mrvj — party visuals the room votes on
Put this on the big screen. It starts performing immediately: fullscreen visuals that react to whatever is playing. Guests scan the QR code in the corner and vote on what the room sees next — no app to install, no account, nothing to hand round.
Questions
- Do my guests need to install anything?
- No. Scanning the QR code opens a web page that drops them straight into the vote — there is no app, no sign-up, and no code to type. The room code is only there for anyone who would rather type four letters than point a camera.
- Does it need access to my guests' microphones?
- No, and that is deliberate. Their phones show live previews of the two options driven by a tiny summary of what the host machine is hearing, sent over the same connection the votes use. Asking every guest for microphone permission was the most awkward moment in the whole thing, and it produced a worse picture anyway — every handset hears the room from a different distance with its own automatic gain fighting the music.
- What can it listen to?
- Out of the box it plays a built-in set of four generated tracks, so the screen is alive before you have done anything. Switch the source in the corner to use your microphone (it hears the room, so it works with music from any device), a file from your machine, or a specific input such as a mixer or USB interface.
- Does any of this leave my machine?
- Audio is analysed locally and never uploaded. What travels is a room code, the votes, and about a kilobyte a second of band levels so phones can draw their previews. There are no accounts, no cookies, no analytics, and no third-party requests — which is also why there is no cookie banner. Rooms live in memory and vanish when the party ends.
- I am photosensitive. What should I know?
- Music visuals flash, and this one is no exception. There is a limiter that holds the output to a chosen rate — the default sits at the WCAG 2.3.1 threshold of three flashes per second, and you can pick calmer settings above that. Brighter settings are locked until someone acknowledges a warning. That said, no visual setting can promise a particular person will not react, so if you are projecting to a room, please tell your guests there will be flashing lights.
- Can I drive it without a phone?
- Yes — the machine running it is a full participant. Arrow keys change the visual, G opens a grid of alternatives, N starts a vote, X switches looks automatically in time with the music, and D shows a readout of everything it is hearing if you want to check your setup.
- What do I need to run it?
- A reasonably recent browser with WebGL2, a screen, and speakers. It runs on the machine in front of you; there is no server doing the rendering. Guests need any phone with a camera and a browser.
- Where do the visuals come from?
- Two families, mixed into one list so a vote can pit them against each other: MilkDrop presets, the format that has been around since Winamp, and a set of newer raymarched 3D scenes written for this. They react to the same analysis, so both stay in time with the same music.