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Collapse Launcher’s plugin system lets community developers ship support for additional games without modifying the launcher’s core codebase. A plugin is a native Windows DLL built with NativeAOT that Collapse loads at runtime, communicating with it through COM Interop interfaces defined in Hi3Helper.Plugin.Core.

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What plugins can do

Game management

Report install state, installed version, latest API version, preload availability, and expose install/update/uninstall routines that Collapse drives via IGameInstaller.

Launcher UI content

Supply background images, logo overlays, news articles, carousel banners, and social media links through ILauncherApiMedia and ILauncherApiNews.

Multiple regions

A single plugin DLL can expose multiple IPluginPresetConfig instances — one per game region or server type — each with its own metadata, zone name, and API endpoints.

Self-updating

Plugins can provide a CDN list or implement IPluginSelfUpdate so the launcher can check for and download updates without user intervention.

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How plugin loading works

Collapse looks for plugin directories in its plugin folder. Each directory whose name matches the pattern Hi3Helper.Plugin.* is treated as a candidate plugin. The loader follows this sequence:
  1. Manifest discovery — The loader reads manifest.json from the directory root to obtain the DLL filename and asset list.
  2. Sentinel checks — Before loading, pending operations (deletion, update application) are applied and the _markDisabled sentinel is checked. Disabled plugins are registered in memory without loading the DLL.
  3. DLL load — NativeLibrary.TryLoad maps the DLL into the process.
  4. Required export resolution — The loader resolves GetPluginStandardVersion, GetPluginVersion, GetPlugin, and SetLoggerCallback. If any export is missing, the plugin is rejected.
  5. Logger injection — A managed callback delegate is passed to SetLoggerCallback so plugin log output flows into Collapse’s logging system.
  6. COM object retrieval — GetPlugin returns a void* COM pointer that is marshalled to an IPlugin managed interface via ComInterfaceMarshaller<IPlugin>.
  7. Preset config enumeration — IPlugin.GetPresetConfigCount and IPlugin.GetPresetConfig iterate over all IPluginPresetConfig instances, which are wrapped and registered into Collapse’s metadata system.
  8. Optional services — The loader optionally resolves GetPluginUpdateCdnList, SetDnsResolverCallback, SetDnsResolverCallbackAsync, and RegisterSpeedThrottlerService.
The plugin folder path is controlled by LauncherConfig.AppPluginFolder. You can open it from the Plugin Manager UI inside Collapse Launcher.

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Architecture: COM Interop + NativeAOT

Collapse Launcher is a .NET 10 WinUI 3 application. Plugins are built as unmanaged native DLLs — typically with NativeAOT — that expose a C ABI entry point (GetPlugin) returning a COM-compatible IUnknown-derived object pointer. The Hi3Helper.Plugin.Core NuGet package contains:
  • All COM interface definitions (IPlugin, IPluginPresetConfig, IGameManager, ILauncherApiMedia, ILauncherApiNews, IPluginSelfUpdate, IGameInstaller, IGameUninstaller).
  • The GameVersion struct used for version negotiation.
  • Update-related types (PluginManifest, PluginManifestAssetInfo, SelfUpdateReturnInfo, SelfUpdateReturnCode).
  • Utility delegates for logging, DNS resolution, and speed throttling.
Because plugins are native DLLs, they can be written in any language that can produce a standard Windows DLL with the correct C ABI exports — though C# with NativeAOT is the reference implementation.
UPX-packed plugin DLLs are detected and flagged. Collapse will log a warning and the plugin may behave unstably. Do not compress plugin binaries with UPX.

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Plugin Manager UI

The Plugin Manager is accessible from Collapse Launcher’s Settings page. It provides:
  • A list of all discovered plugins with their name, version, author, and description.
  • Toggle controls to enable or disable individual plugins (takes effect on next launch).
  • Uninstall controls that mark a plugin for deletion (_markPendingDeletion) — files are removed on the next launcher start.
  • Update controls to manually or automatically check for and apply updates.
  • A button to open the current plugin’s directory in Windows Explorer.
  • An auto-update setting (IsEnablePluginAutoUpdate) that runs update checks in the background on launch.

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Plugin discovery and installation

Plugins are installed by placing a properly structured directory in the plugin folder, or by using the Plugin Manager’s import flow. The importer accepts two formats:
A .zip archive whose root (or a single top-level subdirectory) contains manifest.json alongside all plugin assets. Files may be Brotli-compressed with a .br extension inside the archive.
On import, Collapse:
  1. Reads manifest.json to determine the DLL name and asset list.
  2. Creates a directory named Hi3Helper.Plugin.<DllNameWithoutExtension> inside the plugin folder.
  3. Copies all assets into that directory, verifying MD5 hashes for non-manifest files.
  4. Registers the new PluginInfo instance without restarting — the plugin is immediately available.
The plugin directory name is derived from MainLibraryName in the manifest. For a DLL named MyGame.Plugin.dll, the directory will be Hi3Helper.Plugin.MyGame.Plugin.

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