I have been using RDS since 95 and 4 months ago I put 5.2 on a G4, 400 mhz, with 350 megs of ram. Of course I had to use the 5.51 patch so it could work with system 9. I had no problem with this until a couple of weeks ago. Ray Dream started giving me a few problems (more crashes than usual) so I trashed the program and reinstalled. When I tried to patch the program I got this message, The default location required for this install could not be found. This install will be cancelled. My next step was to install this on another Mac ( a 9500 running system 8.1) and then patch that version and then drag it across the network here at work to my G4. This is what I had to do 2 months ago so I knew it would work. I got the same message on this computer when I ran the patch. In fact , I got the same message when I tried to update to 5.0.2. Any ideas would be appreciated.

The only time I've gotten that error was if I chose custom install or a particular place to install the program during the install process, such as the applications folder, instead of accepting where it wanted to install and then moving it later. The process you used before is the same I've had to use for system 9, except that I have my hard drive partitioned into three parts with three different systems; Install the program under system 8.6 accepting all defaults - apply the patch, still under system 8.6; reboot into system 9 and then open the program. If I attempted to open the program under system 9 or did custom install before applying the patch, the above error would show up and I'd have to start all over again. I believe it has something to do with the patch installer itself, because I get this error also with another program's update: Adobe's Acrobat update from 4.0 to 4.05, while most other program's updaters, including Bryce and Poser, haven't had any such problems under any system. You probably already did this, but when/if the program starts acting up and crashing, just toss the preferences file in the RDS folder first to see if it clears up the problem, before trashing the whole program. Then, of course there are the ubiquitous third-party extensions that can cause problems and a few of Apple's as well, but I'll assume you ruled those out early on. Don't know if any of this has helped, but at least you know you're not the only one with this issue.

Not sure off-hand, you may also try this work-around I found at MC site: ________________________________ Ray Dream Studio, Mac Why does Ray Dream crash on launch on the Macintosh? This is an error in two extension files for Ray Dream being corrupted. You can lock these files after a clean install to solve this problem: 1) Completely remove the Ray Dream 3D/Ray Dream Studio folder. 2) Reinstall Ray Dream. 3) BEFORE launching the app, open the Ray Dream Studio Folder, then the Ray Dream Extensions folder. Lock these two files: CVMDATA CVMDATA DATA

There's also a patch for Ray Dream that addresses the OS 9 problem. Of course Metacreations has taken off their FTP site. I still have a copy. If you're interested, let me know.

Yes, the patch is for making RDS compatible with OS 9 so you can run the program - that's what robertzavala and myself are talking about, but the problem is you have to install the regular version first before applying the patch, and that's where the trouble begins. The regular install, which is not compatible with OS 9 somehow is not completed properly under OS 9 so applying the patch to that faulty install often results in the above mentioned error or the program will not run. I haven't tried locking the two extensions for this problem as it referred to a different, earlier situation, but I will now just to see if that helps solve this particular problem.

Good news! Locking the two extensions does indeed solve the patching problem. I reinstalled RDS 5.5, locked the two extensions, then applied the 5.51 patch and it works fine. If I didn't lock the extensions before applying the patch, then the error occured again.

Hooray! Guess I have no reason not to upgrade to OS 9 now. Unless OSX is just around the corner.