Support improvement for "VST not working" posts

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I would like to propose to the support team to also include in their responses to users who have trouble loading VSTs, to also request the user to verify they have the appropriate runtime libraries installed on their computer. For example, Neo Piano (AKA Piano One) requires the "Visual C++ 2010 Service Pack" from Microsoft in order to load on Windows PCs.

Thank you.
It is a good point. Personally I download VSTs myself to try and replicate bugs, but I don't think musikbear typically downloads them right away, instead troubleshooting for basic problems first. So asking a user to check for prerequisite software packages or dependencies to run the program, is very useful a tip. When a runtime library is missing, it is a very irritating problem from what I've found. In other forums, like the PaintDotNet forums, there are a surprising number of support tickets re: VCRUNTIME140.dll, where you need a very specific version of it to run the program in the first place.
I don't think any of us would've thought of runtime libraries when receiving a support ticket without testing the VST ourselves. Subsequently, the suggestion is a good one to keep in mind because that way, if we face any "weird" error boxes, then we could directly ask the user to check for software packages without having to download the VST ourselves.
That being said, I must mention this. From experience, very few VSTs actually need runtime libraries, and very few VST support tickets actually are caused by missing runtime libraries. Asking the support team to request user to verify they have libraries for each time they get a VST help request, imo, is a bit of an overkill. It's like asking the user what architecture (x32 or x64) their computer is, or where they downloaded LMMS from, in the off chance they're using a 32 bit computer or an unofficial download. And even requesting user to tell where they downloaded LMMS makes more sense than checking availability of runtime libraries probability-wise, and still we don't typically ask users where they download LMMS, because the probability they downloaded from a site that isn't lmms.io isn't high enough to warrant asking.
I understand it is probably a rare occurrence, but I have never seen anybody mention runtime libraries as a follow up in support requests. Sure, it makes perfect sense to post the typical solutions first, but if those don't work, follow up with some rarer solutions.
I personally was having trouble getting this VST to work, and I knew it works with LMMS as I had it running before I reformatted my PC. It did not tell me what was missing; it just plainly failed to load without an error message. If I had known that missing certain libraries may also be a cause, I would have tried to find a solution in that area as well, rather than forgetting about it until I installed a program that told me I require this c++ library (which so happened to also be the one Neo Piano requires).
Noted. It's a good point. While most applications tell you what's missing, though, how are we to determine which runtime library is required for such an app which just... fails to run? without an error?
that being said, I'll personally keep it in mind the next time I see a support ticket for a VST failing to run.
Aidanjosiah02 wrote:
Sun Nov 14, 2021 8:11 am
request the user to verify they have the appropriate runtime libraries installed on their computer.
In a way, this is not LMMS related at all.
When you as user find and download any plugin, its is expected that YOU read all the documentation for that plugin on the download-page for that plugin!
There you would find information about necessary runtime-libs, or other dependencies, in order to use that specific plugin!
That is You the Users task, not us as support crew
It also your task to make sure the plugin does not contain malware or other bad stuff, so YOU need to scan the download, not us.
Dependencies for plugins could even conflict, and then it becomes nasty, especially if you downgrade runtime-libs, just for being able to rum some plugin. I would say NEVER do that!
But the task reading the info for the plugin remain with the User!