Migrating Jitter patches from OS9 to XP

2004-08-23

Adam Kendall has reported to the Max-MSP list his findings when porting Jitter patches from Mac OS9 to Windows XP. I’m reposting here as I might have to refer to this at a later stage.

Subject: [max-msp] Migrating Jitter patches from OS9 to XP

In case this helps other people —

I recently migrated all my Jitter work from OS9 4.100 to XP 4.3.2 Following
are issues I ran into. Some might be obvious some not.

If anyone sees incorrect or incomplete information please correct me.

If other people email their experiences I’ll compile a “White Paper” on the
subject.

ORIGINAL PLATFORM:

• OS9
• 1Ghz TiBook
• 768mb RAM
• Radeon ATI w/64mb video RAM
• 4200rpm drive

NEW PLATFORM:

• XP
• Dell Inspiron 9100
• 3.2Ghz P4ht
• 1Gb RAM
• Radeon ATI 9600 w/128mb video RAM
• 7200rpm drive.

NET RESULT:

• FPS on the new platform are easily 2x-4x higher. It’s not a linear
  difference — Different patches slow down the FPS differently on the two
  machines. On the TiBook I constantly fell below 15fps often as low as 6 or
  7.000
  than I ever did in OS9. So far 12fps is my worst performance on the XP
  setup.

DIRECTORY STRUCTURE REFERENCES

• WinMax uses “/” instead of the OS9 convention “:”
• Also note “/” is the opposite of the standard Windows "

SINGLE-QUOTES

• Sometimes WinMax doesn’t recognzie Single-quotes
• This was an issue when porting bpatchers referencing files with spaces
• Max put single-quotes around the names in my OS9 patches. WinMax didn’t
  recognize the single-quotes and I lost bpatcher file references.

FILE-EXTENSIONS

• Files in OS9 that are seen as Max text files must be labeled .pat in XP
• .mxb is the extension for Max binary files and Max will choke if a Max
  text file is labeled as binary
• XP files with the .mxb extension won’t work in OS9. Whether or not
  they’re text or binary they must be labeled .pat.

EXTERNALS

• All third-party externals must have XP versions installed

OUTPUT WINDOWS

• In WinMax output windows must be floating or will be hidden to the OS
  and monitors by Max’s parent MDI window.
• Alternately manually extend Max’s parent MDI window across the second
  monitor

QUICKTIME

• Quicktime is not standard in XP. It must be downloaded and installed
  (it’s free)

GRABBING VIDEO

• Grabbing video is not standard in XP which is relevant for
  jit.qt.grab.
• Note the jit.qt.grab help-files recommend using WinVDIG.

FULLSCREEN

• FullScreen behaves differently in WinMax than OS9.
• Behavior in OS9 — Master patch in full screen Double click on a
  patcher or subpatcher — subpatch floats above full screen.
• Behavior on PC — Patcher or subpatcher opens behind the master patch.
  
• Net result — I find FullScreen kind of useless in WinMax
• Personal Note: I use FullScreen in OS9 because it’s more efficient for
  video. I haven’t noticed any efficiency loss in WinMax using
  non-FullScreen. My guess is since XP has the MDI system even if the patch
  is not FullScreen WinMax still controls the entire screen.

UBUMENU

• Ubumenu doesn’t work in FullScreen.
• My guess is it’s related to the FullScreen issue since Ubumenu actually
  produces a second floating window.

MAXIMIZING WINDOWS

• Annoying behavior consistent with XP behavior in general — When a
  parent patcher is maximized subpatchers open up maximized also.

OVERDRIVE

• This is purely anecdotal I haven’t thoroughly tested or quantified
  this
• I have three “Vertical Hold / Horizontal Hold” patches. They use
  jit.mxform2fd jit.rota or jit.convolve to create traditional vertical hold
  / horizontal hold functionality. I apply a simple non-audio oscillator to
  make the images roll
• OS9 Overdrive on or off — “rolling” works fine in all circumstances
• PC Overdrive off — “rolling” chokes if too many pwindows are active
• PC Overdrive on — No problems.
• I tested lots of other parameters and Overdrive seemed to be the cause

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