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Maxon works closely with Apple on all new technology. Be it new hardware, changes like the 64 Bit move or Metal, new OS versions, you name it. You can see that right back to G4/G5 times. I wasn't around earlier so i have no idea what went on before. Maxon and Cinema 4D have been part of so many Apple presentations over time, i have lost track. Since we are often one of, if not the first, app to support some new tech there is no need to pull any marketing stunts, it's mostly our devs that are featured anyway, Like Philip now, or Cathleen before him. Apple supporting the transition of Blender from Intel to M1 makes a lot of sense for Apple, they do not want to be left out there just because ressources aren't available and the actual monetary and engineering effort for Apple is minimal. I would not start guessing if this is the start for some larger cooperation or just a stepping stone for things to get moving, at this time it is simply a leg up and i am quite happy to see Apple supporting Open Source Software. The self interest of Apple might be related to Blender often being used in academia for early test implementations of CGI algos, losing that due to the hardware change would be a a bit of a blow to the use of Apple systems in research. All in all a good investment either way.

Thank you for that clarification. I just initiated a case as well. Dave

Our academic program equipped a lab with those "trashcans" in 2014, and they were incredibly reliable performers. We have since equipped that lab with Threadripper PCs, which are great. But when COVID hit last year we were able to loan out the "trashcans" to students who were able to complete their animation projects largely at home, and remote into the lab to take advantage of the threadrippers for extra rendering potential. So, I don't hold to the hatred that those machines get. They were clearly an evolutionary dead-end, but they were well-built and reliable. The notion that the M1 will be "tuned for blender" is bizarre, frankly. The opposite is true: with this investment, Blender will be tuned for the M1, the same way that Octane and Redshift are now tuned for the M1. The groundwork that Apple laid with developer support for Redshift and OTOY will now pay off in the adaptations of Cycles to the Metal framework. You could actually make the case that the M1 is tuned for the workloads that Apple likes to think are the province of their Pro customers; this is evidenced by the silicon support for ML, and advanced video encode/decode (including ProRes).

The other Penny ad went live yesterday so i'm able to share the toon bus i was commissioned to design and model complete with basic interior 😄 pretty fun project to work on, link to final ad and project below as well as some wires and a few shots of the bus inside and out. Peace https://aixsponza.com/work/penny-adventure-buddies/