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About Me...

Everything you wanted to know about me... well... maybe not :D

Me

I'm a 50+ year old software engineer with a passion for Pascal, more specifically Delphi. I like gaming, music, beer, good company and nice food... not necessarily in that order :)

I'm trying to stream on Twitch, make some content for YouTube, whilst making my second game... The Outer Reaches - Rise of The Raiders. A sci-fi action RPG set in mans distant future following our arrival in the outer reaches of the know universe. Way back in 2004, Spirit and I released a browser based space strategy game called The Outer Reaches - The Second Beginning upon which the lore of our new game is based.

Anything else, feel free to ask me on stream or on Discord.

Supporting me

If you'd like to help support me, you have a number of options...

Please don't ever feel pressured into tipping or signing up on Patreon, only do it if you can afford to and because you think I'm providing you with something of value. If you do decide to support me with tips etc. just know that your kindness is very much appreciated.

Note - Patreon is being worked on and has just the simplest of tiers at the moment.

The music on my streams

All music on stream (apart from any I write on stream) is copyright free, or permission has been granted by the rights owner to use it on stream.

Most of it is provided by Harris Heller's amazing StreamBeats. It's available on Spotify, Amazon Music, iTunes and others and is completely copyright free making it totally safe for use on Twitch and YouTube. You can even download the files and play them out with a media player.

Some of it is provided by other artists, most of whom are listed below...

  • ortoPilot - An amazing musician streamer from Manchester. Check out his stream and give him some love
  • Zircon - Another amazing musician with a talent for electronica
  • StreamBeats - The amazing Streambeats music collection from Harris Heller (Senpai)

The visuals on my streams

The visuals on my stream (those I use in screens like 'Starting Soon' and 'Be Right Back') are generated by a music visualiser called WhiteCap from SoundSpectrum.com and is contributed in support of PLAN Systems.

PLAN Systems is a technology 501(c)(3) dedicated to developing mission critical tools for science, education, humanitarians, and economic development, so if you've enjoyed the visuals why not consider a donation to PLAN Systems?

What if the internet was 3D and collaborative?

The tools I use

I use a variety of software tools during my development work, here's a (probably incomplete) list of my most commonly used items.

  • Delphi - RAD IDE from Embarcadero (originally Borland, then CodeGear) for the Object Pascal language
  • Delphi components - UniDAC, SecureBridge, madExcept, dglOpenGL, Vampyre Imaging Library, ESEGECE's WebSockets
  • Affinity Photo
  • Affinity Designer
  • Davinci Resolve (free version)
  • Notion - To try and keep myself organised
  • Cmder
  • SQLite Expert Professional
  • Devart dbForge
  • Visual Studio Code - For TypeScript, JavaScript, Java, HTML, CSS
  • Node.js - Favourite modules include Winston, Express.js, Discord.js (possibly one of the most well documented API implementations), Twing (implementation of the Twig templating engine)
  • Codesite
  • Leonardo
  • Aesprite
  • Cubase
  • Reason
  • Ableton Live
  • VSTs - Arturia vCollection, uhe's Zebra 2, Camel Audio's Alchemy, Camel Phat and Camel Space

The languages I use

I've used a variety of languages since I started programming. These have included BASIC, assembly language (mainly 6502, 68000, Z80), TCL, Perl, PHP, Python, Java, C and C#. Most of my current projects use these.

  • Delphi (Object Pascal)
  • Lua
  • TypeScript
  • JavaScript

There are some languages I'd like to take a look at, if for no other reason than to expand my tool choice a little. At the time of writing, the two key ones are Go and Rust.

My streaming setup

My entire stream setup generally runs on my (now aging) development. This is an Intel i7 with 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD for my system drive, 2 x 1TB (mirrored) HDD for my data drive and an Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti video card (driving three 1920x1080 displays). OS is Windows 10 Pro. That being said it could also be running on my gaming rig (Intel i7 13700f, 64GB RAM, 1 x 1TB NVME, 3 x 2TB NVME and 2 x 4TB HDD which are mirrored for some resilience and an Nvidia 3070 Ti driving three 1920x1080 displays, all running on the yummy Windows 11 Pro 🤮).

Software wise I use the following:-

  • OBS with the following plug-ins:-
    • Move Transition
    • StreamFX
    • Advanced Scene Switcher
    • Spectralizer
    • Transition Table
    • OBS Websocket Server
    • Freeze Filter
    • Shader Filter
  • Touch Portal
  • Cantabile
  • VB Audio's VoiceMeeter
  • VB Audio's Virtual Cables
  • WhiteCap
  • Custom bot (DelphiB0t - Written with TypeScript, runs on Node.js)
  • Custom desktop app (StreamHelper - Written with Delphi)

OBS Studio is, if you're new to streaming, the software that generates your stream content from various sources and pushes it out to the likes of Twitch and YouTube. OBS is short for Open Broadcaster Software.

Touch Portal is used to switch scenes and provide other source control functions (like muting the mic, showing the webcam etc.). I use it with my aging iPad 2. It talks to OBS via the OBS Websockets interface. It also talks to my StreamHelper via a web based API allowing it to trigger MIDI notes, start/stop the music or make requests to the scripting engine to perform more complex tasks.

Cantabile is a (relatively) light weight VST host that is used to provide audio processing. It uses a variety of VSTs including Reason and the free Reaper plug-ins to do things like turn the music down when a sound effect is played and the voice FX. Once up and running Cantabile just tends to sit there processing audio with routing events coming in via MIDI note messages.

VoiceMeeter provides the primary audio routing/mixing functions. I use Potato as it has the most channels and routing options.

VirtualCables are used to route audio around.

WhiteCap provides the visuals I use on some of my 'holding' pages such as 'Starting Soon' and 'Be Right Back'.

DelphiB0t is my stream/Twitch/Discord chat bot currently in development. He talks to Twitch, StreamElements, Discord and StreamHelper to keep track of stuff, provide community features and generally be a Discord/Twitch chatbot.

StreamHelper is now a multi-purpose program. It started life as a simple program that updated certain text elements of my stream (like the countdown timers) via files. It has since grown to include the following functionality:-

  • MP3 player (for the stream music)
  • Local control web server - Allows Touch Portal to make requests (like play music, trigger MIDI notes), it also provides the 'Now Playing' data for the on-stream 'Now Playing' overlay
  • Bi-directional link to DelphiB0t - To do things like post the stream playlist to Discord
  • OBS websocket link - For receiving OBS events and for controlling OBS (upto three instances of OBS can be controlled)
  • StreamElements link - For receiving StreamElements events and for controlling StreamElements
  • MIDI In/Out capabilities - Provides 3 x MIDI in and 3 x MIDI out for receiving events and triggering other devices (such as voice FX in Cantabile)
  • Scripting Engine - Pascal based scripting engine for handling events/requests (such as the webcam FX)
  • Custom Touch Portal plug-in for controlling the application

That's a quick round up of the software that drives my streams. Feel free to ask about it on stream, particularly if you want help with any of these things. Whilst I currently have no plans to retail either my bot or my stream helper application, I am open to licensing them and providing custom development/features to other streamers.

For things like tips, chat overlays, alerts etc. I'm using StreamElements.