Le Biniou - User's manual

Basic concepts

Le Biniou is made of a set of plugins (nearly one hundred), that produce various graphic effects, depending on a source input (usually, your soundcard).

There are several types of plugins:

Input plugins (sound inputs: OSS, ALSA, PulseAudio, etc.)
Drawing plugins (oscilloscopes, screensaver effects, etc.)
Filtering plugins (blurs, distortions, etc.)
Image plugins (that use a background image)
Color plugins (modify the current colormap)

These plugins can be selected and organized in a particular order, forming "sequences".

Sequences can be created by the user (in the interactive mode), or by Le Biniou's Artificial Intelligence (in the automatic mode).

Le Biniou has an integrated On Screen Display (OSD), that shows you what's going on, and acts as a User Interface to select, organize or reorder plugins when you're in the interactive mode.

By default, Le Biniou starts in automatic mode, without OSD.

Le Biniou can randomly pick between many different colormaps and background pictures, allowing evolving rendering effects.

There are also three "auto-modes", that will randomly change the current sequence between user-defined and/or Le Biniou-generated ones.

Keyboard controls will be shown like this: "Hit the [SPACE] key".

Starting Le Biniou

Le Biniou can be started by:

the Applications/Multimedia menu
using the command line

Using the command line, you can set specific options, like the display mode (window size, full-screen, etc.), the input source to use, which On Screen Display mode to activate, and more.

Please refer to the "Command line options" section for more informations.

Options can also be set with a user-defined configuration file.

Essential keyboard controls

Switch full-screen on/off using the [Ctrl-f] key
Cycle through OSD modes using the [Ctrl-o] key. Available modes are:
- Off (default mode)
- Simple: displays system information, auto-modes, current sequence, frames/second
- Full: same as Simple, also shows the plugin list, and the selected plugin's description
- Full (2): same as Full, but uses a black (instead of transparent) background
Exit Le Biniou with [Shift-q]
Exit Le Biniou, saving the current sequence with [Shift-x]. This sequence will be activated next time you start Le Biniou.
Note: user-defined sequences are saved in your ".lebiniou/sequences/" folder.
Take a screenshot with [Shift-PRINT]
Note: screenshots are saved in your ".lebiniou/screenshots/" folder.
Switch the webcam on/off using [SPACE], set the reference picture using [Ctrl-SPACE]
Use [TAB] to use the next available webcam

Automatic Modes

When started, Le Biniou will create a new sequence regularly using it's Artificial Intelligence engine. Stop this mode by hitting [ESCAPE].

If the OSD is activated, a progress bar on the right will show you the time remaining until Le Biniou creates a new sequence.

Use [Ctrl-BACKSPACE] to make the AI create a new sequence.
Use [Ctrl-m] or [Shift-m] to switch between the different random modes:
- Off
- Select random user sequences
- Select random AI sequences
- Select random user and AI sequences
Hit [Ctrl-l] to "lock" a plugin. When generating random sequences, Le Biniou will do it's best to include that plugin in new sequences. Use [Ctrl-l] again on the plugin to unlock it.

Interactive Mode

At some point, you may want to create your own sequences. We will show you how to do this with a complete example.

To create new sequences, it is recommended to set the OSD in full mode (so that you can see the sequence, the plugin list and their description), and of course to turn Automatic Mode off (using [ESCAPE]).

Essential keyboard controls

Colormaps

Use [e]/[r] to cycle through the colormaps
Use [t] to randomly pick one
Use [Ctrl-t] to switch "random colormaps mode" on/off.
In this mode, Le Biniou will change colormaps every few seconds
Show or hide the current colormap using [Alt-c]

Pictures

Use [y]/[u] to cycle through the pictures
Use [i] to randomly pick one
Use [Ctrl-i] to switch "random pictures mode" on/off.
In this mode, Le Biniou will change pictures every few seconds

Your first sequence

To start from the begining, use [Shift-z] to remove all the plugins, and [n] to clear the screen.
Note: In the top-left part of the OSD, the sequence will have the name "(none)".

First, add a plugin: find the "rotors" plugin in the list and add it to the sequence.
Use [UP]/[DOWN] to navigate through the list, and [RETURN] to add or remove the plugin.
Use [PAGEUP]/[PAGEDOWN] to scroll faster in the list.
Now, add a filtering effect: find the "blur2" plugin and add it.
New plugins will be added at the end of the sequence (except a few plugins, like the "clear" plugin, that will be added at the front).
Then, change the colormap (using the controls described before) to one that pleases you.
Finally, add a plugin that reacts to the sound, for example, the "X oscillo stereo" plugin.

You can save your newly created sequence using [Ctrl-s].
From now on, the sequence will have a name (the timestamp you saved it), for example: "1300821622".
It will be saved in your ".lebiniou/sequences/" folder under the name "1300821622.xml".
Later, you can rename this file to a suitable name, eg "My cool sequence.xml". This new name will be displayed in the OSD.

You can overwrite an existing sequence using [Ctrl-u] (the name will not be changed).

When you have several sequences, you can cycle through them using [Shift-LEFT] and [Shift-RIGHT],
pick one at random using [BACKSPACE], and use them in the Automatic Mode. Use [Ctrl-p] to select the most recent sequence.

Reorganizing the sequence

You can change the plugins order in the sequence:

Use [Shift-UP]/[Shift-DOWN] to select a plugin in the sequence (the selected plugin will have an arrow before it's name)
Use [Ctrl-UP]/[Ctrl-DOWN] to move the selected plugin up/down in the sequence

Example sequences

Example sequences are available, install them by issuing the following command in your home directory:

$ tar xvfz /usr/share/doc/lebiniou-data/examples/sequences.tar.gz

Advanced topics

Banks

You can bind sequences, colormaps and pictures to the function keys to organize and quickly activate them. You are given 12 "banksets", each bankset contains 12 "banks" that can be mapped to sequences/colormaps/pictures.

Select a bank mode:
- Sequences: [Ctrl-g]
- Colormaps: [Ctrl-h]
- Pictures: [Ctrl-j]
Select a bankset using [Ctrl-F1]..[Ctrl-F12]
Store the current sequence/colormap/picture in a bank using [Shift-F1]..[Shift-F12]
Recall a stored sequence/colormap/picture from a bank using [F1]..[F12]
Clear a bank using [Ctrl-Shift-F1]..[Ctrl-Shift-F12]
Save the current bindings with [Ctrl-b]

Note: the banks are saved in the ".lebiniou/banks.xml" file.

Command line options

Display the list of available input/output plugins with:
$ lebiniou -h
- Use "-i <INPUT>" to select the input plugin.
- Use "-o <OUTPUT>" to select the output plugin.

Configuration file

You can permanently set options in a configuration file (.lebiniourc), install this file by issuing the following command:

$ cp /usr/share/doc/lebiniou/examples/lebiniourc ~/.lebiniourc

Then edit to set your preferences.

3D plugins

Some plugins (eg: the "galaxy" plugin) operate in 3D.

Use [Alt-b] to display a bounding shape (cube, sphere, wired sphere, or none)
Drag and drop the mouse to rotate the 3D view
Use the mouse wheel to zoom in/out
Hit [Alt-r] to toggle 3D rotations on/off

When compiled with OpenGL support

[Ctrl-v]: Switch 3D cube on/off
[Ctrl-c]: Toggle 3D world pulse on/off

Miscellaneous

Use [Alt-m] to show/hide the mouse cursor
Use [k] and [Shift-k] to adjust the desired frame rate
[Shift-n] will fill the screen with random pixels