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Compatibility and system Q&A (Adjusted to CINEMA 4D R13)

Q: In R13 i see only one renderbucket when using the physical renderer. How can i change that?

Q: Why don't my old plugins work with R12/R13?

Q: I have a Power PC Macintosh. Can i use the new 64 bit version of R11?

Q: I have a Power PC Macintosh. Can i use CINEMA 4D R12/R13?

Q: What is a Universal Binary?

Q: I have a Windows computer with a 64 bit CPU. Can i use the 64 Bit version of CINEMA 4D?

Q: I have a Windows computer with a 64 bit CPU and Windows XP/Vista 64. What CINEMA 4D versions work with it?

Q: What are the advantages of using the 64 bit version of CINEMA 4D?

Q: What are the disadvantages of using the 64 bit version of CINEMA 4D?

Q: Can i install more then one CINEMA 4D version on my computer?

Q: How much memory can CINEMA 4D use?

Q: Will a better graphic card increase renderspeed?

Q: What plugin type do i need for my version?

Q: Which types of systems can i mix for Net Rendering?

Q: Does using faster RAM speed up rendering?

Q: Does using more RAM speed up rendering?

Q: Does using a fast harddisk (SSD) speed up rendering?

Q: What render speed increase can i expect with multi CPU/ multi core systems?

Q: Can i open projects saved with new CINEMA 4D versions with old ones?



Q: In R13 i see only one renderbucket when using the physical renderer. How can i change that?

A: The physical renderer uses all availble threads/cores for a single bucket since it can work more efficently this way. The user can't change this.



Q: Why don't my old plugins work with R12/R13?

A: With R12 the API changed in many ways, this broke the compatibility with older versions. The change was neccesary to implement new functions and add changes that were wanted by the plugin developers.



Q: I have an Apple Macintosh. How can i use the new 64 bit version of R11?

A: Select the application in the finder and open the informations on it. You will see a checkmark that indicates that the application will start in 32 bit mode. Just uncheck this and CINEMA 4D R11 will start in 64 bit. You should be aware though that old plugins that ar eonly available in 32 bit will not be useable. Please note that 64 bit is not available in combination with rosetta, so to use the 64 bit PPC version of CINEMA 4D you will need to run it on a G5.



Q: I have a Power PC Macintosh. Can i use CINEMA 4D R12/R13?

A: No, since R12 the binaries for PPC processors are not included anymore.



Q: What is a Universal Binary?

A: A Universal Binary is a single executable that contains a program in versions for both PPC and Intel CPUs and optionaly (as with CINEMA 4D) 32 and 64 bit executables. This is also called a Fat binary. Universal Binary applications and libraries can only be created using Apples XCode and are not compatible with old Codewarrior compiled libraries (plugins).



Q: I have a Windows computer with a 64 bit CPU. Can i use the 64 Bit version of CINEMA 4D?

A: Yes, but you will need Windows XP/Vista 64 bit, a 64 bit CPU alone is not sufficent.



Q: I have a Windows computer with a 64 bit CPU and Windows XP/Vista 64. What CINEMA 4D versions work with it?

A: All current 32 and 64 bit Windows versions of CINEMA 4D will work.



Q: What are the advantages of using the 64 bit version of CINEMA 4D?

A: With 64 bit CINEMA 4D can adress much more memory then with 32 bit. If you have enough physical RAM in the system, out of memory errors will be a thing of the past. Another advantage is a speed increase of up to 10% over the 32 bit version. This advantage is advantage is mostly due to more CPU registers beeing available for 64 bit applications.



Q: What are the disadvantages of using the 64 bit version of CINEMA 4D?

A: Libraries and plugins that need to work with the 64 bit version need to be compiled for 64 bit themself. 32 bit compiled plugins will not work. Also codecs will need to be 64 bit to be usable.



Q: Can i install more then one CINEMA 4D version on my computer?

A: Yes, you can install as many versions as you want, just make sure they are installed in different directories and that you own the needed licenses for multiple installations.



Q: How much memory can CINEMA 4D use?

A: This depends on the Operating System / CINEMA 4D version combination.

OS X 10.5 CINEMA 4D 32 Bit 4.0 GB
OS X 10.5 CINEMA 4D 64 Bit Only realy limited by the amount of physicaly available RAM. The theoretical limit is 17 TB.
Win 32 Bit CINEMA 4D 32 Bit 1.5 - 2.0 GB Limited by the memory used for mapping graphics memory and installed codecs
Win 32 Bit (/3GB) CINEMA 4D 32 Bit 2.5 - 3.0 GB Limited by the memory used for mapping graphics memory and installed codecs
Win 64 Bit CINEMA 4D 32 Bit 4.0 GB
Win 64 Bit CINEMA 4D 64 Bit 8.0 TB (*) Limited by actual physical memory and assigned virtual memory



Q: Will a better graphic card increase renderspeed?

A: No, renderspeed only relies on CPU speed and enough available physical RAM.



Q: What plugin type do i need for my version?

A: Plugins come in several variations depending on platform and used CINEMA 4D version. The extension of the file shows the use.
CDL Windows 32 bit
CDL64 Windows 64 bit
DYLIB OS X Universal Binary for 32 and 64 bit
COB compiled COFFEE file
COF COFFEE source file
CSC COFFEE script

Outdated: MDL ( <= Release 6 plugins for Mac OS 8/9), XDL



Q: Which types of systems can i mix for Net Rendering?

A: Net render differences between frames in an animation come mostly from rounding errors based on the different CPU types. You should avoid mixing Power PC systems with x86 based systems. Different operating systems (OS X / Windows) usualy do not pose a problem.


Q: Does using faster RAM speed up rendering?

A: Not realy. RAM speed has only a minimal impact on renderspeed (in the single digit percentage range)



Q: Does using more RAM speed up rendering?

A: No. The amount of RAM only has an impact if you simply don't have enough. In this case the operating system starts to compensate this by using harddisk space instead, which is slower by orders of magnitude. If you see that CINEMA 4D is not using all available RAM, the simple reason is that it does not need more.



Q: Does using a fast harddisk (SSD) speed up rendering?

A: No. The load times determined by the harddisk speed only have a very insignificant impact on rendertimes.



Q: What render speed increase can i expect with multi CPU/ multi core systems??
A: Before 11.5 - As a rule of thumb every doubeling of the number of cores increases renderspeed by a factor of 1.8. The loss is caused by the application and the OS having to do more "management" work to coordinate the different threads and also by the fact that some parts of tha application can not make use of all available cores/CPUs for every given task.
# Cores - Speedfactor
1 1
2 1.8
4 3.2
8 5.8
16 10.5
32 18.9
64 34


A: Since 11.5 - As a rule of thumb every doubeling of the number of cores increases renderspeed by a factor of >1.9. Additonaly Hyper Threading can add up to 20% so the effective factor can be larger than the number of cores.



Q: Can i open projects saved with new CINEMA 4D versions with old ones?

A: Very often. Please note though that features that are not available in an older version will simply not be loaded and if you save the file in that older version the information is lost from the file.
The compatibiltiy between CINEMA 4D version fileformats is as follows:

Version Can Load from
5 5
6 5, 6, 7
7 5, 6, 7
8 5, 6, 7, 8, 8.5, 9, 9.5
8.5 5, 6, 7, 8, 8.5, 9, 9.5
9 5, 6, 7, 8, 8.5, 9, 9.5
9.5 5, 6, 7, 8, 8.5, 9, 9.5
10 5, 6, 7, 8, 8.5, 9, 9.5, 10, 10.5, 11, 11.5
10.5 5, 6, 7, 8, 8.5, 9, 9.5, 10, 10.5, 11, 11.5
11 5, 6, 7, 8, 8.5, 9, 9.5, 10, 10.5, 11, 11.5
11.5 5, 6, 7, 8, 8.5, 9, 9.5, 10, 10.5, 11, 11.5
12 5, 6, 7, 8, 8.5, 9, 9.5, 10, 10.5, 11, 11.5, 12, 13
13 5, 6, 7, 8, 8.5, 9, 9.5, 10, 10.5, 11, 11.5, 12, 13