The Virtual Light Machine (VLM) is a light synthesizer developed by

Jeff Minter Jeff Minter (born 22 April 1962) is an independent English video game designer and programmer who often goes by the name Yak. He is the founder of software house Llamasoft and has created dozens of games during his career, which began in 19 ...

in 1990. It was installed into a number of electronics, including the Atari Jaguar CD and Nuon

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

players. The Virtual Light Machine is similar to what would later be seen in

music visualization Music visualization or music visualisation, a feature found in electronic music visualizers and media player software, generates animated imagery based on a piece of music. The imagery is usually generated and rendered in real time and in a wa ...

s included with

Winamp Winamp is a media player for Microsoft Windows originally developed by Justin Frankel and Dmitry Boldyrev by their company Nullsoft, which they later sold to AOL in 1999 for $80 million. It was then acquired by Radionomy in 2014. Sin ...

and other Media players. When an

audio CD Compact Disc Digital Audio (CDDA or CD-DA), also known as Digital Audio Compact Disc or simply as Audio CD, is the standard format for audio compact discs. The standard is defined in the ''Red Book'', one of a series of Rainbow Books (named ...

is put into a VLM compatible device, the VLM loads, manifesting visualizations which appear on the screen that change with the music. The VLM is set apart from simple music visualizers by an interactive mode that allows users to manipulate graphics generation on the fly.

VLM versions

Three versions of the VLM software were released. VLM-1 is the version installed and developed for the Atari Jaguar CD. Nuon players featured version VLM-2. VLM-3 was to be the basis of the

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

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'', which was in turn upgraded to form the basis of the

Neon Neon is a chemical element with the symbol Ne and atomic number 10. It is a noble gas. Neon is a colorless, odorless, inert monatomic gas under standard conditions, with about two-thirds the density of air. It was discovered (along with krypt ...

light synthesizer, utilized in the

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and Minter's '' Space Giraffe''. A prototype dubbed VLM-0 was demonstrated at several concerts and raves but was not made widely available.Llamasoft: VLM – History
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VLM in Nuon DVD players

Every Nuon player used the same version of VLM; however there were differences in the number of effects available between players. The player released by

Toshiba , commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure systems ...

only featured 8 VLM effects, less than the

Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...

DVDN-2000. The Samsung DVDN-2000 featured a higher resolution than the Toshiba player. The Samsung DVDN-501 has the most VLM effects (about 150) but these effects were presented in a lower resolution than the DVDN-2000. Interactive mode is only available on Nuon players with attached joysticks.

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent pool, patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westin ...

also released 2 Nuon DVD players that also featured VLM but these RCA players are missing many of the Nuon features that the Toshiba and Samsung players contain.

References

{{Jeff Minter 1990 software Atari consoles Music visualization software Llamasoft software

VLM versions

VLM in Nuon DVD players

See also

References