Stand alone MAC version

[Bruss444]

I was wondering if anyone knows how far along a "stand alone" version of P2E for Mac is at this point. I want to replace my desktop pc with a MAC. (Would rather not set up a dual boot with Windows) I read on another form that Igor in April of 2008 said it could be 1 or 2 years which would put it into 2009 or 2010. I have made Mac executables with Beta 6 and they look great and run fine on my new MacBook Pro and especially when tethered to our Sony HD TV by the way of an HDMI cable. (New adapter now allows sound to exit by the UBS on the MacBook Pro and travel by way of the HDMI cable.

Thanks Bill

[Henri.R]

I think I'm going to try either the free VirtualBox software or the recently released Fusion 3 since they are supposed to support DirectX.If I do I'll let you know how well it works (probably using XP or Windows 7 VM image, NOT Vista).

Tom

Hi Tom,

I also would appreciate very much to read about your experience with Fusion; I tried Parallels with Leopard(XP sp2) but somehow the software didn't see the Ati Radeon card(iMac 2008) in the right way, and as you know hardware acceleration is vital nowadays in Igor's new versions of PtE...

regards,

Henri.

[Bruss444]

Hello Tom and Henri! Thanks for the reply. The people at Wnsoft have sure done a great job giving us the now available Mac Executables by the way of a pc!! I sure hope soon though there will be a stand alone Mac version and when that happens my 3 year old PC wil be replaced with a Mac. I am also hoping that we will be able to add video clips too. Thanks again Bill

[Bruss444]

Actually I was hoping Igor would give us an update. благодарю вас Bill

[Henri.R]

All of this running on my Mac Mini with Nvidia 9400M and 2GB ram. Not sure about your Ati Radeon card. The good news is that VMware allows you to have 30 day demo for testing. I have not upgrade my Mini to Snow Leopard, but I will soon.

I will try VirtualBox next, but I find no fault with Fusion 3.

Tom

Hi Tom,

Thanks for sharing all this useful information.

I'll give it a try with the demoversion; I have Bootcamp, but it seems that VMware can run in Leopard while Bootcamp is installed.

Thanks again for your efforts,

Henri.

[Barry Beckham]

I wonder if the Beta testing of any Mac version will be more difficult for the wnsoft team? I looked up the sales relationship between Macs and PC's on the Internet and it seems to have been stable for the past few years at around 3% for the Mac.

Now that still leaves a lot of Macs out there, but not as many as with PC's. The feedback on bugs may not be so quick or efficient as it is now.

[Barry Beckham]

Tom

Yes, some points well made. I agree it is probably higher when you look at multimedia, but over here my gut feeling is less than 25%, but I agree it would be higher than 3

[Henri.R]

Hi Barry, Tom,

Igor and Dmitry told us betatesting for the Macviewer was a success, so why not for the PtE Macversion?

I think the WnSoft team knows what to do in this case too...

Regards,

Henri.

[Bruss444]

As I already mentioned I am ready to go full MAC and infact stopped by the Apple Store last night and looked at the new 27 inch iMac. All I need is a stand alone version of PTE for MAC form my business. Watching the Proshow forum and DP review there seems to be much interest in a Mac version of Proshow but the response from them suggests it won't happen. Before my purchase of PTE for my business I too was using Proshow Producer and I also wrote them about a Mac version. Really hope to hear from Igor how soon that may happen. Bill

[Lin Evans]

Hi Bill,

The nature of software development is essentially that it "happens" when it happens. It's really not possible when developing for a new platform to give accurate estimates of when a product might be ready. There are myriad issues and lots of testing which must happen before release of a new product and the Wnsoft development team is proceeding as quickly as possible.

Right now it is possible to run Windows on your Mac and produce native MacIntosh output. You can also produce MP4, AVI, DVD and even output a file which can easily be converted to BluRay for customers. Although we would all love to have a native MacIntosh version yesterday, there are other considerations which the developers also have yet to implement in the Windows version such as video clip drop in and rudimentary sound controls - these will help complete the "package" for PTE to be the very best product available for professionals to use to make presentation slideshows.

I don't believe you will ever see a MacIntosh version of Producer. In my opinion, it's just too cobbled in terms of programming and way too complex with too many bugs to convert. As a former developer myself, I see it as having gone down the "try to be everything to everyone" road with the "jack of all trades, master of none" theme. PTE, in contrast, has stayed relatively pure in that the developers make every effort to swat bugs "as" they appear and they have not sold out by rushing features which work poorly or not at all. If you want to experience a major degree of frustration, just try to do off-center rotation with Producer, etc. Their attempts at matching some of PTE's features (keyframing, for example) have confused and confounded many of their users. They try to do "workarounds" to emulate some PTE features by means of what they call "modifiers" which are convoluted and clumsy. They have no 3D engine and it would take a miracle of programming to incorporate some of the great PTE features into their code.

The PTE developers will put out a true Mac version in good time when it's "ready" for prime time. I don't believe they can give you a realistic estimate of when it will be ready, but be assured that they are working diligently to do this. As soon as they are close they will let us know. In my opinion, until then we must be patient and let them work without pressure.

Best regards,

Lin

As I already mentioned I am ready to go full MAC and infact stopped by the Apple Store last night and looked at the new 27 inch iMac. All I need is a stand alone version of PTE for MAC form my business. Watching the Proshow forum and DP review there seems to be much interest in a Mac version of Proshow but the response from them suggests it won't happen. Before my purchase of PTE for my business I too was using Proshow Producer and I also wrote them about a Mac version. Really hope to hear from Igor how soon that may happen. Bill

[Bruss444]

Hello Lin! Greetings from Quarryville, Pa. I always really appreciate your help and input. Lin, I agree fully with your comment about Proshow which I have been using for several years (Producer) and I always hoped it would improve its output quality. I wrote to them, like many others, hoping for a Mac version but the response tells me too it won't happen. I have seen there and on DP review quite a few Mac folks desiring the same so I can't help but think many of those could be possible clients for WnSoft. I can't over state how satisfied I am with the exe output of PTE both on my PC and Mac. I just finished a job for a good customer of mine and they are wood carvers and have done some work in the White House in DC. They will be running their executable PC presentation on their laptop connected by VGA to a HD tv monitor at a symposium in Virginia latter this week.

I really appreciate all the work both Igor and all those at Wnsoft have done and the great help from all you folks and the friendliness shown here on this forum.

Thanks Bill

p.s. adding video clips and more control over the sound will be welcomed too.