Cycling 74 » Topic: Do externals consume much memory when they are not used ?

Do externals consume much memory when they are not used ?

Roald Baudoux — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 11:51:04 +0000

Hello,

I have installed several hundreths externals in my Max 5 configuration.

Apart from making the startup duration longer, do these externals use a significant amount of RAM when they are not used ?

Thank you in advance.

Re: Do externals consume much memory when they are not used ?

Jeremy Bernstein — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 12:08:52 +0000

In nearly all cases, if they aren’t loaded into an object, they aren’t using any RAM whatsoever.

Re: Do externals consume much memory when they are not used ?

Hans Höglund — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 14:58:19 +0000

Nope, they are just files until you add them to a patch.

Re: Do externals consume much memory when they are not used ?

Alexandre — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 16:18:53 +0000

> “…making the startup duration longer,”

mmh, i didn't even think about that.. Is this the reason why Max takes 4 minutes to launch on my MBP 2,4Ghz ?

[attachment=141019,1094]

Re: Do externals consume much memory when they are not used ?

seejayjames — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 16:39:36 +0000

did u try trashing Preferences folder, then manually re-adding your externals folder to the search path on startup? might help… the Prefs folder tends to fill up and start bogging things down after awhile.

Re: Do externals consume much memory when they are not used ?

Noob4Life — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 16:56:45 +0000

(wow, Alexandre, that’s pretty much every good 3rd party external you could ever want or need!)

_______________________________________
*Never fear, Noob4Life was never here!*

Re: Do externals consume much memory when they are not used ?

Alexandre — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 18:36:34 +0000

> “try trashing Preferences folder”

Thanks, this is faster now. (Although i had weirds messages (on the pic) in max window on the 2st startup. But no more now.)

> ” that’s pretty much every good 3rd party external you could ever want or need!”

Yeah, perhaps i should get some off, as i just really use 5% of them… Would that improve something?

[attachment=141048,1096]

Re: Do externals consume much memory when they are not used ?

Alexandre — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 19:50:25 +0000

By the way, all my patch cords are now black. How can i change the default color for patch cords ?
I did that before but cannot recover how…

Re: Do externals consume much memory when they are not used ?

Alexandre — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 20:09:10 +0000

Found it: Options > Object Defaults > “Default Patchline color”