mtennie

I have a patch that was working really well on my Mac Pro (2-3 yrs. old) that uses jit.gl.syphon, xray.jit stuff, and jit.freenect.grab (with 2 kinects).

I've just installed a new license for Max, the needed 3rd party stuff, and the patch onto a brand new Mac Pro (black trash can edition). Unfortunately, every time I try to open the Kinect cameras, Max gets angry and I get the spinning wheel of death, resolvable only by force quitting Max. I made a kinect tester patch with nothing but 2 [jit.freenect.grab] objects which allows me to semi-reliably open both kinects without causing a fire. But when I try to open even one kinect in my full patch (that includes the Syphon and XRay objects), it just hangs and has to be force quit.

Any ideas about how to monitor the opening process to ferret out the problem, or ideas about how to fix it would be much appreciated!

I've just installed a new license for Max, the needed 3rd party stuff, and the patch onto a brand new Mac Pro (black trash can edition).  Unfortunately, every time I try to open the Kinect cameras, Max gets angry and I get the spinning wheel of death, resolvable only by force quitting Max.  I made a kinect tester patch with nothing but 2 [jit.freenect.grab] objects which allows me to semi-reliably open both kinects without causing a fire.  But when I try to open even one kinect in my full patch (that includes the Syphon and XRay objects), it just hangs and has to be force quit.

kinect-hatin-on-osx-10-9-5

I just tried asking for getndevices from [jit.freenect.grab], it gets the wheel spinning too, but still responds.

I also can't open a kinect in the freenect help patch without hanging.

What version of OSX are you running? I believe there is no more driver support for the Kinect in the latest version of OSX.

Just re-installed OSX. Will only go down to 10.9.4.

Just re-installed OSX.  Will only go down to 10.9.4.
Still has problems.

I've installed [jit.openni] and it's working fine.

Does anyone know if there is support for multiple kinects with this object? I didn't find anything about that searching the forums. I'm just looking for the depth image from 2 Kinects, no skeletons.

Does anyone know if there is support for multiple kinects with this object?  I didn't find anything about that searching the forums.  I'm just looking for the depth image from 2 Kinects, no skeletons.

I was able to use [jit.openni] at the same time as [jit.freenect.grab] by opening a kinect with openni first and sending the message "open 2" to the freenect object. Running solid at 30fps in OSX 10.9.4

I was able to use [jit.openni] at the same time as [jit.freenect.grab] by opening a kinect with openni first and sending the message "open 2" to the freenect object.  Running solid at 30fps in OSX 10.9.4


so also in next upgrade OS Yosemite
will there be this problem ?
what is change ?


I'm back to using two [jit.freenect.grab]s. If there is much more than just those objects in the patch it eats itself. So I open them individually, before opening additional patches that do my image processing.

I got an email back from Jean Marc Pelletier (the maker of this object). He is quite busy and doesn't have time for any tinkering with this object in the foreseeable future. I guess if we want to keep doing stuff with the Kinect, either don't upgrade OSX or develop a way to coddle Max into opening it without crashing.

My latest findings:
I'm back to using two [jit.freenect.grab]s.  If there is much more than just those objects in the patch it eats itself.  So I open them individually, before opening additional patches that do my image processing.

I got an email back from Jean Marc Pelletier (the maker of this object).  He is quite busy and doesn't have time for any tinkering with this object in the foreseeable future.  I guess if we want to keep doing stuff with the Kinect, either don't upgrade OSX or develop a way to coddle Max into opening it without crashing.


I had to move to Windows to work with the Kinect (several reasons). Pd.kinect works fast and reliably. I know moving to windows is not always an option. I was at one point considering running windows virtualised and then sending the kinect data with udpsend. But never got around testing it (also sending the matrix data wouldn't be easy), I don't even know if this would work.

If you want to stay in MAC OS maybe you can spread the functionality over serveral stand alone apps?

On my Windows setup I did put the kinect in Max 64bit and ran the rest in Max 32bit (on windows it are different apps) to spread resources. I send floats over upd.

Doing this as standalones is far from flexible during development, but it could be a solution in the end stage? Actually I just checked on MAC: you can duplicate the Max folder and then run each app separately (if you just duplicate the app you get some warnings in the first Max window, after that it does work).

So could this (connecting to each kinect from an instance of MAX) be a solution the open multiple kinects or does it then get tricky connecting to them?

Edit: I just read on the forum dat a 'root' patch has it's own thread. Maybe putting each openni/ freenect in it's own root patch already solves it?

I had to move to Windows to work with the Kinect (several reasons). Pd.kinect works fast and reliably. I know moving to windows is not always an option. I was at one point considering running windows virtualised and then sending the kinect data with udpsend. But never got around testing it (also sending the matrix data wouldn't be easy), I don't even know if this would work. 

If you want to stay in MAC OS maybe you can spread the functionality over serveral stand alone apps?
On my Windows setup I did put the kinect in Max 64bit and ran the rest in Max 32bit (on windows it are different apps) to spread resources. I send floats over upd.
Doing this as standalones is far from flexible during development, but it could be a solution in the end stage? Actually I just checked on MAC: you can duplicate the Max folder and then run each app  separately (if you just duplicate the app you get some warnings in the first Max window, after that it does work).

Edit: I just read on the forum dat a 'root' patch has it's own thread. Maybe putting each openni/ freenect in it's own root patch already solves it?


Ah, Same here. Updating MaxOS to 10.9.5 broke my kinect patches using jit.freenect.grab (preparing for an installation)!!

Now it'll just crash Max whenever I try to open the driver (thanks to this Forum at least I found out that it's not a hardware problem), thanks a lot!

Some people on this thread mentioned jit.openni is still working? Is this the case for MaxOS 10.9.5? Is there a binary of the external available somewhere?

Any help would be *greatly* appreciated!!

Ah, Same here. Updating MaxOS to 10.9.5 broke my kinect patches using jit.freenect.grab (preparing for an installation)!!
Now it'll just crash Max whenever I try to open the driver (thanks to this Forum at least I found out that it's not a hardware problem), thanks a lot!

Ok, so after much trial and error, here's what I've learned:

- I am successfully using two kinects with [jit.freenect.grab], but have to coddle the patch. If there's much open besides the grab object, it will crash. What I had to do was make 4 separate patches: 1 for each kinect, and 2 for my image processing (just as MRMAARTEN suggested with spreading resources). The first patch opens in Max, then [delay] for 30 seconds (this is overkill but works - not really interested in seeing how far I can push it), then I use [shell] to open the next kinect patch in Max Runtime and also give it a 30 second delay, before finally opening the rest of my programming. Once they're open, they're fine, but if there is any weight in Max when they open, they'll totally shit the bed. I marry the two by passing one from Max Runtime back to Max over Syphon and other pertinent information over OSC.

- [jit.openni] is just as fickle to open. Additionally (Marleynoe), it requires getting all of the install files, which is a bit of a pain because after Microsoft bought PrimeSense, all of the reliable sources of the NITE install (one of the three important pieces) were removed by their request. Luckily, I had an old one sitting around from a kinect for Processing kit, which I was able to dust off and use. As far as I know, there is no multi-kinect support for [jit.openni], though surely DiabloDale will suggest getting yourself cozy with the XML and adding the functionality yourself (no offense - Dale's the fking man for making this piece). He's got very clear responses on this subject in this and 2 or 3 other forums.

- apparently, everything Kinect runs better in Windows. Too bad Windows . (

- JMPelletier (the generous maker of [jit.freenect.grab], *also the fking man) is a busy chap and tells me he is not planning on putting any more sweat into the object. So as OSX progresses, I suppose that our ability to use freenect will decay. Sadly, I am not smart enough to do anything about it myself. Maybe some capable cat out there will be sufficiently fueled by frustration to pick this project up themselves and save us all.

Wouldn't it just be something if C74 adopted this object? I know better than to hold my breath, though. I guess they'll have to change the Max installer to say "Connect 

 anything" (In all fairness, I'm being unfair with that comment)

Hold your computer-maschine's hand at all times.

Say farewell as this game-changer fades away, unless you want to switch to Windows or be the big-brain-on-Brad.

- I am successfully using two kinects with [jit.freenect.grab], but have to coddle the patch.  If there's much open besides the grab object, it will crash.  What I had to do was make 4 separate patches: 1 for each kinect, and 2 for my image processing (just as MRMAARTEN suggested with spreading resources).  The first patch opens in Max, then [delay] for 30 seconds (this is overkill but works - not really interested in seeing how far I can push it), then I use [shell] to open the next kinect patch in Max Runtime and also give it a 30 second delay, before finally opening the rest of my programming.  Once they're open, they're fine, but if there is any weight in Max when they open, they'll totally shit the bed.  I marry the two by passing one from Max Runtime back to Max over Syphon and other pertinent information over OSC.

- [jit.openni] is just as fickle to open.  Additionally (Marleynoe), it requires getting all of the install files, which is a bit of a pain because after Microsoft bought PrimeSense, all of the reliable sources of the NITE install (one of the three important pieces) were removed by their request.  Luckily, I had an old one sitting around from a kinect for Processing kit, which I was able to dust off and use.  As far as I know, there is no multi-kinect support for [jit.openni], though surely DiabloDale will suggest getting yourself cozy with the XML and adding the functionality yourself (no offense - Dale's the fking man for making this piece).  He's got very clear responses on this subject in this and 2 or 3 other forums.

- apparently, everything Kinect runs better in Windows.  Too bad Windows . (

- JMPelletier (the generous maker of [jit.freenect.grab], *also the fking man) is a busy chap and tells me he is not planning on putting any more sweat into the object.  So as OSX progresses, I suppose that our ability to use freenect will decay.  Sadly, I am not smart enough to do anything about it myself.  Maybe some capable cat out there will be sufficiently fueled by frustration to pick this project up themselves and save us all.

Wouldn't it just be something if C74 adopted this object?  I know better than to hold my breath, though.  I guess they'll have to change the Max installer to say "Connect almost anything"  (In all fairness, I'm being unfair with that comment)

In short;
Proceed slowly.
Hold your computer-maschine's hand at all times.
Say farewell as this game-changer fades away, unless you want to switch to Windows or be the big-brain-on-Brad.
Regardless, it's still a tasty burger.

Yup, Kinect is the reason why I'm developing my main project on Windows these days. dp.kinect is just so much ahead of all OSX options, multi-kinect support and all. I curse clunky ol' Winbugs every single day but good kinect support is essential to the project.

Is anyone using Virtual machine with the kinect? Would that work the same as if on a pc?

I'm on OSX 10.9.5 and I used to use OSCeleton and read data in max via udpsend/receive.

I'm not sure this will work on my new mac but I need to test it. Any ideas?

Is anyone using Virtual machine with the kinect?  Would that work the same as if on a pc?
I'm on OSX 10.9.5 and I used to use OSCeleton and read data in max via udpsend/receive.
I'm not sure this will work on my new mac but I need to test it. Any ideas?


Kinect hatin' on OSX 10.9.5