On Saturday 01 March 2003 21.15, Simon Jenkins wrote: [...] > In terms of its inputs and outputs a subgraph is indistinguishable > from a real plugin. All thats needed is a very thin code wrapper > around the administration of the subgraph: A virtual plugin which, > when you instantiate it, would instantiate all of the real plugins > that made up the subgraph. Which, when you connected to or from it, > would cause the connection to actually be made to the appropriate > real plugin within the subgraph. Which, when you removed it, would > cause the removal of all the real plugins within the subgraph.
Yes - but I think this is a host implementation (and standard file format) matter. > I'm not up-to-date enough with the XAP spec to know how > much hassle this would all be, but its all *administrative* > hassle and doesn't affect the runtime API in any way: The > virtual plugin never appears in the actual processing graph, > and the real plugins are perfectly ordinary plugins, connected > into a perfectly ordinary graph, sorted and called (independently > of each other) just like any other plugin in the graph. Right, this sounds reasonable. However, I think you're forgetting what got us started on this: Plugins that are split up in order to deal with inserts and similar things. Virtual plugins are orthogonal to inserts! You *still* don't have anywhere to connect the inserts; that's a separate issue. Virtual plugins are just a way of describing the relations between plugins in a set. You could have "normal" ins and outs for them, but that would look as if the inserts create loops when connected, which is not the case. The alternative would be a specific "insert plugin" UI that makes this less confusing to users. Any other ideas? I don't think this is as easy as it might seem at first, but it definitely sounds worth doing - and it's all on the host/metadata/file format side, and has no run-time impact. //David Olofson - Programmer, Composer, Open Source Advocate .- The Return of Audiality! --------------------------------. | Free/Open Source Audio Engine for use in Games or Studio. | | RT and off-line synth. Scripting. Sample accurate timing. | `-----------------------------------> http://audiality.org -' --- http://olofson.net --- http://www.reologica.se ---
