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Mac version?

Simon

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fused Newbie

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Hi all,

I use Cinema 4D and got interested in 3D Coat, but I'm a mac user and there doesn't seem to be mac support yet. Are there any plans for future release on mac?

Thanks

I use Cheetah3d and would be interested in 3D coat for the mac. I've tried it with codeweaver and vmware but my Mac isn't up to it and there's nothing like native apps. for speed.

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Andrew Shpagin Master

Andrew Shpagin

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It seems that ZBrush has no Mac version. So 3DC for MacOS could be really interesting. I had phone conversation today with my friend that can make a work. The only essential problem - get corresponding computer. Macs seem to be over over priced. I have bought my home PC for 450$ (AMD64x2+2GB+GF8500(375MB)+...) and it is very enough to work. To buy Mac that corresponds to my 450$ PC I should pay x4 - x6 $. Now, at the start, where should we spent money? We are working from 0, without starting capital. But last month was very successfull, if it will continue, it will not be a problem to buy mac and hire man. Usually we make all work in very short term, so it is question of decission.

A question. Is it possible to estimate how widely MacOS is used in 3D CG development?

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Pavel (pzdm) Zoch Novice

Pavel (pzdm) Zoch

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It seems that ZBrush has no Mac version. So 3DC for MacOS could be really interesting. I had phone conversation today with my friend that can make a work. The only essential problem - get corresponding computer. Macs seem to be over over priced. I have bought my home PC for 450$ (AMD64x2+2GB+GF8500(375MB)+...) and it is very enough to work. To buy Mac that corresponds to my 450$ PC I should pay x4 - x6 $. Now, at the start, where should we spent money? We are working from 0, without starting capital. But last month was very successfull, if it will continue, it will not be a problem to buy mac and hire man. Usually we make all work in very short term, so it is question of decission.

A question. Is it possible to estimate how widely MacOS is used in 3D CG development?

Hello Andrew

1st) you can use both systems on MacOS, I have an Macbook (2.16 Coreduo) and I have there both systems, MacOS 10.4 and Win XP. There is no problem

2nd) you are right, Mac is overpriced in Europe and price is higher as you go to the East. Maybe is there a chance to buy Mac in US?

3rd) Books are not so overpriced like standard machines, this is a way I mean. And they are pretty cool.

About users. As I said in point 2, on east is Win stronger, but in US and west Europe are Macs really popular. C4D has (my opinion from distributors meetings and other) cca 1/3 Mac OS users and I know really many advertising companies in my country and they almost all work on MacOS (and C4D).

I don't want to push you to something, but deeper collaboration with some bigger team could help you in many aspects and nobody want to "eat" you...

If you want to try something on Mac, you can contact me...

Pavel - on your service :-)

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SilverCity Neophyte

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I'd also like to see a Mac version. If 3D-Coat is as good as it seems, you'll have very little competition in the Mac market. Both ZBrush 3 and Mudbox are PC only at this point.

If you want a cheap Mac machine, consider getting a refurbished Mac mini. They go for less than $500.00.

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Deadman21 Novice

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I'll throw my hat in this arena as well. I would love to see 3dc portted to the mac. In the mac community I feel you would have vertually no competition. Yes zbrush is on the mac but it is still at 2.0. Studies have been made that show mac users much more willing to spend money for software.

I currently use 3dc on my mac pro with boot camp. I have been unsucsessful in getting it to run in vertual environments. Its funny but 3dc is the only program I use on the windows side(I mainly got boot camp and windows installed just for games). I would love a mac version.

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Simon Newbie

Simon

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I don't want to push you to something, but deeper collaboration with some bigger team could help you in many aspects and nobody want to "eat" you...

I agree with Pavel. I'll just give some advice from experience considering the mac...

As for mac and money goes, I've been using PCs for about 15 years before switching to mac (and I'm content ever since), and I can say from experience that with the macs you get what you pay for. It's more than just the tech specs that we're used using for PC criteria.

I agree that the 1:1 ratio of Dollar and Euros(=$1.55) is more than just a shame, which is way more expensive than 1:1 in some countries. But that's not just for apple, since many US companies charge that way, such as Sony.

Even though the mac pro is a very appealing choice for muscle/high end cgi, comparing to it's PC counterparts in both price & performance, the home computers are more adapted for home than having a cheap price for pure muscle power.

So my suggestion would be to just get the cheap choice as well, mac mini. Since you already have a computer, you could also use the mac mini as a media center with a vga input tv. Also, being portable makes getting it from the USA more appealing and cheap.

Another suggestion is to recruit beta testers.

Finally, apple's policy when it makes an upgrade is usually to kill the previous version and sell the newest improved version for the same price, and that goes in effect immediately.

So I'd suggest to wait until the new computers arrive before making a buy, as it'll probably be the best value for your money. I guess they should be upgrading the iMacs (and mac minis maybe) to quad core soon, as long as they figured out how to cool them down..! And maybe (just maybe) replace dvd with blue ray...

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NWoolridge Newbie

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It seems that ZBrush has no Mac version. So 3DC for MacOS could be really interesting. I had phone conversation today with my friend that can make a work. The only essential problem - get corresponding computer. Macs seem to be over over priced. I have bought my home PC for 450$ (AMD64x2+2GB+GF8500(375MB)+...) and it is very enough to work. To buy Mac that corresponds to my 450$ PC I should pay x4 - x6 $. Now, at the start, where should we spent money? We are working from 0, without starting capital. But last month was very successfull, if it will continue, it will not be a problem to buy mac and hire man. Usually we make all work in very short term, so it is question of decission.

A question. Is it possible to estimate how widely MacOS is used in 3D CG development?

Some answers:

- There is currently no great option on MacOS for the kind of work 3D-Coat does (Silo and Modo do some of it, but not all).

- Low-end Macs (macbooks, mac minis) are less expensive, but have integrated graphics and are thus probably not good for your purposes. Probably a Macbook Pro is a good option; and as Pavel says, it can be used dual boot as a Windows machine (and can virtualize Linux, Windows and just about anything else...). Mac Pros are expensive, but are comparable in price (or cheaper) than equivalent octo-core PC workstations (from tier 1 vendors).

- Macs come with free, high-quality dev tools (XCode, interface builder, etc.). Their developer program is pretty well-designed too, and by joining the dev program (eg: ADC Select, $499, ADC student $99) you get prerelease software seeds, and significant hardware discounts (about 20% on high-end machines).

-Don't expect that developing for Macs will be just like developing for Windows. The developer tools are different (but good); user expectations are somewhat different (Mac users tend to be particular about UI design; they tend not to like apps that deviate from the Mac OS's generally more consistent approach to UI). Take time to get to know the platform a bit, or hire an experienced Mac developer. Developers who take advantage of the Mac's built-in frameworks can be very productive.

- Macs are over-represented in the graphics world (compared to their general marketshare). A couple of years ago, I heard a Maxon rep say that in North America, the Mac/PC license share for C4D was about 50/50. Autodesk has stated (this was about 2 years ago) that 25% of their Maya revenue was from Mac OS sales. 3D-Coat for Mac would definitely fill in a niche.

Nick

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yukon_28 Novice

yukon_28

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A question. Is it possible to estimate how widely MacOS is used in 3D CG development?

Andrew, from my expireence MAC's is not often used in 3D CG development nowdays. You'll find many-many MAC's in graphic design and polygraphy fields, but not on 3D, hi-end 3D productions is more often PC and Linux mixed.

Look at Autodesk for example, the fact that max does not exists in MAC version speaks for himself, and its not the only primer. Plus, new intel MAC's can run Windows natively, many peoples use this option.

But, with that said, the fact that ZBrush and Mudbox have no MAC versions opens some posibilities for 3DC on this field, combined with low price 3DC would be good option for owners of older MAC's looking for quality 3D Paint\Sculpting application.

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kvb Newbie

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Andrew, from my expireence MAC's is not often used in 3D CG development nowdays. You'll find many-many MAC's in graphic design and polygraphy fields, but not on 3D, hi-end 3D productions is more often PC and Linux mixed.

Look at Autodesk for example, the fact that max does not exists in MAC version speaks for himself, and its not the only primer. Plus, new intel MAC's can run Windows natively, many peoples use this option.

But, with that said, the fact that ZBrush and Mudbox have no MAC versions opens some posibilities for 3DC on this field, combined with low price 3DC would be good option for owners of older MAC's looking for quality 3D Paint\Sculpting application.

I have to disagree with you there. Mostly because of the word "nowadays". Historically, yes, mac has not been the preferred platform; but nowadays mac development has begun to really boom. Just because 3ds max refuses to step outside its comfort zone doesn't necessarily mean that a mac can't compete with a windows machine as far as 3d development is concerned.

Now if only Steve Jobs will get off the short bus, take off his helmet and put down his scooby doo lunch box, maybe us mac users will actually get the REAL 64 bit support that we should have had already;) IMO, the only things holding macs back are comfort zones and true 64 bit support.

kvb

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boxy Newbie

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Andrew, from my expireence MAC's is not often used in 3D CG development nowdays.

Um, wrong :) Personally speaking I've been a freelance 3D illustrator for 12 years and never once used a PC for commercial work. Some of my clients are the biggest you could hope for. This is exactly the kind of woefully uniformed statement you should definitely ignore. max is not missed on the mac, we have plenty of other (better) alternatives and even if it was on the mac I wouldn't touch it. Max aside, Autodesk does have a strong presence on the mac with the most well known 3D apps, Maya and motion builder. ZBrush 3 will shortly be mac bound, its just taking too long for my liking, which is why I would buy 3D coat now if it was available.

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Simon Newbie

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And with houdini on it's way the only major package besides max left that doesn't have mac support YET is XSI and I think we'll see it coming next.

As far as max goes, I pretty much agree with boxy's views, that that's a personal opinion.

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yukon_28 Novice

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I have to disagree with you there. Mostly because of the word "nowadays". Historically, yes, mac has not been the preferred platform; but nowadays mac development has begun to really boom. Just because 3ds max refuses to step outside its comfort zone doesn't necessarily mean that a mac can't compete with a windows machine as far as 3d development is concerned.

Now if only Steve Jobs will get off the short bus, take off his helmet and put down his scooby doo lunch box, maybe us mac users will actually get the REAL 64 bit support that we should have had already;) IMO, the only things holding macs back are comfort zones and true 64 bit support.

kvb

Well, i can talk for what i see and know - again, while i see MAC's very frequent in graphic design and polygraphy i never seen MACs cluster in large 3D production. Even in freelance 3D field you cant find many MACs, its nowhere nearly 1\3 of PCs. And as i said, Autodesk with Max its a good (because it is the most used 3d pakage in many contries), but not the only primer. Costs of MACs themself, development costs and issues, lack of 64 bit and lack of many of most used 3d software it is only a few issues for using MAC in 3D.

maybe us mac users will actually get the REAL 64 bit support that we should have had already;)
ZBrush 3 will shortly be mac bound, its just taking too long for my liking, which is why I would buy 3D coat now if it was available.
And with houdini on it's way the only major package besides max left that doesn't have mac support YET is XSI and I think we'll see it coming next.

Guys, the funny thing is that i hear all this "soon" and "shortly" speech for many years, but, unfortunately, is NEVER happens. You can dislike Max (as zbrush, xsi and many others), but you can do nothing with fact that 3ds Max is one of the few most used packages in the whole world, and the most used package in many contries. Russia, Ukraine, all contries of soviet camp, big parts of east europe - max holds like 75-80% of all 3D market there, so whithout Max Mac never can enter to 3D buisness seriosly there. But again, live max along, there is many other examples and issues.

================================================================================

With that said, i am really does not want to start PC vs MAC hollywar here, so all i said it is only personal opinion, and i'll be very glad for all Mac users if our lovely 3DC will come to your machines.

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