How to develop a plugin for SonyVegas

[Viswanadha Reddy]

Hi
I would like to know it it possible to develop own plugins for SonyVegas Considering that i have software development skills..Is there SDK kind of stuff available so that i can use some API to develop more apps or plu-inns

[Mike Kujbida]

Sony Creative Software - Download: Development Kits

[Viswanadha Reddy]

That's Great,Let's See If I can do soemthing using this :)

[Edward Troxel]

The first question I would ask is what kind of plugin? A script/custom command type plugin? Or an effect/transition type plugin?

[Frederic Baumann]

As of Sony Vegas Pro 10, there are 2 ways of developing video plugins:
- DirectX plugins
- OpenFX plugins

As far as I can see, developing DirectX plugins is tough because it theoretically requires to build with MS Visual Studio 2005, according to the SDK mentioned in this thread. Then you have to dig in the huge DirectX API to see what you need to do. The good side of it is that you benefit from all the advanced image manipulation features built in DirectX.

The other approach is OpenFX, documented here: The OpenFX Project

You will find no support to image manipulation in this architecture. The good thing of it is that, unlike DirectX, it lets you have a way to interact with your video along the time, while DirectX only gives you a picture-by-picture view of your clips. For instance, OpenFX would let you develop a time acceleration plug-in, while DirectX won't.

OpenFX provides you with a standard framework to display plug-in properties in Vegas. You may have a look at my web site for that (see my signature), with an evaluation copy of my white balance plug-in.

If you want to do audio plug-ins, this is another thing which I don't know yet.

Hope this helps,
Frederic