Hi Librarian. To clarify on your posting, are the 3D softwares focused more on developing for Windows machines including GPUs? My friend works as a 3D artist and they're on windows machines though this may be an isolated case.
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Mac Pro Advice for 3D Rendering
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Hi Librarian. To clarify on your posting, are the 3D softwares focused more on developing for Windows machines including GPUs? My friend works as a 3D artist and they're on windows machines though this may be an isolated case.
No that's not an isolated case at all. There are many studios for example that have 3dsMax on their pipeline and that is only available on windows.
Regarding GPUs windows offers both openGL and directX support and that's a huge advantage for game developers, and you have a lot of choices and solutions for GPU hardware. High end solutions for laptops from Nvidia are now very accessible and offers competitive performance that a few years ago was pure science fiction.
Most professional 3d software are taking advantage of nvidia GPUs right now, and the support is far more superior on linux and windows platform. Current mac versions of these sofwares are already lacking features when compared to windows/linux ones, and many third party extensions will never be released.
There are many reasons for this, one is simply that pro nvidia solutions are officially discontinued by apple (classic macpro), proper portable solutions are dead, OSX is pretty much developer's nightmare with so many frequent releases that breaks so much stuff, and OSX openGL support is lacking and underperforming. Let's not forget the Retina nonsense where you sacrifice performance, system resources, screen real estate and responsiveness for much more useful hi res dock icons
Mavericks was the point of no return: broken memory management, broken network support, broken application support and so on… nobody sane of mind is running a full 3d pipeline past Mountain Lion as you cannot afford to waste time on stupid problems during production.
Many big studios now prefer to give the artist one Windows workstation for Adobe software and a Linux workstation for the rest of the 3D software packages and customizations.
No that's not an isolated case at all. There are many studios for example that have 3dsMax on their pipeline and that is only available on windows.
Regarding GPUs windows offers both openGL and directX support and that's a huge advantage for game developers, and you have a lot of choices and solutions for GPU hardware. High end solutions for laptops from Nvidia are now very accessible and offers competitive performance that a few years ago was pure science fiction.
Most professional 3d software are taking advantage of nvidia GPUs right now, and the support is far more superior on linux and windows platform. Current mac versions of these sofwares are already lacking features when compared to windows/linux ones, and many third party extensions will never be released.
There are many reasons for this, one is simply that pro nvidia solutions are officially discontinued by apple (classic macpro), proper portable solutions are dead, OSX is pretty much developer's nightmare with so many frequent releases that breaks so much stuff, and OSX openGL support is lacking and underperforming. Let's not forget the Retina nonsense where you sacrifice performance, system resources, screen real estate and responsiveness for much more useful hi res dock icons
Mavericks was the point of no return: broken memory management, broken network support, broken application support and so on nobody sane of mind is running a full 3d pipeline past Mountain Lion as you cannot afford to waste time on stupid problems during production.
Many big studios now prefer to give the artist one Windows workstation for Adobe software and a Linux workstation for the rest of the 3D software packages and customizations.
Thanks for your inputs. I know that Nvidia and AMD continue to produce new GPUs for the Windows market as the growth is there. And Crossfire and SLI are not supported in OSX. You're right about the limitations in OSX. I am still using Snow Leopard with Mountian Lion as alternate. The changes made in Mavericks and Yosemaite slows down my workflow. ML would be my latest OS to use.
I had a client, who is an animator at Dreamworks Studios and he mentioned they use all HP workstations and they have a new software, Apollo, exclusive only to Windows and Dreamworks.
the fun thing is that Some years ago actually Windows was not even considered as production OS by many studios, unless the pipeline was based on 3DSMax. Linux and OSX were the only affordable solutions because of code compatibility (it was easier to port custom code) and probably also for licensing costs. Usually OSX worstations were given to artists that needed certain commercial software that was not available for linux, such as Photoshop or After Effects, whle keeping UNIX app compatibility in one single machine. This was extremely useful for technical artists that needed the flexibility (for example switch from photoshop to maya to test textures).
Maya, for example was much more superior on OSX than windows because it offered full unix terminal support, and advanced techs such as Alembic and GPU cache for loading complex scenes.
Today, Windows version of maya still lack proper terminal support (they added a sort of hack called Output Window to fix this) but it fully support advanced gpu stuff for modeling, rendering and animation: GPU vertex cache for the animators, GPU based hair and fur previews (all this stuff is gold for animators). Real time preview of SubDivision displacements and edge creases for high detail models that matches final render results.
Many vfx/simulation tools got huge advantages with more advanced GPU support (better and faster previews of what you're doing).
And of course new modern software released. Check out Quixel plug-ins for Photoshop for example, Redshift for Maya and Element 3D v2.
Maya, for example was much more superior on OSX than windows because it offered full unix terminal support, and advanced techs such as Alembic and GPU cache for loading complex scenes.
Today, Windows version of maya still lack proper terminal support (they added a sort of hack called Output Window to fix this) but it fully support advanced gpu stuff for modeling, rendering and animation: GPU vertex cache for the animators, GPU based hair and fur previews (all this stuff is gold for animators). Real time preview of SubDivision displacements and edge creases for high detail models that matches final render results.
Many vfx/simulation tools got huge advantages with more advanced GPU support (better and faster previews of what you're doing).
And of course new modern software released. Check out Quixel plug-ins for Photoshop for example, Redshift for Maya and Element 3D v2.
When Windows NT workstations sank SGI and began to dominate the 3D market OS X was still 2-3 years away from release and Apple were still in their first generation iMacs. There was many more options than just 3DSMax on NT. Windows also had more options for NLEs and compositors than any other platform.
Intergraph workstations were at the forefront of Windows dominating the 3D modelling and animation sector in the 90s, but then after a bloody war with Intel over patents they sold off their hardware divisions to SGI and then cheap PCs eventually killed whatever was left of SGI workstations.
http://www.intergraph.com/about_us/history_90s.aspx
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You're not the only one stuck on Mountain Lion. Even Pixar's Renderman support is limited up to OSX 10.8.5 for a reason.
Last time i visited dreamworks in late 2011 they were still running maya 2009 and other internal tools for rigging that were kinda old school. Maya was so customized that looked more advanced than the 2011 public release. Macs were used by the 2d artists.
HP and Dreamworks made the HP Dreamcolor monitor together. It's the cheapest wide gamut monitor on the market but apparently it's a pain in the backside to get working on a Mac - text will appear funny. In fact when I ordered one from HP they cancelled the order automatically, probably because they detected I was using a Mac and they didn't want returns. So I had to buy an Eizo for double the price - but I am always happy with Eizos.
Yeah I was talking about mid-late 2000s when Maya was more poupular as standard.
My boss told me stories about the whole SGI affair since he experienced it directly. One day in early 90's you had to buy a SGI for openGL and software support for tens of thousands of $. A year later your average PC was able to do the same thing, AND it could run SoftImage 3D, for a fraction of the original price. That was mindblowing.
In 96 I was 22 years old and madly wanted a workstation. Just out of curiosity I went to SGI and they introduced me to their basic line of Indy 500 workstations with a starting price of £18,000. When I left their offices I let out the laughter I was holding inside because I knew I could build a PC with better spec for a hell of a lot cheaper. A year later I won two grand on the lottery and created a dual processor demon by going around to all the independent Asian hardware dealers and haggling them down. Then I managed to get a 21" Sony Trinitron monitor for £50 from a caretaker who was clearing out a vacated office building. My first proper workstation.
A simple Bing search for 'Apollo dreamworks' brings up:
I'm a Windows defender, but I think that there's more to the story than what your client told you.
Perhaps some client systems are running Windows to drive the displays, but the core of the system is RHEL in their private cloud.
Thanks AidenShaw for the interesting article. I think Dreamworks Studios has cemented its foothold in the animated movie industry. And I read they're using 16 cores HP workstations which can handle all those animations. Happy Holidays!