Cinema 4D 2025 and macOS plugins
Why are there no Mac versions of my plugins for Cinema 4D 2025? Read on...
The problem
Producing Mac versions of Cinema 4D plugins has always been a little more difficult on the Mac than on a PC, for reasons we need not go into. With C4D 2025, however, it is currently much more problematic.
The problem is this. Each version of Cinema 4D tends to require a recent version of macOS to run; this is understandable and accepted. The development system on macOS is Xcode, which itself is continually updated, as we would expect. For C4D 2024, the Xcode version required for plugin development was 13.4, which runs on macOS Monterey. Since C4D 2024 would also run on Monterey, it all worked fine and development was straightforward (for a Mac).
C4D 2025, however, will not run on Monterey but requires macOS Ventura or later. For plugin development, this version of Cinema requires Xcode 13.4, as for C4D 2024. This is because C4D plugins currently use a legacy build system in Xcode which is deprecated but still supported in Xcode 13.4. BUT - and here is the issue - Xcode 13.4 won't run on Ventura without a significant hack while C4D 2025 does run on Ventura but not on Monterey, which is the last version of macOS to run the required version of Xcode. Ventura can run Xcode 14, but that can't be used for plugin development because it doesn't support the legacy build system!
In other words, the required version of Xcode runs on Monterey but C4D 2025 will not; C4D 2025 runs on Ventura but Xcode 13.4 will not. This makes it impossible to build, test and debug plugins on the same version of macOS, without hacking the way Xcode is used (which from reports on the web is not always successful). And this is assuming that Ventura is used as the macOS version; a new Mac bought now, which I would have to do since my current MacBook is too old to run Ventura, will come with macOS Sonoma, and there is little or no information on running Xcode 13.4 in Sonoma, even as to whether it is possible at all.
The solution
The solution to this is in Maxon's hands. Since C4D 2025 requires Ventura or Sonoma to run, plugin development on the Mac should also require a build of Xcode which runs on one of these macOS versions. This means changing the build system to the new standard (well, I say 'new', but it's been around for quite a while). Until that happens, and I suspect it is something which isn't a simple change for Maxon to make, none of my plugins will be available on the Mac for C4D 2025. Windows versions will, of course, soon be available. Any new plugins I develop will therefore be available for C4D 2024 on Windows and macOS, but only for Windows in C4D 2025.
My apologies for the inconvenience but Mac development is not only awkward (Xcode is not a pleasant development system to use IMHO, and the need for the notarisation step is a pain) but also expensive: it needs an Mac developer subscription (currently $99 per year or about £80 in the UK) plus a Mac capable of running Ventura or Sonoma so C4D 2025 can run. Frankly, such costs make Mac development barely tenable for only producing free plugins.
Hopefully this will be fixed sometime soon but until then, there isn't much I can do.
Page last updated September 15th 2024