Is there any difference in final output for Twin Motion and Unreal if you are using an RTX GPU vs Mac M1 Silicone GPU.
Is Path tracing more for use while using the program or playing games or does it enhance the final output.
We use Archicad and Twin Motion currently.
Looking to go further into Unreal Engine.
Need to update work computers. Currently use Apple.
Is there such a thing as paying for outsourced ray traced renders?
I have heard of an RTX subscription to NVIDIA. Not sure if this is true.
I got the impression also that PCs or Macs will perform a certain amount of ray tracing dependant on the hardware available. Eg An Apple computer might ray trace final output eg 52%. An RTX system might do a bit more as it has RT cores on the GPU.
Is this true? As Twin Motion is so speedy maybe it will do this to maintain speed.
Hence you may be able to pay for 100% ray traced output through a subscription as above.
I have no idea if there is any merit to this. I have scanned so many sites looking for answers to the RTX vs Mac Silicone queries above.
Thank you for contacting us and posting in the community your questions.
The main difference when using and RTX GPU versus a Mac M1 is that the Path Tracer won't be available for Macs and VR will not work on Mac without special setups. We also have not yet made Twinmotion or the Datasmith Exporter plugins compatible with M1. We are working on making M1 compatible so you can use the software without any issues and should be coming later in the year.
In order to best understand the reason why Path Tracer is not available for Mac please refer to this article:
The export process for the default Raster Engine should be identical for both Mac and PC and any compatible video card. I am not familiar with all the benchmarks comparing PC and Mac export times but the quality output should be the same. Here are the full system requirements for reference: https://twinmotionhelp.epicgames.com/s/article/TwinMotion-System-Requirements
The Path Tracer is a rendering process that gives much better shadows and reflections making the images more realistic. It also is much slower than the Raster Engine and requires more patience when making animation since the export times will be much longer. Thus it's not a true Real-Time rendering engine and not available for VR mode. It is good for exporting at higher quality but with a significant speed impact to consider. Here is a link to the overview video: https://youtu.be/XlFQ2HbiGvY
If you plan to use Twinmotion and Unreal Engine we have a TM to UE plugin and you can use the Datasmith Exporter plugin from Archicad to import into Twinmotion or Unreal Engine.
There are some online companies that offer a way to rent hardware, so you can run Twinmotion on it and use Path Tracer for exporting those necessary medias. There could be others but this is one that some Twinmotion users have mentioned they were using. LINK
Hope this helps and let me know if you have any follow-up questions.
I hope one solution is that to not have a path tracer in the next release but the hybrid style solution that is Lumen in UE5. I think that would be much faster results for similar quality to path tracer but also M1 compatible?
Thanks for the super speedy answers. Much appreciated.
Apologies for my late reply.
I currently use an Intel MacBook for work. Archicad to Twin Motion and its great.
It is getting slower though and I would like to branch out into unreal as well.
So do you think there is any advantage to purchasing a Windows machine with an RTX GPU over a new M1 Mac (later when the datasmith plugin is updated)?
I see on the Unreal website the references to NVidia Edge and Intel Partnerships.
Does that mean I should just buy a windows machine and move on with life. Ha, ha. Would that be a better investment for any future advantages that Intel and Nvidia might provide over Apple M1 Silicone?
Do the RT cores on the RTX give it a noticeable advantage?
Thanks for all the info that was fantastic.
I get the impression that static renders from twin motion on the RTX GPU using ray tracing would exceed raster rendering on the Mac (Regardless of additional time required to do them). Plus I can't do any work without that datasmith link from Archicad to Twin Motion.