Daz Studio | M1 Mac System Running Windows Through Parallels Desktop | AppStartup Consistent Crashes

Steve_S

I tried running Daz Studio on my 2022 M1 Mac Studio (macOS Tahoe 26.5.2 (25F84)) running the current version of Windows 11 Pro through the current version of Parallels Desktop.
Why I'm doing this is because several of my purchased Daz Store items only appear in the Windows version of Daz Studio.
I don't know why this is, but I have confirmed this is my situation.
Surprisingly, the DAZ3DIM installation process completed successfully with no error messages or signs of incompatibility.
However, each time I start up Daz Studio, it goes through the entire loading process and, at the very end, crashes Daz Studio and Parallels Desktop.
Several attempts have resulted in the same outcome.

To be clear, I do have a Windows 11 Pro computer system, but workflow-wise, it's time-consuming to switch between systems.
Along with this Parallels Desktop issue, I am still interested in learning why a number of my purchased Daz Studio Store items  
do not appear within in Daz Studio on my Mac system despite having downloaded those items through the DAZ3DIM app.
Just so you understand my situation, I ran both the Windows and Mac versions of Daz Studio and compared the different panels, etc.
installed and noticed that certain items were definitely missing from my Mac.

Richard Haseltine

Which products are not appearing on the Mac? Have you check that the Downlod Filters in DIM match between the two systems? Are the Mac security settings getting in the way?

When DS crashes do you get any kind of report? Crashing the whole OS does sound like a driver-related issue.

Steve_S

Thanks for your response, Richard. Greatly appreciated.

Regarding crash reports. I don't know where to access crash reports, assuming they're generated even though the entire VM system crashed.

Regarding DAZ3DIM Download filters, both systems have identical settings.

Regarding your question: Are the Mac security settings getting in the way?
If that was the case, why would only arbitrary items be affected?
Of the over 5,000 items installed on each system, only a minuscule number are affected by this issue.

Regarding some of the Daz Store items that I purchased & installed that are present on my Windows 11 Pro system but absent on my Mac system:
One of the files attached to this comment is a screen capture of my Windows 11 Pro Daz Studio Panes contents, highlighting the items installed that do not appear on my Mac system.
This is just one part of my issue concerning missing items. There are some missing figures. In all cases, the DAZ3DIM app shows all items installed.
One recently purchased figure is Octopia for Genesis 9.
It is not present on either of my systems despite its listing (as installed) on both DAZ3DIM apps.

Richard Haseltine

Moving this to Daz Studio Discussion, it isn't a Daz AI Studio topic.

Panes are produced by plug-ins, which are execulatble code and require higher permission settings than plain content. The ones you have on the Mac install as part of the base application, the others get added afterwards. I would say this is certainly an issue of permissions, whether with Gatekeeper or another feature. See the Mac FAQ thread for various posts onm these issues. https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/731016/the-new-mac-faq#latest

Steve_S

Thank you for the link to the Mac FAQ thread, Richard. I will look into this further.

StratDragon

M1 mac is going to require a lot of overhead to get windows 11 running, it's emulating and converting code. Intel Macs had the advantage of running windows variants natively with x64 cpus. ARM processers are different. Even if you're not using your mac, it's using resources to keep the vm software running and maintaining a lot of heavy lifting to do minor things. It's possible the anti-virus API built into mac; Xprotect is picking up something it doesn't like, or Xprotect is fighting against Windows Defender; two AV's running at the same time, sandboxed or not can cause incompatibility. you can disable xprotect (and defender) but I do not recommend it and you will need to do your own research, I won't assist anyone to try and work around that compromise security. You can also look at apple gatekeeper as a culprit. I wrote an user article on the mac user support site on that thing, damned if I can find it. Having an Intel Mac, and M1 mac and a Windows build I will always default to the windows before I vm or bootcamp on a mac, and I only bootcamp for lab tests. This is probably not what you want to hear but this is my $0.02 on working with Macs and Windows and virtualizing. ARM is really good for virtualizing Linux distros built for ARM, but Apples switch to ARM really handicapped windows flexibility.

windows error logs are in  the event viewer (Start search box, start typing "event viewer"), the Mac its in Applications/Utilities/Crash Reporter or something like that. I'm on my PC, procrastinating mowing my lawn in a heatwave. 

Steve_S

Thanks for your response, StratDragon.

COMPUTER INFORMATION

Computer:	Apple M1 Ultra with 20-core CPU, 64-core GPU, 32-core Neural Engine
Model Name:	M1 Mac Studio
Chip:	Apple M1 Ultra
Total Number of Cores:	20 | 16 performance | 4 efficiency
Memory:	128 GB
Hard Drive:	8 TB SSD Storage

Overall, I've been running Windows (10 & 11) in various versions of Parallels Desktop on different Mac systems for well over a decade.
When configured in accordance with the type of applications installed (in my case, a large variety of memory-intensive, system resource-consuming
software applications), I have found Parallels Desktop to perform consistently well under the most resource-consuming conditions.
Parallels Desktop operation is quite resilient. I have not found another software application that comes even close to matching its
consistent reliability, performance, and unwavering ability to co-exist within another operating system while performing its tasks.

In my current situation, I've successfully used this setup (running Windows 11 Pro through Parallels Desktop) on my M1 Mac Studio since 2022.
I run (not at the same time, of course) dozens of memory-intensive, resource-consuming, graphics-based, and advanced 3D software applications without 
experiencing any difficulties with installations and/or total VM crashes, all while running my Mac (MacOS Tahoe) additionally.
Yes, I do occasionally experience system slowdowns (depending on the project), but nothing that causes one software application (at launch) to crash
and certainly nothing that crashes the VM.

FYI: Windows Defender is not running on the Windows operating system (within Parallels Desktop) installed on my M1 Mac Studio.
I completely agree with you on attempting to run 2 competing AVs on one computer system. That's a disaster in the making that will never end well.

Thank you for providing directions to the location of error logs. I'm assuming that Daz doesn't file error logs within its own file directory system.
If so, I will have to figure out which error log file is Daz-specific, since most error log names are alphanumeric, making my search more challenging.

To conclude, my search for answers continues. It's certainly encouraging to have this Daz-specific resource available with knowledgeable individuals who can
choose to share their valuable time & information. Thank you for your input on this post. Greatly appreciated.

StratDragon

glad I can help. 
it really depends on which app is throwing the error.
If Daz is trying to access a routine or memory location and windows doesn't like it, that error is in windows log. Studio probably never knew what happened other than it stopped mid sentence.
next step is what's the commonality, whats the cause and effect? is it crashing to the desktop, is daz prompting you with the error, is parallels crashing down and becoming unstable on the mac. do any of the errors in the windows log correlate to windows in the studio log? these are all variables that hopefully narrow it down.

what I might try is run the Windows App from the apple store, it's free, it's developed by Microsoft,and create a connection to your PC and try the same steps and see if it blows up. I had to do this last week to follow a tutorial on powershell which I downloaded from the developers to the mac to use on terminal and it was hardly the same between mac and windows. I connected an ethernet cable between my mac and windows and configured a separate network exclusive to them and ran windows from my Windows computer to a window on my mac, like a literal open a window folder. running powershell, taking screen shots from the pc that go directly to my mac desktop.  it's very simple and I wrote an article on that too, apple published it, I cannot find it either but I can walk you through it if you want to try (screenshot), there is zero lag.
 

Thats' a nice machine btw, you could probably sell it for 4x what you paid for it, but to buy a new computer you're looking at 4x the price for something windows comparable. Damn data centers! 

Steve_S

Thank you for your reply, StratDragon.

Thank you for taking the time to provide instructions.

I'm not clear on what you're proposing.
Are you suggesting that I download a copy of the Windows operating (Windows app) from the Apple store?

My current setup for controlling my PC from my Mac & Mac from my PC is a software application called Synergy.
Each system has a copy of Synergy installed.
Using my mouse and/or keyboard, I can easily control each system without physically moving between them.

What I'm trying to accomplish is to run Daz Studio within my Windows VM on my Mac.
I already know Daz Studio can run on my Windows system (albeit much slower due to less capable system resources).

In case you may have forgotten, I wrote in my first post here: 
" I do have a Windows 11 Pro computer system, but workflow-wise, it's time-consuming to switch between systems."

I look forward to hearing from you.


 

StratDragon

my suggestion was to mirror you steps between in studio between mac and pc to see if something in particular triggered the crash one but not the other. Synergy sounds like the windows app so you already have that, and yeah, it's time consuming. The ARM chips are fantastic for apples products but it killed bootcamp entirely and parallels had to be rewritten to run windows in a platform that is essentially incompatible. Intel macs could manage caching and RAM allocations natively, that’s not possible with M chips, parallels is working much harder to do simple things. I'd be curious to see if the activity monitor on the mac is spiking before parallels blows out.

https://support.apple.com/guide/activity-monitor/welcome/mac

if you need a break I suggest this, it will explain better than I can. bonus points if you ever watched the often brutal series Narcos on Netflix

Steve_S

Thanks, StratDragon.
I appreciate all of the time you took to cover my topic completely.
Thank you for your patience and for sharing your invaluable knowledge of this subject. 

You've answered my original question.

Daz Studio cannot run within the Parallels Desktop environment.

Case closed.

StratDragon

thank you, that’s very kind. it's unfortunate there was no viable solution. I cannot work without a PC and a Mac. My PC is a monster, but windows is still clunky. Hopefully Daz gets a comparable Studio released for M macs.