ROOMS 3D Desktops - Wallpaper Plugin SDK
We publish a Software Development Kit [SDK] for ROOMS plugins.
The SDK helps you create and test your own
.
It is based around a program called PluginCenter.
PluginCenter creates skeletal and template C++ programs for each kind of plugin.
Ideally you will use these and add your own C++ functionality. Skeletal code
provides the C++ plugin interface only. Template code provides the C++ plugin
interface plus some stock functionality for you to customize.
PluginCenter includes test harnesses for running both the raw DLL interfaces
and for exercising dialogs like those used by plugins in ROOMS wizards.
The SDK includes the source code for the AVI movie and CD control RSI plugins
so you can see how we have used the plugin interface.
The SDK also includes the RAV toolkit plugin which is experimental (i.e. not
production quality), but which we have found useful to manipulate RAV files
- so we offer it "as is" and it may be developed further in later releases.
ROOMS plugins do not use COM. They are simple DLLs.
Plugin DLLs are best installed into the ../rooms/plugins folder.
Plugins are identified by their filename. RSI (Stream Interface) plugins have
filenames ending "_rsi.dll". RPC (Polygon Conversion) plugins have filenames
ending "_rpc.dll".
All RSI plugins share a common RSI DLL interface.
All RPC plugins share a common RPC DLL interface.
The interfaces are formally specified in PluginCenter F1 Help.
RSI plugins let you issue commands to a channel and let you get
images on demand from the channel.
RPC plugins let you convert files from one format to another,
and allow you to launch your own custom setup dialog(s) - for
example to control polygon reduction.
Both plugin types optionally support normalizer interfaces, so, if you want, they can
be fully integrated with the ROOMS export and normalizartion cycle.
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Once installed, you start PluginCenter from the ROOMS Setup and Start utility, see
the button on the "Plugins" tab.
Once you have created your plugin and want to publish it, there are several
things you can do:
1. publish it from your own site
2. ask us to provide a link from this site to your site
3. ask us to publish your plugin untested by us from this site, with your name and optionally a link to your site
4. ask us to publish your plugin tested by us from this site, with your name and optinally a link to your site
5. ask us to source-code review and test a plugin and publish from this site, with your name and optionally a link to your site.
If we source-code review and test your plugin and accept it under this category we refer to
it as a "certified" plugin.
NOTE: If you want to request a payment from people who use your plugin(s), that is
entirely up to you, and it is up to you to collect payment and implement your own
licensing system. You must not, of course, demand payment for any plugin which is
essentially one of those for which we publish the source code. I.e. We encourage you
to add some value before charging.
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