Development requirements for C4D 2025

spedler

The latest C++ SDK docs don't state the dev environment for C4D 2025, only for 2024. For Windows, I have rebuilt plugins for 2025 using VS2019 and it works fine, but the Mac is more complex (inevitably). My MacBook runs macOS 12 (Monterey) with Xcode 13, but when I tried to install Cinema on it, I get an error saying that it requires macOS 13.6 or later (Ventura). However, if I install Ventura, it seems that Xcode 13 won't run on that, and Xcode 14 is required. But if I do that, will I be able to build plugins for R2024 using Xcode 14? Because if not, that raises the annoying prospect of having to maintain two separate versions of macOS and Xcode if I want to support both R2024 and R2025.

Some guidance on this would be very helpful.

Cheers,
Steve

ferdinand

Hey Steve,

thank you for pointing that out. The requirements do not have changed from 2024. I will update this in a new build I will hopefully push today or Monday with some other fixes.

Cheers,
Ferdinand

spedler

Thanks Ferdinand. There's still my point about macOS. If Xcode 13 is required for R2025 development, this won't run on Ventura (macOS 13), but C4D R2025 won't install on Monterey (macOS 12). How do we square this circle? Can Xcode 14 be used for R2024 development?

Cheers,
Steve

ferdinand

Hey @spedler,

No, you cannot use Xcode 14. You must still use Xcode 13.4.1 as Xcode 13 is the last Xcode which support the legacy build system of Xcode which is still required for the SDK. What you must do, is run that Xcode under an OS it does not support naturally. So, you install it normally, and then force it to run it by opening the package contents, go to the MacOS directory, and run the Xcode app in there. Xcode will complain a lot about missing dependencies while booting, but that is the way to go.

I also briefly lined this out here. But I will ask the Tech team what their thoughts are on this and the Build team what the state of the new SDK build system is. Because I agree, this is getting more and more cumbersome to use, and will at some point breaky the ability to debug plugins on macOS as at some point. As you will not be able to build and run macOS plugins on the sample platform at some point if do not do anything about this.

Cheers,
Ferdinand

spedler

Hi @ferdinand,

Yes, I've seen those hacks needed to run Xcode 13 on Ventura. TBH, I think while Macs are lovely machines, Xcode as a dev tool is a pig, even more so if you can't match Xcode versions with the OS version, as here.

I'll try installing Ventura then seeing what happens when running Xcode 13 in the way you suggest, but it's getting to the point where supporting macOS for freebie plugins just isn't worth the time and effort required. I'd be interested to hear what the techs say about this. There's an interesting page on Stack Overflow about it.

Cheers,
Steve

ferdinand

I'll see if I can squeeze in a little demo on Monday, currently in the office and my MacBook is at home. I already mentioned it in the docs, but xcodereleases.com is very useful for getting specific builds of Xcode Apple does its best to hide away.

spedler

That’s a very useful site, thank you. I already have Xcode 13.4 installed but I don’t know if it will still be available after upgrading the OS to Ventura. If not, I can get it from there and reinstall.

subazathoth

Not optimal, but would having two different startup drives/partitions/OS's on one system help?
https://support.apple.com/en-us/118282

spedler

Unfortunately not (in my case) because my MacBook is too old to run Ventura. This means I can only build macOS plugins for R2024 or earlier, because I can’t run R2025 on my Mac (requires Ventura to run). Therefore, I’ve made the decision not to build my plugins for R2025 on macOS until/unless I can afford to buy a newer Mac. It just isn’t worth it for free plugins. If I had a newer Mac I would almost certainly do as you suggest; I’ve done it before with older macOS versions.

ferdinand

Dear development community,

just as a clarification, as I was not very clear about that above. We are working on a solution for the build system for the SDK (as I hinted at before in other postings). But for 2025 we will stay with this a bit cumbersome legacy build system solution for macOS.

Please excuse the inconvenience but there are a few more moving parts in the background than it is obvious from the outside (to fix this, we must move away from the project tool).

Cheers,
Ferdinand