FYI, I have it from a reliable source that
“The only way to ship native plugins for ARM-based Macs is for developers to use the new FxPlug 4 SDK.”
I currently don’t have an ARM based Mac to try but I figured I’d start a thread here on the forum to ask whether or not FxPlugs generated by Vuo meet this criteria (and if not if it is at least in the queue of tasks to be done…) Thanks for any info on it.
We’re currently working on making Vuo run natively on ARM-based Macs, but haven’t yet gotten to the point of testing FxPlugs. Apple hasn’t mentioned that in their documentation or made a public statement about it. We’ll know more after further testing.
Apple have now announced that FxPlug4 will be required. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211941
Hopefully it won’t be too hard to update the current support to the new API?
Thanks for letting us know! We’re investigating FxPlug4, and will follow up here when we have more info to share.
It’s unfortunate that the rules have changed relatively soon after the FxPlug3 support was added, but there are many other developers in the same boat, and not many complex plug-ins are ready for M1 chips right now. Probably best to reach out to other devs to find out what the situation is.
Just popping back in to confirm that the new M1 Macs refuse to run FxPlug 3 modules built with Vuo, instead showing the error in the attached screenshot. Would love to see FxPlug 4 supported if it’s possible.
Does anyone here build any popular plugins? For someone versed in Vuo, is there demand for plugins so that one (ahem, me) might try my hand at it?
The main limitation as I see it is that if you build FX plug-ins in Vuo (and this applied to equally to QC) is that if you just port it directly you are limited in the UI interface tou can have. It takes extra code, in Xcode to build some of the sophisticated UIs which some video effects plug-in deploy. But if you’re ok with hard wired input ports then I think why not? Hard part is doing something genuinely original/new to the platform, there’s a bunch of low cost transition plugins already for example.
Hard wired input ports aren’t such a big deal, many plug-in are built entirely in Motion and Vuo lets you step beyond that nicely. But yes, you’re limited in what you can do with a custom UI.
All this is moot without FxPlug 4 support though; you can’t release new plug-ins that don’t work on new Macs.
I have several effects that have sold a reasonable number of licenses (through FxFactory which acts as a kind of publisher)… this kind of thing ;
Those effects were built with Apple Motion and in some cases Quartz Composer based fxplugs used within Motion. (the onscreen UI shown in the videos is achieved by using the “rigging” and “linking” features in Apple Motion - and it would be possible to do the same for features built using vuo generated fxplugs). I’ve built some things using vuo but nothing I’ve offered for sale as of yet. I hope and expect that I will be making use of vuo in commercial products in the foreseeable future though - and in that case FxFactory will not publish them and I’ll need to do more of the leg work of selling them myself (either way I have to make the promo videos myself : ) but FxFactory has a significant following and handles the purchase and delivery process etc. so it will require a lot more from me to sell outside of FxFactory)
We’re working on FxPlug 4 support for Vuo 2.3.0. (In fact it’s the last major hurdle before the release.)
As mentioned here, if any of y’all would like to sell plugins on vuo.org, let us know and we’ll set up a store page.
Excellent news on FxPlug 4 support! Thank you!
Slight change of plan — We’re basically splitting Vuo 2.3.0 into two releases so we can get some fixes out sooner. So FxPlug 4 will actually be in Vuo 2.4.0. More info here.
@kingluma, just wondering why FxFactory wouldn’t sell your work if an FxPlug unit was needed? I’ve just launched my own product through FxFactory and had discussions about future products using Vuo, and I wasn’t told no?
Here it is, if you’re curious (not built with Vuo though): https://fxfactory.com/info/annotator/
Congratulations on launching the product - it looks useful. I get the FxFactory marketing emails so I had actually seen the video already.
Years ago I did a lot of work on something I intended to release for Final Cut Pro through FxFactory. This product I had created relied on a free Kineme QC patch that was under an MIT license which explicitly allowed for it to be used that way (redistributed as part of a paid product and even modified etc.) but Gabe shut it down. I think he didn’t want to have an FxFactory product that made use of any code that wasn’t his (or Apple’s) because he thought it would be difficult to maintain in the future etc. - of course any FxFactory effects that make use of Quartz Composer at all are becoming difficult to maintain at this point… Anyway, I could be wrong but I expect that he might have the same attitude toward something that relied on Vuo.
I like and respect the FxFactory guys (I worked with Gabe at another company before he started FxFactory and I live an easy subway ride away from their office so I’ve visited them from time to time) but I’ll never forget the feeling of having a project that I had put in a lot of time working on be vetoed that way : ) That project also depended on FxFactory code (to make use of QC comps) so I wasn’t able to go forward with it - although now I could do it replacing the QC comps with Vuo comps etc.
Thanks! I hope people like it. Re FxFactory, I suspect that perhaps since QC has been deprecated for so long (and buggy before then) it wasn’t the safest idea to build products using it. I’ll definitely ask about Vuo support when FxPlug4 becomes an option, because I have some ideas. FxFactory do have their own effects platform, though, so it might be possible to do something using that.
I’ll definitely ask about Vuo support when FxPlug4 becomes an option, because I have some ideas
cool - let us know how that goes - from what I’ve seen FxCore isn’t really a direct QC replacement (as far as how it’s used by someone like me in the context of FxFactory) - nor was it meant to be AFAIK - so I’d be happy if they were willing to publish products including Vuo based FxPlugs - I mean, I fully expect it would work just fine from a technical standpoint - but then again so did my Kineme/QC project so… : )
As of Vuo 2.4.0, plugins are exported using FxPlug 4, so they work on Apple Silicon (ARM).
