Qualification of Maya 7.0/7.0.1 on Mac OS X

Last updated: June.20, 2006

Products	Version	Software Date
Maya Complete/Unlimited	7.0	200507192211
Maya Complete/Unlimited	7.0.1	200511181725

File Compatibility
General Configuration
Information for specific Mac OS X versions
System and Graphics
Detailed Driver Notes
Compiler Requirements
Important information about Intel based Macs

General Configuration

In order to determine whether your system is qualified to run Maya and mental ray for Maya, you must have a qualified processor, operating system, graphics card, and official Apple-supplied graphics driver. See the following sections.

As well, you must meet other requirements such as:

At least 512 MB of RAM (more is recommended).
an Ethernet network card, or hardware dongle (for product licensing). Customers intending to license their Alias software based on an external network card should be aware that Alias does not support the use of these devices and cannot guarantee that software will operate correctly when licensed in this way.
A three button mouse (strongly recommended).

General disclaimers:

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.
Due to the many Operating System and architecture differences between the supported platforms, 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. You may not be able to "mix and match" renderings on different platforms.
Standard pen pressure sensitivity with Wacom tablets is 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.
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.

Information for specific Mac OS X versions

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.)

Mac OS X version	Notes
10.4.6	Maya 7.0 has been tested on Mac OS X 10.4.6 as indicated below.
10.4.3	Maya 7.0 IS NOT qualified on systems using an Nvidia GF4Ti graphics cards and higher. A problem exists where the Trax editor and Dopesheet editor do not draw properly and can lead to a kernel panic. DO NOT upgrade to 10.4.3 at this time if you have an Nvidia GF4Ti graphics card or higher. We are working with Apple to get this issue resolved as soon as possible.
10.4.2	Maya 7.0 is qualified for use with OS X 10.4.2 as indicated below.
10.3.9	Maya 7.0 has been tested on Mac OS X 10.3.9 as indicated below.
10.3.5 and earlier	Maya 7.0 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 behavior. Please refer to the Maya 6.5 and 6.0 qualification charts for general guidance, but we cannot guarantee that Maya 7.0 will behave identically.

System and Graphics

Maya 7.0 is qualified on any of the systems identified below using the version of Mac OS X specified above (under Information for specific Mac OS X versions). 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 to run dual monitors, see note below.

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 2.3 GHz Dual 2.5 GHz Dual 2.7 GHz	Yes
Power Mac G5 (PCI Express)	Dual Core 2.0 GHz Dual Core 2.3 GHz Dual - Dual Core 2.5 GHz	Yes
PowerBook G4 (Titanium)	400 MHz 500 MHz	No*
PowerBook G4 (Gigabit Ethernet)	550 MHz 667 MHz	No*
PowerBook G4 (DVI)	667 MHz 800 MHz 867 MHz 1.0 GHz	No*
PowerBook G4 (FW800)	1.0 GHz 1.25 GHz	No*
PowerBook G4 12" (AL)	867 MHz 1.0 GHZ 1.33 GHz 1.5 GHZ	No*
PowerBook G4 15" (AL)	1.33 GHz 1.5 GHz	No*
PowerBook G4 17" (AL)	1.0 GHz 1.33 GHz 1.5 GHz 1.67 GHZ	No*
iMac (15-inch Flat Panel)	Single 700 MHz Single 800 MHz	No*
iMac (17-inch Flat Panel)	Single 700 MHz Single 800 MHz Single 1.0 GHz	No*
iMac (15-inch Flat Panel - USB 2.0)	Single 1.2 GHz Single 1.5 GHz	No*
iMac G5 ( 17" and 20")	All models	No*
eMac	All models	No
Xserve	All models	No
Mac mini	All Models	No

* All Macs with built in Flat Panels (iMacs and PowerBooks) are limited to built-in screen resolutions. These resolutions may limit the use of Maya; for example, menu bars may not be fully drawn and windows may need screen resolution that is not available. Using an external monitor and setting the resolution to 1280 x 1024 allows full use of Maya menus and windows.

Maya 7.0/7.0.1 on Intel Based Macs
Maya 7.0 / 7.0.1 for OS X is not a Universal Binary and will not run natively on the new Intel-based Macs from Apple. While you may be able to experiment with Maya under emulation through Apple's Rosetta, it was not designed for 3d-intensive applications such as Maya and as such we will not be able to provide support if you try to work this way. We do not make forward looking statements regarding which platforms will be supported in future product releases.

Detailed Driver Notes

All qualifications are performed using only the official Apple default drivers that are included with a particular version of an OS (e.g., 10.4) or OS update (e.g., 10.4.2). Drivers acquired by 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.

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, select the /System/Library/Extensions/ATIRadeon9800.kext file and then choose File -> Info.

General notes about Graphics Cards

The texture placement manipulator may not display. 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)

Dual monitor support

Apple systems can be run in Dual Monitor configuration by using either a single graphics card which supports dual output (e.g. nVidia GeForce 6800 or ATI Radeon x850xt), or by using a second PCI based graphics card for the second display.

Legacy Graphics
The following graphics cards are no longer tested but may continue to provide acceptable use in Maya. Please refer to the Maya 6.5 for OS X qualification chart to evaluate a particular card's previous use in Maya. While you may continue to use one of these cards, please note that we may not be able to provide support for any issues you encounter.
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
ATI Radeon 9000 Pro

ATI Radeon x850xt

Model	OS X Version
ATI Radeon x850xt	10.3.9
*Limitations and Solutions*
Limitation	Testing of this card on 10.3.9 is ongoing. Check back at a latter date for updates to the qualification of this card.

ATI Radeon x80xt	10.4.2
Limitation	None

ATI Radeon x800xt

Model	OS X Version
ATI Radeon x800xt	10.3.9
*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

ATI Radeon x800xt	10.4.2
Limitation	None

ATI Radeon 9600/9800 (RV based Cards)

Model	OS X Version
ATI Radeon 9600/9800	10.3.9
*Limitations and Solutions*
Limitation	Testing of this card on 10.3.9 is ongoing. Check back at a latter date for updates to the qualification of this card.

ATI Radeon 9600/9800	10.4.2
Limitation	None

Nvidia GF4Ti

Model	OS X Version
Nvidia GF4Ti	10.3.9
*Limitations and Solutions*
Limitation	The Hardware Render Buffer renders blue when Multi Pass Rendering is enabled
Solution	None
Limitation	Rendering multiple times in the Hardware Render Buffer may cause Maya to freeze.
Solution	None

Nvidia GF4Ti	10.4.2
Limitation	Rendering multiple times in the Hardware Render Buffer may cause Maya to freeze.
Solution	None

Nvidia 6800 Ultra

Model	OS X Version
Nvidia 6800 Ultra	10.3.9
*Limitations and Solutions*
Limitation	Hardware Render Buffer Renders white
Solution	None
Limitation	No Shadows in the Hardware Renderer
Solution	None

Nvidia 6800 Ultra	10.4.2
Limitation	None

Quadro FX 4500

Model	OS X Version
Quadro FX 4500	10.4.2
*Limitations and Solutions*
Limitation	None
NOTE: The Quadro FX 4500 has been tested and qualified with CG enabled in Maya 7.0. The use of CG is not on by default and must be turned on using environment variables added to the Maya.env file. This file exists in your HOME/Library/Preferences/Alias/maya/7.0 directory. The environment variables are as follows: `MAYA_ENABLE_HWR_CG_PROGRAMS = 1 MAYA_HWR_CG_FRAGMENT_PROFILE = arbfp1`

Compiler Requirements

If you are building plug-ins for Maya, note that the Maya API requires a specific compiler and linker, on each of the platforms Alias supports in order to build compatible plug-ins. Maya 7.0 is built on: Mac OS X 10.3.5 with the XCode 1.5 gcc 3.3 (build 1666) compiler. Using this compiler will guarantee binary compatibility when building plug-ins.