motion 2 is really screwed up

john:

if you look at the specs page for Motion 2.0, you should note that the minimum RAM requirements are 2 GB.

http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/motion/specs.html

in your profile above, you claim that you only have 1GB of ram. this could be severely crippling to motion's performance.

Minimum System Requirements; 512MB of RAM

Recommended System Requirements; 2GB of RAM or more

the point i was trying to get across is that motion 2 is an incredible RAM hog. you'll need more than 1GB for large projects.

also, make sure you've run software update to have the latest updaters for the pro tools and motion itself.

It is NOT a Bait and switch
IT will work with the min specs just not very well THAT IS NOT a bait a swtch it just means that is the MINIMUM that will RUN (NOT very) the progam

DAVE

Then there's all those who have less than the minimum requirements who complain that they're not allowed run Motion.

I regularly run Motion in my 1Ghz DPMD with an ATI 9600. Not quite, but close to the minimum and I often work on it. Do I miss my G5 when I do? Yes, but not enough to drive into the office late-at-night/early-in-the-morning to use it...

Patrick

Motion requires that you understand how a computer works, and so do all of the pro applications. They are called "Pro Applications" because mostly professionals or those who are working towards that use them. If you're in the catagory, then you'd probably understand that Motion is a complex program that is capable of amazing things if you use it correctly. Obviously there is something you are doing wrong, or there is a small technical glitch in what you are doing if it has those problems. I am running Motion 2.0 on a powerbook, not even the latest ones, it has a 32mb video card in it, and it works great. If I overload it with filters and huge images, then sure, I run into all kinds of problems. But ****, right now I am created a 15 minute piece in motion, and its working great. If you are having problems, don't just automatically assume it's apple's fault. User error is most often the cause. Try reinstalling it, run regular maintenence on your computer, update your computer via software update, and see if that solves the problem. If not, then come here and ask for detailed and specific help.

Sorry if that seems like a rant, I'm just tired of coming here and seeing amatures complain because they don't know what they are doing and don't ask for help in the correct manner.

Hey John,

The problems you're seeing sound like something is going wrong in OpenGL-land, if you're seeing triangles intead of quads, etc. It definitely doesn't sound like a memory-related problem, and it's the first that I've heard of it.

Maybe there is something specific to your system environment that Motion is clashing with? Do you have any non-standard graphics drivers installed?

Most of the time, Apple stuff just works, so when it doesn't, there aren't always immediate answers and it can be very frustrating. Again, this is the first time I've heard of this particular problem, so getting good results should be doable, somehow.

Good luck!

It's been my experience, ( and I've been in the business 18 years), that most companies state a minimum that no experienced videographer would believe. Such is the case here. The minimum ain't gonna make it pal. I have a dual 2 gig G5 with 4 gigs of ram and the ATI Pro w/ 256 mb or ram. I also put all my media on my dual ATTo 320 mb/s raid. Motion 2 runs o.k. Not super. But very usable. If you want the best performance you can get you're gonna need to upgrade your ram and change out your video card, and you're probably gonna need to upgrade your OS. That's just the way it is. No amount of yakking is gonna change it.
Lenny Dodge

John,
It looks like you are way under on your memory. At this point, I with the Apple Video Suite, I would suggest 4gigs and perhaps a FW800 raid to help things along, and also a clean install of 10.4 and then install all the apps afterwards.

Motion has had some growing pains and the system install and requirements for this particular app is particularly fussy. Motion is a bit like that little girl, "when she was good, she was very very good and when she was bad, she was horrid."

Personally I often try and do quick comps in Motion, but if it seems to be taking too long, I revert back to AE. The ability for me to do a Motion project that is placed directly on the FCP timeline without rendering is a real bonus.

Yeah, it also could be the vector file format he's using...

You don't need more than 1 gig to use vector.

We need more info from John to help him. People get frustrated when things don't work and they lash out. Let's not be Mac zealots and go on the offensive just because someone says something about a multi-billion dollar corporation. 🙂

Having said that, I too ignore the minimum requirements any OS or software application gives me, because they are always BS. It's good to see Apple upped the standard RAM that ships with Macs, because OS X really needs more than 256 megs.

Of course, you can buy RAM from others (Crucial is who I recommend). A bait and switch would have you buy something from Apple. Never buy RAM from Apple.

John, gives us the details on your project you are having problems with, your system, etc. Maybe you can upload it for us to check it out?

Is the recomendation for more RAM a real or virtual recomendation? I have 4.5g and if I watch my activity monitor the ratio of virtual RAM to hard RAM is over 1 to 1. So, for example, with no other progams open other than Motion, I see .8 g to virtuall and .6 gig going to hard. Is there a way to have Motion take more juice from hard RAM and tell virtual RAM to take a hike?

Also, unrealted question- I purchased an Ultra 6800 from Apple the the Open GL version is 1.5 NVIDIA-1.3.42, with no driver support is there a way to get Open GL version 2.0?

The virtual memory is space set aside for swapping if it needs it, I think. It's not necessarily cranking away at your hard drive (like Windows) just because that virtual memory number is there in your Activity Monitor.

Apple doesn't support OpenGL 2 yet, as far as I know. You have to wait for Apple.