Kosada has introduced a beta version of Vuo, a modern visual programming language for ‘multimedia artists and creators’.

Vuo is designed for the type of people that might use Quartz Composer, vvvv, Max/MSP/Jitter, and Pure Data. But the company says that Vuo is designed to be a modern graphical programing tool that’s simpler to understand, platform-independent and high-performance.

Vuo, which is ‘flow’ in Finnish, is designed to be both powerful and intuitive. With Vuo, users can create interactive audio, visual, and mixed multimedia applications and effects.

‘We’ve been working on Vuo for several years,” notes Kosada’s Steve Mokris, “and we now want to give media creators a glimpse at where we’re headed with Vuo. Although the beta is not yet fully-featured, with it creators can begin to explore some of Vuo’s possibilities”.

Key features available in the beta include:

• Complete control of composition timing: A composition can run at a steady framerate, or it can react to events like mouse clicks or MIDI notes, so that some parts can run continuously, and others run only when needed.
• Leverages modern computer architecture: Every Vuo composition is a native executable that runs directly on the processor (not in a virtual machine like other multimedia environments). Vuo automatically runs different parts of compositions on separate computer processors, to maximize speed.
• Incorporates modern standards: 2D and 3D Graphics nodes use modern OpenGL for optimal graphics performance.
• Provides a sophisticated editor with built-in debugging: Users drag and drop nodes and cables on a canvas to create compositions. Users can monitor the data flowing through one or more ports and nodes, and can see when different parts of the composition are running.
• Public API so other developers can take advantage of and expand Vuo’s capabilities.

Here’s an example of a composition, by Project Ruori, that combines audio & sound, using Renoise and Vuo:

Here’s a demo that features Vuo’s Jean Marie Cackowski-Campbell demonstrating how Vuo can be used as a platform for making different types of multimedia:

See the Vuo site for more details.

If you’ve worked with Vuo, let us know what you’re doing with it!