[Request] Running server JVM in Max

Roth's icon

Some code I am writing right now for a project should make substantial use of the optimizations available in the Server JVM. I tried adding max.jvm.option -Xserver to my max.java.config.txt and from examining the process in VisualVM I see that even though the -Xserver option does seem to be passed, Max is still using the Client JVM.

I tried this with MaxMSP 5.1.9 and Max 6.0.5 on OS X 10.7.4, Java 1.6.0_33.

Is this a bug or an intentional part of the mxj design? I know the server JVM will have longer startup/class loading times and a larger memory footprint, but for this project I suspect the tradeoff would be worth it to gain the additional optimizations. Is it possible to update Max to respect this JVM option?

Roth's icon

As a work around, I know I should be able to use other JVM options to get some of the optimization behavior of the server JVM I am after.

Before I get into trying a bunch of performance tests with different JVM options, I wanted to ask if there is a known list of JVM options that Max does/doesn't respond to as other than my experiment with the -Xserver option I am not sure how to confirm that the other JVM options are actually being used (as said in the original post, I do see the -Xserver option as an option to the JVM being run by Max, but it is still showing up as the client JVM).

nick rothwell | project cassiel's icon

Hmm - odd. Even though java -version in the Terminal claims HotSpot Server (on both Lion and Mountain Lion), Max starts up with client, thus:

The argument should be -server rather than -Xserver (where -X means nonstandard, although many nonstandard options have been standard for at least a decade). I tried that and mxj wouldn't start up at all. I'm guessing that -server isn't getting passed to JNI_CreateJavaVM() in the correct manner.

Alexandre's icon

Up!!
Is it possible that cycling74 update Max to respect this JVM option? (client or server)