ZBrushCentral

State of Zbrush on the Mac?

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

I have recently upgraded to a Mac, and coincidentally I need to do some graphics work at the moment.

Is the Mac version usable? My needs are not very advanced.

Thanks

#2

Thanks for moving this to the right forum.

A quick thread search seems to turn up issues (as expected), but no major OMG THE SKY IS FALLING! threads.

Feedback will be appreciated.

Thanks!

#3

Yes, we’re all waiting to get some feedback. Have you read this thread yet?
http://209.132.96.165/zbc/showthread.php?t=64630
It seems to be one of the the more active threads on this subject, or at least a place were misery can find some company.

#4

The Mac version lets you work with higher poly counts, apply textures to each SubTool, do cool stuff with ambient occlusion masking, has a new UV mapping method, and quite a bit more.

The only major issues are that displacement maps are unreliable for most users, and mesh extraction gets rough at the edges.

#5

Yes, I must say, the mac version is very robust, and has some great new features for sculpting. It’s a joy to use in many ways.
Unfortunately, that one major issue is a pretty significant one. By not being able to create useable displacement maps of one’s work, it diminishes all those great features, making them almost useless for anyone who needs to bring their work into another package for animation, or rendering. It’s kind of like having a demo version of ZBrush 3, where you can’t save your work. I really hope a fix is forthcoming soon.

#6

For me, the Mac version rocks. I honestly couldn’t care less about displacement maps because I don’t do cool, fancy renders in other packages (lazy me–I know.) I just really use it as another illustration tool. Just bring the ZApplink, and I’d be 100% happy.

#7

Exactly! I paid over $400 for my demo :laughing:small_orange_diamond:laughing:small_orange_diamond:laughing:

#8

Thanks for the feedback.

If you’re unhappy with displacement situation, I’m sorry, I truly am. However, I would like to ask you to not turn this thread into a gripe-fest. I fully endorse your right to complain, but I’m here to get a couple of questions answered. :smiley:

I haven’t read the 15 page thread on displacement yet. So that brings up one more question, if I do need to do a displacement (and I don’t right now), can I just use my PC version to make the map? IIRC, there were some incompatibilities in models create on the mac v.s. on the PC back in the Zbrush 2 days, and I haven’t really used Zbrush since v3 came out.

I can still pay for a license on a second platform at reduced cost correct? I just need to contact support?

Thanks!

#9

Yup, really easy as long as you have windows on a pc, bootcamp, or emulation. Just don’t use a ztool. Export a hi res obj to ZB on windows, reconstruct your subdivision levels, and create the map.
Bazzzing…

#10

They’ll give you a temporary license for free if you need the feature. If you had a temp ZB3 license on pc while waiting for the mac version, it’s still valid. They didn’t delete the temp licenses because of the issue.

#11

Cool. I’ve had a PC license for a long time now. So thanks!