mleblanc Posted August 19, 2016 Share Posted August 19, 2016 I saw that V4 is coming soon. With GPU rendering ! Quite something. Will the new version be compatible with Form z and will Fire use the GPU engine ? Thx M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pylon Posted August 19, 2016 Share Posted August 19, 2016 Hi M, There will be a formZ plugin for Maxwell v4 I can't comment on any of the details Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mleblanc Posted August 23, 2016 Author Share Posted August 23, 2016 Can't wait - thx ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJAB Posted September 30, 2016 Share Posted September 30, 2016 I'm really looking forward to this release, is it still due out tomorrow? (1st Oct) Their website says its due 'this September'. Looking around the net I cant seem to find any further info... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJAB Posted September 30, 2016 Share Posted September 30, 2016 Website now says Oct 10th... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mleblanc Posted October 4, 2016 Author Share Posted October 4, 2016 I'm not sure how we're supposed to integrate this new multi-light app in our workflow. I'm hoping for ease of use in the materials management department and also to see if GPU turns out as the holy grail of rendering for small agency as some says it is. A few more days and we will be invited to fork some more euros to know it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJAB Posted October 10, 2016 Share Posted October 10, 2016 Tech, The new plug in causes FormZ to crash on opening, remove it from the plugins folder and Z opens up again. I assume there is an update in the pipeline? (Anyone else having this problem? (Mac, 8.5 Pro) Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted October 11, 2016 Share Posted October 11, 2016 Hi Andy, We are not having this problem here. Are you sure that you have the most recent version of formZ, Maxwell, and the Maxwell Plugin for formZ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pylon Posted October 11, 2016 Share Posted October 11, 2016 Andyb, Sorry to hear you are having problems. Can you provide more specifics: what version of the plugin, and what version of OSX are you attempting to launch? Did you remove the previous version of the Maxwell pugin beforehand? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJAB Posted October 11, 2016 Share Posted October 11, 2016 Hi Pylon / Tech, No I didn't remove the previous version, perhaps this was the cause, I will try this later on. For the avoidance of doubt, its the new Maxwell 4 plugin that I was trying to use with the latest version of Z. (El Capitan) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pylon Posted October 11, 2016 Share Posted October 11, 2016 El Capitan or Sierra (the latest macOS release)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pylon Posted October 11, 2016 Share Posted October 11, 2016 As the dmg indicates, you should just drag the entire Maxwell folder into your formZ plugins folder. There is no separate installation into /Applications as of v4. If you do get a crash again for any reason, please email to: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJAB Posted October 11, 2016 Share Posted October 11, 2016 I removed V3 and it works okay now. However, how do I download studio for Mac OS X, see attached screenshot, only linux and windows options appear? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pylon Posted October 11, 2016 Share Posted October 11, 2016 Great, good to hear. Regarding questions about Studio, please contact Nexf Limit. (I am not sure of the answer to your question.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJAB Posted October 11, 2016 Share Posted October 11, 2016 Sorry I just realised you only deal with the plug in. (maxwell site seams to be experiencing some problems right now... disappointing) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkcn Posted October 12, 2016 Share Posted October 12, 2016 Hello, Yes, Maxwell 4 is out now... Does the existing FZ plugin work with this new update? What is the benefit of GPU option in FZ (Fire preview?)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3dworks Posted October 12, 2016 Share Posted October 12, 2016 just as a warning, it seems NL is not planning for GPU support on macs. so if you are running FZ on OSX, consider this feature as not available... cheers markus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJAB Posted October 12, 2016 Share Posted October 12, 2016 Markus, Why would there be no GPU support for Mac? (sorry, clueless with things like this)... Surely, they would not offer 1 product for windows and another for mac thats not as good? Whats the benefit of that? Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smarttec Posted October 13, 2016 Share Posted October 13, 2016 Andy, The issue is that GPU support is only nVidia CUDA based cards and they are generally not available on Macs. In fact all current Macs that are shipping support use AMD cards NOT nVidia and they are will not work like all other GPU renderers. It is becoming more and more apparent that Windows based machines are replacing Mac's for 3D work as Apple is not keeping pace with high end GPU support and persists with just AMD /Intel graphics support that just does not cut it - much to my displeasure! The new Maxwell 4 packages are are modeller specific and only work with the modeller you get it for - but the upside is formZ plugin is in the less expensive lot. Rob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3dworks Posted October 13, 2016 Share Posted October 13, 2016 well, other engines are supporting mac GPU rendering, like thea (which you will find as a plugin for FZ) and octane... the problem is that next limit jumped late on the GPU bandwagon, so they have not much experience yet with coding this type of stuff - which needs higly specialized algorithms and a good knowledge of how to use the CUDA platform. waht you get now is basically an early alpha stage of that engine, which will be refined 'on the go'. also, with the new version, they changed their marketing and abandon a strategy which was their big advantage: in the past you bought a maxwell licence and got plugins for all supported platforms. now you have to pay separately for everything, a way to make more money on the paper, but i doubt they will make more clients like this. also, they abandoned a few 'obsolete' platforms like lightwave(which is definitely not obsolete), houdini and softimage. the FZ plugin is definitely well done and updated with care, i've used it in the past. so if you don't expect GPU rendering to be production ready within the next months, it's worth to be considered as a third party engine for FZ. i also tried out the thea plugin lately and liked the integration a lot. but development seems to be stalled and issues like palettes not appearing and a few instabilities are holding me back ftom buying a license and there has not been any update for a few months now. hopefully, the developer will care more about fixing issues, as it is something i'm looking into for using my GPU capacities on mac in the future. markus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pylon Posted October 13, 2016 Share Posted October 13, 2016 Hi All, Some clarification from Next Limit: Maxwell GPU rendering is not currently supported on macOS. For GPU rendering, Nvidia graphics cards with CUDA support are required, and Apple does not sell computers which include these at this time.If you do have an older Mac model with an Nvidia card, we cannot guarantee you a great experience, because those cards are obsolete and have not been tested.Should Apple include graphics cards appropriate for GPU rendering in the future, we will likely support these. We are also studying the possibility of supporting third party Thunderbolt GPU interfaces, which may provide a viable GPU option for our valued Mac customers. Also, I think it is important to note that Next Limit has been working on GPU integration for several years. This is an extremely challenging technical work, especially as their goal is to provide an engine equal to the CPU engine, not a limited alternative. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Posted October 13, 2016 Share Posted October 13, 2016 Hello Ben, Besides Multi-light being broken out as a separate application, are you aware of others benefits in v4 for Mac users? Thanks, Gary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pylon Posted October 13, 2016 Share Posted October 13, 2016 Hi Gary, Multi-light standalone, as you mention. Interoperability with other machines running V4. Specifically, since there aren't any computers available from Apple at the moment that are suitable for GPU rendering, you may opt to purchase or build one or more Windows or linux GPU render nodes. Improved network manager. New plugin features going forward will be in the Maxwell 4 series. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smarttec Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 Follow on from reply by 3Dworks "well, other engines are supporting mac GPU rendering, like thea (which you will find as a plugin for FZ) and octane... the problem is that next limit jumped late on the GPU bandwagon, so they have not much experience yet with coding this type of stuff - which needs higly specialized algorithms and a good knowledge of how to use the CUDA platform. waht you get now is basically an early alpha stage of that engine, which will be refined 'on the go'. also, with the new version, they changed their marketing and abandon a strategy which was their big advantage: in the past you bought a maxwell licence and got plugins for all supported platforms. now you have to pay separately for everything, a way to make more money on the paper, but i doubt they will make more clients like this. also, they abandoned a few 'obsolete' platforms like lightwave(which is definitely not obsolete), houdini and soft image." My point is that new Macs don't support nVidia - old Macs can have nVidia cards or added 3rd party nVidia cards as a kluge and may work. Apple with the Mac has decided to support Open CL which is a more open multi GPU support technology that nVidia's CUDA competes with and although Open CL has potential in the future for mass GPU card rendering no renderer currently supports Open GL. In regard to Thea and Octane, there is really no difference between their support and NextLimits. NextLimit has been working on GPU ( CUDA based ) for some time as demonstrated some years ago and it will improve in subsequent updates. On delays with Thea the reason that Thea ( Solid Iris ) may have slowed is that they have recently been acquired by Altair ( SolidThinking ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3dworks Posted October 21, 2016 Share Posted October 21, 2016 new macs support nvidia cards via thunderbolt expansion boxes, you can buy them from a few companies... nvidia has been releasing and promptly updating mac video and CUDA drivers for a long period now for all recent cards and all newer OSX versions, so support is very straightforward. using CUDA hardware on macs is maybe still not so popular in the 3D area, but if you have a look at video editing studios, you will find a lot of them using this kind of acceleration. cheers markus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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