Dramatic Pong Mac OS

Sweet Home 3D application may run on Windows, Mac OS X 10.4 to macOS 11, Linux and Solaris.
Depending on whether Java is installed on you system or not, you may launch Sweet Home 3D
with Java Web Start or its installer.

Download Sweet Home 3D installer

Sweet Home 3D installer is available under two versions, both bundled with a private copy of Java:

Here is a funny video where Steve Jobs gives a eulogy and lays to rest Mac OS 9 at its funeral.Sorry for the audio not being synced up. Under Mac OS X 10.4 to 10.8, download this installer (19.5 MB). In both cases, double-click on the downloaded file and run Sweet Home 3D application found in the opened folder. If the system refuses to launch Sweet Home 3D for security reasons, click on its application icon while maintaining the ctrl key pressed, and choose Open in the. PongSaver Have the computer play a game of Pong against itself when you're away with the PongSaver screensaver for Mac OS X.

Dramatic Pong Mac Os Catalina

  • a free version available at SourceForge.net that comes with 100 pieces of furniture and 26 textures
  • a paid version available on the Amazon App Store bundled with 1500 pieces of furniture and 418 textures.
(version 6.5.2 - 77.1 MB) (version 6.5.1 - 228 MB)
Once downloaded, run the installation program and follow the instructions from the installation wizard.

Ensure that the latest version of the drivers of your video card is installed, to get the best performances in Sweet Home 3D. If you encounter some problems at Sweet Home 3D launch, please read the FAQ for additional information.

Sweet Home 3D installer is available under two versions, both bundled with a private copy of Java:

  • a free version available at SourceForge.net bundled with 100 pieces of furniture and 26 textures
  • a paid version available on the Microsoft Store, automatically updated and bundled with 1500 pieces of furniture and 418 textures.
(version 6.5.2 - 77.1 MB) (version 6.5.3 - 245 MB)
Once downloaded, run the installation program and follow the instructions from the installation wizard.

Ensure that the latest version of the drivers of your video card is installed, to get the best performances in Sweet Home 3D. If you encounter some problems at Sweet Home 3D launch, please read the FAQ for additional information.

Sweet Home 3D installer is available under two versions:

  • a free version available at SourceForge.net bundled with 100 pieces of furniture and 26 textures
  • a paid version available on the Mac App Store, sandboxed, automatically updated and bundled with 1500 pieces of furniture and 418 textures.
(version 6.5.2 - 75 MB) (version 6.5.3 - 270 MB)
For the free version, download SweetHome3D-6.5.2-macosx.dmg for Mac OS X 10.8 to macOS 11, or SweetHome3D-6.5.2-macosx-10.4-10.9.dmg (19.5 MB) for Mac OS X 10.4 to 10.8. Then double-click on the file you'll have downloaded, and run Sweet Home 3D application found in the opened folder. If the system refuses to launch Sweet Home 3D for security reasons, click on its application icon while maintaining the ctrl key pressed, and choose Open in the contextual menu that will appear. To install Sweet Home 3D, drag and drop the application in the folder of your choice.

If you don't want to care about the Java configuration of your system, click on one of the following links to download an all-in-one Sweet Home 3D installer bundled with Java:

Windows installer-Mac OS X installer-Linux 32-bit installer-Linux 64-bit installer
(77.1 MB) (75 MB) (70.9 MB) (67.6 MB)
Run the downloaded installation program, and follow the instructions from the installation wizard.

Under Mac OS X 10.4 to 10.8, download this installer (19.5 MB).
In both cases, double-click on the downloaded file and run Sweet Home 3D application found in the opened folder. If the system refuses to launch Sweet Home 3D for security reasons, click on its application icon while maintaining the ctrl key pressed, and choose Open in the contextual menu that will appear. To install Sweet Home 3D, drag and drop the application in the folder of your choice.

Uncompress the downloaded file and run SweetHome3D application found in the uncompressed directory, possibly using this tip to launch it with a double click under Ubuntu. To install Sweet Home 3D, move the uncompressed directory in the one of your choice or read this article to create a launcher (see also this subject in the forum).

Whatever your system is, ensure that the latest version of the drivers of your video card is installed, to get the best performances in Sweet Home 3D.
If you encounter some problems at Sweet Home 3D launch, please read the FAQ for additional information.

Download Sweet Home 3D with Java Web Start

If Java version 8 is installed on your system, click on the following link to download and launch Sweet Home 3D version 6.5.2 (19.5 MB):

Launch Sweet Home 3D with Java Web Start
Clicking on the previous link will automatically download and launch Sweet Home 3D.
If Sweet Home 3D loading doesn't start once you clicked on the previous link, click on the SweetHome3D.jnlp downloaded file while maintaining the ctrl key pressed, and choose Open in the contextual menu that will appear.
Choose to open the SweetHome3D.jnlp downloaded file with javaws program that you'll find in the bin directory of the JRE (Java Runtime Environment).

Kung fu rooster. If, once started, the download of Sweet Home 3D files by Java Web Start is interrupted, please wait, download should continue after a while.
After downloading, please accept the displayed digital signature to be able to run Sweet Home 3D.

Other downloads

Depending on your needs, you may also download the following files proposed in the Sweet Home 3D Download section on SourceForge.net:

3D models librariesEach zipped file of the section SweetHome3D-models contains a double-clickable SH3F file describing additional 3D models created by contributors for the furniture catalog of Sweet Home 3D.
Read Libraries of 3D models section for more information.
Textures librariesEach zipped file of the section SweetHome3D-textures contains a double-clickable SH3T file describing additional textures created by contributors for the textures catalog of Sweet Home 3D.
Furniture Library Editor
(10.8 MB)
This double-clickable JAR file launches the Furniture Library Editor under Windows, Mac OS X and Linux systems with Java installed.
Like the Furniture import wizard, this application lets you quickly create a SH3F file and edit the properties of the 3D models it contains.
Textures Library Editor
(1.1 MB)
This double-clickable JAR file launches the Textures Library Editor under any system with Java installed.
Like the Textures import wizard, this application lets you easily create a SH3T file and edit the properties of the texture images it contains.
Sweet Home 3D JS Viewer
(3.2 MB)
This archive contains the files of a HTML5 / WebGL Canvas you can upload on your web site to display the 3D view of a Sweet Home 3D file.
Read the README.TXT file included in this archive for instructions about installation process.
Sweet Home 3D portable
(351 MB)
This 7-zip archive contains Sweet Home 3D applications for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows, Mac OS X, 32-bit and 64-bit Linux, bundled with the Java environments required to execute them.
Once you uncompressed this archive in a given folder (on a hard disk or a USB key), you can move this folder or the USB key where you copied it to use Sweet Home 3D on another computer, without losing software configuration.
Sweet Home 3D executable jar
(25.5 MB)
This double-clickable JAR file launches Sweet Home 3D under Windows, Mac OS X and Linux systems with Java installed.
It's not the preferred option to run Sweet Home 3D because you won't get association with Sweet Home 3D files, and depending on the Java version you use, it could use 96 MB of memory at maximum, which is too small to create middle sized homes. This JAR file is useful for plug-ins developers and advanced users who wants to run Sweet Home 3D with customized Java options (like the -Xmx Java option that lets you choose the maximum memory size used by Java).
Sweet Home 3D installersThe SweetHome3D section contains the installers of Sweet Home 3D for all the supported operating systems and all the released versions up to the current version 6.5.2.
Sweet Home 3D source
(27.6 MB)
This archive contains the source files used to build Sweet Home 3D. Sources are useful to developers who want to contribute to the development of Sweet Home 3D and its plug-ins.
Note that source files may be browsed on-line too with the web-based CVS repository viewer provided by SourceForge.net.
Sweet Home 3D javadoc
(2.5 MB)
This archive contains the developer's javadoc built from the source files of Sweet Home 3D. Javadoc is useful for developers only.
Note that the javadoc may be browsed on-line here.
© Copyright 2006-2021 eTeks - All rights reserved
How To Improve GarageBand's Performance On Your Mac
March 26th, 2004
Episode #15

If you've been playing with GarageBand lately, (and I don't know many Mac users who haven't been playing with it), you have no doubt encountered one of the most irritating dialog boxes ever created:


One of the most irritating dialog boxes ever created

OK. If you have a dual-processor G5 with a couple of gigs of RAM and fast hard disks, or you make songs with only a handful of tracks, you may have avoided it so far. On the other hand, I do have a G5 DP loaded with RAM and fast drives and I've seen it more than I care to admit.

The point is that even the fastest rig may not be immune.

Of course you can do as the dialog box says and look in GarageBand Help under Performance, and the tips you'll find there are extremely helpful and may do the trick. But alas, every single one of them includes a trade-off, and in many cases, the cure is as bad as the ailment.

Fortunately, while working on GarageBand For Dummies I discovered another technique that reduces the load on your Mac, and has a trade-off I can live with. It's called ping-ponging, or bouncing tracks, an age-old technique used in analog recording when the equipment (usually the multitrack tape recorder) has a fixed number of tracks available.

How do I know such things? Well, before I became a full-time Mac geek I studied audio engineering with multi Grammy-winning producer Bill Lazerus in L.A. for two years. I thought audio engineering was going to be my life -- I played guitar in a bunch of L.A. bands, produced several artists (and even managed to get one of 'em signed). https://rocketvllegitstartslotsgames.peatix.com. It was fun, but the pay sucked. So instead of starving, I switched to advertising and producing audio and video for commercials. Only after becoming sick of that gig did I decide on full-time geekdom. So, while it's true that I am a huge GarageBand fan, I also have real-world experience in audio production.

Dramatic Pong Mac Os Update

But I digress..

Anyway, before we get to the ping-ponging part, let me quickly review the tips you'll find in GarageBand Help and what bothers me about each of 'em.

Monitor processor use with the playhead

The triangular playhead indicator changes colors to indicate processor load: White for low or no load; yellow for a moderate CPU load; and red for the heaviest load.


The color of the playing head lets you know how much load you are putting on your CPU

Put another way, when the indicator goes red you're almost dead.

Adding tracks and effects increases the load so Apple recommends turning off some effects or reducing the number of tracks to reduce processor load.

So there's your trade-off: Fewer tracks or effects. I don't like it a bit.

Change the maximum number of Software Instrument Tracks and/or Real Instrument Tracks in GarageBand Preferences

Sure, you can (again) turn off tracks to improve performance, but the obvious trade off (again) is fewer tracks to work with.

Again I say, 'I don't like it a bit.'

Change the number of notes Software Instruments can play at once

This one's the worst of 'em all -- because I happen to like the sound of CHORDS, for example. And I often play lots of notes simultaneously; reducing this number improves performance but hamstrings the artist forcing a different style of playing (with fewer notes).

Yet again I say, 'I don't like it a bit.'

Before the ping-pong performance begins, there's one more performance tip I couldn't find in GarageBand Help that I use often, namely:

Hide the Track Mixer

The Track Mixer column is the one that has the level (volume) fader (slider), the pan pot (knob), and the simulated LED level meters. To hide it, merely choose Hide Track Mixer from the Track menu or use the keyboard shortcut Command-Y.

It turns out those little animated level meters use a ton of processing power and you really don't need them much of the time. So once you've set your level(s), press Command-Y to hide the Track Mixer. Your Mac will thank you for lightening its load by allowing GarageBand to do more before it croaks.

This one's a winner; give it a try.

The Soon-To-Be-Famous GarageBand Bouncing Ping-Pong Tip

Dramatic pong mac os x

Last but definitely not least, here's how to ping-pong (a.k.a. bounce) tracks to reduce the processor load and allow you to continue building your song without having to deal with any of the irritations mentioned above.

Dramatic Pong Mac OS

Here's how I discovered it: I was using the PowerBook (G4 800) to make a song. I was recording drums on software instrument tracks and percussion instruments on real instrument tracks. Alas, when I got to about seven tracks, that damned dialog box stopped me in my tracks.

That wasn't good. I still needed to add guitars, keyboards, vocals, a sax solo, and some handclaps, but my processor was crapping out with just the seven drum tracks. How would I ever complete this song on the PowerBook?

The answer was to take a page from analog recording and bounce the seven tracks down to one (or two).

What that means is that I mixed the seven drum tracks the way I wanted them to sound in the final song, and then exported them to iTunes. I saved my GarageBand project under a different name, deleted the seven drum tracks from the original project file, and replaced them with the submix I just exported to iTunes.

That sounded a bit thin to me so I added a second track with a copy of the same submix, panned one track slightly to the left and the other track slightly to the right, and that did the trick -- I had a great sounding drum and percussion track using very little of my processing power.

Did you get all that? I thought not. Let me go through it again, but this time with illustrations…

It all began when I started this song (PingPong4KingKong); by the time 7 tracks were in the can, I saw that the playhead indicator was very red:


Mixing the drums
(Click the thumbnail for a larger view)

I soon began seeing the dreaded dialog box more and more often so I decided to try my old analog trick, ping-ponging (or bouncing) tracks to reduce the load on my CPU.

So I mixed the seven tracks the way I wanted them to sound in the final mix, and then exported them to iTunes:


Export to iTunes
(Click the thumbnail for a larger view)

Next, I saved the GarageBand project with a descriptive name (PingPongDrumTrax), just in case I need to remix the original drum tracks someday.


Saving the drums as a project
(Click the thumbnail for a larger view)

Next, I grabbed the exported AIF file by opening iTunes, selecting the song, and then choosing Show Song File from the File menu (I actually used the keyboard shortcut, Command-R, but the menu looks better in pictures).


Grabbing the right file in iTunes
(Click the thumbnail for a larger view)

Meanwhile, back in the original file (PingPong4KingKong), I deleted all my old drum tracks leaving a single real instrument track (Detailed Drums) to contain the newly mixed drum track, which I then dragged onto the track from the Finder:


The single drum track for the imported mix
(Click the thumbnail for a larger view)

For what it's worth, I could have deleted all the tracks and GarageBand would have created a new track when I dragged the song onto the timeline, but it seemed that keeping one track would be slightly faster.

Anyway, I gave it a listen and decided it needed to be 'thicker,' so I dragged the AIF file from the Finder onto the timeline, creating a second track. I panned one slightly left and the other slightly to the right and gave it a whirl:


The same drum track, doubled, & panned left and right
(Click the thumbnail for a larger view)

It sounded exactly like it did before the submix and ping-pong, but the playhead indicator was now pure white, telling me the two drum tracks used a lot less processing power than the original seven tracks.

YEA! Mission accomplished.

So there you have it. If you plan your recordings carefully it's easy enough to create submixes like my little drum example above, which reduce the load on your Mac and let you continue working without reducing the number of anything -- notes, tracks, or effects. And that's a Very Good Thing™!

Doctor Mac's Rants & Raves will return, as always, in two weeks. Until then, have fun playing GarageBand ping-pong.

Bob 'Dr. Mac' LeVitus has been a Macintosh user for a long, long time and has written 49 computer books including Mac OS X Tiger For Dummies and GarageBand for Dummies. He also offers expert technical help and training to Mac users, in real time and at reasonable prices, via telephone, e-mail, and/or unique Internet-enabled remote control software. For more information on Bob and his services, visit www.boblevitus.com.

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