Plug-in Loading API

Loading of external dynamically linked plugins into Arnold. More...

Data Structures
struct	AtNodeLib
	Used by dynamically-linked nodes to return node info. More...

Macros
#define	AI_EXPORT_LIB   AI_EXTERN_C AI_DLL_EXPORT
	Used by dynamically-linked nodes to export the entry-point function.

Functions
AI_API void	AiLoadPlugins (const char *directory)
	Dynamically load plug-ins from a list of libraries. More...

Variables
int	AtNodeLib::node_type
	type of node (AI_NODE_SHADER, AI_NODE_CAMERA, etc)
uint8_t	AtNodeLib::output_type
	output type for shader nodes (AI_TYPE_RGB, etc)
const char *	AtNodeLib::name
	name of this plug-in node ("lambert", etc)
const void *	AtNodeLib::methods
	pointer to this node's methods
char	AtNodeLib::version [AI_MAXSIZE_VERSION]
	Arnold version that this node was compiled against

Detailed Description

Loading of external dynamically linked plugins into Arnold.

Function Documentation

AiLoadPlugins()

AI_API void AiLoadPlugins

(

const char *

file_or_dir

)

Dynamically load plug-ins from a list of libraries.

Dynamically loads plug-in nodes from a list of libraries given by their file names or by the paths to the directories where they reside.

Plug-in nodes are stored in dynamic libraries, or library modules. The extension of these files is system-dependent:

• Windows: .dll
• Linux: .so / .sog
• OSX: .dylib (although the Linux-like form .so/.sog is also supported)

Library modules must define an entry-point function (the plug-in "hook") called NodeLoader(). The Arnold API provides a handy wrapper for this hook called node_loader, which plug-in writers are encouraged to use.

A single library module can contain one or more Arnold nodes of any of the available node classes, such as shaders, cameras, drivers, etc.

Note

Using a .sog extension in Linux or Mac OS X will trigger the global export of the symbols from the plugin (whereas .so plugins will only expose symbols locally).

Warning

This function is not thread-safe. It is typically called before the scene is created and before actual rendering starts.

Parameters

file_or_dir

a list of multiple entries (separated by ':' in Linux/OSX or ';' in Windows), where each entry can be a library file name or a directory, that will be searched for library files