DPF/FEATURES.md

DPF - DISTRHO Plugin Framework

This file describes the available features for each plugin format.
The limitations could be due to the plugin format itself or within DPF.

Format	Param outs	Programs	States	UI sendNote	CV	MIDI in	MIDI out	Port groups
JACK	Yes*	Yes*	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes*
LADSPA	Yes	No*	No	No	No	No	No	No
DSSI	Yes	Yes*	Yes*	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
LV2	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
VST2	No	No*	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes*
VST3	Yes?	Yes	Yes	Yes	NO*	Yes	Yes	No*

Special notes:

Format	Notes
JACK	Parameters have programs mapped to MIDI CC, there is no generic plugin editor; Port groups as JACK metadata
LADSPA	LADSPA only supports basic parameters and audio; Programs could be done via LRDF but not supported in DPF
DSSI	DSSI only supports States via UI, no “full state” possible
LV2	Everything supported :)
VST2	VST2 program support requires saving state of all programs in memory, which is very expensive and thus not done in DPF; Parameter groups are supported, but not for audio ports (per VST2 spec limitations)
VST3	Not sure if parameter outputs work (aka “read-only” on VST3); CV ports do not support custom ranges, not implemented yet; Port groups not implemented yet

A few notes for things to add to the table:

• Custom UI (embed, external, both or none)
• Host/user-side UI resize
• Parameter inputs change from plugin-side
• Sidechain tagged audio ports
• Trigger parameters
• UI background/foreground color
• Host-side file browser
• Remote/Instance access
• Host-mapped bypass parameter
• Time position