Building and testing AUv3

[lalalandsynth]

Does anyone have experience building AUv3 ?
Can someone explain the steps needed , what is this .appex thingy and how can I make this work.
Do you need to build standalone as well?

I can imagine that the app part is needed to be able sell an AU plugin in the Apple store?

[d.healey]

Is an AUv3 the same as an AU plugin or is it something different?

[lalalandsynth]

@d-healey It is different , AUv3 allows midi out and as far as I can tell Auv2 does not.
We need midi out capabilities so we are trying to make an AUv3 but it seems quite different from AUv2.

It outputs .appex which I have no idea what to do with ? :)

Also, is it worth it ? Do you guys know how many of your users are using Logic ?
@d-healey are your products released as Au ?

[d.healey]

@lalalandsynth I release as AU. Lots of people use logic. I haven't looked into MIDI out though.

[orange]

@lalalandsynth said in Building and testing AUv3:

Does anyone have experience building AUv3 ?
Can someone explain the steps needed , what is this .appex thingy and how can I make this work.
Do you need to build standalone as well?

I can imagine that the app part is needed to be able sell an AU plugin in the Apple store?

That's what I really like to know too. But it seems like this is not possible for now.

[lalalandsynth]

@orange Are you familiar with it ? Do you know if I am correct that it needs an app and an extension ?
And why do you say its not possible? An HISE limitation ?

From the JUCE forum.
"Thanks for the reply and yes, generating an AUv3 plugin is that easy! However, it’s not complete. Another way to put this point is that the “.appex” output from this process is not stand alone distributable.

An AUv3 plugin (.appex) does not simply load into the standard AUv2 plugin directories. Instead, it’s packaged with an app, that Apple calls a containing app. The containing app, which includes the AUv3 .appex plugin as part of it’s package content, is the distributable.

In Apple’s AUv3 scheme, at the completion of containing app’s installation, the containing app automatically runs and calls the AUv3 packaged plugin. This process somehow notifies the OS about the plugin and then it becomes available to other apps (plugin hosts/DAWs) for use."

https://forum.juce.com/t/is-there-a-complete-app-extension-auv3-project/46677

[orange]

@lalalandsynth said in Building and testing AUv3:

@orange Are you familiar with it ? Do you know if I am correct that it needs an app and an extension ?

Yes AFAIK, the AUv3 audio unit is an app extension. You will create a “regular” app and then add an extension to it that will be the audio unit. The end user will run the regular app, which will install the audio unit(s). They will then use an AUv3 host to run your audio unit.

And why do you say its not possible? An HISE limitation ?

AFAIK this option hasn't been available in Hise yet.

[lalalandsynth]

@orange We now have a working MIDI output plugin in AUv3.
There is a problem however that seems to plague a lot of developers (as seen on the JUCE forum, unless its been solved and I cannot find it)
in that the host should do resizing and not the plugin so we are stuck with a plugin screen at 1024x768 and our plugin sitting in that with blank space around it.

Also , the overwrite preset popup comes up behind the plugin or rather in the center of the daw and behind the plugin if its centered.

As for details on how this was achieved you would have to ask @jonhallur

See Juce forum post.
https://forum.juce.com/t/auv3-resizing-issue-on-macos-not-ios/43811/9

[lalalandsynth]

The issues we have encountered so far, testing on Catalina with Logic Pro.

Broadcaster Hover does not work in AUV3.
We are using the broadcaster to show info when you hover over a knob. It will only show the info when you click a knob or button.

And the main issue.
Will show the interface at a fixed size within a huge window.

Resizing above 100% will cutoff the interface.

For Logic Pro on a Big Sur. ( Will check what version of Logic tomorrow)
There is the same Huge window issue but the interface can be resized, provided you fiddle with the main window size.
Doing further testing on Big Sur tomorrow, lets see if touch automation and broadcaster hover will work.

I think AUV3 wants the host to deal with all resizing but I am not sure.

Other Issues.

1. You can write automation manually and it will work.
   But Touch and Write automation from the UI will not write any automation.

2. Host view Size is stuck at 103% and cannot be changed, although the size seems to be quite larger then a 100% size on a native plugin.

Issue #2 Screenshot

Anyone tried to build AUv3 ?
Been googling my eyes out all day and its very hard to find info on this.