • Thin progress bar at top edge replaces the seekbar; enlarges on hover for seeking
  • Time display repositioned to top-right corner
  • 30 FPS default, optional 60 FPS mode
• Waveform Progress Bar: SoundCloud-style pre-computed waveform replaces the seekbar
  • RMS-based computation with played/unplayed color distinction
  • Waveform data cached to disk across sessions (wavecache.db)
  • 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
• Volume Control Visibility: Show or completely hide the volume icon and volume slider
• 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, 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

• 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
• 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
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
Spectrum Width	Thin / Normal / Wide	Spectrum bar width
Spectrum Height	Low / Normal / High	Spectrum display height
Spectrum Style	Bars / Curve / Dominoes	Spectrum visual style
Waveform Width	Thin / Normal / Wide	Waveform bar density

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	Adjust seekbar horizontal position
Smooth Animations	Enabled / Disabled	Smooth animated transitions
3D Buttons	Enabled / Disabled	Toggle 3D style for custom buttons
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

Each button also supports:

• 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
• 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 (follows theme highlight) / Solid (customizable) / Gradient (customizable) / Frequency (built-in)	Spectrum visualizer bars
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)
Previous/Next	Navigate tracks
Shuffle	Toggle shuffle mode (accent color when active)
Repeat	Cycle repeat modes: Off → All → Track (accent color when active)
Super Button	Open menu: autoplaylists, infinite playback, preview, settings
Seek Bar	Click or drag to seek within track (tooltip shows timestamp)
Volume Icon	Click to mute/unmute
Volume Bar	Click or drag to adjust volume
Mouse Wheel	Scroll over panel to adjust volume (tooltip shows dB)
Heart Icon	Toggle mood tag for current track (red when set)
MiniPlayer Icon	Launch/toggle MiniPlayer (blue when active)
Custom Buttons	Execute configured action; accent color when toggled on
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_traycontrols (optional, for MiniPlayer functionality)
• foo_artwork (optional, for online artwork)
• foo_svg_services (optional, for SVG custom button icons)

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。