Discussion Why are Macs "the standard for 3D modelling?

[Altiris]

Particularly for 3d modelling software such as Autodesk Maya and 3ds max, why is it that macs are the first go to solution? Majority of modelling programs that are available for mac are also available for windows. Some are even available for Linux. What's in the mac os x OS (because hardware is the same as a pc) that makes it better suited for this? If anything when I researched online, in my opinion, I am seeing it as something to make it worse. The 3d modelling softwares, such as Autodesk maya use OpenGL. The OpenGL version on macs are dependant on the version of OS X, so until a new os x update comes out you are stuck with that version of opengl. This is the same for video drivers, they are dependant on the version of os x and can not be updated manually. Yet, when I looked at a benchmark on Blender, mac was second behind Linux with having a lower amount of time rendering than on windows 7. I find this quite interesting

Another thing about being stuck on a version of opengl is "apparently" why the gaming developers aren't enthusiastic to move to mac. Opengl drivers from amd and nvidia are themselves not too great (this is what I have found in googling) with amd having the worst. If both gaming and 3d software use opengl why would it still lead in one of these categories and not in both?

Note I am not trying to be biased and everything I have written here has come from many other sources, so it's not really single sided on just me. If some information is wrong please point it out, I am not all knowing.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

AFAIK they aren't...

 

[Altiris]

That's what it seems to be though. Whenever I looked at colleges having to do with 3d animation/modeling they all had "macs recommended" and even their labs were powered by mac machines. So it's more like this is just a marketing tactic that has caused a distorted view for those who do not know about how computers/graphics work?

 

[moozilbee]

Marketing tactics I guess, macs are necessarily better, they're just marketed that way, they appeal to the sort of people doing work in PS and animation, since they have a sort of clean, minimalistic look and feel, but that doesn't make them in any way the only option, I guess people prefer them to the idea of a bulky windows desktop.

 

[Altiris]

Yeah I think that works. Windows is known for sometimes being "bloated" with software (depends on where you buy or if you build it). So maybe macs are just picked out more because of the interface or "workflow"?

 

[USAFRet]

Tradition. Early on, Apple PC's were more aimed at 'creative' pursuits. MS Windows based PC's were more 'business'.

So the creative types (photoshop, etc) gravitated towards the Apple ecosystem. And their workflow revolved around that.
This continues to this day, even though the actual tools (Photoshop, Maya, etc) are not really any different for the different platforms.

 

[Altiris]

Your post makes sense as well, I do remember apple targeted those things when the first macs came out. Well, I think the macs as a standard for this suff has just been formulated from college professors and students because whenever I ask friends from various colleges, majority of these classes want you to us macs. Are for in the actual production world with this stuff I do not know, as I haven't asked any businesses (don't know of any personally). I am glad there is still choice in today's world, it's been diminishing lately.