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Do we have a Mac (M1) version of DAZ Studio yet?

Ron KnightsRon Knights Posts: 1,785
in The Commons

I've been out of touch with the issue. I might be getting a new M1 iMac for my birthday. DAZ Studio would likely be the first software I'd want to try.

Comments

  • FSMCDesignsFSMCDesigns Posts: 12,755

    See if you can trade it in, LOL

  • ChronopunkChronopunk Posts: 292
    edited March 2022

    Ron, as I understand it, it'll be running in Intel emulation for a while, yet. Part of the issue is the M1 silicon, but the other (I think, don't quote me) is the Metal implementation. There are some threads around the forums that indicate that even under emulation, things like simulation and rendering are all running rather quickly and smoothly.

    Have you checked the Mac FAQ thread at all? Lots of answers and conversation over there. I'm looking forward to seeing an M1 version of Daz, myself.

    Post edited by Chronopunk on
  • Ron KnightsRon Knights Posts: 1,785

    Chronopunk thanks for your response. I looked for info but didn't find any.

  • algovincianalgovincian Posts: 2,613

    For the most part, I don't believe DAZ would be the one that would need to optimize DS for apple silicone, but rather QT (the makers of the framework which DAZ is built on) and, assuming you render with Iray, nVidia (the makers of the Iray render engine plugin).

    I don't believe QT 5 supports building for M1, but I believe 6.2 does. I believe DS5 is being built on QT5, but maybe it would be better if you asked @DAZ_Rawb, or somebody else at DAZ, directly about this.

    Also, DAZ doesn't develop render engines - DS utilizes plugins to render. Anyone (including Apple) is free to develop a render plugin for DS that is optimized for apple silicone. Maybe you could go to the nearest Apple store and suggest it? lol

    - Greg

  • bytescapesbytescapes Posts: 1,841
    edited March 2022

    As I understand it, based on what I've read on the forums, the situation is this:

    • versions of DAZ Studio from 4.16 onward will run on modern versions of MacOS and on Apple Silicon (M1) Macs
    • because Iray depends on Nvidia GPUs, and no M1 Mac has an Nvidia GPU, all Iray renders on M1 Macs will use the CPU for rendering
    • because Iray's CPU rendering code targets Intel processors, rendering code uses Apple's Rosetta 2 system for transpilation/emulation, resulting in a performance hit
    • the power of the M1 chip means that emulated CPU rendering performance is comparable to CPU rendering on previous Intel Macs ("... a little faster than my older 2018 Intel Mac Book Pro ..." says one user)
    • recent versions of the Qt toolkit used to implement the DAZ Studio UI may leverage Apple's Metal API for improved UI performance; it's not clear to me which version of Qt is in the newest DAZ Studio versions.
    • it is very very unlikely that there will ever be a version of Iray that uses Metal to speed up Iray rendering by accessing the native GPU cores in the M1 SoC (or future Apple Silicon SoCs)
    • some other renderers are, however, optimized to work on Apple Silicon; I believe that this is true of Octane and the renderers in Blender 3.x.
    • I've seen one report of DAZ Studio not running on an M1 Mac with the latest OS X Monterey version (12.3)

     

    Post edited by bytescapes on
  • LeanaLeana Posts: 11,718

    bytescapes said:

    it's not clear to me which version of Qt is in the newest DAZ Studio versions.

    All versions of DS4.x use a very old version of Qt which definitely doesn't use Metal. DS5 will switch to a more recent version.

  • bytescapesbytescapes Posts: 1,841

    Leana said:

    bytescapes said:

    it's not clear to me which version of Qt is in the newest DAZ Studio versions.

    All versions of DS4.x use a very old version of Qt which definitely doesn't use Metal. DS5 will switch to a more recent version.

    Thanks. I assumed this was the case from the fact that the DAZ Studio "About" box shows a copyright date of 2015 (!) for Qt, but I wasn't certain if that reflected the current version in use, or was just a leftover from previous releases.

  • TrixilaeTrixilae Posts: 2

    Daz runs on a M1 Mac but the render times will be handicapped due to not having an NVIDIA Iray card. One thing I have been doing is compositing on my Mac then emailing to a PC with a NVIDIA card for faster renders. One thing I have been thinking about is the Daz to Blender bridge - whether that could be a work around, where I create a character in Daz, send it over to Blender (which is optimised for M1) and then render there, but I have no experience with Blender, so if anyone has any experience whether that is a workaround, it would be much appreciated.

  • Ron KnightsRon Knights Posts: 1,785

    Thanks for the replies. I recall reading, months ago, that DAZ was working on a new Mac version that would work with the M1 Macs, I don't remember if it had yet reached the Beta stage at the time.

    I know about the issues with rendering, due to the lack of nVidia cards, etc. Right now, it's vaguelly possible that I might get a new M1 iMac for a birthday present. I'll probably use it for "miscellaneous" stuff. I just miss having a Mac around.

    I already have one PC that handles DAZ Studio and iRay quite well.

  • PiratesMoonPiratesMoon Posts: 27

    Since October 2021, I've had it on a brand new  Model Name: MacBook Air M1 with Memory:  16 GB, 500 GB HD, with two external HDs. Daz Studio runs great. iRay is slow. 3DL renders quickly.

  • memcneil70memcneil70 Posts: 4,115

    I have a MacBook Pro M1, 16 GB, 1TB with one external HD for Daz's content, and that is now almost full. I have had to remove UltraScenery XT until it can be updated for the latest MacOS Monterey update that was released a few days before USXT was released for sale in the store. I have two other computers with Win 10 that can do it. I can run the original UltraScenery on it. 

    I find some things work really fast, others not so much. Render times are actually not that bad. I would love to have Filament on it though.

     

  • wsterdanwsterdan Posts: 2,348

    memcneil70 said:

    I have a MacBook Pro M1, 16 GB, 1TB with one external HD for Daz's content, and that is now almost full. I have had to remove UltraScenery XT until it can be updated for the latest MacOS Monterey update that was released a few days before USXT was released for sale in the store. I have two other computers with Win 10 that can do it. I can run the original UltraScenery on it. 

    I find some things work really fast, others not so much. Render times are actually not that bad. I would love to have Filament on it though.

    As menteind above, it's not super great for iRay; I'm using an m1 iMac with 16 GB and I find it renders iRay about 3-4 times faster than my two Intel Macs, an i7 and an i9, and everything other than iRay much better than the Intels. DAZ has said that they are working on making DAZ native, but who knows when that my happen. I've dialed back my purchases and am spending less time until DAZ 5, for I'm also looking foward to Filament (I've used it on the Intels with VM Fusion and it mostly works, but every time something doesn't I can't know for sure why and don't want to rule out the possibility of running it under Fusion, thought that shouldn't matter).

    I'm running it under Big Sur, Montery may yeild different results.

    My best-case scenario for DAZ 5 would be Apple Silicon native, with Cycles Metal as a new rendering engine, which would allow for moving back and forth with Blender much better as well.

    -- Walt Sterdan 

  • Rod Wise DriggoRod Wise Driggo Posts: 2,208

    Any updates on this? Guess I'll be getting a 16" MBP with M2 Max in the not far distance. That thing should be a beast and might be a beast even with rendering once a future version of studio might finally make use of it.

  • wsterdanwsterdan Posts: 2,348

    Congrats on the upcoming MBP sounds great!

    No updates that i'm aware of, other than the official plan back in July, 2021 when they were still planning to publish a bare-bones release version of DAZ Studio 5 at the end of 2021:

    - This release will work on at least x86 Macs (with both Filament and Iray). We are still investigating if this initial early-access release will run either natively or through emulation on M1 macs, but M1 support will come during the continued development of Daz Studio 5.

    So, they were in a position where they were planning to publish a mostly working DAZ Stuido 5 last January, and were planning to release/update any missing features throughout the year which would have been done... about now. With the pressure off a bit and time needed to update for Genesis 9 and to keep iRay working, I'm guessing (just a guess) that we might see DAZ Studio 5 in the next six months, in time for my birthday. (fingers crossed)

    That said, even if we do get an Apple Silicon native version, it most likely help iRay renders all that much. For what it's worth, my M1 iMac renders iRay about three or four times faster than my Intel-based Macs, and yours should be a fair clip faster than that. Still glacial rendering times compared to a high-end nvidia card though.

    -- Walt Sterdan

  • tim_burrtim_burr Posts: 2
    edited March 2023

    I'm using an M2 Max with 96gb of RAM. As far as renders go, it's probably 4x faster than my 2018 i9. For me, the biggest benefit has been the NVIDIA rendering in the Viewport. It's WAY better than the i9. I can basically leave it on NVIDIA to get a more accurate look at my scene. Also, while the fans will kick on every now and then, they're generally silent, unlike the i9, which sounded like a jet engine.

    I will second the warning about Ultrascenery. Daz wouldn't open until I removed Ultrascenery from my plugin folder.

     
    Post edited by tim_burr on
  • TBorNotTBorNot Posts: 370

    I have UltraScenery 1.3 Accelerated on my M1 Ultra, works fine.  Just now created a scene and rendered to make sure.

     

     

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  • memcneil70memcneil70 Posts: 4,115

    My warning was for UltraSceneryXT only. 

    UltraScenery Realistic Landscape System and Accelerator for UltraScenery work fine, along with all the add-ons for it.

    That said, I am hoping to replace my old 2012 iMac that is limping along with one of the new M2 chip iMacs that are supposed to be out in the Fall of 2023.

    Mary

  • agiuagiu Posts: 10
    edited April 5

    I am testing DAZ on a M1 Ultra. I feel like it runs IRAY pretty damn fast. Daz's UI is a bit fuzzy.

    Post edited by agiu on
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