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lepidotós

macrumors 6502a
Aug 29, 2021
677
750
Marinette, Arizona
Not with it, per se, but my Radeon 8500 came in the mail today, so I can pick it up tomorrow. Hopefully it'll make Blender usable, or at least Maya or 3D Studio Max. The aforementioned pitch is nearly done, I just needed to create and render some example 3D models such as the main character -- and do the wireframe-to-shaded transition that was all the rage in 1997, which is when I've chosen to stylistically set the document. All just a bit of fun, really, to spice up an otherwise somewhat drab document going over theoreticals.
If anyone has any suggestions for the most modern 3D modeller I can use on 9.2, I'm all ears. What I'm using right now, StrataVision 3D 3.0, isn't exactly cutting-edge given it's old enough to have System 6 drivers. More to the point, it doesn't seem to export into any standard model formats, at least none that are currently used, which would make getting the included models -- as models and not as images -- into any kind of video game engine a chore at best and impossible at worst. Really, the newness is less important than getting it to export a file that something like Blender can open.
I also tried running some emulators, Snes9x and BCA to be specific. Neither worked. Quake ran fine though and I got to E1M5.
I keep forgetting to get AppleWorks 6 off my USB and back onto my computers, which I mean to but end up forgetting. I'm certain I'll go to sleep tonight having forgotten to do so.
 

repairedCheese

macrumors 6502a
Jan 13, 2020
632
835
And I’ve never been a gamer, so graphics-intensive stuff, like vector drawing and refresh, probably isn’t what you might expect if running Leopard.
As someone who would be willing to say that they do indeed game from time to time, I would have to say that PowerPC OSX isn't really the best way to do it. Mac OS 9 is a much more fun target, as it covers basically all of the 90's in Mac gaming, which is where most of the real excitement was, and surprising chunk of the 80's, and it really seems like you can get Intel powered laptops that can run PowerPC OSX games faster through Rosetta than the fasted G5 desktops. Not to mention, a lot of those games tend to have x86 versions available. Or, they have Windows versions that can be convinced to run on Intel Mac one way or another.

Fun fact, there's a version of vMac for PPC Mac OS 7-9, which basically covers the rest of classic Mac gaming.
 

Riku7

macrumors regular
Feb 18, 2014
208
95
🎹 GarageBand MIDI shenanigans with iMac G4 1GHz: recording lag is gone.

Finally got the iMac fully upgraded, and I was hoping to finally use GarageBand for some simple music drafting; Just the Jam Packs and one or two drum machine plugins, not bloating it beyond that. Before the RAM upgrade, I'd had major issues with GarageBand, trying to record MIDI to it seemed like an impossible task because once I hit record, it messed up the timing so badly that playing it back, I couldn't even tell where each note I just played was meant to be! So I thought that it was just the slow USB, and I got a Presonus Firebox firewire audio interface. But that combined with an SSD upgrade didn't do the trick, so it seemed that I'd have to wait to get that RAM upgrade done too.
I finally finished that upgrade the other day. I plugged in the Firebox and a MIDI keyboard again, just to realize that it was still unusable and way too heavy! Did I do the RAM upgrade for nothing? Devastating.

Today I tucked the Firebox away into a box but decided to try one more time: This time with my ancient and very simple M-Audio Uno MIDI interface that's basically just a cable with some integrated circuitry.
Amazingly, it works! I'm having no lag issues anymore, and I could record MIDI to multiple tracks just fine. Either the computer had some background process slowing it down the other day, or that Firebox unit or its drivers are seriously faulty. I guess it's entirely possible that it's the latter, because trying to record audio with it with an Intel Mac Pro hasn't been without issues either (not that 10.13 is officially supported); The audio input is supposed to work, but I'm not hearing anything, so I have to unplug and replug cables and click around their control software, and eventually by accident it starts to work. Either it's an awful device, or it has aged beyond recognition. I only bought it for the iMac so I don't know what it was like when it was new.

Actually using the keyboard with the ancient M-Audio Uno is so much easier: instead of the blocky device with a footprint, a power brick and two other cables, I can keep M-Audio Uno always plugged into the keyboard; Whichever device I'm using it with, all I have to do is plug the keyboard to the mains, and Uno to USB, and it's ready to go.
This is great news because it makes the keyboard more accessible at all times, and I don't have to remember how I'm supposed to set it up for each device.

I already started looking into the possible consequences of downgrading to Tiger and trying out GarageBand '06 (instead of '09) but I'm so relieved that I won't have to!
 

mortlocli

macrumors 6502a
Feb 23, 2020
729
665
There have been a number of improvements and swapped-pout stuff to make it run more smoothly, but I would recommend to try using Build 10A96 as a starting point. There are a couple of folks who’ve continued to work with Build 10A190 to make that version run with more stability. My own volunteering has been focussed on getting 10A96 to run more smoothly.

That said, when the project became known last year, a lot of folks instinctively, in the spirit of “newer == better”, went for the 10A190 build — either via installer or that image of an installed system posted online — and left disappointed after finding a number of stability and functionality problems. Build 10A96 is, fundamentally, a better place to start experimenting for the simple reason that fewer PowerPC-related components were stripped out or missing.

Eventually, the goal is to assemble a routine installer with many of the project’s fixes integrated into the mix (this is the case for both Builds 10A96 and 10A190), so that manually moving those fixes into place has already been taken care of. :)
Oh!!
…I’ve lent my G5 iMac to someone who hasn’t a desktop. Rather curious to give snow another look but with lock down that’s gonna have to wait.
 
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lepidotós

macrumors 6502a
Aug 29, 2021
677
750
Marinette, Arizona
There is something utterly hilarious about this to me, doing ray tracing on a computer with a Kaleidoscope theme that looks like every early 2000s kids' website I went to back in the day. I think I'll keep it. Also, it turns out I was on 4.0, I thought I was but second-guessed myself.
 

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Tratkazir_the_1st

macrumors 65816
Feb 11, 2020
1,023
538
Russia, Moscow region
Well, it's me again :).
His majesty G5 QUAD somehow started to work again :). I've found advice to reset PMU. That was done. Afterwards I've booted ASD & start it. It howls a lot but all finished OK. Thermal calibration also works OK :). Now I've got new Idea what to do with it. I still suspect that something need to be done with coolant system (at least change thermal paste). What stops me - don't have such long screwdrivers nearby. (Still thinking about some service company to do it professionally, for reasonable money.)
 

Macbookprodude

Suspended
Jan 1, 2018
3,306
898
Well, it's me again :).
His majesty G5 QUAD somehow started to work again :). I've found advice to reset PMU. That was done. Afterwards I've booted ASD & start it. It howls a lot but all finished OK. Thermal calibration also works OK :). Now I've got new Idea what to do with it. I still suspect that something need to be done with coolant system (at least change thermal paste). What stops me - don't have such long screwdrivers nearby. (Still thinking about some service company to do it professionally, for reasonable money.)
Any such service companies in Moscow ?
 

Melbourne Park

macrumors 65816
I lost the drive which contains the records I need ...

I had this problem back in 2003, and recovered the same drive with diskwarrior 4. Now, I have lost the Diskwarrior disk. I can't find anyone a version 4 disk in Australia. There are four drives in my PPC Windtunnel (which still is so noisy its damaging my already bad hearing) and the OS 10.4 Time machine backups don't seem to have all the data on them. I cannot find any clone drives either. The drive is a 150 MB hard drive, with a lot less than that in data on it.

If anyone can help, please post. And there are no Diskwarrior 4 disks in Australia - in the USA there some, but the wait is like 6 weeks ... Diskwarrior 5 won't work either, it needs 10.5, which doesn't support OS 9.

Darn .... I feel depressed and could do with some help.

Cheers guys

MP
 
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originaldotexe

macrumors 6502
Jun 12, 2020
255
434
Kentucky
Can someone help with a stupid question please? :)
PM G5 Quad IDE bus. Can it work with 2 drives or it is some special hardware which can operate only with apple's default DVD drives without any options?
the page for the MaxConnect ide hard disk mounting device (https://www.maxupgrades.com/istore/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&Product_ID=149) seems to suggest that it attaches the drive on the original ide bus. so if this page is to be believed, then yes it should take a 2nd drive.
 
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Tratkazir_the_1st

macrumors 65816
Feb 11, 2020
1,023
538
Russia, Moscow region
So, completed a project. I wasn't pleased with fact that IDE bus is idling after removal of DVD. So I've digged in my spare parts & other hardware and made it work :D. Assembly is quite cumbersome, but if we'll remember that such setup was never planned... :D. (Drives are nothing outstanding, just what I've found with maximum capacity, 250 & 80 Gb.
Currently Leopard sees all 8 HDD's at 3 different buses :D. (Guys, say that I'm maniac :D ).
 

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So, completed a project. I wasn't pleased with fact that IDE bus is idling after removal of DVD. So I've digged in my spare parts & other hardware and made it work :D. Assembly is quite cumbersome, but if we'll remember that such setup was never planned... :D. (Drives are nothing outstanding, just what I've found with maximum capacity, 250 & 80 Gb.
Currently Leopard sees all 8 HDD's at 3 different buses :D. (Guys, say that I'm maniac :D ).

Getting the most out of the built-in IDE bus on a PMG5 is pretty nifty!

You have your two PATA HDDs where three of my SATA HDDs live. Before the logic board became cranky, I had been pondering adding a second PCI-X SATA card to populate some of the remaining areas inside my PMG5 case with additional storage, mindful that there are ways to fill the internal case with up to eleven 3.5-inch HDDs.

Of course, these days that number could be feasibly greater (at least fourteen?), if using nothing but 2.5-inch form factor drives.
 

Tratkazir_the_1st

macrumors 65816
Feb 11, 2020
1,023
538
Russia, Moscow region
@B S Magnet
If you'll seek my earlier topics, you'll find that there is good old SAS controller for PCI-X similar to mine. LSI 3041X-R (currently it is installed in my primary intel box, asus 2x1366 based). I don't know about drivers for systems like 10.3 but it probably works OOB in Leopard & Tiger Server. In Quad I've installed LSI3041E-R, which is PCI-Ex based.
 
I don't really believe that 1(!) molex can feed such crowd, even PSU itself have 1KWt power.

It’s my understanding, based on the above link, that the eleven-3.5-inch set-up involved an auxiliary power unit to run at least four of the HDDs. I can imagine that were an all-SSD set-up tried, the much lower power draw from those would not exceed the PMG5’s PSU capacity.
 

@B S Magnet

Well, pictures on MaxUpgrades.com forces opinion that ALL drives ARE HDDs. I didn't found any mentions about power supply, only about cables. (I wonder if such thing as "PixLas mod for Mac Pro" exists for G5's.)

If you scroll to the bottom of the link I posted, they mention the following:

The result below gives a comparison of data transfer rates of 8 SATA hard disk drives inside G5 Power Mac (Optical bay drive are running on Auxiliary Power Supply)

This is their way of saying that the four HDDs occupying the optical drive bay (using their kit) are being powered by a secondary power source.
 
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