Trevor Tizard Posted July 31, 2008 Share Posted July 31, 2008 Hi, Can you help with a mac OS and Win xp under boot camp question. I'm intending to run Max under boot camp and all my adobe products under Mac OS. Am I right in thinking that Mac OS will see the contents of the windows partition, but XP will not see any files in the Mac partition. This being the case, where do you guys keep you're bitmaps for you're shaders? Excuse me if this is a dumb question, this is all a bit new as I've not worked with a mac before. Thanks, Trev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STRAT Posted July 31, 2008 Share Posted July 31, 2008 i run the same configuration as you, mac os and windows os and bootcamp in the middle yes, in mac mode you can read and copy from the windows partition, but you cant write to it. In windows mode you cant even see the mac partition. I personally keep my shader maps on our office network server , but, if you only have a desktop to work on you'll need to store the maps where the pc can read them from. unfortunately the mac partition wont be the answer, and since you cant save them from a mac into the windows section there might be a fair amount of faffing back and forth between the modes. personally, i also use photoshop in pc mode to help aide this solution. I've been using this set up and configuration for the last year. before the summer of last year i'd never used a mac in my life before. Must admit, after a good year's use, i can see the mac os as a beautifully crafted and usable operating system. very stable, memory efficient and user friendly.......but i dont like it. i'm a windows user of 15 years or so and must admit to liking it emensly, so switching over to a new system like the mac os isn't exactly to my liking. i'm too used to windows. (things like the mac mouse movement/action, just subtly different and annoying etc). dont let me put you off though. i use a mac because it's rendering capabilities are awsome compaired to a pc. means i get the best of both worlds - my beloved pc software and the mac hardware. i've just yesterday also installed XP64 too, so even happier Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevor Tizard Posted July 31, 2008 Author Share Posted July 31, 2008 Hi Strat, Thanks very much for the response. I too currently store everything on the network and it sounds like I should continue to do so. I also have an extra copy of Photoshop which I may well run too. I've heard that there is no direct support for XP64 with boot camp, was it a problem finding drivers? Also, I think you're a fellow Vray user. Have you tried distributed rendering, and we're there any issues. Now I have two computers it makes sense to give it a go. It's nice to know I'm not alone with this configuration (I've inherited this Mac), and really do appreciate the help. Regards, Trev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STRAT Posted July 31, 2008 Share Posted July 31, 2008 xp64 doesn't support bootcamp, you're correct (found this out only yesterday whilst installing). the solution for us was fortunate - i have 2 discs in my mac. 1 disc is where the mac side of things sit, and the other is where windows sits. whilst in mac mode, we re-formated the second disk to ms-dos/windows compatible format (mac gives this option, as does bootcamp if i recall). We then re-booted onto the freshly formated second blank drive (keep your finger on the ALT key whilst rebooting), put in the XP64 install disk and installed it on there from fresh. In effect we bypassed bootcamp completely. it's not really needed. choosing your boot method can be used pressing the ALT key as mentioned. If you only have a single drive and want to install XP64 then i dont know. i'm not to technical. You'd have to partition your disc in mac mode. weather this would require a complete re-install of the mac OS i dont know. and how you'd switch between the 2 modes on a single disk without bootcamp i dont know that either. you'll need to take advise. yup, i use Vray. but Vray for cinema wont support distributed rendering until the next imminent release. i'm quite happy my XP64 mac will co-operate nicely with the other macs/pc's in my office though. Also, i can provide links to download all the driver support you'll need too. they're just 2 zipped files you copy to your computer, double click on them and they automatically update your system to it's best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevor Tizard Posted July 31, 2008 Author Share Posted July 31, 2008 Thanks again, I've done a little digging and this Mac has one large hard drive with 2Gb of ram and 2 processors (4 core I think - I'm not technical either). Seems prudent to stick with xp32 on a partition as I can DR with my current PC to speed up the rendering process. Should be good...............I looking forward to getting final renders done without having to set them of over night......hopefully. Strat, if you don't mind I'll probably bother you again before too long once I've got it installed for help with basic numpty questions. Trev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STRAT Posted July 31, 2008 Share Posted July 31, 2008 ask any questions. i'll answer what i can my mac's an 8 core beast. render's beautifully in 64 bit with 4 gig ram Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevor Tizard Posted July 31, 2008 Author Share Posted July 31, 2008 ask any questions. i'll answer what i can my mac's an 8 core beast. render's beautifully in 64 bit with 4 gig ram Now I'm already jealous...........! Thanks again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted July 31, 2008 Share Posted July 31, 2008 There's a fairly inexpensive program called Macdrive that makes Windows able to read/write Mac partitions. It appears to work with XP32 and Vista32/64 but not XP64. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevor Tizard Posted July 31, 2008 Author Share Posted July 31, 2008 Hi Andrew, Thanks for the link............looks interesting. Would be nice to be able to have Mac OS write files in the windows partition too though (assuming I've read things correctly). Presumably this software would let max get bitmaps from a Mac partition? Trev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattclinch Posted July 31, 2008 Share Posted July 31, 2008 don't mean to hijack the thread, but when is the OS with built in bootcamp facility being released? or is bootcamp now integrated into the last version of the OS? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STRAT Posted July 31, 2008 Share Posted July 31, 2008 the bootcamp now comes with the leopard install disks, but you need to install it manually and update it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
halfworld Posted July 31, 2008 Share Posted July 31, 2008 Bootcamp is included with MacOS 10.5 Though we use Parallels when we need to get at Max - it works a treat! Best, Ian Edit: Stephen beat me to it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted July 31, 2008 Share Posted July 31, 2008 Max in Parallels? Doesn't that make you want to shoot yourself? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STRAT Posted July 31, 2008 Share Posted July 31, 2008 tell you what, without wishing to start the wrong debate here, i really like windows os and really dislike the mac os. yup, the mac os really is streets ahead as far as stability/processing/memory management goes, but for user'ability? personally give me windows any day of the week Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
halfworld Posted July 31, 2008 Share Posted July 31, 2008 Apparently, memory management in OSX and Windows is really, really bad for 3D software. I've had many conversations on this subject with the EITG programmers. Do it yourself seems to be the only way. Anyway, we only use Max to translate files -mostly stock props- (.max to .obj) so I don't really have to delve in much. Parallels suits me fine, it works very well and doesn't interrupt my workflow at all. All the best, Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJLynn Posted July 31, 2008 Share Posted July 31, 2008 Oh, well, that's different - I'd hate to try to really use Max in Parallels, for modeling and rendering. Strat, now you've got me doubting your taste. Windows... it's just so... Microsoft. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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