right way to detect mixer plugins?

[victimofleisure]

Thomas (intrinsic) contacted me to say that his mixer plugins weren't working in FFRend. As it turns out I can't replicate his problem: I tried all the IntrinsicFX_CrossFadeWipe_2.0.rar plugins, and they all worked fine in FFRend 1.4. I even created a metaplugin that uses one of his mixers, and emailed the metaplugin back to him.

But that's beside the point. Thomas also suggested that I might be using an incorrect method to detect mixer plugins. What I do is test the minimum number of inputs: if it's greater than one, I consider it a mixer plugin. According to Thomas, I should also be testing the maximum number of inputs as well. Can anyone here explain why? What kind of mixer plugin would work correctly with only one input?

I checked all of the IntrinsicFX_CrossFadeWipe plugins carefully and every one of them has the same number for both minimum and maximum inputs: 2. So I really don't see what the issue is, at least not in his case.

Unrelated question:

Um, beta test results? Anyone? Considering how much buzz there was on the RFC thread, I would think someone might at least verify that the anti-piracy scheme actually works.oke:

[robotfunk]

I think I have a different version of them than you do, and was also stumped by the same thing, when I was implementing FreeFrame source plugins in Flowmotion. After a while it did make sense though. When I was making my own modular node based playground I made the inevitable draw_circle module. If no input is fed, it draws a circle on a black background unless the bg_color is specified. If an input image is fed, I draw it over that image. So in my case I would have 0 or 1 inputs, but FreeFrame spec always wants an input image to draw on, so it would become 1 or 2 inputs. That way a plugin can be used both as a source as well as an effect.

When I return home I will look up some of the plugs that only showed 1 input in FFrend.