Questions Regarding AE SDK Development and Compatibility Issues

Report · Jun 12, 2025

I am developing an After Effects (AE) plugin for exporting effects based on the AE SDK, but I have encountered the following issues:
Background:
In earlier versions of AE, the track matte of a layer could only be its immediate previous layer, and they had a positional relationship.
However, in my local testing, I found that in AE 2024 and later versions (versions before 2024 were not tested, so it's unclear when this change was introduced), a layer and its track matte layer no longer have a positional relationship.
To address this, I used the AEGP_GetTrackMatteLayer interface, which was added in the AE SDK 2023. Plugins developed with the AE SDK 2023 run correctly in AE 2024/2025 but crash in AE 2022.
Since my computer is running a newer version (macOS Sequoia 15.4), I cannot install AE 2022 to debug the issue. However, I suspect the crash might be caused by the plugin using AEGP_GetTrackMatteLayer.
Questions to Confirm:
From which version of AE is the AEGP_GetTrackMatteLayer interface (added in AE SDK 2023) supported? Will using this interface in an unsupported version of AE cause a crash?
What is the compatibility relationship between the AE SDK and AE versions? Can a plugin developed with AE SDK 2023 run correctly in AE 2023 and later versions, provided that the AE version is greater than or equal to the SDK version?
In which version of AE was the change introduced where a layer and its track matte layer no longer have a positional relationship? Was this change introduced in the same version as the AEGP_GetTrackMatteLayer interface?
If a plugin is developed using AE SDK 2023 but does not use any 2023-specific interfaces, can it run in versions of AE prior to 2023?
If it can run, I can implement compatibility adaptations in the plugin as follows:

Develop the plugin using AE SDK 2023.
a. Use the script app.version to get the current AE version.
b. If the current AE version is >= 2023 and all versions after 2023 support AEGP_GetTrackMatteLayer, use this interface to get the track matte layer.
c. If the current AE version is < 2023 and the layer and its track matte layer have a positional relationship in AE, avoid using the AEGP_GetTrackMatteLayer interface.
Your answers to these questions would be very helpful in resolving my issue. Thank you very much!

Report · Jun 12, 2025

Yes if you develop a plugin against the AE 2023 SDK but only use functionality (AEGP suites) that were present in say, CS6, then it will run in CS6 fine.

If AEGP_GetTrackMatteLayer was added in the 2023 SDK and you run that plugin in 2022 it will likely crash.

You are correct that you will need to get the AE version from scripting, because the version information in in_data has been incorrect for a long time.

Report · Jun 12, 2025

Thank you for your previous response! Based on your reply, I would like to confirm whether my understanding is correct:
If a plugin is developed using AE SDK 2023 but does not call any 2023-specific APIs, can it run in versions of AE prior to 2023? In other words, can I use app.version in the plugin to retrieve the AE version and then decide whether to call AEGP_GetTrackMatteLayer?
Is AEGP_GetTrackMatteLayer supported in all versions of AE from 2023 onwards? If so, I only need to check whether the AE version is lower than 2023 and avoid calling AEGP_GetTrackMatteLayer in such cases.
Additionally, I have another question to confirm:
In AE versions that do not support AEGP_GetTrackMatteLayer, do layers and their track mattes still have a positional relationship? I need to ensure that the plugin can correctly export layers and their track mattes even in versions of AE that do not support AEGP_GetTrackMatteLayer.
Your answers to these questions would be extremely helpful in resolving my issue. Thank you very much!

Report · Jun 12, 2025

I have another question that requires your response:
What is the correspondence between the version information obtained through the script app.version and the actual AE versions? Where can I find this correspondence?
Below are the version relationships I have verified:
AeVersion:25.1x68 → AE 2025
AeVersion:24.0x55 → AE 2024
Below are the version relationships I have speculated. Could you confirm if they are correct?
AeVersion:23.0x** → AE 2023
AeVersion:22.0x** → AE 2022
AeVersion:21.0x** → AE 2021
AeVersion:20.0x** → AE 2020
What is the correspondence between the majorVersion and minorVersion passed in EntryPointFunc and the AE versions? Where can I find this correspondence?
Below are the version relationships I have verified:
majorVersion:125, minorVersion:1 → AE 2025
majorVersion:124, minorVersion:0 → AE 2024
Below are the version relationships I have speculated. Could you confirm if they are correct?
majorVersion:123, minorVersion:1 → AE 2023
majorVersion:122, minorVersion:0 → AE 2022
majorVersion:121, minorVersion:1 → AE 2021
majorVersion:120, minorVersion:0 → AE 2020
The version correspondence introduced on the following page is incomplete, so I cannot obtain accurate version relationships. This is crucial for me to determine the AE version and implement different code logic accordingly:

https://ae-plugins.docsforadobe.dev/intro/compatibility-across-multiple-versions/

Report · Jun 14, 2025

This is correct, you can compile your plugin against the 2023 SDK and as long as you only call AEGP_GetTrackMatteLayer after you check the version # and ensure the user is on 2023, you'll be fine. That said, always test on multiple versions of AE just to make sure.

Prior to this functionality, the trackmatte had to be the layer above.

For versioning info, I misspoke when I said the in_data->version is incorrect / outdated. It's just that it doesn't correspond in the same way to the yearly release versioning. For example AE 2025 is 13.29, AE 2024 is 13.28. So to my knowledge, you can only distinguish between the major yearly releases. But that should be enough for your case.

Report · Jun 15, 2025

Thank you very much for your professional response. It has been extremely helpful in resolving the plugin issue.