Smarttec

No - be realistic. Software is constantly being changed to fit with new OS's and hardware improvements. No company no matter how large can stay and support 'old software' it is a recipe for disaster! Move on...

Hi Graham, Hope your well. Nice example of the problems with OpenGL on Mac M1 machines currently using emulation mode. Still waiting for news on those new released 3rd party libraries that allow development for formZ Native. Once that is done the M1 is an absolute rocket from my experience with Native Cinema 4D & Redshift. Which reminds me that VRay has not yet been made for the M1 native yet? Rob

From ZTEKs information it looks like Spatial Libraries are very delayed ( Nov 2022 ) so it looks like an M1 version of formZ is a long way off. Rosetta 2 is no solution for CAD use they way I see it.

No not yet. From my information it is something that is wanted but there is some core software that they use to create formZ such as the geometry engine from Spatial Technology and Lightworks that they require converted before they can begin the process. The last I heard in November 2021 they were still not been converted. Not sure the current status on those libraries. Then the new M1's don't use Open GL - Apple jhas killed that off and replaced with Metal so it does need a bit a work. But it would be interesting if there is anyone who knows more. Rob

I hear that you have had problems with the software. But what you say is pure BS... I get that Components have been an issue - why not help "support" to resolve these issues. It is about getting an answer from the right source - support@ formz.com responds immediately with a Incident # and you can respond to them during US East cost business time. The forum is just 'airing' your isuues - there are many more out there as well - it's software. All programs have problems but to talk to the authors is the best way to get them resolved. Stop wasting time and space on this forum with negative BS talk directly to the authors and to Support for help. Remember sometimes the imposible can happen but Miracles can happen. Be concise, helpful and respectful of their support system and keep up to date with current versions for proper support

My issue here is that there appears to be too much 'airing' of dirty linen on this forum from people that don't appear to be using the proper 'Support' system - support@formz.com Doesn't it make sense to at least get some responses from proper 'formZ Support' - the forum is NOT an official support site. However, I agree sometimes there may be some colloquial greater knowledge from the forum, but at least add the 'support' response. The software comes with long support and autodessys is reasonably flexible.

I think ZCAD or ZWCAD is already used by a Chinese clone of AutoCAD - not sure if it's a good idea! they have 320,000 customers over 80 countries

No but have you had any resposnses from the support group?

Yes formZ v9 works fine in emulation mode and is fast- it not a native program yet. However the future will be when a native version is released with support for Metal, hyperthetically coming from Chaos and Vray - waiting for the new Apple M1+ with extra Neural engines. Apple has announcement later this month for new hardware. These new Apple Silicon machines are fast ( even in emulation) and now mean any reliance ) on Nvidia (not available on MacOS for GPU is being mitigated.

That's your problem, 8.6 was replaced by v9 and one of the major fixes is the new Big Sur MacOS 11+ changed their video - it is fixed in v9+

Guys, I think it is worth noting that v 9.2b update is just a requirement of the new V-Ray 5 an upgrade from the current V-Ray 3 ( v4 - V-Ray NEXT skipped ) and the best way to see and understand the new V-Ray 5 features is to see other versions out there. But V-Ray 5 supports the new nVidia RTX GPU's that make its rendering much faster if your new system has an RTX installed. Chaos currently does not support Mac OSX11 Metal like Octane & Redshift??? Don't expect big changes from formZ 9.1 as a lot are just awaiting the release of the latest V-Ray that has been due for a while and is so far looking good and going to be really worth it for those set up for RTX rendering or possibly VRay Cloud rendering

Cinema 4D and formZ are completely different tools and although the Cinema4D modeler is very capable for many things - at it's core C4D is a 3D motion graphics tool - formZ is a complete accurate 3D modeler.

I take your point the VRay 5 is a huge improvement over 3.6 as you say even for CPU. I have had the opportunity lately to benchmark Corona Render ( which is a CPU only renderer = Chaos Labs ) vs Redshift (nvidia RTX) and even the standard Cinema 4D renderer on the same file for a hi-res 4K image Redshift beat Corona (marginally 2m:55 vs 3m:24 ) std HDRI C4D renderer was 35m: + ( The Corona ran on i7 4 core/ 32GB and the Redshift on same with RTX 2070-8G ) The interesting part is that Redshift is ported to run on Metal and a standard MacBook PRO M1 8/8 core 16 core neural engine - was under 6m My point is Apple, now is getting people to port to Metal ( Redshift & Octane so far ) and it is fast on their new M1 chips. Apple and Metal will be competing hard in the new VR/AR space. I'm interested if Metal and the new Mac's will be used by the games style engines Unreal Engine & Unity as their rendering is now very competitive against all. My hope is that V-Ray see's the opportunity with Metal and the new Apple M1 chip - I hope you're wrong about it being unlikely. Rob

All the speed improvements are coming from GPU advancements from NVIDIA and the amazing new RTX 2070+ and particularly 3xxx series as VRAY only supports this path so far. Apple has gone down the 'Metal' path and implemented some amazing results from their new Apple M1 series CPU/GPU with Neural Engine and they are fast ( very fast ) but so far only only supported by Redshift & Octane and NOT VRAY - hope that changes. Oh - and the other issue is that Apple also requires you to use Mac OS11.2+ ( Big Sur ) Let's hope we see Vray supporting Apple 'Metal' soon. Rob

I think you may find a problem after Mojave - as everything after it is 64bit only and I think the WIBU installer was only 32bit - I personally have dumped my dongle and v6.7.3 years ago. All I know is the latest formZ is v9.1 or v9.2 beta for Vray 5