MDropDX12

MDropDX12 is a ground-up DirectX 12 rebuild of the MilkDrop2 visualizer engine, with GPU-accelerated text rendering, an in-app settings UI, broad preset compatibility improvements, and a different preset on every screen. Works with Milkwave Remote via Named Pipe IPC for extended control (messaging, wave manipulation, screenshots, and more).

Current version: 3.2.0 — version numbers from upstream projects (BeatDrop, MilkDrop3, etc.) do not apply to MDropDX12.

Download the latest release.

• Milkwave — Windows companion app with Remote control, wave manipulation, messaging, and more
• MilkRemote — Android remote control app for MDropDX12 (download latest APK)

• A different preset on every screen. Set a display to "Own preset" and it gets its own preset folder, startup preset, cycle interval and order, advancing independently of the main window and of every other screen — each rendered by its own thread inside the one process, so every display runs at the frame rate you set. Pick what a screen is playing right now from the Displays window (Ctrl+F8) without re-pointing the folder it cycles through, and run .milk3 Shadertoy presets on a display too, with their own Image and Buffer passes
• Audio Mixer window — every playback and capture device with a fader and a mute, renameable and hideable; SteelSeries Sonar channels with both of their levels (what you hear and what a stream hears, which Windows cannot do at all); optional audio failover when a headset goes flat; headset battery on the HUD
• .milk2 blend patterns — all thirty are now correct rather than approximations, and a frozen .milk2 renders identically on every load
• Preset Editor (Scintilla-backed) for the running preset's code — init / per-frame / per-pixel, warp and comp shaders, 16 waves and 16 shapes — with live Apply and shader errors mapped back to your own source line
• DirectX 12 rendering backend with GPU-accelerated Direct2D text overlay
• In-app Settings window (F8) with tri-mode theme (Dark / Light / Follow System), 5-tab UI (General, Tools, System, Files, About)
• Double-click .milk/.milk2/.milk3 files in Explorer to load them (forwards to running instance via Named Pipe IPC)
• One-click file association registration for .milk and .milk2 (Settings > About, no admin required)
• Named Pipe IPC — PID-based discovery, duplex message-mode communication, no hidden windows required
• Configurable hotkeys with per-binding local/global scope, mouse button bindings, dynamic Script/Launch entries (Hotkeys window, Ctrl+F7)
• Native MIDI input with 50 mapping slots, learn mode, button/knob actions (MIDI window from Settings)
• Standalone Song Info window (Shift+Ctrl+F8) with track info source selector and display options
• Standalone Displays window (Ctrl+F8) with Display Outputs and Video Input tabs
• Save Screenshot from Settings UI with file dialog, or via IPC CAPTURE command
• GPU crash recovery — a lost device is rebuilt in place; a full GPU hang restarts the visualizer automatically, stepping the mirror resolution down and giving up after three attempts rather than looping
• Async shader compilation — non-blocking preset transitions, no render stalls
• Display current track information and artwork from Spotify, YouTube or other media sources playing on your PC
• Window title regex parsing with named profiles — extract artist/title/album from any media player's window title using configurable regex patterns with named capture groups
• Change preset on track change
• Set window transparency, borderless, and clickthrough ("watermark mode")
• HLSL variable shadowing fix for improved preset compatibility
• 3D volume texture support (noisevol_lq/noisevol_hq)
• Fallback texture search paths, Random Textures Directory, and resource viewer
• Self-bootstrapping exe with embedded shaders (no external .fx files required) — the portable zip is the engine, and comes up on a built-in preset until you point it at a library; add preset packs via the Resources Guide
• Native webcam and video file input mixing (background/overlay compositing with luma key)
• Shadertoy import: GLSL->HLSL converter with .milk3 JSON format, multi-pass rendering (Buffer A/B, Image, Common), SM5.0 shaders
• Shader Import window with two-panel editor, per-pass channel combos, Convert & Apply, and Save .milk3 export
• Command-line converters in tools/ (Python standard library only): fetch a GLSL Sandbox effect straight to .milk3, or round-trip a preset through a SHADERed project to work on it in an IDE with a real debugger — see the GLSL importing guide
• Preset browser with type filtering (.milk/.milk2/.milk3), tagging, and subdirectory navigation
• Video Effects window with transform, color, and audio-reactive controls; VFX JSON profiles
• Workspace Layout window for tiling tool windows across the screen with render preview in a corner or on a separate display
• Text Animations window with DX12 warped text, color/font pickers, animation profile export/import, and custom preview
• ToolWindow system — Visual, Colors, Controller, Displays, Song Info, Hotkeys, MIDI, Presets, Sprites, Messages, Remote, Script, Shader Import, Video Effects, VFX Profiles, Text Animations, Button Board, Workspace Layout, Error Display, Annotations, Audio Mixer, Preset Editor and Custom Shaders windows run on their own threads with sticky positions, always-on-top pin, and tab memory
• FFT EQ smoothing with attack/decay and peak hold — get_fft() / get_fft_peak() shader functions for EQ visualization presets
• Error Display Settings window for configuring shader error notification appearance
• Preset annotation system — persistent per-preset ratings, flags (favorite/error/skip/broken), notes, and auto-captured shader errors
• Annotations ToolWindow with import, scan, and filter; right-click context menu on Presets window
• Cover art sprite system with IPC signal
• Two-pass shader blending for DX12 preset transitions
• Improved window handling, input methods and stability
• Use independently or with Milkwave Remote for extended control (messaging, shader conversion, wave manipulation, and more)

The original MilkDrop2 WinAmp plugin created by Ryan Geiss was turned into a Windows standalone application by Maxim Volskiy as BeatDrop and has since been improved upon eg. in the BeatDrop-Music-Visualizer project. IkeC forked BeatDrop-Music-Visualizer into Milkwave, adding IPC remote control and other features. MDropDX12 originally started as a fork of IkeC's Milkwave.

MDropDX12 is maintained by shanevbg. This version is a ground-up rebuild of the rendering engine on DirectX 12, replacing the original DX9Ex backend entirely. The text rendering pipeline, settings UI, texture management, shader compilation, and resource handling have all been rewritten. While preset compatibility with the MilkDrop2 ecosystem is maintained, the codebase has diverged significantly from the upstream projects.

For a more detailed explanation of all features, please read the Manual.

For a chronological list of MDropDX12 releases and features, read the Changes.

• Windows 10 64-bit or higher (Windows 11 recommended)
• DirectX 12 compatible GPU
• No additional runtime libraries required (VC++ runtime is statically linked)
• Milkwave (optional — Remote auto-discovers visualizers via Named Pipe)

Download the latest portable zip from the latest release, extract to any folder with write access (e.g. C:\Tools\MDropDX12), and run MDropDX12.exe. No installer or admin privileges required.

See the Installation Guide for detailed instructions, directory layout, configuration files, and troubleshooting.

MDropDX12 builds with MSVC v143 (Visual Studio 2022 Build Tools) and MSBuild. The build script auto-fetches the Spout2 SDK.

git clone https://github.com/shanevbg/MDropDX12.git
cd MDropDX12
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File build.ps1 Release x64

See the Development Guide for full setup instructions using VSCodium, debugging, project structure, and troubleshooting.

This project incorporates the work of many different authors over the years, as listed below. The entirety of this project is Open Source and there will never be a paid version of it.

If you find bugs or have feature requests, open an issue on GitHub.

Many thanks to:

• IkeC - Milkwave
• Ryan Geiss - MilkDrop2
• Maxim Volskiy - BeatDrop
• oO-MrC-Oo - XBMC plugin
• Casey Langen - milkdrop2-musikcube
• Matthew van Eerde - loopback-capture
• projectM - projectm-eval
• Incubo_ - BeatDrop-Music-Visualizer
• milkdrop2077 - MilkDrop3
• and all the preset authors!

If you believe you or someone else should be mentioned here, please open an issue.

MDropDX12 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC-BY-NC 4.0). See LICENSE for the full license text and THIRD-PARTY-LICENSES.txt for third-party component licenses (Nullsoft/MilkDrop2, Cockos/ns-eel2, Spout2, loopback-capture).

The presets themselves are not covered by either of these licenses, they either have their own license or none (in most cases). None of the presets in MDropDX12 should have a restrictive license preventing you from using them in public. All preset filenames from converted shaders have the original author's name in them, with the full original source mentioned in the preset file itself.

Always keep in mind that you are using the artistic work of someone else. Respect the original authors' work by showing the preset filename (at least briefly), and you should be fine. If in doubt, always ask the creator of the piece you use.

Unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in the work by you, shall be licensed as above.