Editing Advanced Visualization Studio (section)

== History ==

=== Initial releases ===

The first versions of AVS came with a set of pre-defined effects that could be arranged in any combination. Later versions introduced codeable components, most notably the "SuperScope" render effect and "Dynamic Movement". The AVS plugin-in can be extended itself with AVS Plugin Effects (APE).

Version 2.81b of AVS was released by [[Nullsoft]] in 2003. It was faster and added several new features like arrays and interactivity in visualizations. 2.82 is the current stable release after some minor updates by Darren "DrO" Owen. For a short period, version 2.83 was distributed, a decision that was eventually reversed due to incompatibilities.

=== Open-source and third-party versions ===
On May 18, 2005, it was announced<ref name="source-code"/> that AVS would now be open source software, released under a BSD-style license.

Long after having left the company, Nullsoft founder Justin Frankel released a fork in August 2010 of the plug-in, titled "Cockos Happy AVS".<ref name=chavs/> It was first released as version 2.9, continuing the version scheme where the official version left off.

As of October 2013, AVS presets can be played directly in the browser using the Webvs<ref name="webvs"/> visualizer. However, only a small subset of effects is supported at this point.

=== Acquisition by Radionomy ===

With the release of Winamp version 5.66 on November 20, 2013, [[AOL]] announced that Winamp.com would shut down on December 20, 2013, and Winamp and its components would cease to be offered for download after that date.<ref name=ars-shutdown /> Resulting in the shutdown, many AVS downloads will be lost. The AVS Archive<ref name=avs-archive /> is an attempt to preserve some of the more popular AVS packs. The following day, an unofficial report surfaced that Microsoft was in talks with AOL to acquire Nullsoft.<ref name=microsoft-talks /> Despite AOL's announcement, the Winamp site was not shut down as planned, and on January 14, 2014, AOL sold Nullsoft to Belgian online radio aggregator Radionomy; no financial details were publicly announced.<ref name=sale-tc /><ref name=sale-verge /> In fear of a shutdown, a mirror of the Winamp-hosted AVS forums has been published on GitHub.<ref name=forum-mirror />