14 DAY TRIAL // Well, I can't help saying that Rhythm Rider is another visual enhancement for Windows Media Player. Not really something that awesome. Interesting maybe ? but nothing that cool. Some scenery-programming, but everything is so minimalist that it looks more like an unfinished project than a paid-for software.
Technically, the Rhythm Rider analyzes the music you play in Windows Media Player and then reacts accordingly. Much the same as the WMP's style, Rhythm Rider wants to add a new dimension to your desktop; but what it does add is just a pale imitation of real landscape-programming. It's not a crappy piece of code, but it definitely could have been a lot better. I found it quite suitable for a presentation window of an IT store full of monitors - at night - rather than for home use.
The looks & works
Rhythm Rider does not run in full screen even though it definitely should. It has the shape of a monitor-sized window in which the action takes place. More specifically Rhythm Rider is about two railroad-like blue lines that keep on stretching infinitely, or as long as you let the software run. They travel in three different landscapes: terrain, space and underwater. According to the user's wish, the "Avatar" option adds a ball in front of those rails, a ball which travels at the same speed.
I couldn't notice any speed change nor was I able to make the rails bend as I had seen in a screenshot made publicly available by the producer of the Rhythm Rider. This may be because of the unregistered version I tested. The same goes for the color-changes I expected to see while playing a very wide range of music in the WMP, from classical to rave, up to Viking metal. That's why I can't but assume that the rails bend or "jump" simultaneously, being triggered by BPM, musical peaks and other aspects concerning playback.
All three sceneries are - as I have said before - minimalist. Rather looking like "modern terrain programming" wannabes, these landscapes fail to make the eye contemplate in wonder or mere delight. Very hard coloring, in nuances resembling the ZX Spectrum games, with abrupt shapes and sometimes slightly forced dynamics make the Rhythm Rider difficult to watch after just a couple of minutes.
The terrain mode has some rather mediocre texture for grass and the other elements just "float" above it. Be it flowers, geyser-like eruptions, butterflies, clouds or something I reckoned as being some sort of snowflakes, they all look almost childish.
The space mode is even simpler and "very very very way too much darker than needed". The blue rails keep on traveling in front of a starry-night texture, rather badly drawn. The same geysers pop out of the space's emptiness, doubled from time to time by some comets. Ah, I forgot: there are also some planets you pass by. Needless to say you don't want to land there :)
The third and thankfully last environment is the undersea one, with lots of texture-fish, the usual geysers and some sort of air-bubble springs. The same grass-texture, but a little more yellow-green and the blue of the fish may seem like a tropical fish-blue... just a bit stronger.
One good thing is that Rhythm Rider has shortcuts for both environments and the different view angles of the rails/head sphere, so you don't have to constantly watch the really badly-drawn menu every time you want to change something...provided you are using the software.
One last consideration: I couldn't make this software show the title of the song and name of the artist.
The good
The idea is quite interesting: to have visualization that shows more than fractals or random stuff.
The bad
Coloring is really violent most of the time. Shapes are unnatural and their dynamics can easily stand serious improvement. I tried out the unregistered version and saw almost nothing eye-catching: no wild bounces, no tight turns, nothing. Therefore...how could one pay the 20 dollars for something he/she has not seen at full work?
The truth
If this version of the Rhythm Rider is just a first step of a decent project, it's more than OK. If this is the "final product of the series"...well, that's not so good: go back to the drawing table and make it look more like a delight than a torment.
