I am a Mac user and I just bought a 8-Core 2.8ghz Mac Pro with 4GB Ram, I know that there are several solutions for me as to how to run ZBrush 3.1 on Windows through Bootcamp and emulation, but which do you recommend? I’d hate to waste my Ram(I read you can’t use all your system resources with these types of solutions.) by using parallels to run it, but I’m worried about getting a virus through Bootcamp when running Windows. I have a 320GB harddrive, how much should I partition to Windows if I only want to run Zbrush and 3dsMax (I have to use this for school.)? Can you undo a partition set for windows after you’ve made the choice and give the full drive back to Mac? How many of you use parallels in your workflow and how many just use Bootcamp and which is the better choice for me?
Seriously, wait until tomorrow! The Siggraph exhibition starts tomorrow and any Mac release news that Pixologic has officially SHOULD be announced. For all anyone knows, the damn thing could be released in less than 24 hours, although it’s not speculated to be. I still think it would be foolish to mess with your hard drive or invest in an emulation package this close to some official news that others, and myself, have waited a year and a half for.
However, I have mine running through bootcamp with 30 gigs of hard drive dedicated to the Windows partition. I’ve had no problems with viruses, but sometimes disconnect the internet during use for fear of being infested. It CAN use full memory if you have the right Windows version. I have a 32 bit version and 2 gigs, I can use up to 1.5 gigs in ZB (have to leave some for the OS and other apps). If you have 32 bit Windows, you can use up to 2 gigs, 64 bit, you can use up to 4 gigs. You just have to have more for the other needs of your computer, at least half a gig more than you let ZB use.
I haven’t used any emulations though.
You can dedicate the partition back to the OSX hard drive. Back up your computer completely before ever messing with it.
Your best choice today is to wait until tomorrow or the end of the week, when you will know the status of ZBrush 3.5 for the Mac.
Yeah wait till tomorrow. I am running zbrush thru paralells and it’s a pain for sure. It works but the resources are divided between 2 operating systems so really it’ like running zbrush on a really poor machine. It would be much much better to get a OSX version if it does come out.
Thanks for your input guys, I’ll be keeping up with the Siggraph announcements on the main Mac thread for the next couple of days to see what happens. Regardless of that though I still would need to run Windows in order to use 3DsMax for my university classes. So therefore, partitioning part of my drive would be unavoidable unless I use Parallels (Which seems to not need to partition.) I get the impression from both your posts and what I can gleam from around the net that Parallels will not give me 100% performance from my Ram and Processors, because I’d be running both OS at once. It’s nice that both of you chose the opposite options, can you guys tell me why you work the way you do?
Well when I set my mac up bootcamp had just came out and it was full of issues. Also I did not like having to boot up in one or the other as many of my files were on the mac side and it really slowed me down. I dont use much at all on the PC side. So i dont need to run XP very often. But it’s nice to be able to share files on the fly.
If I had it to do over again I ould consider boot camp and I think it would be a good decision if you are going to use windows based programs allot. But for me 95% of all my programs are mac photoshop, maya, c4d etc… so I have to use them regularly on any project I do. EHT only ones I need on PC is zbrush and very rarely 3ds max. When zbrush makes it to mac then I will seldomly need XP.
The thing about partitioning for serious work, like what you might experience using 3dsMax for education, is that you need to consider how much hard drive you will need. You cannot add to a partition. You can undo the partition, which is probably a pain, and then redo it (losing all info on the hard drive, which you’ll have to back up).
What is be a better option, although costly, is adding another hard drive into your Mac Pro, and using it as the Windows hard drive. You don’t have to split one hard drive to use boot camp. If most of your apps used will be on Mac OS, you could get by with a smaller hard drive. I only dedicated 30 gigs as a temporary solution. For full blown years of work, it might be a worthy investment to add another hard drive.
As far as performance, I’ve only experienced problems when pushing my 2 gigs of RAM too far, which has nothing to do with bootcamp, only my greediness. Everything runs smoothly with 100% access to RAM, processors, and designated hard drive. In fact, during long weeks of ZBrushing, I sometimes wouldn’t even boot up in Leopard and it felt like I just had a nice PC. Take note that I only use ZBrush to export psd renders, which I then open from the Mac side and composite in photoshop as digital paintings. I don’t export maps to other 3d applications, which is the only area which I’ve heard of any problems, so I still recommend more investigating bootcamp in a 3d workflow. Having Max on the Windows side will probably eliminate any problems there.
It’s still nice having access to both OS’s. As mine runs perfectly, it really diversifies your machine. One day soon, I’m going to have a 500 gig hard drive for Windows, like the one I have for Leopard now…just for the hell of it…
I use this configuration for years and I don’t have problems, Mac drive works perfectly. There is nothing that I haven’t tested (all kind of exports)Choose whatever size you think, anyway you 'll need more space in the future, if you are working seriously, and you have plenty of space in your Macpro to plug drives.
I made the windows partition 40GB NTFS(windows native format), using as system Disk with basically my programs and the Page File(the size depends on your memory) and had the other partition fully accessible through MacDrive 7. I used a 750Gb drive HFS+(OSX native format) fully acessible by both sides for my project files.
I recommend not to use FAT32 file system and don’t waste any drive only for windows, just use MacDrive, and use your nice HFS+
good luck and good work with your new machine!
Thanks guys, I have another question…What kind of virus protection systems are you using on your windows partitions? I’ve read mixed reviews on a lot of the payed services, but I’m not quite sure I trust a freeware program to protect me, even though I’ve read some good things. It’s been so long since I’ve owned a Windows computer I kind of lost touch with all the worries that come with it.
I unplug the internet and cut on the television! For me, when I need to be in the zone of working hard, the internet’s just another distraction anyways. This is my first computer and I don’t want to bother with any viruses, so I simply disconnect the ethernet cord from the back and don’t worry about it. Sorry that’s my only input!..
If you’re just doing 3D work with zBrush and Max, you don’t need any virus protection. You run into issues when you start downloading music and videos and such…
Will this version of Windows Vista 64-Bit work for my intended uses? Can I install Zbrush 3.0 on this as well as 3dsMax and still utilize my full 4GB of ram through Bootcamp?
Yup, as far as I know. I would email pixologic support, as well as autodesk support, just to make sure that 64 bit xp isn’t a better choice (which is very possible). But any 64 bit windows version can use up to 4 gigs of ram, IF you have more than 4 gigs (you have to leave AT LEAST half a gig for the OS and background apps).
If you only have 4 gigs, you can use up to about 3.5 gigs, maybe a little less.
Do you guys know if you can generally run 32-Bit programs on 64-Bit Vista?
Oh yeah, programs don’t have to use the full potential of the OS, kind of like they don’t have to be able to use all of your RAM.
Thanks James, I appreciate your help and everyone else’s. I know some of these questions might be no brainers, but when I googled them it was hard to find a straight answer. My computer isn’t here yet, so I might end up asking a few more if I run into any troubles with the partition, but it seems fairly straight forward. Maybe I’ll stay active on the forums once I get some good work to show. I thank you for still taking the time to help a newbie even though you guys are still frustrated with the Mac situation.
The Mac version will be golden and we won’t have to ever wait again, so I personally am not too irritated. I also use other means of illustrating and I’m cool with bootcamp for now, which calms my nerves quite a bit on the topic.
No problem helping, happy zbrushing!
note on partitioning you need a usb keyboard! It claims that a bluetooth keyboard doesn’t work. By some miracle, after about an hour of messing around, it worked for me, but I highly recommend having a usb keyboard on hand during partitioning.
more like wait until the 4th quarter. 3.5 mac/win release. i recommend bootcamp. its gonna be a while.
Really? I posted this question and remember aurick saying i could use 64 bit with bootcamp…maybe he misunderstood, i’m sure he rolls through questions quickly…
officially it works for these machines, (your machine included).
support for vista 64bit
but you can make it work unofficially on other 64bit macs like the new imac for example.
Imac