Octane X Beta Begins Now!
Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2020 6:25 amDear Octane community,
We are very proud to roll out our first release of Octane X for AMD/Intel GPUS to a select group of beta testers.
Octane X on Metal is 100% now feature complete. We reached full pixel parity with Octane 2020 CUDA about two months ago, and have spent the time since then working on getting more and more speed on AMD GPUs (Mac Pro users with Vega II Pro Duo - you might have the highest OB score of any single slot card). We have also added preliminary XDR display support in standalone.
Our plug-in developers have done amazing work too - we now have all the CUDA MacOS plug-ins already ported to Octane X Metal and ready for testing.
As some of you may know, we've been holding off on a public beta as we wait on driver updates (that we expect to come in 10.15.5). These drivers are needed to compile OSL in Octane X on public MacOS releases. Without OSL, some built in shader nodes like color correct and noises won't render.
Since many users have let us know they are OK working around this limitation (as described here - viewtopic.php?p=379812#p379812), we are moving forward with a closed beta on 10.15.4. This is specifically for anyone interested in testing Octane X who understands and is ready to work around this constraint.
If that is you - and you are an existing Octane Enterprise user with access to macOS 10.15.4, and meet the hardware requirements below, then please fill out this form - https://forms.gle/gwgLDcAvamT2pLq76 - before April 25th, 2020.
Hardware requirements:
Your Mac must have an integrated Intel or AMD GPU (or external AMD e-GPU) supported by the current Octane X build. If you have a 2019 or later iMacPro, Mac Pro, MacBook Pro - or a Radeon VII eGPU - you are covered.
Otherwise, please look up what architecture your GPU has and make sure it is on this list below before proceeding with the sign up form:
Intel Graphics SkyLake: INTEL_SKL_GT2_7, INTEL_SKL_GT3_10
Intel Graphics KabyLake: INTEL_KBL_GT2_2, INTEL_KBL_GT3_6, INTEL_KBL_GT3_1
AMD Vega: AMD_GFX9_VEGA10_P, AMD_GFX9_VEGA12_P, AMD_GFX9_VEGA20_P
AMD Navi: AMD_GFX10_NAVI14_M
Signing up for the beta - next steps:
If you are selected for testing in the closed beta, we will then send you back an NDA which we will need you to sign before we bring you into the testing group. This is a requirement - it is necessary in order for us to be able to share 3rd party software/drivers that may not yet be public but which will be needed to run later updates during the beta.
To set expectations, the NDA is pretty strict, so if you aren't comfortable with this requirement, please just wait until the public release coming in the next phase of testing.
If you are unable to fill out the form, or have questions, please reach out to us at [email protected].
Thank you everyone - we are so excited to finally see users testing Octane X. It has been a long journey, but we are finally here!
Thank you,
The Octane Team
We are very proud to roll out our first release of Octane X for AMD/Intel GPUS to a select group of beta testers.
Octane X on Metal is 100% now feature complete. We reached full pixel parity with Octane 2020 CUDA about two months ago, and have spent the time since then working on getting more and more speed on AMD GPUs (Mac Pro users with Vega II Pro Duo - you might have the highest OB score of any single slot card). We have also added preliminary XDR display support in standalone.
Our plug-in developers have done amazing work too - we now have all the CUDA MacOS plug-ins already ported to Octane X Metal and ready for testing.
As some of you may know, we've been holding off on a public beta as we wait on driver updates (that we expect to come in 10.15.5). These drivers are needed to compile OSL in Octane X on public MacOS releases. Without OSL, some built in shader nodes like color correct and noises won't render.
Since many users have let us know they are OK working around this limitation (as described here - viewtopic.php?p=379812#p379812), we are moving forward with a closed beta on 10.15.4. This is specifically for anyone interested in testing Octane X who understands and is ready to work around this constraint.
If that is you - and you are an existing Octane Enterprise user with access to macOS 10.15.4, and meet the hardware requirements below, then please fill out this form - https://forms.gle/gwgLDcAvamT2pLq76 - before April 25th, 2020.
Hardware requirements:
Your Mac must have an integrated Intel or AMD GPU (or external AMD e-GPU) supported by the current Octane X build. If you have a 2019 or later iMacPro, Mac Pro, MacBook Pro - or a Radeon VII eGPU - you are covered.
Otherwise, please look up what architecture your GPU has and make sure it is on this list below before proceeding with the sign up form:
Intel Graphics SkyLake: INTEL_SKL_GT2_7, INTEL_SKL_GT3_10
Intel Graphics KabyLake: INTEL_KBL_GT2_2, INTEL_KBL_GT3_6, INTEL_KBL_GT3_1
AMD Vega: AMD_GFX9_VEGA10_P, AMD_GFX9_VEGA12_P, AMD_GFX9_VEGA20_P
AMD Navi: AMD_GFX10_NAVI14_M
Signing up for the beta - next steps:
If you are selected for testing in the closed beta, we will then send you back an NDA which we will need you to sign before we bring you into the testing group. This is a requirement - it is necessary in order for us to be able to share 3rd party software/drivers that may not yet be public but which will be needed to run later updates during the beta.
To set expectations, the NDA is pretty strict, so if you aren't comfortable with this requirement, please just wait until the public release coming in the next phase of testing.
If you are unable to fill out the form, or have questions, please reach out to us at [email protected].
Thank you everyone - we are so excited to finally see users testing Octane X. It has been a long journey, but we are finally here!
Thank you,
The Octane Team