Hello, Ive got a bit of a weird one. So on my PC ive two user accounts, my personal one and one for work where I do tutorials.
The issue im having is that Rhino runs perfectly fine on my personal user account, but the other local user account it wont start because it fails to load rhino cycles. Ive seen other people have similiar issues on the forum and followed the steps but to no avail.
The steps ive done:
Complete uninstall of Rhino and reinstall.
Update windows to latest version.
Update GPU drivers to latest version.
Uninstalled plugins - grasshopper gold.
Doing all this leads to the same outcome, it works on the main user account but not the 2nd local user account.
Below is the systeminfo:
Rhino 8 SR21 2025-7-7 (Rhino 8, 8.21.25188.17001, Git hash:master @ 2e05bb7e11ec03aa58cc543d92330d59df05d32b)
License type: Commercial, build 2025-07-07
License details: Cloud Zoo
Windows 11 (10.0.26100 SR0.0) or greater (Physical RAM: 32GB)
.NET 8.0.14
Computer platform: DESKTOP
Standard graphics configuration.
Primary display and OpenGL: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 (NVidia) Memory: 8GB, Driver date: 8-7-2025 (M-D-Y). OpenGL Ver: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 580.97
> Accelerated graphics device with 4 adapter port(s)
- Windows Main Display attached to adapter port #0
- Secondary monitor attached to adapter port #1
OpenGL Settings
Safe mode: Off
Use accelerated hardware modes: On
GPU Tessellation is: On
Redraw scene when viewports are exposed: On
Graphics level being used: OpenGL 4.6 (primary GPU’s maximum)
Anti-alias mode: 4x
Mip Map Filtering: Linear
Anisotropic Filtering Mode: High
Vendor Name: NVIDIA Corporation
Render version: 4.6
Shading Language: 4.60 NVIDIA
Driver Date: 8-7-2025
Driver Version: 32.0.15.8097
Maximum Texture size: 32768 x 32768
Z-Buffer depth: 24 bits
Maximum Viewport size: 32768 x 32768
Total Video Memory: 8 GB
Rhino plugins that do not ship with Rhino
C:\\Users\\Luke\\AppData\\Roaming\\McNeel\\Rhinoceros\\packages\\8.0\\keyshot_studio\\1.8.1\\KeyShotStudioRhino8Plugin.rhp “KeyShotStudioRhinoPlugin” 1.0.0.0
Rhino plugins that ship with Rhino
C:\\Program Files\\Rhino 8\\Plug-ins\\Commands.rhp “Commands” 8.21.25188.17001
C:\\Program Files\\Rhino 8\\Plug-ins\\rdk.rhp “Renderer Development Kit”
C:\\Program Files\\Rhino 8\\Plug-ins\\RhinoRenderCycles.rhp “Rhino Render” 8.21.25188.17001
C:\\Program Files\\Rhino 8\\Plug-ins\\rdk_etoui.rhp “RDK_EtoUI” 8.21.25188.17001
C:\\Program Files\\Rhino 8\\Plug-ins\\NamedSnapshots.rhp “Snapshots”
C:\\Program Files\\Rhino 8\\Plug-ins\\MeshCommands.rhp “MeshCommands” 8.21.25188.17001
C:\\Program Files\\Rhino 8\\Plug-ins\\RhinoCycles.rhp “RhinoCycles” 8.21.25188.17001
C:\\Program Files\\Rhino 8\\Plug-ins\\Toolbars\\Toolbars.rhp “Toolbars” 8.21.25188.17001
C:\\Program Files\\Rhino 8\\Plug-ins\\3dxrhino.rhp “3Dconnexion 3D Mouse”
C:\\Program Files\\Rhino 8\\Plug-ins\\Displacement.rhp “Displacement”
C:\\Program Files\\Rhino 8\\Plug-ins\\SectionTools.rhp “SectionTools”
The weird thing is it did work for a while and then decided not to. I just cant seem to figure out why it runs on one account and not the other.
Hi @theoutside and all you other McNeel’ies and users
I just had the same thing happen to me - luckily I’d read this very post earlier today. My predicament came about after a Rhino crash (or rather: lock up, as the whole computer froze and had to be rebooted the hard way). In itself a rarity, but after the restart, my Rhino 8 displayed the splash screen and would then just vanished into thin air. It would appear for a brief moment in the task manager and then just go “poof” and be gone - even after a Rhino repair and subsequent restart. Came to think that it might be related to this post (and those of similar type), and happy that it worked! My redistributable versions are slightly never, but it worked nonetheless.
thanks, definitely did something, Rhino now opens. Still get the cant load cycles plugin error, and when rhino opens i get this screen. then when I try to load tool bars it crashes.
ok, now that Rhino is open, in rhino, go to window>window layouts>default window layout
if that does not fix it run reset in rhino.
if cycles continues to fail to load, go to add remove programs in windows explorer, and find rhino, then choose modify>repair and run a repair on Rhino.
unfortunately we are back to square one again. Thanks for your help with all this, I’m just going to have to use the software on my other PC user account as its working fine there.
I talked to someone through chat support and they said it’s because my GPU only has 2gb of vm. What really doesn’t make sense to me is how did this computer run Rhino perfectly fine for the last 6 years and then within the past couple of months decide that 2gb wasn’t enough? As far as I know the only things that have changed are windows updates.
hmmm. that does not match the symptoms you are describing.
sure 2gb of vram is not enough so you are not running a system that meets our spec, but cycles not loading is a symptom of the runtimes being screwed up.
do this… repair the runtimes again, then restart, then repair Rhino, then restart-
any luck?
if not call tech and ask for Kyle - I’m on phones monday and tuesday next week from 8-5 pst
206-545-6877
I’ve already tried this multiple times. But if you’re saying it’s probably the runtimes, I’ll just reinstall all visual C++ redistributable runtimes and see if that does something. I’ve also noticed that task manager isn’t working correctly either, so it’s not just a Rhino issue.
I went through a bit of diagnostics and got it working. I found the issue was something called Optimus which uses both integrated and dedicated graphics for better battery life or something. Once that was disabled everything worked. It’s still weird that it only started causing issues recently though, must have been a windows update screwing with things.
I’m just happy to get back to Rhino with my ancient laptop. I have a question though, what exactly does cycles do? Is it only for rendering or does it work when displaying graphics in the viewports? I only ask because I disabled it manually from the plugin folder and didn’t really notice anything change.
It’s not only for rendering, there is a “raytraced” display mode which uses cycles.
Outside of that if you don’t use raytraced display mode or do renderings it doesn’t effect the viewports. Also there is a setting for rendering to use legacy Rhino rendering which I think what the rendering display mode is built from though updated.
