Rayscaper - Looking for Mac testers

Extensions
1

Hey folks,

I’m looking for some brave people to help me test Raycaper for Mac. I have a Mac version working, but I’m not a full-time Mac user, so I’m looking for some people to do some sanity testing to make sure I’m not releasing something buggy in the world.

Cheers,
Thomas

1 Like
2

I’d be interested. Steve

3

I’ll give it a go.

4

Me too.

5

And me.

6

I would love to test it. It’s exactly what I need.

7

:raising_hand_man:t2:

8

Excellent, thanks for your interest!

Here is the first test build: Rayscaper 0.9.6 Beta for Mac.

The minimum system requirements:

  • SketchUp version 2021 or higher.
  • MacOS 11.7 (Big Sur) or higher.
  • Apple Silicon M1, or higher. Mac with Intel CPU is not supported.
  • Minimum of 4GB RAM.

Don’t forget to install the SketchUcation tools (it’s free). That’s a pre-requisite for running Rayscaper because we are running their licensing system: Plugin Store Download | SketchUcation

Can someone install this extension via the extension manager and confirm it works? I.e., the Rayscaper toolbar appears, and you can render something.

Note: with this build, AI denoising does not work yet.

Cheers,
Thomas

9

Well, that rules out both my Mac computers. Both use Intel cpus.

10

Hey John, sorry to hear that. We don’t have the bandwidth to support Intel right now, nor do I have access to a Mac with Intel CPU.

1 Like
11

Thanks for your quick response - maybe in a later release?

12

Yeah, I’m not saying no flat out; we can try to support that later on.

13

I’m also out of luck. Intel Mac. Rats!

14

That’s unfortunate but also expected. I won’t be able to test until my employer upgrades me to the M3 later this year. I’ll keep an eye on progress via this forum. Good luck and thanks!

15

In a few years all intel macs won’t be supported by apple anymore, the same happened with PowerPC CPUs, I don’t think it’s worth it to develop for a platform that has no future. Sorry for the people who owns just an intel mac I also have a 2013 MacBook Pro that I love cause it served me well for a lot of years and it still works perfectly, but there’s no comparison with my M1 Max MacBook, the power and efficiency is on another level, even the cheapest m1 Mac mini outperforms a 2018 iMac Pro that costs $10000.

16

They eventually stop supporting ANY Mac of any chipset after a certain number of years. Happens with every computer.

Apple was selling intel MacBooks as recently as 2021 while still introducing their M1. It’ll be quite awhile until it’s officially unsupported. Eventually of course but as of now they are 100% and will be for a a couple more years at the very least.

17

I have the extension installed, and it shows in the left side of the SketchUcation Plugins Manager window. I can’t find the Rayscaper tools in any of the menus.

18

Any error messages in the ruby console when loading the extension?

Rayscaper, generates a log file:

  • SUEX_Rayscaper_SetDllDirectory.log: You can find this file in your home directory (e.g. /Users/thomas). Do you mind sharing this?
19

But the architecture of the CPUs will be the same, arm, when m1 loses support the architecture of the future CPUs will be the same while intel, x86, is a different architecture and developing something for an architecture that on Mac has no future, makes no sense to me, but it’s up to the developers, they should evaluate if it’s worth it or not.

Also looks like Microsoft is trying to get fully into the ARM architecture btw.

1 Like
20

Sure. Totally understand. Been using their machines for decades. But it still stands that Apple supports their computers fully for at least 5 years, and they are finally obsolete or unsupported at 7. The Intel Macs will be supported for years still, by Apple. Cheers!