How many of you remember our April Fool's joke entitled "Kernel as a Service" from 2017? In a nutshell, the fun behind it was that the DMXControl 3 kernel runs in the cloud so that even less powerful PCs can play back a great light show. Looking back on this April Fool's joke with a neutral eye, we were in some ways ahead of the times with this idea. After all, cloud computing only really became popular and on everyone's lips in the years that followed. Regardless of this, this April Fool's joke had a real and meaningful ulterior motive: the kernel cloud plugin was one of our demo plugins to show you how to program a plugin using an example. Right from the start, DMXControl 3 was designed in such a way that the software can be extended with plugins. The most popular plugin to date is in fact the audio analyzer.
In addition to the kernel cloud plugin, there has also been an official template project for plugins for DMXControl 3 for some time. Until recently, however, this could only be used for plugins up to and including version DMXControl 3.2.3. In the course of the development of DMXControl 3.3.0, in parallel to the complete replacement of the network communication from .NET-remoting to gRPC, proper general maintenance was also carried out in the code. This meant, for example, that various program classes within the project were moved to other sub-projects and in some cases renamed. However, all these changes and innovations are required for the new plugin to run in DMXControl 3.3.0. That’s about the look at the past.
Arriving in the present in the year 2025, it turned out that a lively exchange on development topics for DMXControl 3 has been taking place on our Discord server for several days and weeks - among the users themselves. We have taken this exchange as an opportunity to update the template project for DMXControl 3. This can now be used to develop plug-ins for DMXControl 3.3.0 or to adapt existing ones for DMXControl 3.3.0.
You can find all the data for the template project on our GitHub account under the link:
There we have also compiled detailed instructions on what you need to bear in mind when programming. You will also find examples of how to add an additional branch or folder in the project explorer, program a node for the input assignment or create a new effect.
If you have any questions about specific points in the development of a plugin, the forum is always at your disposal. Otherwise, have fun coding!
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DMXControl-Team
LightningBrothers 
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