Lord I hope this doesn't start some stupid OS war - the Q. is: Does anyone have real experience - not opinions please - on running Vue on MAC AND PC? I have to buy a G5 dual soon for video editing, and as I have no other software to run on it, and as I'am upgrading soon to VUE-Inf. - the logical thing to think about is having my upgrade to be on the MAC - but not if it will run faster on my PC (multi-thread 3 GHz, 3 GB Ram). Not interested in Apple says, just looking for real world experience. Just to preempt some comments, my background in computers are Amiga's, then MAC for graphics and video editing, then PC's for graphic and video, now, after not using a MAC since mid-90's I have to pickup a G5 as I've a multi-program client who needs me to work with FCP. BTW there is no use of files for this client from 3d land, so Vue is just for me. Any help is seriously appreciated! Da'dragonfly

I use it on both, Mac and PC. Difficult question what is better. To be honest, very often i do the scene setting on the Mac and render the thing on the PC after. But that has to do as well with the fact that i am on a very old G4 that is not as fast as the PCs here in the office. I like the option that i can do other things while working with Vue. That is something that is much easier on Mac. The interface is identical. And the files are 100% compatible. So no worry in that field. To compare speed really is difficult because of the too different specs that machines normally does have. Vue, Infinite or Esprit is no island. It works together with other software too. Poser is a big issue. I personally would therefore go for the solution which makes it easiest to use the other stuff as well. A lot more to say but i expect this a long and heavy discussion so i think i keep some arguments for later.

Apologies in advance that my message will not be of much help, but I just wanted to say I am working on a benchmark site that will benchmark Vue, MojoWorld, and many other terrain rendering applications. It will not be ready for some time, but when it is, it will help answer questions like this. In the meantime an informal benchmark could be made and executed by the forum members here. I would be glad to advise on the creation of such a benchmark - there are certain specific criteria that are important to follow in order to make accurate comparisons. - Oshyan

It isn't just about benchmarks, it's also about stability! I'm the same as Wabe - I use Vue on both Mac and PC platforms. I prefer, as Wabe, to do the modelling on a Mac, then send files out to a PC render farm. I have found that Vue 4 Pro crashes less on my dual G5, and that it is very fast and responsive. When it does crash (that's inevitable), it is a very quick process, and doesn't affect the rest of the OS in any way. I can relaunch immediately, no wait, and carry on. On the dual Pentium Xeon 3Ghz, it takes slightly longer to open (the same) files, and doesn't seem quite as stable. But it is a great workhorse for rendering. There are a number of reasons why it might not be as stable on the PC I use, and it could be down to the graphics card drivers. There are a limited number of gfx cards for the Mac, and therefore easier for E-On to test. There are hundreds for the PC, so less easy to test each configuration (I'm guessing here!). So - if you have fast machines (Mac and PC) I would recommend installing it on the Mac, and using the PC as a RenderCow, as stability is my main consideration... But that's just me ;-)

Interesting that several people model on the MAC then render on the PC. That's not an option for me, as I use Rhino and there is no MAC version, nor do they intend to write one, and I have to keep my skills current on Rhino. That said, I very rarely have a crash on my PC, especially after I added the extra 2GB of ram, actually no crashes since then - about 5 months now (VUEPRO). BTW I use ATI 9800 and NVidia Quadro4 580 XGL both with 128 Mb RAM (I've two machines), the older one with the ATI has less RAM but almost never has crashed - in both cases openGL is turned off as using it seemed to assure a crash/lockup. I'm not enough of a wirehead to network my machines - tried it and that wasted a weekend, I'd rather make images or have a tooth pulled - so I have to have a single box solution.

I think "modelling" here means scene setting more than actual mesh creation. In fact thats what i meant. Maybe you should rethink the tooth pulling? With two more machines in the background a Rendercow network is a great thing. The machines can do the number crunshing while you enjoy life.

I echo Wabe again ;-) By modelling, I mean setting the scene (composition)... As for networking - if you are not already connected to a network (LAN), and you want to create one, you can set one machine to configure the others automatically (it's called DHCP). You will need to give this machine an IP address (it's in Windows Networking under TCP/IP), which could be 192.168.0.1 - I'm sure there are lots of tutorials out there, and I believe Windows XP even has a networking 'wizard' although I've never tried it. HyperVue network rendering is amazing for large animations/stills...

I used to use both platforms but switched over completely to the mac. I was having to many problems with the particular PC that I had and had to replace it with something else. As far as Vue, as stated in the other messages, they are almost identical. I have a G4 dual 1.42Ghz with 2GB Ram. I use this machine for all things Vue, setting up and rendering. Rendering is slow but thats because my scenes tend to get complex. Usually around upwards of 500mb to over a gig in file size. So far it handles them real well. So if you go for the G5 and use it for Vue I would think you would be happy. Then later on if you can spring for another machine of some sorts and do like the others as far as a render farm. I would love to do that. Hmmmm, a room full of Mac Mini's...... :-)

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I have access to both platforms, including a dual 2.5Gig G5 and an Athlon 64. The dual G5 is a real render monster. It's almost twice as fast as the AMD64! (in all fairness, this puts ONE G5 at the same level as ONE AMD64). The G5 is a tad pricey, but it's a very nice machine. Vue runs fine on both. Hope that helps.

Welllll, very interesting. Somewhat surprised that there is no real data on running vue on both machines like there is for photoshop and other aps. It appears that JavaJones's work is going to greatly help everyone in the future, certainly I look forward to his results. It seems that my best bet is just to have final cut on the MAC and not bother with anything else there; and try to find someone to come out and hook up a network for my PC's (i did the pathatic xp wizard for those two days, my time is more valuable than to waste like that again) and upgrade to that platform. A friend of mine just made the transition from PC editing to final cut - and her advice is that I'll be doing lots of long renders just for final cut, so that pretty well nails it. (We both have the same background: Avid, Premiere, Liquid, Media 100). Thanks y'all, your time is appreciated - cu you in the galleries. dragonfly