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Houdini Mac user population


kev2

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I'm wondering how many Mac Houdini users there are out there? Wondering if the Mac population isn't big enough to warrant the additional dev?

Between Apple's ongoing beef with Nvidia and SideFX's preference for Window's tools, e.g., Substance, AliceVision..., I'm considering a solo Houdini Linux or Windows box. Anyone else doing this? 

Thoughts?

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If you have to buy a new station, the question doesn't even arise...
Apple has decided to get rid of its professional users.
But I think it's gonna be a while before SideFX will eventually  stop mac dev.

My two cent "ex long time mac user" opinion.

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I started out my computing days with Mac OS 6 if I recall correctly. Had various Mac computers at home up until the G4. At work I used Mac in various places up to an including the garbage can which was a joke of a workstation. I haven't used Houdini on a Mac since the cheese grater days (circa 2012). Given the choice today I'd go with a Windows (or dual boot with Linux) workstation over a Mac. Any Mac option simply isn't cost effective for 3D work anymore. They were somewhat in the cheese grater days but definitely not today.

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27 minutes ago, Mandrake0 said:

Sidefx won't remove MAC build that quick. The only problem with mac is the viewport code / shaders everything else is fine.

Right, I'm not worried about SF dropping support, but they adopt a lot of open source projects (which is great) that often don't support Macs (e.g., AliceVision) and develop new tools (at least Labs) for Mac after Windows (e.g., Substance plug-in). And yeah, the viewport issues are a pain. 

 

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Mac here...technically Hackintosh since I can't afford a $5000 8-core machine!

 

BTW...all of this Mac vs Windows BS will eventually go away when all computing takes place on the cloud and it's completely platform independent. It's coming!

Edited by Midphase
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mac user here!

largely because of moving for work i've just stuck to my macbook pro. i am beginning to consider a compact lightweight box for simming/caching/rendering. or just upgrade my laptop to a latest version as this one is a 2013 model. stuff works very well though no issues here

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what can I say, you've read all the different opinions and advice.
You have to choose between :
a system that you are comfortable with, but that has now become very expensive, turned to the general public, and very unsuitable for the 3D world.
Well… and windows,
linux for a Mac user used to use a "plug&Play" system doesn't seem to be a good idea IMO.

I can understand your dilemma because the mac book pro was a very good machine. But there is some alternative now.

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I used a 2012 MBA (4C@2Ghz/8GB RAM) to learn Houdini for the past few years (mostly SOPs and POPs)...  it was ok.  I had a couple of problems with the OpenGL viewport crashing when H16 first came out, but that was eventually fixed. 

 

P.S. I since moved on to a simple Linux box (8C@3GHz/64GB RAM), a basic build with a ryzen and a potato gpu ended up being cheaper than another MBA/mini (I can't afford the fancier stuff).

Edited by xxyxxy
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