VST3 Bundle backward compatibility

Hi Yvan,

in the 3.6.10 SDK the Windows plug-in is now placed in a ‘bundle’, ala macOS and the old way is deprecated.
Might this not break compatibility with hosts that expect the old location ?
Ideally they should be scanning the VST3 folder and its descendants, but I’d prefer to be sure and not ship two installers.

Also am I right in interpreting the doc that

MyPlugin.vst3/Contents/x86-win/MyPlugin.vst3

should be present only in

/Program Files (x86)/Common Files/VST3/

and

MyPlugin.vst3/Contents/x86_64-win/MyPlugin.vst3

only in

/Program Files/Common Files/VST3/

Thanks!

Hi,
we have checked nearly all hosts we are aware off and every host worked with bundles out of the box. No exception found.

Cheers,
Arne

Good to know, thanks !
By the way and FYI the new SDK is up on github but not here 3rd-Party Developers Support & SDKs | Steinberg.

It will indeed work with existing hosts because they already scan subfolders and will still find the .vst3 files, just a few levels lower than before.

What was the reason to change this btw? Forcing some structure on where plugins put their resources?

Hi Arne,

Did you check Cycling 74’s Max? On Windows 10 it does not seem to find/load the new bundle style VST3 plugins. For example, the “helloworldWithVSTGUI” plugin that is shipped with the SDK. Anyone else having this problem with Max on Windows?

I have reported the bug to Cycling 74 but perhaps you can also let them know so it gets fixed :wink:

Thanks,
Steven