Is Daz Studio Mac really back? (Big Sur version)

Grendelbert

I'm a little confused. I received an email saying that the fix for Daz Studio 4 that enables it to run on macOS Big Sur is available. When I click the link, I go to a page asking me to register, which is odd because I'm already registered. I skip that and just open the Daz3d.copm website, where I'm logged in. I go to the Daz download page and download and install Daz. The newly installed version is 4.15.0.30 Pro Edition (64-bit). What I can't find is anywhere that confirms which version for macOS is the one that is fixed to run on Big Sur. The email doesn't say. Complicating that is a post I read in the forums saying that the Big Sur fix isn't until Daz 5, but I don't see anything about a Daz 5 version being available.

Which version is the one that runs on macOS Big Sur. I've been waiting months for it, but now that it's announced, I can't see any confirmation of the corect version.

Thanks,

David (stuck in Catalina)

bytescapes

According to the release thread, 4.15.0.30 is the newest version, and so should include Big Sur compatibility.

The post that said the Big Sur fix won't come until Studio 5 ships is outdated. Studio 5 has been delayed, but in the course of working on it DAZ discovered that they could 'back port' some of the changes they made for Studio 5 into Studio 4. The result is a Big Sur and M1-compatible version of Studio 4.

So compatibility with Big Sur and Apple Silicon is available now in the latest version of Studio 4, but we'll need to wait a bit longer for Studio 5.

(This is all based on what I've read in the forums; I haven't tested 4.15.0.30 yet on my Mac to see if it actually delivers).

Grendelbert

Thanks, bytescapes.

I'm a bit hesitant to install Big Sur in light of the uncertainty. I'm always hoping someone else has run through the minefield first.

Platnumk

Grendelbert said:

Thanks, bytescapes.

I'm a bit hesitant to install Big Sur in light of the uncertainty. I'm always hoping someone else has run through the minefield first.

There are still a few GUI issues but appart from that it runs fine on Big Sur 

leemoon_c43b45a114

There is some instability with the Big Sur/Apple Silicon compliant version of DS.  It does run remarkably well despite the odd crash to desktop.

I've done a couple of render timing tests on my 3 Macs, all of which have different versions of macOS and DS.

These are the results from a week or so ago:

Iray test renders of a very simple scene: Base G3M unclothed, HDRI, 2 ghost lights, floor plane, custom render settings, 967 W x 1251 H render image size produced these results:

Intel i5 Mac Mini (8GB RAM / 1TB HDD / High Sierra / DAZ Studio 4.15.0.2): 9 minutes 35.12 seconds

M1 MacBook Air (16GB RAM / 1TB SSD / 8 core CPU and 8 core GPU / Big Sur / DAZ Studio 4.15.0.26): 2 minutes 4.18 seconds

Intel i9 MacBook Pro (32GB RAM / 2TB SSD / 8 core CPU and AMD 5500M 8GB GPU / Catalina / DAZ Studio 4.12.0.86): 1 minute 10.51 seconds

I haven't done any new render timing tests since updating to DS 4.15.0.30, but the results seem to be similar on the M1 MacBook Air above.  Maybe a bit of an improvement in speed.

Lee

bytescapes

Interesting. Thank you, Lee. I'm interested to see that while the M1 absolutely smokes the i5, the i9 is still about twice as fast. I suspect that the M1 is having to do a lot of on-the-fly translation of the Intel Iray rendering code. Mind you, your MacBook Air probably cost about 1/3 as much as the i9 MacBook Pro, so that's pretty good bang for your buck.

leemoon_c43b45a114

bytescapes said:

Interesting. Thank you, Lee. I'm interested to see that while the M1 absolutely smokes the i5, the i9 is still about twice as fast. I suspect that the M1 is having to do a lot of on-the-fly translation of the Intel Iray rendering code. Mind you, your MacBook Air probably cost about 1/3 as much as the i9 MacBook Pro, so that's pretty good bang for your buck.

You're quite welcome, bytescapes!

I just finished a render test on the 3 Macs with another sample (same scene on all 3 Macs).

This time the scene had: Custom-dialed G8M at SubD level 3, fiber hair and brows, Elven-style pants and boots, HDRI, 2 ghost lights, floor plane, custom render settings, 967 W x 1251 H render image size producing these results:

Intel i5 Mac Mini (8GB RAM / 1TB HDD / High Sierra / DAZ Studio 4.15.0.2): 10 minutes 9.88 seconds

M1 MacBook Air (16GB RAM / 1TB SSD / 8 core CPU and 8 core GPU / Big Sur / DAZ Studio 4.15.0.30): 2 minutes 33.66 seconds

Intel i9 MacBook Pro (32GB RAM / 2TB SSD / 8 core CPU and AMD 5500M 8GB GPU / Catalina / DAZ Studio 4.12.0.86): 1 minute 58.36 seconds

 As suspected, the latest version of DS has closed the gap a bit with Iray CPU rendering between the M1 MacBook Air and the i9 MacBook Pro.  The i9 MBP is around 1.3 times faster than the M1 MBA.  Of note, the M1 MBA was completely silent due to no fans.  It might have thermally throttled (it did get warm, but not hot.)  The i9 MBP fans were going during the render keeping the CPU running at (near?) full speed.  The increased render speed seems to have appeared in beta 4.15.0.28.  I was thinking the M1 MBA was coming in around 1.5 to 1.75 the speed until I ran this latest test.  Not a truly accurate result with the differences between versions (macOs and Daz Studio) and system configurations.  Even running under Rosetta 2, I'm happy with the speed on the M1.  I imagine I could get faster renders on an Apple Silicon system with fans. :)  I've been tempted to pick up a fully configured 24" M1 iMac, but will try to hold off until Apple releases a desktop Mac with more RAM and storage (at least 32GB RAM and 4TB SSD).

Lee