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I have a mid-2010 6-core MacPro, running OSX 10.6.8, which has a "stock" ATI Radeon HD 5770

Is it possible that there could be a beta "port" of Octane to run on Mac, and run using ATI cards (ie: with Open-CL support!)

I just want this to work--even if there is a substantial "performance hit".... Slow is acceptable, non-functionality is not...

I have a near-ZERO budget for hardware upgrades, and throwing down $350.xx or more for a "PC" Nvidia graphics card that "might" work on my Mac, if booted on a Windows VM disk image..... Well, that just doesn't work for me.... Nor does the "officially supported" (?) option of throwing down ~~$1200.xx for the Nvidia Quadro-4000 for Mac. (or possibly the PNY version for ~$800.xx USD)

I used to have a (long time ago!) software-only, simple modeler/render package called "Infini-Dee" that ran (rather slowly...) on basic OS9 Mac, circa 1995... It did basic ray-tracing, "density" of transparent objects, import of DXF files. and had a basic modeller that was adequate for basic geometric models and scenes... If that was do-able then (it was!!!). Why is a software-emulation version of Octane not possible now?

So... I'd like to have "something similar" There **MUST** be a way to have a Software EMULATION of an NVIDIA/GPU/CUDA setup that would allow people who DO NOT HAVE NVIDIA, to at least "trial" the OctaneRender sample package----even if it's locked into using ONLY the basic "golfball with Octane's logo" object.

I just want to be able to "fiddle with" (teach myself...) the node-construction/texture exploration window, and see (slowly...?) the results ON SCREEN...That much of a demo version (for Mac!!) should be possible fairly easily? No?

The current root of this problem situation is the COMPLETE lack of affordable options for NVIDIA cards (WITH a Mac driver that WORKS...) It's frustrating and unconscionable!!! :-//

Will there be any improvement in this "lack of support" situation from NVIDIA, or from Octane, when OSX 10.7 "Lion" ships later this summer?

Please advise! :-/

No at the moment there is no way to use OpenCL. And there is also no emulation available. I'm really sorry, but that's the way it is at the moment. There is also no easy way to just port from CUDA to OpenCL. We hope to have one unified GPGPU system in the future, but at the moment there important advantages in CUDA over OpenCL, which makes a port a lot harder than it sounds.

Cheers,
Marcus

hi themacguy, you can buy a gt 120 with 32 cuda cores and use it only for octane exercise, simply don't connect any monitor.
it works also with 2010 mac pro:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC002 ... TA4MzU2MzE

ciao beppe

themacguy wrote:I have a mid-2010 6-core MacPro, running OSX 10.6.8, which has a "stock" ATI Radeon HD 5770

Is it possible that there could be a beta "port" of Octane to run on Mac, and run using ATI cards (ie: with Open-CL support!)

I just want this to work--even if there is a substantial "performance hit".... Slow is acceptable, non-functionality is not...

I have a near-ZERO budget for hardware upgrades, and throwing down $350.xx or more for a "PC" Nvidia graphics card that "might" work on my Mac, if booted on a Windows VM disk image..... Well, that just doesn't work for me.... Nor does the "officially supported" (?) option of throwing down ~~$1200.xx for the Nvidia Quadro-4000 for Mac. (or possibly the PNY version for ~$800.xx USD)

I used to have a (long time ago!) software-only, simple modeler/render package called "Infini-Dee" that ran (rather slowly...) on basic OS9 Mac, circa 1995... It did basic ray-tracing, "density" of transparent objects, import of DXF files. and had a basic modeller that was adequate for basic geometric models and scenes... If that was do-able then (it was!!!). Why is a software-emulation version of Octane not possible now?

So... I'd like to have "something similar" There **MUST** be a way to have a Software EMULATION of an NVIDIA/GPU/CUDA setup that would allow people who DO NOT HAVE NVIDIA, to at least "trial" the OctaneRender sample package----even if it's locked into using ONLY the basic "golfball with Octane's logo" object.

I just want to be able to "fiddle with" (teach myself...) the node-construction/texture exploration window, and see (slowly...?) the results ON SCREEN...That much of a demo version (for Mac!!) should be possible fairly easily? No?

The current root of this problem situation is the COMPLETE lack of affordable options for NVIDIA cards (WITH a Mac driver that WORKS...) It's frustrating and unconscionable!!! :-//

Will there be any improvement in this "lack of support" situation from NVIDIA, or from Octane, when OSX 10.7 "Lion" ships later this summer?

Please advise! :-/

Well, i know this is not very helpful, but it was mistake on your part to buy MacPro in the first place. Especially if you now put Windows on it, kinda defeats the purpose, does it not? No to mention my PC was probably cheaper than that Mac and i have the same CPU, more RAM, far better (Nvidia) GPU... I can understand people buying iPhones and iPads, theyre great for what they do...but dropping the cash on Apple stuff for work? Seriously?