Thanks to the simplification in Flame 2025 I need to rethink how multiple mac machines are set up.
We’ve typically had a standard OS user on each machine and everyone starts flame with their flame user. Now that the flame user is the OS user, what’s the best way to have those MacOS users on multiple machines without having to manually set up on each station?
I don’t know anything about network based users with MacOS.
If it were me, I’d just ditch the model of a computer being tied to a physical room, and use Teragucci to control a remote machine instead of dealing with a box tied to a specific room.
What do you use for your remote client? So it sounds like I need the flame machines (Mac Studio) as Teradici server and something like mac mini for the client?
Also - each machine needs to have broadcast in the client room. Remoting into the flame means that broadcast is either HMDI or NDI? I can’t get SDI from the client box right?
I think Mac Teradici doesn’t presently support Elements. They were looking for someone to test though.
Elements aside (which hasn’t worked well on a Mac AFAIK), Parsec works pretty well in a Mac environment and does support tablets. And is way easier to install and manage (there maybe some caveats, but haven’t run into them)
Regarding Mac
I run Teradici and Ultragrid on a Mac which has an Ultrastudio monitor on TB hooked up to a broadcast monitor.
You can then run Flame with NDI out, grab that in Ultragrid and push it to your broadcast monitor over the Ultrastudio. It’s 10bit in 2025, so that’s helpful.
User management-wise you’ll want to look at something like AD with shared home directories on a NAS to get that aspect going.
Isn’t the whole point of the new user keyboard setup that they can now be exported/imported?!!
https://help.autodesk.com/view/FLAME/2025/ENU/?guid=wn-2025-user-mgmt
Don’t ask me how to do it but this should make what you’re trying to do easier than it was previously.
I don’t have the time at this very moment to search myself but is there a How To for this somewhere @Slabrie @fredwarren ?
I think you could still keep the same machine setup you have now with just a little scripting legwork…
All the new prefs and keyboard shortcuts are stored in
/Users//Library/Preferences/Autodesk/flame
So, I don’t see anything preventing someone from making a script that, on launch, prompted to choose a user from a list, move the prefs for that user into the path Flame will look for them (moving an existing user prefs to a safe location) and then launching Flame. So, you’d just be kinda managing the prefs behind the scenes before launching Flame. Extra points for making a fancy Flame-like front-end for it with python or whatever. But at its most basic it could be totally terminal based or present a list select through AppleScript, etc.
You would have to create the prefs for each user first. Then devise a way to track them (just putting each user’s prefs into a folder with the user’s name should suffice). So, maybe having a folder in the home directory of the logged in user account to store them would look something like:
/Users/editbay/flame_users/matt/flame
/Users/editbay/flame_users/bryan/flame
/Users/editbay/flame_users/randy/flame
The script would read the folders in flame_users, allow you to pick which one you want to use, then move the appropriate files into place and launch Flame. Probably need another script (or a hook on quitting Flame?) to move the files out after quitting Flame so it is ready to move user files around next launch.
Any reason this wouldn’t work, other than time and trial/error to develop it? I don’t have 2025 so I can’t really test it but if I’m understanding the new system it should work in an ugly hack sense.
-Matt
Sans scripting I believe you can just load your user from wherever they’re stored on one’s network in the Setup App then launch Flame.
For sure. Pros and cons. Just looking at it from an administrative POV, I don’t think I’d want my users mucking about in the Setup app unless absolutely necessary. I’d rather give them a guided, narrow path to keep mistakes to a minimum. 
You don’t even need to script it. You could literally just ln -s those directories in each users home account on each machine (if you’re not using networked $home) to a single location (per user) on the network that all of the machines mount.
Done.
So using your example @mattriley
ln -s /Users/editbay/flame_users/matt/flame ~/Library/Preferences/Autodesk/flame
…will link that directory from the the matt users account on whatever machine you’re on. Just do the same for other users and the other machines. Then it will persist through versions. Just make sure you copy a template over to start on the network volume.
I’d still advocate for using some sort of AD service and roaming home directories though. Takes a little more setup but makes things easier down the road.
ima swallow the pull and setup AD now …
should have done this a long time ago,… going ti look into that and get roaming profiles between mac and windows and linux machines will be “fun” oh so much “fun”
Yeah… I was going to say AD (active directory) may be your solution. We are currently doing this where I am. i have even joined linux to the AD and have it working. Basically, you are working with network users. When you sign in to a machine it picks the user up from the server and allows you to log into the machine- providing you have the credentials…
I’m but a mere flame artist fumbling through an IT world, but I’d be happy to help any way I can.
Bit of a shame that Apple dropped support for OSX server. Open Directory actually worked pretty well in the early days and was easy to setup.
If you’d rather keep it more linux we use LDAP instead of AD. I think we might have been having issues with the more modern Mac OSes though?
I helped set it up years ago, but I’m so far from the tech side these days I don’t even know if it’s something to recommend anymore but it’s (maybe) another option.
I still have it working in an office environment.
Right c’mon , hands up from the Beta testers who thought this User “simplification” was a good idea??? 
This is like Brexit in the UK , the worst idea ever yet still its happened… I dont get it.
So bad.
Sounds frustrating but you should share your specific use case so that we can understand the exact friction so that it can be improved.
As far as I understand (not on 2035 myself) you can export and import specific user settings at the start using Setup so unless you are doing this more than once a day I don’t know what else would be as bad as Brxit, which is by far one of the most stupid things Britain has done to itself.
It may not be immediately apparent, but this is a significant improvement, that affects institutional uses of flame down to individual uses of flame.
You may not notice it yet, depending on your particular use case, but it permits flame artists and concerned system administrators to re-assert control over their contributions to individual and communal workflows.