The highly-anticipated Cinema 4D R20 update has been released, bringing with it a plethora of new tools and features (which Nodal examined in our R20 preview).
Along with the new bells and whistles, MAXON completely revamped their API for developing Cinema 4D plugins. This means that any C++-based plugins from previous versions will no longer function in R20 and will need to be recompiled for compatibility purposes. Developers have been aware of the API change and are hard at work preparing their software for this latest release. Rendering engines, such as Octane and Redshift, still require some additional time to update their plugins.
Test builds of the Octane plugin for Windows are being rolled out but no official release is yet available. Insydium has also announced that X-Particles and Cycles 4D users will need to update their plugins for R20 compatibility, but as of this writing, there is no further information on when the update will be available.
It should be noted that the Python API was unaffected in this release, so Python-based plugins should still function.
Finally, the C.O.F.F.E.E. language is being phased out in R20, so any C.O.F.F.E.E. plugins and scripts will no longer work in the new version.
It will be important to investigate which plugins you use; many will need to be updated in order to be compatible with R20. As with any major software release, it is always prudent to perform thorough testing before deploying it for full production use.
R19 users on an active support contract with MAXON are entitled to the R20 update as part of that agreement. If you have any questions about deploying the new version at your facility, reach out to Nodal!
For more information on API changes that may impact plugins you use, check out the MAXON developer’s article on the subject.