You got a mac?

So im buying a new mac..

And Im just curious which macs you use so I can turn old and tell my grandchildren; your playing that game hugh? did you know X created that game on a 12" ibook? youths now are so demanding this and that (you get the point)!

And of course because I want to know about running Unity with different specs, screen-size etc.

 

Well, I'm just starting to evaluate Unity so it may not be entirely relevant. Also, my rig is built around the development of large scale data manipulation and analysis tools.

Dual 2.0 G5
8 GB Crucial RAM
Raid 0 (2) 74GB Raptor Drives
Dual Dell 2405FPW Displays
ATI Radeon 800XT (Overclocked)
Now Running 10.4

I also have a server in the basement with 500 GB of RAID 10 drive space and a tape backup system for all my files (You simply don't do the type of work I do without off-site backups and I would highly recommend that to anyone doing what they consider to be critical development. Mine go out of town via fedex once a week with differentials daily. There are even online solutions for smaller space requirements...heck use .mac and an automated task to backup your dev files. Katrina should put the fear of God in anyone not doing off site backups in the US at least.) It runs my Oracle and MSSQL installations as well.

I find that the serious bottlenecks occur around drive I/O and memory more than processor. Also, I don't want the video card to get in the way during development. Even though I might develop to and test on lower spec systems.

The largest impact to my development habits though easily comes from having enough screen real estate to have plenty of things open simultaneously without impacting my workflow and concentration. Even having dev tools on one screen and docs on another is a tremendous boon. Once I tried 2 monitors I simply had a very hard time going back to only 1. And I would prefer 2 smaller ones versus one huge one. I'd take 2 19's over a single 24 any day. Also I would recommend 2 of the same exact monitors as color differences and resolution changes drive me nuts. I'd also recommend using DVI on both (Apple displays have always been to expensive for me. I like Dell for monitors if nothing else.) So have a dual DVI card like the 6800 or use the ADC to DVI connector on an ATI card.

While I'm on a rampage :wink: let me add that immediately if not sooner you should find a good easy to use source control system. I have used Subversion most recently and would highly recommend it since it is quite good (IMHO) and free to boot.

Finally, take care and choose wisely on a UPS. The G5, if you go the desktop route, draws a significant load so you need a pretty hefty system to just house the G5 power requirements itself. God help you if you also have an ADC monitor. I have the Back-Up XS1000 from APC with the extra battery just for the MAC and 3 other backups for my Win box, Network (including cable modem and router) and peripherals. No 15 minute power outage or split second power spike hurts me due to lost data or equipment, interrupts my work or causes me panic as I try to save everything off.

Don't know if that helps or not but best of luck. I personally won't be switching out the 2x2 G5 until the Intel based Mac's come out.

---
Best regards,
Doc

 

I was extremely lucky and got an arts council grant to get some new kit back in April!
So for the first (and probably only) time in my life I got a top of the range dual G5 2.7 with 6gb of RAM, 10.4, standard ATI graphics (256mb), Apple 20" flat panel monitor, 330gb of lacie external HDs and some decent sound creating stuff (was a musician once!) - Particularly some really cheap but nice M_Audio speakers as well as great software, including FCP studio. Had I known about Unity back then I would have made its purchase a priority as getting into 3d assets for game making was part of my business plan!
Before that everything I did was on an 867mhz TiBook with 1gb RAM. I still love the little thing and use it regularly, but it sometimes got ugly trying to render out 1 metre sized poster art on it
Boxy

 

Hi Robert

At OTEE most of us use Powerbooks. I just got a new 12" powerbook that I am quiet happy with. I would suggest a powerbook with 1 gig of RAM, preferbly the 15" for the slightly faster graphics card, especially if working on the go is something you do.
If you have the money for the above mentioned desktop systems, they would enable you to work with heavier scenes though.
One thing to keep in mind though would be your primary target platform. If its casual games, I feel it is usefull to work, or at least test, on the mashines you target, which would be ibooks and other office type computers.
A mini would also be a good option. It can be a little heavy to work with, and you would properbly need to upgrade the amount of RAM. It also has a slightly less capable graphics card, but I used to develop on a mini, so its definitly an option too.

If you have any specific "Does this work on that configuration" questions, then just shoot away :

- Peter

 

Well after saving every penny I made for about 3 years I was able to get my Power Mac G5, and a lot of extras since then:

Dual 2.5 G5
1.5 GB RAM (I'm going to get more, its just not sufficient for high end 3D apps)
660 Gigs of HD (2 internal SATA Barracudas and an external LaCie Firewire 800 drive)
Triple 17" monitors (two Aoc's and a ViewSonic great way to get screen space for your $)
Radeon 9800 Pro XT 256 V-RAM (for Aoc's)
Radeon PCI 32 V-RAM (for ViewSonic)
Logitech Z5500 Digital Surround sound system

Jeff

 

first generation 12" iBook G4 800 MHz.

-Jon

 

1.5GHz 12" Powerbook with 768MB RAM and a 64MB video card. A dual 1.0GHz G4 tower with only 512MB RAM for further testing. Getting a mini soon (maybe).

 

Hi,

well once upon a time after talking a lot with David i bought a miniMac(cpu: G4/1.25, ram: 1GB).

This is a wonderful machine for surfing as it's quite silent. Also it's a nice computer for watching DVDs or playing around with not so CPU/GFX intensive stuff.

On the other side it's nothing i would honestly recommend for developing 3D as it's just way too slow in terms of gfx(crappy 9200)/cpu/hd-speed. The fan also get's annoying if you really push the machine.

I've also tested other miniMac configurations and it doesn't matter if you take a version which is a bit faster or not. Only importance, if you wanna use a computer in this region, is the RAM, so 1Gig is really recommended and turn spotlight off when connecting external drives.
Next jump is the iMac due to the G5 and the 9600...if you're not afraid of the annoying fan built in the 17 inch version and a couple of other problems which you can read about on the net on apple related sites...

If you can i would wait till Intel is there and hope for the best or buy a pc. :O)


Greetings,

taumel

.:. Do the win-port of the IDE as soon as possible! ;O) .:.

 

@taumel
.:. Do the win-port of the IDE as soon as possible! ;O) .:.

So you no longer want shadows, eh?

 

Hi nicholas,

yes and no it's a matter of priority.

Beside of bugfixing and tweaking minor issues my rough personal list would look like this:

1) Finishing windows version and the win-webplugin.
2) Fixing and enhanced Ageia-Support as discussed some weeks ago with Joachim.

(Also knowing when this will be done because for online work i only can sell sw3d content till now. I've read your comment on roadmaps and i only partly agree as it's also of importance to know when key-features like the win-plugin are coming as negotiations with clients can start months before a projects starts...ready when it's done sounds cool but sucks from this point of view, even if you already paid for it.

3a) Win-Port of the IDE.
3b) AA, TrueType-Text-Engine, Shadows.

Take here what could be done faster in the first place. It both has Pros and Cons. But generally working on a miniMac slows dev-times down...


Greetings,

taumel

 

Oops sorry wasn't logged in... :O)

 

well I guess otee has to survive above all else so perhaps a Win version is inevitable, but a shame all the same. A windows player (and build capabilities) I would say is essential of course, but I think there is a unique opportunity with Unity for the mac market (and possibly Unity itself) to develop semi-indepently from the established PC games market, and that is a fascinating idea to me because you would see game making from a different angle...

 

I won't work on a windows again even If I was making the next Diablo, what really matters is SHadows!!

hehe, Oh I think Im going for a powerbook 12". Seems nice and portable, and has a videocard that hopefully gives me some reflections/and or bumpmapping..

(writing this from a cafe as I just sold my imac Whoho!).
JR

 

12" Powerbook G4 1.0Ghz

Dual G5 2.5Ghz tower - 1.5 GB ram

We do mostly web applications, visualization stuff and Flash work so our hardware requirements don't get very steep. On occasion, we'll do some 3d work (Maya) and some stuff in AfterEffects but even then, we're not doing a lot of heavy lifting.

 

I'm working on a 12" powerbook with a 1.33 GHz G4 and 1.25GB RAM.

Works fine..... in the beginning I was using a G3 iBook... until it broke down. Worked okay, even though it wasn't perfect.

And yes bumpmaps and even displacement maps will work fine even on a mac mini.

The amount of RAM is the biggest issue, then the graphics card. ... and if you are extending the amount of RAM, please don't buy it from Apple, unless you want to pay twice the amount.

Edit: just realised that the "then" above could be misunderstood as "than".... I did mean "then" (Slashdot posters often mix up those words... ). Get a machine with a lot of RAM.... but it is also important that it has a pretty good graphics card. The speed of the graphics card is more important than the speed of the CPU for instance. .... just a grammar lesson for the Icelandic programmer guy living in Denmark.... err... eh.... yes....

 

Just a little correction, our Virtual displacement mapping shader (AKA Parralax mapping) does not work on the mini, just on ARB Fragment shader compatible graphics hardware (Every ATI over 9200 and Nvidia Geforce 4 or better I belive. Maby even Geforce 3, dont renember right now)

- Peter

 

I don't beleve my Geforce 4 mx supports it, or I have made some grusome mistake applying my paralax shaders..

JR

 

Guess I was not precise enough The Geforce 4 MX is actually a Geforce 2 in functionality, so that is why it does not support it... A regular Geforce 4 - non MX should support it fine though...

- Peter

 

@freyr

>>>The speed of the graphics card is more important than the speed of the CPU for instance.<<<

I disagree as it depends on what you're doing. If you're for instance working with Ageia, CPU speed is important a LOT...

@Peter

Geforce3 is also able to...


Greetings,

taumel