What you need to know
- Redshift is available now on Intel-based Macs, with support for M1 Macs coming with macOS Big Sur 11.3.
- One developer is seeing an increase in rendering speeds as high as 26X on M1 Macs.
Redshift, the award-winning renderer, is now available on macOS for the first time.
Maxon, the company behind the software, announced that not only would the software be available on macOS but that it will feature native support for M1 Macs as well.
Today, Maxon announced the immediate availability of Redshift for macOS including support for M1-powered Macs as well as Apple's Metal Graphics API. Redshift, the award-winning, production-ready renderer, offers a rich feature set including ray switches, flexible shading networks, motion blur, AOVs, deep output, layered EXR and much more. Unlike other GPU renderers, Redshift is a biased renderer that enables artists to adjust the quality of individual techniques in order to get the best performance/quality balance for production. As a Universal solution, Redshift is optimized for high-end performance across both M1- and Intel-powered Macs.Redshift for macOS signifies a milestone, bringing cutting-edge cinematic rendering to Mac artists. And native support for M1-powered Macs means substantial efficiency improvements to workflows, since the integrated graphics in M1 provide a huge increase in graphics performance combined with low power consumption.
Maxon CEO David McGavran says that the company has been planning to bring the software to the Mac since 2019.
"When Redshift joined the Maxon family in 2019, extending support to our user community on the Mac platform was a top priority ... So we're thrilled that creatives working in macOS environments can now take advantage of this powerful and flexible GPU-accelerated renderer built to meet the specific demands of contemporary high-end production."
James Rodgers, Director at UK-based Lunar Animation, says that they are seeing performance increases as high as 26X when using M1 Macs.
"We're seeing some crazy results when rendering with Redshift on Mac Pro. A typical frame from the very effects heavy game cinematic we created for Mythic Legends, an action-packed strategy mobile game by Outfit7, previously took 26 minutes to render per frame. Now it's rendering in only 58 seconds!"
The company says that Redshift will be available immediately for Intel-based Macs and that support for M1 Macs will be made available when Apple releases the macOS Big Sur 11.3 update.
