New To Making Plugins :)

Comments and discussions about 8bf plugins which can be use in various applications like Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro or Photo-Paint
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Dynasty
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New To Making Plugins :)

Post by Dynasty »

Just wanted to tell everyone that I have started to make plugins. I am having so much fun learning & am amazed at how easy it really is (Maybe it helps that I'm a machinist and the math is 2nd nature to me). I have been cranking out an average of 5 plugins a week (yes, I am lazy...I guess). I have started to put 5 plugins a week on my site every Wednesday evening (Usa time). If anyone wants to check out what I am doing, and don't laugh too hard...lol, my site is: http://www.dynastysoftwareusa.com look for the blue button that says "Plugins". Be sure to check back from time to time as I learn more & more about making plugins. I hope you like what I'm doing & I am open to all comments & etc. By the way, my plugins are free :)

HaraldHeim
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Post by HaraldHeim »

Thanks for your contribution. If you want to do more complex plugins, have a look at FilterMeister at www.filtermeister.com. It lets you open FilterFactory plugins, too.

Dynasty
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New To Making Plugins :)

Post by Dynasty »

I already have FilterMeister. I just haven't had the courage to sit down & try much with it yet. I am trying to learn the basics with Filter Factory and Filter Formula. At the moment, Filter Formula has become my choice editor, but I definitely want to sit down with Filter Meister. Someday, I would love to be able to do things like EyeCandy can do (especially- Xenofex "Shatter"). Their stuff is like a goal for me, I probably won't ever be able to do it, but I plan to have fun trying :)

-Ron

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Post by plugsnpixels »

You may wish to check out Filter Forge. Very excellent effects; you can string your own together and save them as presets and/or plug-ins (I'm not left-brained so I haven't tried editing them myself, only applying existing presets!).
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Post by HaraldHeim »

Just like with Filters Unlimited you cannot create your own plugins that run independently with Filter Forge.

Dynasty, if you want to make your FilterFactory plugins available for the Mac, you should also check out FilterFoundry. You need a Mac computer, though.

Dynasty
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New To Plugins :)

Post by Dynasty »

Hello,

I looked at Filter Forge. 24 Megs for a plugin editor? As for MAC, I guess that explains why Filter Foundry locks up on my WinXP and Win98 machines. I guess I missed that part when I doenloaded it.

Actually, I have grown pretty fond of Filter Formula. I'm not much of a C programmer (I do VB), but it's not hard to follow. It almost reminds me of Pascal structures in the programming.

Thanks,
-Ron

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Post by HaraldHeim »

Unfortunately Filter Formula is a dead end. It wasn't updated since 1999 and it isn't updated anymore.

If you have a problem with Filter Foundry for Windows, please contact the author. I am sure he can help or fix the problem.

Dynasty
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Post by Dynasty »

I know...I emailed the author of Filter Foundry twice and got no reply.

As for Filter Formula, they have made it freeware. All you need do is ask for a code & they give it to you. I know they have stopped working on it. I recently tried to buy the source code & that conversation is still being worked on. I have some awesome ideas for a plugin maker. I just don't know how to make a compiler to make 8bf files. I kind of figured if they would sell me the source, I could make 1.

Another totally awesome editor is PiCo!

1 thing I have noticed, and I have no clue why this happens: Some plugins simply will not work at all under PSP7 or PSP8...but they work fine under PSP9 and PSPX. Maybe this is due to my lack of understanding but I would think that a 8bf is an 8bf and should work with anything that supports Photoshop plugins...????

Now, I cannot do MAC because I don't have a MAC. But, I read somewhere awhile back that MAC is working to make PC packages work on their OS. Kind of like OS/2 Warp did a few years ago. Please understand, I do not know the 1st thing about MAC...so I really don't know. But, it has been my personal experience that most people who do Photoshop and PSP are doing it on Windows machines.

This does, however, lead to a question :) I know that some of my other software is being used on Linux/Unix machines. Does that ability carry over to plugins or would they need to be compiled on a *Nix machine?

-Ron

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Post by plugsnpixels »

There are currently three ways to use Windows apps on a Mac:

1) On a PowerPC-based Mac (G4, G5), you can run Microsoft's Virtual PC.

2) On an Intel-based Mac (MacBook, iMac), you can use:

a) Apple's BootCamp (where you restart into Windows) or
b) Parallels Desktop (where you can run DOS, Windows, Linux, etc.) in separate windows while booted from OS-X.

I have used Virtual PC and Parallels. The latter is very fast and smooth. Since I am mainly a Mac user this is how I have to run Windows-only plug-ins and apps (although I do have a cheap iPaq PC with WinXP installed).

The trend of the future may well be getting an Intel Mac and running any and all OS's--even all at once!

PS: I suspect quite a few people using Macs are running Photoshop ;-). Of course, PSP is a Windows-only app, unlike PS, so that would account for what you're seeing there.
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HaraldHeim
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Post by HaraldHeim »

Dynasty wrote:I recently tried to buy the source code & that conversation is still being worked on. I have some awesome ideas for a plugin maker. I just don't know how to make a compiler to make 8bf files. I kind of figured if they would sell me the source, I could make 1.
Would be nice to see you develop FilterFormula. Please let me know if you make some progress in this direction.
Dynasty wrote:1 thing I have noticed, and I have no clue why this happens: Some plugins simply will not work at all under PSP7 or PSP8...but they work fine under PSP9 and PSPX. Maybe this is due to my lack of understanding but I would think that a 8bf is an 8bf and should work with anything that supports Photoshop plugins...????
If you are referring to Filter Factory plugins, there are one or two files that are needed to make them run. Maybe your PSP7/8 installation has no access to them. Another thing is the cnv() command of the FilterFactory language. If a FilterFactory plugin uses it, it can crash PSP, but that is usually more the case with PSP 8, 9 and X than with PSP 7.

This does, however, lead to a question :) I know that some of my other software is being used on Linux/Unix machines. Does that ability carry over to plugins or would they need to be compiled on a *Nix machine?
I heard, too, that is possible to run Photoshop plugins that were created for Windows in GIMP under Linux. As far as I remember the GIMP Plugin Host has to be compiled with support for Wine, which simulates the Windows API. So you don't have to recompile your own Photoshop plugins for doing that.

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