VLiva Documentation

Lifecycle and Call Order

Expected execution order from library load to frame updates and plugin unload.

Group: Core API

Sections: 2

Source files: 2

Direct URL: https://vliva.tamkungz.me/documentation/lifecycle

include/vliva/plugins/plugin_api.h
plugins/example_plugin.cpp

In this page

Lifecycle Flow
Implementation Guidelines

Section 1

Lifecycle Flow

Host drives plugin lifecycle in a strict order. Each callback has a clear responsibility.

Load plugin and resolve create_plugin symbol.
Read returned API table and verify api_version.
Call on_load(host) once for initialization.
Call on_frame(time_seconds, delta_seconds) each frame.
Call on_unload() once before unloading shared library.

text

Host start
  -> load shared library (.so)
  -> lookup create_plugin symbol
  -> read VlivaPluginApi table
  -> call on_load(host)
  -> call on_frame(time, delta) each frame
  -> call on_unload() before unload

Section 2

Implementation Guidelines

Keep plugin runtime stable and fail-safe across all callbacks.

Never assume host callback pointers are always available.
Avoid heavy work inside on_frame without throttling.
Keep initialization and shutdown idempotent where possible.
Preserve ABI safety: no exceptions across C ABI boundary.