Early development: APIs may change between releases.

VLC + CLR = VLCLR is a framework for writing VLC 4.x plugins in C# and publishing them as Native AOT libraries that VLC loads directly, with no C shim.

Targets VLC 4.0.6 and .NET 10 on:

• Windows x64
• Linux x64
• macOS arm64 and x64

CI builds the plugins and runs them inside VLC 4 nightlies on every platform.

Minimal plugin

using VLCLR.Plugin;

[VLCModule("my_filter")]
[VLCCapability("video filter", Score = 0)]
[VLCDescription("My C# video filter")]
public partial class MyFilter : VLCVideoFilterBase
{
    protected override void ProcessFrame(VLCFrame frame)
    {
        // Inspect or modify the negotiated VLC picture.
    }
}

The source generator supplies vlc_entry, module registration, native callbacks, exception handling, and per-instance state. Advanced plugins can use VLCLR.Module.ModuleBuilder directly.

Samples

Sample	Capability	Platforms
VideoOverlay	CPU video filter with ImageSharp text and graphics	Windows, Linux, macOS
SubtitleRenderer	ImageSharp text renderer	Windows, Linux, macOS
GaussianBlur	Port of VLC's Gaussian blur video filter with the same output, SIMD included	Windows, Linux, macOS

Advanced samples

These are closed source and available under the commercial license.

Sample	Capability
Privacy Shield	Real-time redaction of people, faces, and license plates during playback, with solid, mosaic, or blur effects. GPU-accelerated end to end
Semantic Video Navigator	Describe a moment in plain words and jump straight to it. Indexing runs in the background while playback stays smooth
Shader Studio	GPU-accelerated live effects (CRT, Comic, Neon, VHS, Noir, Halftone, Temporal Echo), switched instantly from a panel inside VLC
Live Audio Translator	Live speech translation: listens to the audio track, transcribes and translates it, and shows the result as subtitles
Subtitle Translator	Offline English-to-French subtitle translation with a local ONNX model, inside the text renderer
Object Search	YOLOX object detection on the GPU (D3D11 and OpenVINO), with boxes and labels drawn over the video

Requirements

• .NET SDK 10.0.102
• A Native AOT toolchain: MSVC with vswhere.exe in PATH on Windows, clang on Linux, Xcode command line tools on macOS
• A VLC 4 development build compatible with plugin API 4.0.6
• On Windows, lib/libvlccore.lib when publishing plugins

Build and test

dotnet build vlclr.sln -c Release
dotnet test src/VLCLR.Tests -c Release
dotnet publish samples/VideoOverlay -c Release

dotnet publish targets the current OS and architecture.

Repository map

Path	Purpose
src/VLCLR/	Core bindings, wrappers, module registration, and plugin base classes
src/VLCLR.Generators/	Attribute-based VLC module source generator
src/VLCLR.ImageSharp/	Frame and text-rendering helpers
src/VLCLR.Filters/	Ports of VLC's video filters
samples/	Native AOT plugin examples, each with its own guide
tests/	Unit, ABI, integration, and visual tests
benchmarks/	Rendering and filter performance measurements

License

VLCLR is dual-licensed:

• Open source: GNU General Public License v2.0 or later.
• Commercial: for use in proprietary software without GPL obligations, contact @mfkl.

Third-party components keep their own licenses.