NEW: Interactive guides. Learn VKO1 by doing it. VKO1 can do a lot, and that can be a lot at first. The new guides skip the manual: each one highlights the real button you need, shows a short clip of it being done, and moves on when you do it. Drag the tip card anywhere if it's in your way, or tap Next to skip ahead. Three guides to start, with more on the way: • Getting Started (about a minute) Install a free shader pack, put a shader on a pad, fill a whole bank in one tap, and jump between your 8 banks of 16 pads. Opens once after this update. • Build Your Own Visualizer (about 3 minutes) Your first node graph from scratch: a Generator makes the picture, a Modifier bends it, and an LFO makes it move by itself. Then it's saved on your pad, ready to play. • Let VKO1 Play the Set (about 2 minutes) Pick and dial in a Master Effect, start the clock, and meet every AUTO mode, from SEQ and RND to MIX, MIX2 and BLEND. Then set how often it switches with DIV. Find them all any time under the ? button. Bring your own visuals too: Import Media puts your videos, GIFs and photos on any pad. Improvements • Smaller Mac displays: the Shader Store and the guides fit shorter windows • The output logo watermark is now off by default; switch it on in Output settings

Cel Impact shader pack — free pack! 12 anime/manga-style FX shaders, free for everyone — "Install Free" in the Shader Store Also available in VKO1 Player (AUv3), no purchase needed Fixed the pack's preview video not showing in the store Node Editor Cross-graph Paste and Connect now works between different graphs — it reconnects onto the matching node type instead of requiring the exact original node. Paste is also now in the right-click menu Pinch-to-zoom now anchors under your fingers instead of snapping to center Much smoother canvas while dragging/gesturing (fewer redraws, batched grid rendering) Preview panel: fullscreen button now actually works on click (was drag-only), and the panel can be dragged anywhere and remembers its position "N" shortcut now jumps straight into palette search Mac / AI Co-Pilot New "Send Shader to MESA" pad command — sends a pad's graph to MESA Synth as a live wavetable (needs MESA open with Claude Control enabled) Fixed Session Manager getting stuck and silently skipping saved sessions when loading more Bug fixes Fixed shader ordering when auto-placing a newly installed pack

- Stack multiple effects on a single pad — layer Feedback, Mirror, Kaleidoscope, and more together, each with its own intensity and on/off toggle. Add, reorder, and remove effects right from the pad menu. - Stack Effects is now also available in the drag-down Quick Menu for even faster access. - New keyboard shortcut: ⌘F opens Stack Effects for the pad you're working on. - Node Editor: new nodes now auto-connect into your chain as you add them — no more manually dragging wires for every step. - Node Editor: deleting a node in the middle of a chain now automatically reconnects around it, so you can quickly try a modifier and remove it without breaking your patch. - Node Editor: delete the selected node with the Delete/Backspace key. - Performance and stability improvements.

MCP Control — AI Co-Pilot (Mac only) VKO1 is now an instrument an AI can play — connect Claude Code, or any MCP-compatible agent, and it writes custom Metal shaders, builds node graphs, previews its own renders, and pushes visuals straight onto your pads, live Real compile feedback — your agent compiles inside VKO1, reads actual Metal compiler errors, and fixes its own code until the shader works Zero installation — VKO1 speaks the open MCP standard directly. One toggle (the new stars icon in the top bar), one Terminal command, done Performance tools — your agent can trigger pads with HOLD layering, set BPM, switch AutoMix modes, drive both Master Effect knobs, and read live audio energy + beat strength to react to the music Private by design — localhost only, off by default; nothing on your network or the internet can ever reach it Full guide — see the new MCP Control section in the manual Bug Fixes Node editor wires detaching on external monitors — on large displays (viewport wider than ~2000pt) every wire drifted away from its pins after a resolution change. The wire layer now always covers the visible canvas Wires clipped for imported graphs — graphs authored outside the app (Web Editor, MCP) could carry negative node positions, leaving wires cut off mid-air at the canvas origin. Imported graphs are now normalized into visible canvas space

Video Export improvements - Export now works reliably across iPhone, iPad, and Mac - Recording HUD no longer appears in the exported video - Smoother frame capture synced to display refresh - New resolution picker — choose 360p / 540p / 720p / 1080p to balance quality vs. speed - Mac cursor hidden during capture

Music Player in the Node Editor: Load a track or folder and your graph reacts live to bass, beats, and energy. Full transport, scrubbing, and auto-advancing playlists right under the preview. New Palette node: Cycle the color palettes on the beat, randomly, on an LFO, or pick a fixed one, and drive any generator's new Palette pin. Node editor polish: Preview and player resize together, new BPM settings, cleaner top bar. Fixes: .vkograph files from the Web Editor now open correctly; audio engine recovers from route changes. Test the new web editor: https://temperamento.net/vko1/vko1-graph-editor-web/

-- Daft Cyber Pack (new) New paid shader pack in the Shader Store — 14 hand-crafted Metal shaders. Spinning vinyl, after-hours disco, neon ziggurats, Tokyo neon rain and synthwave villas. French-touch synthwave visuals, audio-reactive and BPM-synced for late-night sets. Tap the pack in the Shader Store, then Installed ▾ → Add to Bank to drop the whole pack onto free pads at once — it fills empty slots and spills across banks, never overwriting your existing visuals. The Shader Store now flags new packs: a badge on the store icon and a NEW tag on the tab, both clearing once you own the pack. New packs sort to the front. -- App Theming from Your Images (new) New App Theme section in the Session Manager. Pick any image and VKO1 extracts a color palette from it, then retints the entire interface to match. Colors only — your image isn't stored or shown as a background; only the extracted colors are kept. Smart contrast, light and dark mode — colors are re-derived so the UI stays legible in both appearances (dark surfaces stay dark, text stays high-contrast) for any palette you throw at it. Palette library — every extracted palette is saved as swatches. Tap to apply, long-press to delete, and "Use Default" to return to the classic EP-133 look. Syncs across your devices — your saved palettes follow you via iCloud, so a theme made on iPad shows up on your Mac. -- Clear Colored Pads (new) New "Clear Colored Pads" button in Session Manager under Keep Pad Colors. Shows the current count of tinted pads, asks for confirmation, and wipes all pad colors at once. Syncs immediately via iCloud. -- VKO1 Player (AUv3) 10× more audio-reactive by default: soft-saturating spectrum response, higher RMS energy gain, more sensitive beat detection threshold, and slower beat decay so visuals hold each hit longer. Tighter plugin window: smaller default size, better compact layout, square/centered video.

MEDIAMESH3D — YOUR MEDIA ON A 3D MESH New generator node wraps any image, GIF, or video onto a real-time 3D mesh rendered in Metal. Six mesh types selectable in the inspector: Sphere, Cube, Plane, Torus Knot, Icosphere, and custom imported OBJ. Audio-reactive scale — Connect Beat Strength or Bass to the Scale pin and the mesh pulses with every hit. Cross-device sessions — Custom OBJ files embed into the session bundle. Open the same session on iPad or Mac and the geometry travels with it. OUTPUT BRANDING — LOGO WATERMARK Drop your own logo on every output surface — fullscreen preview, external display, AirPlay, HDMI, and exported tapes. Configure in the Output sheet. Image formats — PNG, JPEG, HEIC, GIF, TIFF, BMP, WebP, and PDF (first page auto-rasterized). Sources — Import from Photos or pick any file from Files. Defaults to a clean Apple-style mark until you swap it. 9-cell position grid — Top, middle, or bottom × left, center, or right. Size, opacity, and edge padding sliders — Dial the watermark to taste. Baked into exports — The logo renders into recorded tapes so your brand ships with every clip you share. The Mac control surface stays clean. QUICK SHORTCUT MENU Long-tap + drag down on a pad. A floating overlay appears with Edit Graph, Background Color, Speed, and Effects. Quick access without navigating menus. Mac Catalyst mouse button support — Map the shortcut menu to Middle, Button 4, or Button 5 in Settings. NODE GRAPH — NEW MODIFIER NODE Rotate — Spin any texture by a fixed angle (0–360°). Patch an LFO or Beat Strength into the angle pin for continuous audio-reactive rotation. Useful for correcting upside-down textures or adding motion to any generator. NODE GRAPH — NEW INPUT NODES Microphone — Outputs live microphone amplitude as a 0–1 float. Sensitivity adjustable via inline drag slider directly on the node. Wire it to any numeric pin for microphone-reactive visuals without audio routing setup. Spectrum — Outputs the mean of all 32 frequency bins as a single float. Smooth broadband energy signal — great for driving global intensity when bass or beat alone isn't enough. NODE LIBRARY FAVORITES Star any node type to pin it to a Favorites section at the top of the library. Favorites persist across launches so your most-used generators and modifiers are always one tap away. INTERACTIVE NODE CONTROLS Inline drag sliders on nodes — drag directly on an LFO node to set amplitude, on a Microphone node to set sensitivity, on a MIDI CC node to set the channel. No inspector required. SHADER THUMBNAILS 128×128 first-frame preview. Each Metal shader renders a thumbnail at compile time and caches it to disk. A shimmer skeleton shows while compiling so the UI never shows a blank slot. ON-CANVAS PERFORMANCE HUD Toggle in the STAT popover under "On-canvas perf HUD". Overlays live RAM, CPU, GPU frame-budget, FPS, and visualizer memory in the bottom-left of the preview, the on-device fullscreen view, and the Node Editor preview (both inline and fullscreen). External output stays clean. Useful when tuning custom shaders — see the cost of a tweak the instant you ship it. PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS Reduced CPU and GPU load on slower devices. Smoother playback on older iPhones and iPads across all visualizer types. BUG FIXES Black-frame flash on pad transitions — Renderers were clearing the last frame on stop; now hold it until the next clip is confirmed live. iCloud fresh install — Single retry was not enough; now polls up to 60 seconds for iCloud availability on first launch. MediaMesh3D cross-device media — Image/GIF/video binaries now embed into session files (25 MB cap per file) so MediaMesh3D nodes show the correct texture when a session is opened on a different device, instead of rendering a black mesh.

VisualKO 1.24 — Bigger Visuals, Sharper Pixels MetalFX Spatial Upscaling Render at lower internal resolution, upscale with Apple's MetalFX for crisp visuals at a fraction of the GPU cost. PerformanceGuard auto-tunes quality on thermal pressure so your set keeps running cool, even on long gigs. (iOS 17 / macOS 14+) New Shader Pack — Alchemist Sketchbook 12 hand-crafted Metal shaders. Ink-washed textures, alchemical diagrams, and organic matter in motion. Audio-reactive, BPM-synced, built for sets that blur the line between ancient and digital. Reactivity tuned tighter in 1.24. Fullscreen Mode — Built for Live Performance - MFX overlay lives in fullscreen now — toggle MetalFX upscaling live without leaving the canvas via the persistent on-screen button or a long-press anywhere. - Jog Wheel is right there in fullscreen too — scrub, nudge BPM, swap palettes without dropping out of the visual. VisualKO Player AUv3 — Now Immersive in 3D - New Camera Distance slider and Jog Wheel control for 3D shaders. Zoom the orbit, scrub the scene live — host-automatable as AUv3 parameters. - All purchased shader packs (Phosphor Cult, Alchemist Sketchbook, Computer Veld) now appear in the plugin automatically. No more reinstalling. Jog Wheel Modes — More Ways to Play - New BPM jogwheel mode for instant tempo nudges. - New CLR palette mode for live color swaps from the wheel. Quality of Life - Beat detection auto-enables on launch for always-on shader reactivity. - Master transitions now apply to external displays and AirPlay output. - Pad background colors no longer flicker during sequencer playback. - iCloud deletions stick — deleted pad colors stay deleted. - Session loading animation on the pads. - iPhone node-editor preview tightened so the graph stays the focus.

3D Environment Your visuals now live in real 3D space. Import OBJ models, write custom Metal shaders for them, and move your camera through the scene. A low-poly disco ball is included to get started. 3D models travel with exported .visualko project files. New Master Effects Two new effects: Outline (soft edge glow, beat-reactive) and Ripple (radial wave distortion). RGB Split, VHS, and DOF are now smooth under beat-sync with no more stutter. Computer Veld Pack 12 MS-DOS-era Metal shaders — boot terminals, EGA flight sims, dungeon crawlers, and more. Audio-reactive and BPM-synced. Available in the Shader Store. VKO1 Player — AUv3 Run VKO1 visualizers directly inside AUM, GarageBand, Logic, and any AUv3 host. All 33 palettes, Complexity / Reactivity / Speed sliders, custom shaders, node graph support, and 3D model import — all from inside your host.

EPIC UPDATE! NODE GRAPH EDITOR Build your own visualizer — Connect generators, modifiers, combiners, and live audio inputs into custom signal chains 25 generators, 20 Metal modifiers, 6 combiners, 11 input nodes — the deepest visual toolkit in any VJ app on iOS NEW METAL SHADER NODES Bloom — Beat-reactive glow with threshold and intensity controls; the more bass, the brighter the halo Beat Crossfade — Hard-cut, smooth sine, or downbeat-flash transitions between two generators, locked to the grid Luma Key — Replace the dark or bright regions of one layer with another; punch stars through plasma or terrain through noise NEW CORE IMAGE MODIFIER NODES (×7) Twirl — Spiral distortion from center; radius and angle independently controlled Vortex — Rotational warp that spins the whole frame outward Pinch — Squeeze inward or bulge outward from a focal point; great for beat-reactive lens effects Variable Blur — Smooth Gaussian blur with adjustable radius; wet/dry mix preserved Color Controls — Independent saturation, brightness, and contrast sliders with a wet/dry blend knob Transform — Rotate and scale the frame; patch an LFO to the amount pin for perpetual motion Film Look — 8 cinematic presets: Noir, Chrome, Fade, Mono, Process, Tonal, Transfer, Instant; blend with original via wet/dry NEW AUDIO INPUT NODES Bass, Mid, Treble — Each frequency band exposed as its own node; wire them to any numeric pin to make different parts of the spectrum control different visual parameters independently 19 GRAPH TEMPLATES Ready-to-play starting points covering every new node: Twirl Plasma — Bass energy drives twist angle on a Plasma field Vortex Voronoi — Slow LFO continuously rotates Voronoi cells Pinch Pulse — Beat phase kicks a bulge through Tunnel Warp Dreamy Haze — Terrain → Variable Blur → Color Controls, atmospheric slow burn Color Burst — Starfield → max saturation → Bloom, pure neon Film Noir — Neon Prism → Film Look (Noir) → Edge Detect, cinematic B&W LFO Spin — Fractal Noise rotating forever via Affine Transform Cinema Blend — 6-node chain: two generators → Screen blend → Chrome film → Bloom Beat Switch, Star Punch, Bass Bloom, LFO Glitch, Pulse Storm — Audio-reactive multi-node chains from the previous session SHADER PACK STORE In-app Shader Store — New store accessible from the toolbar, browse and install shader packs with one tap Metal Starter Pack — 24 hand-crafted Metal shaders included free: Aurora, Biocore Monitor, CGA Dither, CRT Monitor, CRT Tunnel, Diamond Spin, Digital Rain, Hex Wave, Holo HUD, Kaleidoscope, Laser Grid, Neon Tunnel, Nihon Grid, Pixel Warp, Plasma Orb, Retro Grid, Signal Intercept, Spiral Vortex, Star Warp, Synth City, System Crash HUD, Tech Diag HUD, Voronoi Glass, and Wireframe Cube PHOSPHOR CULT — FIRST PAID SHADER PACK Phosphor Cult — 12 hand-crafted Metal shaders: Arcade Idle, Circuit God, Data Corruption, Deep Scan, Fungal Bloom, Neon Topology, Phosphor Eye, Pixel Shrine, Signal Ghost, Star Forge, Terminal Soul, and VHS Nightmare. From VHS glitch storms and occult trading cards to PCB circuit deities and mech diagnostics. Audio-reactive, BPM-synced, and built to haunt your next set.

Three bug fixes in this update: - Bank folder loading freeze — If your bank folders were pointing to iCloud Drive, loading them could completely freeze the app. Files that aren't downloaded yet are now skipped automatically (and queued for download in the background), so the rest of your bank loads without hanging. - Audio volume drop after using beat detection — If you turned on the beat detection mic and then turned it off, the overall audio volume would stay lower for the rest of the session. iOS quietly lowers output when the mic is active to prevent feedback, but it wasn't being restored when the mic turned off. Fixed — volume now snaps back to normal as soon as you stop beat detection. - RAM preload crash with large clip libraries — Loading many video clips into RAM could crash or hang the app. The preloader now tracks actual memory usage, checks available memory before each clip, and stops cleanly when things get tight — keeping whatever it already loaded rather than crashing. Also, trimmed clips now only load the trimmed portion into RAM, so a 60-second clip trimmed to 5 seconds only uses 5 seconds worth of memory.

**New Features** - **Self-contained .visualko exports** — Projects now bundle all media files, so sessions open perfectly on any device - **9 new visualizers** — Signal Decode, Tactical Grid, Glyph Matrix, Schematic Pulse, Terminal, Tron Grid, Wire Tunnel, Vector Terrain, Holo Cube - **Still image animations** — 19 Ken Burns, zoom, pan, drift, pulse, and rotate presets; auto-applied on import - **Visualizer playback modes** — Reverse, Ping-Pong, and One-Shot now work on visualizers - **1/64 beat division** — Plus true-timing fix for 1/32 - **WebP image support** - **Session resume on launch** — Tap-to-resume card remembers your last session - **Mouse scroll wheel mapping** — Map to Jog Wheel or MFX Dry/Wet (Mac) - **Custom .visualko file icon** - **Marathon color palette** (#33) - **Clear Bank** — Delete all pads in a bank at once - **GIF RAM preload** — GIFs now included alongside videos in RAM preload **Improvements** - Active effects, blend modes, and color adjustments highlighted in orange in context menus - Export saves directly to Finder/Files instead of share sheet - Spinner feedback while packing export bundles - Report a Bug button in settings **Bug Fixes** - Fixed CoreAudio crash on macOS Tahoe (26.4) - Fixed paste media detection on iOS 16+ and Mac Catalyst - Fixed pasted images overwriting each other - Fixed Auto Play getting stuck on 1/32 - Fixed MFX BPM division scaling - Fixed sessions with older format failing to load - Fixed Cmd+S on Mac Catalyst

RAM Preview - New "Load Clips to RAM" option in Session Manager — pre-loads all your clips into memory for buttery smooth, instant playback during live performances - Progress indicator shows how many clips are loaded and how much memory is being used - Reload button to refresh the cache anytime Reverse Audio - Audio now plays in reverse when using Reverse or Ping Pong playback modes — video and audio stay perfectly in sync Visualizer Playback Modes - Visualizers now support Reverse, Ping Pong, and One Shot playback modes, just like video clips Still Image Animations - 9 new animation presets for still images: Ken Burns, Zoom In, Zoom Out, Pan Left, Pan Right, Drift, Pulse, Rotate, and Rock - Bring your photos and graphics to life right from the pad context menu Stability & Performance - Faster video compositing across the board - Older session files now load without crashing - GIF clips are now properly included in RAM Preview

Native Mac Support VisualKO now runs natively on Mac via Mac Catalyst using Apple's "Optimize for Mac" rendering. Native resolution text, proper Mac window chrome, and a UI that feels at home on macOS. Use your Mac as the control surface while sending clean video output to a projector, second display, or AirPlay device. How to install on Mac If you previously installed the iOS version of VisualKO on your Mac (via "iPhone & iPad Apps"), you must uninstall it first. Then search for VisualKO in the Mac App Store and install the native Mac version. Fixes and improvements - Fixed a bug where AirPlay/external display output rendered differently from the main video preview when using Automix. Both outputs now show identical video with all effects and visualizers applied. - The video output window on Mac no longer duplicates the main UI. It now shows only clean video output, matching AirPlay and HDMI behavior. - Fixed effect color bleeding between Master Effects when switching between B&W, Sepia, and other color effects. - Fixed session save crash caused by invalid float values in clip data. - MIDI Learn buttons now pulse with a snappy animation when listening for input, making it clear the app is waiting for a MIDI message. - MIDI pad mapping screen is now always accessible, even when starting from scratch with the Custom preset. - Added 9 new MIDI controller presets for popular 2024-2026 controllers including Akai APC Mini MK2, Novation Launchpad X, Arturia BeatStep, and more. - Added separate default render quality settings for clips and visualizers in Session Manager. - Fixed dark mode contrast issues across multiple sheets including BPM Settings, Tape Editor, and Tape Library. - The Mac app now remembers window size and position between launches. - Ableton Link networking now works correctly on Mac Catalyst.