Martin
0
Hi,
I'm truly sorry that the native Apple Silicon and Metal version took so long. Unluckily that was unavoidable due to a myriad of reasons. Nevertheless I think that I've finally reached the point were v8 is better than v7. And that was actually the only goal of v8, to bring Cheetah3D safely on the other side of the river (Apple Silicon and Metal).
While the port to Apple Silicon was quite easy the port from OpenGL to Metal turned out to be a true nightmare. It looks like Apple didn't have developers of 3D animation apps on their radar when they created Metal. So I had to spend a lot of time searching for wired work arounds. My intention to support small-breasted integrated Intel GPUs (which are used in tens of millions of MacMinis and MacBook Airs) didn't make things easier.
This Beta version is not feature complete yet. Especially the shaders are pretty rough and there are also some performance optimisations which I still want to implement.
Due to the massive changes in Cheetah3D this Beta version might be rougher than my usual Beta version. So please take it with care.
New in v8:
-Native support for Macs with Apple Silicon (M1, M2)
-Metal 3D viewport
Unluckily I don't have a detailed change log for this version since the changes were that excessive that I lost oversight in the middle of its development.
The good thing is that I managed to support a pretty wide range of Macs. I'm also pretty happy how small the file size of v8 turned out. So there is no system requirements explosion.
System requirements:
-Intel or Apple Silicon CPU
-Intel, AMD or Apple GPU
-macOS 10.15.7 or better
Who can participate at the Beta test:
You just need a valid Cheetah3D 7.x registration number to use the Cheetah3D 8.0 Public Beta.
Pricing:
I made no decision about the final price of Cheetah3D 8 yet. But if you purchased Cheetah3D 7.x after Jan. 1st 2021 the Upgrade will be for free.
Attention:
THIS IS BETA SOFTWARE. USE THE SOFTWARE AT YOUR OWN RISK AND DON'T USE IT ON ANY IMPORTANT DATA.
You can download the Cheetah3D 8 Public Beta at:
The beta test has been ended. The final Cheetah3D 8 is available.
Please let me know about your experiences.
Kind regards
Martin
P.S. A special thanks goes to Frank who was brave enough to test the extremely rough early Alpha version for over a year. Thank you very much.
I'm truly sorry that the native Apple Silicon and Metal version took so long. Unluckily that was unavoidable due to a myriad of reasons. Nevertheless I think that I've finally reached the point were v8 is better than v7. And that was actually the only goal of v8, to bring Cheetah3D safely on the other side of the river (Apple Silicon and Metal).
While the port to Apple Silicon was quite easy the port from OpenGL to Metal turned out to be a true nightmare. It looks like Apple didn't have developers of 3D animation apps on their radar when they created Metal. So I had to spend a lot of time searching for wired work arounds. My intention to support small-breasted integrated Intel GPUs (which are used in tens of millions of MacMinis and MacBook Airs) didn't make things easier.
This Beta version is not feature complete yet. Especially the shaders are pretty rough and there are also some performance optimisations which I still want to implement.
Due to the massive changes in Cheetah3D this Beta version might be rougher than my usual Beta version. So please take it with care.
New in v8:
-Native support for Macs with Apple Silicon (M1, M2)
-Metal 3D viewport
Unluckily I don't have a detailed change log for this version since the changes were that excessive that I lost oversight in the middle of its development.
The good thing is that I managed to support a pretty wide range of Macs. I'm also pretty happy how small the file size of v8 turned out. So there is no system requirements explosion.
System requirements:
-Intel or Apple Silicon CPU
-Intel, AMD or Apple GPU
-macOS 10.15.7 or better
Who can participate at the Beta test:
You just need a valid Cheetah3D 7.x registration number to use the Cheetah3D 8.0 Public Beta.
Pricing:
I made no decision about the final price of Cheetah3D 8 yet. But if you purchased Cheetah3D 7.x after Jan. 1st 2021 the Upgrade will be for free.
Attention:
THIS IS BETA SOFTWARE. USE THE SOFTWARE AT YOUR OWN RISK AND DON'T USE IT ON ANY IMPORTANT DATA.
You can download the Cheetah3D 8 Public Beta at:
The beta test has been ended. The final Cheetah3D 8 is available.
Please let me know about your experiences.
Kind regards
Martin
P.S. A special thanks goes to Frank who was brave enough to test the extremely rough early Alpha version for over a year. Thank you very much.
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