8cde113797
Adds a cycle (loop) region: a range on the timeline ruler that the transport wraps at during playback. This is the substrate for GarageBand-style multi-take cycle recording (phases 2 and 3). The region is authored in BEATS so it stays put musically across tempo changes. It lives on the Document (saved in the .beam, serde-defaulted so old files load) and is edited through SetCycleRegionAction, so it is undoable and marks the document modified like any other edit. Backend: - Engine gains loop_region/loop_enabled plus a wrap at the single playhead-advance point in process(). The wrap is phase-preserving (modulo, so an overshoot larger than the loop can't strand the playhead outside the region) and gated on playhead >= 0 so a count-in pre-roll never wraps. - Sounding voices are deliberately NOT reset at the wrap the way Command::Seek does, since that would chop sustain and reverb tails at every pass. - MidiRecordingState::wrap_at_cycle writes note-offs for held notes at the region end and re-opens them at the region start, so a key held across the boundary can't end up with a negative duration or hang. - loop_bounds_frozen freezes the region's sample bounds for the duration of an *audio* recording. Phrased positively on audio so future multi-track recording inherits it: MIDI is beat-segmented and tempo-invariant, but audio is segmented geometrically and we have no time-stretch, so cross-tempo audio takes wouldn't be compable anyway. - Command::Play jumps to loop_start when starting from outside the region; starting inside it plays from where you are. Editor: - Cycle lane along the bottom of the ruler (bottom, so it doesn't cover the bar numbers), painted inside render_ruler under the ticks. Only exists while looping is armed; with cycle off the ruler is entirely the playhead scrubber, as before. - Drag to create/move/resize with a three-zone hit test, previewed locally and committed as ONE action on release. Driven off raw pointer state rather than an egui Response: the lane sits inside the timeline's content response, and a second widget on the same pixels just contests hover every frame. - snap_to_grid/quantize_grid_size take a min_grid_px "visual coarseness" parameter instead of a hardcoded constant, with two named profiles: SNAP_PX_FINE for the playhead and clip edges, SNAP_PX_CYCLE (coarser) for the cycle region, so loops land on bars rather than odd subdivisions. - Cycle toggle button using the Lucide repeat glyph. Cargo.lock picks up the 1.0.9-alpha version bump it missed. |
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|---|---|---|
| .github/workflows | ||
| daw-backend | ||
| docs | ||
| ffmpeg-blob-io | ||
| lightningbeam-core | ||
| lightningbeam-ui | ||
| nam-ffi | ||
| packaging | ||
| screenshots | ||
| scripts | ||
| src | ||
| tests | ||
| vendor | ||
| .gitignore | ||
| .gitmodules | ||
| ARCHITECTURE.md | ||
| BEAM_FILE_FORMAT.md | ||
| CONTRIBUTING.md | ||
| Changelog.md | ||
| LICENSE | ||
| README.md | ||
| beam_inspector.py | ||
| beam_inspector_README.md | ||
| create_release.sh | ||
| package.json | ||
| phone-ui-sketches.html | ||
| pnpm-lock.yaml | ||
README.md
Lightningbeam
A free and open-source 2D multimedia editor combining vector animation, audio production, and video editing in a single application.
Screenshots
Features
Vector Animation
- GPU-accelerated vector rendering with Vello
- Draw and animate vector shapes with keyframe-based timeline
- Non-destructive editing workflow
- Paint bucket tool for automatic fill detection
Audio Production
- Real-time multi-track audio recording and playback
- Node graph-based effects processing
- MIDI sequencing with synthesizers and samplers
- Comprehensive effects library (reverb, delay, EQ, compression, distortion, etc.)
- Custom audio engine with lock-free design for glitch-free playback
Video Editing
- Video timeline and editing with FFmpeg-based decoding
- GPU-accelerated waveform rendering with mipmaps
- Audio integration from video soundtracks
Technical Stack
Current Implementation (Rust UI)
- UI Framework: egui (immediate-mode GUI)
- GPU Rendering: Vello + wgpu (Vulkan/Metal/DirectX 12)
- Audio Engine: Custom real-time engine (
daw-backend)- cpal for cross-platform audio I/O
- symphonia for audio decoding
- dasp for node graph processing
- Video: FFmpeg 8 for encode/decode
- Platform: Cross-platform (Linux, macOS, Windows)
Legacy Implementation (Deprecated)
- Frontend: Vanilla JavaScript
- Backend: Rust (Tauri framework)
Project Status
Lightningbeam is developed on the main branch. The project has been rewritten from a Tauri/JavaScript prototype to a pure Rust application to eliminate IPC bottlenecks and achieve better performance for real-time video and audio processing.
Current Status:
- ✅ Core UI panes (Stage, Timeline, Asset Library, Info Panel, Toolbar)
- ✅ Drawing tools (Select, Draw, Rectangle, Ellipse, Paint Bucket, Transform)
- ✅ Undo/redo system
- ✅ GPU-accelerated vector rendering
- ✅ Audio engine with node graph processing
- ✅ GPU waveform rendering with mipmaps
- ✅ Video decoding integration
- ✅ Export system (video, image, audio, animated GIF, SVG)
- ✅ Node editor UI
- 🚧 Piano roll editor (in progress)
Getting Started
Download a prebuilt release
If you don't want to build from source, prebuilt binaries for each release are on the GitHub releases page. Download the build for your platform and run it directly.
Building from source
Prerequisites
- Rust (stable toolchain via rustup)
- System dependencies:
- Linux: ALSA development files, FFmpeg 8
- macOS: FFmpeg (via Homebrew)
- Windows: FFmpeg 8, Visual Studio with C++ tools
See docs/BUILDING.md for detailed setup instructions.
Building and Running
# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/skykooler/lightningbeam.git
# Or from Gitea
git clone https://git.skyler.io/skyler/lightningbeam.git
cd lightningbeam/lightningbeam-ui
# Build and run
cargo run
# Or build optimized release version
cargo build --release
Documentation
- CONTRIBUTING.md - Development setup and contribution guidelines
- ARCHITECTURE.md - System architecture overview
- docs/BUILDING.md - Detailed build instructions and troubleshooting
- docs/AUDIO_SYSTEM.md - Audio engine architecture and development
- docs/UI_SYSTEM.md - UI pane system and tool development
- docs/RENDERING.md - GPU rendering pipeline and shaders
Project History
Lightningbeam evolved from earlier multimedia editing projects I've worked on since 2010, including the FreeJam DAW. The JavaScript/Tauri prototype began in November 2023, and the Rust UI rewrite started in late 2024 to eliminate performance bottlenecks and provide a more integrated native experience.
Goals
Create a comprehensive FOSS alternative for 2D-focused multimedia work, integrating animation, audio, and video editing in a unified workflow. Lightningbeam aims to be:
- Fast: GPU-accelerated rendering and real-time audio processing
- Flexible: Node graph-based audio routing and modular synthesis
- Integrated: Seamless workflow across animation, audio, and video
- Open: Free and open-source, built on open standards
Contributing
Contributions are welcome! Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.
License
[License information to be added]