PimpBot Compiler

PimpBot is taking care of compiling a NSIS installer for your Winamp AVS, MilkDrop or SPS pack. Its graphical user interface allows you to fill in all requirements and it takes only a few mouse-clicks to compile an executable.

 

Features

• supports all Winamp versions
• installs AVS, MilkDrop and SPS presets
• Font installation
• customizable appearance
• point users to your Website

 

Requirements

PimpBot is a frontend for Nullsoft Installation System (NSIS), hence PimpBot requires a valid installation of NSIS (2.36 or higher). You can download NSIS for free at SourceForge.

Additional NSIS plugins are provided by the PimpBot installer, these might not always be the latest version.

 

Table of Contents

1.1 Default Scripts

You can choose out of various default scripts, depending what kind of installer you want to create.
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1.1.1 AVS Installer

This is the default script when opening PimpBot. It installs AVS for Winamp versions 2.x and 5.x only. It is recommended to use this installer for AVS packs, Winamp3 is used by virtually nobody these days.
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1.1.2 AVS Installer (Legacy Winamp)

Same as the AVS Installer script with additional support for AVS versions prior to 2.7 and Winamp3. Using this script, uncareful users could mess up their AVS by installing duplicate APEs. However, this only happens when a user explicitely installs APEs he's not meant to.
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1.1.3 MilkDrop Installer

This basically does the same as the AVS Installer, just that it handles MilkDrop presets instead. Some AVS specific options will be greyed out, AVS specific pages skipped.
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1.1.4 SPS Installer

This basically does the same as the AVS Installer, just that it handles SPS presets instead. Some AVS specific options will be greyed out, AVS specific pages skipped.
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1.2 Basic Settings

Here you specify the most important settings for your installer.
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1.2.1 Pack Title/Directory Name

Enter the desired name for your installer. This will also be used as the installation directory for your presets, unless you checked the Include Subfolders checkbox.
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1.2.2 Version

This is an optional setting, specifying the version number of your installer.
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1.2.3 Presets

Select the directory with the presets you want to install.
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1.2.4 Include Subfolders

Click the checkbox if you plan an to install multiple directories or to install presets in a specific directory structure.
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1.2.5 Additional Files

Specify a directory, where your additional files (Images or Videos) are stored in. This also requires checking at least one of the four available checkboxes on the right.
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1.2.6 BMP

Check this if you want to include Bitmaps (.bmp)
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1.2.7 JPG

Check this if you want to include JPEG images (.jpg, not .jpe or .jpeg!)
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1.2.8 AVIs

Check this if you want to include Videos (.avi)
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1.2.9 GVM

Check this if you want to include Global Variable Manager files (.gvm)
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1.2.10 SVP

Check this if you want to include Sonique Visualization Plugin files (.svp)
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2.1 Customization

All customization settings are optional. When ignoring these, PimpBot will use default icons and checkboxes for your installer.

2.1.1 Splash Screen

The splash screen is basically a bitmap-file, being displayed when launching the installer. PimpBot can use any Bitmap file as splash screen, with limited possibility of transparency.

To override the splash screen of an installer use the commandline switches /nosplash or /nofancy.
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2.1.2 Transparency Key

This feature will only work on Windows 2000 or later builds. Specify a color from the menu and it will be displayed as transparent. The specified color has to appear in the actual bitmap.
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2.1.3 Splash Sound

Specify a Wave (.wav) which will be played, while the splash screen is displayed. To keep the filesize low, it is recommended to use mono files at a low bitrate. Some MP3 encoders (e.g. CDex) allow to create RIFF-WAVs. Using MP3 files (.mp3) or Wave files renamed to .mp3 will not work!
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2.1.4 Splash Time

Time to display your splash screen in milliseconds (seconds*1000).
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2.1.5 Icon File

Icon used for your installer. Ignoring this will use a default icon. You can find a selection of icons in PimpBot\ico or NSIS\Contrib\Graphics\Icons.
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2.1.6 Check Bitmaps

Checkboxes used for your installer. Ignoring this will use a default bitmap. This works with 8bit (256 colors) Bitmaps only. You can find a selection of bitmaps in PimpBot\ico or NSIS\Contrib\Graphics\Checks.
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2.1.7 Wizard Bitmap

The wizard bitmap displays on the finish page of your installer. Ignoring this will use a default bitmap. You can find a selection of bitmaps in PimpBot\ico or NSIS\Contrib\Graphics\Wizard.
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2.1.8 Skin

Skins allow you to customize the appearance of your installer windows. To use a different skin than those in the drop-down menu, unzip any Winamp 5 Classic skin (.wsz) and copy gen.bmp and gen_ex.bmp to NSIS\Contrib\wansis\skins. The skin will appear in the drop-down menu the next time you start PimpBot.
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2.1.9 Background Music

To play a music loop during the installation you can choose from various tracker formats (.it .mod .mtm .s3m .umx .xm), not supported are MP3s, Waves and other unlisted file types.

To override the background music of an installer use the commandline switches /nomusic or /nofancy.
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3.1 Optional Settings

3.1.1 License Text

Display a license text when starting the installer. You can load plain text (.txt) or formatted Rich Text Format (.rtf).

PimpBot has some inbuilt licenses, enter one of the following codes to choose from a variety of Creative Commons licenses:

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3.1.2 Fonts

Select the directory including the fonts (TrueType or OpenType), required by included AVS presets. PimpBot will install and register these on installation.
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3.1.3 Website URL

Enter the URL of your website, if you want to point users to your website after the installation process.
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3.1.4 Website Title

Enter the name of your website.
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3.1.5 Fullscreen

Specifies whether the installer runs in fullscreen.
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3.1.6 Settings

Specifies whether you want to include the Settings dialog. This dialog will allow users to tweak their AVS settings from the installer.
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3.1.7 Multilingual

Specifies whether the installer should support multiple languages.
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3.1.8 AutoClose

Specifies whether the installer closes automatically on completion.

To prevent the installer from closing automatically use the commandline switch /details.
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3.1.9 Run Winamp

Specifies whether the installer launches Winamp on completion.
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4.1 APEs

Choose the Advanced Plug-in Effects (APEs) your AVS presets might require. PimpBot offers to scan all presets for used APEs, but this feature isn't 100% accurate and it can take its time, depending on the amount of presets and your CPU. However, selecting all APEs in an act of laziness will increase the filesize of your installer unnecessarily.
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4.2 Summary

The summary screen gives you an overview of the most important settings specified in the previous steps. You can either go back and tweak your settings, or compile your installer. Additionally you can specify, if PimpBot should backup your compilation on completion. The launched backup-tool will guide you through the process.
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5.1 Commandline Switches

PimpBot offers some commandline switches to enforce certain behaviour. Switches are available for PimpBot itself, but also for installers. You can use the Windows Commandline Tool (cmd.exe) or shell extensions such as RunWithParameters to run an executables with a switch. For a list of available switches use the /help switch or read below.

5.1.1 PimpBot Switches

/help shows a list of available commandline switches
/defaults allows the customization of default settings
/flush forgets all default settings (including those for PimpBot Backup)
/ignore ignores the default warnings PimpBot displays when executed
/instance by default PimpBot displays a warning when opening multiple instances, this switch overrides the warning
/nopimp PimpBot compiles an installer, but doesn't save its settings in a .pimp file
/pimp forces the creation of a .pimp file
/recompile recompiles the last installer made with PimpBot
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5.1.2 Installer Switches

/details forces an installer to verbose mode to review its actions
/help shows a list of available commandline switches
/lang allows the selection of an installer language, works for multilingual installers only
/nocheck disables the validation of the Winamp directory, useful for third-party players (e.g. foobar2000)
/nofancy disables splash screen, background music and installer skin
/nomusic disables background music during installation
/noskin disables installer skin
/nosplash disables splash screen
/S runs the installer silently, the S must be uppercase
/unzip extracts the contents of the installer to the current directory

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5.2 Advanced Settings

If you're regularly creating installers, you can improve your workflow with one of the following methods.

5.2.1 Tweaking the Defaults

Starting PimpBot with the /defaults commandline switch, you can tweak PimpBot to your preference. This is not limited to clickable items, you can for instance specify a default directory for your presets or other files for your installer. Once completed, PimpBot will simply quit. The next time you launch it, your specified defaults will be used. To change those defaults, you can either repeat what was just described, or use the /flush switch to reset all defaults.
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5.2.2 DropFolder

Sticking to sensible defaults, you can drag&drop a folder containing all required files on the PimpBot.exe and it will detect as much as possible from the contents. This will also work partially, which is why it's recommended to review all settings before compilation.

There's also a second video showing the creation of a MilkDrop installer.

So what are these sensible defaults?

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6.1 Frequently Asked Questions

6.1.1 Why is my installer reported as virus/malware?

This is a common problem with all installers generated with NSIS. In most cases this should be a false-positive, that you should report to the manufacturer of your anti-virus software. For more detail read this article from the NSIS Wiki.
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6.1.2 How can I install my pack to a subdirectory?

To install your pack into a subdirectory such as Winamp\Plugins\avs\MyNick\MyPack you need to store your desired directory-structure in a directory MyDirectory. In PimpBot, choose this directory as the source of your presets and activate the Include Subdirs checkbox. This will work with any directory-structure, be it multiple directories or x subdirectories.
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6.1.3 Why is my installer so huge?

This usually happens when including big splash screens or sounds. You should always reduce the color-palette of bitmaps and save themin the lowest possible colordepth and use Run-length Encoding (RLE compression). For splash sounds you can apply compression at low bitrates (e.g. 32kbps Mono), However, you must maintain the WAVE file format. Tools such as CDex (and most other tools using LAME) have the option to compress to RIFF-WAVE.
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6.1.4 How can I use a different Winamp skin?

To extend the amount of skins in the menu, you need to extract the gen.bmp and the gen_ex.bmp of any Winamp 5 Classic skin. Rename the .wsz file to .zip and extract it with your preferred Archiving tool (e.g. 7-zip or WinRar). Next copy the two Bitmap files to the NSIS\Contrib\wansis\skins folder. The next time you launch PimpBot, the skins will be available in the list.
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7.1 License

Copyright (c) 2003-2008 Jan T. Sott

This software is provided 'as-is', without any express or implied warranty. In no event will the authors be held liable for any damages arising from the use of this software.

Permission is granted to anyone to use this software for any purpose, including commercial applications, and to alter it and redistribute it freely, subject to the following restrictions:

1. The origin of this software must not be misrepresented; you must not claim that you wrote the original software. If you use this software in a product, an acknowledgment in the product documentation would be appreciated but is not required.

2. Altered source versions must be plainly marked as such, and must not be misrepresented as being the original software.

3. This notice may not be removed or altered from any source distribution.

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8.1 Changelog


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9.1 Credits

PimpBot, its default scripts and graphics by Jan T. Sott

Thanks to Amir 'KiCHiK' Szekel, Joost Verburg, Instructor, Monika Holzner, Rey Abe and Frank Nagel

Includes APEs by Steven 'UnConeD' Wittens, Tom Holden, Tomy Lobo, Semi 'Jheriko' Essessi and Goebish
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10.1 Links

PimpBot Website http://pimpbot.whyeye.org
Google Code Project http://pimpbot.googlecode.com

Winamp http://winamp.com
AVS http://www.nullsoft.com/free/avs/
MilkDrop http://milkdrop.co.uk

NSIS http://nsis.sourceforge.net
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