TS 7.6 on USB Drive

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TS 7.6 on USB Drive // Tech Forum

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Post by fwhilton // Sep 17, 2008, 7:06am

fwhilton
Total Posts: 6
Hi,


I currently have TS 5.2 on a USB drive... it works great.

I put TS 7.6 another USB and it kinda works.


However, it is missing the outer interface; Window title, menu, panels (where settings etc are), tabs etc..


All I have the the working area and the tool buttons. It looks like just the inner part of TS6. I can resize the borders, create objects.


But I can not save or open anything.


Do I need runtimes file on my USB?


Thanks

Frank

Post by robert // Sep 17, 2008, 9:31am

robert
Total Posts: 609
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I think tS 7.6 installs some files in the C:\Windows folder to take advantage of the graphics card for real time rendering.

Not really sure what you would need to do to run it from the USB drive.

Post by fwhilton // Sep 17, 2008, 9:46am

fwhilton
Total Posts: 6
So, who would know?

Where's the developer of TS?


:)

Post by parva // Sep 17, 2008, 9:56am

parva
Total Posts: 822
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would be cool running from usb. Must admit never tried it out.

Did you tried it with a standart usb?

I thought that it could maybe work with sandisc u3 but guess also here some files are needed to make it run.

Post by fwhilton // Sep 17, 2008, 12:25pm

fwhilton
Total Posts: 6
would be cool running from usb. Must admit never tried it out.

Did you tried it with a standart usb?

I thought that it could maybe work with sandisc u3 but guess also here some files are needed to make it run.



Yep... my USB is a SanDisk U3.


I got TS 5.2 to work on a U3 USB.



Are there any developers of TrueSpace on this forum, or is it 95% 3D artists from the outside?


:)

Post by transient // Sep 17, 2008, 5:29pm

transient
Total Posts: 977
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You only posted this a few hours ago, just give it a while.


I would definitely like to know if this is possible, too. Would make demoing ts on the road a lot easier.

Post by Bobbins // Sep 17, 2008, 10:58pm

Bobbins
Total Posts: 506
This is primarily a user forum. Some developers do occasionally come here and post but product support is done via service@caligari.com

Post by brotherx // Sep 18, 2008, 12:45am

brotherx
Total Posts: 538
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I just copied my TS directory onto a Kingson DataTraveller as a test and it worked but locked the folder on my local disk.


So, I closed it down and renamed the folder. Started again.


It should noted the data traveller drives are cheap and not the fastest. It takes about a minute to open truespace.


First thing of note. Libraries. Gone. Nothing in them. It was an easy fix. Other than that, seems to work fine. Too slow for my liking however but I could see its uses.


Anyway, I could see that plugging the Pen Drive into different PCs would cause issues with paths and having to re-scan and open the libraries every time...


What is wierd is the plugins all work fine - well, VRay anyway. The interface was all fine and from what I could tell all worked.

Post by Cayenne // Sep 19, 2008, 10:44pm

Cayenne
Total Posts: 144
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Hi,


I currently have TS 5.2 on a USB drive... it works great.

I put TS 7.6 another USB and it kinda works.


However, it is missing the outer interface; Window title, menu, panels (where settings etc are), tabs etc..


All I have the the working area and the tool buttons. It looks like just the inner part of TS6. I can resize the borders, create objects.


But I can not save or open anything.


Do I need runtimes file on my USB?


Thanks

Frank


did you install to the harddrive as well , do you you know if tS76 runs ok on this machine as well.

the symptoms sound like they are driver or graphics card related.


when you put it on the USB drive did you install it to the drive or did you just copy it.


I installed it here onto a Kingston data traveller and it run ok on 3 other machines , all of those machines support the graphics required for tS76 to run on.

one of the machines didn't have tS installed on it already, and it still run ok there.


I didnt notice if it was too slow to run,, libraries are there, I could save to them.


the install however was very slow writing to the stick.


thanks

Paul

Post by early // Sep 20, 2008, 9:23am

early
Total Posts: 46
USB flash drives are slow to write, much faster to read.


There's been a lot of interest recently on running applications portably, and ideally with a zero-footprint (no trace left behind on host computer.)


There are portable versions of a lot of commercial and shareware programs, some authorized, some not. Some apps are wrapped in launchers to prepare, and then clean up the target system.


Search on 'portable applications' for lots of information.

Post by brotherx // Sep 20, 2008, 11:02am

brotherx
Total Posts: 538
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truespace is fairly portable. if you check the registry, very little is actually there - I think it is legacy stuff, plugins for the modelside only.


It's just that the libraries paths are stored as absolute paths, which is a shame since you never know what drive a pen-drive is going to mount as from system to system.


It's almost there...

Post by transient // Sep 20, 2008, 3:48pm

transient
Total Posts: 977
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I really like this idea. Being able to take truesapce with me and show it off to friends through a usb would be very nice, especially if could run with my custom libraries and layouts etc.

Post by Cayenne // Sep 21, 2008, 4:38am

Cayenne
Total Posts: 144
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Some of the problems that might be encountered or things to be considered when running tS from a usb on a friends machine would be these.


the host machines GPU may not be able to run tS 7.6 if the GPU doesnt meet the requirements or it has a poorly supported driver set or features.

the redistributables that get installed during the regular installation may also be needed on the host machine if they do not exist there.

the DX version on the host machine may also not be fully up to date .


thanks

Paul

Post by fwhilton // Sep 22, 2008, 12:25am

fwhilton
Total Posts: 6
did you install to the harddrive as well , do you you know if tS76 runs ok on this machine as well.

the symptoms sound like they are driver or graphics card related.


when you put it on the USB drive did you install it to the drive or did you just copy it.


I installed it here onto a Kingston data traveller and it run ok on 3 other machines , all of those machines support the graphics required for tS76 to run on.

one of the machines didn't have tS installed on it already, and it still run ok there.


I didn't notice if it was too slow to run,, libraries are there, I could save to them.


the install however was very slow writing to the stick.


thanks

Paul


Paul,

Yes... I installed on PC (works fine) and then copied it from folder unto to USB drive.


Can I install it unto the USB like I did onto hardrive? It won't mess up my harddrive instal will it? (you know, paths, registry etc..)


Is there an install for the runtimes etc I could run from my USB if a another pc doesn't have the support files needed?


Or could I put all the necssary files on the USB, you know, kind of like putting DLL's on.


:)

Post by Shando69 // Sep 22, 2008, 1:07pm

Shando69
Total Posts: 2
Hi All,


However, it is missing the outer interface; Window title, menu, panels (where settings etc are), tabs etc..


All I have the the working area and the tool buttons. It looks like just the inner part of TS6. I can resize the borders, create objects.


But I can not save or open anything.



I have installed 7.6 on an 2GB Imation USB Drive, and I have the same problem as the first post.


trueSpace itself loads quickly, and appears to be OK apart from the above, though it doesn't appear in the List of Applications in WIndows Task Manager (Win XP Pro), only as a running process. Does this mean that it is not running as a proper Windows application??????


Any help would be greatly appreciated, as my company has locked our laptops, and I don't want to have to go through the hassle of requesting the software to be loaded via our Service Desk (they ask too many questions :rolleyes: ) I do sort of need this for work, but only for a very small project (most of what I want to do is related to a game I'm developing for my son :) )


Thanks & Regards


Shando

Post by Cayenne // Sep 24, 2008, 12:26am

Cayenne
Total Posts: 144
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You can from install tS and run it from a usb ,it shouldn't affect your hard drive install or registry keys ,so you can transport your tS to show someone else, however the host machine where tS will be run would still need the redistributables Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable Package installing into the system if it doesn't exist there already.


the install of tS checks for any missing DX and also gets those and installs to the host OS as well.


the host system would also need to pass the minimum requirements to run tS76 as well.


Ideally, as the host system may differ in OS , then it is better/safer to let the tS76 install check for missing components during the install process rather than manually installing redists to another users machine.


It would be difficult to make it truly run from a USB without the necessary redists or files needed to be installed into the systems OS , due to the dependencies on system files , dx components and GPU on the host as they are all tied together in some way and are all needed for a successful running.


It might be possible to create a runtime checker at launch , but even then the target host machine would still need to allow for the installation of the necessary files into their systems, and again some system admins may not allow it , it will be ok on home machines , but in essence as tS76 is a free app then its better they register and install it .At least this way it gives more chance that when you arrive tS will run on thier machine with the minimum of additional effort .


It would be safer if tS76 was re-installed back into the USB at the host machine so it could check for necessary packages and components , and as tS is now a free application it would always be better if the tS was installed to the machine direct, then "USB" people could always still open their version knowing it would work on the target machine (or not), and the places that were visited would also be more in charge of what was installed to their machines.


thanks

Paul

Post by fwhilton // Sep 24, 2008, 4:19am

fwhilton
Total Posts: 6
Okay...

I installed to my USB drive.

Went to another PC that had no previous install.


Doesn't work.


I even downloaded the C++ runtimes and DX 9 and installed on PC.


Doesn't work.


So, it seems that it will only work where you do a full install.


bummer......


:(

Post by early // Sep 24, 2008, 4:37am

early
Total Posts: 46
fwhilton,


Can you describe how it failed?


Does the target pc have an adequate video card? Did you attempt to run before adding the C++ and DX9 to the target? If so, what happened?


Perhaps you've exposed the point where a wrapper is needed. Some strategies that might be required - set up a temporary local environment with PATH and TEMP pointing to the USB drive... add, and later remove, some registry settings... and so forth.


Tim

Post by fwhilton // Sep 25, 2008, 2:05am

fwhilton
Total Posts: 6
fwhilton,


Can you describe how it failed?


Does the target pc have an adequate video card? Did you attempt to run before adding the C++ and DX9 to the target? If so, what happened?


Perhaps you've exposed the point where a wrapper is needed. Some strategies that might be required - set up a temporary local environment with PATH and TEMP pointing to the USB drive... add, and later remove, some registry settings... and so forth.


Tim


1) Yes... the Vido is adequate because all pc's at work are the same setup.


2) I put TS7.6 setup exe on my pc at work, installed it to the USB. Works perfect!!


3) Took USB to another PC that has never had TSpace run on it. DOESN't WORK... I get the interior modeling stage, but no outer interface as descibed below.


4) Intstalled C++ runtime and DX9 on PC... tried to run TS... NOPE (same thing)


:)

Post by Vorg // Sep 25, 2008, 6:31pm

Vorg
Total Posts: 1
I think tS 7.6 installs some files in the C:\Windows folder to take advantage of the graphics card for real time rendering.



Not really sure what you would need to do to run it from the USB drive.


The windows folder is for the OS ONLY No app should ever put files there. App files belong in the app's folder tree only. Sticking crap in the os folder is really bad programing practice and opens the door to all kinds of major problems.

Post by trueBlue // Sep 25, 2008, 6:59pm

trueBlue
Total Posts: 1761
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The only one I am aware of is the Caligari.ini

Post by brotherx // Sep 25, 2008, 11:27pm

brotherx
Total Posts: 538
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The windows folder is for the OS ONLY No app should ever put files there. App files belong in the app's folder tree only. Sticking crap in the os folder is really bad programing practice and opens the door to all kinds of major problems.


Also, not entirely true. Lots of dlls get installed there although less and less since you need admin rights to do it. Certainly, stuff like DirectX and MFC go there are which are not really part of the OS, MFC in particular.
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