Adventures with Apple Silicon (and Big Sur)
Lee Moon
Posts: 926
Hi all!
I'm preparing to download all the bits and bobs for DIM and DAZ Studio beta on my M1 MacBook Air (macOS 11.5.2 Big Sur).
Just completed a Time Machine backup.
I have an Intel i9 16" MacBook Pro with my primary DAZ installation on it.
I would like to: Install DIM and DS 4.15 beta on the MacBook Air and then migrate only my DAZ content files over from the Intel MacBook Pro. Essentially getting a duplicate of all my DAZ content onto the M1 Macbook Air and having the new version of DIM and DAZ Studio.
I'm not quite sure which way to go about accomplishing this.
My current thinking is to install DIM and then the DAZ Studio beta to get the basic content files and then somehow migrate my current content over.
Any thoughts on how best to do this?
Thanks so much for any assistance anyone can offer! :)
Lee
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Comments
I have successfully installed the core product(s) (Starter Essentials, etc.) on my M1 MacBook Air. :)
Ran some Iray (CPU) test renders using the base G8M and G8.1M in the default scene (Perspective View) and that went pretty well considering the basic content. I've had Studio quit at the end of a couple of the renders. Will do a system restart to see if that fixes things.
I haven't moved any of my content over yet, nor started customizing the layout to duplicate the layout on my MacBook Pro.
Just moved my customized starting/default scene file over to the M1 MacBook Air. Loaded the Base G3M into it and rendered the scene on both Macs. The Intel MacBook Pro rendered the scene in 1 minute 19.3 seconds. The M1 MacBook Air did it in 2 minutes 39.32 seconds (running in Rosetta 2.) And for fun, I rendered the same scene on my old Intel (i5) Mac Mini in 9 minutes 51.39 seconds.
Will be interested in seeing how well things work when I move my content libraries over. :)
Lee
*edited to include Intel i5 Mac Mini test render time.*
Would someone be able to point me to a forum thread, DAZ FAQ, etc. which will guide me on duplicating my DAZ content from one Mac to another one? That includes all my custom categories, saved scenes, presets, textures, content libraries, etc.
I'm not sure what folders can be safely moved over and where they are located on the Mac. I did a standard/default installation last year of DAZ Studio 4.12.0.86 on a Mac Mini and MacBook Pro. I'd like to keep as much of my DAZ setup on the MacBook Pro intact on the M1 MacBook Air as is possible. :)
Lee
I don't know how to do everything you want to do, but one thing I would do is look at the settings in DIM and DS on your old Mac. If you make a note of all the folder directories where they save different types of files and content, you can compare the directories for DIM and DS on the new Mac, create any new ones you need and then move files to those new directories. That works in most cases for getting DS to recognize your content on Windows PCs, but things could be different on Macs. There are probably other things you need to do, especially if you have custom smart content folders set up. Hopefully others will have some tips for you too.
The fellows on this thread
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/16599/the-mac-faq#latest
would be able to assist you at the best, I think. Anyway, ALWAYS work by "Coping to" and only deleting AFTER you checked everything is working with the new location
Thank you, Quasar and Ruthven!!
I absolutely appreciate your suggestions. :)
I'm preparing to copy my Intel MacBook Pro DAZ content folder(s) onto a hard drive and then use that to copy them onto the M1 MacBook Air. My Intel MacBook Pro will remain my primary rendering system until I pick up a more powerful Apple Silicon system later this year/early next year. So I won't be deleting anything from the MBP. I'll be using the M1 MacBook Air to test the new beta versions of DS and for lightweight rendering while on the go.
I'm so happy that the beta is running this well on both Apple Silicon and Big Sur at this point. :)
I'll report back when/if I get all my content duplicated over to the M1 MBA.
Thank you both again!!
Lee
It seems that I have (mostly) replicated my DAZ content from the MacBook Pro onto the M1 MacBook Air. I still need to figure out how to get some missing Smart Content to show up.
Although things took a bit of time to copy from one Mac to the other, about 430GB worth, the various items I've tested have worked and rendered just as I expected. And I'm delighted by that! :)
Haven't experienced any more crashes since the initial installation of the beta (4.15.0.25).
The M1 MacBook Air renders pretty consistently at around 50% the speed of the Intel MacBook Pro.
Again, I am absolutely thrilled that we have a version of DAZ Studio running on Big Sur and Apple Silicon!
Thank you to the developers for getting this to work! :)
Lee
More early feedback on DAZ Studio 4.15.0.25 beta running on a MacBook Air M1/Big Sur so far:
Pros:
1) It works!
2) Easier than expected installation of the core software and base content. As mentioned elsewhere, I've only installed one other DAZ Studio beta, so I wasn't sure what to expect.
3) Not terribly involved replication of my existing content from my production Mac to the M1 MacBook Air.
4) My typical full body portraiture style renders don't heat up the M1 MacBook Air very much. My Intel MacBook Pro gets pretty warm and the fans are moderately loud. Without any fans, the MacBook Air is completely silent and only slightly warm.
Neutral:
1) Slight cosmetic glitches on the interface tabs (as noted in the release notes.) I didn't even notice them at first.
2) Progress bars appear centered and unmoveable on the screen behind render windows or when using commands/menu items that provide additonal info (progress bars, etc.) A little bit of a bummer, but I've been able to work around this pretty effortlessly. Still would like to see this improved.
Cons:
1) Lack of readily/easily accessible information on doing the content replication from one Mac to the other. This isn't unique to the beta, just a bit of an annoyance. However, I did receive excellent suggestions in this thread that helped with that quite a bit.
2) Not being able to adequately express my gratitude to the entire DAZ team for getting this beta version working and into the hands of us Mac owners. :)
I'll be looking forward to the follow up releases for 4.15.xx.yy that incorporate the needed enhancements for the new macOS and Apple Silicon technologies. This is a great start with a very usable beta. Thanks again to DAZ for this!
Lee
I'm glad it worked reasonably well for you. I wasn't quite sure how it would go, to be honest. I moved a directory from one hard drive to another the other day and all my smart content vanished. Fortunately, DS was able to fix it for me by download it all again, but it makes you panic a bit when things like that happen. I'm really glad my advice didn't break anything.
Hi Lee,
How's the rendering performance? Do you have the M1 with the extra GPU core and 16 GBs? Since Apple ditched nVidia, I have avoided running DAZ on my Macs, due to being forced to CPU render. Have an i9 16" MBP myself, but the 8 GB GPU is uselss for DAZ on this :-(
Rich S.
Thank you and Ruthven again for giving great advice on how to proceed with the content replication on the M1 MacBook Air. I looked at as much info as I could gather before performing the duplication. Except for my missing custom saved scenes, secene presets, etc. in Smart Content all looks to be working and available in DAZ Studio 4.15.0.25/.26. It's easy,though a little less convenient, to get to my saved files using the regular Content Library pane. So not much of a concern there. Would still like to figure out what I missed in that regard during the transfer. That's a question for another day! LOL.
Lee
Today's quick Iray test renders of a very simple scene: Base G3M unclothed, HDRI, 2 ghost lights, floor plane, custom render settings, 967 H x 1251 W render image size resulted in 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
Fortunately for me, I don't typically render complex scenes (mostly face and full body studio style portraiture with little to no additional scenery/props.) Even with CPU-only Iray rendering, the 16" Intel i9 MacBook Pro and even the M1 MacBook Air are more than adequate for my workflow. Also, despite being almost twice as slow as the 16" MBP, the M1 MBA is silent and I can barely tell it's getting warm. I'll be looking forward to getting a more powerful desktop Apple Silicon system when those become available. I picked up the M1 MBA to get my feet wet with Apple Silicon and for casual rendering tasks. With the new DAZ Studio 4.15.0.25 and 4.15.0.26 betas, i now have all of my software usable on Big Sur/Apple Silicon. DAZ Studio was the last holdout. I'm so very happy to have these betas! :)
I hope the timing results are informative, LinkRS.
Lee
Those new Filters that show up in the latest DIM, at least potentially, as they can be downloaded, such as DS 5: Should they be downloaded?
Hi, Inquire!
In DIM (version 1.4.0.80), I'm showing a lot of filters selected. Among them: DAZ Studio 5 and DAZ Studio 4.5+. I've also selected these Release Channel Tags: Public Build, Publishing Build, and Private Build.
I'm not experienced enough to know much more than that. :)
Lee
OK, I selected some of them. Yeah, I'm not sure what the difference is between a Public Build and a Publishing Build. And why would a Private Build be listed? I'm not sure what that is either, but if it is private, then why would a Private Build be available for others to download?
DIM and its settings are the same for everyone. What is actually available for you to download depends on what is in your account. If you don't own any Carrara products, nothing will be available to you if you include Carrara in your download filters. Similarly, the Private Build is only available to you if your account says you can get it.
I'm not entirely sure what the Build types are. It could be that a Public Build includes beta versions, a Publishing Build is for released (non-beta) versions, and a Private Build might be for versions intended for select users/internal DAZ staff/PAs/etc.
That's just a guess. :)
Maybe someone will come along and let us know what the actual answer is.
Lee
*EDIT* I see Fixmypcmike replied while I was posting my reply. Thanks so much for the info, Fixmypcmike!
Public Build is the beta.
Thanks so much, Richard!
Your help is always appreciated. :)
Lee
For a list of all the channels https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/990671/#Comment_990671
Excellent info, Richard!
Thanks again!!
Lee
I just finished an Iray 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