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ZBrush Usage Questions
#12

Well I have both 1.55 and 2. whatever both working on my Macbook Pro 17.
The 1.55 version seems to work the best.
With the Version 2 I have I have to start the application over several times and then for some reason it just works as it should.
It’s a good job, as I have bought this amazing program and i did need to get through the licensing steps.

I have not found any specific reason as to why V3 needs to be started several times, about the only thing I have seen with any regularity trying to troubleshoot it, is part of the UI seems to fail and once you get the spinning wheel you might as well just force quit and start over. Restarting the system seems to make no difference, V2 is just as likely to boot following a Force quit as it is to fail after a restart.
Any tips welcome, I hope the uBinary is out soon as this is one program I can really use.

#13

Thanks Stuartpa, but I’m trying to get all this Intel stuff onto 1 thread. Please don’t double post on forums.

#14

I have been searching now for what sems like an eternity, every time i think i get close to finding it it usually is ppl saying how cool it is.MEH!! please hook me up with a link or sumthing. contact me at [email protected]

ty

#15

Dude,

ZBrush 2 is history. As far as I know Pixologic is only offering a 3.1 trial.

This will not run on a Mac, unless you are also running a Windows system on your Macintosh.

Pixologic is creating an OSX version of ZBrush 3.X for the Mac. The release date for this has not been specified. Stay tuned.

#16

I’m not having much luck with ZB3 running in windows on Intel mac. As soon as I feel like I’m actually learning how to do something I get a system crash…oh joy! :confused: I may just try to see if the ZB2 Mac version will run properly now I guess. Worst thing in the world is system crashes when your trying to learn a new app…makes you constantly wonder if your doing something stupid - but that’s probably not the case I’m just trying to get things going in a low poly form and it crashes.

#17

Interesting JasonLynn, can you provide some particulars. I’ve been running under Windows, Under Parallels for quite some time with very few crashes. In fact I believe it’s less than 4 for the Windows OS. Of course the OS X environment is never affected.

If you could post some details of your system, it might be of help in many ways. :wink:

#18

Well ZB seemed to be working fine earlier this week but last night was the first time I had sat down to try and “create” something. I was working with Primitives (cylinder) every time I had a crash though it was happening randomly and not on a particular instance of doing a specific operation.

I’m running a MacPro 2 x 2 GHz w/ Bootcamp running Win off a dedicated hardrive (no partitions).

OS X 10.4.10
Windows XP SP2

#19

Bootcamp Beta 1.3 or 1.4?
-K

#20

Hey Kerwin,
It’s beta 1.4

#21

You might try reverting 1.3–it sounds like you might have a Bootcamp issue. I didn’t extensively test 1.4, but I did have a lot crashes with 1.4 on the one machine I tested. If you have parallels or vmware handy, you might test running your bootcamp partition in them and see if the behavior repeats with the environment hypervisor versus bootcamp.

Also, is the behavior unique to ZB–do you run any other heavy display using apps in bootcamp?

-K

#22

Nope, I mainly loaded up bootcamp so I could run ZB 3 for now. I use firefox and that’s it. I do plan to test the app I’m working on in WIN too since sometimes a software build will be win only. I think I’ve got a win version of photoshop I may install too for creating masks if I can get this thang working.

Best solution would be a 3.1 ver Zbrush for Mac though, eh? :wink:

#23

3.2!

#24

Yeah…that’ll work.

BTW, It was working pretty well yesterday for me while messing with the primitives. I didn’t have any crashes so it could have bugged out on a specific operation I was doing. I’ll have to watch for it. Half my problem is I get finger fumbles switching from command to control key.

Bootcamp is acting wierd though. When setting to reboot in OS X from windows it makes the “boot chime” 2 or 3 times almost like it’s flashing the PRAM like in the old days. Wierd. Know if that’s normal?

#25

It is resetting an internal bootstrap when switching OS’s, but I don’t think you should be getting multiple chimes. That doesn’t happen on my test system (2x2x3.0Ghz MacPro.) With BC 1.3 I sometimes had some flaky-ness when switch back and forth between OS’s, so I wouldn’t be suprised . . .

#26

Hey guys, I read this thread and think my problem is different from the ones mentioned so far.

I recently bought an imac and was complaining to a coworker about incompatible software I miss from the PC.

He told me I should get VMWare Fusion and install Windows XP. This lets you run Windows XP as a virtual machine in a window on your Mac. You don’t even have to reboot.

So I got VMWare Fusion and XP Pro. Went through the install. Everything seemed fine. Then I tried to install ZB3 and got a bunch of error messages. I tried installing from the backup CD and I tried downloading the trial. The trial made it further than the CD install but neither worked.

Someone please tell me there’s a way to fix this.

Thanks.

#27

Sounds like some things are getting resolved for some people. Good. :wink:

poda, if you search this thread and perhaps a few others I do believe several people are using VMFusionWare. I don’t and just haven’t had time to get around to a test even though they keep pestering me. :wink:

I use Parallels with great success.

The only reason I can think of off the top of my head, would be the some ‘settings’, which for whatever reason are preventing you from succeeding. Does your iMac goto sleep during the install? Specifically is it set to power down the harddrive (default)? This will mess with you.

Other than that, have you checked out the VMFusionWare support list, people may not use Zbrush, but if it’s a problem with that VM product someone will be talking about it.

Also, are your iMac and VMWare products fully up-to-date?

Perhaps someone else will chime in… :wink:

#28

Reading these posts, and considering my own experiences in getting ZB to run on an Intel Mac, the whole business must be extremely flukey. So many differing reports have been posted. I have had no trouble at all running ZB3 for Windows under Boot Camp. However, I had nothing but trouble trying the same thing with VM Fusion. Finally had to get rid of VM and go back to Boot Camp, where I’m getting familiar with ZB3 while waiting for the release of the Mac version. As for ZB2 for Mac on my Intel iMac, I’ve had the same problem others have reported. It’s virtually impossible to get ZB2 to work under Rosetta. There must be something peculiar to ZB that makes it so hard to work with an Intel Mac, because I could list half a dozen other apps that were ported from Windows to Mac Universal and work perfectly. We’ll just have to wait for the ZB3 for Mac release. It should be along in a month or so, knock on wood.

#29

Jason Belec - Thanks for the suggestions. I will definitely search the forum for VMWare Fusion success stories. I did not babysit my Windows install the entire time. I checked on it periodically to make sure it had not shut down.

At one point the mac shut down but when I woke it back up it looked like the installation had completely finished before the shutdown. Maybe it didn’t. It would suck to have to re-install Windows. But it sucks more not having the software work.

Parallels huh? I have a 30 day guarantee on Fusion so I may have to do the old switch… I will do some feature comparisons.

Zdrey - Good to know you had trouble too (it sucks for both of us - but it is good to know). Thanks for the info.

#30

I just purchased ZBrush and am learning how to use it. I have a MacBook Pro 2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 3 GB RAM, VMware Fusion and OS 10.5.2. I cannot get ZBrush2 for Mac to run properly (never get’s past the first part of the authorization process). I was able to install and run ZBrush3 in emulated WinXP under Fusion. I’m not sure what makes my installation work - perhaps it’s that everything is up-to-date. The issue I have is that the Windows version says there’s some kind of authorization error so it only will for a while during the grace period. I’m sure I can get that straightened out with tech support.

#31

Just a reminder to everyone, what we are doing in this thread is just not considered workable at all. Form the beginning, getting Zbrush 2 running on the Intel systems has been hard, I know they are working on it. Similar problem happened in the past when they tried moving the fancy Windows code over to the Mac (not the best approach).

If you have Zbrush2 running, things are usually stable, starting up is always a pain on Intel.

If you are running VM Fusionware or Parallels with Windows to allow use of Zbrush 3, you probably have far fewer issues. Of course this leaves all the PowerPC people behind and unfortunately will really leave them behind going forward as even Apple has been sidestepping backwards compatible support (thus encouraging developers to do same). I know, we all want to keep our legacy toys, but reality is that Apple dropped PPC quite some time ago in computer age.

No I don’t know specifics on anything, I’m just here refreshing the thread and the original intent.

I started this thread to help some people do more than they were told was possible. No guarantees were ever offered, just my experience at getting things to work - what I get paid for.

For those thinking that alot of problems exist because of the thread you are wrong. The fact we got all this really cool stuff working at all should be considered a testament to people’s desire to have the coolest at all costs. And it really took alot of people contributing and trying things.

One last note: The faster the processors/memory get on the new boxes the harder it may be for Rosetta to function properly. I’m seeing a pattern begin to form… Thus virtualizers like VM and Parallels come into play (like on many servers globally).

I do hope at least some of your are finding some joy, with the actual use of Zbrush in one form or another. :wink: