Mac Book Pro and 3ds Max, Part 1

It rolled up to my desk in a gleaming coat of armor. There it was, three of them actually, stretched out before me. Three, totally smokin’ Mac Book Pro’s. Their sole purpose was for the 3Dguru to prod and poke them violate them with a very dirty WindowsXP CD and make them mine. I did that immediately…” (right-click image to view larger version)

So I plan on sharing this trist with you, my valuable reader. So here’s the plan. In a series of 3 or so entries over the next 30 days I will bring you along as I evaluate this Mac Book Pro (and two others) for my, um, master. The very serious purpose for this evaluation is to see exactly how well 3ds Max works on this platform and whether its a commerically viable production ready platform for 3ds Max.

First the details:

• Mac Book Pro 15.4″ screen
• 2ghz, 2GB ram, intel dual core
• ATI x1600,256MB
• 60gb hard drive

First impressions, its a damn sexy box. Having been a Msoftie for years, it had been ages since I really used a Mac OS. OSX looks great and seemingly runs OK. The iLife suite is big time fun… but focus… this is production box….

Now, the Bootcamp/XP Install,

Its was easy-peezy. No really. If you’ve installed XP or 2K and have ever made a dual boot jobbie, you’re good. There are some instructions that Apple wisely recommends you read. The language in it is a little frightening acutally, but I think this is meant to scare off the Apple punks who think they can get around the command line. Posers. But I did read them since, sadly, I don’t get to keep these boxes, I wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to screw something up that would come out of my paycheck.

Next, install Bootcamp on the box. Bootcamp isn’t some mystical OS transmogrifier. Its basically like Partition Magic on the PC. Big woop. So set the size of the partition.

Insert your XP CD, reboot and you are off…

At this point is the only tricky part because you want to make sure you don’t install XP over OSX, so take my word for it, RTFM here. (its a short paragraph and there are pictures… you’ll be OK)

Once the install is done, use the driver CD created during the Bootcamp business (again RTFM) and viola, PC on a Mac. Yes I have glossed over some stuff. Yes there are somethings you want to think about during install. So again, this is not a definitive how-to, only my observations of the process.

It took about an hour to go from Mac only to OSxXP. Once in XP, the installation of apps is just like any other– so far. I have installed 3ds Max (which I am now jokingly calling 3ds Macs) Mind Mangager, Firefox, ZBrush, and Artrage. I will install shortly Premiere, Photoshop, and others… I have also installed my Wacom Tablet.
Networking the XP side was a snap-so far. Wireless at home is working great.

The best news so far is that the display drivers on the XP side are the real-deal ATI drivers. I am running 3ds Max in DirectX Mode and all is well.

Check back later for more posts.

Editor’s note: Here are the links to the 1st three parts of the MBP + 3dsMax experience.

Part 2, Part 3

Advertisement

~ by learn3dsmax on July 18, 2006.