Constructor 1.04 Mac test
by Jaimi McEntire · in Constructor · 02/10/2008 (1:46 pm) · 104 replies
I am releasing the 1.04 Macintosh version to whomever would like to test it. Most reports have come back OK, but one person reported a failure launching the application. This version should work in both 10.4 and 10.5 of OSX, and with an Intel Core, core2 and PPC G4 & G5.
If you test this, please post details on your testing environment, including Machine type, OS version, CPU type, amount of memory, etc.
This is a bugfix release! There is no new added functionality. This fixes some problems with loading of CSX files, lighting, and exporting of CSX files to DIF. Some internal list items were fixed that seems to have made portals more stable.
Please - If you have no intention of testing this application and reporting your findings, please do not download it!. Bandwidth is very limited, and once we get the OK from all testers, we can move this to somewhere where everyone can get to it at high speed.
The zip file is located here: www.aztica.com/images/Archive.zip
Put this zip file in your existing constructor 1.03 installation, and decompress it, overwriting all the files it wants to overwrite. You may need to re-enter your ignition key, so be sure to have that handy.
Thanks!
Jaimi
edit: Fixed link (thanks!)
If you test this, please post details on your testing environment, including Machine type, OS version, CPU type, amount of memory, etc.
This is a bugfix release! There is no new added functionality. This fixes some problems with loading of CSX files, lighting, and exporting of CSX files to DIF. Some internal list items were fixed that seems to have made portals more stable.
Please - If you have no intention of testing this application and reporting your findings, please do not download it!. Bandwidth is very limited, and once we get the OK from all testers, we can move this to somewhere where everyone can get to it at high speed.
The zip file is located here: www.aztica.com/images/Archive.zip
Put this zip file in your existing constructor 1.03 installation, and decompress it, overwriting all the files it wants to overwrite. You may need to re-enter your ignition key, so be sure to have that handy.
Thanks!
Jaimi
edit: Fixed link (thanks!)
#62
was having the same problem on 1.0.3
and again now on 1.0.4 using a...
I-mac v10.5.7
Processor 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory 4 GB 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
Thats all i know.
09/30/2009 (3:42 pm)
just tried and still can't save after thatwas having the same problem on 1.0.3
and again now on 1.0.4 using a...
I-mac v10.5.7
Processor 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory 4 GB 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
Thats all i know.
#63
10/11/2009 (6:03 pm)
Is this still just a test, or should I be downloading this somewhere else? Is there a 1.0.5 yet? 
#64
10/12/2009 (10:33 am)
I believe the main download is available on TDN. There is not a 1.0.5 version yet. 
#65
I have a fall-08 15" Unibody Macbook Pro, with the 512MB Nvidia card, and OS X 10.5 (soon to be 10.6).
10/23/2009 (2:42 pm)
Constructor is entirely unusable on my Mac. 1.0.3 started fine, and ran, but crashed on save. 1.0.4 tells me it can't fine GuiDialogProfile or GuiDefaultProfile and then crashes, so I edited canvas.cs to make sure that defaultProfile.cs was being executed, and now it just crashes period.I have a fall-08 15" Unibody Macbook Pro, with the 512MB Nvidia card, and OS X 10.5 (soon to be 10.6).
#66
Updating to 10.6 may cause further headaches.
10/24/2009 (8:28 am)
I'd try re-installing 1.0.4 as I have no trouble running it on my iMac (10.5.8). It stopped working a few weeks ago (crashing) and a re-install had me up and running in short order.Updating to 10.6 may cause further headaches.
#67
10/24/2009 (6:35 pm)
Working ok for me on snow leopard.
#68
10/29/2009 (12:48 pm)
I did reinstall. Not sure why that would even help though, because it was a fresh install to begin with. 
#69
Pim Durieux
11/04/2009 (11:20 am)
I just installed this and all seems to work. Why is garagegames waiting to add this to the constructor release, since it is clearly a good bugfix?Pim Durieux
#70
It's not just Constructor. Every Mac product they've shipped so far, up to and including T3D, has been half-finished and buggy. They claim to support the Mac and care about Mac users, but their actions send a very different message.
This is especially true in this case though. The programmer has built a new version, it's been exhaustively tested by the community, and as of the latest version it requires no integration with their activation key machinery. When GG can't even be bothered to take a few minutes to put a file on their download server, it's difficult to view that as anything other than a huge "f**k you" to Mac users.
11/04/2009 (11:56 am)
Quote:Why is garagegames waiting to add this to the constructor release
It's not just Constructor. Every Mac product they've shipped so far, up to and including T3D, has been half-finished and buggy. They claim to support the Mac and care about Mac users, but their actions send a very different message.
This is especially true in this case though. The programmer has built a new version, it's been exhaustively tested by the community, and as of the latest version it requires no integration with their activation key machinery. When GG can't even be bothered to take a few minutes to put a file on their download server, it's difficult to view that as anything other than a huge "f**k you" to Mac users.
#71
I'm a little disappointed with not being able to run Constructor on my Mac, but it's pretty darn unstable under Vista as well (I have to "end process" on it at least every half hour). But it's free, and way more user friendly then QuArK so you don't see me on here bitching about it. Just letting them know about specific issues in the hope that someone with the time to work on it will.
Maybe you can make some claims about T3D and TGEA.....I don't know, I haven't used them, and I do know that TGEA at least relies (or relied) pretty heavily on DirectX, but to say that every product has been half-finished and buggy is a serious misrepresentation and sounds more like sour grapes than anything else.
11/04/2009 (12:41 pm)
I'm not convinced you know what you're talking about. The *only* issue I've had with the OS X build of TGE that isn't also present on the Windows side of things is a little quirkiness with responding to solitary modifier-key events, which was easily fixed.I'm a little disappointed with not being able to run Constructor on my Mac, but it's pretty darn unstable under Vista as well (I have to "end process" on it at least every half hour). But it's free, and way more user friendly then QuArK so you don't see me on here bitching about it. Just letting them know about specific issues in the hope that someone with the time to work on it will.
Maybe you can make some claims about T3D and TGEA.....I don't know, I haven't used them, and I do know that TGEA at least relies (or relied) pretty heavily on DirectX, but to say that every product has been half-finished and buggy is a serious misrepresentation and sounds more like sour grapes than anything else.
#72
You've been increasingly unhappy with the Intel only decision, which makes sense for supporting antiquated hardware that Apple has also announced that they are not supporting going forward. I still use my G5 for video editing, but I will not be able to upgrade any of my Pro apps in the future.
TGEA 1.8 compiled out of the box on PPC's though Intel was only listed as officially supported. I have not tried compiling Torque 3D on my G5.
Feature parity between the Mac and PC engines continues to be something that we are striving for, but there are some significant challenges in that direction, especially in terms of the lighting and shader subsystems.
We're not saying "f**k you" at all, though from your previous comments you seem to feel that the removal of the PPC as a supported hardware platform to be an extreme disservice.
On Constructor:
Jaimi's 1.0.6 version has not been released on the Mac. 1.0.4 still requires the key and has had some issues on various Mac configurations. Jaimi has been very gracious with his time in working on the codebase and providing new builds, but he has limited time with his projects.
11/04/2009 (12:49 pm)
@ShermanYou've been increasingly unhappy with the Intel only decision, which makes sense for supporting antiquated hardware that Apple has also announced that they are not supporting going forward. I still use my G5 for video editing, but I will not be able to upgrade any of my Pro apps in the future.
TGEA 1.8 compiled out of the box on PPC's though Intel was only listed as officially supported. I have not tried compiling Torque 3D on my G5.
Feature parity between the Mac and PC engines continues to be something that we are striving for, but there are some significant challenges in that direction, especially in terms of the lighting and shader subsystems.
We're not saying "f**k you" at all, though from your previous comments you seem to feel that the removal of the PPC as a supported hardware platform to be an extreme disservice.
On Constructor:
Jaimi's 1.0.6 version has not been released on the Mac. 1.0.4 still requires the key and has had some issues on various Mac configurations. Jaimi has been very gracious with his time in working on the codebase and providing new builds, but he has limited time with his projects.
#73
This is neither misrepresentation nor sour grapes, it's a real, documented and acknowledged problem. I'm not even talking about the port from DirectX to OpenGL - I understand the difficulty of that. I'm talking about the many issues that could have been easily fixed, if only GG cared enough about their Mac customers to do so.
11/04/2009 (12:54 pm)
Have you tried using a USB gamepad? Doesn't work on the Mac - even in TGB, which practically begs for it. Have you tried using drag and drop to import images in TGB for the Mac? That doesn't work either. Mac TGEA still wants to write console.log to the same directory the game is in, meaning that only an admin user can run a game that's in the /Applications directory.This is neither misrepresentation nor sour grapes, it's a real, documented and acknowledged problem. I'm not even talking about the port from DirectX to OpenGL - I understand the difficulty of that. I'm talking about the many issues that could have been easily fixed, if only GG cared enough about their Mac customers to do so.
#74
What puzzles - and yes, angers - me is the many small issues that GG could easily address, but hasn't. Not being able to allocate a month or two of engineering time to a challenging problem on a minor platform is one thing. Choosing not to allocate a day or two to integrate a solution that's already been written and is available as a resource is quite another.
Edit: And when something like this Constructor 1.0.4 update has been finished for over a year and a half, but still hasn't been deployed as an official download - well, that's just bizarre. I won't even pretend to understand what went wrong there.
11/04/2009 (1:10 pm)
@David - I understand the Intel-only decision, and that some features are very difficult to port over. And I also understand the market reality that the Mac is a secondary platform, and is likely to remain one for quite some time. Don't get me wrong here, I'm happy that the Mac is supported at all - that's more than many companies give us!What puzzles - and yes, angers - me is the many small issues that GG could easily address, but hasn't. Not being able to allocate a month or two of engineering time to a challenging problem on a minor platform is one thing. Choosing not to allocate a day or two to integrate a solution that's already been written and is available as a resource is quite another.
Edit: And when something like this Constructor 1.0.4 update has been finished for over a year and a half, but still hasn't been deployed as an official download - well, that's just bizarre. I won't even pretend to understand what went wrong there.
#75
As a fellow Mac user, I can sympathize. I too have found what I've felt to be some significant bugs in GG products.
But while I sympathize, I don't agree with your sentiments.
If you've done any software development at all, you've got to know that it is a labour-intensive process. Issues like the ones you've pointed out get addressed in priority order. One of the factors that goes in to the prioritization is the number of people the issue affects, and Mac users are a minority. While unfortunate, prioritization on this basis is practical and not indicative of GG flipping us the bird.
To get want you want, you'll need to change the way they prioritize. I would suggest the following:
- Prioritize your own issues. If you give a list of problems, let them know which ones are the most important to you. Otherwise all will likely get lumped into the "gripes" category and ignored.
- Be specific. It's far easier for a developer to fix something when they have the best information about how to re-create and what behaviour to look for. Think like a tester.
- More flies with honey.
JP
11/04/2009 (1:21 pm)
@Sherman As a fellow Mac user, I can sympathize. I too have found what I've felt to be some significant bugs in GG products.
But while I sympathize, I don't agree with your sentiments.
If you've done any software development at all, you've got to know that it is a labour-intensive process. Issues like the ones you've pointed out get addressed in priority order. One of the factors that goes in to the prioritization is the number of people the issue affects, and Mac users are a minority. While unfortunate, prioritization on this basis is practical and not indicative of GG flipping us the bird.
To get want you want, you'll need to change the way they prioritize. I would suggest the following:
- Prioritize your own issues. If you give a list of problems, let them know which ones are the most important to you. Otherwise all will likely get lumped into the "gripes" category and ignored.
- Be specific. It's far easier for a developer to fix something when they have the best information about how to re-create and what behaviour to look for. Think like a tester.
- More flies with honey.
JP
#76
The single biggest problem IMHO is lack of HID support. I understand why early versions of TGE lacked that; GameSprocket was deprecated in Mac OS X, and there wasn't a usable alternative when Mac OS X was first released. But working HID Manager code has been available from Apple for many years now.
Like many Mac developers, I can (and have) written my own HID support. But TGB owners who haven't purchased the "Pro" version don't have that option. That's a problem, because TGB is ideally suited to game genres for which a gamepad is practically a requirement.
Another major problem is the fact that every engine I've tried so far - TGE, TGB, and the TGEA demo - write console.log in the same directory in which the game scripts are found. That means that a game that's installed to /Applications must be run by a user with admin privileges.
11/04/2009 (1:41 pm)
@John - Yes, I've been a software developer for 20+ years. I understand the triage process. Another thing that goes into prioritization is the amount of work required, and many of these issues are really quite trivial.The single biggest problem IMHO is lack of HID support. I understand why early versions of TGE lacked that; GameSprocket was deprecated in Mac OS X, and there wasn't a usable alternative when Mac OS X was first released. But working HID Manager code has been available from Apple for many years now.
Like many Mac developers, I can (and have) written my own HID support. But TGB owners who haven't purchased the "Pro" version don't have that option. That's a problem, because TGB is ideally suited to game genres for which a gamepad is practically a requirement.
Another major problem is the fact that every engine I've tried so far - TGE, TGB, and the TGEA demo - write console.log in the same directory in which the game scripts are found. That means that a game that's installed to /Applications must be run by a user with admin privileges.
#77
Think of what I'm saying here as "tough love." :-)
11/04/2009 (5:11 pm)
BTW, I'm only complaining because I think that, overall, Torque technology is the bee's knees. If I hated it I would have quietly moved on, instead of sticking around and demanding improvements.Think of what I'm saying here as "tough love." :-)
#78
I think they should get at least 2 more people on their team that is dedicated to OSX and iPhone support.
11/21/2009 (11:01 pm)
I agree with Sherman, GG is not supporting OSX as well as it should. I have been thinking this all the time, and it's time they should improve it. They want to be known as a powerful user-friendly company that isn't cheap? Then fine, but they better expect plenty of complaints from the OSX community about how poorly they create their software on our platform.I think they should get at least 2 more people on their team that is dedicated to OSX and iPhone support.
#79
11/29/2009 (11:21 am)
Yes i have tried it again and it works fine it was i installed the fix incorrectly thank you for making this i have been trying to get it to save for months
#80
and this:
01/07/2010 (10:57 pm)
Well, I just tried from scratch again, totally clean version of 1.03 (not even started), and dumped in the 1.04 patch, and I get this:and this:
//-------------------------- 1/7/2010 -- 21:49:56 ----- System & Processor Information: MacOS version: 10.5.8 CarbonLib version: 1.6.0 Physical RAM: 2047MB Logical RAM: 2047MB Unknown/PowerPC G4u ++, 2147 Mhz FPU detected Math Init: Installing Standard C extensions Input Init: Basic mouse capture failed to enable! Video Init: Accelerated OpenGL display device detected. Internet Proxy: (null) Warning: (/Volumes/Data/Constructor-src/pb/../engine/core/fileStream.cc @ 103) FileStream::setPosition: the stream is already open Warning: (/Volumes/Data/Constructor-src/pb/../engine/platformMacCarb/macCarbFileio.cc @ 365) File::open: handle already valid --------- Loading MODS --------- Missing file: textures/main.cs! Error: Unable to find specified mod: textures Missing file: constructor/main.cs! Error: Unable to find specified mod: constructor Compiling creator/main.cs... creating path creator/main.cs.dso creating path creator/ Loading compiled script creator/main.cs. Compiling common/main.cs... creating path common/main.cs.dso creating path common/ Loading compiled script common/main.cs. Missing file: common/defaults.cs! Error: Unable to load any specified mods --------- Parsing Arguments --------- --------- Initializing MOD: Common --------- Compiling common/client/canvas.cs... creating path common/client/canvas.cs.dso creating path common/client/ Loading compiled script common/client/canvas.cs. Compiling common/client/audio.cs... creating path common/client/audio.cs.dso creating path common/client/ Loading compiled script common/client/audio.cs. --------- Initializing: Torque Creator --------- Compiling creator/editor/editor.cs... creating path creator/editor/editor.cs.dso creating path creator/editor/ Loading compiled script creator/editor/editor.cs. Compiling creator/editor/particleEditor.cs... creating path creator/editor/particleEditor.cs.dso creating path creator/editor/ Loading compiled script creator/editor/particleEditor.cs. Compiling creator/scripts/scriptDoc.cs... creating path creator/scripts/scriptDoc.cs.dso creating path creator/scripts/ Loading compiled script creator/scripts/scriptDoc.cs. Compiling creator/ui/creatorProfiles.cs... creating path creator/ui/creatorProfiles.cs.dso creating path creator/ui/ Loading compiled script creator/ui/creatorProfiles.cs. Compiling creator/ui/InspectDlg.gui... creating path creator/ui/InspectDlg.gui.dso creating path creator/ui/ Loading compiled script creator/ui/InspectDlg.gui. Warning: (/Volumes/Data/Constructor-src/pb/../engine/gui/core/guiTypes.cc @ 374) GuiControlProfile: requested gui profile (GuiDialogProfile) does not exist. Fatal: (/Volumes/Data/Constructor-src/pb/../engine/gui/core/guiTypes.cc @ 378) GuiControlProfile: unable to find specified profile (GuiDialogProfile) and GuiDefaultProfile does not exist! Warning: (/Volumes/Data/Constructor-src/pb/../engine/gui/core/guiTypes.cc @ 374) GuiControlProfile: requested gui profile (GuiWindowProfile) does not exist. Fatal: (/Volumes/Data/Constructor-src/pb/../engine/gui/core/guiTypes.cc @ 378) GuiControlProfile: unable to find specified profile (GuiWindowProfile) and GuiDefaultProfile does not exist! Warning: (/Volumes/Data/Constructor-src/pb/../engine/gui/core/guiTypes.cc @ 374) GuiControlProfile: requested gui profile (GuiButtonProfile) does not exist. Fatal: (/Volumes/Data/Constructor-src/pb/../engine/gui/core/guiTypes.cc @ 378) GuiControlProfile: unable to find specified profile (GuiButtonProfile) and GuiDefaultProfile does not exist!
Torque 3D Owner James
The interior I have has 5 portals of which 3 work as advertized. Two however are glitching and will crash the windows version of the game. The glitching is identical to the one reported in this thread.
It appears to be an export issue not a construction issue:
Exporting from the PC version of Constructor (1.0.6), all 5 of the portals function just fine. Using the same file and exporting from the Mac version however, the same two portals fail to function correctly.
System:
OS X 10.5.7
iMac 3.06G Intel Core 2 Duo