External visualizations are a clever way of binding to Noatun, while not actually being a noatun plugin. However, for those that write SDL scopes, but want the scope to be in its own process, this is the perfect option. As SDL is somewhat in its api (such as lack of object-reentrance), you will need to give it its own process.

You have to know that the only API that's designed to work is the visualization classes, and the Conversion namespace. Any noatun controlling calls (like the playlist calls) will very much not work, and would probably imply that you're asking for a segfault.

To use this feature, just instanciate a noatun Visualization class as normal. You can also explicitly specify a pid, as the second argument.

You are responsible for error detection in the form of aRts-crashing and such. But the API reads pretty cleanly on comprehending. The ExitNotifier class will be very handy. In addition, your should poll the static function Visualization::connected() -- if it becomes false, it means that artsd has somehow crashed, and you should destroy and recreate the Visualization-inheriting function you used.