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Topic: More Mac Plug-Ins? - Page: 1

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At the DJ Expo in Atlantic City last month, one of the VDJ tech guys and I were discussing the development process; specifically how you develop for Windows then port to Mac. He asked me something about if I had noticed that more of the Windows based plugins & downloads were now being made available to Mac. Unfortunately I don't recall the exact details of the conversation (it was loud and you had a really hot DJ from Annapolis, MD spinning!!). But the main point was definitely that something has been or is being implemented that would result in uploaded Windows plugins being available for Mac, too.

When I look at the amount of plugins available to us Mac users - especially video plugins - I don't see any major change. So I'm hoping I just misunderstood when he was telling me this change is happening, and I'm hoping that it will be happening soon. Can anyone clarify for me what (if any) work is being done to get the Windows plugins available to Mac users? Thanks.
 
geposted Tue 07 Sep 10 @ 2:04 am
The answer to your has been repeated so many times that it's not even funny anymore:

Majority of the plug-ins are developed by member of the community, not by Atomix Productions. Therefor it's completely up to the individual developers wether or not they want to port their plug-ins to Mac or not.
 
Yes I'm aware of that and all the discussion on it... but at the DJ Expo last month one of the Atomix employees told me something new was being implemented that would allow for the Windows plug-ins to work on the Mac. I wish I had been paying more attention so I could tell you exactly what he told me. I thought he said that when Windows plug-ins were uploaded something on the server (or maybe a site admin?) would port it for Mac. Or maybe he was saying that's going to be happening later. Or maybe he was telling me in the next version of VDJ Pro the Mac version will be able to use Windows plugins... I don't know for sure because at the time I hadn't really explored plugins so I didn't pay as close attention as I should have (ADD sucks)). I wasn't familiar with how many Mac plugins there were versus how many Windows plugins there are so I didn't realize how big a deal it really could be.

The bottom line is if Mac support continues to be this weak when I finally get around to inserting video in my performances I fear I'm going to be forced to jump ship once itch or traktor get video features. I'd rather not spend that money. I'd rather stick with VDJ - so I'm hoping whatever he told me could be clarified here (if it's a big "next version secret" at least tell me to "stay tuned" or something).

Rizzo
 
I'm afraid there is no way for an automatic port of a video plugin. VDJ Mac uses OpenGL whereas VDJ PC uses DirectX so an automatic port is impossible - the two technologies are very different in ways that can have a big impact on developers. Plugins are often uploaded without source so a site admin couldn't port manually either (this is no small task btw!).

The only possibility would be an emulation layer, but I can't see this being done any time soon - it would be no small undertaking! Not to mention the performance hit of emulating DirectX on a Mac.

The main problem is that video plugins are often community contributed - for example mine. Community plugin developers don't get paid for these plugins - we recieve a nominal payment based on how many people download our plugins and this is (at least partly) funded from the 'Premium' membership scheme.

I've ported a few of my simpler ones to Mac, but the more complicated ones require time and for me to own a Mac. Whilst I will have more time soon I don't own a Mac and this makes porting them impossible unfortunately.

I do know Atomix have been working on getting a few of their plugins over - again it's not as easy a task as you might imagine. For example a simple thing like displaying text is very very easy under DirectX but far more complicated under OpenGL.
 
SBDJ wrote :
I've ported a few of my simpler ones to Mac, but the more complicated ones require time and for me to own a Mac. Whilst I will have more time soon I don't own a Mac and this makes porting them impossible unfortunately. I do know Atomix have been working on getting a few of their plugins over - again it's not as easy a task as you might imagine. For example a simple thing like displaying text is very very easy under DirectX but far more complicated under OpenGL.


Would this help anyone?

http://www.macworld.com/article/53874/2006/11/hlsl2glsl.html

I'd be happy to help anyone test any Mac Plug-Ins (I'm no developer but I fix Macs for a living & am a Mac Certified Technician and Apple Certified on OS X so I know my way around a Mac). Also I'm a premium member if that helps.

One thing the tech told me is that VDJ is coded for Windows then after it is out of beta it is ported to Mac (I had asked him why their booth at the DJ Expo was all MacBook Pros but they were all running Windows - it was because the beta of VDJ 7 was running on them). So Atomix must have someone on a payroll or contract that can port Windows code, right?

Just wondering (and wishing) out loud.
 
RizzoDJ wrote :
Would this help anyone?

http://www.macworld.com/article/53874/2006/11/hlsl2glsl.html


Not to me I'm afraid; my plugins don't make use of HLSL as it is now.

RizzoDJ wrote :
I'd be happy to help anyone test any Mac Plug-Ins (I'm no developer but I fix Macs for a living & am a Mac Certified Technician and Apple Certified on OS X so I know my way around a Mac). Also I'm a premium member if that helps.


Unfortunately that'd never work for me; I run hundreds of debug sessions in a single development session. I really need a Mac at my disposal to do it. I used to have access to Macs as part of my job, however I'm no longer in that job. I will see what I can do to speed along the process but don't hold your breath!

RizzoDJ wrote :
One thing the tech told me is that VDJ is coded for Windows then after it is out of beta it is ported to Mac (I had asked him why their booth at the DJ Expo was all MacBook Pros but they were all running Windows - it was because the beta of VDJ 7 was running on them). So Atomix must have someone on a payroll or contract that can port Windows code, right?


Obviously the dev team are capable of porting the windows code, but my point is that the dev team don't create all the plugins. Some are created by users and it's not up to the dev team to then spend time porting them - especially since they don't have the source code. Some plugins are extremely complicated after all and they would have to then update and port all future revisions too. That would be a bit of a nightmare!
 
I guess the question then is is the dev team gonna be coming up with any NEW plugins for us mac users anytime soon? I hear what u say abt it being a huge task to port plugins over to mac, especially if it was written by someone else, but I mean with the release of version 7 and all, can we expect any new plugins from the dev team?
 
I have just converted Reverb made by TexZK for Mac OS ;-)
 
djcel wrote :
I have just converted Reverb made by TexZK for Mac OS ;-)


Thank you very much djcel. I just got it. I will test it in a few.

I hope you will convert the Gate effect to Mac too!
 
already done
 
 
Lot's of great info & thanks to DJCel for the Mac plugin.

I didn't realize the uploaded Windows plugins can't be ported on their own & that they require the separate code (I fix hardware, I don't develop!).

It would be nice if Atomix would allow the Windows developers to also upload the source code for porting.
 
They do allow developers to upload the code, however it's a choice for the developer to make.
 
SBDJ wrote :
They do allow developers to upload the code, however it's a choice for the developer to make.


By uploading the code does that mean they're making it available to be ported? If not, what benefit is there to doing so?
 
By uploading the code then it means they are making it available for the community to see (restricted to Experienced Pro users and above). This could include porting, yes.

Developers who share their plugin source do apparently receive higher 'royalty' payments for that plugin.

Source code also gets shared privately sometimes; djcel is very kind and often sends me the source code to plugins he's working on. Included in this is a mac text plugin. In doing so he's made it easier for me to port my code when I do get access again to OS X. Cstoll has kindly also offered to help out with plugin testing and so on in the absence of my owning a Mac.

The drive is definately there from Atomix to ask for people to include Mac as a target platform. From my perspective I just need access to the hardware and to get up to speed on OpenGL.
 
 
djcel, once again thank you much. I am waiting for the Gate plug-In now!
 
djcel wrote :
Filters_v2_TexZK is now available for Mac

http://www.virtualdj.com/addons/4294/Filters.html


Dj cel Is greate what are you doing with the plug ins
I hava a quiestion in VDJ for windows when you touch a track with the right botton of the mouse is an option that alow me to go to the folder where the track is
Mac vdj version dosen´t alow to do that
Can you fix it???
Sincerely Diego
 
 
Thank you very much!
 
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