programs available

What all do I need to actually plug in and tune? am looking for programs, pass through etc. That I can use to make my own custom tunes. I have looked into HP Tuners, I like it and plan to use it, however I also plan on doing some imports as well, what are some options out there and what's worth trying, what do you recommend never trying? Thanks!

Depending on what cars you wish to tune....

The biggest brands in stock ecu remapping are Flashtec (CMDFlash) and DIMSport (New Genius and Trasdata). That's for reading and writing.

Then you need a software to edit the files - biggest being WinOLS and Swiftec.

Master equipment with full versions of software? About 20000 usd...

That'll allow you to read and map almost any car currently available on this planet.

What you need depends on what you will be tuning. HPTuners does GM-Ford-Dodge/Cummins. EFIlive does GM and Dodge/Cummins, SCT does Ford (mostly) and some GM.

Older vehicles can use something like TunerPro RT but you have to look around for definition (.xdf) and logging (.adx) files to do it.

With Nissan you can use NIStune but you have to get a "daughter board" fitted to the oem ecu, with Australian Holdens you can use Kalmaker (or TunerPro with Moates or PCMhacking hardware), with Australian Fords you can use Moates Ostrich linked to TunerPro or just TunerPro with TI Performance J3 adaptors. With Honda you can use Hondata but you need hardware fitted to the oem ecu. In other worlds there is no 1 size fits all hardware software option.

My advice is get what will do your own car and practise on it until you are confident. If that is HPtuners then that's a great start, if it's TunerPro with Moates hardware then its a good start but the hardware will probably be manufacturer and model specific, if it's Nistune you can't get better for many Nissans.

There is a thread somewhere that lists most of the known available options. I suggest you do a search for it even if it is just to see the mind boggling number of options there are available.

EDIT: Here it is https://www.hpacademy.com/forum/general-tuning-discussion/show/a-complete-list-of-all-engine-management-systems-in-the-world