dtracker_gui

A simple Qt Quick graphical frontend for the dtracker_engine audio engine.

Overview

This project serves as the user-facing application that leverages the dtracker_engine library to provide a functional audio tracker. It demonstrates a clean separation between the C++ backend logic and a declarative QML frontend, using a series of "Facade" classes as the primary bridge.

The application allows users to browse their file system for audio samples, manage a registry of loaded sounds, sequence those sounds in a multi-track pattern editor, and control playback with features like looping and dynamic tempo adjustment.

Demo

0710.10.mp4

Core Features & Architecture

The GUI is built using modern C++ and Qt 6 principles, emphasizing a decoupled and responsive design.

• Engine Integration: The application dynamically links to the dtracker_engine library (fetched automatically via CMake's FetchContent) to handle all audio processing.

• Asynchronous Workflow: All potentially blocking operations, such as decoding audio files, are offloaded to a background QThread. This ensures the user interface remains smooth and responsive at all times, even when loading large samples.

• Facade Design Pattern: A series of QObject-based "Facade" classes (PlaybackFacade, SampleFacade, TrackManager) act as a clean API boundary between QML and the C++ backend. This prevents complex engine logic from leaking into the UI code and makes the QML declarative and easy to read.

• Model/View/Delegate: The application uses Qt's Model/View pattern to efficiently display data. The SampleRegistryModel and TrackListModel provide data from the C++ backend directly to QML ListViews, which use custom delegates (SampleRegistryView, TrackView) for rendering.

• Live Audio Visualization: The GUI features a live, real-time oscilloscope display of the master audio output. This is achieved by:

  1. "Tapping" the final mixed audio on the real-time audio thread in the C++ engine.
  2. Safely passing this data to the GUI thread using a high-performance, lock-free SPSC queue.
  3. Polling the queue with a QTimer and drawing the master audio waveform, ensuring a smooth, responsive visualization without impacting audio performance.

Requirements

• Qt 6.8.1
• CMake 3.16+
• Git
• Compiler: MSVC2022 64-bit (confirmed working)

Setup Instructions

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/dtracker_gui.git
cd dtracker_gui
mkdir build && cd build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug
cmake --build . --config Debug

Notes

The audio engine library is automatically fetched via FetchContent and does not require a manual clone step.