Help with external GPU for macintosh

Richard Haseltine

Gordig said:

Iray doesn't require a GPU, a (compatible) GPU just makes the renders faster. Rendering on CPU doesn't even impact the quality of the render. 

Noise reduction and the new method for estimating render completion do require a GPU, but everythihg else works on the CPU.

barrieM

What is the difference between Nvidia iRay render in view port and render from the render settings tab? I consistantly get a good render in the viewport and an immediate crash with the render button.

I have a log of the two renders. It is 15 pages (~3 minutes) long and may hold a clue. I guess I should open a ticket and get Daz involved. 

barrieM

Is this the cause of the crash?  

dzneuraymgr.cpp(359): Iray [WARNING] - IRAY:RENDER ::   1.1   IRAY
rend warn : CUDA module initialization failed with error 'CUDA driver
version is insufficient for CUDA runtime version' (0x23); iray
photoreal can only run in CPU mode. Please update your NVIDIA driver
(www.nvidia.com).
2022-02-11 20:51:05.346 Iray [INFO] - IRAY:RENDER ::   1.1   IRAY
rend info : Using iray plugin version 5.1, build 334300.9558 n, 27 Mar
2021, macosx-x86-64-clang900.
2022-02-11 20:51:05.346 WARNING: /src/pluginsource/DzIrayRender/
dzneuraymgr.cpp(359): Iray [WARNING] - IRAY:RENDER ::   1.1   IRAY
rend warn : There is no CUDA-capable GPU available to the iray
photoreal renderer.

AgitatedRiot

Did you by chance still have the Iray render draw on when you try and render?

barrieM

Thanks for the suggestion. No I set it to texture.

bytescapes

Hey, @barrieM, I don't believe that those messages are the cause of the crash. You'll notice that they are marked as '[WARNING]', which in software development is usually shorthand for "Something not-so-great happened but I'm OK to carry on anyway." As opposed to '[ERROR]', which means "Oh crap, we're screwed, I'm getting out before anything worse happens."

What those particular messages are saying is that the renderer isn't able to find an Nvidia card that it can use, so it's going to do the render in CPU mode. That's exactly what it should do: your 2018 MacMini has an Intel integrated graphics card, and no Nvidia card.

CUDA is Nvidia's programming platform: when DAZ Studio does a render, it talks to the CUDA interface, and CUDA turns the instructions that Studio gives it into low-level code that runs (very fast) on the GPU. I'm honestly not quite sure what to make of that first warning line. I'd expect there not to be a CUDA driver at all on your system, but what it seems to be saying is "There's a CUDA driver, but it's old as dirt, so I'm not going to use it." Overall, though, what those lines are telling us is "It's not possible to do a GPU render, so we're going to do it on the CPU instead." This is exactly what ought to happen, which is why I think those warning messages aren't anything to worry about.

"Please update your driver" is a red herring: there are no Nvidia drivers available for recent versions of the Mac OS (because Nvidia and Apple are no longer BFFs, and have both taken their ball and gone home in a huff). So you couldn't even if you wanted to.

The short answer is that I don't believe those three lines are a problem. It looks to me as if DAZ Studio is doing what it should do at that point. On the other hand, your render is still crashing, which is Not Good, and Not What is Supposed to Happen.

As far as I know DAZ Studio 4.16 is supposed to be compatible with recent versions of MacOS. I can't swear to that, because I haven't run Studio on my Mac since I upgraded from Catalina, and all my attempts to install the new version are failing (DIM just says "Install Failed" and won't tell me any more than that).

My advice would be to start with the very simplest scene you can -- literally just Victoria 8 and nothing else. Try to render that. If that works, work your way toward more complex scenes. Sometimes one specific piece of content can break a render. If it doesn't work, open a ticket with DAZ Support and see if they can help you. Make sure to send them the entire log, both the DAZ Studio log and the Crash Reporter log. They know the insides of DAZ Studio much better than I do, and may be able to pinpoint the issue for you.

barrieM

Thank you @bytescapes for your explanation which saved me lots of time searching for non existant software updates. The bottom 3 lines were actually the bottom lines of the log. I assumed Daz didn't see the axe and didn't get a chance to say who was the killer. I thought the warnings were about the oncoming slaughter. Anyway, I looked for the GeForce driver extension in my mac and found it was installed but not loaded. Do you think this is worth another session with Apple?

barrieM

SORRY..They were not the last 3 lines of the log. 

 

bytescapes

barrieM said:

 I looked for the GeForce driver extension in my mac and found it was installed but not loaded. Do you think this is worth another session with Apple?

You could give it a try, but my suspicion is that their reaction is likely to be either "I have no idea what that is" or, if you get someone a little better informed, "Sorry, we don't support that any more."

In any case, I don't think your issue is the GeForce driver. If I recall correctly, you either don't have an Nvidia card in your system, or it has very limited VRAM. This means that even if you could get a GeForce driver loaded, it won't change your render speed. And I don't think the absence of the driver is what's causing crashes when you try to render.

For the record, I finally got DAZ Studio 4.16 installed on my Mac (and that was a journey, let me tell you). It's an Intel Mac (a 2019 MacBook Pro with an i9) running OS X Monterey, and DAZ Studio 4.16 works just fine on it, including Iray renders. It uses the CPU for rendering, of course -- the onboard graphics is an AMD Radeon, not an Nvidia GPU -- but it renders successfully without crashing.

Obviously, it's not the same type of machine as yours and is running a slightly different OS. But I think this proves that Intel Mac + modern version of MacOS + DAZ Studio is a workable combination.

Which doesn't get us much closer to figure out why DAZ Studio is crashing when you try to render. It ought to work ... but apparently it doesn't.

At this point I'd suggest opening a ticket with DAZ Support (if you haven't already). Remember to include as much information as possible, including the Crash Reporter logs and the DAZ Studio log. If you can reproduce the crash on the simplest possible scene (say, a naked and hairless Victoria 8, or even just a primitive sphere) then that would help rule out the possibility that some specific piece of content is blowing up the renderer.

barrieM

@bytescapes Thankyou for the above information and suggestions. I did open a ticket with Daz last weekend. They got back to me yesterday for more info so I'm hoping I will get a verdict soon. If it is negative I will go to Apple support. I used them twice in the past two weeks. I was amazed how efficient they were. Responded within minutes of my request and talked over the phone while they watched the screen and directed my navigation. Although I am frustrated as hell I remain optimistic that Daz or Apple will resolve the problem. There is a DS user (Mistycomic) who has a MacMini that is the same as mine with no render problems so there is good reason to anticipate a cure. 

barrieM

At long last, problem solved! 

After long sessions with Apple Care, Daz tech and various forums I did a clean install of Monterey on my 2018 MiniMac. Installed DS4.20 with IM and all is well.  However, my 2013 iMac still did not render. Instead of doing a clean instal on my iMac, I tried downloading DS 4.20 with IM and it cured the problem. In the past I have always used Daz Connect for installation. I really loved that app but unfortunately it now creates very serious problems.......... Or does DS create problems for DazCentral? ......Hmmm! See Jay Versluis article about DazCentral: https://www.versluis.com/2020/06/daz-central/