Hardware Setup with MacBook Pro as Master

[Vojtech]

Hello everyone,

I'm a long-time Mac user and I am trying to find the most effective way to render mid-size/large architecural exterior and interior scenes while using MacBook Pro 16" as a master machine.

I am aware of limitations and disproportional costs of Apple hardware for rendering, but I can't leave the workflow of macOS. Therefore I started to think of building a PC, which would serve as a slave while MacBook being the master.

I believe it must be a pretty common setup for many people and I would like to ask those, how does it work for you and what it all entails in terms of hardware evtl. software. Are there any limitations (such as interactive rendering) or does everything work smoothly and I won't even notice that the task is being processed by a PC under the desk? And is it possible to build a reasonable setup under 2000€ (excl. MacBook Pro, of course)?

Thanks a lot in advance for your inputs and wish you a nice day.

[TomG]

I am not sure what you intend for the setup, e.g. you ask about interactive rendering. IR can only ever be done locally, not on some remote machine, so was wondering if you were thinking of running the 3D Software (e.g. C4D) on the remote machine and using some remote desktop connection from the Mac to model, render, etc.? Or do you mean to run C4D on the Mac and have the remote PC help with rendering (that is, Team Render, in C4D)?

So as mentioned, IR can only run on the local machine, so in case 2, the PC will contribute nothing to IR. It can contribute for final renders by using Team Render, and you could have either the Mac and the PC rendering, or just the PC. As a note if you are a new Corona user, you will need to purchase a Render Node license along with your main Corona license for that to be possible.

[Vojtech]

Thank you for your answer, Tom. My intention was the case number two: running C4D on Mac while PC would help with rendering.

I use IR quite a lot to refine material settings and my question was aimed exactly at such obstacles. That's a pity, I was not aware of that.

[davetwo]

I used to use that workflow, but sometimes I found TR was a bit finickity. The (non-wired) connection between machines wasn't always robust.

Now I use the mac as my main machine for initial setup/modelling/sculpting or anyhing that requires lots of keyboard interaction. But after that I copy the whole file over to the PC for IR sessions and to setup lighting/texturing and of course final rendering. (The Photoshop/post work is done on the Mac.)

Its not as streamlined as it could be - but works for me.

[BigAl3D]

I also feel your pain being a very long-time Mac user. Frustrating that we've fallen behind, especially with the limitations in the GPU area. I keep hoping these new ARM chips will live up to their potential, but it don't think they are "there" yet. Plus, the issue with Corona not using all the cores to their potential. Not sure if that's on Apple or Chaos at this point.

I will say that the IR has become much more stable and usable for us Mac folk if you have a decently strong CPU. I'm running an older iMac Pro and and it work okay. I'm not pushing any massive scenes around, but some are large. The Interactive Viewport is my favorite, but it still crashes too much. It is great to be able to click objects in a rendered view and adjust.