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07-848 2005

Application SDK

Plugin Categories

Besides its type, a plugin (the scene object) may belong to one or more plugin category or categories such as being a Light, a Material, a Texture, etc.

Last updated 7 April 2026

Besides its type, a plugin (the scene object) may belong to one or more plugin category or categories such as being a Light, a Material, a Texture, etc.

The following plugin categories are available in App SDK version 7.0:

Bitmap
BSDF
GeometricObject
GeometrySource
Light
Material
RenderChannel
RenderView
Settings
Texture
TextureFloat
TextureInt
TextureMatrix
TextureTransform
TextureVector
UVWGen
Volumetric

To get all lights using the categories API:

Python

C++

C#.NET

Node.js

Or to get all plugins that are both lights and geometric objects:

Python

C++

C#.NET

Node.js

Plugin categories can also be useful to identify which plugin (as a source) can be connected to another plugin input parameter. E.g., the plugin parameter definition type (the type you get by obtaining the property meta), besides the other standard V-Ray types like int, Color, Matrix, etc., can also be Texture, TextureFloat, TextureInt, TextureMatrix, TextureTransform, TextureVector, and there are plugins belonging to categories with the same name, and they can be connected to those input parameters.

The GeometrySource plugins serve as a source for some GeometricObject plugins connected to their geometry input parameter, etc.