Another voice for MacOS Metal support
In the spirit of "skating to where the puck is going to be", I'd like to voice another request to see MacOS Metal support in Blender.
The new Mac Pro will be a new start for MacOS in pro apps. Yes, that computer will initially be relatively expensive, but over time it will show up everywhere. Also, Apple's Metal 3 API looks promising and I think even entry level hardware such as laptops will be able to use it to great advantage.
I realise it's all about priorities, but I imagine there is a core of MacOS users somewhere in the Blender community that appreciate this feature request surfacing from time to time.
I also find that claiming that the MacOS user base in the community is small is pretty much "skating to where the puck was".
Not interested in a discussion of "why" or "who is to blame", I'd just like to see the feature implemented. Not interested in compromising solutions like Vulcan or anything like that.
16 Comments
as a mac user i'd love it, but i think it's a little disingenuous to say you don't want debate as you declare what is or isn't "skating to where the puck will be". that's purely your opinion and about as valid as anyone else's at this point.
constructively, i'd say given all the big-name blender fund donors lately, a promising first step would be to lobby apple to make a contribution, or to start a funds raising campaign where we're putting our money where our mouths are in terms of wanting resources allocated to this.
again, i'm someone who would love more robust mac support (eevee volumetrics on my vega 64 egpu doesn't work and no one's touched the ticket in over half a year because there are so few vega 64 mac users). i'm just pragmatic that its not going to change because 5-6 of us are talking about it on a forum. :(
Hi there * @stevemillerband *
Regarding "not wanting to debate", or to discuss the request as I wrote, I simply meant that in the context of the Mac eco system.
I'm proactively trying to avoid attracting comments from users who aren't invested in the Mac because it goes without saying that adding another area of focus for the developers that are of zero interest to non Mac users is per definition a "waste of time" for them. Noted.
The new Mac Pro is where the puck will be, and it's not an opinion. It's announced and should be out shortly. No discussion about Blender and Metal 3+ need to reference older Macs or previous shortcomings. We only need to look at the new hardware and APIs and—if necessary—discuss from that perspective.
I see what you mean about being pragmatic and the 5-6 users. That is EXACTLY why I wrote what I wrote. I just wanted to bump that number up to 7. If everyone else on Mac with interest in this did the same, I bet we could get to 20.... 🤷🏼♂️
So, much preferred, in my mind, would be an official counter where people could just register their support for this without have to "argue the case" to see if we are really only just 7, or perhaps lots and lots more?
It's not just the new Mac Pro, but also Blender itself maturing and trends like Cinema 4D going to subscriptions that make people look elsewhere. These are all pretty recent events, so it might make sense to do a recount.
I totally agree that Apple could and should show some support here.
I agree with the increased Mac support (Mac user), but they have already stated the answer for BF is to use Molten VK and Vulkan for Metal support, and they are willing to do so but there are no plans yet for when it will happen. I've also heard that someone is working on Vulcan adaptation. Whatever that means…. The impression I'm getting is that it is of looow priority because Metal is not open source and Open CL is )more people using it). How do we make apply pressure against that?* @andree.online *
Yes please. My CPU get's fried everytime I try to render in cycles. AMD's Pro Renderer doesn't work that great without a few tweaks
The two threads I saw about metal and vulkan have been discussing for a year, at least to prove that they have not been abandoned, but when is it time to clean up the old opengl/cl code and apply Vulkan or Metal? I think it should be more radical in gpu computing, because the update speed of gpu is very fast, the old hardware is not too much computational power, if blender can keep up with the update and support of new graphics api is the best thing.
I guess now that AMD is onboard with two more developers it should come sooner rather than later… but how much later is the question. I expect another year or more as no developers will be dedicated to Mac or Vulcan only, in my opinion. Still, AMD in the dev fund is an encouraging sign. * @2046411367 *
I think this one is done - code.blender.org/2023/01/introducing-the-blender-metal-viewport/
Another +1. And let's also attack this from the Apple point of view and request Apple join the dev fund here: apple.com/feedback/macos.html
Mac user here. Recently upgraded to this a 12-core cmp with a Radeon VII graphics card Was super stoked to be able to finally use cycles reasonably with the new hardware. That was until I found out that cycles does not support Metal...
Sad day for a sad, sad boy
Also just realized I've added to this post already So here's an update (maybe): devtalk.blender.org/t/is-there-interest-in-supporting-a-metal-version-of-cycles-for-macos/4475/397
A person was saying he was working on a theory to get this working You can follow this thread to see some glimmers of hope?
Hi, I just came to you from Russia and I fully support Andree, Bro. I really like macOs and I love Blender. I got MBP 16, it's a super device. I believe that if there is such a powerful device and the program that is supported on it, everything should work fully and without reduced features! No matter how many of us are like that and no matter from whose side this problem is, there is an operating system, a powerful device and a program, why then all this if it does not work fully? I am for the fact that this problem would be solved, no matter from whose side, I want to work fully!
Any news as yet on how far this is from becoming a reality?
Hey yeah This is still a cool thing in 2020
Speaking for all the dum-dums that went out and got a Radeon VII for the cMP without checking for compatibility and just blindly following Luke Miani’s YouTube videos
Edit: Oops I already added to this thread, didn't intend to spam
Metal support in Blender would be a dream, especially for eevee and the viewport (not even so much for rendering cycles). Currently blender on Mac is a severely degraded experience and it is clearly not a priority whatsoever for developers. It is very promising that these bugs are finally being addressed, for instance the bug "Very slow Eevee performance on Mac with AMD Radeon" being set to high priority in the maniphest but the patches to the openGL code feel like hacks or bandaids trying to wrestle with deprecated mac features when the only true fix would be a full rewrite of the code from the ground up which would take precious time that blender developers don't have. It seems like the only hope is there to be a dedicated Mac developer, which looks like is very unlikely funding wise.
I also second that. Moved from Cinema 4D, just waiting for Blender macOS to be on par with Windows, performance-wise.
* @pcote *
I haven't moved from Cinema 4D myself, but I've decided to give Blender a fair chance in the parallel. I'm following some structured classes that look promising that gives me a solid foundation.
But while a lot of foundational training even can be done on a 16" MacBook Pro, I'd like to know that I can continue working on the OS platform of choice and still enjoy modern hardware accelerated performance. I have used CPU rendering in Arnold and Maxwell up until now, but I think where Blender is concerned, GPU rendering in Cycles is where I get bang for buck.
It's becoming increasingly obvious to me that traditional software and packages in this niche will have their work cut out for them if they want to keep up with Blender's swift pace forward.