How can I convert or find info on converting mac plugins to win plugins?

For the converting, you'll find a program to convert plugins in your Nova folder, assuming you're on a PC. You'll find instructions on how to use it in the Documentation folder, or else on the internet here. If you're on a Mac, then RezConv can convert both ways, but I don't know anything about it besides that.

RezConv seems to be a simple-drag-and-drop conversion program, no bells and whistles involved.

If there's one downside to it, it's that you can't drag multiple files onto it at the same time.

Does RezConv work with 68k-era machines or is a PPC required?

I don't know, but given that Nova probably wouldn't work on a 68k machine, then there's not really any point, is there?

Just note that RezConv won't accept more than one file at a time.
And BTW, not every win user has the converter included. A friend of mine has Nova for windows and he doesn't have it.

That's because the silly fool must have deleted it. You see, the PC Nova, she don't come without a plugin converter. Go over to their house and beat them over the head with a rubber mallet, and while you're at it, make sure they haven't gone and installed Mac Nova 1.0.8.

If he wants a new converter, he can get it from here - saves him having to re-download the entire program.

Belthazar, on Dec 5 2004, 04:56 AM, said:

I don't know, but given that Nova probably wouldn't work on a 68k machine, then there's not really any point, is there?
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I ran it on my old performa for a while, it wasn't pretty but it worked(with all settings off though).

Performas are PowerPC, but I remember people running Nova with Basilisk on PCs (at the heroic times when the game hadn't been ported yet), and Basilisk is a 68k emulator.

Also, the converter is available from BurgerBill. I find you a little mean with other PC Nova players, Belthazar. After all, they are not assumed to be competent...

This post has been edited by Zacha Pedro : 10 December 2004 - 11:48 AM

I'm kinda stuck in the position of having to run Nova under Windows, lacking a Mac powerful enough to make it run under MacOS. I do have Basilisk II installed, though (and with a ROM image taken from my dear departed Quadra 610 which gave so much entertainment with EVC...) so whether or not something can run in a 68k environment DOES matter to me.

Even NovaTools works on a 68040 and I gather there must be some executable code in there somewhere to display the RLE graphics in ResEdit. Just 'cos the game is PPC doesn't mean the tools have to be.

... but why not just use EVNEW?

Belthazar, on Dec 11 2004, 04:28 PM, said:

... but why not just use EVNEW?
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If you read back a few posts, you might find that I was asking about RezConv, not NovaTools.

NovaTools also has the ability to preview ship weapon exit points, too.

Oh, right, my mistake. But I still arrive at the same question, which is "Why do you want to use RezConv?" If you want to convert from Mac to PC, then just use the converter which comes with the program. If you want to convert the other way, just let the Mac users do the conversion themselves.

Even if you did pre-convert it for them, I'm not even certain the plugin would be able to survive on the PC - remember, Windoze doesn't recognize resource forks, and the only way we can use plugins on the PC at all is because Stuffit turns the resource fork into a data fork, by means of saving it as a MacBinary file.

For the record, NOVA WILL RUN ON A 68K. That's kind of definitely what the 'CODE' resources are. As for RezConv, I don't know, but RezConv doesn't work in Mac OS < X despite being Carbon anyways, even the 'OS 9' version (which is probably the 'RezConv9' he made when I reported it not working in 9 - which still didn't work). Plus I think it's made only to work with OS 9+. It works perfectly in X though.

Amnenth, you'd be better off distributing your plug as a .rez file, telling (in the add-ons text) that it can be converted to a Mac plug-in, and give the instructions (and the URLs where to grab the converters) in your plug-in ReadMe. Read my plug-in distribution guide for more detailed explanations. If you really wished to convert to a Mac plugin prior to distribution, it would be better to ask a Mac-using friend such as the people you can find here. By the way, David Arthur's MacPluginConvertor runs in OS9, though I don't know for 68k.

However, I don't think it's a good idea to upload two versions (one PC and one Mac) of the same plug-in, for the reasons I explained in the guide.

I doubt I'll actually be distributing anything at any point, but converting from .rez to Mac resource fork might come in handy anyways. There are some things EVNEW seems to be better at than NovaTools, and vice-versa. e.g. the Tools has the shan-viewer, but opening the weap resource will crash a Basilisk II emulated Mac.

It's for your own use? Then if David Arthur's convertor (that you can find in the link in my guide) doesn't work inside Basilisk, you're out of luck; not only there is no PC rez-to-Mac convertor (that would output a .bin file, doing the opposite of the convertor included with Nova), but it is thought to be technically impossible.

Now that I think about it, maybe you could emulate MacOSX or at least a PPC Mac using PearPC (sorry, I don't have a link). But it's no as well documented as Basilisk.

Zacha Pedro, on Dec 15 2004, 07:06 AM, said:

Now that I think about it, maybe you could emulate MacOSX or at least a PPC Mac using PearPC (sorry, I don't have a link). But it's no as well documented as Basilisk.
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Oops. I went and forgot about PearPC! Don't worry about lack of linkiness; that's where the great Google comes in!

...Err... When I wake up, that is. Cursed 2AM tiredness...