First of all let me say thanks for the robust, informative responses. I’ve just recently joined so this quite encouraging to see.
I’m in the early stages of investigating C4D.
I’ve been in need of updating my hardware for quite a while - like many Mac users, I was waiting for the release of the new Mac Pro. My first impression of the consumer reaction to this new machine was that there may be not be a real future for 3D in the MacOS environment (because of the limited choice of graphics cards as well as the processor speeds being offered).
Then after reading about Metal, I started thinking that instead of switching to PC or Linux hardware, it might be feasible to switch to more Mac-agreeable software (from Maya to C4D). I’ve read that Apple is working with C4D to adapt to Metal. I believe this includes RedShift. Otoy (Octane) reported this week that they are close to releasing software that utilises Metal. They’ve confirmed that buyers of the new Mac Pro will get a free year subscription to Octane X Enterprise.
I’m not sure I trust Autodesk to make (Metal) changes anytime soon (but I haven’t found any info about their plans either way).
So I’m looking for software that can generate natural environments within C4D and is agreeable with (and hopefully optimised for) the hardware options for a Mac user. I have more research to do but it looks like I may end up choosing the following:
3.3GHz (4.4GHz TB) 12-core Intel Xeon W
Radeon Pro W5700X with 16GB of GDDR6 memory (available soon reportedly)
Anyway I'm determined to at least investigate the Mac hardware option - hopefully this won't turn into a Mac vs Linux/PC thread.
I haven't developed a loyalty to any terrain and landscape visualisation software - open to ideas.