AuburnSounds / AuburnSounds/Dplug

Installing plugins is still hard for new producers

Open
#568 2 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
Enhancement Installer Question
Dominant language
D
Stars
564
Forks
34
PR merge metrics
No merged PRs in 30d

Description

I've been sitting behind a relatively newbie friend tasked with installing a plugin with a Dplug installer.

Some aspects of installing that were hard were:

- [ ] Ugly green on black colors, do it more like REAPER installer (black on white).
- [x] first there is no understanding that VST in reaper means "VST2". So after installing the VST**3**, the user might search for it in "VST" category => well that's a REAPER or Ableton issue
- [ ] no conceptual distinction between the unzipped package and the plugin itself. The user tries to unpack the ZIP inside her VST2 plugin folder, and then execute the installer from there. (whose VST2 will go in default folder) => well that should still work, if user points to right directory for matching install dir and DAW
- [ ] installer ZIP should be called "Installer " probably
- [x] install 64-bit and 32-bit plugins in default VST2 folder without reading => **kind of solved now that 32-bit plugins have disappeared, hopefully in Windows arm64 it will be fat binaries**
- [x] doesn't manage to find the VST2 in `C:\Program Files\VSTPlugins` to move it to own VST2 folder after running the installer. User search in `C:\Program Files` or `C:\Program Files (x86)` and fails to find the plugin. => **somewhat solved by the disappearance of VST2**
- [x] is unaware of the difference between 64-bit and 32-bit plugins => **kind of solved now that 32-bit plugins have disappeared**
- [x] manages to install the VST3, but not the VST2
- [ ] really doesn't like the selection screen to select whether to install VST2 / VST3 / AAX. Think about giving up there!
- [x] doesn't know she can rescan plugins in REAPER, would restart the DAW instead
- [ ] tell to "restart or rescan plugins" in the DAW

Also the installer:
- [x] doesn't say to close the DAW => now it does for VST2 and VST3

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start with the Dplug installer UI and the installer ZIP naming and selection flow. Review the remaining unchecked points—contrast, clearer installer naming, VST2/VST3/AAX choices, and restart-or-rescan guidance—and run the installer in a DAW to verify each change.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Domain
audio-video-rtc, desktop
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
25/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.