Sorry to interrupt this broadcast… Announcing RN update is out, this time introducing UI localization for the following languages: EN, DE, ES, PL and CN (both), plus awaited R8 support - also it’s expected to run on .NET Core, though, it’s always safe to stick to .NET Framework if possible.
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Hi I am also interested in a Mac version 
any news on ETA?
Hi @ohlers, well actually, you can use RN via Parallels - according to some users it’s working flawlessly.
However, since the availability of rendering engines for Rhino on Mac is very poor, there are no plans at this time - that doesn’t mean never. AFAIK due to lack of C++ SDK, there’s still no V-Ray for Rhino MAC.
A major thing to understand is that the real deal of RN is it’s ultimate flexibility that no other tool provides in scattering matter and that it does all the job without being noticed, not impacting much your model as it is, and instead of bloating your 3dm file with tons of geometry, it passes the baton directly to the render engine. So, the right time for this hasn’t come yet—no one will take the baton (even if some would try, they won’t be able to carry it). I hope my explanation creates a clear picture of this situation.
*Sorry for wall of text but I just wanted to point out that it’s not the library that makes RN interesting as you can feed RN literally with everything that fits into Rhino Block - or with a few additional steps, absolutely anything you can think of using GH integration.
I did have a formal request for Rhino Nature. I know in theory how to do it (altitude), but I don’t really know how to have well-packed 3D distributed objects
In the Rhino nature YouTube video, it shows various objects (bread rolls) being packed into a basket, but I have no idea how to reproduce this packing with minimum object overlap/intersection.
Can you please make this a tutorial demonstration?
Hi @David53, sure thing. I’m (finally) preparing a basic tutorial series. Now I also have enough courage to be honest with everyone that many things were put on hold due to my chronic health issues, but fortunately, I’m back on track for good now.
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cycles is very good, if you dont need any fancy pants caustics volumetric lighting which really is just for very special cases (ok for those working with glass this would be rather the standard). and if you need these we have bella which is an extraordinary renderer for both platforms.
i am not quite seeing the relation to rhino nature here, does developing a mac version solely depend on vray being published for mac?
that will likely never ever happen, everybody waits for this C++SDK for years and years and did i say years? it seems almost they are using this as a cozy justification not to.
I agree, but the only way to bridge RN to it on Win was on my effort in quasi “invisible” baking solution which is very limited, as there was no way to push objects to Cycles through a “back pipe” - please don’t let me start this topic again and again and again this was raised enough to realise that won’t happen, at least at the moment where it stopped last time.
After mentioning the lack of “back pipe”, instead of waiting for
I’ve taken “external” route to provide my own “back pipe” (bridge) open source solution written with C++ (hats off to @Nikolay), which is implemented in V-Ray, Octane and Thea, Epic kindly discussed with me details of integration and we found that best way is to hook to existing file and inject data (worth to mention Twinmotion which isn’t capable of operate with HISMs) - seems its time to be honest, Enscape guys didn’t wanted to coop at all, Maxwell haven’t even responded as many others. Plus, IIRC Lands even made use of it (but I might be wrong here).
Regarding Bella - yup sure Bella is cool and @jdhill knows where to find me - I even visited discord to say hi and remind about RN but seems there are more important things to do (please don’t misunderstand me, I don’t blame anyone here).
Regarding Cycles, I can just politely ask @nathanletwory if there’s anything new on this topic where I could kick in and make things better.
Besides all the above, through all that time since release, I can count inquiries about Mac version on the fingers, which should be enough explanatory.
Nothing new. It is best to keep in contact about this with @andy wrt custom render meshes and other ways to add extra data into what Cycles receives from Rhino.
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i understand that the windows users are more present here, but McNeel will probably give me right when i say that the licences for mac are ever growing in proportion, i believe it is at a third already. i believe it was a year ago or so. traditionally the mac users are rather under-represented on discourse, only a very small amount of active users are here, that does not mean that they are not interested, but most of them probably dont even know or simply accept the given (not given in that case).
i would not estimate the need for such a plugin for mac users from this topic only by all means.
I’m not basing my estimation solely on this topic or forum, but rather on various sources. Additionally, I do not(!) underestimate the needs of Mac users, and I’m not saying it won’t happen - I’ve always thought it would. I’m just trying to explain that the timing isn’t right yet.
Certainly the direct renderer integration is very important. When you use Rhino Nature in combination with bella, the results are really something. I have been so impressed with it.
The big HOWEVER, is of course that you need to bake the meshes at the moment, which is a massive problem. I understand that a successful part of RN is clearly the clean integration with other renderers. I’ve ended up in a right mess with bella when I have forgotten what is and is not baked, and the non-intuitive viewport behaviour. Obviosuly, this all goes away with Cycles for the most part.
I think a nice general update for RN would be perhaps easier closed volume filling. The Nature part is really excellent, and the altitude functions work generally without flaw. However, sometimes it is missing generic presets that would allow for good “first guess” volume or area filling.