3DS MAX and Rhino on a G5 with Virtual PC

[Brian Wilson]

Anyone have any experience using 3DS MAX 5.1+ on OS 10.3 using Virtual PC?

I use Protools Digi 002, the Adobe Video and Creative Suites and Macromedia Studio (all of which perform from what I read better on the G5). Problem is more then half of my work is on Rhino and 3DS Max, which is keeping me from lunging with both feet from my Dell to a G5.

On rhino's web site they claim that it runs fine under virtual pc and I heard the Max performs poorly. But does anyone out there actually have any first person experience using rhino or 3DS MAX on virtual PC?

[Brian Wilson]

Also saw this today... Virtual PC 7 is to be released in the fall for the G5 claiming a 20% increase in performance and improvements in speed, graphics performance and user interface.

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/product...pid=comingsoon

[Steve Shaw]

My suggestion would be to buy the G5 for what you need it for and build a low cost PC for the 3D work. Use a KVM to share a monitor(s) between the machines.

I personally have a PowerBook for my video work and PCs for 3D.

[Jack Bransfield]

Brian,

I use Virtual PC on my dual G4 1GHz exclusively for Autocad. It works, but it's incredibly slow, and not very stable. I would recommend it for drafting, but not modeling, let alone rendering. I ran Cinebench on VPC to compare it to OS X, and it was something like 10 times as slow. So a 20% speed increase still won't help. I would either get a cheap Windows box, or consider one of the great 3d programs that run natively in OS X. Cheers,

Jack

[Cesar Rullier]

I tryed VPC with MAX in my 17" Powerbook when I had it last august and it was SLOWWWWWWW.

I have a G5 which I love, OSX rules ! but I am looking to get a PC (again) just for 3D work.

BTW, what KVM works with a ADC (apple display) or DVI?

[Alex Guzman]

Why don't u use Maya, it's cheap, it's awesome, and you can try it for free, with full functionality (except for the render res.)

I love Max, i've using it since the version 1.0 an the old 3ds 4, but if you want all the 3d power on a MAC, Use Maya or LW, they are cheaper solutions, more stable and more powerful on Mac instead of the buggy virtual PC, plus you can still exporting to max via the DXF exporter or using a plug, like okino's to convert files and materials.

If you build a PC onli for Max you will spend some in the 2000 neighborhood to get a DECENT machine, while a maya seat costing about 1500 seems to be a bargain considering that you can have all the Mac Power.

It's only a tougth...

[Cesar Rullier]

"If you build a PC onli for Max you will spend some in the 2000 neighborhood to get a DECENT machine, while a maya seat costing about 1500 seems to be a bargain considering that you can have all the Mac Power"

Its a shame the MAX does port to the mac. MAX and LW are very compatible with architectural date, and I just love the after market render engines for max.

[Alex Guzman]

"Its a shame the MAX does port to the mac. MAX and LW are very compatible with architectural date, and I just love the after market render engines for max."

Maya Uses Mental Ray For Render, and Brazil Is ready for Maya too, maybe the V-Ray.exe would be interesting.

[Travis Schmiesing]

3dmax brings a lot of high end window's machines to their knees. if autocad was crazy slow, max will probably take 10 minutes to launch.

[Cesar Rullier]

3dmax brings a lot of high end window's machines to their knees...

What do you mean?