Blender + Mac OSX Leopard - Will it work?

[reaper]

I noticed that Leopard will support signed applications. I pre-ordered a copy of Leopard but I was curious if Blender might cease to function on my MacBook Pro if I install Leopard. Any thoughts? Anyone else upgrading?

As an aside, if you are upgrading, what features are you most looking forward to? For me, Spaces and Time Machine. But I also like Word support in preview, full screen video playback and tabbed console windows.

[JCDenton513]

Edit: to answer your question. It'll probably run fine but from what I understand Leopard is a 64-bit OS. So afaik blender for mac is only 32-bit which means it might slow down a little, or it might speed up a little. Eitherway I don't think Leopard has any major code changes that'll prevent programs to stop working.

Well being a Linux fan with a macbook spaces will definitely be a plus, the use of xorg code base instead of XFree86 (which might be advantageous to those linux apps.)

Also the stack might come in handy as when I open gvim it doesn't sit nicely in on dock area so when I have a few windows open, it really does clutter the dock.

You should try VLC, it already has full screen video playback and will play some formats that Quicktime doesn't.

[reaper]

Well, I guess this image answers my question:

[osxrules]

Actually when I tested it on the Leopard beta, it ran terribly so something's different. This was on a GMA chip. As soon as you tried to move anything it just started jittering like crazy. Completely unusable. That was an earlier beta of Leopard so hopefully it's working fine now. I guess we'll just have to wait and see in a week or so.

[reaper]

So, you plan to update your Mac right away? Can you try to come back to this thread and let us know how it's working once you do? I'd also be interested in whether YafRay works under Leopard.

I depend on my Mac and Blender to run my business, Render Reality. So, if I update and encounter issues, I will be hurting pretty badly. I expect to receive the update disk in November. So, if you've tried it before then, I'd love to read your comments.

[osxrules]

Originally Posted by reaper So, you plan to update your Mac right away? Can you try to come back to this thread and let us know how it's working once you do? I'd also be interested in whether YafRay works under Leopard. I depend on my Mac and Blender to run my business, Render Reality. So, if I update and encounter issues, I will be hurting pretty badly. I expect to receive the update disk in November. So, if you've tried it before then, I'd love to read your comments.

No problem, if I get a hold of it, I'll install it on my external drive and test it out and let you know how I get on.

[JCDenton513]

Yeah, I hope to have it early November. I use blender on Linux anyways so it's not critical if it doesn't work well on Leopard. Note that I have the 13" MacBook so I don't have a dedicated graphics accelerator which might cause problems, but I'll keep that in mind.

[bugman_2000]

I'm running a beta version of Leopard and I've had no problems at all with Blender. I'm running 2.45. I haven't tested with any other versions of Blender.

[reaper]

Did you try YafRay under Leopard?

[Dan]

I'm sure a 64bit version of Blender could be compiled for Leopard if it's a 64bit OS.

[reaper]

You guys have it yet?

[jensverwiebe]

Hi
I´ve installed OSX 10.5 Leopard on my MacPro 2.66.
Did an install from scratch ´cause there are much
changes, so i wanted it clean.

Python 2.5.1 ( and 2.3.5 ) is preinstalled now in
System/Library/.... so no need to install it from
Python.org any longer.

I tested blender 2.45 / py 2.5 and my own SVN-build /py 2.5.
Both versions 32-Bit only.
No probs with blender so far. I additionally installed
psyco ( the python-helper ) for faster demolition-script.

Grafics seem to be more responsive ( gl is newer ), so
bigger scenes can be handled more fluently.

Rendertimes are nearly the same, depending on scene
slightly faster or slower so no advantage here in spite
of the better threading of Leopard.
Edit: Yaffray works o.k. too and seems to be faster !

I hope we can do an 64-bit build soon and see what happens
then.

There are some little glitches in Leopard right now, but hey, it´s
a first release.

My old Photoshop 7 does´t work any longer ( with Tiger it did ),
i suppose this comes from deprecating the old Quickdraw-technology.
It is all Quartz now.

All other stuff ( Final Cut, Logic Studio, i Apps, Neo-Office etc.) works
fine here.


Greetz...Jens

[osxrules]

Originally Posted by jensverwiebe I additionally installed psyco ( the python-helper ) for faster demolition-script.

Thanks for the review. Can you post a binary of psyco for OS X or a link to one?

[jensverwiebe]

Hi osxrules

Here is a link to psyco: http://psyco.sourceforge.net/

You have to download the SVN and the IntelMac-patch, in terminal navigate to the
psyco-stuff, patch it ( patch -p0 < psyco-mactel.diff.txt ) , then only type:

python setup.py install

.
This will install psyco in "site-packages" inside you /python/bin.
No too complicated.

Psyco requires Python >= 2.2.2.

Speed was doubled afterwards for me.
In case of problems i can try to host a patched psyco-distribution soon.


Greetz...Jens

[TroutMask]

blender is running fine on my imac. installed leopard on it yesterday. although my old copy of photoshop 10 which i've been using for years has been totally borked.

[reaper]

Nice! Thanks for the feedback. I believe my disk is scheduled to arrive today. So, I am getting excited to install it.

I am on my first Mac, here. Can someone explain the benefits of a clean install vs an upgrade? For a clean install, do I need to back everything up first?

[osxrules]

Originally Posted by jensverwiebe Here is a link to psyco: http://psyco.sourceforge.net/ You have to download the SVN and the IntelMac-patch, in terminal navigate to the psyco-stuff, patch it ( patch -p0 < psyco-mactel.diff.txt ) , then only type: . This will install psyco in "site-packages" inside you /python/bin. No too complicated.

Thanks, I've been trying to get psyco for a while to see how it improves Blender's Python scripts. I just did a quick test and on an export with few geometry exports, the difference was zero but on a heavy export, it was 1.5 times faster so it will definitely come in useful for heavier scripts.

Originally Posted by reaper Can someone explain the benefits of a clean install vs an upgrade?

You get rid of all the software installations and temporary files that have built up over the months of using the older system. If you haven't had it long, this shouldn't be an issue and an upgrade is probably easier.

Originally Posted by reaper For a clean install, do I need to back everything up first?

Yes. I think you should backup before installing anyway just in case something goes wrong. From what I can see, it looks like there haven't been any issues with the upgrade but a backup is good to have just in case.

[reaper]

backed up my data, installed the new Leopard and am up and running. It works great. Although I have noticed one issue.

I have spaces running and blender/YafRay running in one space.
I switch to another space to surf the web.
Spaces yanks me back to the space with blender for some reason.

Anyone
seeing this behavior?

[jensverwiebe]

@ osxrules

Psyco is only helping if it is implemented in the script afaik.
Demolition is an example where it doubles the calculating-speed.
But i feel some other scripts ( unveld vertices ) are faster too.
Maybe a sideeffect of new Python or Leo ?

Panzi descibed how to add psyco to a script. Mabe it´s worth
give it a try for other complex ( slow ) scripts:

if __name__ == '__main__': try: import psyco except ImportError: pass else: psyco.full() main()

I will try it soon.

Jens

[Pluuske]

i've installed leopard a few days ago.. But blender is way to slow I can't work with it like this.. even if i add a plane it doesn't scale, move etc. the way it used to do.. now i have to wait 5 seconds before it's scaled/moved... It's just like when there are so many vertice that it's getting so slow..

can i do anything to let it run just as fast (or even faster) than before?