Package Project - further documentation, Mac compatibility

Hi all,

We’re looking at using the FMOD “Package Project” function to share updated versions of an FMOD Studio project with our sound designer, and to get updates back from them. They are not yet familiar with version control, otherwise we’d go that route instead. The catch is that they use a Mac and the rest of us use Windows.

Most of the time this isn’t a problem, but I can’t find a lot of documentation in the manual on the “Package Project” option. I’ve found this page which talks about how it has been extended, but no broader documentation on how to use it in general. In particular, I’d like instructions we can give to our sound designer on how to use created packages on their Mac.

If need be I’ll get access to a Mac and figure it out myself. Official docs would be great, though. :slight_smile:

Thanks!

Creating and opening packaged projects works in exactly the same way on all operating systems. Packages made on a Windows machine can be opened on a Macintosh, and vice versa.

A packaged project is literally just a copy of the project, minus the files for any content you chose to exclude when creating the package, in a compressed archive.

To open a package in FMOD Studio, select “File > Open…” and select the package file. You’ll be prompted to select a location in which to unpack it. Unpacking the project decompresses the archive, allowing it to be opened normally. Of course, if the project is missing files, studio may report as much, and won’t be able to load or play those files’ content.

That being said… Packaged projects are a useful way of sending stripped-down versions of a project to FMOD support, but aren’t a great way of sending an entire project between multiple collaborating users. If you’re not excluding specific files from the project to cut down its size, it’s no different to just making a .zip file of your project and giving them that. I strongly recommend using a source control solution, instead.

Hi joseph, thanks for chiming in! :slight_smile:

I see. On Windows that is very obviously what is happening, because when the file browser re-appears its title has changed to reflect that. On OS X those dialogs don’t have a title, so it honestly looked to me (and our sound designer) as if nothing had happened.

This was our original approach. That seems to work going from my machine to theirs, but is unreliable coming from theirs to mine for some reason - the project often needs to be “recovered” or ends up with missing files, despite the fact that they were definitely in the .zip when it was decompressed.

If I were working with another software developer that would absolutely be my go-to option as well.