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About this documentation

Distribution

The SDK is distributed through Maxon's PluginCafe page. The newest version can always be obtained from http://www.plugincafe.com.

Version history

2000-07-21
The first version of the SDK.

2000-11-11
First complete version for CINEMA 4D R6.3. More examples and a better structure.

2005-02-05
An update of the documentation for CINEMA 4D R9.1.

2005-10-28
An update of the documentation for CINEMA 4D R9.5.

Compatibility

To use the C.O.F.F.E.E. SDK fully, you should always use the latest version possible of C4D. Free upgrades (where applicable) can be found at http://www.maxon.net.

Conventions

Throughout the documentation the following type conventions are used:

• Regular text
• code and keywords
• [types], e.g. [int]
• filenames

Further information

Literature

Here are some book recommendations, direct from the makers of CINEMA 4D.

General must-haves

• Computer Graphics : Principles and Practice, Second Edition in C
  by James D. Foley, Andries van Dam, Steven K. Feiner, John F. Hughes
  Addison-Wesley Pub Co; ISBN: 0201848406
• Graphics Gems I
  by Andrew S. Glassner (Preface)
  Morgan Kaufmann Publishers; ISBN: 0122861663
• Graphics Gems II (The Graphics Gems)
  by James Arvo (Editor)
  Morgan Kaufmann Publishers; ISBN: 0120644819
• Graphics Gems III
  by David Kirk (Editor)
  Academic Pr; ISBN: 0124096735
• Graphics Gems IV
  by Paul S. Heckbert (Editor)
  Morgan Kaufmann Publishers; ISBN: 0123361559
• Graphics Gems V
  by Alan W. Paeth (Editor)
  Morgan Kaufmann Publishers; ISBN: 0125434553

Shaders and rendering

• Texturing and Modeling : A Procedural Approach
  by David S. Ebert (Editor)
  Morgan Kaufmann Publishers; ISBN: 0122287606
• Advanced Animation and Rendering Techniques : Theory and Practice
  by Alan H. Watt, Mark Watt (Contributor)
  Addison-Wesley Pub Co; ISBN: 0201544121

Additional

• 3D Computer Graphics (3rd edition)
  by Alan H. Watt
  Addison-Wesley Pub Co; ISBN: 0201398559
• Computer Graphics, C Version
  by Donald Hearn, M. Pauline Baker
  Prentice Hall; ISBN: 0135309247
• The CINEMA 4D manual. It contains lots of information and descriptions.

Links

Here are some useful links for plugin development:

• Plugin Cafe (official developer support)
  http://www.plugincafe.com
• Numerical Recipes ("the" reference for numerical methods)
  http://www.nr.com/
• Game Developer Magazine
  http://www.gdmag.com/
• The math forum
  http://mathforum.org/library/
• Wotsit's Format
  http://www.wotsit.org
• C++ users journal
  http://www.cuj.com/