timbyates

I'm currently building some patches on a PC (Vista) that need to run on both PC and Mac using both runtime and full versions of Max/MSP, however I'm running into a few problems when trying to package them up to run on a Mac.

The first problem I'm having is with Max externals. I'm trying to keep both .mxe and .mxo versions of each of the externals I'm using in the folder with the other elements of the patch, and just package them up all together on the relevant platform. However, whenever I move the files from the PC to Mac to package things up, the .mxo files all seem have been corrupted in some way and don't get properly included. It seems as if the Windows file system is doing something horrible to them so I have to download them fresh onto the Mac to get it packaged up properly. This is a real pain, as most of the Macs that I use in college don't have internet access. I'm sure I'm doing something stupid, but I can't figure out what it is!

My second problem is a bit more serious, and involves the [coll] object, which seems to lose all its data when packaged up on a Mac. I've tried storing the data in the patcher and in an external .txt file, but neither seems to work. The patches work fine in both versions in Windows and in the full version on a Mac, just not runtime on a Mac. All files have been created on Windows, and subsequently transferred to Mac to be packaged.

I've tried doing this both by building collectives and by building applications, but the same thing happens.

This is causing me serious problems as the patches are dependent on the [coll] object to work and so I keep having catastrophic failures in rehearsals and I have no idea what's causing them. Since it only happens in runtime, I can't even get into the patches to see what's going on!

Again, I'm sure I'm doing something really stupid (especially as I know very little about Macs), but this is really causing me a major headache so any help is very much appreciated!

My second problem is a bit more serious, and involves the [coll] object, which seems to lose all its data when packaged up on a Mac. I've tried storing the data in the patcher and in an external .txt file,  but neither seems to work. The patches work fine in both versions in Windows and in the full version on a Mac, just not runtime on a Mac. All files have been created on Windows, and subsequently transferred to Mac to be packaged.

windowsmac-compatibility

Not sure how much this will help for your specific problem but here's a couple of tips that have helped me in the past. I'm still using v 4.6.3, not sure if this applies as much to Max 5 ?

- use .PAT extensions for all of your patches on both platforms.

- if possible use java externals instead of C. C externals will have to be independently recompiled for each platform.

- make sure your path hierarchy is pretty flat. I try to have a top level folder which only contains one level of sub folders within it.

Not sure how much this will help for your specific problem but here's a couple of tips that have helped me in the past. I'm still using v 4.6.3, not sure if this applies as much to Max 5 ?
- use .PAT extensions for all of your patches on both platforms.
- if possible use java externals instead of C. C externals will have to be independently recompiled for each platform.
- make sure your path hierarchy is pretty flat. I try to have a top level folder which only contains one level of sub folders within it.

With colls, you definitely need to include the contents into the collective. But if you forgot them, you can still place the coll file into the search path of the runtime, usually just into the patches folder...

Watch out the max window, it will tell exactly whats missing...

Have all of your subpatchers, externals, mainpatchers and what might be necessary with you on a USB stick. You can even run the original patch, not the collective if you got all the files...

Place them into the patches folder before opening the runtime, then run the patch...

With colls, you definitely need to include the contents into the collective. But if you forgot them, you can still place the coll file into the search path of the runtime, usually just into the patches folder...
Watch out the max window, it will tell exactly whats missing...
Have all of your subpatchers, externals, mainpatchers and what might be necessary with you on a USB stick. You can even run the original patch, not the collective if you got all the files...
Place them into the patches folder before opening the runtime, then run the patch...

Windows/Mac compatibility