BlendLuxCore-v2.1alpha4-mac64-opencl

[epilectrolytics]

Hi again

Just got the new BlendLuxCore for Mac!
I tested this on Sierra and HighSierra (Details and specs in the attached crashlogs )
First I deactivated and then removed the old LuxRender addons from Blender 2.79b, saved preferences.
Then opened Blender again and installed LuxCore from file.
LuxCoreRender appears in the list of renderers and live render preview works on CPU (MBPro i7-4850HQ+Iris Pro 5200+GT750M).
Live Preview openCL crashes Blender.

Also the render command leads to a crash immediately no matter CPU or GPU.
I saved and attach the crash logs here.

I'm ok with problems in the beginning of a new thing and hope I could help the developers, thanks for your work!

[Sharlybg]

Are your graphic drivers updated ?

[Dade]

LuxCoreRender appears in the list of renderers and live render preview works on CPU (MBPro i7-4850HQ+Iris Pro 5200+GT750M).

Intel GPU (and OpenCL drivers) are known to have a lot of problems. You may try to disable the Iris GPU and/or to use only the 750M for rendering.

[epilectrolytics]

Are your graphic drivers updated ?

MacOS 10.13 has newer drivers than 10.12, also on 10.13 I have nVidia webdrivers installed (better than Apple's).
There I can render LuxMark 3 with all scenes and all devices whereas on 10.12 only the Luxball works with GPU.
But I could render even on 10.9 the old LuxRender in Blender in simple scenes on both GPUs.

But If the new thing is not ready for openCL on this Macbook that's fine with me cause I'm going to buy a desktop computer for rendering anyways.
But all the modeling I do on my Macbook and the CPU live preview already works which is very promising!

[epilectrolytics]

There is also a non-openCL version of BlendLuxCore, I tested this as well (MacOS 10.13.4, Lux Benchmark scene) with the same result:
Live render preview works, but hitting the render button causes immediate crashing.

[FarbigeWelt]

Are your graphic drivers updated ?

MacOS 10.13 has newer drivers than 10.12, also on 10.13 I have nVidia webdrivers installed (better than Apple's).
There I can render LuxMark 3 with all scenes and all devices whereas on 10.12 only the Luxball works with GPU.
But I could render even on 10.9 the old LuxRender in Blender in simple scenes on both GPUs.

10.13 only? Well, this outdates my iMac 27’‘ defintively then. Still very useful as monitor for my PC . However, I was used to network rendering with old Luxrender. I like to try it for CPU BiDir, what seems to be possible with 10.12 some hopefully soon day.

[epilectrolytics]

Are your graphic drivers updated ?

Umm, now that I have updated to MacOS 10.13.6, things are improving

Still the Lux benchmark file crashes, but finally I am able to create simple scenes and render them!
(Edit: The wallpaper scene works, currently rendering.)
Render and Editor preview work on CPU and nVidia but not Iris (as Dade already mentioned).
I should have thought of using the latest update earlier but still it would be helpful to get OS requirement info with the release.

Now I have to find out where and what the crash threshold is ...

@FarbigeWelt:
I have an old (2009) iMac too, but currently on 10.12.6 it is not really working with BlendLuxCore yet.

[FarbigeWelt]

@FarbigeWelt:
I have an old (2009) iMac too, but currently on 10.12.6 it is not really working with BlendLuxCore yet.

Thank you for the information.
Because update to 12.13 is not supported for this old iMac, I have to wait for 10.12 luxcorerender version or buy a new iMac.
(Currently, Win10 Pro, AMD threadripper 2 and a specific graphic card Vega or GTX 2080, seems to be more appropriate than OSX 13 iMac Pro.)

[epilectrolytics]

@FarbigeWelt:
I agree. After four years I was also looking to buy a new Mac this year's end, but that Mac probably will be a PC

Back to topic:
After updating to MacOS 10.13.6 I can finally render projects with LuxCore, but only simple ones.
Sadly I cannot render the awesome testfiles by Sharlybg which certainly would be very instructive

It seems that subdivision modifiers are a big problem.
Attaching, applying, loading scenes with them and especially trying to assign textures in files containing them leads either to immediate crashing or when starting render (also preview).

I need to apply the modifier (possibly in Cycles, not LuxCore mode), save the file, close blender and reopen again before I can safely proceed.
Here's another crashlog:

blender_2018-10-09-122058_my-MacBook-Pro.crash.zip

(23.02 KiB) Downloaded 316 times

I'd like to hear about other Mac users' experiences!

[davorin]

Haven't done any big scenes so far...but for sure the benchmark blender file crashes blender...

Another thing I observed in my "beam a bitmap image from spot light over mirror onto a semitransparent glass":

Sometimes it renders just some light....then cancel rendering and start again it shows the bitmap rendered...happens almost every second time I render (with CPU of course as this requires bidir rendering)...