| TYPE_POINT | a Win32 POINT struct |
| TYPE_TSTR | a 3ds Max SDK TSTR class |
| TYPE_IOBJECT | a new FnPub system IObject |
| TYPE_INTERFACE | a FPInterface |
| TYPE_HWND | a Win32 HWND handle |
| TYPE_NAME | a variant of TYPE_STRING, meant to be interpreted as an interned symbol orname in the client (eg, MAXScript represents these Name instances, as in #foo, etc.) |
All the new base types are passed naturally as pointers, so there are _BV and _BR variants for all of them (except for TYPE_HWND). There are also _TAB, _TAB_BR, _TAB_BV variants for them all. For reference, all the currently available types are in the ParamType2 enumeration in /include/iparmb2.h. Some base types are naturally passed by value, others by pointer. Basically, all the int and float-derived types are passed naturally by-value and all the rest by pointer. The by-value base types are:
TYPE_FLOAT TYPE_ANGLE TYPE_PCNT_FRAC TYPE_WORLD TYPE_COLOR_CHANNEL
The FPValue class has a union containing fields for all the base and table types and show the natural passing mode for each. Note that the _BP by-pointer variants of the base types are passed as iptr & fptr pointer fields in the PValue union. For the types that are passed naturally by pointer, the _BV variants cause local copies to be made and owned by the FPValue carrying them. The FPValue destructor will free memory taken by these copies. Also, the _BR variants of naturally-pointer types need to supplied as pointers to the FPValue(or FPParams) constructors and are dereferenced at parameter delivery time. So, for example, the following FPInterface method:
Tab<int> Foo(INode* object, Tab<Point3*>& points);
would be declared in the FUNCTION_MAP as
FN_2(my_foo, TYPE_INT_TAB_BV, Foo, TYPE_INODE, TYPE_POINT3_TAB_BR);
and in the descriptor constructor as
my_foo, _T("foo"), 0, TYPE_INT_TAB_BV, 0, 2,
_T("object"), 0, TYPE_INODE,
_T("points"), 0, TYPE_POINT3_TAB_BR,