NEW: Octane X - is finally here! [MEGA FAQ THREAD]

[Goldorak]

I hear you, and our roadmap on Metal is something I want to be completely transparent about.

When I made the first forum post for PR1, Apple Silicon hadn't been announced yet nor made available for development work. Post M1, things are more complex in terms of keeping up support a decade of GPUs while also supporting this brand new architecture that is radically different (and also very promising). The Denoiser in particular had to be rewritten from scratch for M1, and the 2022 features will likely also require the minimum HW spec to move to 2020+ GPUs for latest features (including Brigade) to work.

With the next release of Octane X 2022 XB1, metal and CUDA releases going forward will be released in tandem. Octane X 2022 will primarily be optimized for native Apple Silicon - and as a head's up, by 2023 we may have to release features only for pre-Apple Silicon hardware as Apple's new GPU features and capabilities become supported only on Apple Silicon devices.

[Weezer]

Well, that’s smashing news for Apple Silicon users. Not so welcome for people like me who have invested heavily in the Mac Pro and Apple’s expensive MPX GPUs. I understand the desire to support Apple’s lovely new hardware, but don’t forget about us. We’re the ones who’ve been supporting Octane on Mac all these years. And, after all, are owners of Mac Books really your primary audience?

[GPerrone]

I understand that but what I don’t’ is lack of communication. Does it cost you to have a post on twitter telling people if the the upcoming macOS update is supported or if we would wait before upgrading. I find it exhausting to try it by myself or wait for a reply in this forum. Adobe does it really nicely, even before release they bring attention about possible instabilities. This for me sets the difference between a reliable software and one you can’t rely on for important work. I don’t think otoy people are lazy, but what they are is unpredictable which is my biggest issue.

[pl23]

Just to confirm, ACEs support is not yet present in PR13 right?

[raevynn]

I use cinema 4D R25,The system is macOS big Sur,Graphics card is Radeon Pro 560X 4GB Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536MB.I tried PR8, 11 and 13 and could not get Octane to work.In the settings I also checked GPU: AMD and Use for tonemap.I don't know what's wrong, please help me!!!

[Sirajhassan]

I hear you, and our roadmap on Metal is something I want to be completely transparent about.

When I made the first forum post for PR1, Apple Silicon hadn't been announced yet nor made available for development work. Post M1, things are more complex in terms of keeping up support a decade of GPUs while also supporting this brand new architecture that is radically different (and also very promising). The Denoiser in particular had to be rewritten from scratch for M1, and the 2022 features will likely also require the minimum HW spec to move to 2020+ GPUs for latest features (including Brigade) to work.

With the next release of Octane X 2022 XB1, metal and CUDA releases going forward will be released in tandem. Octane X 2022 will primarily be optimized for native Apple Silicon - and as a head's up, by 2023 we may have to release features only for pre-Apple Silicon hardware as Apple's new GPU features and capabilities become supported only on Apple Silicon devices.

I can't even edit materials in my M1 Mac ? Why is the Octane X for buggy.

[Sirajhassan]

I hear you, and our roadmap on Metal is something I want to be completely transparent about.

When I made the first forum post for PR1, Apple Silicon hadn't been announced yet nor made available for development work. Post M1, things are more complex in terms of keeping up support a decade of GPUs while also supporting this brand new architecture that is radically different (and also very promising). The Denoiser in particular had to be rewritten from scratch for M1, and the 2022 features will likely also require the minimum HW spec to move to 2020+ GPUs for latest features (including Brigade) to work.

With the next release of Octane X 2022 XB1, metal and CUDA releases going forward will be released in tandem. Octane X 2022 will primarily be optimized for native Apple Silicon - and as a head's up, by 2023 we may have to release features only for pre-Apple Silicon hardware as Apple's new GPU features and capabilities become supported only on Apple Silicon devices.

I can't even edit materials in my M1 Mac ? Why is the Octane X so buggy.

[DERJUNG]

I hear you, and our roadmap on Metal is something I want to be completely transparent about.

When I made the first forum post for PR1, Apple Silicon hadn't been announced yet nor made available for development work. Post M1, things are more complex in terms of keeping up support a decade of GPUs while also supporting this brand new architecture that is radically different (and also very promising). The Denoiser in particular had to be rewritten from scratch for M1, and the 2022 features will likely also require the minimum HW spec to move to 2020+ GPUs for latest features (including Brigade) to work.

With the next release of Octane X 2022 XB1, metal and CUDA releases going forward will be released in tandem. Octane X 2022 will primarily be optimized for native Apple Silicon - and as a head's up, by 2023 we may have to release features only for pre-Apple Silicon hardware as Apple's new GPU features and capabilities become supported only on Apple Silicon devices.

Well, as a Mac Pro user, that's really not that cool. Or do I understand this wrong. You guys are focusing more on M1 and such now and not AMD cards? I just bought another Vega Duo. Oh man, what news - and Octane X and Modo 15 for example still does not work I have now decided here also no more money to invest (since Mac CUDA era on Board) and wait. Because the new M1 are still not expandable and even the M1 max does not provide the power I need. Really too bad, but then I'm out of here and have to find other solutions. I'll look again in a few years, when Octane is out of pre-release and Apple has a plan how to get fast performance on the platform without eGPU, which is often not upgradeable. To buy a new Mac every year is too stupid for me.
Well, goodbye then.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

[Merlinus]

Ditching the old 2010 macs with NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN X GPUs?
CUDA driver version: 418.163

Not everyone can easily buy a new machine

[TBubble]

Appreciate the transparency, but waiting to be transparent until after people upgraded to MacPro is certainly not a good look.

What it seems like is that the current developmental roadmap isn't just prioritizing Apple Silicon but is actively working against the machines Octane X was supposed to be written for. I have to suspect that the denoiser being completely broken wasn't just the result of some driver change but because it was rewritten to work on Apple Silicon and only Apple Silicon.

So when you say no Brigade for older GPUs, my question is: will 2019 MacPros get a fully featured path tracer of any kind (ie one that has a working denoiser)? Are we supposed to be waiting for Octane X 2022 to get back to where we were months ago? Is there any other good reason to be waiting for Octane X 2022 or is it just so much "thanks for playing, now go away?" All this worry about features disparity between Silicon and all the current GPUs is just so much noise when we still don't have a working, stable product in the first place. And if we're never going to have a stable project because you're always chasing the next new thing from Apple...