Plugin compatibility with R2026
Microbion plugins now available for R2026
As seems to have become the norm, R2026 required plugins to be rebuilt for that version of Cinema 4D. This isn't too onerous a task, merely tedious. I now have 17 plugins to maintain, and every time I need to rebuild them, this is what has to be done for each plugin:
- Generate the build system using Cmake (easy, but boring once you've done 10 or so)
- Rebuild the plugin using Visual Studio on PC
- Fix the reasons why it won't compile or link thanks to SDK changes, then go to step 2
- Test it in R2026 to make sure it actually works
- Revise the manual if needed (very little to do there in most cases)
- Rewrite the readme.txt file if there is one to take account of the new C4D version
- Switch to a Mac
- Generate the build system again for macOS
- Rebuild the plugin using Xcode (a real PITA, this step)
- Fix the reasons why Xcode won't build the plugin when Visual Studio was quite happy, then go to step 9
- Test it on R2026 on the Mac (and transfer the C4D licence from PC to Mac so you can do this)
- Notarize the plugin with Apple
- Fix the reasons why it won't notarize then go to step 12 (fortunately all of mine notarized first time, amazing!)
- Repeat from step 1 with next plugin
You can download the R2026 builds of my plugins from their respective pages - see the main plugins page for links.
So I'm late this year...
With 17 plugins, that is a very boring way to spend a couple of days. It's not difficult, but it does require concentration because missing one step means you don't have a plugin to distribute. This is why mine are so late this year; personal circumstances simply made it impossible to do it sooner (when you have builders in doing various renovations, the 'concentration' bit is the difficult one).
Anyway, it's pointless wishing Maxon would try to make any SDK changes not require a rebuild, as they used to do. Change and advancements have to happen but if there are two things I could wish for, they are in steps 9 and 11 above.
In step 9, Xcode is a pig. There's nothing more to say. It throws up errors and problems VS takes in its stride. And the hoops to jump through to build the plugin so it can be notarized are annoying, not forgetting the $99 per year for an Apple developer account so that you can actually do the notarizing.
Again, not much can be done about Xcode other than vent, I guess. But step 11, Maxon could do something about. Many, if not most, software vendors allow you to install and use their apps on two machines - a desktop and laptop for example, as long as both aren't in use at the same time. But Maxon insist on the licence being transferred across machines before you can do that, which is really, really tedious if you need to keep swapping between the two. This time, I did all the PC versions first, then all the Mac versions, but it isn't the best way to work because if there's a problem with a plugin on VS, you can be certain it'll be there or worse on Xcode - and if in the meantime you've switched to work on some other plugin, you then find you can't recall how to fix the broken one when you get to it. So please Maxon, can't you have a think about your licensing - if only for your dwindling group of independent plugin developers?
Page last updated November 24th 2025