Van Gogh Filter (Darrell Plank) is disaster on MAC

DON'T Install this filter on your MAC, virtually any model and virtually any version of OSX. It not only doesn't work, it in effect fuctions as a virus that locks up FILTERFORGE and forces you either to completely uninstall Filterforge and start over -- or know one hell of a lot more than I know about locating where the damn thing is after it infests your machine.

I don't do Filter Forge installations very often, but it's been time for new laptops, CS-6, etc. And I'd forgotten about my previous encounters with this very attractive (and I'm sure very useful on something other than MACs). As usual, it's a late night install and I find myself at 3 a.m. just having completed a third install of FF (missed something in the second uninstall) and I haven't yet begun to reload all those lovely filters that work well.

I don't blame Darrell Plank very much although I'm not sure his attitude about MACS is very helpful. This is one that FF should have identified as being problematical for MACS at least three years ago -- and that's definitely not Darrell's fault. But there it sits in all of its glory for unloading on an unsuspecting Mac user without a hint that it is about to visit catastrophe on newly installed programs and FF. Its bad enough that FF rendering is tedious and that the install is a bit choppy (rewarded in part by great user-made filters that are gorgeous). There are times I just don't have the time or patience for the FF deconstructed mess. This one pushes me over the edge.

Would it kill the FF people to flag filters that are known to be 1. useful enough not to promote and 2. problemmatic enough that someone should note it. Frankly, I see people write descriptions for filters that scare the bejesus out of me, but they also say upfront what the limits etc are -- and just how much is being dumped into your lap. But what can you say about a filter that once installed makes it impossible to load FF until you get rid of it and everything else. Considering how many of the user filters I like, it's a real pain in the neck.

FF, please -- do something about this. I understand there are at least three other filters on the website for download that are all but certain to cause problems for MACS, severe ones. While I don't know or have anything against Plank, I won't knowingly go near anything he's involved in since his view is that it's Mac's problem, not his. That doesn't work for me. Could we at least get a recognition that something ought to be demonstrated to work on either one, both on none. It's wrong to put something out here that causes this much trouble. Nothing has changed since the first complaint about this. Not only is the filter still not functional or Macs, there's absolutely nothing unless you go into the forums that tells you this Van Gogh filter has been plagued with Mac problems from the beginning and that nothing has changed in several years.

skybase:

Thanks for your help and your suggestion. As you note, the latest version of OS X, the LIbrary folder is invisible and takes just a bit of thinking to get to. As it is, it involves a hand search (didn't show up otherwise) and it ended up being more trouble than just uninstalling everything and moving on with a mental note that Van Gogh kiled himself, supposedly. At this point, I'm just about fed up with good software and much less patient with bad software than usual, e.g. in the process of moving some software (not FF) I have to go through complicated deauthorizations before I can use the software on the new laptop. It is usually not such a pain, but I'm doing some upgrades at the same time, e.g. CS6, and my patience is thing, no surprise.

I used Inujima's fix, but ended up having a problem with it for reasons I just didn't think think were worth tracking down. I certainly don't think it was Inujima's fault. But that's been quite a while and I posted about it then.

I wouldn't know a LUA script fr om a hole in my head, i.e. I'm at an age wh ere I'm deteching and trying to focus on what's important. I gave up PCs for that reason. I have loads of good imaging software I know how to use (generally) but as an imager, I care more about shooting that prowling into the minute details of why one of thousands of FF filters doesn't work as it should as soon as it's downloaded, as opposed to locking things up. And knowing there are a couple of others with similar problems.

When a filter is posted as being available for download, it's as simple as this to me. If it has problems with Windows, OSX, LInus or whatever else it's supposed to work on, the brief summary should say so, not leave me to remember after the fact what this mess was that screwed me up two or three years ago.

It's not that this problem is unknown, which is why I'm so irritated. One that I forgot, which I use age as my excuse, and two that everyone goes through this nonsense everytime this particular screwup happens. I'm not going back to the old files which have probably been wiped, but I'm not the only one and the time we have spent collectively far exceeds the few minutes it would take to warn apply users --or given that it is a nice filter, for someone to get it in shape for use as downloaded, not after the comical routine which usually ends up with a one on one from you.

For reasons not worth going into, I have three other filter suites, with Topaz probably the one I use the most with the other two coming in close. There are things that I think there are better in purpose in FF, but I've got to manage my retired time. I had some things I wanted to run through ff tonight and this wiped me out. It just seems like this is a minor irritant point grown large that could have been remedied a long time ago, if not by farming out a test to a Mac aficionado then by just putting note of use at your own risk. As a Mac user, I have the same attitude as when I used PCs, if it supposed to work on my comp, then it should. If Istill used a PC I'd be just as irritated.

It is far easier to skip a problem filter than it is to try to use it. And given that there are other pretty good substitutes in FF and elsewhere, it wouodn't do anyone anywhere any harm to warn people off something with a supicious work record on a given marchine and software.