m8gd is a M8 display client for the M8 Tracker that provides a variety of 3D and 2D scenes.
This repository consists of the C++ library and GDExtension libm8gd that allows Godot to connect to M8 devices, and the Godot project m8gd.
GitHub Releases (Windows, Linux, & MacOS (x86_64 only))
Note that this project is a work-in-progress. All releases are pre-release builds.
Linux builds require the libserialport package to be installed.
If you wish to build this project from source, please see Building.
The M8 screen can be displayed in various built-in scenes. Scenes are loaded and configured from the main menu.
- Fast Display: resembles other M8 display apps such as m8.run and m8c.
- Fancy Display: same as the Fast Display with additional customizable settings.
- Desktop (3D): resembles a real-world desktop camera setup, including an interactive 3D model of the M8 and some desktop decorations.
- Floating (3D): resembles a floating 3D model of the M8 in empty space with a jumbotron showing the M8 display in the background.
Various overlays can be toggled on/off and configured in the main menu.
- Audio Spectrum: an audio spectrum (magnitude over frequency) graph.
- Audio Waveform: an audio waveform (magnitude over time) graph.
- M8 Display: a secondary 2D M8 display panel. Useful for overlaying over 3D scenes.
- Key Display: displays live keystrokes and key combos (either from the physical M8 or from m8gd) live.
The audio spectrum and audio waveform overlays are able to use colors from your M8's current theme (defaults to white), however, you must enter the Theme screen on the M8 at least once while m8gd is open first.
Various filters/shaders can be toggled on/off and configured in the main menu.
- VHS Shader: emulates VHS tape effects
- CRT Shader: emulates a CRT monitor
- Noise Filter: a subtle noise filter. Useful in the Fancy Display scene to avoid gradient banding.
| Action | Binding |
|---|---|
| Open/Close Main Menu | ESC |
| Toggle Fullscreen | Alt+Enter |
| Take Screenshot | F12 |
| Action | Binding |
|---|---|
| Pan camera | Mouse Move |
| Zoom camera | Hold Mouse Right-Click |
| Move camera mode (when in camera or scene menu) | Hold Mouse Right-Click |
| Move camera (when in "move camera mode") | WASD |
| Adjust camera angle (when in "move camera mode") | Mouse Move |
| Adjust camera focal distance (when in "move camera mode") | Mouse Scroll Up/Down |
| M8 Key | Default Binding (KB) |
|---|---|
| Up | Up Arrow |
| Down | Down Arrow |
| Left | Left Arrow |
| Right | Right Arrow |
| Shift | Shift |
| Play | Spacebar |
| Option | Z |
| Edit | X |
| Action | Default Binding (KB) |
|---|---|
| Play Note | A to ' |
| Decrease Octave | - |
| Increase Octave | = |
| Decrease Velocity | [ |
| Increase Velocity | ] |
- Git
- GCC (if on Windows/Linux) or Clang (if on macOS)
- Homebrew or MacPorts (if on macOS)
- Python 3.6+
- Scons (
python -m pip install scons) - pkg-config
- libserialport
- Godot 4.3-stable
If on Windows, a MSYS2/MinGW64 installation is recommended when compiling.
$ pacman -S git pkg-conf python python-pip base-devel mingw-w64-x86_64-gcc mingw-w64-x86_64-libserialport
$ python -m pip install scons$ sudo pacman -S git pkg-conf python python-pip base-devel gcc libserialport
$ python -m pip install scons# with Homebrew
$ brew install scons
$ brew install libserialport
# with MacPorts
$ macports install scons
$ macports install libserialport$ git clone https://github.com/octoocto/m8gd
$ cd m8gd
$ git submodule update --init
$ python build.pyThe build.py script will automatically download Godot and its export templates in order to export the project if it does not find a godot command. To force the script to run without downloading anything, run python build.py --nodownload instead.
If the export was successful, a .zip file containing the app should be created in the build/ folder.
Run python build.py -h for different options
In order to monitor audio, m8gd will attempt to find the audio input device associated with the M8 and listen to it.
If the device is disabled, or m8gd doesn't have permissions to access the M8's audio input device, then it will fail to connect. See more details here.
m8gd will also detect if the audio device is connected but not playing (this may happen when repeatedly disconnecting/connecting the M8) and automatically attempt to reconnect the audio device. This can happen around 10 seconds of the audio device not playing.
At this time, the macOS build included in the releases does not have an official Apple Developer code signature and will likely not start as-is.
Please read this guide from the Godot docs on how to allow m8gd to run.
The macOS build is also compiled specifically for x86_64 CPUs. If you are on a macOS system with the M1 chip or newer, enabling "Open using Rosetta" in the app's info window is also needed for it to start.
On the Steam Deck, installing the libserialport package via pacman is required to run m8gd. Assuming you've already set up a sudo password, run the below commands in Desktop Mode with Konsole to install libserialport.
Note: this will temporarily disable read-only mode on the Steam Deck. This also means that libserialport will have to be installed again when SteamOS updates.
$ sudo steamos-readonly disable
$ sudo pacman-key init
$ sudo pacman-key --populate archlinux
$ sudo pacman -S libserialport
$ sudo steamos-readonly enableA debug binary of the gdextension libm8gd is required to open this project in the Godot editor.
Please follow the build instructions in Building (run python build.py --dev to compile a debug gdextension) or use a precompiled library from the latest release if available, placed in project/addons/libm8gd/bin.
This project has been tested to work on Godot 4.3-stable.
- Thanks to laamaa for creating m8c! This was used as a reference when creating
libm8gd. - m8stealth57 and m8stealth89 fonts by Trash80. These fonts were converted to bitmaps.
- M8 Tracker 3D Model by David Junghanns
- Prototype Textures by Kenney
- Succulent plants model by uniko
- VHS Post Processing shader by LazarusOverlook
- VHS with wiggle shader by cyanone
- CRT Shader with realistic blurring shader by Ahopness
- VHS and CRT monitor effect shader by pend00