V-Ray for OS X?

[jackb602]

There's been some talk over at the C4D forum on CGTalk about the possibility of V-Ray becoming available for Cinema. I haven't heard that VRay is pursuing this but if they were, it would require an OS X version of V-Ray, since Cinema's user base is nearly 50% Mac users.

 

Have there been any announcements, rumours, etc. about the possibility of an OS X version of VRay in the future?

 

Jack

[Christopher Nichols]

I think the only real talks are about Sketch up (beta availble I think), Rhino (also available), and Maya (closed beta in the works). All of which are on Windows. There is some work that has been done to port to Linux, but it is still way out as it will be based on the standalone (from what I know). That is the closest I have seen of Vray for OSx, but I would say it will be a long way off as there are many more priorities over doing Vray for a Mac. Nearly all serious 3D work is done on PCs these days and until Macs start using the faster intel processors, it will remain that way. I would not hold my breath as you will probably end up holding it for a number of years.

 

There's been some talk over at the C4D forum on CGTalk about the possibility of V-Ray becoming available for Cinema. I haven't heard that VRay is pursuing this but if they were, it would require an OS X version of V-Ray, since Cinema's user base is nearly 50% Mac users.

 

Have there been any announcements, rumours, etc. about the possibility of an OS X version of VRay in the future?

 

Jack

[jackb602]

Nearly all serious 3D work is done on PCs these days and until Macs start using the faster intel processors, it will remain that way.

 

I guess the roughly 50% of Cinema users on OS X didn't get that memo. Nor did the G5 Quad owners who are enjoying some of the highest Cinebench rendering scores on record.

 

I'm breathing easy over here, but I would certainly welcome a new capable rendering engine to OS X, hence my question. If VRay is being developed for Maya and Sketchup, both multiplatform apps, does this mean it will be Windows only for those packages?

 

It sounds like VRay has many priorities above OS X, and from the looks of it, finalRender will likely be the first (fingers crossed) major 3rd party renderer on OS X.

 

Jack

[Christopher Nichols]

I would not trust any Mac benchmarks. Especially when steve jobs makes claims that the G4s are faster than Pentiums then a few months later when the intel based mac laptops come out.. they are suddenly 4 times faster then the G4. BTW... they are faster then the G5s too. If the G5 are so fast, why replace them with Intels?

 

My guess is that Vray will follow the trends of the ArchViz and VFX world. Their main market. That means 3dsmax for Archviz, an Maya on windows and linux, as well as a standalone on both plateforms for VFX. But who knows... when Mac comes out with an Intel workstation (faster then the G5s) maybe it will be easier to make the switch.

 

I guess the roughly 50% of Cinema users on OS X didn't get that memo. Nor did the G5 Quad owners who are enjoying some of the highest Cinebench rendering scores on record.

 

I'm breathing easy over here, but I would certainly welcome a new capable rendering engine to OS X, hence my question. If VRay is being developed for Maya and Sketchup, both multiplatform apps, does this mean it will be Windows only for those packages?

 

It sounds like VRay has many priorities above OS X, and from the looks of it, finalRender will likely be the first (fingers crossed) major 3rd party renderer on OS X.

 

Jack

[Ernest Burden III]

I guess the roughly 50% of Cinema users on OS X didn't get that memo.

 

I didn't even know Maya had a Mac version. But then so did AutoCad for one version. And now Maya is owned by Autodesk so...

 

Jack, would I be hung from the nearest tree if I suggested you get a PC for rendering? Yes? Ok, I won't then.

[AdamT]

I'm a PC guy, but the Cinema benchmark for the quad G5 machines is right up there with the score for the fastest dual dual-core Opterons. In other words, it's faster than any Pentium or even quad Xeon system. Dual G5s are quite respectable too.

 

I suspect that Apple's move to Intel was based on price/supply rather than performance--not to mention the advantage of (eventually) dual-booting OSX and Windows/Linux.

 

Don't underestimate the number of archviz folks using or moving to C4D.

[AJLynn]

The idea I got was that the move was motivated mainly by two factors: pricing, and IBM and Motorola's inability to make a laptop-friendly G5 (or faster G4 for that matter). They aren't saying the Intel platform is faster than the Quad, but compare the affordability of a Core Duo iMac to a dual-core G5, and the speed of a Core Duo notebook to a G4 Powerbook at... where do they top out, 1.6GHz?

 

The Intel/AMD competition has caused some incredible advancement in the x86 platform in the last few years and PowerPC has not kept up.

[jackb602]

I would not trust any Mac benchmarks.

 

 

Don't worry. Cinebench is a benchmark developed by Maxon to test how different machines handle rendering in Cinema 4D, the app that I've been making a living with for a couple of years now. By this standard, the Quad G5 is one of the fastest machines money can buy. Having recently upgraded from an aging dual G4, I really appreciate this.

 

Anyway, the purpose of my post wasn't to debate platforms but to learn more about where VRay is going. Thanks for clarifying that it's not coming to the Mac anytime soon.

 

@Ernest: You won't get any retribution from me for suggesting a PC. I was very seriously considering setting up a small renderfarm of cheap PC boxes (had them all spec'ed out), until I had a really bad experience with a remote Windows renderfarm. It seems that OS X does a better job at memory management and is therefore much less likely to crash.

 

I admit that in 8th grade I favored the Apple //e because I thought it was cool. Today I favor Macs because they make it easier for me to get my work done.

[Christopher Nichols]

@Ernest: You won't get any retribution from me for suggesting a PC. I was very seriously considering setting up a small renderfarm of cheap PC boxes (had them all spec'ed out), until I had a really bad experience with a remote Windows renderfarm. It seems that OS X does a better job at memory management and is therefore much less likely to crash.

 

Just to clarify... Unix (what OS X is based on, and why it is so good) is what is better at memory than windows. Linux (as opposed to windows and OSX) is free and runs on generic PC boxes that are a LOT cheaper then Macs, and run at least as fast as the Macs. That is why large companies like the one I work at that have 4000+ processors on a renderfarm use PCs with Linux.

 

I loved OSX when it was NeXTStep. I like it now too, but the software I need to run on it is very limited, and the hardware is overpriced and not very customizable. Linux is my closest option, but I am still limited with my software. If rendering engines like Vray and FinalRender want to be taken seriously in the big VFX companies (the next step in their evolution) they need a standalone Linux plateform. In the mean time, some companies are bitting the bullet and running 3dsmax on windows to get access to Vray, such as some of the work being done as Digital Domain.

[jackb602]

Congratulations!

 

Anyway, the purpose of my post wasn't to debate platforms but to learn more about where VRay is going. Thanks for clarifying that it's not coming to the Mac anytime soon.