Maya on Mac.

[lostpencil]

I've heard from the Alias list that the version on the Mac is slower. Here is the quote and you can check the database for the stats:

"Highend3d.com (http://www.highend3d.com/tests/maya/testcenter/database.3d?sortby=date)'s test center database displays a Dual G4 1.25 Ghz PowerMac completing the render test file in 2:26, in the neighborhood of a several Dual Proc PIII 1.0 ghz machines ( and one Dual Proc Xeon 1.536 ghz machine)... I have not yet seen a Dual 1.425 Ghz PowerMac result, but I would guess that the fastest PC's are still roughly twice as fast at rendering this test file than the fastest Macintosh."

[plotz]

I run on Mac, and on PC. PC is definately faster, but you don't get huge speed gains until you start building a really beefy (and expensive) PC system.

I don't have any problems running Maya on the Mac. It's as stable as on the PC, and as functional...with the exception of IGES and DXF support.

He should be more concerned with the lack of any plug-ins he might need. The Mac version doesn't have a lot of third party support yet...escpeically from the one man band plugin writers.

Additonally the Mac version has some weird problems with nVidia cards. Specifically, in my case, a bug that makes rotate manips show up weird with the Geeforce Ti. You also can't hardware render particles.

Finally. There's some strangeness when rendering with Dual procs on the Mac using raytracing. For some reason, when raytracing, using dual procs is MUCH slower than with a single. This, in part, explains why the high-end test scores are so low. When you turn off raytracing and do a comparison between similar Mac and PC specs, the PC is still faster...but not by a landslide.

If he's a Mac fan, then buying Maya on the Mac is going to make him happy. If he's a speed freak, then he needs to buy it for the PC/Linux and Intel procs.

[thesaint]

Plotz,

That was a great and concise review, thank you. I had been wondering what the diference might be, but up until now it seems most reviews are emotional for or against Macs and so you only get 'it's crap' vs 'It rules'.

Thanks for taking the time to write that reply.

Ok, that's enough back slapping -- back to work with me.

[skellybobbly]

Hi All,


Thanks for the comments. I have to agree with thesaint..Plotz you spelt it out nice and simply.:thumbsup:

I'll pass the info on to my mate.


Cheers


Jon

[fig]

reality check is primarily running maya on mac's, can't be all bad :D

story on the alias|wavefront site (http://www.aliaswavefront.com/en/products/maya/customerwork/movies/realitycheckstudios.shtml)

chris

[plotz]

Glad I could help:)

A couple of other Mac things (wasn't working on it when I posted.)

There is a bug in Mac Maya that can be nasty.

The hotbox tends to stick when you let off of the mouse click before letting off of the spacebar. Normally it's not a big deal, just an extra second looking at the hotbox.

However, when you do that when trying to cancel a batch render, it causes the system to quit accepting mouse input until the render is complete. You have to do a hard reboot.

Also, I didn't mean to imply above that hardware rendering of particles isn't possible on the mac...it's just with the Geeforce Ti.

If you check A|W's site for compatibiity info you'll see that there really isn't a graphics card for the Mac that doesn't have some kind of problem.

I've just switched to a Radeon 9000 in my Mac, and it's much friendlier...although I don't think it's officially supported.

[Elliotjnewman]

I'm running a duel 1.25 mac and find maya on the mac fine! I prefer using osx over windows - that to me is more important than a slight speed increse. Also I find opening windows and the way maya loads is faster in osx - I opened a scene created in osx on a 2 gig pc and it took a lot longer to open, although most others things like open gl are faster.

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