Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

heresiarh · May 5, 2004, 12:26 PM

I own a 15' Al 1ghz pbook with 768mb ram and everything else is stock default. I was wondering if this is a decent machine for doing low-end 3d Modeling work in programs like Cinema 4D, Carrara and Bryce. I know for a fact that Maya doesn't handle that well.

I wish I could own a dual G5 but can't afford it.

heresiarh · May 5, 2004, 05:48 PM

no one has any experience on this?

riotge@r · May 5, 2004, 07:06 PM

Originally posted by heresiarh:
I own a 15' Al 1ghz pbook with 768mb ram and everything else is stock default. I was wondering if this is a decent machine for doing low-end 3d Modeling work in programs like Cinema 4D, Carrara and Bryce. I know for a fact that Maya doesn't handle that well.

I wish I could own a dual G5 but can't afford it.

It really depends on what you mean by decent. Maya 5 is a dog on my Dual 2ghz G5. I still use my PC for 3D modeling.

headbirth · May 5, 2004, 07:21 PM

I've actually done some 3D work for print on my PISMO/400, though it's extremely slow to render it still gets the job done.

heresiarh · May 5, 2004, 07:36 PM

3D work for print is a bit different. I do 2-5 min short animations on my PC without any issues. I personally do not prefer pcs over mac but 3d stuff just seems to lag on the macs. So i was wondering if i should make the jump to a pbook and do my 3D work there. thats all i have for now.

heresiarh · May 5, 2004, 07:38 PM

Now by Maya 5 being a dog on your G5, does that mean good or bad?

riotge@r · May 5, 2004, 07:47 PM

Originally posted by heresiarh:
Now by Maya 5 being a dog on your G5, does that mean good or bad?

That means bad. Alias has pointed out that the performance issue is due to a bug (read poor programming) and not Apple's hardware. Hopefully this will be fixed soon.

heresiarh · May 5, 2004, 07:48 PM

Hmm. So i think i should wait before i make the big jump? the damn software cost quite a bit too. does bryce run fine?

headbirth · May 6, 2004, 04:55 PM

Just heard that Lightwave is being rewritten as a Cocoa app for the Mac ... this could mean big speed improvements!

heresiarh · May 6, 2004, 06:00 PM

lightwave has a weird interface. i hope they make headway with maya.

RooneyX · May 6, 2004, 06:16 PM

Originally posted by heresiarh:
lightwave has a weird interface. i hope they make headway with maya.

It's a weird interface but a very easy to learn app. Maya has powerful features but is a dog to use in comparison.

I don't see how Cocoa will improve Lightwave since it has nothing to do with the render engine and the interface is snappy. Blender is the app that really stinks. The most fidgety and unresponsive interface due to using Open GL instead of Quartz acceleration - no, not the 3D views, I mean the whole interface.

heresiarh · May 6, 2004, 06:18 PM

I consider myself pretty good with Maya, so thats the only 3d application I feel comfortable with. Although Cinema 4D is slowly taking front seat on the Mac.

muchachotron · May 7, 2004, 09:49 AM

do you think that opting for the 128mb vram in the new 15 or 17 inch powerbooks will improve perfromance in 3d apps? i'd imagine at least the opengl models in the production phase would be a bit speedier (is this true?), but i'm hoping that rendering of images/movies would also be faster.

- d

heresiarh · May 7, 2004, 07:13 PM

3D applications use openGL video cards. According to my experience, ive had bad luck with ati cards trying to openGL applications. for that, you should get a pc with a 5900fx ultra by nvidia, or maybe even try some FIREGL cards. that should help. 128vram, hmmm might help, make sure to max out the system ram though.

RooneyX · May 7, 2004, 08:09 PM

Originally posted by muchachotron:
do you think that opting for the 128mb vram in the new 15 or 17 inch powerbooks will improve perfromance in 3d apps? i'd imagine at least the opengl models in the production phase would be a bit speedier (is this true?), but i'm hoping that rendering of images/movies would also be faster.

- d

Texture memory is useful if you use many or large texture maps. Do you? Rendering the final scenes is done on the CPU not the graphics card.

Podolsky · May 7, 2004, 08:35 PM

I recently read about Pixar's 5,000 G5 Macs they are using, I presume for 3D animation but it might have been for restoring old movies. I just had something come up where I need to render a lot 3d scientific data and I am not seeing much at all....

jstein · May 8, 2004, 12:11 PM

Originally posted by heresiarh:
I own a 15' Al 1ghz pbook with 768mb ram and everything else is stock default. I was wondering if this is a decent machine for doing low-end 3d Modeling work in programs like Cinema 4D, Carrara and Bryce. I know for a fact that Maya doesn't handle that well.

I wish I could own a dual G5 but can't afford it.

Hello heresiarh, I have a 15 inch alpb 1.25ghz with 1mb of RAM. Though I am fairly new to 3d modeling I have most of the programs you mention. Bryce runs fine, Cinema 4D runs well, I have Carrara but I have yet use it, but considering that the others work well more than likely it will to. I had a trial for lightwave and it went well. So all in all your basic experience with these programs will leave you more than please.

heresiarh · May 8, 2004, 01:51 PM

Thanks for the info. It helps a lot.

RooneyX · May 8, 2004, 03:19 PM

Originally posted by Podolsky:
I recently read about Pixar's 5,000 G5 Macs they are using, I presume for 3D animation but it might have been for restoring old movies. I just had something come up where I need to render a lot 3d scientific data and I am not seeing much at all....

Pixar doesn't restore old movies as far as I know and it's mostly a manual job. Cleaning the film is manual, digitizing them and color correcting them doesn't require more than a few machines and they nearly always run Linux or Irix. Put back to film is done with a specialist digital to film converter and not a render farm.

heresiarh · May 8, 2004, 06:49 PM

What kind of renderings are you looking for ?