Qualification of Maya 6.5 for Mac OS X

Last updated:  March.3, 2005

Products Version Software Date
Maya Complete/Unlimited 6.5 200501140012
 

File Compatibility
Maya

Maya 6.5 can read Maya 6.5, 6.0, 5.0, 4.5, 4.0.x and 3.x format files. Some conversion may be necessary for the transfer of Maya ASCII (.ma) and MEL files between operating systems. Maya Unlimited data from other platforms will not be included. Maya 6.5 for Mac OS X files can be read into Maya 6.5 on any platform.
Others* Maya 6.5 imports Adobe Illustrator, EPS (level 2), OBJ, DXF, DWG (AutoCAD 1 to 2000), IGES, AIFF (win32/mac), Maya's image file format on Mac OS X is based on QuickTime 5; File formats supported by QuickTime 5 can be imported into Maya. See Apple's QuickTime specification page for more details.
VRML2 files can be read via a standalone translator.
Maya 6.5 exports OBJ, DXF, DWG, IGES, MOV, VRML2, RTG and GE2.
*Not all file formats are supported on all platforms.

Information for specific Mac OS X versions
Maya 6.5 on Mac OS X 10.4
Maya 6.5 is qualified for use with OS X 10.4 (Tiger). There are known issues with the hardware batch renderer for both ATI and nVidia cards that we are actively working with Apple to resolve. In addition, ATI's x800 card will occasionally pixelate the interactive display. (switching views - for example, from a single perspective view to quad view - will correct the display) Please visit this page weekly as we will publish any updates here.
Maya 6.5 on Mac OS X 10.3.6
Maya 6.5 has been tested on Mac OS X 10.3.6 as indicated below.
Maya 6.5 on Mac OS X 10.3.5 and earlier
Maya 6.5 has not been significantly tested on Mac OS X prior to 10.3.6 and while it may be possible to use Maya successfully on earlier versions of Mac OS X, Alias cannot guarantee the performance or behaviour. Please refer to the Maya 6.0 qualification chart for general guidance, but we cannot guarantee that Maya 6.5 will behave identically.

Compiler Information:
Built on: Mac OSX 10.3.5
Compiler: XCode 1.5 gcc 3.3 (build 1666)
System and Graphics

Maya 6.5 is qualified on any of the systems identified below using the specified version of Mac OS X. Do not assume that newer versions of Mac OS X will be suitable for use with Maya.
You may need to refer to Apple's documents:
Power Mac G4: How to Differentiate Between Models and
Power Mac G4: How to Differentiate Between Models, Part 2 to identify your System.

If you intend running dual monitors, see note below.

All qualifications are performed using only the official Apple default drivers that are included with a particular version of an OS (e.g. 10.3) or OS update (e.g. 10.3.6). Drivers acquired via any other means, e.g. directly from a graphics vendor are considered unsupported and therefore not qualified. We cannot guarantee the stability of Maya using unsupported drivers. We have received numerous reports of problems with drivers other than those released by Apple as part of the OS.
 

System Tested
Any G3
No
Power Mac G4
(PCI Graphics)
Single 350MHz
Single 400MHz
No
Power Mac G4
(AGP Graphics)
Single 350MHz
Single 400MHz
Single 450MHz
No
Power Mac G4
(Gigabit Ethernet)
Single 400MHz
Dual 450MHz
Dual 500MHz
No
Power Mac G4
(Digital Audio)
Single 466MHz
Single 533MHz
Single 667MHz
Single 733MHz
Dual 533MHz
No
Power Mac G4
(QuickSilver)
Single 733MHz
Single 867MHz
Dual 800MHz
No
Power Mac G4
(QuickSilver 2002)
Single 800MHz
Single 933MHz
Dual 1.0 GHz
No
Power Mac G4
(Mirrored Drive Doors)
Dual 867MHz
Dual 1.0 GHz
Dual 1.25 GHz
Yes
Power Mac G4 (FW 800)
Single 1.0 GHz
Dual 1.25 GHz
Dual 1.42 GHz
Yes
Power Mac G5

Single 1.6 GHz
Single 1.8 GHz
Dual 1.8 GHz
Dual 2.0 GHz
Dual 2.5 GHz
Yes
PowerBook G4
(Titanium)
400MHz
500MHz
No*
PowerBook G4
(Gigabit Ethernet)
550MHz
667MHz
No*
PowerBook G4
(DVI)
667MHz
800MHz
867MHz
1.0GHz
No*
PowerBook G4
(FW800)
1.0GHz
1.25GHz
No*
PowerBook G4 12" (AL)
867MHz
1.0GHZ
1.33GHz
No*
PowerBook G4 15" (AL)
1.33GHz
1.5GHz
No*
PowerBook G4 17" (AL)
1.0GHz
1.33GHz
1.5GHz
No*
iMac
(15-inch Flat Panel)
Single 700MHz
Single 800MHz
No*
iMac
(17-inch Flat Panel)
Single 700MHz
Single 800MHz
Single 1.0GHz
No*
iMac
(15-inch Flat Panel - USB 2.0)
Single 1.2GHz
Single 1.5GHz
No*
iMac
G5 ( 17" and 20")
Single 1.6GHz
Single 1.8GHZ
No*
eMac
All models
No
Xserve
All models
No

* All Macs with built in Flat Panels (iMacs and PowerBooks) are limited to built in screen resolutions. These resolutions may limit Maya's usability such as menu bars may not be fully drawn or windows may need screen resolution that is not available. Using an external monitor and setting the resolution to 1280 x 1024 will allow full use of Maya menus and windows.


Detailed Driver Notes:
 
Legacy Graphics
The following graphics cards are no longer tested.
ATI Rage 128 PCI ATI Rage128

ATI Rage128 Pro
ATI Radeon ATI Radeon 7500 NVIDIA GeForce2 MX
NVIDIA GeForce 4 MX ATI Mobility Radeon M3 ATI Mobility Radeon M6
ATI Mobility Radeon 7500 NVIDIA
GeForce4 420 Go		 NVIDIA
GeForce4 440 Go
ATI PCI graphics ATI Radeon 8500 NVIDIA GeForce3
The graphics cards listed above are no longer tested but may continue to provide acceptable use in Maya. Please refer to the Maya 6.0 for OS X qualification chart to evaluate a particular cards previous use in Maya.
While you may continue to use one of the cards listed above, please note that we may not be able to provide Support for any issues you encounter.
 
ATI Radeon 9000 Pro
Model OS X Version 
ATI Radeon 9000 Pro 10.3.6
Limitations and Solutions
Limitation This card is not recommended for use with Hardware Rendering as not all features are supported.
Solution None
Limitation This card does not support the High Quality Viewport
Solution None
Limitation Particles may darken in shaded mode when lights are moved interactively
Solution The particles will return to their set brightness when the mouse button is released
Limitation Point Smoothing not supported in the Hardware Render Buffer or the Hardware Render
Solution None
 
 
ATI Radeon 9600
Model OS X Version 
ATI Radeon 9600 10.3.6
Limitations and Solutions
Limitation This card is not recommended for use with Hardware Rendering as not all features are supported.
Solution  
 
Nvidia GF4Ti
Model OS X Version 
Nvidia GF4Ti 10.3.6
Limitations and Solutions
Limitation Sometimes Maya renders the animation sequnce in Hardware Render Buffer window in magenta or blue color.
Solution  
 
 

Regardless of graphics card used, the following issues are noticeable:

  • The texture placement manipulator is not displayed. The manipulator can be forced to display by clicking the middle mouse button anywhere in the same window.
  • The Alpha Gain Slider in the attribute editor for an image plane does not alter the transparency of the image plane, or the alpha gain is displayed incorrectly
  • The outline of the Paint Effects brushes or artisan brushes (e.g. sculpt) may remain on screen on the completion of a stroke, or may not be drawn at all, or may draw incorrectly.
  • Refresh of scenes containing Paint Effects can be very slow, or may 'flash' during redraw.
  • Hardware shadows cannot be displayed (Lighting->Shadows in pane menus)

 


General
  • A three button mouse is strongly recommended.
  • At least 512 MB of RAM is required.
  • Customers should not license Alias software with a Macintosh based external network card as the software may not run at all or may not operate correctly.
  • The configurations shown are subject to change, and additional qualified configurations may be added after qualification testing has been carried out.
  • The operating system specified is the OS used for the qualification process. While it may be possible to use Maya successfully on earlier or later versions of Mac OS X, Alias cannot guarantee the performance or behavior. It may be possible to successfully use Maya with a non-qualified or partially qualified configuration, but support and maintenance programs will be subject to the Alias Support services guidelines.
  • We do not recommend saving data directly from Maya to NFS or Novell Netware or other remote mounted file systems. We have received several reports of data corruption when saving in this method although we have been unable to reproduce this. We strongly recommend that you save the files locally and then copy the data to the mounted storage system.
  • When texture images are stored on systems remote from the rendering process; depending on network speed, specifications and load it is possible that the renderer may be unable to access a texture file on demand and may 'drop' individual textures on a frame by frame basis. To reduce this occurrence store textures on a system local to the rendering process.
  • Due to the many Operating System and Architecture differences between the supported platforms, you should be aware that the results of some operations will differ on different platforms. This is most noticeable with operations which iterate to reach their results - leading to cumulatively large difference - e.g. dynamics, some rendering. Be aware that that you may not be able to "mix and match" renderings on different platforms.
  • Standard pen pressure sensitivity with Wacom tablets is now supported. However, Wacom mice which are used with tablets have significant limitations and cannot be fully integrated with standard navigation in Maya. We recommend using a standard mouse with Maya, and limiting pen usage to Maya's Paint Effects and Sculpting tools. Alias is working with Wacom to achieve full support for Wacom products.
  • Apple systems can be run in Dual Monitor configuration in one of two ways - either a single graphics card which supports dual output (e.g. nVidia GeForce 4 Ti or ATI Radeon 9800), or by using a second PCI based graphics card for the second display.
    Limitation: Apple systems running Mac OS X 10.2.x dual monitors, with the support for the second monitor provided by a PCI graphics card will kernel panic when running Maya. We are working with Apple to resolve the system driver problem causing this, but currently we have no workaround.

How to tell which version of Mac OS X is installed:
Select "About this Mac" in the Apple menu. The general OS version number will be just below the logo e.g. Version 10.3.6.
To find the precise build number, click the version text - it will change to the build number e.g. Build 7M34. (Occasionally Apple will release slightly different Versions with the same version number but which may behave differently. It may only be possible to identify the OS version by the build number.)
How to verify which version of a video driver is installed on your Mac OS X system:
In a finder window, navigate to /System/Library/Extensions/(vendor extension file). With this file selected, choose File -> Info to view the version information.

For example, to determine the version of the video driver installed for the ATI Radeon 9800, one would select the /System/Library/Extensions/ATIRadeon9800.kext file and then choose File -> Info.