RENDERMAN for OSX...Why isn't their one?

[ThE OutsiDer]

There is one for NT, Linux and Irix but none for OS 10.
Why considering Steve owns Pixar and Pixar owns Renderman and Steve is iCEO of Apple.

[serpicolugnut]

OS X is still less than a year old. Relax, it will happen. With Lightwave, Maya, EI Universe and other high end 3D packages available for OS X, it's gonna happen. It should be a relatively easy port to do considering OS X's UNIX underpinnings...

[RacerX]

There was a RenderMan for NeXT systems at one point, but you have to remember that as a workstation OS, what was OPENSTEP 4.2 (last sold by Apple in 1997) and has now become Mac OS X (released in 2001) was not an option for anyone to use for quite some time. The move to NT followed Alias|Wavefront's (SGI's) move of Maya to NT (the success of SGI's Windows/Intel based systems can be seen by their lack of ANY SGI produced Windows systems today).

As for the involvement of Jobs in all this, he has always run his companies in their own best interest. If supporting Apple hardware/software is in Pixar's best interest then they would release such a version. With Maya being released (and a free demo/education version available), RenderMan is starting to look like a good fit for the Mac.

We should remember that both Maya and RenderMan are several thousand dollars a piece, and that the platform of choice for these is still going to be Irix. No one else can produce the marriage of OpenGL (formerly IrisGL) with hardware support like SGI can. (This was the reason that Geoview was never ported to Windows but there was a NeXT and SGI version, that and PCs weren't consider real computers at the Geometry Center during the mid 90's. )

[ulrik]

Hopfully, SoftImage will be ported...

[serpicolugnut]

I wish Apple would just buy SGI already. They are a perfect fit for one another, and would help Apple tremendously.

[RacerX]

QuickTime, FireWire, OpenGL and Maya all under the same roof!

[dlookus]

Apple shouldn't buy SGI. They should just buy Alias|Wavefront. I think SGI spun them off. They wouldn't have much to gain buying the hardware division.

[ulrik]

They would fit together, if you ask me. Though it will never happen. But Alias|Wavefront and Apple share the same attitude. Both are brave enough to "think different" in a business world where thinking different could mean you're going bankrupt, and both are kinda successful with it.