X-Plane Plugin System Technical Notes

General:

• WhyRefcons - An explanation of refcons for new programmers.
• RegisteringPlugins - how to make sure your plugin works with other plugins!
• FutureCompatibility - how to make sure your plugin keeps working with X-Plane.
• SDKVersioning - how the 2.0 SDK affects your plugin.
• Simulated Time - different types of time in the simulation.
• 64-bit_Migration - a checklist for migrating a plugin to be 64-bit compatible.

Graphics:

• OpenGLState - Sharing OpenGL with X-Plane, for advanced plugins.
• ScreenCoordinates - the various X-Plane coordinate systems.
• CameraArchitecture - how the camera control APIs interact with X-Plane.
• DrawingRules - when and how to draw in the sim.
• PluginsAndObjects - how OBJ files and plugins interact.

Integration Issues:

• OpenAL - how to make a plugin work with OpenAL.
• LuaJIT - how to make a plugin work with LuaJIT 2.0.

Aircraft:

• AcquiringPlanes - details of how to acquire control of multiplayer planes.
• AboutQuaternions - how X-Plane stores the plane's orientation.
• MovingThePlane - how to reposition the user's plane for various purposes.
• IdentifyingYourAircraft - how to find out if it is your aircraft that is loaded.
• PluginsForAircraft - two ways to build a plugin for a particular aircraft.

Plugin Infrastructure:

• DeferredInitialization - some tips on what you can't do in XPluginStart
• AboutSharedDataRefs - explains custom vs. shared datarefs
• PluginThreading - how to make a plugin multithreaded, and why you shouldn't do it!
• Orphan Datarefs - explains how datarefs are managed when a plugin goes away.
• Using DLLs - how to use shared library code from a plugin.
• Saving Preferencse - good practices for preference files.

Misc:

• UDPDataEquivalents - Find the dataref to access that UDP data
• MotionPlatform - how to get motion-platform data from the SDK.
• UsefulFormulae - Find links and useful functions here
• DataRefEditor - Getting it to show your custom datarefs

Macintosh Specific:

• PluginLinkingOnMac - notes on specific techniques to link on Mac!
• FilePathsAndMacho - explains issues with file paths on Mach-O vs CFM Mac Plugins
• MacintoshIntelPluginSupport - notes on plugins for Intel Macintoshes
• MachoPluginSupport - plan for supporting Mach-O plugins on Mac.
• MacDebugging - how to debug plugins on the Mac.
• MacintoshProgrammersWorkshop - notes on using MPW to write plugins.

Windows Specific:

• Building Plugins with Cygwin - Yes, it's possible to use the power of UNIX to build your plugins.

Linux Specific:

• PluginLinkingOnLinux - Controlling what symbols are exporting on Linux.