Zen :: Plugins

The top level projects such as Zen Core, Zen Engine, Zen Studio, and Zen Enterprise are all frameworks that utilize the Zen Core plugin system.

The frameworks define extension points, which are points that can be extended. Plugins implement these as extensions.

This page is dedicated to what we call the "Z" plugins, which are plugins supported and maintained by IndieZen.org developers. There may be third party plugins, and you're also welcome to write your own. Feel free to redistribute your own plugins commercially or as open source. If you'd like your plugin to become a "Z" plugin and part of IndieZen.org, please contact SgtFlame.

Zen Core Plugins

The only extension point currently supported by Zen Core is the Scripting extension point. Current plugins include:

Plugin	Description	Status	Maintainer
ZLua	A Lua scripting plugin.	Stable	Tony
ZTamarin	A Tamarin (aka ActionScript) scripting plugin.	Under development	Tony
ZPython	A Python scripting plugin.	Stable, missing a few features.	Tony

Zen Engine Plugins

Zen Engine supports many extension points, including Physics, Rendering, Resource Management, Audio, CLI (command line interface), and others. The "Z" plugins for Zen Engine are:

Zen Engine CLI

Plugin	Description	Status	Maintainer
ZBasicCommandLineParser	A basic CLI (Command Line Interface) parser plugin.	Stable	Matt
ZBasicConsole	A basic Console plugin.	Stable	Matt

Zen Engine Rendering

Plugin	Description	Status	Maintainer
ZOgre	An OGRE rendering plugin.	Stable	Matt, Tony
ZSky	A basic Skybox plugin.	Stable	Matt
ZTerrain	A basic terrain plugin.	Stable	Matt
ZCam	A basic custom camera plugin.	deprecated	none
ZCloud	A cloud rendering plugin.	Under development	Matt

Zen Engine Widgets

Plugin	Description	Status	Maintainer
ZCrazyEddie	An CEGUI widget plugin.	Stable	Matt

Zen Engine Audio

Plugin	Description	Status	Maintainer
ZFMOD	An FMOD Sound plugin.	Under development	Az
ZOpenAL	An OpenAL sound plugin.	Under development	Az

Zen Engine Input Devices

Plugin	Description	Status	Maintainer
ZInput	A basic input plugin (keyboard/mouse).	Stable	Tony
ZNavigator?	A plugins for 3dConnexion devices	Not maintained (as of 0.1.0)	Tony

Zen Engine Physics

Plugin	Description	Status	Maintainer
ZNewton	A Newton physics plugin.	Stable	Azaezel
ZPhysX	A PhysX physics plugin.	Incomplete	Needs a maintainer
ZODE	An Open Dynamics Engine physics plugin.	Incomplete	Tony
ZBullet	A Bullet physics plugin.	Incomplete	Matt

Zen Engine Misc

Plugin	Description	Status	Maintainer
ZCollada	A Collada import/export plugin.	deprecated?	was Matt
ZRakNet	A RakNet networking plugin.	Abandoned?	Needs a maintainer
ZMicroPather?	An A* pathfinding plugins using MicroPather? library	Stable	Tony

Zen Enterprise Plugins

Zen Enterprise supports extension points for protocol adapters and for application services.

Zen Enterprise Databases

Plugin	Description	Status	Maintainer
ZMySQL	A MySQL database plugin.	Stable	Matt
ZPostgres	A Postgres database plugin.	Incomplete	Needs a maintainer
ZSQLite	An SQLite database plugin.	Stable	Tony

Zen Enterprise Adapters

ZBoostNetworking

Protocol Adapter plugin using Boost ASIO

Stable

Tony

Other Zen Enterprise application services

Plugin	Description	Status	Maintainer
ZWebServices?	Sample Web Services plugin	Stable	Tony

There are a large number of other application services related to Zen Worlds and Zen Studio. I'll list them in those areas instead of creating duplicate listings.

Zen Studio Plugins

Zen Studio plugins are separated into multiple libraries. Some of the libraries are generated code, while others are manually written.

The reason these are separated is to split the functionality into client and server libraries to have common libraries which are common between both client and server.

For example, for the GameBuilder? plugin, there's:

• GameBuilder? - All of the GUI code that uses wxWidgets.
• GameBuilderClient? - The application service plugin that implements the client logic.
• GameBuilderServer? - The application service plugin that implements the server logic.
• GameBuilderProtocol? - The protocol library that implements the messages that are sent between the client and server. This library is generated using the Zen Spaces protocol code generator.
• GameBuilderModel? - The database model library that implements the object to database mapping. This is used for reading and writing the database and converting between the database model and C++ objects.
• GameBuilderCommon? - This is the common library, which generally has no implementation. It's used to define the interfaces that are implemented in the other libraries.

Plugin	Description	Status	Maintainer
GameBuilder?	Game Entity Editor	Stable	Tony
WorldBuilder?	World / Zone Editor, which is like a scene graph editor except it uses GameBuilder? defined objects and does not directly use .mesh files.	Deprecated? Possibly going to use Ogitor instead.	Tony
ArtLibrary?	Mesh and Audio distributed file repository.	Under development	Matt + Tony

Zen Community Plugins

Zen Community implements some application services related to making a community for games. These plugins are arranged much the same way as Zen Studio plugins, with Client, Common, Protocol and Model libraries.

Plugin	Description	Status	Maintainer
Chat?	Chat service	Under development	Tony
Lobby?	Game Lobby service	Under development	Tony
Session?	Game Session service, which essentially controls user accounts, authentication, etc	Under development	Matt + Tony

Zen Worlds Plugins

Zen Worlds implements some application services related to making an online virtual world or MMO game, but it can also be used for other online games. It does not define any genre specific details so although it supports MMO games, it does not specifically support MMORPG games.

Zen Worlds libraries are also arranged in Client, Server, Protocol, Model libraries.

Plugin	Description	Status	Maintainer
World?	Main Zen Worlds service. This is the top level "server" or "shard" service.	Under development	Tony
Zone?	This is the zone service which implements the individual zones, maps, mission, level, etc services.	Under development	Tony
ZWGameClient?	Zen Worlds Game Client. This is the main game client that exposes the bulk of the rest of the services to script in order to facilitate creating games without C++.	Under development	Tony