Cinema4D + Octane Problem  

While it should work fine with Cinema4D in limited scenarios, Otoy has some work to do in making Octane stable for Mac. It's really a PC-centric platform that they added Mac support to late in the game with v3.x. Version 4 beta is out now (and v4 in general will be free depending on how you set it up) but I don't believe it's working on Mac yet and v3.x is very unstable from those I've spoken to.

That said I think they're dedicated to setting up a Metal-based workflow for Octane Mac. That will probably also include eGPU support. But it may be a while. They're notorious for announcing something and having it show up a year+ later.

Hopefully they improve their game Mac game. Once goalque's NVIDIA EFI solution rolls out for 10.14 this is a new area that many Mac creatives will want. Octane is hugely popular for a reason and v4 / the versions of 4.x that will show up in 2019 are seriously impressive as a technical achievement

Thanks for your reply. I've tried running 3.08 and 3.07. I'm in an position where i'll need to share files with another animator who uses C4D + Octane on a PC. I'm hoping to find a successful, established configuration that's stable? Or know if I'm chasing my tail.

@wpratt, have you checked the OctaneBench ( https://render.otoy.com/octanebench/)? Is it crashing as well?
Could you post the crash report?

@devild  I had not tried that yet. But just gave it a run and it crashed in the same place, right after the octane splashscreen. Thanks for the suggestion. Im not running it to a second monitor or running  Ghost adapter, do you think that could be causing the crash? i have an adapter on order.

@wpratt, I've been running an eGPU+C4D+Octane combo successfully for quite a while now.

Do you have a monitor plugged into the eGPU or is it simply used for rendering? i.e. you're only using your iMac display.

@imcalledandy Hey! Thats great to hear. Im running an LG superfine as a second monitor, but not out of the eGPU.

Ok @wpratt. I usually have 2 x eGPUs connected to my 2013 Mac Pro / 2017 Mac Book Pro, so I'm not in the exact same situation as you.

You've run the latest version of macos-egpu? Did you manually update the NVIDIA drivers at all? The script is designed to use the best pairing for your system.

@wpratt - looking at my specs I'm using an older version of C4D (19.053 RB224935) and my GPU Driver version is: 378.10.10.10.25.106 - but I've not had the panics you describe...

Another thing to check: in your c4doctane folder make sure you only have c4dOctane_R19.dylib - you don't need the older versions in there.

Interesting. I had to update C4D to R19.068 for it to recognize version 3.08 octane.  What version of octane are you running? I also notice youre running OSX 10.13.3 + 4? Im running 10.13.6. I may try to back everything down to your versioning and see if that works. I really appreciate your replies.

Posted by: imcalledandy

@wpratt, I've been running an eGPU+C4D+Octane combo successfully for quite a while now.

Do you have a monitor plugged into the eGPU or is it simply used for rendering? i.e. you're only using your iMac display.

Interesting. Two questions:

1. Do I understand correctly you have 2x AKiTiO Nodes with a 1080Ti each connected to a 2017 MBP? Presumably one to each side of the computer, but from there is only one of them connected to a display but the Apps see / use both anyway?
2. Any attempts or successes yet running with R20, with one eGPU or two?

Success! After a little troubleshooting, I realized my card wasn't getting enough power. There were two 8-pin plugs on the card that both needed to be powered. I assume it was getting enough power for the script to recognize it was an Nvidia card and installing those drivers. Just to be safe, after i realized the power issue, i uninstalled the script, then reinstalled. That did the trick. I'm running octane successfully with the following specs/versions:

eGPU: Mantiz Venus MZ-02 enclosure / GeForce GTX 1080-ti STRIX. / Belkin TB3
Machine: 2017 iMacPro on 10.13.6 (17G65)
Nvidia WebDriver: 387.10.10.10.40.105
CUDA: 396.148
Cinema4d: R19.068(Build RB245443)
Octane: 3.08

Octane Benchmark 3.06.2:

Thanks so much for everyone's help!

Cool. Do you plan to upgrade to 10.14 and R20? If so it would be good to hear how it worked (or not).

@chippy-mcchipset I think i'll be holding off on 10.14 for a while. Everything seems to be pretty stable right now, and i don't see any need to upgrade currently.  I'm holding off on R20 right now for x-particles support, but plan on upgrading when that happens.  I'll definitely report back when I do. Thanks for your help.

If you're in the early release program they just released a version with some feature improvements and bug fixes and the R20 bridge. Official version Nov 1.

Hi @wpratt,

Have there been any updates on your setup? 
I’m trying to connect iMac Pro (mojave) with Core X eGPU Nvidia card also and looks like my mac doesnt even recognize the eGPU connection at all. Wondering if its due to mojave...is there a good documentation you would recommend after successfully making this work?

Thank you

@vbahatyrevich That's correct, the script (macOS-eGPU ) only works up to OSX 10.13.6 (17G65) . You wont be able to run it on Mojave. I'm currently running 10.13.6 (17G65) and even a security update will prevent the script from working, I recently found out.

Whoops! That's unfortunate. Thank you for the heads up @wpratt! Will have to start by downgrading now haha