I personally do not like the idea of plugins, the less integrated something is the bigger pain in the but it can be....it is also not as powerful(generally)as something designed for the engine....if that makes sense.
...in other words, good old "C/C++" directX/openGL, and some elbo grease go a long way if you can use them...what jcl has given us is a completely competent well integrated tool for application creation....generally used for games, but not limited to.