Max not updating parameters unless it's the focused window?
Hello there,
I was just wondering if I could ask for advice on a weird issue I've just encountered tonight with Max?
I'm making a rather big max patch which uses UDP to send data from the Unity Game Engine, and things were going swimmingly, but as of an hour ago, Max won't update any streamed parameters from UDP unless I alt-tab back each time I want to test the audio.
The sound works fine, but this is baffling me, as the audio sounds fine, but won't change faders etc in line with the game unless I have max focused (at which point the Unity build isn't playable). I'm using poly~ objects and muting things quite efficiently to minimise memory issues, I'm just worried it's the scale of the project that's responsible.
Has anyone encountered this before, or have any ideas on getting around this issue? I'm on windows, using the 32-bit Max 7.3.1 version because some of the externals I need are 32-bit only.
Any help would be hugely appreciated getting back on track with this project :)
Many thanks,
Adam
such things are always a matter of priority, drawing technique and overall power consumption ... for example 15 years back in the old mac os maxmsp graphics ran 3 times slower when the app was in background (the patcher window didnt make a difference), max-made vst plug ins only ran with fast graphics on mouse-down, otoh plug-ins from waves inc. ran slower with mouse-down...
does this mostly happen with unity? i would think that unity hw-accelerated graphics could be quite agressive and wanting because games are a typical "single client" / "only this app" thing. (games are often ran in fullscreen mode, so why should they bother about the needs of other apps?)
Hi Roman,
I think the issue is resolved (touch wood), as Max is now behaving itself once again! Thank you so much for your reply and insight into the processing priorities. That's crazy about the graphics being noticeably slower on older versions of max, I guess it's easy for me to forget that my poor computer is doing a heck of a lot!
It's only happened with Unity, but having said that the max patch is now working flawlessly. Somewhere between 2 reboots, a night's sleep and some cursing it has righted itself! I think you're spot on, Unity is very hungry, and I've no doubt that it would kick everything to prioritise game performance. I wonder if maybe using 64 bit could be a help with getting more out of max, it's a pity that I'm reliant on externals to rig the link between the programs! :)
The graphics were less of an issue than the audio parameters not changing with faders and stuff like that, as they were static (music still running), and then jumping to whatever they should be at that point in time when I alt-tabbed back to Max rather than ramping with each frame. However, I'll mark this as solved for now, as I can no longer reproduce the problem. :)
Thank you so much for getting back to me so quickly, and for your insight, it really has helped put my mind at ease that this kind of stuff isn't my fault so much as what I'm asking of the machine being a tad excessive! :) Thank you again :)
if it comes back, maybe check for the order the two apps were opened. (i´d be interested to hear. maybe it is something to do with the network.)