I updated my JUCE version somewhat recently and noticed the change to VST3 bundle folder on windows. It seems like just going into the folder and copying the .vst3 binary works perfectly with my DAW and it is easier / cleaner to distribute as a single file in my opinion. I assume there is some reason not to do this however? Is there a particular reason the whole bundle should be used instead of simply grabbing the binary from inside the bundle? It seems like my DAW has all the right info about the plugin without actually having the moduleinfo.json file from the bundle…
Just looking to gather some info on this and struggling to find it online. Thanks in advance!!
The folder structure and the json manifest file are just things Steinberg decided to add for some reason (probably because of how they want Cubase and Nuendo to work) for VST3 and Juce implemented those to be compliant.
Hi, thanks for the response. I understand that, although I hadn’t really thought about how it relates to Steinberg internal plans with Cubase and Nuendo). However, my question is: is there a problem with just grabbing the binary from inside the bundle and ignoring the folder structure entirely? Does the json file actually matter? It doesn’t seem to?
It seems like the best course of action is to just hop on board and be compliant, but I am still curious.
Like with all improvments, they are added, a bit later the old way is deprecated and another while later the old way stops working.
The json file has the advantage, that a host can just read that file instead of loading an instance of your plugin and probe all the settings and properties.
There’s no reason for hosts to drop support for the old style standalone binary VST3 plugins. At least until Steinberg decides it’s absolutely mandatory to have to use the new things.
The bundle format for VST3 on Windows was deprecated in VST3 3.6.10, almost six years ago. Part of the advantage is that it’s the same on Mac, Linux, and Windows today, and technically you can distribute a single bundle for all targets.
Have you had any feedback or problems with hosts where a rescan was necessary after a vst3-binary was replaced by a vst3-bundle, or were there compatibility issues with existing DAW projects?
UPDATE:
I ran a few tests, I created a DAW project with an old plugin version based on the binary vst3, then I replaced the plugin with the new bundle version and loaded the project without explicitly rescaning the plugins first.
