Problem with Max/MSP/Jitter "Timeline"

rbedgar · Joined: Dec 20, 2005 Posts: 110 Location: Sunnyvale, CA

I'm using Max/MSP 4.6, in Windows XP, running on a MacBookPro under BootCamp.

In general things are working well, but when I create Timeline files, as often as not they don't reopen. I'm not getting an error message, they just don't open. If I drag a file into the Max window, it just doesn't show up.

I looked through the forum, but didn't see a reference to this. Is this a known bug, or am I somehow saving them incorrectly?

I received one answer on the Cycling 74 site--it suggested that I not use Timeline. Anyone second that recommendation?

Thanks for any help,

Robert

EdisonRex · Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2007 4:25 pm Post subject:

I'm not one to argue with that list. Generally the only thing that list is short on is patience with newbies. Well, it is short on patience in general. It's why I don't really participate on that list although I still receive tons of mail for it.

You're running Max/MSP on Windows in Boot Camp? hmm.

I am not qualified to tell you that it is a bug. But you certainly are running an unusual configuration, and the only people who could tell you there is a problem is one of the cycling 74 folks themselves.

I'd be interested in the outcome, should you ask them directly.

rbedgar · Joined: Dec 20, 2005 Posts: 110 Location: Sunnyvale, CA

So far, bootcamp has given me very few problems. I've been running it like this for over a year.

I've just upgraded to Max/MSP 4.6.3, so I'll see if that has any effect.
Strange bug--almost as if I'm not saving it correctly. The files are getting saved with a single character in them--I opened them in notepad.

If this doesn't work today, I'll quit with timeline and switch to something else. I'll let ya know.

Thanks for the note
-Robert

EdisonRex · Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2007 1:34 am Post subject:

Looking at the change log for 4.6.3, doesn't really say anything relevant to timelines. Last timeline fix documented was 4.5.5. There was a Java fix, and a fair amount of bugfixes (couple of show stoppers in fact) but you haven't indicated that to be any kind of issue so I can't see the relevance.

I'd still be interested to hear how you get on. One character? If you open them in something other than Notepad, are they more than one character? One problem with Notepad is that it (correctly) interprets ^Z (ascii 1A) as end of file, and will not display text beyond that. You might try looking in a binary editor instead - just a thought. Is the byte size of the timeline larger than one byte? The chances of an Ascii 1A (decimal 26) aren't bad if you

It almost sounds like you aren't saving the timelines properly in the first place, but I'm not going to suggest more along those lines as you've already voiced your suspicion on that. I'm assuming you are outputting to your timeline properly...

rbedgar · Joined: Dec 20, 2005 Posts: 110 Location: Sunnyvale, CA

Well, I've located the problem.

When I do a "save as" with a timeline .pat file, sometimes it offers to save as a maxb file (*.pat), and sometimes as a text file (*.pat).

If I follow through and save it as a text file, I lose the patch with an unopenable, single-character file (I'm assuming that the second "character" is an end-of-file character).

If it offers to save as a maxb file, all is well.

I believe that, while I'm using an open timeline file, if I create a range for looping the playback--stretching a yellow area above the timeline window--it will always prompt me to save as a text file. This is what I started doing, and what precipitated the bad saves.

I do not always seem to have a choice between saving as a text or a maxb file. I'm seeing a lot of variation in the "Save as type" prompts. At this point, if I don't get a binary file type choice, but only the "text file" type, I just abort the save, and close the timeline. A future save will offer the "maxb" choice.

Just buggy I guess.

Thanks for your help!

Robert

EdisonRex · Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2007 3:06 pm Post subject:

As I am the only responder, you're welcome, I do hope it helped.

You should report this to C74 - not through the list, although I expect if you do report through the list you'll get some insight, as the developers do watch the list.

I had a suspicion about the file type, but I never got asked to save a max file as text unless I export it.

rbedgar · Joined: Dec 20, 2005 Posts: 110 Location: Sunnyvale, CA

Heh...in fact, I did contact them about the problem.
I dutifully gave a full description of my system.
They wrote back "We don't support MacBookPros under Windows, and we're not presently supporting Timeline". Not exceedingly helpful.

I felt like I should drive over and ask them in person...I just live a few miles away...

-r

cebec · Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 5:48 am Post subject:

Apparently, Timeline will be replaced by something else in Max 5 due this year.